The press were invited into the cabinet room to take pictures, which is pretty normal, and ask questions as if it was a press conference, which isn’t. Elon Musk, not a member of Trump’s cabinet remember, although he’s making all the big domestic decisions, also attended and made a speech himself wearing a tee shirt labeled ‘Tech Support.’ The whole thing lasted well over an hour and mostly consisted of Trump responding in his usual deranged and rambling style, packed with misinformation and flat-out lies, about how good he is. Apart from Musk and Robert f Kennedy Jr, I don't think anybody else spoke.
You can see the entire thing HERE
It’s not clear if the meeting went on after the press left and what if anything was discussed. I suspect nothing was actually done and it was all just for a show of unity, which The Washington Post had questioned recently.
In a totally insane outburst, Trump claimed the EU was formed “to screw us” and said he would soon release details of the latest tariff threat. “We have made a decision and we’ll be announcing it very soon. It’ll be 25%,” he said. The EU has vowed to respond “firmly and immediately” to “unjustified” trade barriers, signaling that it stands ready to retaliate swiftly against new tariffs. This hardly provides a solid backdrop for peace guarantees, does it?
Marco Rubio looked unhappy as did Linda McMahon, the Education Secretary, when Elon Musk, who has been trampling all over their department's staffing and spending plans, spoke about what DOGE was doing. I would keep an eye on both. They will be among the first to quit, I’m sure. McMahon was co-chair of Trump's transition team by the way.
Why charge someone with running a department, then employ someone else to make massive staff cuts in the same department without consulting the head of it? It seems completely mad to me and almost bound to create unnecessary tension and resentment, but this is the way Trump likes it.
Nobody with any self-respect and more than a few brain cells would serve in his administration. You would want to slash your wrists after spending more than a few minutes with him. He never learns anything because he never shuts up long enough to hear the truth or any other point of view. He's in love with moaning and the sound of his own voice.
The media
Last night we learned the opinion editor of The Washington Post, David Shipley, has resigned. The paper’s owner Jeff Bezos, of Amazon fame, had earlier announced a significant change to the opinion page guidelines. From now on, Bezos said the WaPo will publish daily opinion stories on two editorial “pillars”: personal liberties and free markets. Bezos added that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Nobody will be allowed to offer an opposing view in WaPo's opinion pages.
This follows Associated Press (AP) being excluded from the White Press briefings for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. Their legal challenge failed and one of the most respected news sources in the world is now officially out. A Huffington Post reporter has also been banned from the WH press pool.
The New York Times and other media outlets are also concerned that Trump intends to 'seize control' of the White House press pool and choose who is allowed to ask him questions since he can't handle hostile ones like any normal politician or leader.
This is exactly how dictators behave.
The Judiciary
Trump suffered three legal setbacks yesterday, the main one being a case brought by the National Council of Non-Profits against the Office of Budget and Management (OBM). This is about the general freezing of all federal funding after Trump’s executive order.
The judge, Loren AliKhan, granted a preliminary injunction blocking the freeze and was scathing in her remarks:
"The arbitrary-and-capricious review at this stage of the litigation remains largely unchanged from the court’s earlier opinion. The touchstone of this inquiry is rationality, and Defendants’ actions flunk that test. Defendants still cannot provide a reasonable explanation for why they needed to freeze all federal financial assistance in less than a day to “safeguard valuable taxpayer resources.” Evaluating funding priorities can be done without needing to starve citizens or deny critical health services."
The OBM couldn't even explain the rush!!
"The potential $3 trillion in financial assistance implicated by the freeze is a 'breathtakingly large sum of money to suspend practically overnight.' And rather than taking a measured approach to identify purportedly wasteful spending, Defendants cut the fuel supply to a vast, complicated, nationwide machine—seemingly without any consideration for the consequences of that decision. Doing so was not—and could never be—rational, especially when the decision was made without grappling with its catastrophic effects or the logistical nightmare of its implementation."
"In the simplest terms, the freeze was ill-conceived from the beginning. Defendants either wanted to pause up to $3 trillion in federal spending practically overnight, or they expected each federal agency to review every single one of its grants, loans, and funds for compliance in less than twenty-four hours.
"The breadth of that command is almost unfathomable."
It is all utterly mad.
Europe alone
I see that Macron has now briefed European leaders on what he achieved during his visit to Washington earlier this week. The answer is very little.
I note in this report in Politico, an unnamed EU bureaucrat said: "This was a waste of time.” Another said: “We as Europe are in this rather alone now.” I think this has been obvious for a few weeks. I doubt if Starmer will come away with anything different. At least this is a moment of clarity.
Europe has to step up. It has the capability and the money, all it needs is the political will.
