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More And More MAGA Republicans Aiming To Abolish Women's Suffrage

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920 — 105 years ago — and generations that came along after that, from the Silent Generation to Millennials, grew up assuming that women's suffrage was settled law. Even many critics of feminism agreed that the 19th Amendment was a good idea.

But The Guardian's Arwa Mahdawi describes a growing trend: more and more MAGA Republicans and white fundamentalist Christian nationalists openly questioning the 19th Amendment.

"Should women in the U.S. have the right to vote?," Mahdawi writes. "You'd be forgiven for assuming this particular issue was sorted out quite a long time ago. But, because we live in hell, it seems the question is once again up for debate…. First up is Braeden Sorbo, a 24-year-old conservative influencer."

Sorbo told YouTuber Richard Harris (who hosts the "Truth & Liberty" show), "I know more young women today who say they wish they didn't ever get the right to vote than I’ve ever talked to in my life."

"In a normal world," Mahdawi warns, "Sorbo would be a fringe figure shouting into the ether who we could all happily ignore. But thanks in part to digital media, we don't have that luxury any more. Sorbo has 1.9 million followers on TikTok…. More importantly, however, Sorbo's views can no longer be dismissed as 'fringe'…. Last month, for example, the U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared a video on X in which several pastors say women should no longer be allowed to vote as individuals…. Predictably, Elon Musk also has some views on this matter."

Mahdawi adds, "While the tech billionaire — soon to be trillionaire? — has never explicitly argued women shouldn't vote, he has amplified tweets that undermine the idea of universal suffrage."

According to Mahdawi, "The idea that women shouldn’t vote is increasingly being co-signed and amplified by some of the most powerful people in America."

An anti-feminist YouTuber who openly says that women should not have the right to vote is Hannah Pearl Davis, whose YouTube channel has over two million subscribers.

Mahdawi's column and Sorbo's recent comments are drawing a lot of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

Writer John Ashton posted, "The Handmaid’s Tale is the bible of MAGA."

Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson wrote, "This is so disgusting [and] especially horrifying because it’s the younger generation promoting this crap. I said we were moving towards the [Handmaid's Tale] last November. I hope I’m wrong."

X user Peter A. Patriot commented, "Republican women are admitting they don't think they should have the right to vote. It's sad."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Booed In Maine, Collins Faces Dimming Prospects In Midterm

When Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) spoke at a late August ribbon-cutting ceremony in her state, she was aggressively booed and heckled by attendees. This booing was quite a contrast to the enthusiastic support she enjoyed in Maine in the past, when she was reelected by 23 percent in 2008 and 37 percent in 2014.

Maine voters were quite willing to split their tickets in 2008, choosing Barack Obama in the presidential race while voting overwhelmingly to give Republican Collins another term in the U.S. Senate.

MSNBC's Steve Benen, in an opinion column published on August 28, stresses that the booing Collins recently suffered underscores a broader problem in the GOP. President Donald Trump's economic policies, according to Benen, are wildly unpopular — and even a moderate conservative like Collins is having a hard time distancing herself from them.

The recent booing, according to Benen, is quite a contrast to 2017 — when she voted "no," along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), on a Trump-backed bill that would have overturned the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (also known as "Obamacare").

"In July 2017," Benen recalls, "Republican Sen. Susan Collins made a routine trip home, as she'd done countless times during her lengthy congressional career. But this time, her arrival was quite a bit different: After walking into the terminal at Bangor International Airport, the senator was greeted with spontaneous applause. There was no great mystery as to why: Collins had just voted to derail the Republican Party's far-right health care gambit, and relieved Mainers apparently wanted to show their appreciation for her having done the right thing to protect the public from her own party's agenda."

Benen adds, "Collins, receiving the kind of outpouring of support most members of Congress can only dream of, described the scene as 'amazing.' Eight years later, the GOP incumbent is facing a very different kind of public reception in her home state."

Collins, now in her fifth term, is up for reelection in the 2026 midterms — and the recent booing, according to Benen, "probably wasn't encouraging."

"Collins' detractors raised a variety of points, though at this specific event, a local report from the Midcoast Villager noted, 'Detractors questioned Collins’ role in celebrating new spending while President Donald Trump and her fellow Republicans in Congress push through federal budget cuts to health care, food assistance and other services.'"

Benen continues, "The senator has argued that when her party's far-right megabill recently came to the Senate floor, she voted against it. That's true. But it's also true that when the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill Act needed to clear a key procedural hurdle a few days earlier, which allowed senators to advance the radical legislation, Collins voted with her party and the megabill's proponents — even as some other Senate Republicans sided with the package's Democratic opponents. Some of her constituents appear to have noticed."

Collins, now in her fifth term, is up for reelection in the 2026 midterms — and the recent booing, according to Benen, "probably wasn't encouraging."

by Taboola Sponsored LinksYou May Like Why Appetite Patches Are Suddenly Everywhere50&Beyond

Steve Benen's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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GOP Insiders Fear Trump Economy Is 'Ticking Timebomb' For Midterm

During the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump used his own variation of Democratic strategist James Carville's famous 1992 line, "It's the economy, stupid." Trump hammered then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris relentlessly on the economy — namely, inflation. And Trump's allies repeatedly claimed that while Democrats were obsessing over pronouns, he was worried about affordability.

It was a close election, but Trump's messaging on the economy helped him get past the finish line and win the popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent. But now, seven months into Trump's second presidency, some Republicans are, according to Wired, expressing their fears about the U.S. economy and the 2026 midterms behind closed doors.

In an article published on August 20, Wired's Jake Lahut reports that publicly, members of the Trump Administration are saying "no panicans" — meaning, stay the course, and don't panic over economic news. But privately, Lahut stresses, GOP insiders are worried.

"The (Trump) Administration's areas of focus — deporting immigrants whose labor powers key sectors like agriculture and construction, levying tariffs, and cutting social services among them — have done more than simply increase uncertainty," Lahut explains. "Hiring and tourism have already slowed dramatically in major U.S. cities from Las Vegas to New York in the first half of the year, and Trump has put almost all the ingredients in place for slow growth amid high unemployment and inflation, the potent combination known as stagflation. Behind the scenes, as more tariffs begin to kick in and punted deadlines approach — particularly a tariff hike on Chinese goods, now set to jump from 30 percent to 80 percent by November 10 — some Republicans in Trumpworld's orbit are bracing for impact."

According to Lahut, GOP insiders interviewed by Wired are "growing a little bit anxious about where the economy is heading."

Trump's tariffs, Lahut notes, "could be a ticking timebomb" for Republicans if prices soar and voters blame Republicans.

A GOP strategist, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Wired, "I'm probably surprised that there has not been more concern. I think the reality is that we’re at that sort of inflection point, where retailers were reluctant to raise prices because they feared retaliation from the (Trump) Administration. Now, the reality is setting in that these are not transitory. There are going to be economic consequences."

Another GOP strategist, also quoted anonymously, told Wired, "If this experiment fails, it’s gonna fail horribly, and I think we’ll begin to see the impacts of that sooner than later."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Trump Blurts Out His Plan To Corrupt 2026 Midterm Elections

Democratic election lawyer, voting rights expert and Democracy Docket publisher Marc Elias is warning that President Donald Trump is determined to "steal the 2026 elections" — and his game plan, according to an August video, includes a combination of voter suppression, election denial and a mid-decade U.S. Census (which is violating the rules because the next Census isn't due until 2030).

According to The New Republic's Greg Sargent (formerly of the Washington Post), Trump made his intentions for the 2026 midterms clear in a Monday morning, August 18 post on his Truth Social platform.

"President Donald Trump raged at Democrats Monday for supposedly cheating in elections in a long and unhinged Truth Social rant — and buried in his tirade is a clear indication of how he hopes to corrupt the 2026 midterm elections at a time when his agenda is nosediving in polls," Sargent explains. "In his screed, Trump rehashed his familiar lies about how mail balloting is riddled with fraud, and promised to lead a new 'movement' to abolish it."

Sargent warned that the executive order Trump is threatening for the 2026 elections is especially troubling.

Trump posted, "WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections. Remember, the States are merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes."

Sargent explains, "Trump already unveiled a similar executive order in March designed to change election rules. It would have barred states from accepting ballots mailed on time but that arrive after Election Day and forced state officials to require documented proof of citizenship for everyone who registers to vote in federal elections…. Trump appears prepared to have a second run at such an executive order. But what's critical about Monday's post is he connected this scheme directly to the midterms, inadvertently revealing the real aim behind it."

The New Republic journalist continues, "Trump's new rant says he’s going to 'lead a movement to get rid of' mail balloting, then later says this 'movement' will begin with his new executive order — a strong indication he will try to ban vote-by-mail by executive order. Voting rights advocates have long expected him to attempt something like this, perhaps by arguing that vote-by-mail is a threat to national security."

Attorney Pooja Chaudhuri of the Democracy Defenders Fund warned that Trump could commit an "enormous abuse of power" with the 2026 midterms.

Chaudhuri told The New Republic, "It sounds like he will try to ban all mail-in balloting through executive order, and he's going to have to find some other rationale for such a sweeping presidential action."

Greta Bedekovics, associate director of democracy at the Center for American Progress, told The New Republic, "If they are going to try to stand for election integrity, it hurts them to point out that this is directly related to the 2026 elections. It exposes that this is not about election integrity and national security, it's about election rigging."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

How House 'Opponents' Of Big Ugly Budget Bill Rolled Over For Trump

Early Thursday morning, July 3 — as House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was laying out one reason after another why he considers President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" a terrible piece of legislation — MSNBC reported that the megabill would soon be coming up for a full House vote and that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had secured enough votes to get it passed.

After the bill narrowly passed in the U.S. Senate, 51-50, Trump did everything he could to pressure House Republicans into voting "yes" as well. And according to Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis, reporters for The Hill, that included a phone conversation in the wee hours with GOP lawmakers who were holdouts.

Schnell and Lillis report, "The phone call — which took place around 1 a.m. as holdouts huddled in a room off the House floor — came as a key procedural vote for the megabill remained open for almost four hours, with hardline conservatives and one moderate Republican hampering the legislation from moving forward. As of 2 a.m. on Thursday, the vote was 207 to 217, with five Republicans having voted 'no' and eight withholding their support. The combination has threatened to tank the rule, since Democrats are united against it, and a vote on the final package can't proceed without that rule."The GOP holdouts in the House, according to Schnell and Lillis, included Kentucky's Thomas Massie, Indiana's Victoria Spartz, and Indiana's Tim Burchett.

"During the conversation," the reporters explain, "Massie — who has been at odds with Trump over the megabill for weeks — suggested he was ready to drop his opposition and support the rule if Trump stops attacking him, The Hill has learned…. Trump and those in his orbit have gone after Massie in recent months after the Kentucky Republican voted against the House version of the megabill in May, and said the president's strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities were 'not constitutional.'"

The journalists add, "A Trump-aligned super PAC, led by the president’s 2024 co-campaign manager, has rolled out ads bashing Massie as those in Trump World vow a primary challenger."

As the House vote was drawing closer on Thursday morning, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a centrist Democrat, appeared on MSNBC and said of the bill, "This is a huge betrayal…. A lot of jobs are going to be lost."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Tillis Warns Fellow Senators: Medicaid Cuts Will End GOP Majorities

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms, is facing two hurdles: an aggressive GOP primary challenge from MAGA businessman Andy Nilsson, and — if he defeats Nilsson and becomes the nominee — a Democratic opponent in the general election.

Now, according to Politico's Jordain Carney, Tillis is worried that President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" could be a major liability for Republicans in the midterms.

Carney, in a Wednesday, June 25, post on X, formerly Twitter, reported, "News: Sen. Tillis told his colleagues in GOP lunch today that he won't vote to proceed without more clarity on Medicaid language, per source familiar. He also warned GOP current language means they won't have two senators from NC sitting in the lunch post-2026."

Tillis, who is conservative but not far-right or ultra-MAGA, comes from a competitive swing state that can go either GOP or Democratic in statewide races.

In 2024, now-President Donald Trump defeated Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 3.5 percent in North Carolina. But Democrat Josh Stein was elected governor and followed two-term former Gov. Roy Cooper, another Democrat. And Democratic Justice Allison Riggs was narrowly reelected to her seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court last year.

The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, after narrowly passing in the U.S. House of Representatives, 215-214, is now being considered in the U.S. Senate — where Republicans are hotly debating steep cuts to Medicaid. According to analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Medicaid cuts being proposed in the bill could reduce Medicaid enrollment by 10.3 million people by 2034.

X user Ken Blair, in response to Carney's reporting, said of Tillis, "If he votes for it he shouldn't be re-elected."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Speaker Johnson Moves To Obstruct Probe Of Hegseth Signal Chats

Late Tuesday morning, April 29, CNN's Wolf Blitzer delivered some breaking news: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), according to Blitzer, "is taking steps to change House rules" in a way that "would effectively block an investigation into the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal chat app."

Hegseth's critics are calling for him to resign in response to reports that he discussed a U.S. military operation in Yemen in two separate conversations on the messaging program Signal — a platform that, critics say, is not secure enough for discussing sensitive or classified information. President Donald Trump's defense secretary is also drawing criticism over firings at the Pentagon.

CNN reporter Manu Raju, who spoke to Johnson, told Blitzer, "He's defending this move, Wolf. He included a provision in a House rule that would essentially deny Democratic efforts to force a vote that would call for a probe into Pete Hegseth's use of the app Signal that became, of course, very famous over the last several weeks, in which he talked about military plans, strikes against the Houthis in advance of that happening."

Raju continued, "Now, these types of votes that actually call for an investigation typically fail. Minority parties try to do this pretty regularly against.… the party in power. But in this particular aspect, there's a chance that Democrats could succeed. So, the speaker is taking the extraordinary step of including language in House rules to deny the Democratic efforts altogether, preventing that from even coming to a vote before the full House."

Hegseth's problems, Raju noted, aren't Johnson's only reason for this move.

Raju told Blitzer, "And I just asked the speaker about this. He's done this now on multiple occasions — not just on this, but also, to deny efforts to target Trump on tariff policy. I asked him why he's protecting Donald Trump."

CNN aired a clip of Johnson saying, "No, we're using the rules of the House to prevent political hijinks and political stunts. And that's what the Democrats have. As I mentioned: no leader, no vision, no platform. All they have is obstruction. They're trying to target."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Trump Still Claiming He 'Won Election By Landslide' As Polls Plunge

President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies have repeatedly used words like "landslide," "historic" and "mandate" to describe his narrow victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

In reality, it was a close election: Trump won the national popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent, and his victories in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin were in the low single digits. But during a late April interview with journalists Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer for The Atlantic, Trump doubled down on his "landslide" rhetoric — even as his poll numbers plummet.

Trump told Parker and Scherer, "What can be said? I won the election in a landslide, and there isn't anyone who can say anything about that. What can they write about?"

During the interview, Trump painted himself as enjoying great popularity. But a late April poll from NBC News finds his approval at 45 percent. And in a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released in late April, Trump's approval is at only 39 percent.Regardless, Trump, true to form, projected a lot of confidence during the interview.

"Trump and his team realized that they could behave with near impunity by embracing controversies and scandals that would have taken down just about any other president — as long as they showed no weakness," Parker and Scherer explain. "Even now, Trump — who described himself to us as 'a very positive thinker' — struggles to admit that his return to power was a comeback."

The reporters add, "To concede that he'd had to come back would be to admit that he had fallen in the first place. "

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Buyer's Remorse? Republicans Sweating Over Florida Special Elections

The argument that Florida is no longer a swing state, but rather, a deep red state, was validated in the 2024 presidential election when Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by 13 percent in the Sunshine State. Trump's victory followed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' 19 percent reelection landslide in the 2022 midterms.

Many of the swing states that Trump lost in 2020 but carried in 2024 were close, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. Florida, however, acted like the type of red state where it's normal for Republicans to win statewide races by double digits.

This Tuesday, April 1, two special elections for House seats will be held in Florida — elections that, as Bloomberg News' Mary Ellen Klas emphasizes in her March 27 column, will be an important referendum on Trump's presidency and Democrats' prosects in the 2026 midterms.

In Florida's First Congressional District, Democrat Gay Valimont is competing with Republican Jimmy Patronis for the seat formerly held by ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz. And in another district, Democrat Josh Weil is up against State Sen. Randy Fine; they are competing for the seat previously held by ex-Rep. Mike Waltz, now national security adviser for President Donald Trump.

Valimont, Klas notes, "has raised more than $6.5 million — three times more than Republican Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, who has raised $2.1 million." Meanwhile, Weil, Klas adds, "has raised more than $9.4 million — mostly in sums of under $200 — compared to Fine’s $987,000."

"It’s true that the GOP candidates remain the favorites simply because these congressional districts have been gerrymandered to give Republicans a voter registration advantage," Klas argues. "But now that Trump has done things he never promised and promised things he hasn't done — all while telling Americans they’re in for 'a little pain' — both the turnout and the vote should tell us how much buyer's remorse voters feel."

The Bloomberg News columnist adds, "Trump has endorsed both Patronis and Fine, and although the president's approval rating in the state has been falling, it still remains above water in Florida opinion polls. But Democrats from across the country are using the Florida race to send a message to the president that his performance comes with a political cost."

Valimont told Klas, "The tide's turning here. We have the largest district of vets in the state, and second nationally…. Our veterans are freaking out."

If Valimont and Weil lose on April 1, Klas emphasizes, the important thing to pay attention to will be by how much. And Democrats, she writes, should look for signs of "buyer's remorse" among Trump voters.

"This is not the first referendum on Trump," Klas argues. "In January, Democrats in Iowa flipped a state senate seat Trump had won by 21 points. And this week, Democrats seized another in conservative Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which had been held by Republicans for over 40 years. So watch the margins in Florida next week. Voters could signal how much 'pain' they are willing to absorb."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Chief Justice Rebukes Trump And MAGA Goons Over Impeachment Threat

President Donald Trump and some of his MAGA allies are calling for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, the Barack Obama appointee who temporarily blocked the deportation of undocumented immigrants allegedly associated with the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Trump, with his executive order, invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — which has only been used three times s in U.S. history.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts intervened in the matter on Tuesday, March 18, issuing a statement that was highly critical of Trump.

"For more than two centuries," the conservative George W. Bush appointee wrote, "it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."

Responses to Roberts' rebuke of Trump came swiftly.

On a legal panel, MSNBC's Lisa Rubin pointed out that Roberts is concerned with the "safety" of judges. And Georgetown University law professor Paul Butler noted the important role that judges play in the United States' system of checks and balances, adding, "Congress will do whatever the president wants."

Roberts' rebuke is also receiving a lot of responses on social media.

Billionaire Elon Musk posted, "As Justice Roberts well knows, impeachment is a constitutional right of the legislature."

Other X users, however, defended Roberts' position.

Former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, a frequent legal analyst for MSNBC, tweeted: "Chief Justice John Roberts has issued a remarkable statement in response to Trump's call for impeachment of the judge who ruled against him in Alien Enemy Act case. This is about law, not politics."

Attorney Gerald A. Griggs wrote, "When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court feels compelled to issue a statement, it’s a clear sign that there are serious issues with how two branches of our federal government are operating."

Comedian John Fugelsang commented, "John Roberts, who poured gasoline on a raging inferno, sternly rebukes one of the flames."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Does Trump Believe He's 'A Monarch Ordained By God'?

After Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in the popular vote in the United States' 2024 presidential race, many far-right white evangelical Christian fundamentalists didn't view the outcome as Trump narrowly winning a close election. Instead, they declared that Trump had a divine "mandate" from God Almighty Himself.

But Trump's critics — from Democrats to right-wing Never Trump conservatives — reminded Christian nationalists and MAGA Republicans that the U.S. Constitution vehemently rejects the "divine right of kings" concept. July 4, 1776, they stressed, was a total rejection of monarchy, not an endorsement of it.

In an op-ed published on March 17, journalist Marcie Bianco (author of the 2023 book Breaking Free: The Lie of Equality and the Feminist Fight for Freedom) emphasizes that Trump has a radically different view of the presidency than Presidents Barack Obama, Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman. While Obama, Roosevelt and Truman described themselves as "public servants," Bianco writes, Trump sees himself as a "monarch ordained by a god."

"From using the White House's South Lawn to shill cars for his biggest campaign donor to demanding taxpayer-funded ads that claim he victoriously closed the southern border," Bianco observes, "President Donald Trump is demonstrating that, as he stated in his first term, he has 'the right to do whatever I want.' That's his twisted interpretation of Article 2 of the Constitution, which describes the power of the president."

Bianco continues, "Yet the president of the United States is not a king. He’s not a monarch ordained by a god….. As mass protests against the Trump Administration take place across the nation, let us remember the historical role and responsibility of the president and what others who've held the office have had to say about the responsibility that comes with the position."

The journalist/author notes that in a May 1918 op-ed for the Kansas City Star, Roosevelt wrote, "The president is merely the most important among a large number of public servants." And in July 1954, Truman said, "I would much rather be an honorable public servant and known as such than to be the richest man in the world."

Then, in a November 2020 appearance on CBS News' 60 Minutes, Obama described the president of the United States' as a "public servant" who needed to represent the public's interest, not their own.

"We, the American people, are responsible to each other to secure the health of our democracy," Bianco argues. "This means we must elect to office presidents who are committed to public service, and if we fail at that, then we must use our First Amendment rights to protest against them."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Trumps Grifting Off New Saudi Golf Deal While America Isn't Looking

Many critics of President Donald Trump accuse him of using the presidency to promote his business interests — a claim that Trump and his allies vehemently deny, insisting that Trump maintains a strict separation between the White House and the Trump Organization. President Trump's defenders maintain that he is careful to distance himself from the Trump Organization, now being run by his son, Eric Trump.

But Mohamad Bazzi, a journalism professor at New York University and former Middle East bureau chief for Newsday, argues that a proposed deal between two rival golf tournaments — PGA Tour in the United States and the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf — is a "potential conflict of interest" for the U.S. president.

Bazzi, in an op-ed published by The Guardian on February 28, argues, "If concluded, the deal would directly benefit Trump's family business, which owns and manages golf courses around the world. And it would be the latest example of Trump using the presidency to advance his personal interests.

Bazzi notes that on February 20 at the White House, Trump hosted a meeting between PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV Golf Chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan. The LIV head, Bazzi adds, also manages Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

"A day before his latest attempt at high-level golf diplomacy," Bazzi observes, "Trump travelled to Miami to speak at a conference organized by the Saudi Public Investment Fund — which is managed by Al-Rumayyan but ultimately controlled by the kingdom's de facto ruler and crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Trump's sports diplomacy in the Oval Office and cozying up to Saudi investors in Miami did not get much attention compared with his whirlwind of executive orders and new policies. But these incidents encapsulate Trump's transactional and corrupt approach to governing — and the ways that wealthy autocrats, including Prince Mohammed, will be able to exploit the U.S. president."

The NYU journalism professor points out that in December, the Trump Organization "announced several real estate projects in Saudi Arabia, including a Trump Tower in the capital, Riyadh, and another $530m residential tower in the city of Jeddah."

"Today, the president is trying to reap more benefits based on his protection of Prince Mohammed — beyond what Kushner and the Trump Organization have already amassed from Saudi investments during Trump's time out of office," Bazzi argues. "Trump is corrupting the presidency by using it to negotiate international golf agreements and other deals that will ultimately enrich his family — and hardly anyone is objecting."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Senate Republicans Will Force 'Major' Changes In House GOP Budget

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was reminded how small his House majority is when, on Tuesday, February 25, a spending bill narrowly passed in a 217-215 vote. The bill didn't receive any Democratic votes at all, but only one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massey of Kentucky, voted "no."

Had there been a few more GOP defections, the bill would not have passed. And now, according to Politico, the bill faces another hurdle: Senate Republicans.

In an article published on February 26, Politico reporters Jordain Carney, Katherine Tully-McManus and Benjamin Guggenheim explain, "Despite a razor-thin 217-215 House vote Tuesday, GOP senators indicated Wednesday they would not accept Speaker Mike Johnson's fiscal framework as-is — heralding a rough road for President Donald Trump's legislative agenda on Capitol Hill.That's not to say they want to start from scratch: Most Senate Republicans said Wednesday that they were prepared to switch to the House's one-bill approach after spending more than two months pushing a competing two-bill plan. But they want major, contentious changes to policy choices embedded in the House plan."

According to a Politico source, conservative Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told senators "that there will need to be changes to the House budget and that there will be an informal meeting next week to start trying to reconcile the two sides."

Thune, the Politico journalists report, described the bill passed in the House as "a first step in what will be a long process, and certainly not an easy one."

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said of the bill, "It doesn't fit the president's plan in its current form, so we would have to make some changes."

Carney, Tully-McManus, and Guggenheim note, "Immediately after the House approved its plan Tuesday, Thune called for any Republican tax bill to include a permanent extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That was an implicit criticism of the House budget blueprint, which allows for $4.5 trillion in net tax cuts — which tax writers in both chambers say won't be enough to allow for TCJA permanency along with Trump's other tax priorities."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Emboldened Neo-Nazi Terrorists 'Quickly Rebuilding' As Patel Takes Over FBI

The Base, a paramilitary neo-Nazi/white supremacist group founded in 2018, was a major target of the FBI and its former director, Christopher Wray, during Joe Biden's presidency. And in 2022, according to The Guardian's Ben Makuch, The Base "seemed to disappear" in the United States.

But Makuch, in an article published on February 24, warns that The Base appears to be "regrouping" in 2025.

"An international neo-Nazi terrorist group with origins in the U.S. appears to be quickly rebuilding its global and stateside ranks, according to information obtained by The Guardian from its digital accounts," Makuch reports. "Founded in 2018, The Base has been the intense focus of a years-long FBI counterterrorism investigation that has resulted in more than a dozen of its members arrested. It has plotted an assassination, mass shootings and other actions in Europe, which made it a proscribed terrorist organization in several countries."

The Base's "regrouping," according to Makuch, "comes at a time when the Trump Administration has made it a policy goal to move away from policing far-right extremism" and the FBI is now under the direction of Trump loyalist Kash Patel.

Makuch reports, "Experts say federal law enforcement ignoring far-right groups such as The Base could expose Americans to increased domestic terror threats…. A flurry of new images on The Base's various social media accounts, some closed and some open, show members claiming to be in the U.S. and across Europe brandishing pistols or military-style rifles and donning the trademark skull mask of the accelerationist neo-Nazi movement — one that demands acts of terrorism to bring down world governments. In one photo, a member is holding a knife and what appears to be a pistol in front of the Base flag in the United Kingdom, while others feature members in Bulgaria, Italy, Belgium and Sweden. "

Steven Rai of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) warns that The Base's activities in the U.S. need to be taken seriously.

Rai told The Guardian, "The Base has released a slow but steady trickle of propaganda over the past several months that has mostly highlighted their presence in Europe, so this shift in focus towards the U.S. should raise alarms. The timing of this shift is particularly noteworthy. While neo-Nazi accelerationist groups like The Base have been on their back foot due to intense law enforcement pressure, which disrupted their most integral organizers and propaganda artists, they may sense an opening with the recent change of administration in the U.S…. Violent extremists are absolutely paying attention to the changes in the national security establishment in the U.S."

Terrorism expert Colin Clarke, who serves as director of research at the Soufan Center, stresses that The Base are well-aware of changes in leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Clarke told The Guardian, "I think groups like The Base, far-right extremist groups that are strategic, have been waiting for the right opportunity before reinvigorating their respective organizations. This means that far-right extremist groups likely perceive the reelection of Trump as a green light to rebuild without fear of arrest or prosecution."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

'Disastrous': Mass Firing Of Federal Employees Leaves 'Gaping Holes' In Government

Since President Donald Trump's return to the White House less than a month ago, thousands of federal government workers have been laid off.

Trump, with the help of ally Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fear their agency will suffer a similar fate, and Trump proposed eliminating the U.S. Department of Education altogether.

In an article published on February 15, six Politico reporters — Liz Crampton, Marcia Brown, Danny Nguyen, Ben Lefebvre, Catherine Morehouse and Eric Bazail-Eimil — detail the ways in which Americans are likely to be affected by these mass layoffs of federal workers.

"Americans could soon start to feel the repercussions of the Trump Administration's decision to fire thousands of government workers — from public safety to health benefits and basic services that they have come to rely on," the journalists explain. "Trump's directive to slash thousands of jobs across agencies is leaving gaping holes in the government, with thousands of workers being laid off from the Education Department, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Veterans Affairs and multiple others."

The reporters continue, "At the U.S. Forest Service, where some 3400 workers are slated to be cut, wildfire prevention will be curtailed as the West grapples with a destructive fire season that has destroyed millions of acres in California. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wasn't spared: Almost half of the agency's 2800 probationary employees were cut, while about 400 employees appeared to have taken the 'buyout' offer, meaning the agency responsible for protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other health hazards will lose about a tenth of its workforce. That's on top of more than 2000 probationary employees fired from the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC's parent agency."

According to the Politico journalists, a source "familiar with" activities at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said that as many as 200,000 civil service workers who were in the probationary period are likely to be laid off.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is being rocked by layoffs as well.

"Haphazard cuts at GSA could be disastrous for the millions of Americans who rely on the agency's services like Login.gov, the central login system for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security," the reporters note. "The agency also streamlines much of the federal government's real estate, acquisition and other technical services, and cuts to these could have a domino effect across the government."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Rookie Mistake': GOP Senator Says 'Fool' Could Have Written Hegseth Remarks

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) is among the Republicans who voted to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; the only Republicans who joined Senate Democrats in voting against Hegseth's confirmation were Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski.

The defense secretary and former Fox News host declared that membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is off the table for Ukraine, and Hegseth said that a return to Ukraine's pre-war borders is "unrealistic."

Interviewed at the Munich Security Conference, Wicker told Politico, "Hegseth is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn't my choice for the job. But he made a rookie mistake in Brussels…. I don't know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool."

Former Fox News host Carlson is an unapologetic defender of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Wicker's criticism of Hegseth is gentle compared to the scathing criticism he is getting from Democrats and Never Trump conservatives, but the Mississippi Republicans clearly believes that President Donald Trump's defense secretary didn't handle himself well during the NATO Summit.

Wicker told Politico, "I prefer we didn't give away negotiating positions before we actually get started talking about the end of the Russia-Ukraine War.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

House Gridlock: GOP Factions Spar Over Tax Breaks And Medicare Cutbacks

When Republican President Donald Trump started his nonconsecutive second term on Monday, January 20, small GOP majorities in both branches of Congress and a 6-3 GOP-appointed supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court awaited him. But Republicans in Congress don't necessarily see eye to eye when it comes to funding Trump's legislative and budgetary goals.

Politico reporters Benjamin Guggenheim and Meredith Lee Hill, in an article published on February 9, detail some major tax disagreements within House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) Republican majority.

"Prominent House Republicans are privately warring over how to advance tax cuts that are expiring and President Donald Trump's long list of other tax demands — with Budget Committee Chair Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) and deficit hardliner Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) locked in a struggle against Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) and other senior Republicans," Guggenheim and Hill explain. "The dispute is hindering Speaker Mike Johnson's plan to advance a budget blueprint this week, as different GOP factions continue to squabble over the costs of the tax plan, how to offset them to reduce their deficit impact and possible cost-saving changes to programs including Medicare and assistance for low-income Americans."

The Politico journalists note that "budget hawks" like Roy and Arrington are "still scouring for additional and highly controversial spending cuts."

"The number that lawmakers had tentatively settled on last Thursday — around $4.7 trillion — would make it virtually impossible to implement anything above an extension of the expiring tax cuts," Guggenheim and Hill report. "House Republicans agreed during their White House meeting last week that they would permanently extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are estimated by Congress' official accountants as costing $4.6 trillion."

But a House Republican, quoted anonymously, told Politico that Roy and Arrington "will make the tax cut portion not passable."

According to Guggenheim and Hill, "Centrists and even some more conservative Republicans are also increasingly alarmed that Arrington keeps raising Medicare reforms as a potential spending offset, according to three Republicans familiar with the ongoing talks. Trump made it clear on the campaign trail that he doesn't want to touch Medicare, but Arrington has suggested a variety of changes to the program that would lower costs in the Ways and Means’ jurisdiction."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

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