Today, tens of thousands – possibly more – protesters will descend on Washington DC for the first major protest in the capital since Trump took office. Meanwhile, Trump has been busy pardoning fraudsters for spurious reasons
Happy No Kings Day, everyone.
Today, tens of thousands – possibly more – protesters will descend on Washington DC for the first major protest in the capital since Trump took office.
No Kings, the umbrella group behind thousands of protests across America which have urged millions of people to take to the streets, has thus far avoided DC – fearing it could become a flashpoint that might invite trouble.
And that’s a distinct possibility on a number of fronts. There’s always a chance of violence – although organisers have told anyone looking to cause trouble they’re not welcome.
There’s the possibility provocateurs could infiltrate the march and spark trouble – something we would have previously dismissed as a conspiracy had the Department for Homeland Security not literally staged a fake riot in Portland last week.
The other possibility is almost too unpleasant to imagine. For weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Republicans called for a lowering of the temperature, with House Speaker Mike Johnson specifically calling for the left to stop calling their political opponents “fascists”, because it might provoke political violence.
With that in mind, here’s a list of the things Mike Johnson has said about today’s rally, and about protesters planning to peacefully assemble to express their opposition to Donald Trump:
- “We refer to it by its more accurate description, ‘The Hate America Rally.’ I’m not sure how anybody can refute that.”
- It will draw “the pro-Hamas wing” and the “Antifa people” (Bearing in mind that as of last month, Antifa has been classified as a domestic terror group, despite not being an actual group).
House Republican Tom Emmer went further, saying Democrats supporting the protest had caved to the “terrorist wing of their party”.
The protests start around 3.30pm our time and run til about 7. We’ll be watching and so should you.
Meanwhile in Trump Land:
- Eric Trump continues to be a good boy
- Trump fled to Florida ahead of the protests
- But not before commuting the sentence of convicted fraudster George Santos
- Somehow the White House got even more puerile
- Trump’s Venezuela commander quit
- ICE can now snoop on your phone
- And Zelensky visited the White House, but probably wishes he hadn’t
Here’s all you need to know and more…
General corruption and authoritarianism
1. Good boy, Eric
Let’s start with a little light corruption at the highest levels of government.
You’ll recall Trump got caught on a hot mic having a weird chat where the President of Indonesia seemed to be asking him to hook him up with one of his adult sons to talk about a business deal.
Which, if that were the case, would be pretty openly corrupt – not to mention the kind of thing Trump kept complaining about Hunter Biden doing. And when Hunter allegedly did it, it was grounds for impeachment.
And then remember yesterday when Eric Trump went on telly to say he was glad his dad had called him a “good boy”, because he is a very good boy?
Well, later last night Eric went on Real America’s Voice and openly admitted the Indonesian President and Trump were discussing family business deals at the Middle East summit.
“So I’ve got two projects in Indonesia, we did them in 2014 and 2015,” he said. “The most exceptional golf course by far in the country, an amazing place. It goes over these lava chutes on the side of a volcano, right over Jakarta.
“I’ve actually never met the President, and I think everyone in the country knows the two Trump jobs we have, the other one’s in Bali where we’re building a great hotel and that’ll be ready very soon.”
Not even trying to hide it.
2. Trump flees to Florida ahead of huge protests
As ‘No Kings’ protesters prepared to take to the streets of Washington DC last night, Trump high tailed it to Florida for the night.
But if he was hoping to completely avoid people shouting loudly about how awful he is, he might be disappointed. There are about 2,500 protests planned for later today, including one in West Palm Beach, about four miles from Mar A Lago.
3. Trump pardons convicted fraudster and fantasist because he always votes Republican
Remember George Santos? In 2022, he pulled off a surprise win as a Republican congressman from New York. It quickly emerged he’d fabricated huge parts of his biography, made false claims about his education, work history and misrepresented his family heritage.
As his story unravelled, it emerged he had:
- Used campaign funds to pay for posh clothing, luxury items and spa treatments
- Claimed unemployment benefits during the pandemic while reporting a six-figure salary elsewhere
- Stolen identities including family members’ names in order to hide money movement and campaign transactions
- Admitted to filing fake donor reports, using made up names and addresses for campaign contributions and inflating numbers so his campaign looked stronger.
In April, he was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison.
Last night, Trump commuted his sentence, arguing a sitting Democrat senator embellishing his war record was a “far worse crime” than wire fraud, and that “at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN.”
“George ha been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life.”
Ukraine
4. ‘Your mom’
In case you were wondering whether there is any good faith governance left in the White House, or people who are actually interested in public service, or the good of the country beyond the man in the Oval…
A reporter from HuffPost approached White House Press Secretary Karoline Leaviit and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung last night, to ask who suggested Budapest as the location for talks between Trump and Putin in a couple of weeks.
Leavitt responded: “Your mom did”.
Cheung replied: “Your mom.”
5. Sorry President Zelensky, Vladimir says you can’t have any missiles
Volodymyr Zelensky met with Donald Trump at the White House last night, and to be honest it was barely worth the jet lag.
The pair sat down for a working dinner, with Zelensky’s primary ask fairly clear and simple: We’ll let you store liquified natural gas in Ukraine, giving you a foothold on the European energy market, and in return you sell us a bunch of long range Tomahawk missiles.
And it seemed ahead of time like Trump was relatively amenable to that idea. The White House set up some meetings with energy firms and cabinet members. And on the way back from the Middle East, still presumably buzzing from the ceasefire he had a hand in organising, Trump indicated he wouldn’t mind sending a few missiles Kyiv’s way.
And then, on Thursday night, Trump had a two and a half hour phone call with Vladimir Putin, and everything changed.
In remarks after the call he seemed notably cooler to the idea of letting Volodymyr have some of America’s Tomahawk stockpile.
And while the dinner was broadly cordial, it wasn’t for want of trying.
6. Who was better to work with, me or Biden?
Before they ate, Trump opened the dinner up to questions from the press pool.
And the questions that came from the MAGA propagandist contingent in the pool these days – Trump fluffed, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend and Real America’s Voice “reporter” Brian Glenn and Cara Castronuova, who works for edgy pillow salesman and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell – seemed more designed to provoke a row in the room than to glean real insight.
Glenn, previously most famous for questioning Zelensky’s wardrobe, asked Ukraine’s leader what was different about negotiating with Trump compared to Joe Biden.
Zelensky managed a fairly diplomatic answer – ‘Trump is President, Biden isn’t any more’ – and it gave Trump an opportunity to slag off his predecessor.
And then Castronuova – who was called on by Trump at least three times during the spray – asked whether Zelensky was prepared to give up territory, and noted that the American people are suffering from “foreign war fatigue”.
Which you could write off as a junior mischief maker looking to throw rocks at a sensitive subject…if it weren’t for the White House press secretary saying almost exactly the same thing on TV later that evening.
7. ‘The US is getting tired of this war’
Karoline Leavitt went on (where else) Fox News to declare: “The US is growing tired of this war. Enough is enough.
“Both sides need to recognise the reality on the ground and come to a peace agreement. President Trump’s patience and the patience of the American people is growing very thin.”
8. Trump straight up says Ukraine should give up territory to an illegal invader
And that’s basically where Trump has come back to following his call with Putin. He’s unwilling to intervene to help Ukraine defend itself, lest the MAGA hardline get upset with him.
And so he’s defaulting to: There should just be peace, and to get there, Ukraine needs to give up parts of its territory that have been invaded.
“They should stop the war immediately,” Trump said on the Tarmac on his way to Florida. “You stop at the battle line. Stop right now at the battle line. I told that to President Zelensky and I told it to President Putin.”
Trump’s Venezuela War
9. Trump’s Venezuela commander quits unexpectedly
The more bombs Trump drops on ships in the Caribbean Sea (and the more of those ships turn out to be, in fact, submarines, and the more he doesn’t deny sending the CIA in to do regime change), the more it looks like Trump has quietly declared war on Venezuela.
But last night there was an unexpected twist. The Head of the US Military’s Southern Command is stepping down, the New York Times reported.
Admiral Alvin Holse is leaving less than a year into what would normally be a three year assignment. It’s almost unheard of for a senior commander such as him to leave his post at all, let alone this soon after taking the job.
So why is he departing? Officially no reason has been given, but the Times reported two sources said he had raised concerns about the mission and attacks on alleged drug boats – which at best are extrajudicial killings of foreign nationals, and at worse could be seen as war crimes.
The Surge
10. ICE get surveillance tech
According to the Washington Post, analysis of government contracts reveal Trump’s ICE thugs are getting even more tooled up.
They report iris-scanning apps, spyware that can hack into phones remotely and phone location software that enables the tracking of phone movements without a warrant are all on ICE’s shopping list.
Because what American law enforcement really needs is less accountable surveillance tactics.
The Shutdown
11. Leavitt complains that people keep saying an illegal thing Trump did is illegal
And finally, in recent days Trump has proudly managed to undercut the shutdown – finding a “creative solution” to getting US troops paid without Republicans in Congress having to give ground, and without Trump’s priorities suffering.
How has he done this? Well, the White House says he’s dipped into “tariff revenue” to pay the salaries.
There’s a general prohibition against transferring funding from one part of government to another unless explicitly authorised by Congress, which this one hasn’t.
He signed a memo on Wednesday which declared he’s allowed to do it, but that doesn’t make it legally so.
Karoline Leavitt was asked about it last night, and complained that people keep saying it’s illegal. Which it is.
“The president found a creative solution to keep the troops paid. And rather than congratulate the president for doing that, this unprecedented action to get our troops paid, the Democrats want to sue him for it. They’re saying it’s illegal.”
