BY MATT BERG
& CROOKED MEDIA |
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WEDNESDAY
FEBRUARY 26, 2025 |
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You can pee on my leg but don’t tell me it’s rain — and Trump is raining on America.”
— Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), in a graphic metaphor for Trump’s attack on democracy.
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Billionaires in Donald Trump’s orbit are reaping the benefits of sucking up to the boss, while also using their power to curb press freedom. Great stuff from one month of Trump 2.0.
- “I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” President Donald Trump mused wistfully to reporters after announcing a $5 million dollar “gold card” visa for wealthy foreigners to enter the United States. One month into Trump’s presidency, he has adopted a very public mantra: Show me the money. (But, you know, not in the cool Jerry Maguire way.) It’s emboldening corrupt billionaires to act as they please and without fear of consequences, while they stuff their pockets with cash.
- Chainsaw-wielding “First Buddy” Elon Musk spent a fortune to help elect Trump and become the de-facto president. His power play now appears likely to pay fresh dividends: Republican lawmakers want to hand Musk billions of dollars to expand high-speed internet across the U.S. via his Starlink company. The Biden administration sparred with the gazillionaire over the issue. Scoring this contract would be a major win in a years-long battle. But it comes with gnarly ethical challenges: Should a private citizen with sweeping power over the U.S. government be allowed to accept billions from that government?
- Well, too late, of course. For Elon, this would be business as usual. Musk built his empire on an eye-popping $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, according to a new Washington Post analysis. That fat federal payday helped Musk become the world’s richest man, and could one day help make him the world’s first trillionaire. His true income from federal contracts is probably even higher, because Musk’s SpaceX builds secret spy satellites among other classified work for the federal government. To make matters even more icky, Musk has personally thanked American taxpayers (you and me!) for the money that bolstered his companies.
America’s richest shiny-headed space cowboy, Jeff Bezos, is also on a mean streak, working to turn his newspaper’s editorial board into a Trump-loving machine.
- Amazon founder Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, sent an email to staff at the newspaper this morning, telling them that the editorial board will write every day in support of “personal liberties and free markets.” Opposing viewpoints, he explained, won’t be tolerated, because people can find those opinions elsewhere on the internet. It’s such a massive encroachment on the paper — which is supposed to operate independently of the owner’s beliefs — that the Post’s top opinion editor resigned.
- “I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical,” Bezos wrote on X, announcing his editorial power grab. “And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.” Coincidentally, economic inequality has also skyrocketed since the 1980s, allowing people like Bezos to travel in a rocketship near Earth’s orbit and call themselves astronauts. Thanks, Ronald Reagan!
- Marty Baron, the famous former Post editor, called out Bezos’s bullshit: “There is no doubt in my mind that he is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests, Amazon (the source of his wealth) and Blue Origin (which represents his lifelong passion for space exploration),” Baron wrote in a statement today. “He has prioritized those commercial interests over the Post, and he is betraying the Post’s longstanding principles to do so.”
- Personal liberty and free markets are concepts, innocent on face value, that have been twisted by MAGAworld to fit its agenda. When Trump talks about personal liberties, he often means free speech… for himself, and lawsuits for his enemies. He’s suing several news outlets over their coverage and has waged war on LGBTQ expression. When Trump talks about free markets, he often means slashing regulations to help his billionaire homeboys make bigger profits. Will Bezos veto editorials criticizing Trump? He already killed the paper’s anticipated endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris…
One thing we’re watching for: Trump’s sensitive ego clashing with his mega-wealthy backers. He’s a “fucking moron,” Musk reportedly said in the Oval Office in 2020. “I was just in China and man, their palaces just make the White House kind of look more like an outhouse.’” Care to comment, Mr. President? |
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Is the Trump administration about to claim that dangerous planet-warming greenhouse gasses are… no big deal? Climate correspondent Anya Zoledziowski explains.
Lee Zeldin, the climate change skeptic turned Trump’s top environmental aide, has advised the White House to repeal a key scientific finding from 2009 that underpins U.S. limits on greenhouse gas emissions, according to reporting by Bloomberg and others.
Repealing this “Endangerment Finding” would lay the groundwork for a sweeping assault on U.S. regulations aimed at countering climate change and protecting Americans from pollution.
This is a big deal. The move would undermine EPA’s ability to insist on cleaner factories, oil and gas wells, car exhaust, and more. And you can slap a massive bow on this news, because it’s a big gift for the fossil fuel industry, which has fought for years for this exact outcome. Reminder: Middle and lower class Americans rely on the EPA to protect them from pollution, something I wrote about earlier this month. All this is happening as Zeldin promises to cut a whopping 65 percent of EPA’s staff. “The endangerment finding is the foundation for all the work we need to do to protect everyone, in every community across the country,” the Environmental Defense Fund’s Sarah Vogel told What A Day.
Zeldin’s move follows closely on Trump’s executive order, “Unleashing American Energy,” which explicitly asked the EPA to determine the finding’s “legality and continuing applicability.”
So, Zeldin basically said, “yes, daddy!” and did as he was told.
Still, there’s room for optimism. The courts will decide whether this is legal, and they might be swayed by the scientific evidence. “It’s a finding about greenhouse gasses based on science. It will be hard to convince a court — even a court with Republican-appointed judges — that the science somehow isn’t there to support this finding,” Jody Freeman, director of the Environmental & Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School, told The New York Times earlier this month.
This story is supported by our nonprofit partner, Crooked Ideas. |
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Trump was mocked on social media after posting an AI-generated video of Gaza… with some bizarre imagery. The lowlights: Trump sunbathing shirtless with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (???), Elon Musk scarfing down bread dipped in hummus, and long-bearded belly dancers. Seeing is believing… but I still can’t believe this shit.
An unvaccinated child in Texas died after contracting the measles, the first death from the disease in the U.S. since 2015. Brainworm survivor, professional grifter, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn’t want you to worry! “It’s not unusual, we have measles outbreaks every year,” he said today. Wow, interesting point, Bobby, but measles vaccines usually prevent those outbreaks from turning deadly. Get vaccinated!
House Republicans passed their major spending plan last night, despite concerns from several GOP members about $800 billion in Medicaid cuts. It’s a major win for Speaker Mike Johnson’s political career, and a major loss for tens of millions of low-income Americans who rely on the program for healthcare benefits. Today, Trump claimed there won’t be any Medicaid cuts… which even Republicans don’t buy.
The Supreme Court appears likely to rule in favor of a straight woman alleging that her employer discriminated against her for being heterosexual because a promotion was given to LGBTQ colleague instead of her. “Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, whether you are gay or straight, is prohibited. The rules are the same whichever way it goes,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said. This could open the door for a deluge of lawsuits from Americans of majority identity groups (straight, white, cisgender, etc.) who are simply bad at their jobs or not qualified in the first place.
Elon Musk isn’t the real leader of DOGE, according to the White House. It’s actually Amy Gleason, a former healthcare executive and top Trump official — who was in Mexico when a reporter called to ask her about the position. I thought remote work wasn’t allowed now? She’s probably kicking back in a beach chair and sipping a piña colada, which would explain a lot.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is launching his own podcast, where he plans to challenge Democrats on some of the party’s positions and debate some fiery Republican politicians. Newsom is one of Democrats’ only representatives with attractive-yet-slimy high school bully energy, so this should be fun to watch.
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson are releasing a book together titled “Original Sin,” detailing Biden’s ill-fated decision to stay in the presidential race. “Biden, his family, and his team let their self-interest and fear of another Trump term justify trying to put an at times addled old man in the Oval Office for four more years,” reads a book preview. Okay so when Jake Tapper says it it’s fine, but when we say it everyone gets mad???
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