Trump goes after judges, political opponents in Memorial Day post
"HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS," Trump wrote in the May 26 post.
Not the first holiday rage: Trump marks Easter with blasts aimed at Biden and 'Radical Left Lunatics'
The president in his post appeared to reference Joe Biden as "AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT," and he criticized judges who he said "SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY."
Trump has stoked an ongoing war with judges across the country since the start of his second administration, from threatening their impeachment to seeking to evade their rulings against his orders. The president's allies and opponents alike have called the feud between branches a constitutional crisis.
More: How Trump's clash with the courts is brewing into an 'all-out war'
The president's online activity at the start of Memorial Day also included a series of posts sharing videos marking the somber holiday with tributes to the military.
Later on May 26, Trump is scheduled to give remarks and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.
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The Guardian
17 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Republicans fear the Mexican flag at the LA protests. But I see it as a symbol of our power
Republicans are using images of Ice protesters waving Mexican flags atop burning Waymo cars to foment fear among Americans. Like this photograph that Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday: a shirtless protester wielding the Tricolor atop a vandalized robotaxi as flames billow toward the weak sunlight backlighting the flag. His dark curls fall to his bare shoulders. He stares into the camera. Frankly, the image belongs in a museum. I understand my reaction is not the feeling Republicans hope to inspire in Americans broadly this week. Their messaging thus far about the protests against immigration raids in Latino communities has largely been alarmist – proof, they say, of an 'invasion' of 'illegal aliens'. 'Look at all the foreign flags. Los Angeles is occupied territory,' said Stephen Miller on X. According to Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman and more moderate voice, the Mexican flags carried by protesters are 'terrible… and feeding right into Donald Trump's narrative'. 'I just think that it would be much stronger if they were carrying American flags only,' he said on CNN this week. By this logic, Mexican flags are proof-positive that Mexican Americans are not really American; that we are somehow collaborating on a planned 'invasion'; that we harbor secret loyalties to Mexico; that we're here to displace white people and undermine the American way of life via some Plan Aztlan. In short, none of this is true. In front of Congress Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, cited the presence of 'flags from foreign countries' in LA to legitimize supporting Trump's deployment of the National Guard. This unilateral invocation of Title 10 by the Trump administration, without the consent of the governor, is exceedingly aggressive. So is the deployment of 700 US Marines to be used to crush American protest in an American city. The subtext here is that by many metrics, American's patience for Ice and its antics is wearing thin, even as Ice's deportation numbers are anemic compared to past administrations. The Trump administration realizes something has to change. Fanning outrage about a flag is both a legal pretext to pursue martial law and a diplomatic means of getting consent from the American populace to do unpopular things in the name of security. But what is it about the Mexican flag that triggers so many people? I'd argue that in the American context, the Mexican flag is not a nationalist symbol but something decentered from Mexico as a nation-state. Historically, it was a key banner of the Chicano movement, flown by supporters surrounding Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez during the California grape boycott in the 1960s. It flew alongside the United Farm Workers flag, the American flag and banners of the Virgen de Guadalupe as means of fomenting cultural unity. It also served as a reminder of a fundamental truth: we are from here; we are also from there. We're children of the in-between, or what the Tejanx writer Gloria Anzaldúa referred to as nepantla in her seminal work Borderlands/La Frontera. Nepantla is simply Nahuatl for the liminal space between cultures, identities and worlds. To this end, we might think of the Mexican flag as a symbol of double-consciousness in the Mexican American psyche specifically. We understand our middleness, yet we also understand how America sees and defines us: Mexicans. We take that prejudice and transform it into power. It's through this lens that I see the Mexican flag as just one banner among many, a remembrance of roots but also a shared experience between Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants alike. Night after night, you can see captivating scenes with Mexican flags flying in the downtowns of Dallas and Houston and Atlanta and New York, as a solidarity grows between those explicitly targeted by Ice and those soon-to-be targeted by Ice. This is not hyperbole. Today, phenotype and politics are grounds enough for detention: in order for Ice to meet the Trump administration's goal of 3,000 arrests per day, targets have increasingly included student protesters, tourists and even American citizens. The only rule is to meet the metric at all costs. Amid these burgeoning protests, the Mexican flag is a bold articulation: we are like you; you are like us. We have struggled and persist in this place together. See me and don't be afraid; I see you and I am not afraid. To wield the flag amid a protest is to paint yourself a target, to take both your body and your future into your own hands. This is precisely why the Marines have been called in. To intimidate these bodies. Or to destroy them. What Trump fails to realize is that the bones of Mexican people are the metadata of the land in California and indeed the rest of the country. Our place here is in the food, in the street names, in the name of Los Angeles itself. Already, I can hear some within my own community admonishing my defense of Mexican flags at American protests as treasonous or ungrateful or something along those lines. To them I might ask: why is it that the protester's allegiances are held to higher standards than an American president who seeks to turn the US armed forces against American citizens? From Republican leaders, you'll never hear such questioning rhetoric surrounding other foreign flags that fly prominently in America. The Irish flag on St Patrick's Day instantly comes to mind. As does the Israeli flag at both political and non-political events. And, of course, the Confederate flag, though white supremacists have explicitly stated goals of both overthrowing the US government and taking back US land. Heritage is the most commonly used defense. Though wouldn't heritage apply to the Mexican flag as well? I'm reminded of James Baldwin when Mexicans Americans and Mexicans call for restraint from using Mexican imagery in US protests: 'In Harlem,' Baldwin wrote, '…the Negro policemen are feared more than whites, for they have more to prove and fewer ways to prove it.' We think our respectability will protect us. But we know historically and empirically that has not been true. Respectability did not protect Japanese Americans from being interned. Nor did it protect Vietnamese veterans who fought alongside Americans in Vietnam from facing discrimination in the US. Nor did it protect Afghan translators from having their visas revoked. Our American bonafides are not the things that will save us now. Not in the era of detention metrics and collateral targeting and now the prospect of authoritarian violence. It should be said: I don't go looking for these images. For my sins, having clicked on one, the algorithm floods me with them now. Protesters with Mexican flags getting a haircut in front of police. Protesters with Mexican flags forming a human chain. They just keep coming to me. But other images, too. Like one of a guy popping a wheelie past a ton of burning Waymo cars. I mean, come the fuck on – it's cool. The thing that immediately jumps out to me is the frivolity of the image. A body perfectly in balance, perfectly in motion. It moves of its own volition. It is completely in command of its trajectory and space in the landscape. It is beyond the fascist impulse to live so beautifully as this. Luckily, it also is beyond the fascist ability to remove the memory of this body from the land.
The Independent
24 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump launches website for $5m Gold Card – and is mocked for its cheap look
Donald Trump has officially launched his promised gold card which will grants U.S. residency to foreign investors for $5 million – but instantly faced mockery for the supposedly cheap-looking website he's selling them on. 'THE TRUMP CARD IS COMING! Thousands have been calling and asking how they can sign up to ride a beautiful road in gaining access to the Greatest Country and Market anywhere in the World, ' the president wrote on Truth Social. Trump added that the waiting list for the card was 'NOW OPEN' but did not offer further details as to when the cards may be coming available. As if to counter the clunky appearance of the site, a note is included at the top of the page that it is an 'official government site.' The website also does not offer information on a specific launch date – or indeed further information of any kind. A mostly black web page greets visitors with the words: 'Trump Card Is Coming.' Interested parties are encouraged to enter their information into a form to be notified 'the moment access opens.' The site also features a picture of the gold 'Trump Card,' which has the president's photo and signature on the front. Trump showed a version of the card to reporters onboard Air Force One back in April. Social media was quick to react to the news, with one user writing: 'We live in an idiocracy' and another adding: 'This government is a f****** joke, holy f***.' More piled in on the cheap look of the site. 'Lmao this is literally the entire site,' wrote another user, in a short video showing the minimalist page. 'This is the cheesiest thing I've ever seen in my life....' added another. Others noted what they interpreted as a more sinister side of the offer. 'Can we take a moment and realize how disgusting the idea of a trump card is (the instant immigration card for 5 mil),' wrote one user. 'That's so damn dystopian like hey yeah pay me an ungodly amount of money and instantly get treated better than natural born citizens because you're upper class.' 'Abhorrent. Is this what you all voted for? Selling an America fast-pass to people like Russian oligarchs and the like?' added another. The information form on the page to apply for the card requests users fill out their name 'My name is (First, Last),' where they are from, 'from Region' and why they are interested in applying for the card. The gold Trump Card was first announced by the president in February, who said it would grant those with them the same privileges as green card holders, who have permanent residency in the U.S. Administration officials previously suggested that the card will replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which provides a path for foreign nationals to achieve permanent residence (a green card) in the United States. The program requires a minimum investment of $800,000 in the U.S. to qualify but was 'poorly run,' according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trump said in February that the money from the gold cards would be used to 'pay down a lot of debt,' though did not elaborate. The president has also said previously the card was a way to get 'wealthy people' to invest in the U.S. by 'spending a lot of money, paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people.' Asked whether he would consider selling the cards to Russian oligarchs, Trump responded: 'Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.' The president has previously said he does not need the go ahead from Congress to launch the program. It is uncertain how applications for the Trump Card will be processed and who by.
The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Seth Meyers on Trump's deployment of troops to LA: ‘About spectacle and power and nothing else'
Late-night hosts blasted Donald Trump's deployment of troops to Los Angeles, his extremely partisan speech to the army and his upcoming military parade. On Wednesday's Late Night, Seth Meyers mocked Donald Trump for saying he would arrest the California governor, Gavin Newsom, for the crime of 'running for governor, because he's done such a bad job.' 'If you could arrest someone for being bad at their job, the jails would be filled with former head coaches of the New York Jets,' Meyers joked. 'I gotta say, Trump's really lost his step. He can't even come up with a phony reason to arrest Newsom?' Meyers continued. 'I mean, I could come up with a reason to arrest Newsom if I had to. At the very least, I feel like the fashion police could slap the cuffs on him for riding a skateboard in a suit, you know? Come on dude, you look like the CEO of a tech startup that goes bust in six months.' Meyers also looked ahead to the military parade in Washington DC this weekend. The parade, nominally held for Flag Day, just so happens to coincide with Trump's 79th birthday. 'There are two reasons this parade for the army is so important to Trump,' Meyers explained. 'One, tanks rolling down the street is exactly the kind of strongman theater he loves. And two, it's also his birthday. 'This is the perfect encapsulation of how Trump can be both terrifying and ridiculous at the same time,' he added. 'On the one hand, he's all 'we must project strength to let the opposition know they'll be crushed.' And on the other, he's like 'should we get two cakes?'' Meanwhile in Washington, the Senate grilled Trump's secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, over the deployment of 700 marines to quell protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in Los Angeles. When asked to cite the provision of the constitution granting Trump the authority to send in the marines over the objection of Newsom and LA's mayor, Karen Bass, Hegseth demurred. 'It's like watching a spelling bee where the contestant has never heard the word he's being asked to spell or any other word or any letters,' Meyers laughed. 'He's making a face like the question was a combination of German and Japanese.' Meyers already knew what Hegseth's justification was: 'This is all about spectacle and power and nothing else.' On Wednesday, Trump spoke to the military at Fort Bragg and, according to Jimmy Kimmel, 'regaled them with a slew of insults about LA'. As Trump put it: 'Within the span of a few decades, Los Angeles has gone from being one of the most beautiful, cleanest, safest cities on Earth to being a trash heap.' Kimmel wasn't convinced. 'I moved to Los Angeles in 1994. I've been here more than 30 years – it was always a trash heap, OK? This has nothing to do with anything. 'And I find it especially rich coming from the guy who singlehandedly turned Atlantic City into a rusted-out, syringe-filled raccoon's nest,' he added. 'There's been so much misinformation, so much cherrypicking when it comes to what they show on TV – I mean, if you turn on Fox News, you'd think LA was getting invaded by more aliens than the movie Mars Attacks,' Kimmel continued. 'They're working so hard to make this seem like a lawless battleground.' 'We're OK! The only problem we have is this lunatic. He's acting like we're burning the city to the ground,' he added. Things in LA, he noted, were in fact peaceful, with some people protesting against Ice immigration sweeps in a small section of downtown, itself a small section of a very large city. 'This is the emergency equivalent of having a mosquito bite on your body,' Kimmel said. 'But this doesn't stop General Useless S Grant, who gave the young army men and women at Fort Bragg a wildly inappropriate and ridiculous speech.' And on the Late Show, Stephen Colbert also disputed Trump's characterization of Los Angeles as a city in crisis. 'You can't characterize a whole city based on something that's just happening in a few blocks! All of New York is not Broadway.' The mayor of LA, Karen Bass, said the 4,000 national guard troops Trump sent to the city have nothing to do and, instead of 'helping' with the protests, they are accompanying Ice on their raids. Colbert referred to a photo posted by Hegseth which showed three armed national guard members protecting two armed Ice agents arresting an unarmed man. 'And I'm being told Hegseth will soon send in four marines to cover the three national guard members to protect the two Ice agents who will arrest an old woman who swallowed a fly,' Colbert joked. Bass is not the only California official vocally criticizing the administration. In a televised address, Newsom warned that 'the rule of law has increasingly been giving way to the rule of Don.' 'Oh, you blew it at the end!' Colbert joked. 'You were so close, but you violated the first rule of fighting fascism: no puns.'
