Mary Trump Media

The Supreme Court just ruled Trump can fire independent agency heads at will. No cause needed. What were you feeling when you read the news?

22 hours ago | [YT] | 4,310

Mary Trump Media

Welcome to Trump Trolls Trump, where mockery remains our greatest weapon and Donald and his cronies continue giving us more material than any comedy writer could ever invent.

It has now been 516 days since Donald’s second inauguration on January 20, 2025. The so called golden age has officially turned deep algae green.

It was another bad week for Donald. Unfortunately, that also means it was another bad week for America. Still, there is at least one small consolation. Donald’s failures deserve to be mocked because nothing punctures authoritarianism more effectively than ridicule. They desperately want to be feared. They deserve to be laughed at.

Sadly, we begin this week with the return of somebody I had hoped might stay away a lot longer.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is back after enjoying the kind of paid maternity leave that millions of American women can only dream about. During an appearance on Fox State TV, she defended Donald’s Reflecting Pool disaster by insisting that Americans elected him to “make America green again.”

Unless, of course, she was talking about algae.

Leavitt: The algae is obviously the news of the day and it is completely ridiculous. It’s unbelievable to see these people, these deranged leftists in algae costumes with team algae on their backs. What does that even mean? Only the Democrats could hate beautifying our nation’s capital and making it a symbol of pride again, but this is what the American people elected President Trump to do.

I honestly do not remember that campaign promise.

I remember Donald promising to lower prices. I remember him promising to reduce inflation. I remember him promising to release the Epstein files, despite the fact that his name reportedly appears countless times throughout them.

I do not remember him promising to cultivate algae.

Donald also traveled to Pennsylvania this week for a rally supporting a Republican congressman whose name he could not remember. During the event, he attempted something that has never come naturally to him.

He tried comedy.

Specifically, he tried making jokes about Americans’ 401(k)s while speaking at a Mack Trucks factory.

Donald: The typical 401k, as you know, is up almost $30,000. It was 12 months. It was 13 months. It’s up 44%. Think of that. Up 44%. I was in New York. I met a great police officer in New York Finance and he said, “Sir, I want to thank you.” I said, “For what?” He said, “My wife didn’t think much of me. We were having marital difficulty. She thought I was nothing.” He said, “In the last year and a half my 401k is up 74%, sir. And she thinks I’m Warren Buffett. She thinks I’m a super genius.” I said, “How are you getting along with her?” He said, “Well, I’m not so sure I like her anymore.” Who has a 401k here?

Sometimes Donald’s complete detachment from reality is so extraordinary that it briefly leaves me speechless.

Think of that, he says.

Think about the completely invented statistic he just cited.

Then think about the entirely fictional police officer who apparently spends his free time actively trading inside his own 401(k), which is not generally how those retirement accounts work.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress managed to accomplish something genuinely unusual this week. They negotiated a bipartisan housing bill, a rare example of Democrats and Republicans actually working together.

Naturally, Donald destroyed it.

Just as Republican leaders gathered to celebrate the legislation, Donald posted on his failing social media platform that he would refuse to sign the bill unless Congress first passed the SAVE Act, his voter suppression legislation that has repeatedly failed because it lacks Democratic support.

The announcement completely blindsided Republican leadership.

Any opportunity to demonstrate bipartisan cooperation disappeared because Donald simply could not allow somebody else to enjoy even the smallest political success.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a man who never met a spine, immediately fell into line.

Mike Johnson: It is a dangerous thing. This is not a joke. We are in a fight right now to save the Republic and every American needs to take this seriously. You need to wake up. This upcoming midterm election is not the midterm elections of years ago. This is going to decide the direction of the country. Are we going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic on our 250th anniversary? Or are we going to go down some road toward a communist utopia?

For one deeply unsettling moment, Mike Johnson and I almost agreed.

He is absolutely right that this election will determine the future of the republic.

Where we differ is on who represents the actual threat. Johnson seems convinced Democrats are leading America toward some imaginary communist utopia.

The rest of us can plainly see that today’s Republican Party has spent years undermining democratic institutions, attacking the rule of law, dismantling constitutional safeguards, and embracing increasingly authoritarian politics.

During that same press conference, he assured Americans that the economy was about to “take off like a rocket.” Given the current state of the economy, I suppose that depends entirely on what, exactly, is taking off. Inflation certainly is. Grocery prices are. Housing costs continue to climb. Insurance premiums remain painfully high. So, in that very limited sense, Mike Johnson was accidentally correct.

This is what Mike Johnson said:

If we keep gas prices down to earth, this economy’s going to take off like a rocket, y’all, because in 2025, as Scott Bessent said, the Treasury Secretary, he said months ago, 2025 was like setting the table. The feast and the banquet in the economy is in 2026. We were doing that in the first quarter. We had the Iran skirmish. We settled that thing out. We’re cooking with gas.

Unfortunately, the only things moving that quickly are the prices Americans are paying for virtually everything. Donald’s tariffs, his economic instability, and his illegal, unconstitutional war of choice have driven costs higher across the board, yet Republicans continue insisting that prosperity is right around the corner. At some point, “right around the corner” simply becomes another way of saying “it isn’t happening.”

Speaking of things that continue getting worse, somehow the Reflecting Pool fiasco refuses to die. What should have been a routine maintenance project on a small, manmade body of water has turned into one of the defining stories of the Trump regime. That may seem ridiculous, but the more this story develops, the more it becomes the perfect metaphor for Donald’s presidency.

Everything about it reflects who he is.
And instead of accepting responsibility, Donald continues searching for somebody else to blame.

This week, those culprits were supposedly mysterious “thugs” armed with razor blades.

Donald: No, but the water looks great, but we will do the final fix up. But just remember this, they took razor blades 350 feet. They took razor blades and knives and they cut patches like that 350 feet long. They cut the lining and there’s pictures of the guy bending over. I don’t know if anybody saw that, but there are pictures of the guy. And you say, “Who would do that?” Maybe it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome.

There are so many problems with this story that it is difficult to know where to begin.

First, did anybody actually see this mysterious vandal Donald keeps talking about? Apparently not. Second, according to Donald, someone managed to cut hundreds of feet of lining inside one of the most closely monitored public spaces in Washington without being stopped, despite cameras monitoring the Reflecting Pool around the clock. Third, we are somehow expected to believe that this elaborate act of sabotage was motivated by what Donald calls “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” rather than by the far more obvious explanation that the project itself failed because it was incompetently designed and incompetently executed.

That has become one of the defining characteristics of this administration.

Reality is never the problem.

The problem is always the people pointing out reality.

The Reflecting Pool has become far more than a construction project gone wrong. It is now a symbol of the Trump regime itself. Every decision creates a bigger disaster. Every attempted solution makes things worse. Every lie requires another lie to sustain it. And every failure somehow becomes somebody else’s fault.

Donald has spent his entire life trying to place the Trump name on absolutely everything. Buildings. Hotels. Casinos. Steaks. Vodka. Bottled water. Universities. Airlines. Board games. Cryptocurrency. Sneakers. Bibles. If there was a product that could carry his name, Donald wanted his name on it.

He can force his name onto buildings, construction projects, government programs, and monuments to his own ego. He can spend millions trying to manufacture admiration. He can demand loyalty and surround himself with people willing to repeat his lies.

What he cannot do is make people genuinely respect him.

That brings us to the end of yet another week under the Trump regime. Once again, the corruption deepened, the incompetence became more obvious, and the gaslighting grew even more absurd. Donald and the people around him continue demanding that Americans reject objective reality in favor of whatever story happens to protect his fragile ego on any given day.

Fortunately, there is still one thing authoritarians have never figured out how to control.

Ridicule.

That is why we do this every week. They want to project strength. They want to appear inevitable. They want to be feared.

Instead, they continue giving us reasons to laugh.

And there is nothing more dangerous to an authoritarian than becoming the punchline.

23 hours ago | [YT] | 583

Mary Trump Media

Since Donald returned to the White House, his two oldest and arguably most useless sons have dramatically expanded their investments into industries that rely almost entirely on Pentagon spending and federal policy. These are not businesses they spent years building. They are not industries in which either Don Jr. or Eric has any meaningful experience. They simply happen to be some of the fastest growing sectors benefiting from the Trump regime’s priorities.

Coincidentally, of course.

Don Jr.’s venture capital firm acquired a stake in Vulcan Elements shortly before the company received a $620 million Pentagon loan. According to reporting by ProPublica, that loan was accelerated after intervention from the White House.

Eric, meanwhile, serves as Chief Strategy Advisor for a robotics company despite possessing no discernible qualifications for such a role. That same company later received a $24 million Pentagon contract.

Neither Don Jr. nor Eric serves in government.

Neither is required to comply with federal ethics rules.

Neither files public financial disclosures.

Yet both continue to profit from industries whose fortunes increasingly depend on decisions being made by the administration run by their father.

Late in 2025, the Pentagon established the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, appropriately abbreviated DAWG, to rapidly expand the military’s use of drones, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Initially funded at roughly $226 million for fiscal year 2026, the Pentagon is now requesting an astonishing $54.6 billion for fiscal year 2027.

That represents an increase of more than 24,000 percent.
And it just so happens that Donald’s two oldest sons have recently become enthusiastic investors in autonomous defense technologies.

This is what MSNBC reported:

Just yesterday, drone maker PowerUS announced it will merge with a golf course holding company backed by Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr., with plans to create a new publicly traded company. That new company calls the Trumps notable investors and says it aims to support American drone industry dominance. The company is expected to compete for lucrative military contracts, trying to fill a void created after the Trump administration banned new foreign made drones on national security grounds. An investment firm joined by Donald Trump Jr. shortly after his father’s reelection has also taken a significant stake in another defense contractor supplying AI powered military technology to the Pentagon. The Trumps maintain their father is not involved in their business dealings, and the White House says President Trump acts only in the best interests of the American people.

The phrase “notable investor” deserves closer examination.

It does not mean Don Jr. or Eric possess unique knowledge about robotics, drones, artificial intelligence, or national defense.

It certainly does not suggest either of them suddenly became experts in autonomous weapons systems. It means they are the sons of the President of the United States. That relationship is their greatest asset. It is the reason companies want them associated with their businesses. It is the reason investors pay attention. And it is almost certainly the reason government contracts suddenly become easier to obtain.

No private citizen should be allowed to leverage proximity to presidential power in this way.

Yet that appears to be exactly what is happening.

Members of Congress are beginning to ask difficult questions.

Following ProPublica’s investigation into Vulcan Elements, Democratic lawmakers demanded explanations after learning that the company’s $620 million Pentagon loan was reportedly handled very differently from virtually every other application under consideration.

According to the report, Don Jr.’s investment firm, 1789 Capital, purchased a stake in Vulcan during 2025. Only months later, the Pentagon approved the largest loan ever issued through its Office of Strategic Capital.

Internal documents reportedly revealed that Vulcan’s application moved through the approval process with unusual speed after direct involvement from senior White House adviser Peter Navarro.

One anonymous Pentagon official summarized the situation bluntly.

The call came from the White House. We have to get this done.

The Pentagon insists political considerations played no role in the decision. Don Jr. likewise denies participating in securing the loan. Those denials become increasingly difficult to accept when viewed alongside the broader pattern.

One contract might be coincidence.

One investment might be luck.

One White House intervention might be explainable.

But eventually coincidences stop looking like coincidences.

They begin looking like a business model.

Unfortunately, this pattern does not stop with rare earth minerals or autonomous weapons.

It extends into robotics as well.

Apparently, Eric Trump has now become an expert on robotics too, a development that would be more amusing if it were not attached to Pentagon spending, military applications, and the rapidly expanding market for autonomous weapons systems.

This is what Eric Trump said in a FOX state TV Interview:

We have to win robotics in the United States of America. You had a great segment two days ago, Maria, about the robot in Beijing that was literally running marathons and beating the fastest marathoners by seven, eight minutes for a full marathon. These are in the very early days. We better be winning this race in the United States of America. We are the greatest economy in the world, and that is exactly what this company is doing. I am telling you, he is doing a phenomenal job. When you go up and interact with these robots and they fist bump you, they high five you, they follow your commands. You bring in the AI economy. It is going to change industry, it is going to change military application, it is going to change hospitality. The uses are unlimited and I think it is a very beautiful thing, but we must win this race.

What race, exactly?

The marathon the robot is running?

In what universe does the world become a better place because we have fast-running robots that can fist bump people? Although, to be fair, I would be more than happy to have robots replace Eric and Donnie.

Eric is listed as Chief Strategy Advisor, which, after listening to him speak, makes perfect sense if the strategy is to say a lot of words without demonstrating any understanding of the subject matter. In April 2026, the Pentagon awarded Foundation Future Industries a $24 million contract to test its Phantom robotic systems for military applications. That contract immediately drew attention from lawmakers concerned about potential conflicts of interest.

The Pentagon has defended the contracting process and has not alleged wrongdoing by Eric or the company. Of course it has not. This is Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon. Expecting it to objectively assess whether Donald Trump’s son is benefiting from conflicts of interest is like asking Donald to fact-check his own net worth.

We need a slightly more objective entity to decide whether there is wrongdoing here.

In May 2026, Ranking Member Robert Garcia wrote a letter to the Department of Defense laying out the concerns with unusual clarity.

Eric and Donnie’s purchases, consultancies, and advisory roles create unprecedented intertwining of Donald’s personal financial interests with U.S. policy and national security. Each new venture opens new opportunities to direct DOD funds to the first family’s pockets, and the Trump administration appears to be taking advantage of those opportunities. Such actions raise concerns that DOD is rewarding companies with contracts for recruiting a Trump family member into their ownership group or directly onto their payroll. Such companies have amassed over $725 million in loans, grants, and awards since Donald took office.

No kidding.

The coincidences are mind-boggling.

The Pentagon maintains that its decisions are based on merit, which is a difficult claim to take seriously when Pete Hegseth is the Secretary of Defense. His appointment alone is evidence that merit is not exactly the organizing principle of this administration.

Because neither Eric nor Donnie is subject to federal disclosure requirements, the public has very limited visibility into the scale of their financial exposure. That is precisely how this kind of corruption is allowed to happen. The President’s children can invest in, advise, or promote companies that stand to benefit from federal contracts, while the American people are left guessing how much money they are making and how directly their father’s administration may be helping them make it.

The problem is not merely that Eric and Donnie are unqualified. That has always been the least surprising part of the story. The problem is that their lack of qualifications does not matter. In fact, it may be part of the point. Companies do not need them for their expertise. They need them for their access.

This is the same pattern that has defined Donald’s entire life. He has never understood the difference between public power and private profit because nobody ever forced him to learn it. Fred Trump built the empire. Donald inherited it, hollowed it out, sold off pieces of it, and survived only because other people kept rescuing him. Now his sons are applying the same principle to national security.

The stakes, however, are much higher this time.

We are not talking about failed casinos, licensing deals, branded steaks, or golf course scams. We are talking about drones, rare earth minerals, autonomous warfare, artificial intelligence, robotics, and Pentagon contracts. We are talking about the future of American military policy and billions of dollars in public money being routed through a system in which the president’s family appears to have direct financial interests.

There needs to be an investigation.

23 hours ago | [YT] | 1,140

Mary Trump Media

John Bolton has plead guilty to illegally retaining classified information, would he have gotten away with it if he instead hid them in Mar-a-Lago's bathroom?

2 days ago | [YT] | 5,149

Mary Trump Media

Texas (#25 in public education) is currently planning to implement the teaching of biblical stories in the state's K-12 reading program. Instead of this, which areas would be a better investment in public education in your opinion?

3 days ago | [YT] | 4,090

Mary Trump Media

Yesterday, Donald met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office ahead of next month’s NATO summit. The meeting was supposed to focus on the future of the alliance, defense spending, the war with Iran, and the growing tensions between the United States and its European allies.

After the meeting, the two men took questions from reporters. Unsurprisingly, Donald used the opportunity to revisit many of his favorite grievances, once again portraying America’s allies as freeloaders who have somehow taken advantage of him personally rather than longstanding partners in one of the most successful military alliances in modern history.

Donald: I was disappointed. I was disappointed with Italy. I was disappointed with the UK. He’s now gone and he had a lot of problems, but we were disappointed with the UK. We were disappointed with Germany and France. We’re disappointed with most of them. Spain is a horror show. Spain is terrible even from your standpoint. I mean, they don’t want to pay anything. They think they’re in for a free ride. Spain is not a good group, not a good group at all.

The real reason Donald dislikes so many of our allies is much simpler. Their leaders have, at one time or another, refused to agree with him completely. Some have challenged his disastrous ideas about NATO. Others have simply refused to indulge his ego. To Donald, disagreement is betrayal. There is no room in his worldview for independent allies because he does not understand what an alliance actually is.

He was later asked what, specifically, he wanted America’s NATO partners to do that they were not already doing.

Donald: I just want their loyalty. We don’t need their money. We don’t need anything. We have the most powerful military in the world by far, but I just want loyalty. We’re so loyal to them. We’re always fighting for them.

First of all, Mark Rutte’s enthusiastic agreement throughout this exchange was more than a little uncomfortable to watch.

Second, Donald fundamentally misunderstands NATO.

The United States remains the only country ever to invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Our allies answered that call. They fought alongside us in Afghanistan. Many lost soldiers fighting in support of the United States. That is what alliances look like.

Donald talks constantly about loyalty, but what he actually wants is obedience.

It is difficult to overstate how dangerous that mindset becomes when applied to international alliances painstakingly built over the course of nearly eighty years.

Donald understands nothing about the liberal democratic alliance established after World War II. Worse still, he appears determined to dismantle it because he neither understands nor values what it has accomplished.

That pattern repeated itself later in the day.

During a press conference on a bipartisan housing bill, Donald announced that he would refuse to sign legislation designed to help millions of Americans struggling with housing costs unless Congress first passed the SAVE Act, a voter suppression bill Republicans have thus far been unable to push through Congress.

Lawmakers in both parties were caught off guard, and the scheduled signing ceremony was abruptly canceled.

Donald was asked why he was holding the housing bill hostage.

I said I’m not signing the housing bill. I want to see what happens with SAVE. Look, the housing bill is... I made billions of dollars with housing. I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere. It’s all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rates. You can have all the housing you want. But you have to understand, I don’t want to hurt people that own houses too. These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They become rich... What you want to do is what’s good for everyone, get the interest rates down. We have this numbskull that was the head of the Fed before and he’s a stupid person... We need low interest rates. Low interest rates will solve everything.

We’re apparently doing so well on housing that Congress felt compelled to produce one of the rare bipartisan bills of this Congress specifically to address the housing crisis.

Once again, Donald demonstrates that he neither understands the issue nor the legislation before him.

Lower interest rates alone will not solve America’s housing crisis.

His attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell ignores the reality that Powell could not simply slash interest rates while Donald’s tariffs were driving inflationary pressure throughout the economy. Doing exactly what Donald demanded would likely have made inflation even worse.

Donald knows none of this.

He also continues to insist that he is some unparalleled genius of real estate.

He wasn’t.

My grandfather was.

Fred Trump built an enormously successful housing business over decades. Donald inherited that empire, benefited from it enormously, and then steadily sold off many of its assets because he proved far better at attaching his name to buildings than actually building or managing them.

The bipartisan housing bill Donald is threatening to derail would increase housing supply, reduce costs for working families, and limit the ability of massive investment firms to continue buying single family homes at the expense of ordinary Americans. It passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support precisely because lawmakers recognized that housing affordability has become one of the country’s most pressing economic problems.

Ironically, that broad bipartisan agreement may be exactly why Donald refuses to sign it.

If everyone wins, Donald cannot claim exclusive credit.

There is another possibility as well.

Donald may be attempting to use the housing bill as leverage to force Republicans into passing the SAVE Act, legislation that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with housing. The only connection is political.

He understands what the polling increasingly suggests. Without making it harder for certain Americans to vote, Republicans face an increasingly difficult road in next year’s elections.

Donald has repeatedly claimed that one of his administration’s greatest accomplishments has been solving what he calls America’s affordability problem. Of course, this is the same Donald who has also insisted, more times than I can count, that the affordability crisis is a hoax that doesn’t actually exist.

This is what Donald said:

But what we’re really doing well is oil is plummeting and costs are coming down. Affordability. We’re doing great. The Democrats gave us a tremendous affordability problem and we’re reducing prices a lot.

That is difficult to reconcile with reality. Prices continue to rise, largely because of Donald’s tariffs and, more recently, because of his illegal, unconstitutional war of choice against Iran. Rising gasoline prices increase the cost of transporting virtually every consumer good. Fertilizer has become increasingly unaffordable for American farmers, driving up food prices, while inflation continues its upward march. Nevertheless, Donald insists everything is going wonderfully while simultaneously promising a new plan to lower prices. Apparently the economy has never been better, but it also desperately needs fixing.

His latest solution is particularly revealing. Donald now wants the Department of Justice to investigate America’s largest oil companies for alleged price gouging. It is an interesting choice considering that Big Oil has long been among his strongest political allies and one of the industries that has benefited most from his policies, whether through the dismantling of clean energy initiatives or opening protected lands to expanded drilling.

A reporter asked Donald to explain the investigation.

Donald: So it’s ExxonMobil, it’s Chevron. It’s Shell, it’s BP, it’s a lot of them. The gasoline or the oil prices have come down so much and we are not seeing anything at the pump by comparison to what it should be. We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump and we’re higher than that and we are doing a big investigation on it.

The irony is almost impossible to ignore. Donald has spent years doing everything possible to benefit these companies, only to blame them the moment his own policies produce politically inconvenient consequences. If Donald believes gasoline should cost $2.25 a gallon, then in his mind it simply should. The possibility that his own decisions may have driven prices higher is never entertained because Donald is constitutionally incapable of admitting he was wrong.

Reality, however, is considerably more complicated than Donald imagines. Although the price of crude oil has fallen from its wartime peak of more than $115 per barrel, it remains significantly higher than it was before the conflict began. There is also little reason to believe prices will continue falling if the fragile peace agreement with Iran collapses. Even if oil prices continue declining, experts have warned from the beginning that it can take months, if not longer, for gasoline prices to return to prewar levels.

There are obvious reasons for that delay. Supply chains remain disrupted because infrastructure throughout the region has been damaged by the war. Shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz continue to face delays while mines are cleared. Insurance premiums for tankers have increased dramatically, shipping companies are paying additional transit fees, and transportation costs continue to ripple throughout the global economy. These are entirely predictable consequences of the conflict Donald chose to start. Economists understood them before the first bomb fell. Donald apparently did not.

Donald embodies one very simple truth. It is infinitely easier to destroy things than it is to create them.

Unfortunately for all of us, destruction has become the defining feature of his presidency.

4 days ago | [YT] | 1,131

Mary Trump Media

A major investigation by The Washington Post raises deeply troubling questions about who exactly may have been influencing former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, not only throughout her political career but potentially throughout much of her life.

According to Washington Post investigative reporter Jon Swaine, journalists reviewed more than 25,000 pages of emails, internal memoranda, and other documents connected to individuals in Gabbard’s political orbit, as well as people affiliated with the Science of Identity Foundation, or SIF, a religious organization led by Chris Butler, whom Gabbard has publicly described as her guru.

According to the reporting, the documents reveal a recurring pattern in which internal guidance circulated among Butler’s associates often appeared shortly before Gabbard publicly adopted remarkably similar messaging, policy positions, or legislative priorities.

This is what MSNBC reported:

Washington Post investigative reporter Jon Swaine obtained hundreds of confidential memos detailing guidance allegedly sent to Gabbard from 2011 to 2017, including when she was in Congress. Evidence Swaine says points to the memos coming from a man named Chris Butler, head of a breakaway sect of the Hare Krishna group, someone Gabbard has called her guru. The Washington Post compared Gabbard’s remarks in 32 TV interviews between 2014 and 2016 with talking points allegedly sent to her and found that on 24 occasions, Gabbard used language sent to her in those memos almost verbatim. Other times Gabbard used different words but promoted basically the exact same ideas.

The report also included a response from Gabbard’s office. Her chief of staff rejected the allegations, arguing that the reporting amounted to an attack on her faith rather than an examination of her conduct.

This is what Gabbard’s chief of staff told The Washington Post:

The attacks on Director Gabbard’s faith and loyalty are not only false, they are a blatant example of anti-Hindu bigotry.

A public relations firm connected to the Science of Identity Foundation made a similar argument.

This is what the organization said:

Hindu phobia, anti-Hindu religious bigotry, that’s all this is. When a Hindu public figure has a spiritual teacher or shares views with a Hindu religious figure, that alone is somehow evidence of sinister control.



I personally do not care what religion this organization professes to follow. That is not the issue. The Director of National Intelligence occupies one of the most powerful positions in the United States government, and it matters who influences that person. Whether that influence comes from Vladimir Putin, because Russian state media has previously referred to Gabbard as “Putin’s girlfriend,” or from a longtime spiritual adviser, Americans have every right to know who may be shaping the judgment of somebody entrusted with protecting our national security. The issue is not religion. The issue is influence.

To understand why these allegations matter, we first need to understand who Chris Butler is. Butler emerged from the early Hare Krishna movement in Hawaii during the 1970s before breaking away to establish the Science of Identity Foundation. Former members have described SIF as a tightly controlled spiritual community centered on Butler’s teachings and personal authority. The organization disputes those characterizations and insists it is simply a religious organization devoted to spiritual practice.

Whether someone chooses to call it a religion or a cult is ultimately beside the point. The far more important question is whether an unelected religious leader exercised meaningful influence over the decisions of an elected member of Congress and, later, one of the most senior national security officials in the United States government. If one individual operating outside government was helping shape policy decisions made on behalf of the American people, that is something every American should want to understand, regardless of political affiliation.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of The Washington Post investigation is not simply the allegations themselves, but the documentary record supporting them. According to the newspaper, internal memoranda connected to Butler’s circle repeatedly mirrored Gabbard’s later public actions. In one example, a 2014 memorandum urged immediate action on proposed legislation, instructing the recipient to “get it started in the morning” and become “the leader in this regard.” Shortly afterward, Gabbard publicly announced support for the proposal and introduced legislation addressing that very issue.

The questions raised by this reporting are not abstract. They go directly to the heart of democratic accountability. Who was shaping the policies Tulsi Gabbard presented to the public? Who was drafting the language she repeatedly used in interviews? More importantly, did the American people know who may have been influencing one of their elected representatives before she eventually became Director of National Intelligence?

Former members interviewed by The Washington Post described Chris Butler as a deeply influential figure whose followers often maintained personal, professional, financial, and political loyalty to him for years. According to those former members, his influence extended well beyond matters of faith into careers, family relationships, business decisions, and political activity. The Science of Identity Foundation disputes those characterizations, and that deserves to be acknowledged.

The Washington Post reports that Gabbard’s chief of staff forcefully rejected the allegations, characterizing the reporting as the work of a disgruntled former volunteer and describing the investigation as an attack on Gabbard’s faith rather than an examination of her conduct. Shortly after reporters presented questions regarding the documents they had uncovered, Gabbard announced that she would be leaving her position as Director of National Intelligence. Her office denied any connection between the reporting and the timing of her departure.

A couple of things are worth noting here. Gabbard’s resignation did not occur in a vacuum. As we have seen repeatedly throughout this administration, Donald has shown little hesitation in removing women from positions of power when they are no longer politically useful to him. We have already watched him push out high-profile women across his administration, including Gabbard and former Attorney General Pam Bondi. It is entirely possible that multiple factors contributed to her departure.

At the same time, the questions raised by The Washington Post investigation are not made less significant simply because Gabbard is no longer in office. If anything, they become even more important. The central issue is not whether Tulsi Gabbard belongs to a particular religion. Nor is it whether Chris Butler’s organization should accurately be described as a religious movement or as a cult. Reasonable people may disagree about those characterizations. The issue is whether the head of a private religious organization exercised influence over somebody who was making decisions on behalf of the American people.

This is why transparency matters. Government officials swear an oath to the Constitution, not to political benefactors, foreign leaders, campaign donors, or spiritual advisers. Public confidence in democratic institutions depends upon knowing that the people entrusted with extraordinary authority are exercising their own independent judgment. If there is reason to believe that somebody outside government may have been helping shape policy positions, legislative priorities, or public messaging, that deserves scrutiny regardless of the ideology, religion, or political party involved.

The same standard should apply across the board. We should be deeply concerned about the possibility of Vladimir Putin influencing American officials. We should be equally concerned about wealthy political donors exercising undue influence behind closed doors. And we should be concerned whenever religious leaders of any faith appear to hold unusual sway over elected officials or senior members of the executive branch. The identity of the person doing the influencing is secondary.

Unfortunately, we have already watched the wall separating religion and government steadily erode over the last several decades. Republican leaders have increasingly aligned themselves with powerful religious movements, particularly white evangelical organizations that have exercised enormous influence over public policy. That growing entanglement has affected everything from reproductive rights to education, LGBTQ+ protections, judicial appointments, and the broader direction of the federal government. Whether one agrees with those policy outcomes or not, the increasing fusion of religious authority and governmental power should concern anyone who values constitutional principles.

The allegations surrounding Tulsi Gabbard fit into that larger pattern. They raise questions not simply about one individual, but about the integrity of the institutions Americans rely upon to safeguard democracy. Public officials are entitled to their religious beliefs. They are entitled to spiritual guidance. They are entitled to worship as they choose. What they are not entitled to do is obscure the extent to which unelected private figures may be shaping decisions that affect the entire country.

Ultimately, this investigation raises the same concern that has become increasingly common throughout the Trump era. Americans are repeatedly discovering that important decisions affecting national policy are often being shaped by people operating outside the public eye. Democracy cannot function properly when voters are left guessing who is actually exercising influence over the people they elect.

4 days ago | [YT] | 947

Mary Trump Media

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's endorsed candidates swept three House primaries Tuesday, unseating two Democratic incumbents.

How do you feel about this upset over establishment democrat candidates?

6 days ago | [YT] | 4,251

Mary Trump Media

For all of Donald Trump’s efforts to put his name on everything, reality has a way of leaving its own signature.

Last week, a major algae bloom turned much of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool green while the newly applied blue coating on the bottom of the pool began peeling away and floating to the surface. This is the same Reflecting Pool renovation that ended up costing taxpayers somewhere between $14 million and $15 million, despite originally being projected to cost less than $2 million.

The entire fiasco is a complete and utter disaster, and one that could have been avoided. Congress could have done its job and refused to allow a no bid contract to be awarded to one of Donald’s donors and cronies. A qualified firm with actual expertise could have been hired. Instead, taxpayers were left funding yet another lesson in what happens when loyalty is valued more highly than competence.

Over the weekend, Donald and his allies offered a variety of explanations for why the Reflecting Pool renovation had become such an embarrassment. We were told not to believe our own eyes. We were told it was not really that serious. We were assured the problem would be fixed. Most importantly, we were told it was not Donald’s fault.

That last part, of course, should surprise nobody.

Taking responsibility is not something Donald does. Rather than acknowledge flaws in the construction, the design, or the coating itself, regime officials settled on a different explanation. They blamed vandals. Not poor planning. Not incompetence. Not the predictable consequences of painting the bottom of a shallow pool a very dark shade of navy blue. Vandals.

According to the Trump regime, people were intentionally damaging the Reflecting Pool in an effort to undermine Donald. How anybody can say this with a straight face is beyond my comprehension.

The most notable citation involved three time Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who found himself accused of wrongdoing after putting his hand into the water.

This is what MSNBC reported:

President Trump this morning threatening years in jail for anyone who vandalizes the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool here in Washington…On Friday, U.S. Park Police arrested Olympic canoeist David Hearn, charging him with destruction of government property after he reached into the water to touch a piece of the peeling paint. In an interview with NBC News, Hearn denied doing any damage to the pool and said he just wanted to see what it felt like.

Apparently, renovating now means ruining something, and vandalism means pointing it out. It is a familiar pattern in the Trump era. When something falls apart because of corruption, incompetence, or poor planning, the people responsible rarely face scrutiny. Instead, attention shifts to whoever notices the failure first.

Over on Fox State TV, former prosecutor and current Donald loyalist Jeanine Pirro had plenty to say about the situation.

Fox Host: President Trump’s got a Crime Stoppers tip for you. He says lightweight ABC reporter Jonathan Karl was seen sticking his hand into the pool and trying to rip the rubber off the surface. Judge, is Jonathan Karl from ABC in trouble?

Pirro: Well, it depends. Anyone who was in a position of vandalizing or attempting to vandalize the Reflecting Pool will face the criminal justice system in D.C. Look, the president has made it a priority to make D.C. not only safe, but beautiful. And there are several citations that have been handed out to individuals and these are cases that will be prosecuted to the full extent.

Will they?

If we are truly interested in identifying who is responsible for the damage, perhaps we should begin with Donald himself. After all, he is responsible not only for the vandalism of the Reflecting Pool, but increasingly for the vandalism of Washington.

He is taking a wrecking ball to the East Wing. The Ellipse, where he held his grotesque and embarrassingly vulgar UFC spectacle on his birthday, looks more like a construction site than a historic civic space. The giant arch he wants to build threatens the balance of a city that was carefully designed over centuries. And then there is the gilded ballroom, a monument to excess that somehow grows more expensive every time somebody talks about it.

The deeper issue is not the architecture. It is the assumption that Donald has the right to do any of this.

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He does not own the White House. He does not own the National Mall. He does not own our federal monuments. Yet he behaves as though America’s most treasured public spaces are simply extensions of one of his golf courses or resorts.

Why is he allowed to destroy the Rose Garden? Why is he allowed to gut the East Wing? Why is he allowed to erect monuments to his own ego while treating public property as if it belongs to him?

At some point, it has to stop.

The problem is that it is not stopping. It is getting worse.

And it is getting worse because Donald is getting worse.

On some level, Donald knows he is losing control. He is losing control of the narrative that he is competent. He is losing control of the narrative that he is strong. He is losing control of the narrative that he is in charge. None of those things has ever been true, but maintaining the illusion is becoming increasingly difficult.

As his incompetence becomes more visible, not just domestically but internationally, his need for distraction grows more desperate. We watched him unravel at the G7. We watched him become an embarrassment on the world stage. We watched other leaders treat him less like a statesman and more like a problem to be managed.

As that reality becomes harder to ignore, he will continue reaching for bigger spectacles, more expensive vanity projects, and increasingly absurd displays of self promotion. Every new distraction is designed to accomplish the same thing: convince people that he is not the corrupt, incompetent, pathetic loser he has always been.

The Reflecting Pool itself tells the story perfectly.

Donald hired a friend to renovate something that did not need renovating. He awarded that friend a no bid contract. Predictably, the budget exploded. A project originally expected to cost less than $2 million ballooned to nearly $15 million.

Then, because expertise and science are apparently optional in the Trump era, the bottom of a shallow pool was painted a dark navy blue.

The consequences were entirely predictable.

Dark surfaces absorb heat. Warm water encourages algae growth. The algae bloom that followed was not a mystery. It was not sabotage. It was not vandalism. It was basic science.

Once the algae became impossible to ignore, workers reportedly poured hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool to kill it. Unfortunately, hydrogen peroxide does not interact particularly well with the coating that had been applied to the bottom of the pool.

The paint began peeling.

Large sections detached and floated to the surface.

These were not acts of vandalism.

Unless, of course, we are willing to classify Donald and the people he hired as the vandals.

The result is that the Reflecting Pool will likely need to be drained and much of the project redone from the beginning. After spending nearly $15 million on a renovation that never needed to happen in the first place, taxpayers may now be forced to spend millions more correcting problems that were entirely predictable and completely avoidable.

There is another consequence that deserves attention as well.

Wildlife is beginning to suffer.

Ducks have reportedly died because of the chemicals being poured into the Reflecting Pool. Even nature is paying the price for this incompetence.

I saw somebody suggest that the Reflecting Pool has become a reflection of Donald’s soul, to the extent that he has one. There may be something to that observation.

But I think it has become something else as well.

It has become a metaphor for what this country is becoming under Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

A public institution that was functioning perfectly well before somebody decided to remake it for personal vanity. Millions spent unnecessarily. Experts ignored. Cronies rewarded. Public resources wasted. Reality denied. And when everything inevitably falls apart, blame shifted onto everyone except the people responsible.

Where is the Republican Party in all of this? Why is nobody willing to stop it?

The answer, unfortunately, is the same as it has always been. Donald is not the disease. He is a symptom of a much larger one. The Republican Party continues to enable these abuses because its members benefit from the same culture of grift, corruption, and self-interest that made Donald possible in the first place.

The Reflecting Pool was supposed to showcase Donald’s vision.

Instead, it revealed exactly what that vision has always been.

A movement that cares nothing about competence, stewardship, democracy, or public service. A movement dedicated primarily to enriching itself, rewarding its allies, and protecting its mythology at all costs.

The paint is peeling away.

The algae is impossible to ignore.

And the truth underneath is becoming harder and harder to hide.

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Mary Trump Media

Donald is now claiming Iran has agreed to nuclear inspections, yet it seems he is lying about that as well. What do you think is going to happen in the next few days?

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