Donald Trump is now openly threatening to arrest Democrat politicians who he doesn’t like and feed migrants to alligators
Donald Trump has nothing on his schedule for today – presumably he’s cleared it so he can watch his healthcare-slashing budget bill get rammed through its final stage of Congressional approval live on TV.
But as they say, the devil makes work for idle hands. Even Trump’s tiny, tiny hands.
While waiting for his big moment, he posted some truly mad things on social media, threatened to arrest a New York mayor candidate he doesn’t like and made up some insane numbers.
Also, he kind of threatened to feed migrants to alligators, and Kristi Noem told a wild story about a cannibal.
You’ll find all that and more below. Everything is fine. Here’s what you need to know.
1. The White House posted this utterly mad image
No big deal. Just the official White House Twitter account, which represents the seat of government of one of the world’s great democracies, posting AI pictures of alligators wearing ICE baseball caps.
The implied threat to undocumented migrants being “go back were you came from, or we will let wild animals literally kill and eat you.”
All fine. Totally normal.
2. He threatened to “save” New York from a democratically selected mayoral candidate
Trump is not at all cool with Zohran Mamdani, who was officially confirmed as winner of the New York democratic mayoral primary last night.
As we discussed yesterday, Mamdani is a bit of a lefty, by American standards – or as Trump has repeatedly called him, a “communist lunatic”.
Well, that escalated somewhat yesterday – with Trump threatening to arrest him and have him deported.
Asked last night about Mamdani’s remarks in a victory speech that he will “stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbours”, Trump responded: “Well then, we’ll have to arrest him.
He later posted on Truth Social: “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it “Hot” and “Great” again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
Mamdani later wrote on Instagram : “The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported,’ wrote Mamdani on Instagram.
“Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorise our city.”
3. Trump claimed the US spends the GDP of Ecuador on translation services
Trump says a lot of numbers, but even this one seemed to take him by surprise.
He trotted out his usual nonsense claim that the Biden administration, in the space of four years, allowed 21 million new undocumented migrants into the country. That’s actually up a million from the usual claim of 20 million.
Then he came out with a new one: “The United States is now spending $78 billion on translation. Think of that, $78 billion on translation, and smaller numbers on special education programmes for non-English speakers in our schools.
“Think of that, $78 billion. I think that’s not a mistake. I would say million dollars maybe…hundreds of thousands of dollars maybe? On translators and non-English speaking work….it’s more than twice the cost of maintaining the US justice department, what we’re spending on translation.”
Trump’s instinct was correct. It’s manifestly not true. $78 billion is a bit more than the entire gross domestic product of Ecuador.
It’s also about $13 billion more than the size of the language services industry worldwide – estimated to top out at $64.7 billion.
In 2010, it was estimated that the US Federal Government had spent $4.5 billion on translation services over two decades.
The US government’s biggest spender on translation services, particularly when talking about migration, is the Department of Justice, whose Executive Office of Immigration Review spent approximately $110 million on them in 2019.
Also, for the record, the total – TOTAL – number of undocumented migrants in the US was estimated at around 14 million when Biden left office. And that’s from a Conservative leaning anti-immigration think tank, the Center for Immigration Studies.
The 14m figure was an increase of about 3.8 million since January 2021 – a bump to be sure, but not 21 million – and that was from a Covid-era low.
Sane estimates peg it at somewhere around 11-12 million in total, and suggest it hasn’t actually increased that much over the years because people have left or gained residency.
4. Kristi Noem made a mad claim about a cannibal
Joining Trump on his tour of Alligator Alcatraz (see yesterday’s roundup), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made an eye-opening claim about a man being deported from the US.
“The other day, I was talking to some Marshalls that have been partnering with ICE,” she claimed.
“They said that they had detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home.
“And while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself and they had to get him off and get him medical attention.”
Trump is well known for banging on about the “late great Hannibal Lecter”. Maybe he finally caught him.
5. Trump halts weapons to Ukraine
Donald Trump has halted some shipments of weapons to Ukraine – as Volodymyr Zelensky’s country faces escalating attacks from Russia.
The munitions were promised to Ukraine under the Biden administration. But since Trump came to power Defence Department officials have raised concerns about the levels of America’s arms stockpile.
“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.
“The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran.”
6. He agreed a ceasefire in Gaza, but only with Israel…
Trump said last night that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza …but Hamas, thus far, have not.
Hamas suggested today that it was open to a ceasefire agreement, but stopped short of accepting Trump’s deal.
Trump said the 60-day period would be used to work toward ending the war – something Israel says it won’t accept until Hamas is defeated. He said that a deal might come together as soon as next week.
But Hamas’ response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting.
7. Trump successfully shakes CBS down for $16 million in ‘meritless’ case
In a troubling moment for free speech, Paramount yesterday agreed to pay $16 million to settle a meritless lawsuit filed by Donald Trump.
This dates back to the campaign, during which Trump confected a bit of outrage regarding the CBS 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which he said had been unfairly edited. It hadn’t.
His lawyers said noted snowflake Donald Trump had suffered “mental anguish” as a result of the editing, which is hilarious.
The case has been closely watched by advocates for press freedom and by journalists within CBS, whose lawyers called Trump’s lawsuit “completely without merit” and promised to vigorously fight it after it was filed.
Unfortunately, Paramount, CBS’ parent company, is in the middle of a merger, and would apparently rather get that done than make a stand on freedom of speech.
Paramount and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone were seeking the settlement with Trump, whose administration must approve the company’s proposed merger with Skydance Media.
CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens, who both opposed a settlement, have resigned in recent weeks.
The result is a capitulation. A shakedown. The second broadcaster in a row to pay millions of dollars to a sitting president – via his “Presidential library fund” – because the threatened to ruin them.
In December, ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit by Trump over statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, agreeing to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library rather than engage in a public fight. Meta reportedly paid $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the company over its decision to suspend his social media accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
8. So we return to the Big Beautiful Bill
Trump managed to get his enormous, medicaid slashing budget bill through the Senate last night.
Today it returns to the House for its final tweaks and one more vote – and members of congress have reportedly been rushing back to Washington to try and vote it through before Trump’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.
With treacherous weather hampering flights into Washington, a handful of House members hit the road overnight to make it in time for Wednesday’s votes.
Two GOP members from South Carolina, Reps. Russell Fry and Nancy Mace, chronicled their journey on social media.
Democrats also racked up the miles. Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi drove, hosting a Zoom townhall during his 14-hour drive. Reps. Chris DeLuzio of Pennsylvania and Derek Tran of California drove together after being stranded in Pittsburgh.