Tag: donald trump

Trump Officially Begins Phasing Out FEMA: ‘We’re Going to Give Out Less’

One of the more controversial arms of the government under the administration of former President Joe Biden could soon cease to exist as anyone knew it.

Biden’s successor, President Donald Trump, has made that much abundantly clear.

The embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency is going to be “wound down,” per the president’s orders, as described by Reuters.

FEMA, which has an annual budget of about $30 billion, will start being phased out as its responsibilities get doled out to other departments.

For example, federal disaster aid funds will now be distributed directly from the White House.

Trump was speaking to reporters on Tuesday when he made his intentions for FEMA crystal clear.

“We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said, according to The Hill. “We’re moving it back to the state so the governors can handle it.”

The president also claimed that federal aid will be tightening up a bit — though he made sure to note that he thinks states will still appreciate what they receive.

“We’re going to give out less money,” he said. “It’s going to be from the president’s office.”

He added, “As an example, I just gave out $71 million to a certain state. They were looking to do about 120 [million], they were very happy with the $71 million.”

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The Spectacle Of A Police State: This Is Martial Law Without A Formal Declaration Of War

Reporter: “What’s the bar for sending in the Marines?”

Trump: “The bar is what I think it is.“

In Trump’s America, the bar for martial law is no longer constitutional—it’s personal.

Indeed, if ever we needed proof that Donald Trump was an operative for the Deep State, this is it.

Despite what Trump would have us believe, the Deep State is not the vast numbers of federal employees who have been fired as part of his government purge.

Rather, the Deep State refers to the entrenched network of unelected bureaucrats, intelligence agencies, military contractors, surveillance firms, and corporate lobbyists that operate beyond the reach of democratic accountability. It is a government within a government—an intelligence-industrial complex that persists regardless of who sits in the Oval Office and whose true allegiance lies not with the Constitution but with power, profit, and control.

In other words, the Deep State doesn’t just survive presidential administrations—it recruits them. And in Trump, it has found a showman willing to turn its agenda into a public performance of raw power—militarized, theatrical, and loyal not to the Constitution, but to dominance.

What is unfolding right now in California—with hundreds of Marines deployed domestically; thousands of National Guard troops federalized; and military weapons, tactics and equipment on full display—is the latest chapter in that performance.

Trump is flexing his presidential muscles with a costly, violent, taxpayer-funded military display intended to intimidate, distract and discourage us from pulling back the curtain on the reality of the self-serving corruption, grift, graft, overreach and abuse that have become synonymous with his Administration.

Don’t be distracted. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t be sidelined by the spectacle of a police state.

As columnist Thomas Friedman predicted years ago, “Some presidents, when they get into trouble before an election, try to ‘wag the dog’ by starting a war abroad. Donald Trump seems ready to wag the dog by starting a war at home.”

This is yet another manufactured crisis fomented by the Deep State.

When Trump issues a call to “BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” explaining to reporters that he wants to have them “everywhere,” we should all be alarmed.

This is martial law without a formal declaration of war.

This heavy-handed, chest-thumping, politicized, militarized response to what is clearly a matter for local government is yet another example of Trump’s disregard for the Constitution and the limits of his power.

Political protests are protected by the First Amendment until they cross the line from non-violent to violent. Even when protests turn violent, constitutional protocols remain for safeguarding communities: law and order must flow through local and state chains of command, not from federal muscle.

By breaking that chain of command, Trump is breaking the Constitution.

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EPA cancels limits for several PFAS chemicals in drinking water

More than 150 million Americans drink water contaminated with toxic forever chemicals. Last year, after decades of inaction, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set limits to protect public health. Now, that same agency is undoing those defenses.

Some protections designed to save lives from a dangerous class of chemicals in drinking water are being shut off.

It’s a move being called “devastating” by some experts, including Melanie Benesh, Vice President for Government Affairs at the Environmental Working Group.

“Every time we look at these chemicals, we discover that they are more toxic than we had previously thought,” Benesh said.

She’s been working to protect Americans from PFAS chemicals for years.

Linked to developmental issues in kids, cancer, and reproductive harm, these toxic “forever” chemicals contaminate the water supply from industrial releases, landfills, and firefighting foam.

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Tech giants including Oracle, Lockheed Martin quietly fund Trump’s military parade

President Trump’s military parade this weekend is expected to be a costly display of pomp and circumstance – and it’s being bankrolled by some major Big Tech giants. 

Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Coinbase and Amazon have recently donated to America250, the nonprofit raising funds for the nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary, the organization said.

“Many of these sponsors will support the upcoming grand military parade being held in Washington, DC, on Saturday, June 14, to celebrate the US Army’s 250th birthday,” America250 said in a press release this week.

Oracle confirmed it is sponsoring Saturday’s parade, as did Exiger, an AI-powered supply chain management company, and Lockheed Martin, which called it a “momentous occasion.”

Palantir, Coinbase and Amazon did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.

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Hegseth says the Pentagon has contingency plans to invade Greenland if necessary

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force if necessary but refused to answer repeated questions at a hotly combative congressional hearing Thursday about his use of Signal chats to discuss military operations.

Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly got into heated exchanges with Hegseth, with some of the toughest lines of questioning coming from military veterans as many demanded yes or no answers and he tried to avoid direct responses about his actions as Pentagon chief.

In one back-and-forth, Hegseth did provide an eyebrow-raising answer. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., asked whether the Pentagon has developed plans to take Greenland or Panama by force if necessary.

“Our job at the Defense Department is to have plans for any contingency,” Hegseth said several times.

It is not unusual for the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans for conflicts that have not arisen, but his handling of the questions prompted a Republican lawmaker to step in a few minutes later.

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Trump Says No More Windmills, Calls Them ‘Bullsh*t’ and a Blight on Our ‘Beautiful Plains’

Calling power-generating windmills “bullshit” and a scenic disaster, President Donald Trump said this week his administration would not approve any more development of wind energy except in cases of emergency.

“We’re not going to let windmills get built because we’re not going to destroy our country any further than it’s already been destroyed,” Trump said. “You go and look at these beautiful plains and valleys and they’re loaded up with this garbage that gets worse and worse looking with time…What bullshit this is.”

The National Desk posted his profane dislike of the towering wind turbines on YouTube.

Trump made the comments during a speech Thursday ahead of his policy to overturn California’s phaseout of gas-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles.

It’s not the first time the president has criticized wind energy. Shortly before taking office in January, he told reporters, “We’re going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built. They don’t work without subsidy. … You don’t want energy that needs subsidy.”

On the campaign trail, he vowed to end offshore wind production, spoke out against unsightly turbines near his golf course in Scotland, and has blamed turbines for deaths of birds and whales.

His latest remarks signal Trump may be getting even tougher than the executive order he issued on January 20, the day he took office, that halts approvals of new wind projects, but described the policy as temporary.

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By Promoting Amnesty For Illegal Workers, Trump Is Selling Out ‘America First’ For Cheap Labor

“Mass Deportations Now.”

It wasn’t just a slogan on signs — it was a rallying cry that galvanized millions of voters. The promise was the restoration of American sovereignty through the removal of all illegal aliens — not just the violent ones. Americans understand that national unity requires assimilation, and assimilation is impossible when millions pour in illegally and remain indefinitely. The message that won the election was not “Mass Deportations, But Only For The Worst Offenders.”

But on Thursday President Donald Trump posted the following on Truth Social:

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

He later doubled down on the comments during a press briefing.

“[Farmers] have very good workers; they’ve worked for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. … We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have, maybe, what they’re supposed to have, maybe not.”

But sovereignty doesn’t yield to staffing shortages. American immigration policy should never be dictated by the labor needs of employers, especially not in industries built around a permanent, low-wage migrant workforce. And while there may be a legitimate case for limited, legal, seasonal migration in agriculture, allowing a worker shortage to become the justification for lawbreaking and mass amnesty reduces citizenship or legal status to a commodity and the nation to marketplace.

As The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson pointed out in a post on X, “This is amnesty. … [Trump is] also making a declaration that businesses that openly flout US immigration law (for decades!) will face no consequences. This isn’t how you end illegal immigration. It’s how you entrench it.”

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Denmark’s Parliament Approves Legislation Authorizing US Military Bases on Danish Soil, as Trump Eyes Greenland Annexation

The Danish have caved and will allow US bases in their territory.

When US President Donald J. Trump expressed his desire to gain control of the island of Greenland, it took most by surprise, and generated a panic in the kingdom of Denmark.

While the former colony and present semi-autonomous territory has belonged to the Danish for centuries, the geopolitical situation may cause a historical shift.

Greenland is located between North America and Europe, making it vital for monitoring Russian military activities, particularly ballistic missile threats and naval movements through the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap.

The U.S. already operates Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland for missile defense and space surveillance under a 1951 defense agreement with Denmark.

It provides access to the Arctic Ocean and emerging shipping routes, made accessible by melting ice, with a vital role in tracking Russian and Chinese naval activities.

“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” — Donald Trump, statement on Truth Social, December 2024.

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Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Boost Subsidies for Rich Farmers

It should be clear by now that, despite the assurances from President Donald Trump and his allies in government, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month—not only won’t reduce the federal budget deficit but will in fact increase the nation’s debt load by $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

Given that Trump came into office promising to cut federal spending, it’s worth looking at how Trump’s bill does the opposite of what he and other Republicans say it does. And one of the more egregious things it does is boost corporate welfare for wealthy farmers.

“The government provides agricultural subsidies—monetary payments and other types of support—to farmers or agribusinesses,” says the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). “While some subsidies are given to promote specific farming practices, others focus on research and development, conservation practices, disaster aid, marketing, nutrition assistance, risk mitigation, and more.”

“In reality, this support is highly skewed toward the five major ‘program’ commodities of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice,” according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental advocacy organization. “Despite the rhetoric of ‘preserving the family farm,’ the vast majority of farmers do not benefit from federal farm subsidy programs and most of the subsidies go to the largest and most financially secure farm operations.”

The new bill will only make the problem worse: According to an analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the bill “would increase agriculture-facing programs spending by $56.6 billion over the next decade,” of which “$52.3 billion is tied to enhancements in the farm safety net.”

That “farm safety net” comprises most agricultural subsidy spending in any given year. It includes price and revenue guarantees for certain crops, ensuring farmers earn a set minimum on staples like corn and soybeans, as well as crop insurance assistance, covering up to 60 percent of farmers’ insurance premiums in the event of price declines or poor harvests.

The programs are a bad deal for taxpayers—indeed, for anybody but the very wealthiest agribusinesses. “Just in the last 10 years, crop insurance agents and the 14 companies the USDA allows to sell and service crop insurance policies…received almost $33.3 billion from the federal Crop Insurance Program,” EWG Midwest director Anne Schechinger wrote in 2023. “In some years, up to one-third of crop insurance payments are made to companies and agents, not farmers.”

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Trump’s Federal Budget Cuts Could Boost Marijuana Legalization Efforts As States Seek New Revenue, Congresswoman Says

A Democratic congresswoman says the Trump administration’s push to make states pay a larger share for public services such as food assistance and health care amid his efforts to cut federal spending might ultimately “push them in the direction of legalizing marijuana” so they can offset those costs with cannabis tax revenue.

In an interview on the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) Voice of Cannabis podcast that was released on Thursday, Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) commented on a wide range of marijuana policy issues—including bipartisan legalization legislation, stalled action on federal reform and the destigmatization of cannabis use in her state after enacting an adult-use marijuana market.

One of the “only good things that comes out of the policy of the White House is that they are pushing more things to the states to pay for—like [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)] and like Medicaid—and so states may be looking for additional sources of revenue,” Titus said. “That may push them in the direction of legalizing marijuana, to some extent, so they can get that tax revenue generated.”

Titus said the lawmakers who back reform were initially “optimistic” about the prospects of a federal policy change under President Donald Trump because of comments he made on the campaign trail in favor of rescheduling, industry banking access and a Florida adult-use legalization ballot initiative left the impression “he was going to be supportive.”

“Now we’ve seen that kind of stall, and we have this crazy secretary of [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] that I think is on drugs,” the congresswoman said, referencing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “I don’t know where he’s coming from, and so it’s hard to read what the administration is going to do and if they’re going to make it a priority and if they’re going to weigh in. So that’s another element of the politics that we have to keep in mind.”

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