80 Years – World leaders including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish President Andrzej Duda gathered Monday with survivors for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the World War II concentration camp in Auschwitz/Burkenau, where Nazis killed 1 million Jews. Politicians have not been invited to speak, (per Newsweek) as organizers instead chose to focus on the observance and testimonies of the survivors, youngest of whom are in their 80s.
TUESDAY 1/28/25
Retribution On – Acting Attorney Gen. James McHenry has issued letters firing more than a dozen Justice Department officials who investigated Donald J. Trump during the Biden administration, Fox News reports.
“Today, Acting Attorney Gen. James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” a Justice Department official told Fox News Digital. “In light of their actions, the Acting attorney general does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.”
The sackings are “consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,” the official told Fox News Digital.
NPR reports there is no known precedent for such action and that as longtime civil servants the sacked DOJ officials could sue the federal government.
--TL
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MONDAY 1/27/25
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One Week Closer to Authoritarianism? --President Trump was not, despite what he had quipped he would be in a conversation with Sean Hannity more than a year ago, a “dictator” for Day One. But he spent the first week of his second term consolidating his power, perhaps most acutely with his late-Friday firing of up to 17 inspectors general who investigate waste, fraud and abuse, including for the Pentagon, State Department, Veterans Affairs and the Interior, USA Today reports.
So much for draining the swamp.
Friday night usually is when such news is made to be lost in a weekend of NFL games and movie premiers, but this time it was simply part of the Trump firehose-full of executive orders and presidential comments, including the comment in which he called into question the future of the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Lest firing inspectors general or killing off FEMA could become the lead issues for Sunday morning shows, Trump on Saturday floated a proposal that in light of the ceasefire just begun, Palestinians should vacate Gaza. The president suggested the move could be “temporary or long term,” according to The Wall Street Journal, though it’s a good bet that his close ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would much prefer the long-term solution.
“It’s literally a demolition site right now,” Trump said of Gaza. “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”
Meanwhile in Colombia, left-wing President Gustavo Petro turned back two US military airplanes from Washington carrying deported immigrants, calling the action “degrading.” Trump immediately retaliated by threatening 25% “emergency” tariffs and a travel ban aimed at Colombian officials, Semafor reports. Such a tariff would have affected 11,000 Colombian imports, including coffee and flowers, but Petro has since capitulated to The Art of the Deal and now will allow US airplanes full of deported immigrants to land, NPR’s Morning Edition reported Monday.
In his analysis of Trump’s first week back behind the Resolute Desk, The New York Times’ Peter Baker suggests that Trump’s policy U-turns do not necessarily violate presidential standards.
“Any time a president from one party takes over from one of the other,” Baker writes, “the shifts in policies can be head-snapping, and Mr. Trump has been particularly aggressive in reversing the country’s direction ideologically and politically.”
For populist-conservatives looking to make America great again, Trump in his second term has made quick work reaching toward the goal. For progressives, the “one step forward, one step back” of Obama-Trump-Biden-Trump amounts to the sort of zero-sum gain Democrats could find themselves making for decades to come.
Appointees are a go … In case you missed it, the Trump White House began its weekend late last Friday confident it would get the cabinet it wants. Most important was the Senate’s 51-50 confirmation of former Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary, with Vice President Vance casting the tiebreaker. In addition to Sens. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) and Susan Collins’ (R-ME) “nay” votes, one other Republican senator indicated he won’t fall in line with every party line vote: Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, who stepped down as minority leader last year and has not indicated whether he will run for re-election again in 2026.
That’s probably what it takes for the former Senate majority leader who paved the way for Trump’s three Supreme Court appointments, then accused Trump of provoking the January 6th Capitol attack to deal with likely MAGA retribution in Kentucky’s 2026 midterm primary election.
Saturday the Senate confirmed South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of Homeland Security by a 59-34 vote.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa