What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to talk over reality.

This morning, a reporter asked Trump about the visit to a border detention facility that Vice-President Mike Pence would be taking later in the day.

Q Mr. President, are you visiting an immigration detention center like the Vice President?

TRUMP: Yeah — and very importantly, today, in a few hours, Vice President Pence and the head of Homeland Security are taking the press and congresspeople into detention centers. And we’re the ones that said they were crowded. They’re crowded because we have a lot of people. But they’re in good shape.

Later in the day, Josh Dawsey, the press pool reporter assigned to Pence's trip, filed this report.

After negotiating with the VP's office, [I] was taken into an outdoor portal at the McAllen Border Station around 5 P.M., where almost 400 men were in caged fences with no cots. The stench was horrendous.

The cages were so crowded that it would have been impossible for all of the men to lie on the concrete. There were 384 single men in the portal who allegedly crossed the border illegally. There were no mats or pillows — some of the men were sleeping on the concrete.

When the men saw the press arrive, they began shouting and wanted to tell us they'd been in there 40 days or longer. The men said they were hungry and wanted to brush their teeth. It was sweltering hot. Agents were guarding the cages wearing face masks.

Water was available outside the fences, and agents said the men could leave and get water when the press wasn't there.

Most of the men did not speak English and looked dirty. They said they'd been there for 40 days or more upon questioning from [me.]

We were pulled out of the portal within 90 seconds, and a White House official said the Secret Service had expressed opposition to the Vice President going in. He briefly went into the room.

"I was not surprised by what I saw," Pence said later at a news conference. "I knew we'd see a system that was overwhelmed."

Trump hasn't offered any further comment today on the "good shape" he thinks border facilities are in. But this morning, he did offer an explanation for why he was sending Pence to tour a detention camp:

And the reason is because the fake-news New York Times wrote a phony story. ...So they’re touring detention centers. And that was my idea because I read a phony story in the New York Times today — or the other day — about the detention centers, about the conditions. And I had people calling me up at the highest levels from Border Patrol and ICE, almost crying, about that phony story. 

And they never saw anything. They have phony sources. They don’t even have sources. They write whatever they want. The New York Times is a very dishonest newspaper. They write what they want. And what they do is a tremendous disservice to this country. They are truly the enemy of the people, I’ll tell you that. They are the enemy of the people. And what they wrote about detention centers is unfair.

Trump is a little confused about what day he supposedly read the "phony" New York Times story, because he was repeating things he'd said this past Sunday. The article with "phony sources" about the McAllen Border Station Trump appears to be talking about has this headline

and is sourced primarily to this Department of Homeland Security report, published last Tuesday.

Why does this matter?

• Reality doesn't change just because a president says everything is fine.

• Presidents who can't or won't admit that problems exist can't solve them.

• Reporting on official government reports doesn't make anyone the "enemy of the people."

What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried and failed to beg an invite to invade Chicago.

Trump had what was, even by his standards, a bizarre day in the Oval office. It included, among a great many other things, Trump

• expressed confusion about the political situation in South Korea, accusing its legitimate president Lee Jay Myung of leading a "purge" immediately before meeting with him  

• warned Americans about the deadly danger of "violent" Chinese carp  

• said he wanted to nationalize private American businesses "as much as I can"    

• was baffled by South Korea making "comfort women" an issue after WWII [referring to the women forced into prostitution and systemically raped by Japanese occupiers]

• insisted that European leaders call him "the president of Europe"

• needed to be reminded who Kim Jong-un was, the North Korean dictator with whom he famously "fell in love" during his first term  

• claimed that friends of his in Beverly Hills leave their cars unlocked so that they won't be damaged when thieves inevitably "steal the radio" [a type of theft that hasn't really been common since the early 1980s, when car radios were often expensive custom installations and crime was as common as Trump seems to think it is now] 

• threatened his former advisor Chris Christie with further federal investigations of "Bridgegate," a political scandal that predates Trump bringing him on to his team, as an explicit act of revenge for Christie's recent criticism of him 

• said the words "nobody needed magnets until [China] convinced everybody 20 years ago, 'let's all do magnets"  

• complained that people still called him a racist even though he'd stopped a war in "deepest, darkest Africa" between Congo and Rwanda [Trump had nothing to do with the armistice between those two countries, which is failing anyway]  

• claimed that Wes Moore, the Democratic governor of Maryland who he's been sniping at on social media over his plans to invade Baltimore with federal troops, privately told him, "Sir, you're the greatest president of my lifetime," and

• sneered at people calling for "freedom" and said Americans actually wanted him to be a dictator.

That last comment was in regard to what he called the "killing fields" of Chicago, one of the cities he has threatened to send American military forces into, much as he has done with Washington, D.C. Supposedly, the federalized troops he has called up to mill around Metro stations are there to fight crime, but the main effect has been to turn tourists away and provoke demonstrations by Americans enraged at seeing de facto martial law declared for political reasons. 

Trump seemed to sense his weakness on the issue today, saying that he'd prefer to be asked to invade Chicago by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat. Pritzker is considered likely to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2028, and responded forcefully—not only rejecting Trump's "un-American" request for an invitation, but promising to prosecute any official who followed unlawful orders from Trump:

Finally, to the Trump administration officials who are complicit in this scheme, to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man, to any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous: we are watching and we are taking names.

This country has survived darker periods than the one that we are going through right now, and eventually the pendulum will swing back, maybe even next year. Donald Trump has already shown himself to have little regard for the many acolytes that he has encouraged to commit crimes on his behalf.

You can delay justice for a time, but history shows you cannot prevent it from finding you eventually. If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.

The full text of Pritzker's remarks follows. No transcript is available for Trump's appearances today, because the White House has ended a decades-old policy of producing rush transcripts—and, therefore, a permanent written record easily accessible by the public—of what Trump says out loud at official events.

 

I want to speak plainly about the moment that we are in and the actual crisis, not the manufactured one, that we are facing in this city, and as a state, and as a country. If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm, one that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country.

Over the weekend, we learned from the media that Donald Trump has been planning, for quite a while now, to deploy armed military personnel to the streets of Chicago. This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against, and it's the reason that they established a federal system with a separation of powers built on checks and balances.

What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American.

No one from the White House or the executive branch has reached out to me or to the mayor. No one has reached out to our staffs. No effort has been made to coordinate or to ask for our assistance in identifying any actions that might be helpful to us. Local law enforcement has not been contacted. We have made no requests for federal intervention. None.

We found out what Donald Trump was planning the same way that all of you did: We read a story in the Washington Post.

If this was really about fighting crime and making the streets safe, what possible justification could the White House have for planning such an exceptional action without any conversations or consultations with the governor, the mayor, or the police?

Let me answer that question: This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals.

This is about the president of the United States and his complicit lackey, Stephen Miller, searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities and end elections.

There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention. There is no inter- insurrection. There is no insurrection. Like every major American city in both blue and red states, we deal with crime in Chicago. Indeed, the violent crime rate is worse in red states and red cities.

Here in Chicago, our civilian police force and elected leaders work every day to combat crime and to improve public safety, and it's working.

Not one person here today will claim we have solved all crime in Chicago, nor can that be said of any major American metro area. But calling the military into a U.S. city to invade our streets and neighborhoods and disrupt the lives of everyday people is an extraordinary action, and it should require extraordinary justification.

Look around you right now. Does this look like an emergency? Look at this. Go talk to the people of Chicago who are enjoying a gorgeous afternoon in this city. Ask the families buying ice cream on the Riverwalk. Go see the students who are at the beach after school. Talk to the workers that I just met taking the water taxi to get here. Find a family who's enjoying today sitting on their front porch and ask if they want their neighborhoods turned into a war zone by a wannabe dictator. Ask if they'd like to pass through a checkpoint with unidentified officers in masks while taking their kids to school.

Crime is a reality we all face in this country. Public safety has been among our highest priorities since taking office. We have hired more police and given them more funding.

We banned assault weapons, ghost guns, bump stocks, and high-capacity magazines. We invested historic amounts into community violence intervention programs. We listened to our local communities, to the people who live and work in the places that are most affected by crime and asked them what they needed to help make their neighborhoods safer.

Those strategies have been working. Crime is dropping in Chicago. Murders are down 32% compared to last year and nearly cut in half since 2021.

Shootings are down 37% since last year, and 57% from four years ago. Robberies are down 34% year over year. Burglaries down 21%. Motor vehicle thefts down 26%.

So in case there was any doubt as to the motivation behind Trump's military occupations, take note: 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rate have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago.

Eight of the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois.

Memphis, Tennessee; Hattiesburg, Mississippi have higher crime rates than Chicago, and yet Donald Trump is sending troops here and not there? Ask yourself why.

If Donald Trump was actually serious about fighting crime in cities like Chicago, he, along with his congressional Republicans, would not be cutting over $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants nationally, including cutting $158 million in funding to Illinois for violence prevention programs that deploy trained outreach workers to deescalate conflict on our streets. Cutting $71 million in law enforcement grants to Illinois, direct money for police departments through programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods, the state and local Antiterrorism Training Program, and the Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative, cutting $137 million in child protection measures in Illinois that protect our kids against abuse and neglect.

Trump is defunding the police.

To the members of the press who are assembled here today, and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is.

This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see, where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically by the president's actions.

Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidence, and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab.

Look at the people assembled before you today, behind me. This is a full cross-section of Chicago's leaders from the business world, the faith community, law enforcement, education, community organizations, and more. We sometimes disagree on how to effectively solve the many challenges that our state and our city face on a daily basis. But today, we are standing here united, in public, in front of the cameras, unafraid to tell the president that his proposed actions will make our jobs harder and the lives of our residents worse.

Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, "Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?" Instead, I say, "Mr. President, do not come to Chicago."

You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.

Most alarming, you seem to lack any appropriate concern as our commander-in-chief for the members of the military that you would so callously deploy as pawns in your ever-more-alarming grabs for power.

As a governor, I've had to make the decision in the past to call up members of the National Guard into active service, and I think it's worth taking a moment to reflect on how seriously I take that responsibility, and on the many things that I consider before asking these brave men and women to leave their homes and their communities to serve in any capacity for us.

As I've said many times in the past, members of the National Guard are not trained to serve as law enforcement. They are trained for the battlefield, and they're good at it. They're not trained to arrest people and read them their Miranda rights. They did not sign up for the National Guard to fight crime. And when we call them into service, we are reaching into local communities and taking people who have jobs and families away from their neighborhoods and the people who rely upon them.

It is insulting to their integrity and to the extraordinary sacrifices that they make to serve in the Guard to use them as a political prop, where they could be put in situations where they will be at odds with their local communities, the ones that they seek to serve.

I know Donald Trump doesn't care about the well-being of the members of our military, but I do and so do all the people standing here.

So let me speak to all Illinoisans and to all Chicagoans right now.  Hopefully the president will reconsider this dangerous and misguided encroachment upon our state and our city's sovereignty. Hopefully rational voices, if there are any left inside the White House or the Pentagon, will prevail in the coming days. If not, we are going to face an unprecedented and difficult time ahead.

But I know you Chicago, and I know you are up to it. When you protest, do it peacefully. Be sure to continue Chicago's long tradition of nonviolent resistance. Remember that the members of the military and the National Guard who will be asked to walk these streets are, for the most part, here unwillingly. And remember that they can be court martialed and their lives ruined if they resist deployment. Look to the members of the faith community standing behind me today for guidance on how to mobilize.

To my fellow governors across the nation who would consider pulling your National Guards from their duties at home to come into my state against the wishes of its elected representatives and its people, you would be failing your constituents and your country. Cooperation and coordination between our states is vital to the fabric of our nation and it benefits us all. Any action undercutting that and violating the sacred sovereignty of our state to cater to the ego of a dictator will be responded to.

The State of Illinois is ready to stand against this military deployment with every peaceful tool we have. We will see the Trump administration in court. We will use every lever at our disposal to protect the people of Illinois and their rights.

Finally, to the Trump administration officials who are complicit in this scheme, to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man, to any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous: we are watching and we are taking names.

This country has survived darker periods than the one that we are going through right now, and eventually the pendulum will swing back, maybe even next year. Donald Trump has already shown himself to have little regard for the many acolytes that he has encouraged to commit crimes on his behalf.

You can delay justice for a time, but history shows you cannot prevent it from finding you eventually. If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.

As Dr. King once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Humbly I would add, it doesn't bend on its own. History tells us we often have to apply force needed to make sure that the arc gets where it needs to go. This is one of those times. 

Why does this matter?

• The President of the United States was incoherent, confused, and emotionally unstable all day in full view of the cameras. 

• Americans are not the enemy that the United States armed forces are meant to fight.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He once again referred to the free press as "the enemy of the people."

Trump has referred to reporters that way before, and before Trump, the phrase was popular with the leaders of Nazi Germany ("Feind des Volkes"), China under Mao, and both Lenin and Stalin in the Soviet Union. 

But today's outburst may have been put in his mind by the surviving staff of the Annapolis Capital Gazette. That paper was attacked by a man with a shotgun who was angry at their reporting on his criminal past. Five people were murdered in the attack. (Trump at first refused to order flags lowered to half-staff, only to grudgingly reverse the decision later.) Three days after the attack, the Gazette pointedly referenced Trump's many attacks on the free press in an editorial:

Here’s what else we won’t forget: Death threats and emails from people we don’t know celebrating our loss, or the people who called for one of our reporters to get fired because she got angry and cursed on national television after witnessing her friends getting shot. 

We won’t forget being called an enemy of the people. 

No, we won’t forget that. Because exposing evil, shining light on wrongs and fighting injustice is what we do. 

We are journalists. 

Yes, we bring values and beliefs to our work. We believe in truth. We believe in speaking for those who don’t have the power to speak for themselves. We believe in questioning authority. 

We believe in reporting the news.

Trump meets with Vladimir Putin tomorrow. There is effectively no free press in Russia, thanks to Putin's control of state media and the frequency with which journalists critical of him are murdered. Last week Trump said that Putin was not an enemy, but a "competitor."

Why does this matter?

• In a democracy, the people get to decide for themselves who is an enemy.

• Attacking the free press is the first thing authoritarians do.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He staged a scene for "great television."

The major news story of the day was Trump's treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had come to the White House to sign a deal in which the United States would receive some of Ukraine's mineral wealth in exchange for continued military support. But in what appears to have been a literal made-for-TV moment, Trump and other members of his cabinet publicly berated Zelenskyy, to the delight of the Putin regime in Russia.

A transcript of the debacle is available here.

It is difficult to overstate how far out of line Trump has gotten with American public opinion. Polls show Americans across the political spectrum showing support for Ukraine and hostility towards Russia. In a recent survey, only 9% of Americans shared Trump's opinion that Vladimir Putin could be trusted.

Trump is also facing withering criticism from his fellow Republicans in ways that hearken back to his humiliating encounter with Putin at a summit in Finland in 2018. While Trump is unquestionably in control of the Republican party, very few of its members share his allegiance to the Putin regime, and some of them made their opinions known today.

• Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): [This was] a bad day for America's foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.
  
  A reminder: Putin’s rivals always end up murdered. Putin despises the West and our values. We should have 100% moral clarity who this murdering dictator really is.

• Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY): As someone who fundamentally believes that Russia, China and Iran are not our friends or allies and continues to believe it is important to support Ukraine, it was extremely short-sighted to engage in that type of exchange in front of the US and international press as you work towards an agreement. Sadly, the only winner of today is Vladimir Putin. Diplomacy is tough and often times there are serious differences of opinion and heated exchanges behind closed doors. Having this spill out into public view was a disaster—especially for Ukraine.

• Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA): The enemy is on the inside. There’s so much fear, but we need to overcome that fear now, and the rational, the sane—those who care more about this country than securing mineral rights for their oligarch friends—might be the way we need to go now. This is America. This isn't Russia lite. 
  
  They're specifically trying to make Putin happy. It's interesting that the most powerful country in the world is bending the knee to a bare-chested horse rider. This is absolutely unconscionable, and, because of his insanity, he should be removed on the 25th Amendment.

• GOP Strategist Karl Rove: The only winner out of today is Vladimir Putin. …It was a mistake for [Trump and Vance] to be so public in their comments. This was not the moment that should have been televised. They should have had those conversations out of camera sight and I'm confident then that they would have been able to find a way to move forward. But it's really hard when you've had the kind of coverage of this moment that we've now had.

The Putin regime made clear that it agreed with Bacon and Rove that this worked in its favor:

• Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev: The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is "gambling with WWIII."
  
  
• Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova: I think Zelensky's biggest lie of all his lies was his assertion in the White House that the Kyiv regime in 2022 was alone, without support. How Trump and Vance held back from hitting that scumbag is a miracle of restraint.

Meanwhile, essentially every military ally the United States has left immediately moved to pledge the support Trump was only willing to sell. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had only just returned from a visit to the White House in which he was at pains to appease Trump, quickly pledged "unwavering support" for Ukraine. This is a sampling of social media posts from other world leaders:

• Emmanuel Macron, President of France:  There is an aggressor: Russia.
  
  There is a victim: Ukraine.
  
  We were right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago—and to keep doing so.
  
  By “we,” I mean the Americans, the Europeans, the Canadians, the Japanese, and many others.
  
  Thank you to all who have helped and continue to do so. And respect to those who have been fighting since the beginning—because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, their children, and the security of Europe.

• Stephen Gethins, Scottish National Party foreign affairs spokesperson: President Zelenskyy himself has provided strong leadership and a lesson in personal courage.
  
  His appalling treatment in the White House today is grotesque and outrageous. Ukraine is fighting for democracy and defending us all.
  
  This bullying performance in the Oval Office outlines yet again that Europe can no longer rely on the USA and must do more for its own security and to support Ukraine. The security of us all depends on it.
  
  Today's events put the tone of the Prime Minister's visit to the White House in a new light. It is vital that the UK government reaffirms its commitment to stand by Ukraine and work with our European partners to ensure a strong and united position in support.

• Donald Tusk, President of Poland: Dear [Volodymyr Zelenskyy], dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

• Annalena Baerbock, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs: Germany together with our European allies stands united alongside #Ukraine — and against the Russian aggression. Ukraine can build on unwavering support from Germany, Europe, and beyond. Their defence of democracy and their quest for peace & security is ours.

• Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic: We stand with Ukraine and on the side of the free world!

• Nataša Pirc Musar, President of Slovenia: Slovenia upholds the principles and respect of international law and internationl relations. What we witnessed in the Oval Office today undermines those values and the foundation of diplomace. We stand firmly in support of Ukraine's sovereignty. We repeat, Russia is the aggressor. It is imperative that we nurture and protect democratic ideals, ensuring they are reflected in our actions and interactions on the global stage.

• Alexander Schallenberg, Acting Chancellor of Austria (quote-tweeting Austria's foreign affairs ministry): Russia is the aggressor and we share Ukraine's commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace!

• Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany: Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians do. Therefore we are working on a common path to a lasting and just peace. Ukrainians can rely on Germany—and on Europe.

• Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain: Ukraine, Spain stands with you.

• Caspar Veldkamp, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Netherlands: Just spoke to my dear Ukrainian friend and colleague Andreii Sybiha [Ukrainian Foreign Minister]. I reiterated my full support for #Ukraine, whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.

• Luis Montenegro, Prime Minister of Portugal: Ukraine can always count on Portugal.

• Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia: Croatia knows from its own experience that only a just peace can last. The Croatian Government stands firm in its believe that Ukraine needs such a peace—a peace that means sovereignty, territorial integrity, and a secure Europe.

• Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minster of Denmark: Dear [Volodymyr Zelenskyy], Denmark proudly stands with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

• Mélanie Joly, Canadian Minster of Foreign Affairs: Canada remains committed to providing the necessary assistance to ensure Ukraine's security, sovereignty, and resilience.

• Gitanas Nausėda, President of Lithuania: Ukraine, you'll never walk alone.

• Evika Siliņa, Prime Minister of Latvia: Latvia stands with Ukraine.

• Edgars Rinkēvičs, President of Latvia: Ukraine is a victim of the Russian aggression. It fights the war with the help from may friends and partners. We need to spare no effort for the just and lasting peace. Diplomacy sometimes is the art of the impossible in difficult circumstances.

• Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland: Finland stands with the people and the people's right to choose. In Ukraine, people have chosen freedom.
  
  We stand by Ukraine.

• Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada: Russia illegally and unjustifiably invaded Ukraine.
  
  For three years now, Ukrainians have fought with courage and resilience. Their fight for democracy, freedom, and sovereignty is a fight that matters to us all.
  
  Canada will continue to stand with Ukraine and Ukrainians in achieving a just and lasting peace.

• Margus Tsahkna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia: I just had a call with my friend and colleague Andreii Sybiha [Ukrainian Foreign Minister] where I reassured Estonia's support to Ukraine whatever it takes.

• Maia Sandu, President of Moldova: The truth is simple. 
  
  Russia invaded Ukriane. Russia is the aggressor.
  
  Ukraine defends its freedom—and ours.

• Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway: We stand by Ukraine in their fair struggle for a just and lasting peace.

• Dick Schoof, Prime Minister of the Netherlands: The Netherlands continues to support Ukraine, especially now. We want lasting peace and an end to the war of aggression that Russia has started, for all its inhabitants and for Europe.

• Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iceland: Iceland stands with Ukraine. You are not alone. We wholeheartedly support Ukraine in their quest for just and lasting peace against the unprovoked and unlawful Russian aggression.

• Bart De Wever, Prime Minister of Belgium: We stand behind Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in their historic fight to defend themselves against an unprovoked Russian aggression. Their fight is our fight. United we are strong.
   

Why does this matter?

• There's no way for a country to betray one ally without risking every alliance.

• There's no practical difference between a president who is controlled by a hostile foreign power and one that simply makes the same decisions as if he were.

• The presidency is not a reality show.

Welcome new readers! WTDT updates once every day, usually in the late evening. (We learned the hard way not to post too early in the day.) In the meantime, here's some more information about the site.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He got called "disgusting," a Russian "asset," and a "traitor"--by Republicans.

The reaction from Democratic politicians to what happened in Helsinki today is easily imagined, so a small sample of the reaction from prominent conservatives and Republican politicians may be more instructive.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ): "I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful."

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): In a lengthy statement, McCain called Trump's appearance at the press conference "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory." McCain said that Trump's words were not a gaffe or mistake, but rather "the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule."

In summary, McCain wrote, "No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant."

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY): "As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am deeply troubled by President Trump’s defense of Putin against the intelligence agencies of the U.S. & his suggestion of moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia. Russia poses a grave threat to our national security."

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE): Sasse said that Trump's claim that the United States was responsible for the Russian attack on the election was "bizarre and flat-out wrong." He added, "The United States is not to blame. America wants a good relationship with the Russian people but Vladimir Putin and his thugs are responsible for Soviet-style aggression. When the President plays these moral equivalence games, he gives Putin a propaganda win he desperately needs."

Former Gov. Christie Whitman (R-NJ): Whitman, who was the administrator of the EPA during the George W. Bush administration, tweeted: "Mr #President, you should be ashamed. To deny your own country and government in favor of a foriegn leader whose country has, for decades, tried to undermine the #UnitedStates is irrational and dangerous. Please step down, you are not fit to lead this great #nation. #TrumpPutin"

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): "[This was a] missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections. This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves."

Michael Steele, former RNC Chair: In a tweet, Steele quoted Trump rejecting US intelligence officials in favor of Putin's version, and then added, "That's how a press conference sounds when an Asset stands next to his Handler."

Former senator and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (R-NE): Appearing on CNN, Hagel audibly hesitated to use the word "treasonous," but added, "This was not a golf outing. This was not a real estate transactional kind of arrangement. ...Engagement must be connected to a strategic interest, a strategic purpose. I don't know what that strategic purpose was. I am now convinced we didn't have one. ...It's a sad day for America."

Meghan McCain, conservative columnist: "I’m horrified - and have never been more proud of the fact that Putin hates my father so much he personally sanctioned him on Russia’s enemies list."

Gov. John Kasich (R-OH): Appearing on Hardball, Kasich said it was "unbelievable" and that today was "a sad day for the country."

Conservative columnist Ben Shapiro: "So that was a disgrace. With that said, the real question is how seriously Putin takes Trump's verbiage. My guess: not very. This is the chief benefit of a White House that often runs independent of the president."

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI): In a tweet, Amash became one of several Republican members of Congress to approach the question of whether Trump had been compromised by Russia: "A person can be in favor of improving relations with Russia, in favor of meeting with Putin, and still think something is not right here." In a follow-up response to a constituent's question, Amash added, "Our main concern should be the president’s bizarre behavior with respect to Putin. We’ll have to see what Mueller finds, if anything."

Abby Huntsman, Fox & Friends host: The conservative television personality is also the daughter of Jon Huntsman, the Trump-appointed U.S. Ambassador to Russia. She wrote on Twitter, "No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus."

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA, member of the House Judiciary Committee): "We've seen time and again that Russia will stop at nothing to interfere with and undermine our system of government. Just days ago, DOJ announced more Russian nationals have been charged w/ attempting to interfere with the 2016 election. This is not a country that can be trusted. U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed Russia’s actions, and the evidence is plentiful. Today’s summit in Helsinki was an opportunity to forcefully address this growing threat directly with President Putin. I am dismayed that we did not see that."

Tom Nichols, conservative author and government professor at the US Naval War College: Nichols' first reaction came in the form of a tweet: "Putin is completely in command of this situation. He’s basically told Trump to go piss up a rope about the GRU guys. ('You want investigations? Sure. I’ll look into it. Give me Bill Browder.') Trump, meanwhile, is babbling 'no collusion.'"

He later expanded his remarks in an editorial in USA Today: 

By the end of this circus, Trump was practically mewling, begging for Putin’s approval, saying that Putin’s denials were “extremely powerful and strong,” almost in a kind of strangely erotic tone of admiration. 

The very last thing the president of the United States did at a summit with the Russian president was to attack an FBI agent. His last words, just before "thank you," were "witch hunt" Putin could not have scripted it better.

Dan Coats, the current Director of National Intelligence: Coats, a Trump appointee and former Republican senator from Indiana, released a pointed statement that he did not clear with the White House political office in advance. Responding to Trump's open disregard for what he and other intelligence professionals had told Trump, he wrote, "The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers. We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security."

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): "Unfortunately, the President’s statements undermine the power of the actions we’ve taken. His words must match these tough actions. The Mueller indictments make clear that Russia’s military and intelligence services sought to undermine the confidence of our elections by sowing discord in our partisan environment."

Rick Wilson, Republican political strategist: In an article for The Daily Beast titled "Trump and Putin: Two Bullshit Artists Enter Helsinki, One Comes Out Victorious," Wilson wrote:

By the end of the press conference, even Putin looked slightly embarrassed. He wanted Trump to go down in the third round like a bought-off boxer, but Trump kept laying it on thicker and thicker, swooning over the Russian leader, making winky-googly eyes, and repeating the worst tropes of Russia’s propaganda machine. Trump didn’t just roll over. He rolled over, stuck out his tongue, and begged Vladimir Putin to slap on a choke collar and rub his belly. An American president has never before abased himself like this before a foreign leader, and the horrified eyes of every American outside the Trump cult watched in horror. 

Even Putin couldn’t have expected the meeting to turn out like this, with the American president capitulating passionately, obviously—and yes, it’s time to use the word—treasonously.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI): "There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world. That is not just the finding of the American intelligence community but also the House Committee on Intelligence. The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally. There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals. The United States must be focused on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy."

Conservative commentator Joe Walsh: "Look, I'm no big deal, but today is the final straw for me. I will never support Trump again. If that makes me a NeverTrumper, so be it. I am a tea party conservative, that will never change. But Trump was a traitor to this country today. That must not be accepted." Walsh later emphasized: "Trump was a traitor today. I cannot & will not support a traitor. No decent American should." 

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN): "I felt like that everyone who’s dealt with Putin understands fully that the best way to deal with him is through strength, and I felt like the President’s comments made us look as a nation more like a pushover, and I was disappointed in that. When he had the opportunity to defend our intelligence agencies, who work for him, I was very disappointed and saddened with the equivalency he gave between them and what Putin was saying... Again, Putin only understands strength, and I did not think this was a good moment for our country.  There's no question that Putin interfered in the elections. ...They definitely interfered in our elections. That's not debatable, and again, I just don’t know what it is about the President that he continues to deny that that occurred. I get the feeling, and I’ve seen it first-hand actually, sometimes the President cares more about how a leader treats him personally than forcefully getting out there and pushing against things that we know have harmed our nation, and I thought that’s what we all experienced today."

Neil Cavuto (Fox News host) and Tom Dupree (former Deputy Attorney General under President George W. Bush):

DUPREE: I mean, it’s all well and good for the president to talk about the Strzok and server and Hillary Clinton and all of that. But this wasn’t the time and the place. This was the time and place for the president to look Putin squarely in the eye and said, ‘You will be punished for what you did in 2016, and don’t ever think about doing that again.’ 

CAVUTO: But he didn’t. And what’s what made it disgusting. That’s what made his performance disgusting. I’m sorry. It’s just the only way I feel. It’s not a right or left thing to me. It’s just wrong. U.S. president foreign soil talking to our biggest enemy or adversary or competitor, I don’t know how we define them these days, is essentially letting the guy get away with this. Not even offering a mild, a mild criticism. That sets us back a lot.

Brit Hume, Fox News host: "Trump, finally asked whom he believes on Russia interference, gives a vague and rambling non-answer, with renewed complaints about Hillary’s server. Says he trusts US intel but made clear he takes Putin’s denials seriously. Lame response, to say the least."

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA): "President Trump must clarify his statements in Helsinki on our intelligence system and Putin. It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected—-immediately."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): "The Russians were relentless in their efforts to meddle in the 2016 elections, and their efforts are ongoing. The President’s statements today in Helsinki demonstrate his continued refusal to accept the unanimous conclusions of U.S. intelligence leaders and the bipartisan findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee. This position is untenable and at odds with the forceful response this moment demands. Given that we are in an election year, the need to act now to prevent malicious attempts to influence our democracy is urgent."

Douglas Schoen, Fox News analyst: In a piece headlined "Putin Eats Trump's Lunch in Helsinki," Schoen wrote,

When asked if he would hold Russia accountable for any of its past actions, Trump deflected and deferred. President Trump’s unwillingness to stand up to Russia on this issue only serves to weaken the Western alliance and encourage further Russian incursions into the territory of sovereign nations now that Putin knows Trump will give him a pass. 

...For a sitting U.S. president to say publicly that he believes a foreign leader over his own intelligence team is shocking and admonishable. At a time when our democracy faces grave threats, it is deeply troubling that the president would side with the very country who attacked us. 

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC): Gowdy's response focused on the fact that Trump apparently believes any acknowledgement of Russian crimes will hurt the legitimacy of his election: "I am confident former CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, DNI Dan Coats, Ambassador Nikki Haley, FBI Director Chris Wray, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others will be able to communicate to the President it is possible to conclude Russia interfered with our election in 2016 without delegitimizing his electoral success."

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY): "Russia has a track record of meddling in elections - not only ours in 2016, but around the world. I support the Mueller investigation in getting to the apolitical truth."

John McLaughlin, former acting CIA Director under George W. Bush: Appearing on MSNBC, McLaughlin said, "America has been attacked and the President sides with the enemy. It's about that simple."

His own administration and senior staff, immediately before the meeting: The Washington Post reported tonight that Trump's own briefers and advisors tried to turn Trump away from a pro-Putin stance by inundating him in evidence of Russia's crimes.

Administration officials had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Monday’s summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladmir Putin would end differently — without a freewheeling 46-minute news conference in which Trump attacked his own FBI on foreign soil and warmly praised archrival Russia. 

Ahead of the meeting, staffers provided Trump with some 100 pages of briefing materials aimed at laying out a tough posture toward Putin, but the president ignored most of it, according one person familiar with the discussions, who requested anonymity to disclose internal deliberations. Trump’s remarks were “very much counter to the plan,” the person said. 

“Everyone around Trump” was urging him to take a firm stance with Putin, according to a second person familiar with the preparations. In advance of Monday’s meeting, the second person said, advisers covered everything from Russia’s annexation of Crimea to its meddling in the U.S. elections, but Trump “made a game-time decision” to handle the summit his way.

On the other hand, Russian government officials were ecstatic with the day's events.

So?

• A president who needs dozens or hundreds of his own party's members to remind him who is an enemy of the United States probably can't do the job of protecting and defending the United States.

• A president who gets those warnings and still insists he did nothing wrong probably won't do the job of protecting and defending the United States even if he could. 

• It doesn't really matter whether a president is compromised by a hostile foreign power or just acts exactly like it.

Sunday Week in Review

What else did Donald Trump do this week?

Love. On Tuesday, Trump predicted that Hispanic Americans would "fall in love" with him because Democrats were "doing nothing for DACA," the Obama-era policy that made children brought to the United States by noncitizen parents a low priority for immigration enforcement.

Trump is the one who ended DACA.

Lies. Trump's phenomenal unwillingness to tell the truth--or possibly his inability--is well established. But he also made news this week for a revelation that he had been lied to. According to a New York Times article published this week, Uttam Dhillon, a lawyer with the White House counsel's office, deliberately misled Trump about his legal authority to fire James Comey. Dhillon was (correctly) worried that such an action would be seen as obstruction of justice, exposing Trump to legal jeopardy and investigation. He falsely told Trump that he needed "cause" to fire Comey.

In fact, the director of the FBI can be fired by the president at any time and for any reason, or no reason. In the end, the deception didn't work: Trump simply ordered deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to write a report Comey, and then used it (without Rosenstein's knowledge or agreement) as the "cause" he thought he needed. 

It is a very serious breach of legal ethics to mislead a client, and even more so when the client is the presidency itself. But keeping information from Trump in order to keep him from endangering himself is a long-established practice among his employees. 

Lawyers. Since taking office, Trump has lashed out furiously at attorney general Jefferson Sessions, the FBI, and career officers in the Justice Department. The root of his anger seems to be his belief, on taking office, that their job was to legally protect him rather than apply the law to him. When Sessions recused himself from supervision of the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election--meaning that he could not protect Trump from it--Trump reportedly asked "Where's my Roy Cohn?"

Cohn was a lawyer best known for his work as Sen. Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army-McCarthy hearings, during which Cohn was accused of various illegal unethical and illegal activities, including evidence tampering. Later in life, Cohn went to work for Trump, who described him as "vicious to others in his protection of me."

Wikileaks. During the campaign, Trump famously shouted "I love Wikileaks!" in response to their release of e-mails stolen by Russia from servers run by the Democratic National Committee. This was one of several different points of connection between the Trump campaign, Russia, and the site.

The love affair was renewed today when Wikileaks tweeted a link to a full-text copy of Fire and Fury, the book that provoked Trump to demand that he be recognized as a "very stable genius." Releasing the text of a book Trump loathes may not seem like a friendly act, but as a means of driving down sales, Wikileaks' foray into piracy will help Trump much more than it will hurt him.

The tactic of politically motivated piracy was perfected by the Kim Jong-Un regime in North Korea, which used cyber-attacks against Sony Pictures in retaliation for its anti-Kim comedy The Interview, including releasing free copies of Sony movies online.

Irony. It is quite common for the White House to request screenings of current movies, but the Trump White House's request to see the movie The Post is a little odd. The movie, starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, is the story of the Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham and their decision to publish the internal government report known as the Pentagon Papers. President Nixon ordered a secret (and illegal) campaign to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, the analyst who released them. Nixon sued the Post and the New York Times to prevent the publication of the report, but also carried on a public feud with reporters, who he regarded as his "enemy."

Trump has spent much of the last week promoting some sort of event, apparently a mock awards ceremony, in which he will talk about his issues with the "fake news media."

Why do these things matter?

• Trump's 17% approval rating with Latino voters suggest that they have not yet started blaming other people for something he did.

• It's bad if the president needs to be tricked out of committing serious crimes.

• A president who thinks the attorney general is his personal criminal defense lawyer is incompetent.

• A president who needs the attorney general to act as his personal criminal defense lawyer is a disgrace.

• Roy Cohn and Julian Assange are poor role models for the President of the United States.

• Things are not "fake news" just because a president doesn't like them being talked about.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He lost the military to a degree no commander-in-chief ever has before.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has come under heavy criticism in the last two days for his complicity in Trump's use of military forces against American citizens to facilitate a photo opportunity. 

In response, Esper took the almost unheard of step of publicly opposing Trump's plan to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would—debatably—allow Trump to send the U.S. military into states without the permission of state governors. (No state has requested them. Trump's photo op assault was only possible in Washington, D.C. because of its status as a federal district.)

Appearing before reporters today, Esper said, "The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act." 

Esper has also claimed he didn't know that Trump was planning to coordinate the assault on a lawful protest in Lafayette Park with his impromptu campaign photo opportunity immediately afterward.

At first light today, Trump appeared to be heeding the chorus of voices within the military establishment against treating lawful protestors as a threat requiring a military response. Word leaked out of the White House that Trump would walk back his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act. Active-duty military police and soldiers deployed from Fort Bragg were ordered to stand down and leave Washington, D.C.

But after Esper spoke, reporters were told that his comments were "not well received." A Trump spokesperson ominously refused to speculate about whether Esper would keep his job. And the order demilitarizing the nation's capitol was abruptly revoked. 

It is almost unheard of for a defense secretary to publicly contradict a president on military matters. But Esper wasn't the only one to do it today. Esper's immediate predecessor, Gen. James Mattis, also tore into Trump in a lengthy statement. It reads, in part:

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics. 

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

...We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.

Mattis and Trump parted on bad terms, with the former general resigning over Trump's abandonment of the United States' Kurdish allies in Syria.

Why should I care about this?

• The United States military defends the Constitution, not the president's re-election campaign.

• American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights are not the enemy of the United States military.

• Deciding to do something only after someone responsible tells you not to is what angry toddlers do.

• It's bad if a president's own cabinet appointee compares him to Nazis.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He promised to use the power of the state to protect his friends and punish his enemies.

Trump spoke to reporters briefly during a visit by the President of Ecuador. Most of the questions were about Trump's actions over the last few days to protect Roger Stone, his political backer. Stone was convicted of perjury and witness tampering in an attempt to shield Trump from the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

In the course of about ten minutes, Trump attacked all of the following people:

• Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his "people," all of whom were drawn from Trump's own Justice Department
• former FBI director James Comey, who Trump fired in an attempt to prevent further investigation into his ties to Russia's election interference
• serving and former FBI agents who took part in the government's attempt to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 election on Trump's behalf
• the four prosecutors on the Roger Stone case, who resigned in protest after they followed sentencing guidelines and were overruled by Attorney General William Barr.

In the last few days, Trump has also made implied threats against the judge handling the Stone sentencing, and mused openly about forcing the Army to discipline Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman for testifying before Congress about the Ukraine scandal.

Trump has essentially admitted in his recent tweets that Barr was acting on his direct orders by protecting Stone. His own advisors have told reporters that Trump is alternating between rage over his impeachment and exultation at having it behind him, and feels empowered to do anything necessary to prevent further scrutiny of his actions. Federal prosecutors still on the job are telling reporters that they fear more direct political interference of this type.

Trump is also very likely afraid: Stone is the fifth person from Trump's innermost circle either in or facing prison time with direct knowledge of his dealings with Russia during the 2016 election. (Michael Flynn is awaiting sentencing, and Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, and Paul Manafort are all in prison.) 

Why does this matter?

• Doing corrupt acts out in the open is just as bad as doing them in secret.

• Americans losing faith in the fairness of their courts and the integrity of their elections is what America's enemies want.

• Using the power of the government to punish people who oppose you is pretty much the definition of authoritarianism.

• When the president's own closest allies are telling people that he's having mood swings and lashing out at anyone he thinks is an enemy, it's a bad situation.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He got bullied by Rodrigo Duterte.

Trump's Asia tour took him to the Philippines today, where he renewed his warm relationship with President Rodrigo Duterte. Death squads and other forms of vigilante violence encouraged by Duterte have killed thousands of people, making him a pariah in most democratic countries, including the United States under President Obama. 

Prior to Trump's arrival, Duterte had pre-emptively demanded that Trump not raise the issue of his human rights abuses, saying that if Trump did dare to bring it up, he would say, "You want to ask a question, I’ll give you an answer. Lay off. That is not your business. That is my business." Trump seemed happy to oblige, but when reporters present at the first meeting between the two asked about it, Duterte responded by calling the reporters "spies" and ordering them out of the room. (Duterte has openly threatened journalists with assassination.) 

Trump, who has called the free press in the United States "the enemy of the American people," laughed out loud at Duterte's expulsion of the press. Trump later reminded Duterte that he was his friend, but that President Obama had not been. (This is correct: Obama refused to "lay off" and ignore the murders the Duterte regime committed, and relationships between the two were strained as a result.)

Praise and warmth for dictators has become the hallmark of Trump's Asia trip: in addition to his deference to Duterte, Trump has sided with Vladimir Putin over the "political hacks" and "liars" of the US intelligence community, enthusiastically congratulated Xi Jinping on his "victory" in maintaining his place atop the undemocratic hierarchy of the Chinese government, and even (sporadically) held out hope that he might someday be "friends" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. (At the moment, Trump and Kim are more like frenemies: Trump called Kim "short and fat" during this trip, but in the past has admired the way that the "smart cookie" Kim has ruthlessly suppressed challenges to his rule.)

Why should this bother me?

• It's bad if presidents prefer the company of dictators and strongmen to democratically elected governments.

• The President of the United States shouldn't be so easily pushed around.

• Demonizing the free press is what authoritarians do--and this is an example of that.

• A president who can't confront evil is either a coward or has priorities that make him unfit for office.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He forgot, in real time, that Ukraine and Russia are fighting a war.

Trump had a brief shared press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the U.N. General Assembly meeting. Naturally, virtually every question dealt with the surprisingly damning partial summary of their July 25th phone call that Trump was forced to release today. But when Trump was asked if he would commit to providing the military aid he'd held up in advance of that phone call, he said this to Zelensky:

TRUMP: And I really hope that Russia — because I really believe that President Putin would like to do something.  I really hope that you and President Putin get together and can solve your problem.  That would be a tremendous achievement.  And I know you’re trying to do that.

Russia is occupying Ukrainian territory and the two countries are effectively at war—which is why the much weaker Ukraine is so desperate for military aid and goodwill from the Trump administration. It's entirely possible Trump simply forgot or didn't understand that fact. But Trump has openly supported the Russian side in the past, fighting against sanctions on Russian oligarchs and publicly saying that Russia's invasion of Crimea was acceptable because some of the people living there were ethnic Russians. He's also lobbied hard to let Russia rejoin the G7 summit, after it was expelled for its annexation of Crimea.

OMG -- get a load of the look on Zelensky's face as Trump tells him, "I really hope that you and President Putin can get together and solve your problem." pic.twitter.com/IIefxLdXvB

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 25, 2019

Bizarrely, the notes that Trump released today describing their fateful phone call also involve him defending Russia to Zelensky, even as Zelensky is trying to make Trump understand the actual situation between the two countries.

TRUMP: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people. ... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it.

Trump is referring, apparently in all seriousness, to a fringe conspiracy theory that holds that Russia was framed for the cyberattack on the DNC. (It's still not clear what Ukraine has to do with this, though—that part Trump seems to have imagined himself.)

In other words, he's asking the President of Ukraine to investigate non-existent Ukrainian owners of the American computer security firm Crowdstrike to vindicate Ukraine's enemy Russia, which actually conducted the attack.

Why does this matter?

• A president who can't keep straight which country is a military ally and which is hostile to the United States is unfit for office.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He crippled a lot of federal agencies dealing with Americans' health.

Trump—or those acting on his authority—has been systematically firing federal workers by the thousands during the past week. Most of the workers targeted are "probationary" workers, who have not worked in their current position for the required 2-3 years needed to gain civil service protection. That means they can be fired at a whim without severance, even if they uprooted their lives to take a job that had been offered in good faith.

However, in many cases, these are not new hires—experienced federal employees also take probationary status when they are promoted or switch departments, and they have been targeted by these purges too. Military veterans, in particular, are heavily represented in this class of federal employees.

Several of the agencies targeted today are charged with keeping Americans healthy and safe from disease outbreaks. Employees, postdoctoral fellows, and students at the Epidemic Intelligence Service, the branch of the CDC that trains public health officials to fight infectious disease outbreaks, were told to expect their firing today. Experts call the program the "crown jewel" of the world defense against outbreaks of diseases like ebola, dengue fever, and biowarfare threats like anthrax or smallpox. The CDC as a whole is losing approximately 1,300 workers, and the National Institutes for Health about 1,500. That includes 300 workers at the National Cancer Institute. Those numbers do not include the nearly 1,000 physicians and health care workers of the Indian Health Service who were fired today. Those workers form the backbone of health services for many Native American tribal communities. The United States has treaty obligations that require it to provide that medical care.

Trump campaigned on a promise to "come up with the cure" for cancer if he were re-elected.

The federal workforce did add a few "new" employees today, though. The Department of Energy fired several hundred nuclear experts at the National Nuclear Safety Administration yesterday, only to scramble to try to hire them back today. Trump—or whoever is acting in his name—didn't realize that work requiring expertise in nuclear engineering and a security clearance to deal with the secrets of the United States' nuclear arsenal couldn't simply be shuffled onto the remaining staff. 

It's not clear how many of the fired NNSA workers have agreed to come back, or on what terms.

Why does this matter?

• If your plan to make government more efficient is exactly what an enemy saboteur would do if they could, it's a bad plan.

• Government needs the people whose job it is to tell elected officials how to fight disease outbreaks with something more effective than drinking bleach.

• No president should ever do anything that makes health care or disease prevention harder to get and more expensive for Americans.

• Even by Trump standards, firing the people who keep the nation's nuclear arsenal safe and ready with no plan to replace them is boneheaded.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He dodged a lot of stories about antisemitism in his administration and his biggest fans.

Today, Trump lost a round in one of many ongoing court battles related to his attempts to deport academics with valid visas for supposed "antisemitism." Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen legally in the country to work as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was ordered released from detention today. He took part in a protest last year against the treatment of Palestinians by Israel—before Trump even took office—and is married to a Palestinian-American citizen.

Trump has characterized any protest against the government of Israel as being "pro-Hamas" and "antisemitic," and has not hesitated to label anyone he regards as an enemy that way, including Jews. He has also argued that this is in and of itself grounds for deportation—or, in other words, that the government is entitled to punish law-abiding immigrants for political speech its president doesn't like. But as a matter of centuries-old law, the First Amendment protects all people, not just citizens. This was the basis for the order freeing Khan Suri.

This wasn't the only time today the question of antisemitism came up. NPR released a report today on three high-ranking Trump administration officials with ties to violent actual antisemitic extremists. (As the report noted, this is in addition to officials whose close ties to anti-Jewish extremists was already known, like FBI Director Kash Patel.)

Neither Trump nor his administration responded to NPR's requests for comment.

A second story about actual anti-Jewish sentiment broke today as more details are emerging about the 59 white South African "refugees" that Trump recently brought to the United States. Charl Kleinhaus, a white farmer who now lives in Buffalo, tweeted this in 2023:

 

By Trump's standards as applied to any other group living legally in the United States, this would be grounds for immediate detention and deportation. Kleinhaus' social media accounts make clear he's a fan of antisemitic podcaster Stew Peters—whose show FBI Director Patel appeared on eight times, even though he said he couldn't remember who Peters was during his confirmation hearing.

Neither Trump nor the White House has commented on Kleinhaus, either.

By his own admission, Trump believes any number of anti-Jewish stereotypes. He called American Jews who oppose the Netanyahu government in Israel "disloyal." (The idea that Jews are only loyal to themselves or Israel rather than the countries in which they live was one of the animating ideas behind the Holocaust; Trump's only twist on it is that he thinks it should be true.) 

Trump has said that Jews who didn't vote for him "hate their religion." He's perpetuated antisemitic stereotypes about Jews and money. He told a Jewish audience at the Israeli American Council that they were "brutal killers, not nice people at all" in business because of their supposed lust for money, and taunted them by saying it would force them to vote for him even though they hated him.

Trump weaponizing claims of antisemitism are a recent development, though. More typically, he's viewed anti-Jewish extremists as his base and defended them as "very fine people."

Why does this matter?

• Antisemitism is a genuine threat to Jews all over the world and needs to be treated like a problem, not a political opportunity.
  

• It's bad if the President of the United States believes disgusting racist stereotypes about Jews.
  

• It's worse if he goes out of his way to surround himself with staff who feel the same way.
  

• The Constitution, not Donald Trump's feelings, is the supreme law of the United States.