Trump's DC prosecutor now seems doomed — and it couldn't happen to a nicer fellow
But there's really no need to feel sad for them. Blackwell and Viguerie are still around and now peddling Trumpism, as did Schlafly before she died in 2016. And we know that later Reagan revolutionaries like Ralph Reed and Roger Stone have been all-in on Donald Trump from the beginning. Still, they deserve more credit than they're getting for the ghastly state of American conservatism and the toxic politics we are living in today. Without them there would be no Trump.
Trump's 2016 presidential campaign was a ramshackle affair with only a few advisers. Stone had been friends with him for years and had advised Trump on his aborted Reform Party campaign back in 2000. He was Trump's window into the right-wing movement that he was going to need to leverage if he wanted to win. Since Trump was more a CNN guy than a Fox News guy in those days, he needed some schooling. Stone did that for him, along with a fellow named Sam Nunberg who provided Trump with right-wing radio talking points in the early days. He quickly picked up important jargon that signaled his membership in the looney-tunes tribe. (Remember his blathering about military deserter Bowe Bergdahl and "common core" during that campaign? Those obscure topics came right out of right-wing talk radio.)
There was a considerable battle during that campaign between more traditional conservative movement types who wanted someone like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and grassroots voters dazzled by Trump's star power. Ultimately, the trad-cons couldn't compete. While a few of them peeled off into Never-Trump land, for the most part the whole movement morphed into MAGA without a second thought. Those operatives who had previously followed the tutelage of O.G. conservatives flipped immediately, and put their training to work for the blustery, billionaire demagogue whose only ideology was about what was good for him.
A case in point is the current acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Ed Martin. He had spent his adult life trying to succeed in conservative politics, working with right-to-life groups and other activists, as well as repeatedly running for office and failing. He got his law degree at Saint Louis University, a Jesuit school that has acknowledged the names and stories of enslaved Black Americans who built the university. Such DEI-style actions can only be an embarrassment to a MAGA true believer like Martin.
Martin got his first break in politics after being hired as chief of staff to Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt in 2006, but was almost immediately enmeshed in an email scandal and was forced to resign after revelations that he'd lied about doing political work on the government's dime. That scandal ended Blunt's career, but Martin kept going.
After several failed attempts at elective office, Martin became the head of the Missouri Republican Party in 2013 and shortly after that got involved with Schlafly's Eagle Forum. Schlafly was elderly and in failing health; her daughter and other members of the board accused Martin of coercing her into endorsing Trump and co-authoring a volume called "The Conservative Case for Trump" which, by ironic coincidence, was published one day day after Schlafly's death. Martin was ejected from Eagle Forum but started a rival organization he called "Phyllis Schlafly's Eagles." Yeah, we're talking about a class act here.
From the moment of Trump's first victory, Martin has been a true-blue MAGA follower, appearing on any radio or TV show that will have him. He famously emerged as one of the most vociferous defenders of the Jan. 6 insurrection and its perpetrators, and finally got his reward by being named as acting U.S. attorney in D.C. and nominated for the permanent position, although he has no previous experience as a prosecutor or a judge.
Martin's brief tenure has given him a reputation as the worst Trump appointment of 2025 — and that's really saying something. He has fired or demoted prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and dropped one prosecution for which he was still the government's attorney of record. Since he was a participant in the U.S. Capitol festivities that day, and tweeted through it as if it were Mardi Gras, I guess that was the least he could do. He has threatened several elected Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, over issuing alleged threats and has sucked up to Elon Musk with sycophantic public letters promising to protect him from his enemies. He now claims he "forgot" to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that he has appeared on Russian state media more than 150 times.
His defamatory claims against former Biden officials are just par for the course:
Martin has also taken it upon himself to intimidate Georgetown University, saying he won't hire any of the school's law graduates because of its DEI program, which garnered a strong "mind your own business" retort from the dean. He's even been sending weird threats to Wikipedia and medical journals, demanding that they drop their alleged liberal bias.
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The attacks on medical journals may provide some context for an odd Truth Social post Trump sent out the other night, touting his lap-dog prosecutor's supposed commitment to making America — wait for it — healthy again. It seems that Martin is in cahoots with one of the other most-terrible Trump appointees, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Tuesday, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., announced he would not vote for Martin's confirmation in the Judiciary Committee, citing his participation in the Jan. 6 riot. (Pretty gutsy, since we know that's a major trigger for Trump.) If Tillis stands firm, Martin's nomination won't make it to the floor. His 120-day interim appointment ends on May 20, so if Trump doesn't name someone else, the 24 judges of the D.C. District Court can name another interim choice until someone is confirmed or the president makes another interim appointment himself.
So Ed Martin's brief and bizarre tenure in the spotlight may be coming to a close soon, but the old-school conservative movement should get credit for all the other operatives, saboteurs and radical henchmen they trained over the last few decades who now carrying out Trump's sweeping vision to turn America into a Christian nationalist autocracy and global pariah. Maybe that's what they really wanted all along.
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Los Angeles Times
17 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
A Congolese refugee's 8-year struggle to reunite with her family in the U.S.
BOISE, Idaho — The Congolese woman's search for safety sent her on a terrifying trek of nearly 2,300 miles through southern Africa on foot when she was just 15. Reuniting with her family has been a more difficult journey. For eight years, she clung to hope through delays and setbacks as she navigated a U.S. program that reconnects refugees with family members already in the country, and her dream of seeing them again seemed close to becoming a reality. But President Trump signed an executive order halting the refugee program just hours after he took office on Jan. 20, leaving her and thousands of other refugees stranded. 'It was horrible. I would never wish for anyone to go through that, ever. When I think about it, I just ...' she said, pausing to take a long breath. 'Honestly, I had given up. I told my mom maybe it was just not meant for us to see each other again.' During a brief block on the order, the woman made it into the U.S., one of only about 70 refugees to arrive in the country since Trump took office. She asked that her name not be used because she fears retaliation. 'It's been a really devastating roller coaster for those families, to be stuck in this limbo of not knowing whether their hope of being resettled in the United States will ever come true,' said Melissa Keaney, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project. The woman was an infant when her mother fled the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war in 1997, seeking shelter at Tanzania's Nyarugusu refugee camp. When the camp grew too dangerous, she fled for South Africa. She built a modest life there, always hoping she would rejoin her family, even after they were resettled in the U.S. For a time, that seemed likely, thanks to the 'follow to join' program. The refugee program had bipartisan support for decades, allowing people displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution to legally migrate to the U.S. and providing a pathway to citizenship. But Trump's executive order halting the program said communities didn't have the ability to 'absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees.' Organizations like the International Refugee Assistance Project and some refugees, including the Congolese woman and her mother, sued over Trump's order in February. They said resettlement agencies were forced to lay off hundreds of workers and some refugees were left in dangerous places. 'I had a small business and told everyone, 'I'm out now,'' she said. 'It felt like this door had just been opened, and I was running toward it when — boom! — they push it shut right in front of me.' Looking back on her time in the Nyarugusu refugee camp, she remembers teaching her little brother to ride a bike and whispering with her sister late at night. She remembers hunger and fear as attacks on refugees foraging outside the camp increased. 'You see someone hanged, and that brings fear,' she said. 'You don't know if you'll be next. You don't know if they're waiting for you.' By 2012, the camp was especially dangerous for teen girls, who were at risk of being kidnapped or assaulted. With little hope of a viable future, her mother made a plan: The 15-year-old would walk to South Africa, where she would have a better chance of finishing school and building a life. Her siblings were too young to make the journey, so she would have to go alone. She didn't know the way, so joined other travelers, often going without food during the six-week journey. The crossing from Mozambique into Zimbabwe was deep in a forest. The group she was following had hired a guide, but he abandoned them in the middle of the night. Under the thin moonlight, the group walked toward a cellphone tower in the distance, hoping to find civilization. 'How we made it to the other side was only God,' she said. In Durban, South Africa, she finished school, started a tailoring business, joined a church and volunteered helping homeless people. Then in 2016, the 19-year-old got unexpected news: Her family was being resettled in the United States, without her. 'It happened so fast,' she said. 'When I left, the idea of them going to be resettled was never in the mind at all.' Her family settled in Boise, Idaho, and her mother signed her up for the 'follow to join' program in 2017. The program often takes years and requires strict vetting with interviews, medical exams and documentation. At the start of 2020, the woman was asked to provide a DNA sample, typically one of the final steps. Then the COVID pandemic hit. For the next several years, her case foundered. A social worker would send her to the local consulate, where she'd be told to go back to the social worker. 'It went on and on,' she said. Last year, her case was handed over to lawyers volunteering their time 'and that's when we started seeing some light.' By January, she had her travel documents and gave up her home. But her plane ticket wasn't issued before Trump took office. Within hours, he suspended the refugee program, and the consulate told the woman she could no longer have her passport and visa. 'That was the worst moment of my life,' she said. Nearly 130,000 refugees had conditional approval to enter the U.S. when Trump halted the program, the administration said in court documents. At least 12,000 of them were about to travel. The aid groups' lawsuit asks a judge to declare Trump's executive order illegal. A federal judge granted a nationwide injunction temporarily blocking the order in late February. An appeals court blocked most of the injunction weeks later. But that brief legal window was enough: A group of refugee advocates donated funds to cover the woman's flight to the U.S. Her family met her at the airport in March — a joyful reunion more than a dozen years in the making. 'They made a feast, and there were drinks and songs and we'd dance,' she said, smiling. The appeals court ordered the government to admit thousands more conditionally accepted refugees, but the administration has created new roadblocks, Keaney said, including decreasing the time refugees' security screenings are valid to 30 days —- down from three years. 'It causes cascades in delays, setting people back months or more,' Keaney said. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are waiting for the courts to decide what the government must do to comply with the ruling. The Congolese woman, now 28, is still getting to know her youngest brothers, who were children when she left for South Africa. One is now a father. 'It's been a long time and a lot has changed, you know, on my side and on their side,' she said. 'I'm still on that learning journey. We are getting to bond again.' Boise is friendly, but she hasn't escaped the worries she hoped to leave behind. She fears being exposed as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Trump administration will turn her family into targets for harassment. 'Home is where my family is. If me being known can bring any kind of negative impact ... I don't want to even imagine that happening,' she said. Boone writes for the Associated Press.
New York Post
17 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump will be present at Kennedy Center as honorees are announced today
President Donald Trump, embracing his new role as chairman of the Kennedy Center, was set to be on hand Wednesday as the recipients of its annual award are announced, and both he and the performing arts venue hint at coming renovations to its building. Trump avoided the Kennedy Center Honors awards program during his first term after artists said they would not attend out of protest. This year, the Republican president has taken over as the Kennedy Center's new chairman and fired the board of trustees, which he replaced with loyalists. 3 President Trump, embracing his new role as chairman of the Kennedy Center, was set to be on hand Wednesday as the recipients of its annual award are announced. AP In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump teased a name change for the center, formally the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and said it would be restored to its past glory. 'GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS,' Trump wrote. He said work was being done on the site that would be 'bringing it back to the absolute TOP LEVEL of luxury, glamour, and entertainment.' 'It had fallen on hard times, physically, BUT WILL SOON BE MAKING A MAJOR COMEBACK!!!' he wrote. In a statement on its social media feed, the Kennedy Center said it is 'honored' to host Trump, who will be visiting for the third time since January, and hinted that he would announce a construction project. 'Thanks to his advocacy, our beautiful building will undergo renovations to restore its prestige and grandeur,' the venue said. 'We are also excited to be announcing this year's INCREDIBLE slate of Kennedy Center Honorees.' Trump complained during a March visit that the building is in a state of 'tremendous disrepair.' 3 Donald Trump and Melania Trump attend 'Les Misérables' opening night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 11, 2025. REUTERS It is unclear how this year's honorees were chosen, though Trump had indicated he wanted a more active role. Historically, a bipartisan advisory committee selects the recipients, who over the years have ranged from George Balanchine and Tom Hanks to Aretha Franklin and Stephen Sondheim. A message sent to the Kennedy Center press office asking how this year's honorees were selected wasn't returned on Tuesday. The Kennedy Center did post this on social media, however: 'Coming Soon … A country music icon, an Englishman, a New York City Rock band, a dance Queen and a multi-billion dollar Actor walk into the Kennedy Center Opera House …' In the past, Trump has floated the idea of granting Kennedy Center Honors status to singer-songwriter Paul Anka and Sylvester Stallone, one of three actors Trump named as Hollywood ambassadors earlier this year. Anka was supposed to perform 'My Way' at Trump's first inaugural and backed out at the last moment. The Kennedy Center Honors were established in 1978 and have been given to a broad range of artists. Until Trump's first term, presidents of both major political parties traditionally attended the annual ceremony, even when they disagreed politically with a given recipient. Prominent liberals such as Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were honored during the administration of Republican George W. Bush, and a leading conservative, Charlton Heston, was feted during the administration of Democrat Bill Clinton. In 2017, after honoree Norman Lear declared that he would not attend a White House celebration in protest of Trump's proposed cuts to federal arts funding, Trump and first lady Melania Trump decided to skip the Kennedy Center event and remained away throughout his first term. Honorees during that time included such Trump critics as Cher, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Sally Field. Since taking office for a second time, Trump has taken a much more forceful stance on the Kennedy Center and inserted himself into its governance. Besides naming himself chairman and remaking the board, he also has indicated he would take over decisions regarding programming at the center and vowed to end events featuring performers in drag. 3 Trump took over as the Kennedy Center's new chairman and fired the board of trustees, replacing them with loyalists. AFP via Getty Images The steps have drawn further criticism from some artists. In March, the producers of 'Hamilton' pulled out of staging the Broadway hit musical in 2026, citing Trump's aggressive takeover of the institution's leadership. Other artists who canceled events include actor Issa Rae, singer Rhiannon Giddens, and author Louise Penny. House Republicans added an amendment to a spending bill that Trump signed into law in July to rename the Kennedy Center's Opera House after Melania Trump, but that venue has yet to be renamed. Maria Shriver, a niece of the late President Kennedy, a Democrat, has criticized as 'insane' a separate House proposal to rename the entire center after Trump. Recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors are given a medallion on a rainbow ribbon, a nod to the range of skills that fall under the performing arts. In April, the center changed the lights on the exterior from the long-standing rainbow to a permanent red, white, and blue display.
The Hill
17 minutes ago
- The Hill
Leland Vittert: Jan. 6 ‘has nothing to do' with crime in D.C.
NewsNation host Leland Vittert pushed back on Democrats and other critics of President Trump who have cited the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol as evidence the president does not care about violent crime in D.C. 'Jan. 6 was awful. I was in the middle of it. I was confronted by the mob, on multiple occasions' Vittert said on his nightly show, calling the attack 'a stain on our country's history.' 'But it was four years ago,' he continued. 'It has nothing to do with the current crime epidemic in D.C.' Vittert's comment came a night after he hosted progressive pundit Medhi Hasan for a segment on Trump's crime crackdown in Washington, during which Hasan said of the president 'if he cared about crime in D.C., why did he pardon 600 people who assaulted police officers?' The host shot back, arguing, 'You're going to sit here and say, 'if Trump cures cancer, Jan. 6 was terrible.'' 'The fact is you can't have an argument about what's happening on the streets of D.C. without going back to Jan. 6,' Vittert added. Trump this week declared a crime emergency in the district, seizing control of the local police force and deploying National Guard troops to patrol its streets. The move is being widely condemned by Democrats, who argue crime is down in D.C. and warn Trump is overstepping his authority as president.
