Trump

READER’S EDITORIAL: AMERICA IN RETREAT, AN APPALLING DISPLAY

By Mel Gurtov

March 1, 2025 (Washington D.C.) -- Imagine that during World War II, at the height of Nazi Germany’s blitz of Britain, President Roosevelt invited PM Winston Churchill to Washington and humiliated him with derisive comments about Britain’s looming defeat and failure to thank the President for US support. Unthinkable, of course, but that’s exactly what happened when Ukraine’s President Volodymir Zelensky visited Washington and had to endure Donald Trump’s appalling interrogation. 


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WHAT IS PROJECT 2025—AND HOW IT COULD IMPACT YOU, YOUR FAMILY, AND YOUR COMMUNITY

Slashing federal disaster relief, privatizing public education, politicizing federal agencies, gutting intelligence bureaus, stripping away rights of protected groups, and ending climate change actions are among the proposals detailed in Project 2025

By Miriam Raftery

October 7, 2024 (Washington D.C.) -- Project 2025 is an 887-page blueprint for a second Trump administration, according to its authors. Trump has alternately praised it, claimed never to have read it, and said he disagrees with parts of it; he has denied knowing its authors, even though those authors include 140 top officials and advisors from Trump’s first presidential term, some of whom wrote entire chapters.

ECM has reviewed the entire document and provides this analysis of its most controversial provisions, in summary and detail. Some page citations are provided; citations are available on request for every fact cited.

Project 2025’s  stated mission is to restore family as centerpiece of American life, “dismantle the administrative state” (p 3), defend our nation’s sovereignty and borders against global threats, and secure ”God given individual rights to live freely.”  But if fully implemented, it would dismantle many branches of our federal government, politicize every federal agency,  threaten  our democracy and take away many rights and protections for women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, and our environment.

SUMMARY

Some of its most polarizing proposals include:

Shutting down and privatizing agencies: It aims to close down entirely agencies ranging from the Department of Education (p. 285) to  the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service (p 664) which could charge for weather reports and warnings, also privatizing FEMA  (p. 135), the Federal Emergency Management Agency that provides aid to victims of wildfires, floods and other disasters, privatizing Small Business Administration disaster loans, and privatizing National Flood Insurance. The Transportation and Security Administration, or TSA which was set up to protect us from terrorists after 911 including airport screenings, would be privatized as well. 


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AS WE CELEBRATE AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OUR DEMOCRACY IS AT RISK

Update July 11:  Trump has recently said of Project 2025, "I have no idea who is behind it." However, CNN reports that at least 140 people who worked for Trump were involved in Project 2025's creation, including six of Trump's former cabinet secretaries,  his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, his long-time advisory Steven Miller, and several attorneys who represented Trump in election inteference cases.  The project's top architects describe it as a blueprint for a second Trump administration.

 

By Miriam Raftery

Image: Spirit of '76, painting by A.M. Wilard depicts American Revolutionary War fought to win freedom from British tyranny

 

July 4, 2024 (San Diego) – Today, we celebrate our nation’s declaration of independence from Britain’s king in 1776. But ironically, America’s democracy is at risk, along with the liberties we cherish.  Constitutional experts warn that like several failed democracies, most notably Germany in the 1930s, the United States now faces the very real threat of becoming an autocracy,  or dictatorship.

The threat is two-fold: first, a document called Project 2025 is a blueprint for converting our democracy to an autocracy and the guidebook for a second Trump term of office. Second, a Supreme Court ruling this week effectively grants Trump, Biden, or any future president king-like authority to break the law without fear of prosecution for crimes.

Steven Levitsky, coauthor of the award-winning, bestselling book How Democracies Die states, “Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. Some of these leaders dismantle democracy quickly, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany. More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.” He further warns, “This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy—packing and “weaponizing” the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off the media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.”


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JUDGE FINDS TRUMP AND SONS REPEATEDLY VIOLATED NEW YORK FRAUD LAWS, ORDERS COMPANIES DISSOLVED

 

By Miriam Raftery

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Trump Tower in New York, Creative Commons 3.0 image by Bin im Garten

September 29, 2023 (New York, NY) --  Donald Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr. stand to lose their business empire, after New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that the company repeatedly violated the state’s fraud laws. The judge found that the Trumps  inflated the value of their assets by billions of dollars to get favorable loans and insurance terms, while claiming far lower values on the same properties when it suited them to do so.

For example, Trump valued his Mar-a-Lago golf club at $714  million on his annual financial statements, even though a tax assessor estimated its value at must $18 million. Trump even listed the size of his Mar-a-Lago  penthouse at 30,000 square feet, instead of its actual size—just 10,000 square feet, according to the civil fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Judge Engoron has ordered business certificates for Trump’s New York properties cancelled and ordered independent receivers be appointed within 10 days to manage dissolving the companies, which could include selling off the assets. Trump could be entitled to money from any such sale.


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TRUMP, CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS REACH DEAL TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT, BUT ONLY FOR 3 WEEKS

By Miriam Raftery

January 25, 2019 ( Washington D.C.) – The longest federal government shutdown in history is slated to end tonight, after President Donald Trump and Congressional leaders agreed to enact a temporary bill to fund agencies through February 15th.  That bill does not include any funding for a border wall. 

The Senate passed the short-term funding bill today, one day after the Republican-controlled Senate voted to reject two measures that would have reopened the government long-term. One was a Trump proposal with wall funding and a temporary extension of protection for young immigrants or Dreamers.  The other was a funding bill with no money for the wall passed by the Democratic-controlled House.

During the next three weeks, Congress will convene a bipartisan conference committee on a Homeland Security Department funding bill and attempt to strike a compromise on border security.


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FEDERAL SHUTDOWN HALTS CONTROLLED BURNS IN CLEVELAND NATIONAL FOREST

By Miriam Raftery

File photo: Dead trees smoulder during controlled burn in San Diego’s East County

January 10, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – Putting all San Diego County residents at higher risk of a major wildfire, winter controlled burning of two to three thousand acres in Cleveland National Forest have been put on hold due to the federal shutdown, fire officials have advised ECM news partner 10 News.


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SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN LOOMS IN SENATE

By Miriam Raftery

December 21, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – President Donald Trump says he will shut down the government at midnight  unless the Repubilcan-controlled Senate passes a budget with $5 billion in funding for a border wall.  Trump claims this would be a “Democrat shutdown.”  The House already passed the measure yesterday down party lines.

But dozens of Senators have already left Washington for the holidays and it appears ulikely that enough votes will be mustered for passage.

Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), chair of the Senate’s budget committee, has stated flatly, “No, he won’t have 60 votes over here.”


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FEDERAL JUDGE RESTORES DACA, PROTECTS DREAMERS

 

By Miriam Raftery

August 9, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a ruling last week order the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  The program protects many young immigrants who came here as children from deportation.

Trump announced plans to shut down the program and his administration has stopped accepting applications or processing renewals. But the judge ruled Trump’s rationale for dropping DACA, a program created during the Obama administration, did not pass legal muster.


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DEMOCRATS FILE SUIT ALLEGING RACKETEERING AND CONSPIRACY IN 2016 ELECTION

 

 

By Miriam Raftery

April 20, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – The Democratic National Committee has filed a lawsuit against the Trump campaign, Russia, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and associates of President Donald Trump. The suit alleges racketeering, computer hacking, fraud and conspiracy to win the 2016 presidential election and harm Democrats.

The suit provides evidence of how the Trumps allegedly used their family business to curry favor with Russians as well as how Russia allegedly shared findings of a cyber-attack on Democratic National Committee headquarters with the Trump campaign. The evidence includes numerous written communications between Trump advisors and Russians, the Washington Post reports.


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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES OPENING COASTLINES FOR OFFSHORE DRILLING, INCLUDING SAN DIEGO

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Santa Barbara oil spill, 1969, dumped up to 100,000 barrels of crude oil off California's coast, killing 3,500 sea birds as well as marine mammals such as dolphins and seals. (Dick Smith Collection, University of Santa Barbara)

January 5, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke yesterday issued a sweeping proposal to open up 98% of all outer continental shelf areas for offshore oil drilling -- including off San Diego’s coastline.  By contrast, drilling is currently allowed in only 6% of those areas.

The proposal, which also includes plans to drill in the Arctic, elsewhere along the west coast, the Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast, has drawn strong opposition from environmental groups and from California’s Attorney General.  View map of proposed drilling sites. The public will have an opportunity to weigh in however in public comments and public meetings to be held around the country.  A schedule of those meetings will be posted here.  Online comments at regulations.gov will be accepted starting January 8th.


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COMEY TESTIFIES TRUMP STATEMENTS ON FBI WERE “LIES, PLAIN AND SIMPLE”

 

By Miriam Raftery

View James Comey’s introductory remarks and full testimony.  

June 8, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – In riveting testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee today,  fired FBI director James Comey confirmed that President Donald Trump  asked him in person and in phone calls to back off the investigation of National Security advisor Michael Flynn’s Russian ties. 

Trump fired Comey after he refused to back off the investigation or swear a loyalty oath, promising "honesty" instead. Comey said Trump  then“chose to defame me—and more importantly, the FBI by saying the organization was in disarray and that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple.”

Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe backed Comey in his recent testimony , stating,“Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day,” adding that Russia probe is “significant.”


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SPECIAL PROSECUTOR APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE RUSSIAN ELECTION MEDDLING AND TIES TO TRUMP CAMPAIGN: ACTION COULD BE FIRST STEP TOWARD IMPEACHMENT

 

By Miriam Raftery

An East County Magazine Special report

May 17, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – In a bombshell announcement, the U.S. Justice Department has  issued an order to appoint a special prosecutor  to investigate Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.  Far more broadly, the order allows investigation of any matters that arise from the investigation and all other matters within a special prosecutor’s jurisdiction under federal law – including authorization to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation.   

Acting Attorney General  Rod. J. Rosenstein issued the order to appoint Robert Mueller, a former federal prosecutor who served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013 under both Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama.


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HOW SAN DIEGO’S REPRESENTATIVES RESPONDED TO FIRING OF FBI DIRECTOR AND REPORTS THAT TRUMP PUSHED COMEY TO BACK OFF INVESTIGATION INTO FLYNN’S RUSSIA TIES

 

By Miriam Raftery

May 17, 2017 (San Diego) -- San Diego’s Congressional delegate and California’s Senators are voicing diverse views – and in one case, a crude response to  the firing of FBI director James Comey and a startling report by the New York Times indicating that notes by fired FBI Director James Comey reveal that President Donald Trump  first asked Comey to shut down a federal investigation into fired national security advisor Michael Flynn over his Russian connections, but Comey refused to do so.  (See ECM special report.)


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TRUMP PRESSURED FBI DIRECTOR TO HALT FBI INVESTIGATION OF FLYNN RUSSIAN TIES, NY TIMES REPORTS

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Gage Skidmore

May 17, 2017 (Washington D.C.) –President Donald Trump pressured FBI director James Comey to halt the FBI investigation into former National Security Director Michael Flynn’s Russian connections, but Comey refused, according to a memo written by Comey at the time,  the New York Times reports.  Comey also refused Trump’s demand to jail journalists for publishing leaked materials—shortly before the President fired Comey.   The revelation has top Republican and Democratic Senators preparing to subpoena records that could, potentially, lead to impeachment.

“Obstruction of justice is what it looks like to anybody who’s looking at it,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat working with Republican  Senator Lindsey Graham to investigate the FBI’s role in the federal Russia investigation,  Politico reports. “This is about as lay down a case…as a prosecutor could imagine,” he added.

Republican Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee who has said he won’t seek reelection,  today announced on Twitter that his committee will “get the Comey memo, if it exists,” adding, “I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready.”


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COURTS BLOCK PART OF TRAVEL BAN FROM MUSLIM NATIONS AS PROTESTS GROW; TRUMP CLAIMS ORDER IS WORKING “VERY NICELY”

 

 

By Miriam Raftery

Protest planned at 5 p.m. tonight at Lindbergh Field; immigrant attorneys warn demonstrators could be detained, caution non-citizens not to participate due to “grave” risks

January 29, 2017 (San Diego)—Multiple federal courts have issued orders temporarily blocking deportation of  legal residents detained at airports following President Trump’s executive order Friday, including a New York federal judge ruling on an ACLU suit that applies nationwide. While some remain detained and denied access to counsel per the ACLU, others were allowed to meet with immigration attorneys  and were soon set free at airports across the U.S., where large crowds gathered and greeted the arriving immigrants with cheers to welcome them to America (View video).

The court orders thus far protect only those already at U.S. airports or in transit. Other lawsuits are set to be filed Monday by civil rights and Arab-American groups seeking to overturn as unconstitutional the broader ban on admitting refugees as from seven mostly Muslim nations (Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Syria, Libya and Yemen)  listed as countries of concern by the State Department. 

The order also applies to  an estimated half million legal U.S. residents with green cards from those countries, as well as people who hold dual citizen in any of the seven nations as well as citizenship in U.S. ally nations including Canada and Great Britain.


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TRUMP NAMES CLIMATE SKEPTICS, ENERGY LOBBYISTS TO KEY POSTS,TAKING AIM AT DISMANTLING CLIMATE ACCORD AND POLLUTION PROTECTIONS

 

By Miriam Raftery

November 11, 2016 (Washington D.C.)—President-Elect Donald Trump has wasted no time in appointing environmental and health experts’ worst nightmares to key cabinet posts, though oil energy executives are praising the moves.

Energy lobbyist Mike McKenna has been named to head Trump’s Department of Energy transition team; his recent clients include Dow Chemical and the oil tycoon Koch brothers,  Climate Wire and Scientific American report. Trump has also named infamous climate change denier Myron Ebell to lead the Environmental Protection Agency transition team. Ebell has said climate change is “nothing to worry about” in an interview with Vanity Fair


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ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

November  2, 2016 (San Diego's East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

Presidential election

General News

WORLD

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.


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SUIT FILED AGAINST CALIFORNIA OVER NONPARTISAN VOTERS ACCESS TO PRESIDENTIAL BALLOTS

 

Monday, May 31  is deadline for nonpartisan voters to request a party ballot to vote for a presidential candidate--but lawsuit seeks to extend that to June 7

By Miriam Raftery

May 21, 2016 (Sacramento) – Only 15% of California’s nonpartisan voters with mail-in ballots have requested a presidential primary ballot.  That means the vast majority won’t be able to vote for president in the June 7th election--and many are unaware of that restriction.

Now civil rights lawyers have filed suit against California and some counties, claiming the laws are confusing, inconsistent, and amount to disenfranchisement.  If they win, the biggest beneficiary could be Bernie Sanders, the Democratic contender who draws heavy support from independent voters, who account for nearly a quarter of the electorate in California.


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