The President v. the Constitution – President Trump will say he was joking when he posted this photoshop of himself on his Truth Social as the potential successor to Pope Francis I, though days earlier in a surprise interview published in The Atlantic he did indeed say, “I run the country and the world.” Apparently that includes Vatican City?
Trump extended this sudden magnanimity to the left-of-Fox News media by appearing on Sunday’s NBC News Meet the Press.
Highlights? We have got your highlights right here …
Host Kristen Walker asks Trump whether he has to “uphold the Constitution.” Trump replies; “I don’t know.”
Hint ... It's in his oath of office.
Context … Pressing on the Supreme Court’s 9-0 ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, Welker says; “Your secretary of state says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens deserves due process. Do you agree?”
Trump: “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”
Welker: “Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.”
Trump: “It seems … it seems, it might say that, but if you’re talking about that then you have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials. We have thousands of people who are, some murderers, and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth. Some of the worst, dangerous people on Earth. And I was elected to get them the hell out of here. Courts are holding me from doing it.”
Welker: “Even given the numbers you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, Mr. President?”
Trump: “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that are working for me. And they are obviously going to follow what the Supreme Court said. That is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. I have a different interpretation.”
Whose economy? The “good parts” of the economy are Trump’s, the president said; “the bad parts are the Biden economy.”
When will he reach a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine? “Maybe it’s not possible.”
Do people have the right to criticize him without fear of retribution? “Absolutely.” Thanks, Mr. President.
On his call to Jeff Bezos over Amazon’s threat to post tariffs next to the price of imported goods: “I’ll always call people if I disagree with them.”
Expect more gold: Trump says he’ll build and self-fund a “world class” ballroom in the White House.
Sucession: Finally putting to rest the notion he would run for a third term in 2028, Trump instead names potential successors; Secretary of State (and now also national security advisor) Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
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Send Them to Alcatraz? – President Trump said on his Truth Social over the weekend he is ordering the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reopen Alcatraz. Now a tourist trap, literally, on an island in San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz opened as a prison in 1934 to hold such notorious criminals as Al Capone, a favorite foil of Trump at campaign rallies last year, and it closed in 1963 because it was too expensive to operate, according to USA Today.
But as Trump posted on Truth Social; “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order and JUSTICE.”
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Israel Approves Gaza Plan – Israeli cabinet ministers approved a plan early Monday that involves “occupation of territory and sustain Israel’s presence,” Haaretz reports. The plan is to capture the entire Gaza strip and remain in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time, the AP reports, adding that if implemented in the face of likely international opposition, would vastly expand Israel’s operations on Gaza.
The question of Israel’s endgame in Gaza has been an issue since shortly after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack.
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Hooray for Hollywood – Latest Trump Tariff ™ is a 100% tax on movies produced overseas, The Wall Street Journal reports, as the president has called use of incentives by countries to draw filmmakers away from the US a “national security threat.” According to NPR, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand have been particularly aggressive in using such incentives to bring productions to their neighborhoods.
No mention of how Georgia and other states east of the West Coast also has been aggressive in drawing movie and television production over from California, but Deadline notes that one of Trump’s special envoys to Hollywood, right-leaning actor Jon Voight, was said to be “devising a plan to save the entire industry.”
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa