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Jun 7, 2025
Well Well Well
Whenever there's another weird thing that POTUS TACO does, we have to stop for a second to consider the possibility that it's meant to distract us from something else.
I can't say for sure that Katie Phang came up with it, but if Trump can't just blow this off, then maybe this is it.
Remember, we've sent USAGs to prison before. Finding enough leverage to get Bondi outa there might not be such a hard row to hoe.
I get the feeling that somebody like Pam Bondi fits with the Trump administration because she can't really hack it in a profession based on actual competition and contention, and so she's been forced to fail up her entire career.
Also, I've been wondering if the courts could help themselves enforce their rulings by coming down hard on Trump's lawyers when they bring the kind of ridiculous garbage they're always bringing before the judges.
Torpedo a few of these clowns, and maybe enough of the others will hesitate to lick Trump's boots the way they've been doing.
Jun 6, 2025
Progress
Trump made some noise about spitting on the courts. Guess what happened then.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in U.S. custody after being illegally deported and will now face criminal charges
The courts ordered the administration to facilitate his return after he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran native whose deportation by the Trump administration was declared illegal by the Supreme Court and generated a national furor, is back in U.S. custody and will face federal human trafficking charges in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia was secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville last month on two felony charges: transporting undocumented immigrants and conspiring with others to do so. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, when police found Abrego Garcia at the wheel and nine other men in an SUV, all of whom were Hispanic and lacked identification, according to the indictment.
The indictment was unsealed Friday after Trump administration officials acknowledged Abrego Garcia was in custody of U.S. authorities. Abrego Garcia’s return was first reported by ABC News.
Abrego Garcia’s return follows months of extraordinary brinkmanship between the Trump administration and federal courts, a Supreme Court rebuke, diplomatic intrigue and a domestic political crisis over the episode.
Abrego Garcia, who allegedly entered the U.S. illegally more than a decade ago, had been living in Maryland when the Trump administration deported him to El Salvador in March. The deportation violated a 2019 immigration-court order that barred the U.S. from sending him there because he was at risk of being targeted by a local gang.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. For months, the administration publicly resisted that order. At times, Trump and his top aides suggested Abrego Garcia would never return to the United States.
“There is no scenario where Abrego Garcia will be in the United States again,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last month during a hearing before a Senate appropriations panel.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in U.S. custody after being illegally deported and will now face criminal charges
The courts ordered the administration to facilitate his return after he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran native whose deportation by the Trump administration was declared illegal by the Supreme Court and generated a national furor, is back in U.S. custody and will face federal human trafficking charges in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia was secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville last month on two felony charges: transporting undocumented immigrants and conspiring with others to do so. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, when police found Abrego Garcia at the wheel and nine other men in an SUV, all of whom were Hispanic and lacked identification, according to the indictment.
The indictment was unsealed Friday after Trump administration officials acknowledged Abrego Garcia was in custody of U.S. authorities. Abrego Garcia’s return was first reported by ABC News.
Abrego Garcia’s return follows months of extraordinary brinkmanship between the Trump administration and federal courts, a Supreme Court rebuke, diplomatic intrigue and a domestic political crisis over the episode.
Abrego Garcia, who allegedly entered the U.S. illegally more than a decade ago, had been living in Maryland when the Trump administration deported him to El Salvador in March. The deportation violated a 2019 immigration-court order that barred the U.S. from sending him there because he was at risk of being targeted by a local gang.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. For months, the administration publicly resisted that order. At times, Trump and his top aides suggested Abrego Garcia would never return to the United States.
“There is no scenario where Abrego Garcia will be in the United States again,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last month during a hearing before a Senate appropriations panel.
It's Not A Cat Fight
The Ãœber-Corrupt Fascist Broligarch vs the Ãœber-Corrupt Fascist Ego-Freak.
They're both looking for nothing more than the best ways to line their pockets with American taxpayer dollars so they can buy themselves more power.
There's no Good Guy / Bad Guy here, so maybe the rubes will take a lesson and see that idolizing any politician always ends up being a bad idea.
(not holding my breath on that one, but hey - ever hopeful, y'know?)
So let's look at it from the standpoint of someone who deals with this kind of childish bullshit all the livelong day.
Jon Stewart
He's come back a little. At least when he's in front of The Daily Show crowd, he's not the cynically Both-Sides prick that he became while he was away.
This is far-reaching and he breaks it down pretty well.
81 Years Ago
"...all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable..."
-- The American Declaration Of Independence - Thomas Jefferson
In the face of threats and dangers that are meant to intimidate and conquer, the seemingly tiny, insignificant, individual people who decide to stand up and stand together have proven over and over that a certain invincibility is possible - it's just not something you get from yourself alone.
I'm just one guy - one voice - one vote. And besides, what's in it for me?
06JUN44
Elon vs TACO Don
The world's richest man and the world's most powerful man are locked in a playground-level tussle over how best to fuck over Americans in order to hand more yacht money to wealthy people and corporations.
Jun 5, 2025
Something Pretty
Watermelon aurora during a full moon in Alaska
— Vincent Ledvina (@vincentledvina.bsky.social) June 5, 2025 at 6:23 AM
[image or embed]
Stand Your Ground
The president said he had fired the museum leader — setting up a standoff between the White House and the Smithsonian.
President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to assert control over an elite American cultural institution has turned into a high-stakes Washington standoff.
In defiance of Trump’s announcement last Friday that he was firing her, Kim Sajet — the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery — has continued to report for work, conducting meetings and handling other museum business as she did before, according to several people familiar with her activities who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump had declared he is firing Sajet because she “is a highly partisan person” and because she is a “strong supporter of DEI,” a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion. He said her replacement would be named shortly.
Trump has not provided a legal reasoning to support his authority to fire Sajet. Top congressional Democrats have asserted the president does not have legal authority for the firing.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), a member of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, said Wednesday that the board had requested more information and “will discuss the issue further” at its scheduled meeting on Monday.
“We just need more information about her performance, and some of the allegations that were made, so we can make an informed, thoughtful decision,” Peters said. “Clearly, the president has no authority whatsoever to fire her. The Smithsonian is an independent institution, and the director of the Smithsonian is the one who she reports to and that’s the person who makes the decision as to hiring and firing of individuals.”
In a joint statement, House Administration Committee ranking Democrat Joseph Morelle of New York and House Appropriations Committee ranking Democrat Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said: “President Trump has no authority to fire employees of the Smithsonian Institution — including the Director of the National Portrait Gallery. The dismissal of Director Sajet is unacceptable and has the same legal weight as the President’s prior attempts to undermine the Smithsonian’s independence: absolutely none. Should the White House require a copy of the Constitution, we would be more than happy to provide one.”
Holy crap - shots fired!
Sajet’s refusal to abide by Trump’s decision sets up a test of the bounds of presidential authority over the Smithsonian, a sprawling complex of 21 museums, 14 education and research centers and the National Zoo. It is not a traditional government agency nor part of the executive branch, and hiring and firing decisions have historically been handled by the Smithsonian’s secretary, rather than its Board of Regents. The Smithsonian’s current secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch III, is widely expected to discuss the president’s attempt to oust Sajet at the board meeting Monday.
In an only-in-Washington twist, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. — who has been presented with major questions at the Supreme Court regarding the limits of presidential authority since Trump took office — is the chancellor of the Smithsonian and a member of its board.
A Trump White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Smithsonian spokesperson declined to comment.
In February, Trump made another foray into American arts when he took over control of the Kennedy Center, dismissing his predecessor’s appointees to its board, who then installed him as chairman and replaced the institution’s director with a political ally with scant experience in the arts. The Smithsonian differs from the Kennedy Center because presidents don’t appoint members to its board, which is composed of a mix of officials from all three branches of government and members of the public. But Trump is not without allies on the Smithsonian board, including Vice President JD Vance who, like Roberts, is an ex officio member.
Trump’s move against Sajet follows an executive order he issued on March 27 titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which aims to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.” A 35-year-old special assistant and senior associate staff secretary, Lindsey Halligan, was among the order’s architects — instigated, in part, by her early-2025 visit to the show “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which shares a building with the Portrait Gallery.
The order calls for Halligan and Vice President JD Vance to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian and “prohibit expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race.”
“President Trump’s attempt to fire the National Portrait Gallery Director is outrageous and represents yet another disturbing example of his relentless effort to control American art and culture,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree (Maine), the ranking Democrat on the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees the Smithsonian, in a statement. “Despite what the President may think, America’s cultural institutions are not run by dictatorial impulses.”
On Tuesday a White House official provided The Post a list of 17 instances in which, the White House argued, Sajet was critical of Trump or outspoken about her support for diversity, equity and inclusion. The list included her donations to Democratic politicians and advocacy groups; a social media post praising Anthony S. Fauci; the caption for the museum’s presidential portrait of Trump mentioning his two impeachments and “incitement of insurrection” for the events of Jan. 6, 2021; and numerous quotes from interviews in a variety of publications about her efforts to represent a broad swath of Americans within the gallery’s walls.
One item on the list was a quote in a 2019 USA Today story about Black artists demanding representation in American artistic institutions: “We owe it to Americans to reflect them because we owe it to accurate history,” Sajet says. “I’m not interested in only having a museum for some people.”
The list additionally took issue with remarks Sajet has made in support of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, and criticism of Columbus Day and her rejection of one artist’s 2016 portrait of Trump as “too political.” It notes that Sajet has commissioned artworks about Mexican immigration and “the complications of ancestral and racial history.” It was critical of her 2013 decision to use “50 percent of all money spent on art” to “support diverse artists and portrait subjects.”
Since its founding 179 years ago, the Smithsonian, which receives about 60 percent of its budget from federal appropriations and grants, has generally operated independently, although there have been several controversies in which museums have altered exhibitions in response to outside criticisms, including from politicians. Museum directors, such as Sajet — holders of some of the most prestigious positions in American arts — are not paid with federal funds, instead drawing their salaries from the Smithsonian’s trust fund.
Hours after Trump’s post, Bunch told Smithsonian staff in an email obtained by The Washington Post that the White House also sent new details of proposed cuts to the institution’s budget, slashing it by 12 percent and excluding funding for its Anacostia Community Museum and its forthcoming National Museum of the American Latino, Bunch said.
On Saturday, at the Portrait Gallery and SAAM’s joint family Pride celebration, a trio of visitors strolled the central courtyard in neon vests emblazoned with “Hands off the arts” on the back — closely watched by a Smithsonian staff member, who hovered nearby.
“I’m outraged” by Sajet’s firing, said Karen Nussbaum, 75, of Washington. “There’s a place for a political expression in art, but not political control of art.”
“I think the next step is controlling what artists think and do,” said Cynthia Cain, 60, of Washington, “and that’s not acceptable.”
The New Whiz Kids
"Let's just run all the data through the new HAL 9000, and make life-n-death decisions based on nothing but the fly specks it puts on the spreadsheet."
In WW2, Bob McNamara and his merry band of Whiz Kids went to work on the problems of very heavy losses in the daylight bombing campaign over Germany. They studied the damage sustained by the B-17s that came back all shot to hell, and decided they needed to armor up the planes in a particular way.
Unfortunately, the losses didn't drop. And they were kinda stumped, but finally somebody pointed out that the planes that made it back weren't the problem, so all they'd really done was invent "Survivor Bias". The survivors only proved where the damage could be sustained - the effort needed to be concentrated on the planes that weren't taking hits in non-vital places.
Lesson learned - at the expense of the lives of thousands of young men.
They never really figured it out, and the losses didn't decrease significantly until long-range escort fighters came along.
They never really figured it out, and the losses didn't decrease significantly until long-range escort fighters came along.
And McNamara? He went on to fail us in much the same way in Vietnam.
My point is that doing anything strictly by the numbers is just peachy if getting the numbers right is the only concern. But since humanity is pretty much the whole fucking ballgame here, maybe we could lose the arrogance of chasing some kind of machined perfection, and get back to thinking about the people for a change.
Because it looks like we're doing it again. AI being all the rage right now, I think the big push is to let the machine do everything and make all the decisions. And it's not unreasonable to think that most of the problems we've seen in all that DOGE bullshit stems from trusting AI to do all the work.
Because it looks like we're doing it again. AI being all the rage right now, I think the big push is to let the machine do everything and make all the decisions. And it's not unreasonable to think that most of the problems we've seen in all that DOGE bullshit stems from trusting AI to do all the work.
When you start to think
people are expendable
because they're too expensive
you're about to go over the edge
into the abyss
“The Intern in Charge”: Meet the 22-Year-Old Trump’s Team Picked to Lead Terrorism Prevention
One year out of college and with no apparent national security expertise, Thomas Fugate is the Department of Homeland Security official tasked with overseeing the government’s main hub for combating violent extremism.
When Thomas Fugate graduated from college last year with a degree in politics, he celebrated in a social media post about the exciting opportunities that lay beyond campus life in Texas. “Onward and upward!” he wrote, with an emoji of a rocket shooting into space.
His career blastoff came quickly. A year after graduation, the 22-year-old with no apparent national security expertise is now a Department of Homeland Security official overseeing the government’s main hub for terrorism prevention, including an $18 million grant program intended to help communities combat violent extremism.
The White House appointed Fugate, a former Trump campaign worker who interned at the hard-right Heritage Foundation, to a Homeland Security role that was expanded to include the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships. Known as CP3, the office has led nationwide efforts to prevent hate-fueled attacks, school shootings and other forms of targeted violence.
Fugate’s appointment is the latest shock for an office that has been decimated since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began remaking national security to give it a laser focus on immigration.
News of the appointment has trickled out in recent weeks, raising alarm among counterterrorism researchers and nonprofit groups funded by CP3. Several said they turned to LinkedIn for intel on Fugate — an unknown in their field — and were stunned to see a photo of “a college kid” with a flag pin on his lapel posing with a sharply arched eyebrow. No threat prevention experience is listed in his employment history.
Typically, people familiar with CP3 say, a candidate that green wouldn’t have gotten an interview for a junior position, much less be hired to run operations. According to LinkedIn, the bulk of Fugate’s leadership experience comes from having served as secretary general of a Model United Nations club.
“Maybe he’s a wunderkind. Maybe he’s Doogie Howser and has everything at 21 years old, or whatever he is, to lead the office. But that’s not likely the case,” said one counterterrorism researcher who has worked with CP3 officials for years. “It sounds like putting the intern in charge.”
In the past seven weeks, at least five high-profile targeted attacks have unfolded across the U.S., including a car bombing in California and the gunning down of two Israeli Embassy aides in Washington. Against this backdrop, current and former national security officials say, the Trump administration’s decision to shift counterterrorism resources to immigration and leave the violence-prevention portfolio to inexperienced appointees is “reckless.”
“We’re entering very dangerous territory,” one longtime U.S. counterterrorism official said.
The fate of CP3 is one example of the fallout from deep cuts that have eliminated public health and violence-prevention initiatives across federal agencies.
The once-bustling office of around 80 employees now has fewer than 20, former staffers say. Grant work stops, then restarts. One senior civil servant was reassigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency via an email that arrived late on a Saturday.
The office’s mission has changed overnight, with a pivot away from focusing on domestic extremism, especially far-right movements. The “terrorism” category that framed the agency’s work for years was abruptly expanded to include drug cartels, part of what DHS staffers call an overarching message that border security is the only mission that matters. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has largely left terrorism prevention to the states.
ProPublica sent DHS a detailed list of questions about Fugate’s position, his lack of national security experience and the future of the department’s prevention work. A senior agency official replied with a statement saying only that Fugate’s CP3 duties were added to his role as an aide in an Immigration & Border Security office.
“Due to his success, he has been temporarily given additional leadership responsibilities in the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships office,” the official wrote in an email. “This is a credit to his work ethic and success on the job.”
ProPublica sought an interview with Fugate through DHS and the White House, but there was no response.
The Trump administration rejects claims of a retreat from terrorism prevention, noting partnerships with law enforcement agencies and swift investigations of recent attacks. “The notion that this single office is responsible for preventing terrorism is not only incorrect, it’s ignorant,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote in an email.
Through intermediaries, ProPublica sought to speak with CP3 employees but received no reply. Talking is risky; tales abound of Homeland Security personnel undergoing lie-detector tests in leak investigations, as Secretary Kristi Noem pledged in March.
Accounts of Fugate’s arrival and the dismantling of CP3 come from current and former Homeland Security personnel, grant recipients and terrorism-prevention advocates who work closely with the office and have at times been confidants for distraught staffers. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from the Trump administration.
In these circles, two main theories have emerged to explain Fugate’s unusual ascent. One is that the Trump administration rewarded a Gen Z campaign worker with a resume-boosting title that comes with little real power because the office is in shambles.
The other is that the White House installed Fugate to oversee a pivot away from traditional counterterrorism lanes and to steer resources toward MAGA-friendly sheriffs and border security projects before eventually shuttering operations. In this scenario, Fugate was described as “a minder” and “a babysitter.”
DHS did not address a ProPublica question about this characterization.
Rising MAGA Star
One year out of college and with no apparent national security expertise, Thomas Fugate is the Department of Homeland Security official tasked with overseeing the government’s main hub for combating violent extremism.
When Thomas Fugate graduated from college last year with a degree in politics, he celebrated in a social media post about the exciting opportunities that lay beyond campus life in Texas. “Onward and upward!” he wrote, with an emoji of a rocket shooting into space.
His career blastoff came quickly. A year after graduation, the 22-year-old with no apparent national security expertise is now a Department of Homeland Security official overseeing the government’s main hub for terrorism prevention, including an $18 million grant program intended to help communities combat violent extremism.
The White House appointed Fugate, a former Trump campaign worker who interned at the hard-right Heritage Foundation, to a Homeland Security role that was expanded to include the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships. Known as CP3, the office has led nationwide efforts to prevent hate-fueled attacks, school shootings and other forms of targeted violence.
Fugate’s appointment is the latest shock for an office that has been decimated since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began remaking national security to give it a laser focus on immigration.
News of the appointment has trickled out in recent weeks, raising alarm among counterterrorism researchers and nonprofit groups funded by CP3. Several said they turned to LinkedIn for intel on Fugate — an unknown in their field — and were stunned to see a photo of “a college kid” with a flag pin on his lapel posing with a sharply arched eyebrow. No threat prevention experience is listed in his employment history.
Typically, people familiar with CP3 say, a candidate that green wouldn’t have gotten an interview for a junior position, much less be hired to run operations. According to LinkedIn, the bulk of Fugate’s leadership experience comes from having served as secretary general of a Model United Nations club.
“Maybe he’s a wunderkind. Maybe he’s Doogie Howser and has everything at 21 years old, or whatever he is, to lead the office. But that’s not likely the case,” said one counterterrorism researcher who has worked with CP3 officials for years. “It sounds like putting the intern in charge.”
In the past seven weeks, at least five high-profile targeted attacks have unfolded across the U.S., including a car bombing in California and the gunning down of two Israeli Embassy aides in Washington. Against this backdrop, current and former national security officials say, the Trump administration’s decision to shift counterterrorism resources to immigration and leave the violence-prevention portfolio to inexperienced appointees is “reckless.”
“We’re entering very dangerous territory,” one longtime U.S. counterterrorism official said.
The fate of CP3 is one example of the fallout from deep cuts that have eliminated public health and violence-prevention initiatives across federal agencies.
The once-bustling office of around 80 employees now has fewer than 20, former staffers say. Grant work stops, then restarts. One senior civil servant was reassigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency via an email that arrived late on a Saturday.
The office’s mission has changed overnight, with a pivot away from focusing on domestic extremism, especially far-right movements. The “terrorism” category that framed the agency’s work for years was abruptly expanded to include drug cartels, part of what DHS staffers call an overarching message that border security is the only mission that matters. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has largely left terrorism prevention to the states.
ProPublica sent DHS a detailed list of questions about Fugate’s position, his lack of national security experience and the future of the department’s prevention work. A senior agency official replied with a statement saying only that Fugate’s CP3 duties were added to his role as an aide in an Immigration & Border Security office.
“Due to his success, he has been temporarily given additional leadership responsibilities in the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships office,” the official wrote in an email. “This is a credit to his work ethic and success on the job.”
ProPublica sought an interview with Fugate through DHS and the White House, but there was no response.
The Trump administration rejects claims of a retreat from terrorism prevention, noting partnerships with law enforcement agencies and swift investigations of recent attacks. “The notion that this single office is responsible for preventing terrorism is not only incorrect, it’s ignorant,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote in an email.
Through intermediaries, ProPublica sought to speak with CP3 employees but received no reply. Talking is risky; tales abound of Homeland Security personnel undergoing lie-detector tests in leak investigations, as Secretary Kristi Noem pledged in March.
Accounts of Fugate’s arrival and the dismantling of CP3 come from current and former Homeland Security personnel, grant recipients and terrorism-prevention advocates who work closely with the office and have at times been confidants for distraught staffers. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from the Trump administration.
In these circles, two main theories have emerged to explain Fugate’s unusual ascent. One is that the Trump administration rewarded a Gen Z campaign worker with a resume-boosting title that comes with little real power because the office is in shambles.
The other is that the White House installed Fugate to oversee a pivot away from traditional counterterrorism lanes and to steer resources toward MAGA-friendly sheriffs and border security projects before eventually shuttering operations. In this scenario, Fugate was described as “a minder” and “a babysitter.”
DHS did not address a ProPublica question about this characterization.
Rising MAGA Star
The CP3 homepage boasts about the office’s experts in disciplines including emergency management, counterterrorism, public health and social work.
Fugate brings a different qualification prized by the White House: loyalty to the president.
On Instagram, Fugate traced his political awakening to nine years ago, when as a 13-year-old “in a generation deprived of hope, opportunity, and happiness, I saw in one man the capacity for real and lasting change: Donald Trump.”
Fugate is a self-described “Trumplican” who interned for state lawmakers in Austin before graduating magna cum laude a year ago with a degree in politics and law from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Instagram photos and other public information from the past year chronicle his lightning-fast rise in Trump world.
Starting in May 2024, photos show a newly graduated Fugate at a Texas GOP gathering launching his first campaign, a bid for a delegate spot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He handed out gummy candy and a flier with a photo of him in a tuxedo at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Fugate won an alternate slot.
The next month, he was in Florida celebrating Trump’s 78th birthday with the Club 47 fan group in West Palm Beach. “I truly wish I could say more about what I’m doing, but more to come soon!” he wrote in a caption, with a smiley emoji in sunglasses.
Posts in the run-up to the election show Fugate spending several weeks in Washington, a time he called “surreal and invigorating.” In July, he attended the Republican convention, sporting the Texas delegation’s signature cowboy hat in photos with MAGA luminaries such as former Cabinet Secretary Ben Carson and then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Fugate at the Republican National Convention Credit:Via Fugate’s Instagram account
By late summer, Fugate was posting from the campaign trail as part of Trump’s advance team, pictured at one stop standing behind the candidate in a crowd of young supporters. When Trump won the election, Fugate marked the moment with an emotional post about believing in him “from the very start, even to the scorn and contempt of my peers.”
“Working alongside a dedicated, driven group of folks, we faced every challenge head-on and, together, celebrated a victorious outcome,” Fugate wrote on Instagram.
In February, the White House appointed Fugate as a “special assistant” assigned to an immigration office at Homeland Security. He assumed leadership of CP3 last month to fill a vacancy left by previous Director Bill Braniff, an Army veteran with more than two decades of national security experience who resigned in March when the administration began cutting his staff.
In his final weeks as director, Braniff had publicly defended the office’s achievements, noting the dispersal of nearly $90 million since 2020 to help communities combat extremist violence. According to the office’s 2024 report to Congress, in recent years CP3 grant money was used in more than 1,100 efforts to identify violent extremism at the community level and interrupt the radicalization process.
“CP3 is the inheritor of the primary and founding mission of DHS — to prevent terrorism,” Braniff wrote on LinkedIn when he announced his resignation.
In conversations with colleagues, CP3 staffers have expressed shock at how little Fugate knows about the basics of his role and likened meetings with him to “career counseling.” DHS did not address questions about his level of experience.
One grant recipient called Fugate’s appointment “an insult” to Braniff and a setback in the move toward evidence-based approaches to terrorism prevention, a field still reckoning with post-9/11 work that was unscientific and stigmatizing to Muslims.
“They really started to shift the conversation and shift the public thinking. It was starting to get to the root of the problem,” the grantee said. “Now that’s all gone.”
Critics of Fugate’s appointment stress that their anger isn’t directed at an aspiring politico enjoying a whirlwind entry to Washington. The problem, they say, is the administration’s seemingly cavalier treatment of an office that was funding work on urgent national security concerns.
“The big story here is the undermining of democratic institutions,” a former Homeland Security official said. “Who’s going to volunteer to be the next civil servant if they think their supervisor is an apparatchik?”
Season of Attacks
Fugate brings a different qualification prized by the White House: loyalty to the president.
On Instagram, Fugate traced his political awakening to nine years ago, when as a 13-year-old “in a generation deprived of hope, opportunity, and happiness, I saw in one man the capacity for real and lasting change: Donald Trump.”
Fugate is a self-described “Trumplican” who interned for state lawmakers in Austin before graduating magna cum laude a year ago with a degree in politics and law from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Instagram photos and other public information from the past year chronicle his lightning-fast rise in Trump world.
Starting in May 2024, photos show a newly graduated Fugate at a Texas GOP gathering launching his first campaign, a bid for a delegate spot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He handed out gummy candy and a flier with a photo of him in a tuxedo at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Fugate won an alternate slot.
The next month, he was in Florida celebrating Trump’s 78th birthday with the Club 47 fan group in West Palm Beach. “I truly wish I could say more about what I’m doing, but more to come soon!” he wrote in a caption, with a smiley emoji in sunglasses.
Posts in the run-up to the election show Fugate spending several weeks in Washington, a time he called “surreal and invigorating.” In July, he attended the Republican convention, sporting the Texas delegation’s signature cowboy hat in photos with MAGA luminaries such as former Cabinet Secretary Ben Carson and then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Fugate at the Republican National Convention Credit:Via Fugate’s Instagram account
By late summer, Fugate was posting from the campaign trail as part of Trump’s advance team, pictured at one stop standing behind the candidate in a crowd of young supporters. When Trump won the election, Fugate marked the moment with an emotional post about believing in him “from the very start, even to the scorn and contempt of my peers.”
“Working alongside a dedicated, driven group of folks, we faced every challenge head-on and, together, celebrated a victorious outcome,” Fugate wrote on Instagram.
In February, the White House appointed Fugate as a “special assistant” assigned to an immigration office at Homeland Security. He assumed leadership of CP3 last month to fill a vacancy left by previous Director Bill Braniff, an Army veteran with more than two decades of national security experience who resigned in March when the administration began cutting his staff.
In his final weeks as director, Braniff had publicly defended the office’s achievements, noting the dispersal of nearly $90 million since 2020 to help communities combat extremist violence. According to the office’s 2024 report to Congress, in recent years CP3 grant money was used in more than 1,100 efforts to identify violent extremism at the community level and interrupt the radicalization process.
“CP3 is the inheritor of the primary and founding mission of DHS — to prevent terrorism,” Braniff wrote on LinkedIn when he announced his resignation.
In conversations with colleagues, CP3 staffers have expressed shock at how little Fugate knows about the basics of his role and likened meetings with him to “career counseling.” DHS did not address questions about his level of experience.
One grant recipient called Fugate’s appointment “an insult” to Braniff and a setback in the move toward evidence-based approaches to terrorism prevention, a field still reckoning with post-9/11 work that was unscientific and stigmatizing to Muslims.
“They really started to shift the conversation and shift the public thinking. It was starting to get to the root of the problem,” the grantee said. “Now that’s all gone.”
Critics of Fugate’s appointment stress that their anger isn’t directed at an aspiring politico enjoying a whirlwind entry to Washington. The problem, they say, is the administration’s seemingly cavalier treatment of an office that was funding work on urgent national security concerns.
“The big story here is the undermining of democratic institutions,” a former Homeland Security official said. “Who’s going to volunteer to be the next civil servant if they think their supervisor is an apparatchik?”
Season of Attacks
Spring brought a burst of extremist violence, a trend analysts fear could extend into the summer given inflamed political tensions and the disarray of federal agencies tasked with monitoring threats.
In April, an arson attack targeted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, who blamed the breach on “security failures.” Four days later, a mass shooter stormed onto the Florida State University campus, killing two and wounding six others. The alleged attacker had espoused white supremacist views and used Hitler as a profile picture for a gaming account.
Attacks continued in May with the apparent car bombing of a fertility clinic in California. The suspected assailant, the only fatality, left a screed detailing violent beliefs against life and procreation. A few days later, on May 21, a gunman allegedly radicalized by the war in Gaza killed two Israeli Embassy aides outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
June opened with a firebombing attack in Colorado that wounded 12, including a Holocaust survivor, at a gathering calling for the release of Israeli hostages. The suspect’s charges include a federal hate crime.
If attacks continue at that pace, warn current and former national security officials, cracks will begin to appear in the nation’s pared-down counterterrorism sector.
“If you cut the staff and there are major attacks that lead to a reconsideration, you can’t scale up staff once they’re fired,” said the U.S. counterterrorism official, who opposes the administration’s shift away from prevention.
Contradictory signals are coming out of Homeland Security about the future of CP3 work, especially the grant program. Staffers have told partners in the advocacy world that Fugate plans to roll out another funding cycle soon. The CP3 website still touts the program as the only federal grant “solely dedicated to helping local communities develop and strengthen their capabilities” against terrorism and targeted violence.
But Homeland Security’s budget proposal to Congress for the next fiscal year suggests a bleaker future. The department recommended eliminating the threat-prevention grant program, explaining that it “does not align with DHS priorities.”
The former Homeland Security official said the decision “means that the department founded to prevent terrorism in the United States no longer prioritizes preventing terrorism in the United States.”
In April, an arson attack targeted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, who blamed the breach on “security failures.” Four days later, a mass shooter stormed onto the Florida State University campus, killing two and wounding six others. The alleged attacker had espoused white supremacist views and used Hitler as a profile picture for a gaming account.
Attacks continued in May with the apparent car bombing of a fertility clinic in California. The suspected assailant, the only fatality, left a screed detailing violent beliefs against life and procreation. A few days later, on May 21, a gunman allegedly radicalized by the war in Gaza killed two Israeli Embassy aides outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
June opened with a firebombing attack in Colorado that wounded 12, including a Holocaust survivor, at a gathering calling for the release of Israeli hostages. The suspect’s charges include a federal hate crime.
If attacks continue at that pace, warn current and former national security officials, cracks will begin to appear in the nation’s pared-down counterterrorism sector.
“If you cut the staff and there are major attacks that lead to a reconsideration, you can’t scale up staff once they’re fired,” said the U.S. counterterrorism official, who opposes the administration’s shift away from prevention.
Contradictory signals are coming out of Homeland Security about the future of CP3 work, especially the grant program. Staffers have told partners in the advocacy world that Fugate plans to roll out another funding cycle soon. The CP3 website still touts the program as the only federal grant “solely dedicated to helping local communities develop and strengthen their capabilities” against terrorism and targeted violence.
But Homeland Security’s budget proposal to Congress for the next fiscal year suggests a bleaker future. The department recommended eliminating the threat-prevention grant program, explaining that it “does not align with DHS priorities.”
The former Homeland Security official said the decision “means that the department founded to prevent terrorism in the United States no longer prioritizes preventing terrorism in the United States.”
Jun 4, 2025
Today's BlueSky
Do they really think they're the good guys - or are they just following orders?
Bear witness to the ritualistic “laying of the chains” that precedes the arrival of ICE’s human cargo. 👀
— JJ in DC (@jjindc.bsky.social) June 3, 2025 at 11:09 AM
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Weather Clear
... outlook bleak.
Q: If you know with certainty that making a change now would greatly benefit your kids and grandkids, why haven't you made that change already?A: Because we're actually wired to sabotage our future selves.
Madness is rare in individuals. But in groups, parties, and ages - it's the rule.
Friedrich Nietzche
When a civilization becomes dependent on the knowledge it doesn't understand, it becomes vulnerable to charlatans and demagogues who promise simple answers to complex problems.
- there
- are
- no
- simple
- 10-word
- answers
- for
- the
- important
- questions
Jun 3, 2025
It's The Corruption, Stupid
Trump slaps a heavy tariff on something I have to have for my billion-dollar business, so I go hat-in-hand to the White House to buy an exemption, which I'll pay for by "investing" in his $hitcoin.
@wepolitics Jonah Goldberg. #politics #politicaltikok #politicalnews #trump #donaldtrump #liberal #conservative #tariffs ♬ original sound - wepolitics
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