The Official "Damned Trump" Thread: Phase II

[arewethereyet]

Take a seat and be prepared to be shocked...

Trump: 'I'm Allowed' to Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell

Trump: 'I'm Allowed' to Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell

[Fireball]

Take a seat and be prepared to be shocked...

Trump: 'I'm Allowed' to Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell

Trump: 'I'm Allowed' to Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell

Huh. Didn't see that coming!

[Fake Messiah]

FCC to Appoint a Babysitter to Make Sure CBS Isn’t Anti-Trump

The Federal Communications Commission finally approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance on Thursday after several changes at CBS that were widely seen as efforts to placate President Donald Trump. Part of the deal will apparently require an ombudsman to check the media company’s supposed political biases. And FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has been doing the rounds to brag about how he’s getting people on TV to be nicer to the MAGA movement.

Carr went on to explain that CBS had committed to “ending invidious forms of DEI,” a pretext Trump has used to purge the federal government of anyone who isn’t white and male in leadership positions.

“One of the things they’re going to have to do is put in an ombudsman in place for two years,” Carr said. “So basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the President. So that’s something that’s significant that we’re going to see happening as well.”

Before the second Trump era, it would’ve been seen as a ridiculous violation of the First Amendment to have some kind of monitor making sure the media was being nice to the president.

https://gizmodo.com/fcc-to-appoint-a-bab...2000634566

[Thumpalumpacus]

FCC to Appoint a Babysitter to Make Sure CBS Isn’t Anti-Trump

The Federal Communications Commission finally approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance on Thursday after several changes at CBS that were widely seen as efforts to placate President Donald Trump. Part of the deal will apparently require an ombudsman to check the media company’s supposed political biases. And FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has been doing the rounds to brag about how he’s getting people on TV to be nicer to the MAGA movement.

Carr went on to explain that CBS had committed to “ending invidious forms of DEI,” a pretext Trump has used to purge the federal government of anyone who isn’t white and male in leadership positions.

“One of the things they’re going to have to do is put in an ombudsman in place for two years,” Carr said. “So basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the President. So that’s something that’s significant that we’re going to see happening as well.”

Before the second Trump era, it would’ve been seen as a ridiculous violation of the First Amendment to have some kind of monitor making sure the media was being nice to the president.

https://gizmodo.com/fcc-to-appoint-a-bab...2000634566

One more step ... one more erosion.

[Angrboda]

The Trump administration describes Todd Blanche's question of Ghislaine Maxwell as fact-finding. When an agent from the DOJ engages in fact finding, it's called an investigation. But according to Pam Bondi, his superior, there is no investigation into the crimes of Epstein, Maxwell, nor any clients or co-conspirators. So exactly what is he doing in his official capacity? Two possibilities come to mind. The first is personal curiosity. The second is that he is attempting to pacify Trump's base to immunize Trump from the scandal. But that's neither his nor the DOJ's job. And as has been pointed out, there are undoubtedly agents within the DOJ who are inestimably more familiar with the Epstein and Maxwell cases, something which the Deputy AG most assuredly is not. So what the fuck is Todd Blanche doing?

[Thumpalumpacus]

The Trump administration describes Todd Blanche's question of Ghislaine Maxwell as fact-finding.  When an agent from the DOJ engages in fact finding, it's called an investigation.  But according to Pam Bondi, his superior, there is no investigation into the crimes of Epstein, Maxwell, nor any clients or co-conspirators.  So exactly what is he doing in his official capacity?  Two possibilities come to mind.  The first is personal curiosity.  The second is that he is attempting to pacify Trump's base to immunize Trump from the scandal.  But that's neither his nor the DOJ's job.  And as has been pointed out, there are undoubtedly agents within the DOJ who are inestimably more familiar with the Epstein and Maxwell cases, something which the Deputy AG most assuredly is not.  So what the fuck is Todd Blanche doing?

Running interference, of course. Finding out what your adversary knows is Tactics 101.

[Angrboda]

According to Trump and his administration, in return for a reduction in tariffs, Japan would invest $550 billion in certain U.S. sectors and give the United States 90 percent of the profits.

But Japanese officials say profit sharing under the agreement isn’t so set in stone: A Friday slideshow presentation in Japan’s Cabinet Office, contra the White House, said profit distribution would be “based on the degree of contribution and risk taken by each party,” per The Financial Times.

The FT also reports conflicting messages between Washington and Tokyo as to whether that $550 billion commitment is, as team Trump sees it, a guarantee or, as Japan’s negotiator Ryosei Akazawa sees it, an upper limit and not “a target or commitment.”

Mireya Solís, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Financial Times that the deal contains “nothing inspiring,” as “both sides made promises that we can’t be sure will be kept” and “there are no guarantees on what the actual level of investments from Japan will be.”

The inconsistent interpretations of the deal could possibly be owing to the fact that it was hastily pulled together over the course of an hour and 10 minutes between Trump and Akazawa on Tuesday, according to the FT, which cited “officials familiar with the U.S.-Japan talks.” And, moreover, “Japanese officials said there was no written agreement with Washington—and no legally binding one would be drawn up.”

Some are thus beginning to wonder whether Trump’s avowed “largest deal in history” even technically counts as a deal at all. Brad Setser, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on X: “If something like this is not ‘papered’ it isn’t really a deal.”

Trump’s Big Trade Deal With Japan Is Already Falling Apart

[Angrboda]

A federal judge on Friday dismissed “in its entirety” the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago over “sanctuary city” policies that the Trump administration has said impede its efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division said the Trump administration “lacks standing” to invalidate the state, city and county laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, adding in her ruling that “contrary to the United States’s arguments, the Sanctuary Policies here do not comparably regulate [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] operations or meddle with the contractual rights of private individuals working with ICE.”

“The individual defendants are dismissed because the United States lacks standing to sue them with respect to the Sanctuary Policies; Cook County Board of Commissioners is dismissed because it is not a suable entity separate from Cook County … The United States’s complaint is dismissed in its entirety without prejudice,” Jenkins wrote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...n-lawsuit/

[Rev. Rye]

A federal judge on Friday dismissed “in its entirety” the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago over “sanctuary city” policies that the Trump administration has said impede its efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division said the Trump administration “lacks standing” to invalidate the state, city and county laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, adding in her ruling that “contrary to the United States’s arguments, the Sanctuary Policies here do not comparably regulate [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] operations or meddle with the contractual rights of private individuals working with ICE.”

“The individual defendants are dismissed because the United States lacks standing to sue them with respect to the Sanctuary Policies; Cook County Board of Commissioners is dismissed because it is not a suable entity separate from Cook County … The United States’s complaint is dismissed in its entirety without prejudice,” Jenkins wrote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...n-lawsuit/

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The Trump administration describes Todd Blanche's question of Ghislaine Maxwell as fact-finding.  When an agent from the DOJ engages in fact finding, it's called an investigation.  But according to Pam Bondi, his superior, there is no investigation into the crimes of Epstein, Maxwell, nor any clients or co-conspirators.  So exactly what is he doing in his official capacity?  Two possibilities come to mind.  The first is personal curiosity.  The second is that he is attempting to pacify Trump's base to immunize Trump from the scandal.  But that's neither his nor the DOJ's job.  And as has been pointed out, there are undoubtedly agents within the DOJ who are inestimably more familiar with the Epstein and Maxwell cases, something which the Deputy AG most assuredly is not.  So what the fuck is Todd Blanche doing?

I can think of a third possibility. The meetings with Maxwell are the early stages of a negotiation for a presidential pardon (or at least a commutation) in exchange for Maxwell's silence.

Boru