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Another week has gone by in Donald Trump’s America, and it’s becoming crystal clear that this administration learned some serious lessons about being proactive. Trump’s last cabinet was filled with plenty of loyalists, but stacked among the sycophants were a who’s who of established politicians and civil servants keen to serve the country, not the president. This time around, Trump’s team is axing everyone who won’t get in line. From independent watchdogs and nuclear specialists to intelligence officials and park rangers, it’s “my way or the highway” in Trump land — but with Elon Musk around, it’s hard to know just whose way we’re going.
One thing’s for sure: the billionaires are all on board. They’re quietly axing DEI programs and not-so-quietly transforming papers like the Washington Post into their own personal propaganda machines as the dollar signs shine through their soulless eyes. At least we have Americans like Adam Kinzinger to take up the mantle of speaking truth to power. Just like long-time Musk hater Azealia Banks, he’s more than willing to stoop to Trump’s childish level. It’s truly magical to have someone like Kinzinger say, “Hey, so this is insane,” as Trump employs actual podcasters to work for the FBI and his right-hand men throw Nazi salute after Nazi salute just to test the waters.
Canadians across the border are fed up with Trump’s constant taunts, refusing to buy American and even pushing for the government to nix Musk’s citizenship. Allies around the world are showing they have no tolerance this time around, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling out Trump’s lies on live television, prompting the septuagenarian to pout like a schoolboy. But don’t feel bad for ‘ol Don. History has shown that the man doesn’t understand metaphors. Despite the valiant attempts of the U.S. Army Corps to convey the heavy-handed messages of Les Misérables, Trump was as impacted as a Republican asked to show empathy toward trans people.
But hey, at least eggs are only $20 a carton.
Pot, meet Kettle. You’re now heading the FBI together.
It is said that Kash Patel, the new Trump-appointed FBI Director who will also head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), intended not to break FBI tradition – and trample on basic good judgment – and promised to appoint someone with experience (unlike himself) within the Bureau to be its deputy director.
Psych! As has been the norm in this second administration, instead of someone with proven competence, we got a partisan Trump loyalist who is all too happy parroting MAGA conspiracy theories and gets way too aroused by the sheer idea of absolute power: Dan Bongino.
Exactly what we needed: more one-track MAGA militants in positions of power in the American government, whose moral compasses guide them wherever Trump’s chubby orange finger points. In a 2021 New Yorker profile that now reads in a painfully ironic manner, Evan Osnos writes: “Pete Hegseth, a fellow Fox News host who served in the National Guard, told me, “I carried a rifle in the military, and now I get to serve in information warfare.” Bongino, he added, “is one of our generals.”
As another Trump “general,” Bongino has dedicated the past years to pushing conspiracy theories about the “anti-Trump” “deep state” and the 2020 election being “rigged.” There is no escape from the heavy irony that the podcaster wrote a book called Follow the Money, which feels like a discount, propaganda-based, misinformation-ridden, far-right version of the invaluable Manufacture of Consent. Bongino’s big boss is a billionaire who is hand-in-hand with the world’s richest man so, I guess we only “follow the money” if we can someway, somehow, blame it on Democrats, minorities, and now, Ukraine too.
Bongino and Patel go together like Beavis and Butt-Head, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, or SpongeBob and Patrick. You can count on both to ask “How far?” upon being commanded to overstep the bounds of legality for the sake of the Trump agenda.
We’re one month and two Nazi salutes into the Trump administration
It seems those Democrat challenges for Republicans to indulge in — as the right sees it — Elon Musk’s unfortunate and enthusiastic wave have really hit home. Average Trump-thumpers across the country are throwing out Sieg Heil salutes to prove it’s “no big deal” only to lose their jobs, but Trump’s cronies miraculously weasel out of consequences every time. Steve Bannon is just the latest henchman to test the boundaries of tolerance by throwing out a half-hearted Nazi salute while speaking at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, signaling to the world that fascism is A-OK in America.
Two Trump allies throwing out the notorious salute isn’t many, but any red-blooded American knows that the only thing worse than one Nazi is two. They’re like an infection, one best wiped out — or punched right in the face if my days of frequenting punk rock shows are any guideline.
Bannon tossed the salute near the end of his speech after calling for Trump to make an unconstitutional bid for a third term and telling MAGA to “fight.” The human pimple didn’t seem to relish throwing Hitler’s favorite hello as much as Musk, which might actually make it worse. If you’re going to sell out your country to one of the most anti-American movements this nation has ever seen, at least do it with your chest.
The audience may have been less enthusiastic for Bannon than it was for the Tesla CEO, but acceptance of the movement and everything it stands for is beyond evident. We’d like to remind our readers of the Paradox of Tolerance here: if we tolerate those who are intolerant, we risk enabling them. And if those intolerant people ever make it to positions of power, they will obliterate those they oppose. If you need any evidence, 1930s Germany is a great place to start.
To get the rest of the tea, which this week includes a wave of verbal slap-downs from Adam Kinzinger, Trump’s uncomfortable obsession with world leaders, and the slow strangulation of the Fourth Estate, be sure to sign up for WGTC’s They Said What?! Newsletter.