October 25, 2025

Everything Has Gotten Totally Out of Hand. BUT ~~~ 

~~~ Katie Rogers & Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald “Trump is heading to Asia on Friday evening at a moment of turmoil at home: He has deployed an aircraft carrier to Latin America, cut off trade talks with Canada, razed the East Wing of the White House, cheered on the closure of the federal government and sent the National Guard to several American cities. But for the next six days, Mr. Trump is putting down his sledgehammer and embarking on a diplomatic tour, testing his role as a statesman and negotiator as he pursues a trade deal with China to end a dispute that has harmed both economies.... Mr. Trump is scheduled to travel through Malaysia, Japan and South Korea before holding a bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping, the president of China, on Thursday just before heading home and greeting trick-or-treaters at the White House. It is unusual for a president to leave the country on a multination tour of the world during a government shutdown.” ~~~

     ~~~ Daniella Cheslow, et al., of Politico: “... Donald Trump takes off for Malaysia today on a three-country trip that carries big risks of falling short of his goals — including sweetening defense partnerships and gathering more peacemaker accolades. Most likely on his itinerary: presiding over a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand, pushing Japan to up defense spending and revisiting major trade deals with Tokyo and Seoul that have implications for naval shipbuilding. The biggest wildcard of course is Trump’s planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea. On the table will be China’s new restrictions on rare earths exports — which are set to complicate the lives of defense manufacturers. The White House says Trump will also address China’s purchases of Russian oil.”

U.S. Prepares to Embark on Another Latin American Misadventure. Charlie Savage & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford as well as its accompanying warships and attack planes to waters off Latin America, the Pentagon said on Friday, in a dramatic escalation of military might in the region.... Navy officials said on Friday that the Ford is currently steaming off the coast of Croatia on a monthslong European deployment and would take seven to 10 days, depending on speed and weather conditions, to reach its new assigned mission with U.S. Southern Command. Since late August, the U.S. military has deployed about 10,000 troops to the Caribbean, about half of them on eight warships and half in Puerto Rico, for what the administration says is a counterterrorism and counternarcotics mission. The Ford carries about 5,000 sailors and has more than 75 attack, surveillance and support aircraft, including F/A-18 fighters.”

Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: “The United States announced economic sanctions on Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, on Friday, following Mr. Petro’s criticism of the Trump administration’s military actions in the Caribbean. Washington also said it was sanctioning Mr. Petro’s wife, a son, and a longtime political ally who is now Colombia’s interior minister. Such sanctions are often reserved for people accused of major drug crimes and human rights violations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, yes, but we sanction leaders if they dare to criticize El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lardo for murdering their citizens. 

Greg Jaffe of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said that an anonymous private donor has given $130 million to the U.S. government to help pay troops during the government shutdown. It is not clear how far the donation would go toward covering the salaries of the more than 1.3 million troops who make up the active-duty military. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Trump administration’s 2025 budget requests about $600 billion in total military compensation. A $130 million donation would equal about $100 a service member. Mr. Trump, speaking at a White House event on Thursday night, declined to name the donor but described him as a 'patriot' and a personal friend. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement that the department had accepted the donation on Thursday under its 'general gift acceptance authority.'... The move to pay the troops with private donations is highly unusual and a potential violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money in excess of congressional appropriations or from accepting voluntary services.” ~~~

     ~~~ Leo Shane, et al., of Politico: “White House officials said that covering the cost of military pay for the first half of October totaled about $6.5 billion. Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said that based on that figure, the new donation will cover about one-third of one day’s pay for the force. He said certain accounts are available for public donations to federal military programs. But they are typically restricted to specific projects, such as building athletic facilities at military academies, and approved by Congress ahead of time.” ~~~

     ~~~ RAS wrote yesterday, "So, some rich asshole who couldn't be bothered to pay his fair share of taxes pulls out his pocket change of $130 million to pay for the troops? I guess this once again proves the point that the rich CAN afford to pay more to the country and people that made them so obscenely rich." ~~~

     ~~~ Don Moynihan wrote the essay below before Trump got his "personal friend" to kick in pay a portion of military salaries: ~~~ 

     ~~~ Trump's Army. Don Moynihan on Substack: "Trump says that he can determine if the armed forces get paid or not during a shutdown. This is an unprecedented threat to American democracy in two ways. First, Trump is dramatically escalating his Congressional power grab. He claims the right not just to impound funds Congress has appropriated, but also to spend funds for purposes Congress has not appropriated. Second, Trump is upending civil-military relations to encourage troops and other armed agents of the state view him as their personal patron.... It’s not just the military. Even as their civilian counterparts are not receiving a paycheck during the shutdown, FBI agents and parts of the Department of Homeland Security, such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol, Secret Service, and Air Marshals will get their paychecks on time.... Military loyalty, via payments, has been both a historical means of regime consolidation and occasional societal collapse." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ BUT. Linda Qiu & Tony Romm of the New York Times: “About 42 million low-income Americans are set to lose access to monthly nutrition assistance in November, after the Trump administration said on Friday that it would not reconfigure the budget to provide benefits during the government shutdown. The decision, described in an Agriculture Department memo, appeared to contradict earlier guidance from the agency that said it could tap into leftover emergency funds. The move raised the risk of some of the nation’s poorest families being unable to buy food in a matter of days. Dozens of states have warned that they cannot provide benefits next month, and at least two have already paused delivering them, prompting a surge of demand at food banks and eliciting anxiety among recipients.... 

“The administration’s argument that it was unable to use SNAP’s contingency funding for November benefits prompted skepticism from legal experts.... Because SNAP is an entitlement program, [Bobby] Kogan [of the Center for American Progress said], it is considered mandatory spending, meaning the department 'must use the pot of money.' David A. Super, a law professor at Georgetown University..., called the memo’s rationale 'absurd,' and said 'nothing in the law imposes that limit' of using contingency funding only for natural disasters.” The Axios story, which broke the news, is here. MB: Yes, but SNAP is a "Democrat program," so the kids will just have to do without -- food. ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Berger of the Guardian: “While Republicans have sought to blame Democrats for the potential loss in benefits that people who make little money rely on, those who work in the food-insecurity space say that is misleading because Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act already eliminated almost $187bn in funding for Snap through 2024, according to a congressional budget office estimate. Should funding run out at the end of the month, 'we will have the greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression, and I don’t say that as hyperbole', said Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.” (And what is Trump doing? Why, he's off to various parts of Asia to try to fix the trade mess he created.) ~~~

~~~ April Rubin of Axios: "About 658,000 civilian employees at the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs missed their first full paycheck on Friday, marking the latest grim milestone of the government shutdown that has no end in sight.... The Executive Office of the President and a few other agencies' civilian employees also missed Friday paychecks, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center report....  On Tuesday, about 686,000 civilian employees at most other agencies will miss an entire paycheck. On Thursday, 37,000 employees at the Departments of State and Education will miss entire checks." ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump is trying to make the impasse between the parties about the shutdown, but that obscures the actual fight at hand. What is at stake is the theory behind the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act: the destruction of the modern American government that was put in place in the 1930s by Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and expanded from then until 1981 under both Democratic and Republican presidents. Today’s fight is about the cuts made by billionaire Elon Musk as head of the 'Department of Government Efficiency,' and cuts made after Musk left the administration by Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought. Republicans have embraced the destruction of the modern government, slashing SNAP benefits, Medicaid, cancer research, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and so on. The Democrats are defending the government that has been in place since the 1930s, focused on leveling the playing field between the very wealthy and ordinary Americans.”

This Washington Post story shows how Trump's ballroom will dwarf the White House. ~~~

 ~~~ Of Course He Will. Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump will likely name his new $300 million White House ballroom after himself, according to senior administration officials. Already, officials are referring to it as 'The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom.' That name will likely stick, ABC News was told." ~~~

~~~ Of Course He Is. Peter Nicholas, et al., of NBC News: “... Donald Trump is accepting anonymous donations for the grand ballroom he is currently having built at the White House, an aide told NBC News on Friday. While the Trump administration has released a list of donors for the project..., the aide said that some may contribute anonymously.... The White House would not commit to publicly releasing the amount of money each donor gives to the project, with the aide saying similarly that the administration 'will honor the wishes of the donors of what they want publicly shared.'” MB: Naturally, the White House spokesperson discussing the anonymous donors & the anonymous amounts of money donated spoke ... anonymously. Karoline Leavitt frequently says Trump's is the most transparent administration in history.

~~~ Peter Charalambous, et al., of ABC News: "When speaking about the ballroom project earlier this month, Trump marveled at what he said was the lack of an approval process, compared to his experience constructing buildings in New York. 'I said, "How long will it take me?" "Sir*, you can start tonight, you have no approvals." I said, "You gotta be kidding,'" Trump said. 'They said, "Sir*, this is the White House, you're the President of the United States, you can do anything you want."'" ~~~

     * Connotes fake conversation. ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman: "In true Trumpian style, this act of vandalism is being paid for by large corporate donors — mostly tech and crypto companies — seeking to buy Trump’s favor.... But let me digress momentarily from the norm-breaking, the outrageous sense of entitlement, and the implicit corruption to talk about Trump’s execrable taste, as shown by the renderings of the inside of the ballroom. Yes, taste..., because tackiness and tyranny go hand in hand.... The excess and ugliness [of the White House renovations] serve a political purpose: to humiliate and intimidate. The tawdry grandiosity serves not only to glorify Trump’s fragile ego, but also to send the message that resistance is futile.... The ballroom is a sign, not just of Trump’s personal vulgarity, but of the collapse of small-r republican norms.  Trump is turning the people’s house into a palace fit for a despot partly because that’s his taste, but also to show everyone that he can. L’etat, c’est moi." This is quite a fun read, especially where Krugman cites Peter York. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Peter York's March/April 2017 article in Politico Magazine titled, "Trump's Dictator Chic."

It was never thought of as being much. It was a very small building. -- Donald Trump, assessing the East Wing, Wednesday ~~~

~~~ Reggie Ugwu of the New York Times: “For decades, the White House’s 42-seat movie theater was a refuge for the commander in chief. Bill Clinton called it 'the best perk' of the presidency, surpassing Air Force One and Camp David.... Now it is gone, demolished this week along with the rest of the East Wing as part of ... [Donald] Trump’s efforts to construct a $300 million ballroom.... A White House spokesperson said on Friday that the movie theater would be modernized and renovated with the rest of the East Wing.” ~~~

~~~ Another victim of Trump's wrecking ball: the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. Many people found it -- with its seasonal display of flowering borders -- more beautiful than the Rose Garden. This garden "balanced" the Rose Garden that abutted the West Wing (before it became a the "Rose Garden Club," a Mar-a-Lardo patio. When members of the public visited the White House, they would see the Jacqueline Kennedy garden as they walked along the now-demolished East Colonnade. : ~~~

     ~~~ That bench in the photo? It dates to 1850. It's probably part of the landfill now. Jackie Kennedy purchased this sculpture of "The Little Gardner" by Sylvia Shaw Judson, and it eventually was placed overlooking a small pond in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. I wonder if it was destroyed, too: ~~~

~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: “... the destruction of the East Wing ... [has] struck ... a chord in Washington and beyond. First is the permanence of the act — once torn down, it is hard to imagine that the East Wing will ever be re-created.... But perhaps more important, and more telling, is how Mr. Trump went about it: the initial claim that his new ballroom would not be 'touching' the White House, and the absence of notice when that changed. Then, the elaborate descriptions by White House officials of the legal loopholes that made it perfectly fine to destroy a wing of the people’s house without consultation.... From the first day of his second term, Mr. Trump has taken an ends-justify-the-means attitude toward his presidency. Consultation and legal approvals are for losers. Winning the election, he has argued, is a license to kill — or to bulldoze. In recent weeks, though, that approach has become more brazen, proving the Washington adage that the most outrageous things that happen in the city take place in plain sight.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Speaking of Ronald Reagan, as we're about to, my father and some of his Sierra Club friends once stopped Reagan from mining a designated national wilderness area when they lay down in front of the buzzdozers. Too bad no protesters tried that in Washington, D.C., this week. Of course, they could still prevent the construction of the Oligarchs' Dance Club.... 

Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: “Captain Canada is back. Premier Doug Ford of Ontario, a populist conservative who has earned the moniker for headline-grabbing moves that get under ... [Donald] Trump’s skin, pulled off another dramatic moment with an anti-tariff ad that used 1987 audio of Ronald Reagan denouncing tariffs as destructive. Mr. Trump ... claimed the ad, which was paid for by the province of Ontario and has been broadcast since last week in the United States, was 'fraudulent' and announced he was 'terminating' trade talks with Canada. The audio used in the ad was authentic and minor edits to the five-minute original Reagan radio address to fit the one-minute Ontario commercial did not alter the substance.... 

“On Friday morning, undeterred by Mr. Trump’s wrath, Mr. Ford doubled down: he posted the entire Reagan address, seemingly to push back against any claims that the ad had been fraudulent.... But by Friday afternoon, Mr. Ford had changed his tune after speaking with Canada’s leader, Prime Minister Mark Carney. Mr. Ford said in a statement that the ad would run during the first two games of the World Series on Friday and Saturday and then would be pulled on Monday 'so that trade talks can resume.'”

Lynsey Chutel & Ana Swanson debunk Donald Trump's claim that an ad produced by the Province of Ontario is fake. The ad extensively employs soundbites from one of President Reagan's weekly addresses, in which he warns of the dangers of tariffs. Trump has used the ad as an excuse to stop negotiating tariff rates with Canada. Related story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Here's the ad. It's pretty damned good: ~~~ 

Here It Comes. Shawn Hubler & Laura Rosenhall of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said on Friday that the Justice Department will monitor polling sites in California and New Jersey ahead of the Nov. 4 election, amid requests by Republican Party officials in those states. Although election monitoring by the Justice Department is not uncommon, it will likely heighten tensions as voters weigh in on some of the nation’s most closely watched races.... [Donald] Trump has pushed the Justice Department to pursue parts of his agenda, including going after his political enemies, which has eroded its traditional independence. Mr. Trump also blamed his 2020 election loss on rigged voting, although there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare, but Mr. Trump and other Republicans have since claimed it is rampant, particularly voting by mail, which is how most Californians vote. Democrats have called the argument a ruse for voter suppression. 'This administration has made no secret of its goal to undermine free and fair elections,' Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, said in a statement. 'Deploying these federal forces appears to be an intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote.'” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐Matt Cohen of Democracy Docket: "The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that it will send election monitors to polling sites in California and New Jersey — a move that Democrats and democracy advocates warned may be a potential step toward the Trump administration seizing control of voting. The administration’s consistent use of DOJ to advance ... Donald Trump’s political and personal interests, along with the locations chosen by DOJ, are raising serious concerns that the move aims to advance Trump’s bid to increase his power over elections.  Already in recent months, voting rights advocates and leading Democrats have warned that the administration is laying the groundwork to deploy troops or law enforcement to the polls in key cities next year and in 2028. Friday’s announcement has intensified those fears." Do read on. ~~~

~~~ In case you still think Trump is building the Winter Palace on the Potomac so future presidents will have a place to waltz the night away, well, hahahahaha ~~~ 

     ~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “Stephen K. Bannon, the pro-Trump podcaster and convicted fraudster who briefly served as ... [Donald] Trump’s White House chief strategist in his first term, publicly threw his support behind the president’s talk of seeking a third term, in defiance of a constitutionally mandated two-term limit. In an interview with The Economist, Mr. Bannon vaguely asserted that there was 'a plan' to circumvent the 22nd Amendment, which states that 'no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice,' regardless of whether the terms are consecutive. He also suggested that he was part of a team developing that plan. 'Trump is going to be president in ’28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,' he said. 'At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is,' said Mr. Bannon, without elaborating. 'But there is a plan.' He added that Mr. Trump was an 'instrument of divine will,' echoing, as Mr. Trump himself has, the language of the divine right of kings.” 

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: “A small company that has been manufacturing motors domestically for only a few weeks and has Donald Trump Jr. as an adviser won a parts order from the Army.... [Junior] is positioned to profit considerably if this ambitious but unproven venture succeeds.... Unusual Machines gave Donald Trump Jr. 200,000 shares of its stock late last year in return for his help as an adviser. The shares are now worth about $2.6 million.... The company’s customers, on a website that sells parts under the brand name Rotor Riot, have complained about the quality of some of its devices.... Don Jr.., through ... defense contractors ... he has invested in, has become part of the famed Beltway military-industrial complex, even as his father is setting policy priorities that are likely to benefit the companies he has invested in. In a recent podcast, Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged that as he helped screen potential candidates for Pentagon positions, he pushed to find someone open to investing more money in drones.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Naturally, I expect Republicans in Congress to investigation this nepotistic opportunism as rigorously as they did Hunter Biden's.    

Salvador Rizzo, et al., of the Washington Post: “New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty Friday to allegations of mortgage fraud brought by the Justice Department amid ... Donald Trump’s push to prosecute those who have investigated him. James, the highest-ranking Democrat to be indicted as part of Trump’s effort, entered her plea during a brief arraignment hearing in Norfolk federal court. U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, set a trial date of Jan. 26. 'We want the speediest trial we can get,' said James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.” (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News story is here.

Steve Benen of MSNBC: So now AG Pam Bondi is "investigating" Rep. Nancy Pelosi because before Trump called off the ICE dogs bound for San Francisco (which Pelosi represents), she suggested to a New York Times reporter "that local police could arrest federal agents if they break California law while conducting immigration raids that were expected this week in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We are going to see more and more absurd "investigations" and prosecutions. Because that's what fascists do. In yesterday's Comments, RAS pointed to this Intercept story about the prosecution of a former policeman & deputy sheriff for posting an innocuous remark in which he linked Trump's dismissal of a mass school shooting -- “We have to get over it,” Trump said -- to the murder of Charlie Kirk. The "offender" was charged with threatening mass violence at a school & has been in jail on a $2MM bond ever since his arrest. This is the government's way of getting millions of people to be afraid to say anything that could be wildly misinterpreted as anti-administration or anti-Trump. 

Natasha Korecki & Shaquille Brewster of NBC News: “U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino is under intensifying scrutiny in Chicago after he was recorded on Thursday throwing what appeared to be a tear gas canister at protesters, leading attorneys to accuse him of violating a temporary restraining order that bans the use of tear gas, pepper spray and other tactics against journalists and protesters unless under imminent threat. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Bovino was struck in the head by a rock thrown by 'hostile and violent' protesters, though several witnesses challenged that contention. On Friday, Bovino was ordered to appear before a federal judge on Tuesday. 'The Court orders Defendants to produce Defendant Gregory Bovino, in person, for this hearing, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis stated in a written order.”

Meagan Flynn & Jenny Gathright of the Washington Post: “A federal judge could determine the fate of the 2,500 National Guard members stationed in the nation’s capital after hearing arguments in court Friday from D.C., which is seeking an immediate halt to the deployment, and the Trump administration, which contends the troops are necessary to maintain public safety. The case could answer unsettled legal questions about the extent to which ... Donald Trump can use the National Guard to execute his agenda in the city — powers that D.C. argues must have guardrails. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed the lawsuit in September, seeking a full withdrawal of the Guard troops, including hundreds from out of state.” 

Soumya Karlamangla of the New York Times: “Coast Guard police shot two people on Thursday night outside a base in Alameda, Calif., where protests against a planned federal immigration raid had drawn more than 200 people earlier in the day. Around 10 p.m. on Thursday, Coast Guard security spotted a U-Haul truck driver operating the vehicle erratically and trying to ram into the base, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. The driver ignored multiple commands from officers and began to drive in reverse directly toward them at a high speed, the department said. Coast Guard security personnel then fired several rounds at the truck. The driver was shot in the stomach, and a bystander was struck by a bullet fragment, according to D.H.S. Both have been released from the hospital and are expected to survive.... No Coast Guard personnel were injured.”

Who Was That Masked Man? Bora Erden of the New York Times distinguishes among the various federal forces purporting to enforce immigration laws. With pictures of their outfits. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Prices that people pay for a variety of goods and services rose less than expected in September, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday that keeps the door wide open for another interest rate cut next week. The consumer price index showed a 0.3% increase on the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%." (Also linked yesterday.)

Shannon Osaka of the Washington Post: “Over the past few months, Americans have looked aghast at their rising electricity bills ... and found one clear scapegoat: data centers. As these energy-sucking operations proliferate, the thinking goes, they require more and more electricity, pushing prices up for everyone from big companies to small households.... But a new study from researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the consulting group Brattle suggests that, counterintuitively, more electricity demand can actually lower prices.... Instead, they found that the biggest factors behind rising rates were the cost of poles, wires and other electrical equipment — as well as the cost of safeguarding that infrastructure against future disasters.... In the past two decades, transmission costs nearly tripled; distribution costs more than doubled.” MB: The factors affecting electricity costs are more complicated than I've fit into this synopsis, so if you can read the article in full, you'll get a fuller picture.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

New York City Mayoral Race. That Took A While. Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said in a statement Friday that he is endorsing Zohran Mamdani, four months after the 34-year-old democratic socialist clinched the Democratic nomination for New York mayor. 'As with any Mayor, there will be areas of agreement and areas of principled disagreement,' Jeffries said, but added, 'I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election.' He cited Mamdani’s commitment to lowering the cost of living and representing 'all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy' as the reason behind his endorsement.... Conversations between Jeffries and Mamdani since June helped pave the way for the endorsement....” ~~~

     ~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Jeffrey Mays of the New York Times: “The endorsement by Mr. Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, is more meaningful than most. A national party leader, he is also one of the city’s most prominent Black politicians and has been a sharp critic of the Democratic Socialists of America, which counts Mr. Mamdani as a member.... The endorsement came in written form just a day before early voting is set to begin.... Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, and Kirsten Gillibrand — have not made endorsements in the mayor’s race and appear unlikely to.”