Could the Third Time Be the Charm on Impeachment and Removal?; The New York Times, June 17, 2025

 Thomas B. Edsall, The New York Times; Could the Third Time Be the Charm on Impeachment and Removal?

"It was clear from the first day of President Trump’s second term that Round 2 would be very different from Round 1.

Trump’s revocation of law firms’ security clearances and access to federal facilities, his cutoff of research grants to Harvard, his multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency deals, his decision to send 700 Marines to contain protests in a five-block section of Los Angeles, his usurpation of congressional power over federal spending — all of these acts have left millions of Americans aggravated and apprehensive, even as a substantial number of U.S. citizens remain untouched and largely unmoved.

We now have a president imposing an agenda far more dangerous than anything Richard Nixon dreamed of.

Here is one measure of Trump’s reign of corruption.

In the five months Trump has held office in his second term, the number of impeachable offenses legal scholars estimate that he has already committed ranges from three to eight or more...

I asked Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who has often appeared as an expert witness at congressional hearings on impeachment, about Trump. Gerhardt replied by email: “It is nearly impossible to overstate the degree of Trump’s corruption. It is manifest every day, as if he is daring the American people and Congress to try to stop him.”

Overall, Gerhardt continued: “Trump has shown time and again his disdain for the rule of law, including for the Constitution of the United States. He has routinely violated his oath of office and even proclaimed himself as entitled to break the law to save the country.”

No other American president, Gerhardt went on, “has come anywhere close to Trump’s corruption, and the level of his corruption — on a daily basis — is unmatched in our history.”"

Trump, Who Has Likened Himself to a King, Bristles at ‘No Kings’ Protests; The New York Times, June 12, 2025

Chris Cameron, The New York Times ; Trump, Who Has Likened Himself to a King, Bristles at ‘No Kings’ Protests

"President Trump bristled on Thursday at the mention of a series of “No Kings” protests against his administration scheduled for the day of his planned military parade in Washington — coinciding with his 79th birthday...

And the military parade scheduled for Saturday is the latest example of Mr. Trump’s desire to flex military might in openly political displays and surround himself in the pageantry of the armed forces. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that any protesters who assembled during the parade would be met with “very big force,”making no distinction between violent confrontations and constitutionally protected peaceful demonstrations.

The organizers of the “No Kings” marches have said that they intentionally had not scheduled demonstrations in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to order to avoid the military parade, instead encouraging demonstrators in the area to join their flagship march in Philadelphia."

Trump Declares Dubious Emergencies to Amass Power, Scholars Say; The New York Times, June 10, 2025

Adam Liptak , The New York Times; Trump Declares Dubious Emergencies to Amass Power, Scholars Say

"To hear President Trump tell it, the nation is facing a rebellion in Los Angeles, an invasion by a Venezuelan gang and extraordinary foreign threats to its economy.

Citing this series of crises, he has sought to draw on emergency powers that Congress has scattered throughout the United States Code over the centuries, summoning the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of California’s governor, sending scores of migrants to El Salvador without the barest hint of due process and upending the global economy with steep tariffs.

Legal scholars say the president’s actions are not authorized by the statutes he has cited and are, instead, animated by a different goal."

The Musk-Trump breakup: What happens when narcissistic co-leaders turn on each other?; The Ink, June 6, 2025

The Ink; The Musk-Trump breakup

What happens when narcissistic co-leaders turn on each other?

"It might be tempting to sit back, break out the popcorn, and say, “Let them fight.” But what’s unfolding is more than a mutual tantrum. Two of the world’s most powerful and most self-interested men are making and rolling out on the fly immensely consequential decisions in a series of angry outbursts, decisions which have serious implications for millions of real people, none of whom are non-player characters. 

And whatever happens next (maybe they’ll reconcile, maybe Musk will start a third party), Musk and his DOGE teams have already done — and continue to do — considerable damage to this country’s institutions and to human beings here and around the world. And with congressional Republicans and the White House fully onboard with the slash-and-burn approach, that’s not likely to stop just because of a spat between strongmen."

Trump and Musk’s Unlikely Alliance Breaks Down in Rapid and Public Fashion; The New York Times, June 5, 2025

Tyler Pager and Theodore Schleifer , The New York Times; Trump and Musk’s Unlikely Alliance Breaks Down in Rapid and Public Fashion

[Kip Currier: In the words of fictional billionaire Logan Roy from TV's Succession, these "are not serious people." As George Dillard wrote in a 2024 "We Are Not Serious People" piece for Medium:

"There were a lot of memorable lines in Succession, but Logan’s line is the one I often find myself repeating in my head, because there are not a lot of serious people left in America anymore." 

https://worldhistory.medium.com/we-are-not-serious-people-00ca768240e3

These are not individuals of good character or emotional intelligence whom reasonable, thinking, morally-grounded people with sound judgment would want leading them, working for them, or in a relationship with any family member they care about.

Even more, Trump and Musk et al are not people you want with access to the nuclear codes or in charge of spacecraft and satellites your country depends upon. They care nothing about the well-being of anyone other than themselves and perhaps a tiny handful of people in their immediate oligarchic circles. They are rich in assets and bankrupt in any semblance of decency or dignity.

And yet...here we are. Remember this at election time in 2026 and 2028.]

[Excerpt]

"The sparring swiftly devolved into threats on their respective social media platforms, as Mr. Trump threatened to cut the billions in dollars in federal government contracts with Mr. Musk’s companies. For his part, Mr. Musk unleashed a tirade of attacks on the man he had once lavishly praised. He suggested it might be time to create a new political party, claimed there were references to Mr. Trump in government documents about the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and indicated his support for a post calling for the president’s impeachment."

Mike Kelley vs. Trump: The Photo That Could Spark a Presidential Copyright War; Fstoppers, June 1, 2025

 Patrick Hall, Fstoppers; Mike Kelley vs. Trump: The Photo That Could Spark a Presidential Copyright War

"Your Thoughts?

What do you think will happen to this case when it is filed? Obviously something like this will take years to make its way through the courts, and perhaps Trump will not even be president by the time it makes it to the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals where it will most likely reside. Do you think Mike has a strong enough case for Willful Infringement under statutory infringement or because this is a meme that perhaps originated somewhere else on the internet, could it be viewed as unwilling? Do you think Trump would ever succeed at claiming his posts on Truth Social fall under official acts of a sitting president?"

Trump posts AI-generated photo of himself as pope, drawing internet outrage; Reuters, May 3, 2025

Andrea Shalal , Reuters; Trump posts AI-generated photo of himself as pope, drawing internet outrage

"President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated photo showing himself as the pope ahead of this week's gathering of cardinals to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion-strong Catholic Church, and just days after he joked he would "like to be pope".

Trump, who is not a Catholic and does not attend church regularly, posted the image on his Truth Social platform late on Friday, less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died at 88 last month. The White House then reposted it on its official X account."

Mistakes Were Made. And Made. And Made Again.; Mother Jones, April 29, 2025

Tim Murphy, Mother Jones; Mistakes Were Made. And Made. And Made Again.

"What will you remember about Donald Trump’s second first 100 days? Probably the cruelty and arrogance of the people in charge, and the fecklessness of so many institutions that were supposed to fight back... 

But personally, I’m going to remember all the mistakes.

I have never seen a government get so many things wrong, in so many different ways. It was like an Obamacare website every 18 hours. It was like the soft opening of Jurassic Park. And these were not the sort of run-of-the-mill snafus that are endemic to any large organization. They all had something in common: People who thought they knew better than everyone else took on work they didn’t understand, and sidelined the people who did. They were making mistakes, quite simply, because the people who didn’t make mistakes were gone, and because there was no one left to tell them not to, or to correct them when they did.

In 100 days the administration has, in no particular order:"

Trump says he's made no mistakes despite falling economy and approval ratings; USA TODAY, April 30, 2025

Bart Jansen , USA TODAY; Trump says he's made no mistakes despite falling economy and approval ratings

"Never mind the shrinking economy and dismal poll numbers.

President Donald Trump’s first 100 days have gone according to plan.

What would he do differently? Not a thing.

"I’ll tell you, that’s the toughest question I can have because I don’t really believe I’ve made mistakes,” Trump said in reply to a question at a NewsNation town hall on April 30."

‘I RUN THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD’; The Atlantic, June 2025

 Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, The Atlantic; ‘I RUN THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD’

"We asked the president if his second term felt different from his first. He said it did. “The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said. “And the second time, I run the country and the world.”"

Tyrants like Trump always fall – and we can already predict how he will be dethroned; The Guardian, April 27, 2025

Simon Tisdall , The Guardian; Tyrants like Trump always fall – and we can already predict how he will be dethroned

"Tyrants come to a sticky end, or so history suggests. Richard III and Coriolanus made bloody exits. More recently, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows, Slobodan Milosevic went to jail, Bashar al-Assad went into exile. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi was run to ground in a sewer. Tyranny, from the Greek túrannos (“absolute ruler”), is typically fuelled by hubris and leads ineluctably to nemesis. Tyrants are for toppling. Their downfall is a saving grace...

This fight has moral and ethical aspects, too – and, given this is the US, prayer is a powerful weapon in the hands of those who would slay evil-doers. Of the seven deadly sins – vainglory or pride, greed or covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth – Trump is comprehensively, mortally guilty. In Isaiah (13,11), the Lord gives fair warning: “I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.” God knows, maybe he’ll listen. Miracles do happen.

Of all the tools in the tyrant-toppling toolbox, none are so potentially decisive as those supplied by Trump’s own stupidity. Most people understand how worthless a surrender monkey “peace deal” is that rewards Putin and betrays Ukraine. Does Trump seriously believe his support for mass murder in Gaza, threats to attack Iran and reckless bombing of Yemenwill end the Middle East conflict and win him a Nobel peace prize?

By almost every measure, Trump’s chaotic global tariff war is hurting American consumers, damaging businesses and reducing US influence. It’s a boon to China and an attack on longtime allies and trading partners such as Britain. Trump’s big tech boosters know this to be so, as do many Republicans. But they dare not speak truth to power.

And then there’s his greed – the blatant, shameless money-grubbing that has already brought accusations of insider trading, oligarchic kleptocracy, and myriad conflicts of interest unpoliced by the 17 government oversight watchdogs Trump capriciously fired. His relatives and businesses are again pursuing foreign sweetheart deals. Corruption on this scale cannot pass unchallenged indefinitely. Avarice alone may be Trump’s undoing.

All this points to one conclusion: as a tyrant, let alone as president, Trump is actually pretty useless – and as his failures, frustrations and fantasies multiply, he will grow ever more dangerously unstable. Trump’s biggest enemy is Trump. Those who would save the US and themselves – at home and abroad – must employ all democratic means to contain, deter, defang and depose him. But right now, the best, brightest hope is that, drowning in hubris, Trump will destroy himself."

Donald Trump's Easter Message Sparks Backlash From Critics; Newsweek, April 20, 2025

 Mandy Taheri, Newsweek; Donald Trump's Easter Message Sparks Backlash From Critics

"President Donald Trump's Easter message, which focused less on the Christian holiday and more on attacking political rivals, including former President Joe Biden and judges, over immigration policy, has drawn backlash from criticson both sides of the aisle."

Russell T Davies: gay society in ‘greatest danger I’ve ever seen’ after Trump win; The Guardian, March 16, 2025

Hannah Al-Othman , The Guardian; Russell T Davies: gay society in ‘greatest danger I’ve ever seen’ after Trump win

"Russell T Davies has said gay society is in the “greatest danger I have ever seen”, since the election of Donald Trump as US president in November.

Speaking to the Guardian at the Gaydio Pride awards in Manchester on Friday, the Doctor Who screenwriter said the rise in hostility was not limited to the US but “is here [in the UK] now”.

“As a gay man, I feel like a wave of anger, and violence, and resentment is heading towards us on a vast scale,” he said.

“I’ve literally seen a difference in the way I’m spoken to as a gay man since that November election, and that’s a few months of weaponising hate speech, and the hate speech creeps into the real world.”

“I’m not being alarmist,” he added. “I’m 61 years old. I know gay society very, very well, and I think we’re in the greatest danger I have ever seen.”...

Davies also used his keynote speech at the awards ceremony, which rewards the efforts made to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the UK, to criticise Trump, and the president’s ally Elon Musk.

“I think times are darkening beyond all measure and beyond anything I have seen in my lifetime,” he told the audience, which included the singers Louise Redknapp and Katy B, and the Traitors contestants Leanne Quigley and Minah Shannon.

Davies said he had turned 18 and left home in 1981, adding: “And that is exactly the year that rumours and whispers of a strange new virus came along, which came to haunt our community and to test us in so many ways.”

“The joyous thing about this is that we fought back,” he said. The community “militarised, campaigned, marched and demanded the medicine”.

He added: “We demanded the science. We demanded the access.”...

But the peril the gay community now faced, he said, was even greater than that in the 1980s.

“The threat from America, it’s like something at The Lord of the Rings. It’s like an evil rising in the west, and it is evil,” Davies said.

“We’ve had bad prime ministers and we’ve had bad presidents before. What we’ve never had is a billionaire tech baron openly hating his trans daughter,” he added.

Musk, the de facto head of the “department of government efficiency”, bought the social networking site Twitter, which he renamed X. A study by the University of California, Berkeley found hate speech on the platform rose by 50% in the months after it was bought by the billionaire.

“We have never had this in the history of the world,” Davies said. “It is terrifying because he and the people like him are in control of the facts, they’re in control of information, they’re in control of what people think, and that is what we’re now facing.”

But Davies said the gay community would do “what we always do in times of peril, we gather at night”, and would once again come together, and fight against this latest wave of hostility and oppression.

“What we will do in Elon Musk’s world, that we’re heading towards, is what artists have always done,” he told the Guardian, “which is to meet in cellars, and plot, and sing, and compose, and paint, and make speeches, and march.”

“If we have to be those rebels in basements yet again,” he added, “which is when art thrives, then that’s what we’ll become.”"

Trump, an E.V. Naysayer, Gives Tesla and Musk a White House Exhibition; The New York Times, March 11, 2025

Tyler Pager, The New York Times; Trump, an E.V. Naysayer, Gives Tesla and Musk a White House Exhibition

[Kip Currier: Elon Musk and Donald Trump are on public record for having uproariously laughed like juvenile school boys when talking about firing workers in 2024.

In 2025, they've been similarly gleeful about their efforts to fire thousands of gainfully employed workers who are providing services to the American people and the world. 

Trump and Musk have been utterly indifferent to the economic needs of single workers and workers with spouses and children, many of whom have childcare costs, mortgages, and older parents to look after. Workers with spiraling groceries -- including eggs -- to pay for, student loans to pay back, and illnesses and medicines covered by healthcare, who are being summarily terminated from their jobs and losing that medical care (see here and here and here).

Losing their jobs is no laughing matter to these workers and their families.

Now, when Tesla sales are cratering (see here and here and here and here and here), Musk and Trump want you to buy Musk's cars, as this New York Times article reports today. A photographer at the White House-held Tesla endorsement/advertising event even captured a photo of the handwritten note Trump carried, which Business Insider said "read like a sales pitch"; some legal experts have suggested these actions violate the Hatch Act. 

Trump and Musk want you to forget how they're gutting government services that taxpayers depend on and destroying the lives of thousands of middle and lower class workers and persons in need.

The only thing that billionaires like this will notice is when the People stop buying their products.

That gets their attention.

That gets them upset and angry enough to falsely claim that boycotts are illegal.

That causes them (some degree of) pain. If nothing else, at least to their asset portfolios, net worths, and unchecked egos.

We the People have the power to say No to their 21st century Gilded Age.]

[Excerpt]

"President Trump hosted an exclusive car show at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.

The only company represented: Tesla. The only purpose: helping Elon Musk.

With Tesla facing a backlash over Mr. Musk’s role in the Trump administration, the president said he wanted to buy one of the company’s electric vehicles. But Mr. Trump, always a salesman, did not just want to purchase a car. He wanted to hawk it and help out his friend, who also happens to be Tesla’s chief executive."

Appeals court rejects Trump in showdown over firing of ethics watchdog; Politico, February 16, 2025

JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY, Politico ; Appeals court rejects Trump in showdown over firing of ethics watchdog

"A divided federal appeals court panel has again turned down President Donald Trump’s request to follow through with his effort to fire a federal official from a post overseeing enforcement of workplace protections for federal employees.

In an order released late Saturday night, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 2-1, not to disturb a temporary restraining order a lower court judge issued preventing Trump from moving forward with the removal of Office of Special Counsel chief Hampton Dellinger, an appointee of President Joe Biden."

What if Trump Does Everything He's Promised -- and the People Don't Care?; The New Republic, January/February 2025

Steven Levitsky/Daniel Ziblatt,  The New Republic; What if Trump Does Everything He's Promised -- and the People Don't Care?

"And here we go again. President-elect Donald Trump wasted little time in signaling to Americans, through his Cabinet nominations and White House appointments, that he plans to move quickly to act on his most extreme promises. What kind of United States will we have in a year, or in four? How will the country and its democratic institutions change? What are the chances he doesn’t succeed? And what if he does—and an apathetic, exhausted, and inward-looking populace shrugs? We could think of no one better to ask these questions than Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, the Harvard scholars who were co-authors of the 2018 bestseller How Democracies Die. They spoke with editor Michael Tomasky on November 25. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity...

Letvitsky: I have always looked back at periods of abuse like the internment of Japanese Americans and McCarthyism and wondered why so few people rose up against it at the time. Now I fear we may see something similar."

Trump fires Office of Government Ethics chief; The Hill, February 10, 2025

BRETT SAMUELS, The Hill; Trump fires Office of Government Ethics chief

"President Trump has fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the agency announced Monday.

The office posted on its website that it had been notified Trump was removing David Huitema, who had been nominated by former President Biden. He was confirmed last November by the Senate to a five-year term and officially started the job in December."

President Trump's Self-Described "Takeover" of the Center is an Attack on Creative Freedom; PEN America, February 8, 2025

PEN America; President Trump's Self-Described "Takeover" of the Center is an Attack on Creative Freedom

"In response to President Trump saying he is firing the Kennedy Center trustees and naming himself chair, Hadar Harris, PEN America’s Washington managing director, made the following comment:

“President Trump’s self-described “takeover” of the Kennedy Center is another salvo in his demonstrated attack on free expression. He is taking the unprecedented move of clearing out board members “who do not share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” Presidents should not be dictating a singular view of culture. The cultural sector must remain free from political control; that is fundamental to protecting creative freedom in a democracy.”

About PEN America

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org."

Trump says he will fire Kennedy Center board members, appoint himself chairman; The Washington Post, February 7, 2025

 

Travis M. Andrews

 and 

Ben Brasch, The Washington Post; Trump says he will fire Kennedy Center board members, appoint himself chairman

"President Donald Trump on Friday announced plans to overhaul the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, writing that he had decided to “immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees,” including chairman David M. Rubenstein, in a post on Truth Social. He added that he plans to install himself as the new chairman of the prominent arts institution.

He did not say which board members he plans to terminate. It is unclear whether the president has the power to make such changes.

“The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation,” Trump wrote. “For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”"

‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán; The Guardian, February 7, 2025

David Smith in Washington, The Guardian; ‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán

"pitiless crackdown on on illegal immigration. A hardline approach to law and order. A purge of “gender ideology” and “wokeness” from the nation’s schools. Erosions of academic freedom, judicial independence and the free press. An alliance with Christian nationalism. An assault on democratic institutions.

The “electoral autocracy” that is Viktor Orbán’s Hungary has been long revered by Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement. Now admiration is turning into emulation. In the early weeks of Trump’s second term as US president, analysts say, there are alarming signs that the Orbánisation of America has begun.

With the tech billionaire Elon Musk at his side, Trump has moved with astonishing velocity to fire critics, punish media, reward allies, gut the federal government, exploit presidential immunity and test the limits of his authority. Many of their actions have been unconstitutional and illegal. With Congress impotent, only the federal courts have slowed them down."