Trump today said the quiet bit out loud about how he’s planning to exploit the shutdown, and Speaker Johnson agreed that Trump is “unhinged” and “unwell”. Here’s everything you need to know
It seems like the Democrats’ big plan to make Donald Trump “own” the shutdown might have been a bit premature.
They were banking on the American public turning on Trump, as scores of their public services became unavailable – and blaming him for refusing to budge on healthcare funding.
But instead of seeing it as a political opportunity, as the Democrats have, Trump appears to see it as a practical one.
He’s invited a senior figure in Project 2025 to the White House to talk about “which of the many Democrat Agencies” could be temporarily – or permanently – cut.
Meanwhile, instead of furloughing workers, as is normally done during a shutdown, Karoline Leavitt said last night that many of them would simply be fired.
And in case you thought these were empty threats designed to force Democrats back to the table…probably not. It’s all stuff Trump wanted to do anyway. This just gives him an excuse to do it now.
Meanwhile in Trump World:
- Trump said the quiet bit out loud
- The White House repeatedly broke the law
- Speaker Johnson agreed Trump is “unhinged” and “unwell”
- Homeland Security posted a KKK slogan on Twitter
- Leaders of other countries were openly laughing at him
- And a NYPD cop may have put US national security at risk so he could watch the golf
You’ll find all this and more below. Here’s what you need to know.
1. Trump tweeted the quiet bit out loud
Before the last US election, a very detailed policy framework was drawn up by a coalition of right-wing think tanks, led by the Heritage Foundation.
Titled Project 2025, it was a 900-page wish list for how a second Trump presidency could radically – and possibly irreversibly – change America into an ultra-Conservative state.
It pushes a hard-line, Christian-nationalist agenda, scrapping or rewriting progressive policies on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, and immigration – and framing America as a “biblically based” of “traditional families” and conservative social values.
It gives the President far greater control over the civil service – replacing career officials with political appointees and hugely shrinking the government overall.
Now, Donald Trump has always denied this document was a blueprint for his presidency. In fact he’s even denied having read Project 2025.
Which is weird, because according to a project set up by two Reddit users to track his policies against the document, about 48% of it has been done since he took office in January. And he’s hired loads of people who were involved with its creation to run his White House.
Why bring this up today? Two reasons.
First, many people are warning that Trump and the Republicans will use the government shutdown to stealth through even more of the manifesto – like Doge on steroids.
Second? Because we think for the first time, Trump acknowledged it was a thing.
“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump said.
“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT”
2. Meanwhile, the White House is breaking so many rules
When the US government shuts down, a lo of things happen.
People get sent home from work, museums and national parks close – basically all non-essential arms of the government…well…shut down.
Also, nobody’s supposed to update the websites.
And they’re certainly not supposed to put partisan messages on websites for politically neutral government agencies. There’s a whole law about that, called the Hatch Act, from 1939.
So imagine our surprise when messages were added to the Department of Justice website overnight, reading: “Democrats have shut down the government.”
The department of housing, similarly, now reads: “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government.”
The department of Agriculture goes even further, reading: “Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.”
And the department of Health says: “The Trump Administration is working to reopen the government for the American people.
“Mission-critical activities will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown.”
Of course, as Texas State Senator Nathan Johnson witheringly pointed out, you can’t currently make a complaint about such flagrant violations of the Hatch Act, because the Office of Special Counsel is…shut down.
3. Even the Republican House Speaker thinks Trump is “unhinged” and “unwell”
A remarkable piece of footage has emerged of a conversation between Democrat Congresswoman Madeleine Dean confronting Republican Speaker Mike Johnson in congress.
She was criticising him for failing to push back against Trump’s antics – specifically that racist AI tweet from the other day featuring top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and a cartoon sombrero.
And while he quibbled over whether the tweet was racist…he appeared to kind of agree with her that Trump is “unhinged.”
“The President is unhinged,” the Congresswoman said. “He is unwell.”
Johnson replied: “A lot of folks on your side are too.”
Rep. Dean responded. “My god…please. That performance in front of the generals? That is so dangerous.”
Johnson huffed a bit and said: “I …didn’t see it.”
4. A government department literally used a KKK slogan
The Department of Homeland Security’s social media output has been getting progressively more edgy over the last few months.
At first it was a series of arguably white nationalist dogwhistles, which we’ve written about at length before.
But yesterday they went a step further, posting a picture of a furious Uncle Sam with “THEY HAVE GOT TO GO!” in big letters.
The tweet includes the phrase “AMERICA FOR AMERICANS”, which was the Ku Klux Klan’s slogan at the height of their popularity in the 1920s.
5. Speaking of Homeland Security…
As well as issuing recruitment ads for ICE on their Twitter account over the last few months, the DHS social media team appear to have picked up one of Deputy White House Prince of Darkness Stephen Miller’s pet projects.
A series of Tweets has popped up, occasionally retweeted by Miller, recruiting for “Homeland Defenders” – an apparently new position – to interview applicants for green cards, work visas, and citizenship for approval or denial.
Which seems like the kind of job you would never give to anyone who actively wanted to do it.
Of course, the DHS Twitter had to make it even more racist than it already seemed. One message from them read: “Recapture the America your forefathers created. Prevent foreign infiltration.”
Another meme posted yesterday read: “”Communist?” DENIED. “Terrorist?” DENIED. “Globalist?” DENIED.”
In normal times, you might overlook the fact that “globalist” is a pretty common anti-Semitic dogwhistle. It feels very weird to say it – but given the sheer volume of white nationalist and ‘great replacement’ coded content on their feed, it’s hard to argue that choice of words was accidental.
Last month, the account tweeted a post that read: “Which way, American man?” – a pretty clear reference to Which Way, Western Man, a 1978 book by neo-Nazi William Gayley Simpson. The book contains passages arguing Hitler was right, and calling for violence against Jews in order to “break their grip” on “the White man’s world”.
And in July, they posted a painting of a family of white homesteaders during the Westward expansion of the US. There’s a black woman, presumably a servant, in the background.
The tweet read: “Remember your heritage.”
6. Leaders of other countries are openly laughing at him
So Trump is very fond of listing all the “wars” he’s “stopped”. Seven of them, he claims.
He’s not always super hot on the detail thought. Sometimes he mixes them up.
For example, on a number of occasions he’s referred to resolving a long-running conflict between Azerbaijan (or, to be more specific, Aberbaijan), and Albania. The actual conflict he’s supposed to have sorted was between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
So this morning the Prime Minister of Albania bounded over to French President Emmanuel Macron, who was speaking to the President of Azerbaijan at the European Political Community Summit, and berated him for…not congratulating their two nations on the peace Trump had secured.
Macron and Azerbaijan leader Ilham Aliyev fell about laughing as Albania’s Edi Rama deadpanned: “You didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between our countries.”
“I’m very sorry,” Macron replied.
“And he worked VERY hard,” Rama added.
At least someone’s having fun, eh?
7. A NYPD detective sneaked into Trump’s security detail, possibly just to get Ryder Cup tickets
When Trump went to the Ryder Cup earlier this week, he had an extra tactical security officer tagging along.
Except he didn’t, what he had was an off-sick NYPD cop, who had showed up in full tactical gear, claiming he was providing security for President Trump. He was not.
Detective Melvin Eng, now facing administrative charges for theft of services, may have successfully pulled off the golf course deception if he hadn’t accidentally dropped his gun magazine in front of actual security personnel.
“What if he intended to cause harm?” one police insider said to the New York Post. “He made it in with his weapon, bypassing the Secret Service and state police.”