Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for ‘improper ideology’; Associated Press via The Guardian, March 27, 2025

Associated Press via The Guardian; Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for ‘improper ideology’

[Kip Currier: This Trump executive order is deeply disconcerting but not at all surprising: weeks ago, it was clear Trump 2.0 will target and attempt to reshape -- in its ideological image -- any institution that provides access to information, data, and the historical record, i.e. libraries, archives, and museums.]

[Excerpt]

"Donald Trump revealed his intentions to reshape the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order on Thursday that targets funding to programs with “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology”.

The president said there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite US history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth”.

He signed an executive order putting JD Vance in charge of an effort to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo.

Trump’s order specifically names the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Women’s history museum, which is in development.

“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn – not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” the order said."

How criticism of Zelensky's clothing made it to the Oval Office; BBC, March 1, 2025

Mike Wendling, BBC; How criticism of Zelensky's clothing made it to the Oval Office

"When the meeting was opened up to questions from reporters, one came from Brian Glenn, chief White House correspondent for conservative cable network Real America's Voice.

"Why don't you wear a suit?" Glenn asked. "You're at the highest level in this country's office, and you refuse to wear a suit.

"Do you own a suit?" he continued. "A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office."

The aggressive questioning marked the moment when the Ukrainian president – who until then seemed to be having a diplomatic, even friendly, conversation with Trump – first appeared tired and irritated.

"I will wear costume after this war will finish," Zelensky replied. (The word "suit" can be translated into Ukrainian as "kostyum".)"

The weekend the "Free World" died; The Ink, March 2, 2025

ANAND GIRIDHARADAS, The Ink; ESSAY: The weekend the "Free World" died

In the Oval Office fiasco, a country revealed

"Early in the afternoon on Friday, the president and the vice president of the United States delivered a contemptuous scolding to the wartime leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. The country of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” and “We choose to go to the moon” and “rendezvous with destiny” had become the country of “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.” It was a shocking, abusive scene, unlike any foreign policy chroniclers could recall. By Sunday, the British prime minister had declared that “we are at a crossroads in history,” and European countries were talking about a coalition of the willing to defend Ukraine. It was the weekend the notion of the “free world” died...

Toward the end of the meeting, Trump commented that the awful scene he had participated in would make great television. Here was the triumph of the spirit of attention-seeking at any cost, the spirit in which there are no values worth defending if they do not carry the possibility of making people watch you. Everyone is an influencer now; everyone covets followers more than friends. Trump trash-talked an erstwhile American ally because he knew it would do numbers with his followers.

In recent weeks, I have wondered why the leaders of other countries have not been brave in calling out the situation in the United States, in naming this fascist threat from within. The obvious answer is American power and leverage. It can be expensive to speak truth to superpower, as Zelensky will surely be learning in coming days.

But after the meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday, I began to wonder if another reason is involved. Maybe those leaders, like much of the world, do not look at America right now and see a country being hijacked by this dangerous leader. Maybe much of the world looks at a country that, in its bones, has fundamentally changed. Has lost that other spirit. Lost the sunniness, the hopefulness, the decency, the will to sacrifice, the idealism, the confidence, the hope.

What will stop Trump? everyone is asking all day long. Maybe an actual and effective form of resistance will involve more than the thwarting of a leader. It will be a cultural project up and down American life. To resist the meanness and smallness and cruelty and cynicism and solipsism. To insist, by showing, that what he is is not who we are."

It Was an Ambush: Today marked one of the grimmest days in the history of American diplomacy.; The Atlantic, February 28, 2025

 Tom Nichols, The Atlantic; It Was an Ambush

Today marked one of the grimmest days in the history of American diplomacy.

"Vance’s presence at the White House also suggests that the meeting was a setup. Vance is usually an invisible backbencher in this administration, with few duties other than some occasional trolling of Trump’s critics. (The actual business of furthering Trump’s policies is apparently now Elon Musk’s job.) This time, however, he was brought in to troll not other Americans, but a foreign leader. Marco Rubio—in theory, America’s top diplomat—was also there, but he sat glumly and silently while Vance pontificated like an obnoxious graduate student.

Zelensky objected, as he should have, when the vice president castigated the Ukrainian president for not showing enough personal gratitude to Trump. And then in a moment of immense hypocrisy, Vance told Zelensky that it was “disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.” But baiting Zelensky into fighting in front of the media was likely the plan all along, and Trump and Vance were soon both yelling at Zelensky. (“This is going to be great television,” Trump said during the meeting.) The president at times sounded like a Mafia boss—“You don’t have the cards”; “you’re buried there”—but in the end, he sounded like no one so much as Putin himself as he hollered about “gambling with World War III,” as if starting the biggest war in Europe in nearly a century was Zelensky’s idea...

Trump might as well have dictated this post on Truth Social before the meeting, because Zelensky didn’t stand a chance of having an actual discussion at the White House. When he showed Trump pictures of brutalized Ukrainian soldiers, Trump shrugged. “That’s tough stuff,” he muttered. Perhaps someone told Zelensky that Trump doesn’t read much, and reacts to images, but Trump, uncharacteristically, seems to have been determined to stay on message and pick a fight...

The sheer rudeness shown to a foreign guest and friend of the United States was (to use a word) deplorable as a matter of manners and grace, but worse, Trump and Vance acted like a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets instead of American leaders. They pushed talking points that they either knew or should have known were wrong. Even if Zelensky were as fluent and capable in English as Winston Churchill, he would never have been able to rebut the flood of falsehoods."

World leaders back Zelenskyy following Trump, Vance Oval Office spat; Fox News, February 28, 2025

Caitlin McFall, Fox News; World leaders back Zelenskyy following Trump, Vance Oval Office spat

"European leaders came out with sweeping support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following the explosive Oval Office meeting in which President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave harsh reprimands and accused him of being "disrespectful."

Several leaders took to social media to back Ukraine and to remind Washington that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the Russia-Ukraine conflict's "aggressor," not Zelenskyy."

Trump Thinks He Humiliated Zelensky. He Really Humiliated the United States; The Daily Beast, March 1, 2025

David Rothkopf, The Daily Beast; Trump Thinks He Humiliated Zelensky. He Really Humiliated the United States

"The Trump-Putin Axis came fully out of the closet today. 

The new U.S. administration has clearly embraced what might be called a “mob boss” foreign policy—because of the criminal pasts of the men who are leading it and because of the tactics they appear to favor.

In an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump and his dangerously ill-informed yes-man, JD Vance, the U.S. president pressed for a deal to squeeze mineral assets out of Ukraine in exchange for some ill-defined level of continued support for that country that could only be described as extortionate...

It was an ugly display of foreign policy crudeness, the likes of which we have never seen in the White House. It is tempting to call it inept. But it was not. It achieved precisely the goal that Putin and Trump had long sought, to produce a public break between the United States and Ukraine that would directly and meaningfully support Russia’s illegal, brutal conquest of its neighbor.

Trump and Vance, however, were rebuffed by Zelensky in important ways. When the Americans sought to perpetuate lies that have been a staple of Kremlin propaganda and Trump campaign speeches, Zelensky stood up to them. He refuted the idea that Ukraine provoked Russia’s invasion.

Trump has made it clear that he would stop U.S. support for Ukraine and that he was sympathetic to Putin, a man who has sought both to deny Ukraine’s right to exist and to wipe the country from the map.

Unsurprisingly, Zelensky was not cowed by the two-bit goons who confronted him...

It is surely one of the darkest days in the history of American foreign policy...

But for all the embarrassment we feel at our president, we should not lose sight of the hugely embarrassing and damaging performance of JD Vance. Vance, like Trump, had virtually every fact wrong. Furthermore, he was completely out of line addressing a foreign head of state as he did, especially one who is one of the genuinely great heroes of our era and who has been fighting courageously not just on behalf of his own people, but in defense of the ideals and interests of the U.S. and our long-time European allies."

Ohio’s J.D. Vance rebuked by the Pope, denounced by NATO allies, ridiculed for bizarre rant; Ohio Capital Journal, February 25, 2025

Marilou Johanek, Ohio Capital Journal ; Ohio’s J.D. Vance rebuked by the Pope, denounced by NATO allies, ridiculed for bizarre rant

"For a supposed Ivy League intellectual, Vance sure spouts stupidity on the regular: Honestly, you’ve got to be really off base on Catholic theology for the Vatican to correct your twisted take on love with descending priorities as justification for mass deportations. In Vance’s godawful reading of the Christian order of love concept; (to mesh with his political ideology) family, community, and country come first and everyone outside that concentric circle later or not so much. Which puts migrant families outermost from Vance’s construct on brotherly love for me but not thee from outside our borders. 

Francis rejected the VP’s sophomoric theoretical defense of cruel immigration crackdowns as flatly wrong. He urged the misguided millennial to meditate on the parable of the Good Samaritan, “on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” But “American citizens first” nativist Vance has no interest in building a “fraternity open to all,” just an all-white patriarchy focused on baby-making. To that point, he started a holy war (barely a week after inauguration) against charitable organizations across the country that feed, clothe and house refugees and immigrants (i.e., Catholic Charities and Catholic relief groups) by implying they perform their labor of love for federal money — not humanitarian concerns. 

“Devout Catholic” convert Vance went all glib and combative on compassion and care for the “least of these” because they included Brown and Black mothers and fathers and children fleeing horrendous homelands for hope. But upholding the dignity of every human being (native-born or not) as a core tenet of Christianity clashes with the core MAGA mission to degrade, shackle and ship terrified families back to the foreign hellscapes they fled. Vance threw nasty and mean into the mix to look tough on dehumanized “illegals” and scorn mercy. He is a dutiful, if not decent, Trump toady. 

But the swift rebuttals to Vance’s hollow broadsides from the Church and the pope himself only reinforced the veep’s smallness as a smug sycophant slinging ugly. Whatever reputation Vance may have enjoyed in the past as a thoughtful individual with at least a modicum of integrity is long gone. With a brief stint as a venture capitalist, an even briefer stint as Ohio senator and now VP, Vance is heady with power and hubris over his meteoric rise from bending the knee to a man he once derided as “America’s Hitler.” Then Vance went to the Munich Security Conference recently, not to collaborate with NATO allies on mutual security interests and Ukraine, but to turn on them."

Trump Team Fears Damage From Racist Rally Remarks; The New York Times, October 28, 2024

Maggie HabermanJonathan Swan and Michael Gold, The New York Times; Trump Team Fears Damage From Racist Rally Remarks

"Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, dismissed any concerns. “Maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke, as you said,” he told reporters on Monday. “Maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it.” But, he added, “we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”

Trump wages campaign against real-time fact checks; The Washington Post, October 14, 2024

Ashley Parker

 and 

Josh Dawsey

, The Washington Post; Trump wages campaign against real-time fact checks

"Donald Trump and his campaign have waged an aggressive campaign against fact-checking in recent months, pushing TV networks, journalism organizations and others to abandon the practice if they hope to interact with Trump...

The moves are the latest example of Trump’s long-held resistance to being called to account for his falsehoods, which have formed the bedrock of his political message for years. Just in recent weeks, for example, Trump has seized on fabricated tales of migrants eating pets and Venezuelan gangs overtaking cities in pushing his anti-immigration message as he seeks a second term in office.

Lucas Graves, a journalism and mass communications professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said that publicly chafing at fact-checking has become a form of tribalism among some Republicans.

“Within the political establishment on the right, it is now considered quite legitimate — and quite legitimate to say publicly and openly — that you disapprove of fact-checking,” said Lucas, author of “Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism."

USA: Republican VP candidate J.D. Vance’s fake stories create real risks for journalists; Reporters Without Borders, October 1, 2024

Reporters Without Borders (RSF); USA: Republican VP candidate J.D. Vance’s fake stories create real risks for journalists

"A viral hoax spread by Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance has led to an outburst of violent threats against Haitian immigrants, including journalists from The Haitian Times. After covering the story, the media outlet itself became a target, highlighting the real-world dangers that political disinformation can create for journalists and journalism.

An online news outlet serving the Haitian American community, The Haitian Times, has received anonymous threats and editor Macollvie Neel’s home was “swatted” when police showed up to her residence in response to a false report of a crime. These incidents took place a few days after Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance circulated a widely debunked claim from Facebook alleging that Haitian migrants resettled in the town of Springfield, Ohio were stealing and eating local residents’ pets. 

In the weeks since Vance elevated this fake story, Springfield has been subjected to dozens of bomb threats and city leaders have been flooded with threatening hate mail. Racist and xenophobic displays have left Haitian residents feeling unsafe, including journalists from The Haitian Times, who were forced to cancel a scheduled town hall event.

Instead of retracting this claim, Vance has defended it and asserted that he is willing to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention.” ...

Combating misinformation: a key issue in the election campaign

RSF recently published its 10-Point Plan for U.S. Press Freedom in which it urges the presidential campaigns to treat the members of the press with respect and “publicly reaffirm the right and necessity of journalists to do their jobs safely.” RSF has previously highlighted the global problem of increased political attacks on the media. Of the five indicators that RSF measures on its World Press Freedom Index, where this year the U.S. dropped to a ranking of 55th out 180 countries, the political indicator saw the sharpest decline in 2024."

Trump, Outrage and the Modern Era of Political Violence; The New York Times, September 16, 2024

 Peter Baker, The New York Times; Trump, Outrage and the Modern Era of Political Violence

"Mr. Trump, who as recently as last week’s debate with Ms. Harris blamed Democrats for the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pa., that struck his ear in July, attributed Sunday’s attempt to the president and vice president as well, arguing that the arrested suspect was acting in response to their political attacks.

“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Mr. Trump told Fox News on Monday. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”

Even as he complained that the Democrats had made him a target by calling him a threat to democracy, he repeated his own assertion that “these are people that want to destroy our country” and called them “the enemy from within” — certainly language no less provocative than that used about him.

Indeed, within hours, his campaign emailed a list of quotes from Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris and other Democrats attacking Mr. Trump with phrases like “a threat to our democracy” and a “threat to this nation,” without noting that just last week during the debate the former president said “they’re the threat to democracy.”

One of Mr. Trump’s most prominent and vocal supporters went so far as to question why Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have not been targeted for murder. “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Elon Musk, the billionaire social media owner, wrote online.

Mr. Musk later deleted the post and called it a joke, but the White House pushed back. “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman. “This rhetoric is irresponsible.”"

How Vance and Trump’s Lies About Springfield, Ohio, Migrants Continue to Unravel; Intelligencer, New York Magazine;, September 16, 2024

Chas Danner, Intelligencer, New York Magazine; How Vance and Trump’s Lies About Springfield, Ohio, Migrants Continue to Unravel

"What about J.D. Vance and Trump’s purported evidence?

Vance continues to be a leading proponent of numerous incendiary claims about the Haitian migrant community in Springfield. He has promoted the pet-eating rumors, even as they were debunked by state and local officials and media organizations, and over the past week he has added his own fuel to the fire — citing purported firsthand reports his office has received from constituents that support the allegations. When pressed to put forward actual evidence, however, he has not. And during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday morning, he seemed to admit that he and Trump were creating stories for media attention:"

Grieving Ohio Father Tells Trump and Vance to Stop Talking About His Son; The New York Times, September 11, 2024

Miriam Jordan, The New York Times; Grieving Ohio Father Tells Trump and Vance to Stop Talking About His Son

"Since then, Mr. Vance has been highlighting the influx of Haitians to Springfield as a detrimental consequence of the Biden administration’s border policies. The immigrants are in the country legally with authorization to work, and they have moved to the Springfield area to fill jobs in manufacturing and other industries.

This week, Mr. Vance doubled down, repeating scurrilous claims that people “who shouldn’t be in this country” were abducting and eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield. Mr. Trump’s campaign amplified the baseless rumors, even after authorities debunked them...

On Tuesday night, Mr. Clark, a teacher, cited four politicians whom he described as “morally bankrupt” for using Aiden to advance their interests — Mr. Trump; Mr. Vance; Bernie Moreno, the Ohio Republican nominee for the Senate; and Representative Chip Roy, a Republican of Texas.

“They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain,” he said from the podium.

“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims that fluffy cats are being ravaged and eaten by community members,” Mr. Clark said.

“They are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio,” he continued.

“I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”...

Mr. Clark said that Aiden studied different cultures and accepted everyone. As his parent, he was committed to honoring his son’s memory in that spirit, he said."

‘They’re Eating the Cats’: Trump Repeats False Claim About Immigrants; The New York Times, September 10, 2024

 Jazmine Ulloa, The New York Times; ‘They’re Eating the Cats’: Trump Repeats False Claim About Immigrants

"Former President Donald J. Trump repeated a false and outlandish claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have abducted and eaten their neighbors’ pets.

Mr. Trump made the comments on Tuesday early in his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, shortly after Ms. Harris mocked his rallies as so filled with fictions and fringe theories that attendees leave early. Mr. Trump responded by trying to pivot back to the subject under discussion, immigration.

“A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it,” he said. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Mr. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have amplified the internet rumor on the campaign trail this week. It stems from viral social media posts that have spread as Mr. Vance and others have sought to stir fears about the growing Haitian population in Springfield, though members of the community are living and working in the United States legally."

‘Dangerous and un-American’: new recording of JD Vance’s dark vision of women and immigration; The Guardian, August 31, 2024

 Jason Wilson, The Guardian; ‘Dangerous and un-American’: new recording of JD Vance’s dark vision of women and immigration

"Vance also talked about institutions like universities and the media as components of a “broken elite system”, and portrayed their inhabitants as enemies whom conservatives would need to reckon with.

“There is no way for a conservative to accomplish our vision of society unless we’re willing to strike at the heart of the beast. That’s the universities.”"