The Official "Damned Trump" Thread: Phase II

[Mister Agenda]

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth considered sending an elite U.S. Army strike force to Portland, Ore., to quell protests that President Donald Trump has characterized as ‘lawless mayhem,’ according to images of messages provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The messages, casually exchanged last weekend in a crowded, public space, show high-level officials in the Trump administration discussing the deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne, an infantry division that has been deployed to combat zones in both world wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show...rcna235885

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

'At this point, finding a toenail in your salad has a seven-point lead over Trump.' - Jimmy Kimmel, commenting on a YouGov poll that showed him with a 16-point favourability lead over Trump.

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher’s little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: “No one has died” because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: “No children are dying on my watch.”

That, Taher says, “is a lie.”

“I lost my son because of the funding cuts,” he says. “And it is not only me — many more children in other camps have also died helplessly from hunger, malnutrition and no medical treatment.”

Taher’s grief is echoed in families across conflict-ravaged Myanmar, where the United Nations estimates 40% of the population needs humanitarian assistance and which once counted the U.S. as its largest humanitarian donor. Now, in Asia, it has become the epicenter of the suffering unleashed upon the world’s most vulnerable by President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-usaid...8e47bb88f0

---

Trump Wants to Overhaul Drug Sales. A Company Tied to His Son Stands to Benefit.

Family members of President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are poised to benefit from efforts to remake the industry.

BlinkRx, an online prescription drug delivery company that this year installed Trump Jr. as a board member, stands to benefit from a shake-up of how patients buy drugs after President Trump urged pharmaceutical companies to sell their medicines directly to consumers. BlinkRx helps drugmakers do exactly that with a service that promises to set up direct-to-patient sales programs in as little as three weeks. TrumpRx, a new government website set to launch in early 2026, would funnel patients to direct-sale sites.

It is the latest example of the Trump administration’s policy priorities overlapping with the business dealings of the president and his family.
“BlinkRx is one of many companies in the marketplace that provide these kinds of services to manufacturers,” said Adam J. Fein, the president of Drug Channels Institute, a group that studies the pharmaceutical industry. “What is different is Trump’s son is on the board.”

https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/trumpr...x-2b6e1761

[Thumpalumpacus]

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) predicted Wednesday that dozens of Republicans may ultimately support legislation requiring the Department of Justice to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“It’s coming to an end guys. I’ve spoken to a lot of House Republicans this week and they’ve confided that Trump’s movement/support is fading. As one told me, ‘this Epstein bomb is about to drop and no [one] wants to defend a pedo-protector. It’s just a matter of time,’” Swalwell said in a thread on the social platform X.

“One Republican just texted me that if there’s a discharge vote on Epstein they expect a ‘jail break’ of over 100 members. Trump will go nuts!” he added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/55456...tein-vote/

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) predicted Wednesday that dozens of Republicans may ultimately support legislation requiring the Department of Justice to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“It’s coming to an end guys. I’ve spoken to a lot of House Republicans this week and they’ve confided that Trump’s movement/support is fading. As one told me, ‘this Epstein bomb is about to drop and no [one] wants to defend a pedo-protector. It’s just a matter of time,’” Swalwell said in a thread on the social platform X.

“One Republican just texted me that if there’s a discharge vote on Epstein they expect a ‘jail break’ of over 100 members. Trump will go nuts!” he added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/55456...tein-vote/

This is one of those issues that go beyond politics. Anyone found in those files should be investigated. If necessary, charged. If convicted, jailed. All of this regardless of political affiliation.

Boru

[Thumpalumpacus]

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/55456...tein-vote/

This is one of those issues that go beyond politics. Anyone found in those files should be investigated. If necessary, charged. If convicted, jailed. All of this regardless of political affiliation.

Boru

They can only distract so much when the charges are this serious. I was reading an article this morning wherein a California Democrat in Congress was told by a Republican member that once Johnson finally calls the House back into session, over one hundred Republicans are ready to abandon the party-line and vote to make all these files public.

I'd link to the tweet but I refuse to steer any clicks to X.

[Paraselene]

Yeah, but can we really trust what these Repubs are allegedly stating?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Yeah, but can we really trust what these Repubs are allegedly stating?

Probably not, but it’s good bet than anyone who supports releasing the files is in the clear.

Boru

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, but can we really trust what these Repubs are allegedly stating?

Any hearsay is obviously questionable, but these guys all have to campaign for office in the next year. Any Republican "tough on crime" while voting to protect sex-traffickers and child-molesters is going to have hard sledding on the campaign trail. Even some Trumpeteers support releasing these files.

I also think there will be an upwelling demand for reconvening the House over the issue of paying the military during the shutdown. Most GOPers being defense hawks, they're going to have to face charges of letting our servicemembers twist in the wind.

There are a lot of pressures on Speaker Johnson that are often contradictory. He's going to have a hell of a time trying to square the circles.

[Thumpalumpacus]

To follow up:

On Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she has faced more pressure over the petition to trigger a House vote compelling a release of files linked to Epstein than any other issue.

“My signature is on that discharge petition, and there has not been another issue where I have ever received more pressure than that one, and I’m pretty much shocked by it. I can’t imagine — I’ve never understood how this is an issue,” Greene told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/55456...tein-vote/

ETA: There's also this interesting op-ed about using the Epstein resolution as a tool in the shutdown fight: https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blo...y-epstein/