Ruth's Report

Friday, April 4, 2025

Chump again disrespects American troops

There was a time in Donald Chump's first term as president that I gave him the benefit of the doubt regarding his alleged hatred of U.S. troops. He quickly made clear that the rumors were indeed true. We saw that further in his 2024 campaign and, of course, we have seen it since he was sworn in. SignalGate, for example, put our military pilots at risk as they set out on a mission he ordered and then Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard, and the rest do a non-secure discussion of the mission before it starts and as it is being carried out. To this day, he has refused to fire any of these people despite the fact that their actions could have resulted in the deaths of the military pilots. That, by the way, is a point Senator Tammy Duckworth has made strongly and repeatedly.

Because he is never done s**ting on our troops, Mr. Chump's actions are not surprising but they are shocking, outrageous, and offensive. Jeremiah Hassel (THE MIRROR) reports:

Donald Trump was slammed for missing the dignified transfer for four U.S. soldiers who were killed in Lithuania during a training accident as he was seen playing golf at his Trump National Doral Miami golf course for a LIV Golf event.

Lithuania's president held a ceremony honoring the fallen soldiers who drowned in a peat bog after their tactical vehicle went missing about a week ago. Lithuanian, Polish and U.S. soldiers and rescue teams searched through forests and swamps at the Gen. Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, which is about 6 miles west of the country's border with Belarus.

[. . .]

President Gitanas Nausėda and other dignitaries were among those who stood in respect as the hearses carrying the bodies to Vilnius airport in the nation's capital paraded past. They were flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and will be buried this week.

Several of the onlookers were reportedly in tears during the procession. Nausėda said the reaction of the population and the military to the disappearance of the soldiers was rooted in the country's own difficult history.

Lithuania's president showed them respect; however, Convicted Felon Donald Chump did not. The Convicted Felon could not stop his golf game to honor Americans Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, Staff Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, Staff Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., and Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins. Dante was the youngest at 21, Troy was the oldest at 28, and Jose and Edvin were both only 25. They are passed and they passed while doing a mission that they were tasked with but the nation's commander-in-chief was too busy -- yet again -- to honor them.

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for today:

Friday, April 4, 2025. Chump tanks the economy, right wing conspiracy nut whispers in Chump's ear, protests gear up for tomorrow, and much more.

Starting with news of an action. This Saturday. Tyler, Texas will be participating in the Hands Off action at the intersection of Broadway and Shiloh Road -- where the Barnes & Noble parking lot is, people will be gathering at 3:00 pm to tell the government hands off. You can visit this webpage for more information:

Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. We are fighting back!

They're taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.

🚨 On Saturday, April 5th, we're taking to the streets to fight back with a clear message: Hands off! 🚨

This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country.

A core principle behind all Hands Off! events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.

These actions will be taking place across the country. Mike noted the action at his website last night and added, "I loved being in Texas and campaigning. I loved the people of Texas. Tyler was a great place and I spent a week there while speaking in Tyler, in Kilgore and in Longview. I'm so glad that Tyler's going to show their strength on Saturday. I applaud you and I'm there with you in spirit."

So that's tomorrow. Today? Good morning and, if you have one, how was your morning cup of coffee? Lee Moran (HUFFINGTON POST) notes:

Donald Trump’s new trade war will likely mess with your cup of joe.

The price of coffee could be set to soar for Americans after the president on Wednesday announced tariffs on countries worldwide, including steep rates on Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia ― from where the U.S. buys the majority of its unroasted coffee beans.

The move prompted an immediate backlash online with critics pointing out America’s minimal coffee-growing capacity, due to the climate, which makes the importation of beans so important.

Pema Levy (MOTHER JONES) observes:

If you think about politics traditionally, Trump’s tariffs don’t make sense. Presidents’ political fortunes are generally tied to the strength of the economy, so they can be expected not to take actions that almost all economists predict will cause economic pain, both short and long term. So if Trump is willing to hurt the economy, he must be getting something he wants even more in return.

That thing is power. With tariffs, Trump can exercise a kind of corruption that the country hasn’t experienced in some 150 years—a kind of control that is ultimately incompatible with both democracy and prosperity.

With tariffs, Trump is poised to trade a strong economy for one run on loyalty and retribution. Trump, a president who rules like a mob boss while claiming vast new powers, is transforming the government into a tool of reward and punishment. Already, prosecutions against Trump’s friends are being dropped, while those who have crossed him find themselves the target of vindictive executive orders. Media critical of Trump are under investigation by a weaponized Federal Communications Commission, while universities are being bullied into shutting down free speech. Tariffs will scale this weaponization across the entire economy. Viewed in this light, Trump’s willingness to sacrifice the economy in exchange for control over it makes perfect sense.

Even those close to Trump see this trade for what it is. “Tariffs are a tool the president enjoys because it’s personal power,” Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who served in Trump’s first-term cabinet, told HuffPost Tuesday. “It’s personal―he doesn’t have to go through Congress. He can exercise personal power.”

But history shows that an economy run on favors and grievances is ultimately a poor one. “If you look around the world, it’s really clear that the places that are rich have good governments,” says John Joseph Wallis, an economic historian at the University of Maryland. “What Trump is doing is not governing well. He’s like a third world dictator. He’s trying to behave that way.”

Wallis’ research focuses on understanding why fairer political systems tend to create the strongest economies. His conclusion is that the answer lies in allowing everyone to operate by the same set of rules—what are known as impersonal or general laws. Just as American democracy was only truly realized by the 14th Amendment’s promise of equality and the expansion of voting rights to all citizens, an advanced capitalist society requires that every person and company operate under the same set of financial rules. The rules do not necessarily have to be unbound, laissez-faire capitalism without redistribution, but the rules and regulations must be evenly enforced.

Betty notes, "America has foolishly let an idiot direct traffic and now wants to wonder how we ended up with one fender bender after another at the school cross walk." She's absolutely correct. I would add though that he's clearly bankrupting the country. After all of the times he's had to declare bankruptcy, you have to be really dumb to have not grasped what a threat to our economy the business failure Chump actually is.

How strong is the rejection of Chump and his tariffs? The Convicted Felon fled to his Florida home yesterday. Normally, he at least pretends to do a little work on Friday before flying out of DC. Aaron Parnas (MTN) describes how the market's responded as Chump fled DC:

Wall Street was engulfed in chaos today as a wave of panic selling erased $2.8 trillion in market value, triggered by escalating fallout from the Trump administration’s aggressive new tariff regime. Investors fled equities in droves, hammering every major index and dragging the U.S. dollar back to pre-election levels.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average cratered 1,642 points, or 4.7%, marking one of the steepest one-day point drops in history. The Nasdaq Composite nosedived 1,022 points, or 5.4%, while the S&P 500 shed 4.8%, its worst session since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.

Leading the rout was the KBW Bank Index, which tumbled 9.9%, its steepest plunge since the 2023 regional banking crisis. Financials, already reeling from rising default risk and narrowing margins, bore the brunt of the downturn as bond yields collapsed and credit spreads widened.

Adding to the market stress, the U.S. dollar plunged in foreign exchange markets, erasing all gains made since Trump’s re-election victory on November 5, 2024. Analysts point to growing fears of a global trade war, weakening investor confidence in the U.S. economy, and expectations of imminent Federal Reserve intervention as key drivers of the dollar's reversal.

As Kat pointed out, Propaganda Pig Karoline Levitt was deployed to wallow in lies to the media including on CNN:

BOLDUAN: On taxes, JP Morgan just came out with an analysis in response to this tariff announcement, saying that these tariffs will be the largest tax hike on Americans since 1968. A tax hike by $660 billion a year. What is JP Morgan missing? What are world markets getting wrong? What — what are — when you see stock futures down, what is everyone missing, including that local farmer in North Carolina?

LEAVITT: Well, they’re missing the massive revenue that these tariffs are going to bring into the United States. Trillions and trillions of dollars in investment, which leads to more jobs in American communities, higher wages —

BOLDUAN: But on immediate, Karoline, I’m sorry to interrupt, but on the immediate. I mean, in the most immediate, I mean, these farmers, as Thom Tillis says, farmers are one crop away from bankruptcy. That farmer doesn’t have time to wait for tariffs to work their way into the system, the benefit of it to work its way into the system at all.

This is going to mean higher prices for Americans in the most immediate. That’s why I asked the question. How much pain on a temporary basis is OK? What’s the standard that the President is looking at in terms of how much pain Americans can feel on a temporary basis that he’s OK with?

Propaganda Pig Karoline Leavitt went on NEWS NATION yesterday to proclaim (lie), "There’s not going to be any pain for American-owned companies and American workers, because their jobs are going to come back home, and again, as for prices, President Trump is working on tax cuts to put more money back into the pockets of Americans."

Propaganda Pig should have gone to Florida with Chump instead of going before the cameras to lie. Before she left her sty to lie yesterday, we'd already included this in the snapshot:

Stephanie Ruhle, on MSNBC, explained the claim Chump was making for tariffs, "We need to impose these taeriffs because other companies have been ripping us off for years, taking advantage of the American people." That's Chump's claim. Reality is, as Stephanie explained, far different.

Stephanie Ruhle: The White House says the 10% tariffs are going to apply everywhere. Well WIRED and AXIOS pointed out that those taxes include the Heard and McDonald Islands. You can see right here on the massive list that the administration put out on social media. But here's what you might now realize. Those islands? They're in Antarctica. They don't produce any exports. Do you know why? Because there are not any human beings that even live there. There's no possible way that they could be taking advantage of us on trade. What we do not know is if the penguins that live there will retaliate.

Stephanie and her guest panel addressed the reality of Chump's claims that this will lead to more things being built in the US. No. For increased production you need factories and you're looking at three to five years for those to be constructed. By which time, Chump will be headed out or already out of the White House. And his tariffs will most likely leave with him. His erratic behavior on tariffs has not inspired confidence in the business community. Who's going to work on constructing new factories for temporary tariffs? He has no credibility on the topic.

Yesterday morning, she Tweeted these basic facts.

And last night on her MSNBC program, she again addressed these realities.

Stephanie Ruhle: He was never a great business guy. This guy never ran a successful public company. He never ran a successful, big operation. He went bankrupt six times. What he was most known for was shirking on contracts, not standing up to deals. And the whole point of trusted global trade is trusting is I'm going to make a big investment because I believe what you've told me, I know these policies -- you will stand up to them in five or ten years after I've invested billions and billions of dollars. That's the opposite of how people are feeling now.

[. . .]

The fact that he has this misunderstanding that all of these jobs are going to come back here? We haven't heard from one CEO saying I'm going to build a giant manufacturing plant and, by the way, if they did, it takes three to five years to build a plant and three to five years from now, Donald Trump will not be in office. Who knows what the policies will be? You're not going to find a single corporate board that's going to sign off on a multi-billion dollar investment when Donald Trump is so skittish about policy.

Yet Propaganda Pig Karoline continues attempting to lie and spin. How bad is it? Senator John Kennedy told CNN, "In the long run, we're all dead. Short run matters too. Nobody knows what the impact of these tariffs is going to be on the economy."

Well we've got jobs.

Thank goodness for Joe Biden. He turned it around and the job market got better. So at least we have jobs and --

Oh, wait.

74.

That's the number of days Chump has been president. And he needed less than that number of days to start putting people out of jobs in massive numbers. Thanks to his stupidity, he's created tons of unemployed. Alicia Wallace (CNN) reports:

More than 275,000 layoffs were announced last month, reaching a level not seen since the pandemic, according to a new report published Thursday.

The biggest culprit was one particular employer: The federal government.

The federal government announced plans to axe 216,215 jobs, accounting for nearly 80% of the 275,240 layoffs announcements made by US employers in March, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas’ latest report. It’s the third-highest monthly total behind April 2020 (671,129) and May 2020 (397,016).

The Department of Government Efficiency has run roughshod on the federal government, slashing funding, scrapping contracts and laying off droves of federal workers.

“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by [DOGE] plans to eliminate positions in the federal government,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president for the global outplacement and coaching firm. “It would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs.”

Of the remaining 59,025 cuts announced outside of the federal government, the biggest share was in technology and retail, according to the report.

Let's move over to the issue of the security breach(es) and note this informed discussion with Jeffrey Goldberg from AMANPOUR & COMPANY (PBS).

The Convicted Felon has still refused to hold anyone accountable for the security breaches in his administration. VOTEVETS offers Tammy Duckworth on why Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, needs to resign or be fired.

No offense to the senator, but maybe we've been going about this all wrong. We've pointed out the grave and serious breach and how it put many -- including our armed forces -- at risk. We've used that evidence to draw the natural conclusion that accountability has to take place.

That works -- with sane people.

As we learned yesterday, however, the best approach with Chump is for a conspiracy mongering nut job to whisper in his ear, "Fire this person."

That's what happened with right wing social media personality Laura Loomer. What are we talking about? Donald Trump fired three National Security Council staffers Thursday. On Loomer's say so. Katie Bo Lillis, Kylie Atwood, Alayna Treene and Kaitlan Collins (CNN) report:

The firings came after Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who once claimed 9/11 was an inside job, urged President Donald Trump during a Wednesday meeting to get rid of several members of his National Security Council staff, including his principal deputy national security adviser, claiming that they are disloyal. One of the sources said the firings were a direct result of the meeting with Loomer.

Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Alex Wong was not among those who had been dismissed on Wednesday, however, one White House official speculated to CNN Thursday that Wong could be out as soon as today, though a final decision remains to be seen.

Wong was one of the advisers specifically targeted by Loomer, who publicly questioned his loyalty to Trump and criticized him privately as a “Never Trumper.”

One of the sources speculated that National Security Adviser Michael Waltz may have been reluctant to fire Wong because he has been embroiled in the controversy surrounding the leak of controversial Signal messages related to military strikes on Yemen that Waltz and his team have been under fire for initiating.

The three officials fired include Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence and a former top staffer for now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the Senate Intelligence Committee; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs who previously served as Waltz’s legislative director in Congress; and David Feith, a senior director overseeing technology and national security who served in the State Department during Trump’s first administration.

Sean Lyngaas, Katie Bo Lillis and Alayna Treene (CNN) add this morning:

The Trump administration has fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency, the United States’ powerful cyber intelligence bureau, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation, members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and two former officials familiar with the matter.

The dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads US Cyber Command — the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit — is a major shakeup of the US intelligence community which is navigating significant changes in the first two months of the Trump administration. Wendy Noble, Haugh’s deputy at NSA, was also removed, according to the former officials and lawmakers.

The top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committee, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, denounced the firing of Haugh, who served in the roles since February 2024, in statements on Thursday night.

So that's how it works. Over 60% of Americans demand accountability and Chump blows them off. But an online nut job whispers in his ear and BOOM! at least five people are immediately fired.

Roger Anderson (FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM) reports:

A recent mishandling of sensitive military discussions has brought national security concerns to the forefront. Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a Signal app chat discussing Yemen airstrikes, drawing widespread scrutiny. The group included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, all of whom had denied any leak of classified information. President Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, said the mishap provided a "golden opportunity" for Democrats.

Mary wrote, "These were the war plans. This is what these breathtakingly shameless liars claimed never happened. But it all did happen, didn't it?" She added, "They denied the texts existed; they denied that any classified information was shared. Then in order to deflect from their crimes, they attacked Jeffrey Goldberg, who was there at their invitation, intentional or otherwise. They've been caught red-handed."

Mary said, "They know, to a person, how serious this is. In a sane world, they understand that every single traitor in that chat would be fired and tried under the Espionage Act."

Tommy Christopher (MEDIAITE) notes that Don Lemon and Jim Acosta pointed out that Pete Hegseth's lack of qualifications to be Secretary of Defense led to the security breach:

Former CNN stars Don Lemon and Jim Acosta roasted Trump Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with perhaps the worst CNN-related insult imaginable, comparing him to an infamously failed executive at their former network.

On Tuesday’s edition of his Substack video podcast The Jim Acosta Show, Acosta ripped Hegseth by suggesting that, despite all the rhetoric about “merit” at the DOD, Hegseth was grossly unqualified based on the Signalgate scandal.

Lemon compared Hegseth to former CNN chief Chris Licht — whose tenure at the network was brief and widely seen as a disaster:

JIM ACOSTA: You know, Pete Hegseth gets up at his confirmation hearing, you know, a guy who comes from Fox and he’s going to be announced as the defense secretary. He’s at his confirmation hearing. He’s going off on DEI. He’s saying we need merrit back at the Pentagon and he is in this job for what? Seven weeks?

And he puts war plans, he puts attack plans for airstrikes on the Houthis on Signal. Way to go. I’m sorry, that just blows a hole in all of the crap he was peddling up on Capitol Hill. It just pisses me off to no end.

DON LEMON: Well, it’s confirmation for– that he is not qualified.

Two things here. When has America ever been merit-based? When you actually think about it, right? And you think about all the people who are in positions of power, especially, and all the chances that they’ve had to screw up this country and they have in many ways.

When you look at the people who are now in, who have been appointed to positions and confirmed by the Congress and whoever, they are not qualified.

You think Pete Hegseth is qualified to be the defense secretary? Of course he’s not qualified to the defense secretary.

You know, he reminds me of this boss I once had who did not last very long at the company I was at, and he was extremely overconfident.

And it’s just basically the same sort of personality and attitude that–.

JIM ACOSTA: Mmm-hmmm.

DON LEMON: –you know, they think that they’re qualified for a job that they and they’re in way over their head and they don’t even realize it.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:

Letter Follows Reporting that National Security Waltz and His Team Set Up At Least Twenty Chats on Signal and Used Gmail

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles requesting new information to determine the full scope of and damage to national security by the repeated use of unclassified messaging applications, like Signal and Gmail, by senior White House officials and members of President Trump’s cabinet.

The Senators, all of whom have deep experience in defense, intelligence, and diplomacy, emphasized the severe national security consequences of what appears to be an extensive pattern and practice of using unsecured commercial apps for sensitive national security communications. Recent reporting indicates that there are at least 20 such chats.

“New reporting indicates that the “Houthi PC small group” chat established by Mr. Waltz was not an isolated incident. According to recent reporting, Mr. Waltz and his team “regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats.” This may have included “at least 20” such chats, which participants in the chat say included “instances of sensitive information being discussed.” As one alleged participant in at least some of the group chats commented: “Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal,”’ wrote the Senators.

“Mr. Waltz’ first message to the group on March 11, 2025, referenced an earlier meeting in the “Sit Room” (White House Situation Room), a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) equipped to handle the nation’s most sensitive information and the appropriate venue for communicating and coordinating on matters of national security. None of the at least 18 participants in the group chat interjected when others provided clearly classified or operationally sensitive information, or requested that they be removed at any time during the conversation, even though Mr. Waltz adjusted the settings at the beginning of the chat to auto-delete all of group’s messages after a week and then changed the auto-delete setting to 4 weeks shortly after Defense Secretary Hegseth provided specific classified details on the impending military strikes,” the Senators continued.

The Senators demanded specific details on the full scope of national security-related communications using such commercial messaging applications and that the White House take all steps to preserve and recover records, as required by federal law.

Read the full text of the letter here and below.

Dear Ms. Wiles,

As Senators with deep experience in defense, intelligence, and diplomacy, we are writing to express grave concern and request information necessary to determine the full scope of and damage caused by the use of unclassified commercial applications, like Signal and Gmail, by senior White House officials and members of the President’s Cabinet to conduct classified and sensitive national security activity and communications.

In a grave breach of national security, senior White House officials and members of the President’s Cabinet, including National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, appear to have engaged in an extensive pattern and practice of using unsecure commercial messaging applications to undertake sensitive national security deliberations and discussions, in violation of federal criminal laws and other requirements designed to safeguard classified and other sensitive national security information and preserve presidential and federal records.

New reporting indicates that the “Houthi PC small group” chat established by Mr. Waltz was not an isolated incident. According to recent reporting, Mr. Waltz and his team “regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats.” This may have included “at least 20” such chats, which participants in the chat say included “instances of sensitive information being discussed.” As one alleged participant in at least some of the group chats commented: “Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal.”

This follows earlier reporting that Mr. Waltz “created and hosted multiple other sensitive national security conversations on Signal with cabinet members, including separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as well as military operations.” Another recent report indicates that one or more messaging chats initiated by Mr. Waltz involved Somalia. This same report alleges, moreover, that Mr. Waltz used his personal email account to conduct government business, while a senior aide to Mr. Waltz used the same “commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems related to an ongoing conflict […].

These revelations are shocking, but not surprising, in light of the Signal group chat that Mr. Waltz established ahead of military attacks in Yemen. When Mr. Waltz initiated the messaging group on March 11, 2025, none of the invited participants, including you, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, expressed surprise, confusion, or unease at having been added to such a group on a commercially-available messaging application that is downloaded for use on unclassified electronic devices.

Mr. Waltz’ first message to the group on March 11, 2025, referenced an earlier meeting in the “Sit Room” (White House Situation Room), a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) equipped to handle the nation’s most sensitive information and the appropriate venue for communicating and coordinating on matters of national security. None of the at least 18 participants in the group chat interjected when others provided clearly classified or operationally sensitive information, or requested that they be removed at any time during the conversation, even though Mr. Waltz adjusted the settings at the beginning of the chat to auto-delete all of group’s messages after a week and then changed the auto-delete setting to 4 weeks shortly after Defense Secretary Hegseth provided specific classified details on the impending military strikes.

The destruction of presidential or federal records is illegal. To ensure that the Senate can fulfill its constitutionally mandated oversight duties, and to inform future remedial legislation, we seek and expect your full cooperation by Thursday, April 10, 2025, with the initial requests below.

Please take immediate action to (1) preserve all national security-related communications involving White House officials that have occurred since January 21, 2025, on commercial messaging platforms, like Signal or Gmail; (2) prevent the destruction of such records, including through autodelete settings, and take all necessary and possible measures to retrieve communications that may have been deleted on some devices but that may still be visible on others; and (3) issue a directive to all senior White House officials and Cabinet Members to cease immediately the use of unclassified, non-government communications platforms to conduct national security communications.

In addition, as we begin our inquiry, please provide full and truthful answers to the following, including in classified form, if necessary:
- Please identify and itemize in precise detail all other national security-related communications that Mr. Waltz or other senior White House officials initiated or participated in using Signal, Gmail, or other commercially available platforms, to include messaging groups to discuss diplomatic or military activity.
- Relatedly, please identify all military operations or activities that Mr. Waltz or other senior White House officials discussed using Signal, Gmail, or other commercially available platforms, including whether those discussions referred to, among others:
  - the U.S. military’s January 30, 2025, airstrike in Syria targeting a senior operative in Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaeda affiliate;
  - a March 14, 2025, military operation in Iraq that targeted the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) chief of global operations, which occurred three days after Mr. Waltz established the “Houthi PC small group” Signal chat on March 11, 2025, and one day before Secretary of Defense Hegseth disclosed classified information about the military strikes in Yemen; or
  - air strikes in Somalia, which U.S. Africa Command has undertaken several times since January 21, 2025.
- Please clarify whether any senior White House officials and Cabinet officials, to include Mr. Waltz, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, used their personal devices for any of the communications described above.
- Please clarify whether any senior White House officials and Cabinet Officials were on foreign travel while participating or included in any national security-related messaging groups or communications on Signal or other commercially-available platforms. If so, please explain which officials were on foreign travel, where they were located, whether they used Signal or other platforms on their personal or work devices, and who in the White House authorized the platforms’ use.
- Have any relevant communications been irretrievably destroyed, including through the use of an auto-delete function, such that they cannot be recovered, reproduced, or copied to government systems, as required by federal records retention laws and policies? If so, please clarify which communications can no longer be retrieved with as much specificity as possible.

###

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Dona here. I'm adding the following to C.I..'s snapshot due to community members e-mailing asking that it go in. I would also recommend that you read Marcia's "You really can't trust American Socialists." From Ann, as requested by community members:

Poor little racist can't catch a break. On that, an e-mailer wanted to inform me that Amy Goodman tackled Musk's South African links. Did she? Like most Socialists, she took her sweet damn time, didn't she. Eoin Higgins, also a Socialist, wrote a book ignoring it that was just published this year. Ava and C.I. didn't ignore it. And they didn't ignore it when it came time to review Higgins' bad book -- see "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism."

Socialists don't really care about Black people. We got that when they worked overtime to pose as Democrats and tell people not to vote for Kamala.

Socialists give lip service to the notion of reparations; however, they don't believe in them. If they truly did, they wouldn't have campaigned against Kamala to put the racist Chump back in the White House. Grasp that. Think of all the White Socialists you saw trashing Kamala -- Amy Goodman, Norman Solomon, Rashida Tlaib (Arabs are White but only White Socialists are racist enough not to know that fact), Jill Stein, Rashida's ugly sister, etc etc -- they claim to believe in reparations. But Black people saw the truth in the fall of 2024.

We were enslaved. A debt is supposedly owed as a result. Therefore reparations are needed. That's what they pretend.

But in the fall of 2024, they could have worked to elect a Black woman -- these people who supposedly feel guilty for their involvement in the slave trade -- but they instead worked to put a White racist back in the White House.

We see you. JACOBIN and you other worthless outlets (THE NATION), we see you.

Black people aren't going to be tricked by you liars ever again. Pretending to believe in reparations but, at the end of the day, you couldn't even vote for a Black woman to defeat the twice impeached, racist and insurrectionist Donald Trump. Bitches, we see you. We've got your number. And we will overcome you the same we overcame slavery -- by fighting and truth telling. It's over for you fake asses.

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The following sites updated:

Thursday, April 3, 2025

The largest tax increase since the Revenue Act of 1968

I always liked the song "Love On A Two Way Street." And my favorite version was always by Stacy Lattisaw.

How could I be so blind

To give up love the very first time?

To be fooled is a hurting pain

To be loved and fooled is a crying shame

While I bear the blame

As he laughs my name

To be fooled is a hurting pain -- to be loved and fooled is a crying shame? You think MAGA voters are feeling that now as Convicted Felon Donald Chump has again betrayed the people who put him back in the White House? Mr. Chump's tariffs will doom us all and our economy. The fool does not know what he is doing. Ed Mazza (HUFFINGTON POST) reports on the Convicted Felon's latest moment of public senility:

President Donald Trump still seems to think “groceries” is something of an uncommon word.

“It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries. It sort of says a bag with different things in it,” Trump said at a White House event on Wednesday were he discussed his massive new tariffs. “Groceries went through the roof and I campaigned on that. I talked about the word ‘groceries’ for a lot.”

Trump has had an odd fixation with the word ― and an even odder fixation with the notion that it’s somehow an uncommon or “old-fashioned” word .

He mentioned it last week as “like an old-fashioned word, but it’s a beautiful word, a very descriptive word.” At a different event last week, he called it “like an old-fashioned word, but really it’s not, and people understand it.”

He also brought it up on the campaign trail where at one point he tried to define it.

“The word ‘grocery,’ it’s a sort of simple word,” he said in October. “But it sort of means, like, everything you eat. The stomach is speaking, it always does.”

He has no clue. And he has no clue that he is losing it. He is a raving lunatic. Brad Reed (RAW STORY) reports:

Ian Dunt, a columnist for the British publication iNews, found himself shocked and aghast at the economic self-destruction that President Donald Trump is leveling on his own economy.

In his latest piece, Dunt remarked of Trump's big tariff announcement this week that "this is what empires look like when they fall" and then went on to describe damage being done by the president.

"This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see," Dunt argued. "It is stupid in every way: presentationally, intellectually, politically, methodologically, morally and of course economically. The word stupid doesn’t really suffice for the full level of idiocy we’ve now reached."

Dunt found himself particularly appalled by the chart that Trump showed that contained wildly inflated figures about the tariffs foreign nations slap on American products.

"It looked like something out of US daytime television – those garish cheaply produced shows where you can win a cash prize if you spin a wheel," he remarked. "You half expected a showgirl to appear behind the American flags, draped over a tariff quota rate. That’s what he is really: a cheap knock-off daytime TV presenter."

And about that chart the Convicted Felon displayed . . . Sarah Rumpf (MEDIAITE) reports:

Not on the list? Russia. Also absent: Belarus, which has been actively allied with Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine is on the list, as are many other former Soviet satellites and republics. Multiple social media accounts posted about Russia’s absence from Trump’s list of the new tariffs.

Russia did not make the list? Some who did make the list should not have. The same outlet's Charlie Nash explains:

President Donald Trump implemented tariffs on several uninhabited islands on Tuesday as part of a confused effort to establish equal trade.

The White House published a list of countries that had been slapped with “reciprocal tariffs” on Tuesday after Trump accused the nations of ripping off the U.S. with their own tariffs.

Social media users were quick to point out, however, that the list included uninhabited islands and a territory where the only significant settlement was a U.S. military base.

Among them, the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands – an Australian territory and one of the most remote places on Earth – was slapped with a 10% “reciprocal tariff.”

The British Indian Ocean Territory was also slapped with a 10% reciprocal tariff, despite the fact that the only inhabitants of the islands are U.S.-U.K. military personnel and contractors, who occupy a Joint Military Facility in the territory.

“The Heard and McDonald Islands are completely uninhabited. Population zero. I guess we’re going to tariff the seagulls?” mocked American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “It kind of feels like a White House intern went through Wikipedia’s list of countries and just generated this list off of that with no further research.”

“Can someone please tell Donald Trump that the only people in the British Indian Ocean Territory are the U.S. base at Diego Garcia?” reacted British Conservative politician Oliver Cooper. “He’s taxing an American military base.”

The Convicted Felon is an idiot. We are all disgusted with Mr. Chump's actions. Erik Reed (RAW STORY) reports:

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase warned that the impact of President Donald Trump’s new set of tariffs could take the economy “perilously close to slipping into recession.”

The gloomy economic forecast was released hours after Trump rocked the global financial markets with his announcement of sweeping tariffs in a Rose Garden ceremony on Wednesday – which he dubbed “liberation day.”

But as financial markets tumbled in the wake of the tariffs targeting China and the European Union in particular, analysts at JPMorgan estimated hours after the announcement that the tariffs would amount to “the largest tax increase since the Revenue Act of 1968.”

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for today:

Thursday, April 3, 2025. Donald Chump attempts to destroy the economy even more, SignalGate continues with new alarming details, Chump's gunning for the VA and veterans, whatever happened to president's putting their holdings into a blind trust, and much more.

Starting with news of an action. This Saturday. Tyler, Texas community members asked me to note this which I will gladly. At the intersection of Broadway and Shiloh Road -- where the Barnes & Noble parking lot is, people will be gathering at 3:00 pm to tell the government hands off. You can visit this webpage for more information:

Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. We are fighting back!

They're taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.

🚨 On Saturday, April 5th, we're taking to the streets to fight back with a clear message: Hands off! 🚨

These actions will be taking place across the country. We'll start tomorrow's snapshot with this information as well. Mike loved being in Tyler during the 2024 campaign and he says (well Elaine says) he'll note it at his site tonight.

Good for Tyler. Good for the country -- again here's the website and there will be actions across the country on Saturday.

The insane Convicted Felon Donald Chump announced tariffs yesterday evening.

It is his latest attack on the economy and on the American people.

Stephanie Ruhl, on MSNBC, explained the claim Chump was making for tariffs, "We need to impose these tariffs because other companies have been ripping us off for years, taking advantage of the American people." That's Chump's claim. Reality is, as Stephanie explained, far different.

Stephanie Ruhl: The White House says the 10% tariffs are going to apply everywhere. Well WIRED and AXIOS pointed out that those taxes include the Heard and McDonald Islands. You can see right here on the massive list that the administration put out on social media. But here's what you might now realize. Those islands? They're in Antarctica. They don't produce any exports. Do you know why? Because there are not any human beings that even live there. There's no possible way that they could be taking advantage of us on trade. What we do not know is if the penguins that live there will retaliate.

Rachel Maddow also covered Chump's loose grasp on reality.

Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) explains:

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow treated viewers on Wednesday evening to a world tour of some of the stranger places that President Donald Trump slapped with tariffs.

The tariffs, part of Trump's so-called "Liberation Day," tax foreign goods from 10 to 49 percent from just about every other country — but, Maddow noted, they also apply to a few places that don't seem to have much trade with the U.S., or even many people at all, for that matter.

"May I introduce you to Jan Mayen Island?" said Maddow. "It is a volcano, volcanic island, mostly covered in glaciers, hundreds of miles from anything else in the Arctic Ocean ... it does have an airstrip, but nobody lives there. Population: zero humans — many polar bears."

"Rest assured, we, the American people, are now protected from the predatory economic piracy of that uninhabited island," said Maddow. "Thanks to our genius strongman ruler who has put the American government to work. Donald Trump has just slapped a 10 percent tariff on Jan Mayen Island, just in case anyone ever moves up there and tries to screw us over with their Jan Mayen Island under-priced exports and stuff."

At TAP, Robert Kuttner observes:

On Monday and Tuesday, the stock market, an indicator of investor confidence or anxiety, actually rose slightly. This was the result of high-level administration leaks to Wall Street players that today’s announcement won’t be as damaging as you might think and will finally clarify U.S. policy. But today the market is down again, probably because of the wildly different stories out there from Trump’s own economic advisers.

White House trade czar Peter Navarro says the new tariffs would raise $600 billion annually, the largest tax increase since World War II. This would presumably offset other Trump tax cuts, but at massive economic costs.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, more of a dove on the issue, has told lawmakers that the tariffs would be capped and could be negotiated downward. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been trying to reassure Wall Street, but others in the administration find the loudmouth Lutnick irritating, blame him for reinforcing Trump’s tariff obsession, and are setting him up to be the scapegoat. Politico has made a big deal of this (“Trump World Turns on Lutnick”), but its story, widely picked up elsewhere, is based on just two anonymous sources with their own axes to grind.

Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:

***TODAY: Senate to vote on a resolution to reverse Trump’s tariffs on Canada—Trump’s trade war with Canada, which has resulted in severe, 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on nearly all goods, is already seriously hurting WA businesses and agriculture industry***

Washington state is one of the most trade-dependent states in the U.S., with 40 percent of WA jobs tied to international commerce

Senator Murray: “Trump’s refusal to accept basic economic realities or listen to the desperate pleas of American businesses, farmers, and families who can’t afford his costly tariffs is risking serious economic catastrophe and pushing our country toward a Republican recession.”

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on President Trump’s reckless and sweeping new tariffs, which are expected to go into effect later today and will raise costs, and severely harm Washington state businesses, agriculture, and our overall economy. A recent analysis found that Trump’s tariffs could raise costs on the average American household by $5,200 a year—and these price hikes on working families are coming at the very same time that Republicans are forcing through Congress massive new tax cuts for billionaires.

The Senate will also vote today on a resolution from Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) that would reverse Trump’s tariffs on Canada by nullifying the emergency declaration issued by President Trump that underpins them. The resolution requires a simple majority to pass in the Senate and would also need to be brought up and passed in the Republican-controlled House in order to go into effect.

“Trump’s ham-fisted, utterly pointless tariffs are a tax that families in Washington state will pay on nearly everything they buy—whether at the grocery store, the car dealership, or your neighborhood coffee shop.

“We have all the data in the world that tells us exactly how these tariffs will hurt American businesses and push up prices—that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. Trump and his cabinet are choosing to ignore the mountains of evidence we have that tariffs do not work and push ahead because they simply don’t care. They don’t care if small businesses have to close their doors, if farmers lose access to markets, or if prices go up—because it won’t affect Trump and his cabinet full of billionaires.

“Trump’s trade war is an especially deep cut to farmers, fishers, and producers in Washington state—I’ve talked to so many who are absolutely furious that Trump is putting their livelihoods at risk because he cannot seem to grasp the basic fact that they actually rely on international markets to sell their goods. Trump doesn’t have a clue—and businesses in Washington state are already paying the price for his ignorance.

“Today I will vote for Senator Kaine’s resolution to reverse Trump’s disastrous tariffs on Washington state’s largest trading partner, Canada—Trump’s trade war has already forced businesses in Washington state who rely on imported materials and business from Canada to lay off employees and close their doors, and is upending supply chains across the Pacific Northwest.

“Trump’s refusal to accept basic economic realities or listen to the desperate pleas of American businesses, farmers, and families who can’t afford his costly tariffs is risking serious economic catastrophe and pushing our country toward a Republican recession.”

Washington state has one of the most trade-dependent economies of any state in the country, with 40 percent of jobs tied to international commerce and approximately $60 billion in annual exports. Washington is the top U.S. producer of apples, blueberries, hops, pears, spearmint oil, and sweet cherries—all of which risk losing vital export markets due to retaliatory tariffs from key trading partners including Canada. Additionally, more than 12,000 small and medium-sized companies in Washington state export goods and will struggle to absorb the impact of retaliatory tariffs. Trump’s tariffs during his first term were extremely costly for Washington state—as one example, India imposed a 20 percent retaliatory tariff on U.S. apples, causing Washington apple shipments to India to fall by 99 percent and growers to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in exports.

###

The man has lost his mind. Heaven help this country. It's no longer just a mad man in control of the country, it's now a mad man who has lost his sanity..

Prior to his announcement of the tariffs late yesterday, the world had already rendered its verdict on Donald Chump. Evan Williams (TAG 24 NEWS) reports:

Ex-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has used a speech to criticize and mock President Donald Trump, and issue a warning to leaders.

Turnbull, who served as Australia's PM from 2015 until 2018, issued a warning that the country's next leader needs to "stand up" better against Trump, even if that means facing a flood of social media abuse.

His comments come days after current PM Anthony Albanese called an election for May 5, 2025.

"They've got to be able to stand up," Turnbull told the National Press Club of Australia on Tuesday.

"If that means they get a brickbat or a Truth Social post saying 'You're weak and ineffectual. You don't know anything about China'... If you're spooked by that you shouldn't be in the job."

As he spoke about a potential Truth Social post, Turnbull imitated Trump and repeated the word "China" in a mocking voice. The impersonation drew laughs from the crowd, who proceeded to applaud.

As Ava and I noted the other day, "MID CENTURY MODERN delivers what is promises, strong laughs, belly laughs. All Chump ever provides is the punchline to a sick and dirty joke." Meanwhile TAGTIG reports:

The former Belgian Prime Minister and current European MP Elio Di Rupo has just published an open letter against the American President Donald Trump.

"Dear Donald, you're a dangerous ignoramus. For the United States. And for the rest of the world," writes Elio Di Rupo.

He accuses him of trying to impose his narrow view of the world:

"In Europe, every citizen has their place, regardless of their origin, gender, sexual orientation or disability. Anti-discrimination policies correct injustices, give everyone a chance, they change lives."

And he continues: "You're putting on a show. Making noise. Creating emptiness. You're defending a world of domination, submission, injustice."

The whole world laughs at Donald Chump.

And he's not fit for the job. The security breach (breaches) make this clear.

Yesterday, Ruth Marcus and Preet Bharara addressed SignalGate.

That the breach(es) happened is outrageous enough. That Chump is unable to hold anyone accountable for it is even more outrageous. Christopher Sharp (IRISH STAR) notes:

A former staffer under Donald Trump has admitted that he’s “terrified” for national security following the latest round of leaks and scandals by the 47th President’s administration.

Anthony Scaramucci, who acted briefly as the White House Communications Director of Communications in 2017, admitted that he and others were scared about what Trump’s lackadaisical approach to national security meant for the years to come.

He told Katty Kay on their podcast ‘The Rest is Politics US’: “I’m terrified! There are former cabinet officials that I talk to all the time in the Secretary of Defence. Terrified.”

Anthony’s comments came after 'SignalGate' in which national security advisor to the Trump administration Mike Waltz invited journalist Jeffrey Goldberg into a Signal chat group in which he and other senior officials discussed America’s plans to bomb Yemen.

SignalGate is not a one-off. It is part of the pattern of how this administration operates and how it leaves all of us at rick. At risk with regards to national security, at risk with regards to our private information including our Social Security numbers. Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:

Signalgate seems to have been the norm for National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, rather than the exception.

Waltz’s team had set up at least 20 Signal group chats dedicated to discussing international crises, Politico reported Wednesday. His staff “regularly” leaned on the retail app to coordinate work on issues in Ukraine, China, Gaza, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, according to four people that had been added to the chats.

All four sources that spoke with the publication said they witnessed instances of “sensitive information” being discussed, reported Politico’s White House bureau chief Dasha Burns.

Waltz’s emerging national security scandals have made him less than popular in the White House. Last month, Waltz made Donald Trump furious by accidentally inviting a journalist to a Cabinet group chat on Signal about bombing Yemen.

In the days after the initial scandal broke, Wired reported that an account sharing the intelligence official’s name had seemingly left his Venmo profile public. In doing so, Waltz disclosed the names of hundreds of his personal and professional associates, including government officials and lobbyists.

Last week, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Waltz was among several senior administration officials that had their personal data, such as account passwords, email addresses, and personal cell phone numbers, listed online.

If that weren’t bad enough, The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Waltz and his team had been relying on Gmail—a platform even less secure than Signal—to discuss “sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.”

Chump and his administration continue to dismiss this as something minor when it is not. And this was not their position a few years back. Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck (CNN) point out:

When Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden faced intense scrutiny for their handling of classified material, top officials now serving in Trump’s Justice Department and FBI demanded criminal probes and severe penalties.

Yet today, those same figures – including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, and DC interim US Attorney Ed Martin – have all declined to publicly criticize senior Trump officials who used Signal to share military attack plans in a chat that inadvertently included a journalist.

The Trump administration has denied any classified information was discussed in the text messages released by The Atlantic about plans to bomb rebels in Yemen, but CNN reported that information shared in the chat was highly classified at the time it was sent.

Bondi, now the country’s highest ranking law enforcement official, vigorously defended the officials who participated in the Signal chat, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and suggested it was unlikely their actions would be investigated criminally. But previously, Bondi argued that both Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin needed to face charges after emails that contained classified information were found on the computer of her ex-husband, former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner.

“This has everything to do with the security of our country,” Bondi said in January 2018 on Fox News. “When you have the top-secret security clearance that Huma Abedin had – you know when you send those emails that you are violating the law, and there is no objective law enforcement officer in this country that would not charge her based on that. Alright? No one.”

The Chump is the champ of corruption. We see that yet again in the way his administration has attacked the state of Maine. Arthur Delaney (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:

Emails show that the Social Security Administration canceled contracts with the state of Maine as political payback against its Democratic governor.

A week after Maine Gov. Janet Mills clashed publicly with President Donald Trump at the White House over transgender athletes in girls’ sports, Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of Social Security, asked his staff about what contracts Maine had with the Social Security Administration.

The agency has vital records contracts with every state, allowing parents to request Social Security numbers for their newborns at the hospital and to verify deaths through an electronic system.

According to emails obtained by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Social Security staff informed Dudek that canceling the contracts “would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft.”

Dudek told his staff to go for it.

“Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child,” Dudek wrote, referring to Mills.

Canceling the vital records contracts would make it more difficult for the federal government to track births and deaths in Maine, hampering efforts to prevent fraud across government agencies, all of which use Social Security records to prevent improper payments.

Here's the press release from Connolly's office on the matter:

Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek calling on him to immediately resign and to come before the Committee for a transcribed interview. Committee Democrats obtained emails exposing his decision to terminate two contracts between SSA and the state of Maine – knowing that doing so would increase waste, fraud, and abuse – in order to carry out President Trump’s threats against the State after Governor Janet Mills upset him.

The emails obtained by Committee Democrats show Dudek committed this transgression knowingly and willingly, even calling the Maine Governor a “petulant child” for standing up for her constituents.

“I write with grave concern regarding your decision to punish the people of Maine and undermine the integrity of the Social Security Administration in an effort to further the President’s personal grievances. On February 27, 2025, you ordered the termination of two contracts between the Social Security Administration and the state of Maine as direct retaliation for statements made by Maine Governor Janet Mills that upset President Donald Trump. Email documentation indicates that you ordered these contracts terminated even though you knew that doing so would increase improper payments and create opportunities for fraudsters. The Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration should serve the American people, not create waste, fraud, and abuse on the taxpayer’s dime. I call on you to resign immediately, and I request that you sit for a transcribed interview with Oversight Committee staff,” wrote the Ranking Member.

On February 21, 2025, President Trump publicly threatened to retaliate against the people of Maine after Governor Mills refused to bend to his will after he issued a potentially unlawful Executive Order. He told Governor Mills: “You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”

On February 27, 2025, Acting Commissioner Dudek emailed SSA staff about Maine’s contracts with the SSA. At 3:30 pm that afternoon, a staff member sent an email warning him, “Terminating the contracts would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft.” The staffer promised to “provide more information shortly.”

At 7:09 pm on the same day, Acting Commissioner responded, stating: “Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child.”’

Despite reinstating the contracts on March 7, 2025, and claiming that he did not intend to harm the people of Maine, the emails obtained by the Committee show that Acting Commissioner Dudek knew of the negative impacts of cancelling the programs and was willing to hurt the people of Maine and waste taxpayer money to avenge President Trump.

“The American people deserve answers about your activities and communications in the time between President Trump’s February 21, 2025 public threat to Governor Mills and your February 27, 2025 order to cancel the enumeration at birth and electronic death registration contracts with the state of Maine, and about your knowledge that cancelling these contracts would lead to increased waste, fraud, and abuse. Please propose convenient dates in April for a transcribed interview with Committee Staff. You should know that my invitation to sit for a transcribed interview will stand until the interview occurs—even after your resignation,” concluded Ranking Member Connolly.

Click here to read the letter to Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek.

Let's move to another topic, Florence Muchai (CRYPTOPOLITAN) reports:

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) nosedived on Wednesday after a regulatory filing revealed plans for a large stock sale, including the potential sale of US President Donald Trump’s $2.3 billion stake. The update comes against the backdrop of Trump’s upcoming announcement of new trade tariffs, which he has branded as “liberation day” policies.

TMTG, which operates the social media platform Truth Social, saw its stock drop 8% following the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing late Tuesday.

The document outlined plans to sell more than 142 million shares, including Trump’s 114 million shares, held in a revocable trust controlled by his son, Donald Trump Jr.

Other major shareholders, including US Attorney General Pam Bondi, TMTG Chairman Devin Nunes, and Yorkville, a Cayman Islands-registered company, are also set to offload a combined 134 million shares. In addition, TMTG is issuing 8.4 million new shares to increase the available trading stock.

I'm confused here. Donald Chump is the president of the United States. Though he does not treat it as such, it's a full time job. You're not supposed to have a side hustle. I'm remembering both Bushes and every other Oval Office occupant having to put assets in a blind trust to avoid abusing their power of the presidency to profit from the position.

There are zero checks in balances in place at present, they're all ignored. And the country is worse for it.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

ICYMI: Murray Statement on Trump & Elon Plans to Decimate VA, Firing 80,000 Employees and Putting Veterans’ Care in Grave Danger

ICYMI: Senator Murray, VA Researchers, Employees, Contractors in WA State Slam Trump & Elon’s Plans to Decimate VA With Further Mass Layoffs, Harm Services Veterans Rely On

***Report HERE***

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, released a new report detailing how President Trump and Elon Musk’s reckless mass firings at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are already harming veterans’ services and health care in Washington state and across the country.

Senator Murray has been outspoken in standing up for veterans, VA employees, and VA researchers against Trump and Elon Musk’s indiscriminate mass layoffs that will undermine critical services our nation’s veterans rely on every day. Senator Murray, a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was among the first to raise the alarm about the layoffs of VA researchers and called on President Trump to immediately reverse the firings. She pressed VA Deputy Secretary nominee Dr. Paul Lawrence on the firings of VA researchers at the hearing on his nomination last week, held a press conference with a VA employee and veteran in Seattle who was abruptly laid off as part of the mass firings with zero justification, and put out a fact sheet on how the indiscriminate mass firings were hurting workers in Washington state, including VA researchers. In January, Murray and others called on President Trump to exempt all VA employees from the hiring freeze issued as part of his Day One Executive Orders.

The full report is available HERE and below:

National View: The Department of Veterans Affairs

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs serves approximately nine million enrolled veterans every year. Washington state alone has around 232,000 veterans enrolled in the VA health care system. Its mission is to provide comprehensive care, support, and benefits to veterans of the United States military and their families. Core VA benefits and services include: health care including medical, mental health, and rehabilitation care; benefits and compensation including disability compensation, pensions, educational assistance, and housing loans; and burial and memorial services, including access to national cemeteries.

Like the rest of the federal government, VA employs high numbers of veterans and military spouses compared to private sector employers. Veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce, and the federal government is the largest single employer of veterans in the country.

On February 13, 2024, VA Secretary Collins terminated 1,000 VA employees, including a substantial number of veterans and military spouses, without cause.Then on February 24, Secretary Collins carried out another round of illegal terminations of VA employees. This mass firing brought the total number of fired VA employees to 2,400. Of those fired, a large proportion were themselves veterans and military spouses. On March 4, a leaked internal VA memo showed that Secretary Collins planned to terminate an estimated 83,000 employees – likely including an estimated 20,000 veterans – by the end of September of this year. This plan to reduce the VA workforce to September 2019 levels, coupled with the ongoing hiring freeze and illegal terminations of probationary employees, will be catastrophic for the agency, its workforce, and for the veterans, caregivers, and survivors it serves.

These measures will reverse the progress made by the previous Administration, during which VA was able to deliver more care and benefits to more veterans than ever before. It would roll back the progress and massive expansion of care and benefits from the bipartisan PACT Act, the largest expansion of VA health care and benefits in decades. These mass firings also threaten to erode recent progress in lowering the veteran unemployment rate, which has been a longstanding, bipartisan priority.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Provides Necessary Services and Has Ripple Effects Across Washington State

Before these mass firings, the VA was already experiencing staff shortages. The recent additional staffing and funding cuts will exacerbate these shortages and negatively impact the care veterans receive.

Former VA employees describe likely irreversible damage to the VA system, including loss of innovation and increased strain on already scarce staff time and resources.

Future Zhou, a disabled Army veteran who worked as an Inventory Manager at the Puget Sound VA Medical Center in Washington state, was abruptly let go due to recent workforce cuts imposed by the Trump Administration. By eliminating inventory management positions, understaffed nurses will now be burdened with additional responsibilities as they work to provide top-notch care with already limited time. Veteran patients will need to wait longer for medication and equipment they need while they are receiving care.
- “Unfortunately, I was not alone. Five other logistics personnel in our probationary phase were dismissed within hours of me, two mail clerks and three supply techs. The unprofessional manner in which these decisions were executed was incredibly disrespectful. I have since visited my office—because I still receive my care at the Seattle VA—and witnessed firsthand the undue stress and devastation that these indiscriminate firings have caused. Our supply team is now more than seven days behind on placing critical supply requests for medication and equipment in our hospital, and our supply techs have had to cut their night shifts, limiting deliveries to our clinics. I saw nurses going down to the warehouse to collect their own supplies in order to continue to provide quality care to our veterans. I am not confident that the hospital can remain open under these conditions.”
Christian Helfrich, who served twenty years with the Puget Sound VA Medical Center as a research investigator, was one of seven research employees laid off because their research terms were not renewed due to the hiring freeze.
- “In terms of what the effect will be on veterans… it’s not having innovative care developed in the VA, like pulmonary teams using the Electronic Health Record to identify problems for veterans before they happen, preventing things like pneumonia, and it’s not doing things like having people systematically identifying problems with the new Oracle Electronic Health Record… Research is an investment in the future—and if we don’t invest in research today, we are not investing in the future of the VA. And I’ll just add, what’s going on right now isn’t a two-way door where you can tear down the VA and then see what happens, and if you don’t like it, go back to the way it was. This is a one-way door —if we tear it down now, it is going to take years or decades to build back.”
Raphael Garcia, a 100% disabled Army veteran and combat engineer, was abruptly fired from his role as a management analyst with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs by the current administration.
- “I swore an oath to serve our country—first in the U.S. Army and then at the VA—only to be suddenly terminated by the very institution that promised to care for those who have served … Removing key personnel, not only delays claim processing, it erodes the institutional knowledge built over years of service, and sacrifices the care and compassion our veterans deserve.”

All three of these VA employees provided essential services to improve the health and lives of veterans. Without these staff and the other dedicated VA employees who were unduly fired, health care access and disability claim decisions will be delayed, services will be eliminated, and overall care for veterans will be negatively impacted.

One veteran, who is a prominent member and advocate in his local veteran service organization, confirmed that these cuts will further stress these systems that veterans rely on.

Joshua Schrek is an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who now lives in Renton, Washington and serves as a Judge Advocate General of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). He’s been active in the VFW for over 15 years, previously serving at the post, district, and department levels, including previously being the Department of Washington VFW state Chief of Staff. His comments represent his own views and not those of VFW.
- “I have received information directly from an employee at the Seattle VA who expressed serious concerns. He shared that his department is responsible for overseeing 46 veteran-facing products and services, including My HealtheVet, Community Care Billing, Enrollment & Eligibility, and the Veterans Crisis Line. Out of 140 authorized positions, only 65 are filled – expected to drop to 59. He also noted that they rely on over 700 contractors, and with contract cancellations happening centrally and without local input, there’s a risk these systems could go offline with no available staff to restore them.”
- “The situation has the potential to affect not only veterans but also the families who rely on VA support systems. If services like benefits processing, crisis response, and access to medical care are interrupted, it creates stress and instability for those trying to navigate an already complex system. One particularly alarming note shared with me was that if some systems break, they may ‘stay down indefinitely’ due to a lack of technical staff to fix them.”

The Trump Administration is Damaging Veterans’ Access to Care for Years to Come

Trump and Musk are putting the health care and benefits veterans have earned in grave danger. They are firing tens of thousands of people responsible for administering the services and care that over nine million veterans enrolled in VA health care across the country count on—and it’s a breach of the sacred commitment we make to our veterans to take care of them when they return home. These arbitrary mass layoffs, at the very least, are going to mean longer processing times for disability or education claims veterans are desperately waiting on and longer wait times for veterans to see a healthcare provider—to say nothing of the serious threat to patient safety or the threat of VA medical centers closing. For example, the Puget Sound VA already has 40 mental health position vacancies, 14 of which are psychology positions. Firing additional employees will only further decrease access to mental health care. The consequences will reverberate for generations—more veterans sick and unable to get their benefits, more veterans out of a job, and fewer men and women willing to sign up to serve a nation that shows it will not keep their promises to them.

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Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Make America A Pigsty Again" went up last night. The following sites updated: