Trump cocoons inside his safe space as failure looms
ALSO INSIDE: Free online tools help identify officers who hide their badge
Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.
What Happened
President Donald Trump’s public calendar for Tuesday shows him meeting with the King and Queen of the Netherlands, taking a family photo, and enjoying a social dinner. In actuality, he’s spent most of the day searching for validation online and sharing opinion pieces that sing his praises.
Aside from a few sporadic posts to promote his tax bill and attack members of Congress who oppose it, Trump’s attention in the aftermath of bombing Iran seems to be consumed with reassurances from supporters that he’s doing a good job. Of the 12 articles he posted on Truth Social over the course of three hours, five were about Iran, another five on immigration, and one each about the economy and the NATO summit he was posting from.
In true Trump fashion, almost none of the “facts” he shared were true:
His nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by US Senate hopeful, Rep. Buddy Carter, was performative, as submissions for the award closed in January, and his actual nomination was withdrawn.
1 million people have not self-deported, as Trump claimed. Only 64 have.
Support for Trump’s mass deportation plan has plummeted since the poll he posted about came out.
Donald Rumsfield’s speechwriter is not a reliable source for determining how many lives were saved by bombing the Middle East, what constitutes a historical quote, or judicial proceedings.
And just because his Treasury Secretary lies about wage growth doesn’t make it true.
The reality is, opposition to the Trump administration continues to grow as he actually implements his deeply unpopular policies. Voters don’t want the military deployed against civilians, are unhappy with worksite raids and mass deportations, oppose going to war, and are not finding the economic relief Trump promised.
That dip in support isn’t limited to voters: like Carter’s Nobel Prize nomination, congressional Republicans’ support for Trump appears to be nothing more than performative. Only a handful of bills have made it to his desk, which has forced him to rely on executive orders. Trump’s issued 164 executive orders—more than Joe Biden signed during his entire presidency, and almost as many as Trump issued during his first term.
Trump set a deadline to have the Senate vote on his tax bill by July 4. His tax bill is as unpopular as the rest of his administration’s agenda, however, and its failure would be a painfully public demonstration of Trump’s failure to follow through on his campaign promises. That, coupled with the fact that his strike against Iran appears to have been a complete failure, makes Trump’s frantic search for validation and affirmation one of the more relatable things he’s done.
Attempts to Sanewash
Trump's Two-Track Immigration Strategy Sees Surge In Self-Deportations, Wage Gains
Treasury notes largest blue-collar wage growth in nearly 60 years under America First policies
Free online tools help identify officers who hide their identity
While law enforcement have traditionally considered it an honor and a privilege to wear their badge, law enforcement officers under the Trump administration seem to prefer hiding theirs. Blowback to Trump’s militant approach to governance, thinly veiled as an immigration policy, has led to officers covering their faces, hiding their badge numbers, and ditching department uniforms and vehicles so as to mask their identity from the public.
This has done little to restore trust and soften public sentiment toward law enforcement’s increasingly aggressive tactics. Kyle McDonald, an artist and former professor at NYU, has created a series of free, online tools that utilize public databases to force transparency on officers who prefer to remain in the shadows. McDonald created ICESPY in 2018 to help people identify unidentifiable immigration officers during Trump’s first term, and has recently published FuckLAPD.com when he noticed officers hiding their identities at the LA protests against immigration raids.
McDonald told 404 Media that the site already had about 50,000 visitors within the first week, and could prove to be a priceless tool to help those who have been injured, arrested, or otherwise mistreated hold the responsible LAPD officers accountable.
US Rep. Mike Alford, Missouri’s 4th Congressional District
Since taking office in 2023, Rep. Alford has:
Seen his net worth decrease from $528,000 to $501,000
Sponsored 34 bills, none have been signed into law
Declared peace in the Middle East shortly before Iran and Israel violated a ceasefire and Iran attacked a US military base
Accused voters attending a February town hall of being “outside agitators”
Admitted he only considers Trump voters his constituents
Opposed a voter-approved amendment to the Missouri constitution to guarantee abortion access
Fun Facts
Rep. Alford, the Kari Lake of the Midwest, was a local Fox news anchor in Missouri for over 20 years before he ran for office. While he claimed to leave journalism because he was a “critical thinker” and "committed to truth,” Alford’s former coworkers told the Kansas City Star it was because he was “toxic” and “the most difficult person [they] had ever worked with in television.”
In addition to leaving the anchor desk behind, Alford shut down his clothing design website, where his array of formal and equestrian wares received praise from himself on behalf of baseball legend Buck O’Neil (“Buck looked stunning”) and former Kansas City Chiefs band leader Tony DiPardo (“‘Mr. Music’ liked his custom made coat so much that he wore it for the cover of his book”). Alford also used to sell watercolor paintings, exhibiting a love of art that still shines through to this day — although not to the point of funding arts programs.
Before becoming a mainstay on national news outlets for his unrelenting support of bombing Iran, Alford made international waves for his on-air professionalism—or lack thereof—during a segment on naked yoga. Anything I write on the subject won’t do it justice, so I tracked down the segment and added it below.
‘It’s not too late for diplomatic solutions’
US Rep. Yassamin Ansari has been an unrelenting voice for diplomacy with Iran long before she was elected. Her parents immigrated to the US from Iran after the 1953 CIA-funded coup of Iran’s democratically elected leader led to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and she grew up with firsthand knowledge of the devastation caused by violent, subversive international politicking.
She cosponsored the War Powers Resolution earlier this month in an attempt to prevent the president from taking unilateral military action, like Trump did when he ordered an attack on Iran.
“I grew up hearing stories of family and friends brutalized by the regime ever since,” Rep. Ansari said in a statement. “The Islamic Republic regime is the enemy of the Iranian people. There are no shelters or infrastructure to protect Iranian people against even targeted missiles and strikes, not to mention a lack of baseline protections of their human rights and dignity.”
Sahara Sajjadi, political correspondent for COURIER’s The Copper Courier in Arizona, sat down with Ansari to talk with her about how her legislation could prevent further aggression by the United States.
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