This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 97

… Bradley Bartell does not regret voting for Trump despite the fact that his wife from Peru is now in ICE custody after she was detained at the airport coming back from their honeymoon in Puerto Rico. Bartell to Newsweek: "I don't regret the vote, but it's all been a nightmare really. We have an attorney. It has crossed my mind to move to Peru if she gets deported, but it would be very difficult for my son."

… Time reporter Philip Holsinger, who covers El Salvador, was there when the migrant flight of Venezuelans arrived last week: “The intake began with slaps. One young man (23 years old) sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ I believed him. But maybe it’s only because he didn’t look like what I had expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.”

… “Inside the intake room, a sea of trustees descended on the men with electric shavers, stripping heads of hair with haste. The guy who claimed to be a barber began to whimper, folding his hands in prayer as his hair fell. He was slapped. The man asked for his mother, then buried his face in his chained hands and cried as he was slapped again.”

… “They entered their cold cells, 80 men per cell, with steel planks for bunks, no mats, no sheets, no pillow. No TV. No books. No talking. No phone calls and no visitors. For these Venezuelans, it was not just a prison they had arrived at. It was exile to another world, a place so cold and far from home they may as well have been sent into space, nameless and forgotten. Holding my camera, it was as if I watched them become ghosts.”

… Trump’s Deportation Czar Tom Homan was asked about Judge Boasberg’s order temporarily blocking him from flying more people to the prison in El Salvador: "I don't care what that judge thinks as far as this case. We're gonna continue to arrest public safety threats, national security threats. We're gonna continue to deport them."

… Trump’s NSA Mike Waltz was asked about women being sent to the all-male prison in El Salvador, and people who have been proven not to be gang members: "These kind of one-offs we'll deal with on an individual basis. I can't speak to those individuals cases and the details of the individual cases."

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… Miami Herald reported that 18 Cubans were detained by ICE during their scheduled immigration appointments. Cubans have had special status for decades, which is now ending under Trump despite the fact that most Cuban immigrants vote Republican: “It’s Cubans with I-220A forms (they receive on arrival at a port of entry pending proceedings on asylum claims), primarily women, whom ICE has detained at regular check-ins in the agency’s field office in Miramar.”

… Miami immigration attorney Mark Prada: “Cubans were always vulnerable. It’s just somebody has decided to take action. It’s all discretion and priority decisions. And right now the priority is to deport every person under the sun.”

… “Among the Cubans recently detained is Beatriz Monteagudo, 25, her friend Johan Ariel told the Miami Herald. The last message he received from Monteagudo was March 10. The Cuban woman, who got an I-220A after entering the US in January 2024, was heading to her required check-in appointment in Miramar. When she called Ariel from the detention facility, she told him she was with about 18 others who had also been taken into custody after showing up for their routine appointments. Monteagudo told him she wasn’t told why they were there, aside from officers mentioning the laws had changed.”

… “Ariel, who came from Cuba two years ago, fears for Monteagudo’s safety if she were to be returned to her homeland. She faced issues with the island’s authorities for participating in the widespread July 11, 2021, anti-government protests. ‘If she returns to Cuba, she will be imprisoned right away,’ Ariel said. ‘That’d be destroying her life.’”

… Tom Homan was asked on ABC if migrants will be given any due process at all by ICE before they are deported. Homan: “Due process? What was Laken Riley's due process?”

… Even Sen. Rand Paul thinks that Homan might be getting carried away. He was asked if migrants should be completely denied due process before they are put on a plane to a Salvadorian hard labor camp: "I think there is going to be some process afforded by the courts for representation before you're deported in most cases."

… Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) on deportations: "This administration acts with an unbelievable cocktail of incompetence and illegality."

… All of people, even Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei posted a criticism of the US civil liberties and human rights record since Trump took office: "Cut funding for the university whose students came out and protested in favor of Palestine? This is their [so-called] free flow of information and their liberalism, freedom, and human rights!”

… WaPo reported that the IRS will allow ICE to use tax data to confirm the names and addresses of migrants for the first time. The IRS has always assured undocumented workers that their tax info is confidential to encourage them to pay taxes on their income and file returns so it is documented, and it would never be used to deport them. At least half of the 11 million migrants file income tax returns. A former IRS official: “It is a complete betrayal of 30 years of the govt telling immigrants to file their taxes.”

… For the first time, the White House is soliciting corporate sponsors for this year’s Easter Egg Roll, which has taken place every year since 1878. CNN reported that sponsorship offers range from $75,000-200,000. The WH claims all money raised will go to the WH Historical Association.

… The US has never allowed corporate branding opportunities for the White House grounds - until now. A former official who planned WH Egg Rolls: “This is an enterprise now. This is not your grandmother’s Easter Egg Roll where people lined up outside the gate and go and roll an egg and get a little gift bag and walk out.”

… In exchange for purchasing sponsorships, corps will receive: “Naming rights for key areas or elements, sponsor logos featured on event signage, custom-branded baskets, snacks/beverages, or souvenirs, mentions in official event communications and social media posts, acknowledgment in printed or digital event programs, and inclusion in press releases and media interviews.”

… Richard Painter, former WH Counsel for George W. Bush: “That wouldn’t have gotten through our Counsel’s Office. That would have been vetoed in about 30 seconds in my day. We’re not running this like a football stadium where you get all logos all over the place for kicking in money.”

… Trump was upset that Rep. Chuck Edwards got an earful from his constituents: “I just watched our GREAT Republican Congressman from NC, CHUCK EDWARDS, hold a Town Hall in Asheville. He was a total gentleman, but the room was ‘littered’ with Radical Left Lunatics, mostly Democrats, and all they did was scream, shout and use filthy language. They were largely paid agitators, with fake signs and slogans, and were only there to make TROUBLE!”

… CNBC reported that Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander reprimanded Social Security Admin commissioner Lee Dudek for “making threats about shutting down operations” at the agency. Judge Hollander was not happy that Dudek was misrepresenting her orders in TV interviews to scare people. Dudek falsely claimed in his media tour that Hollander’s order denying DOGE employees access to Social Security data applied to “almost all SSA employees.”

… Judge Hollander said that Dudek’s claims were “inaccurate” and “patently incorrect.” The court order “expressly applies only to SSA employees working on the DOGE agenda. It has no bearing on ordinary operations at SSA. In fact, if others at SSA are involved with DOGE, as Mr. Dudek seems to claim, then I was misled by counsel for the government.”

… Dudek then issued a statement admitting that what he said in the interviews was wrong but tried to cover up his lies by claiming that the judge was unclear in her order. He said that after “clarifying guidance” from the judge he “will not be shutting down the agency. SSA employees and their work will continue under the TRO.”

… Lee Saunders, president of the American Fed of State, County and Municipal Employees, responded to Dudek’s lies: ″For almost 90 years, Social Security has never missed a paycheck — but 60 days into this admin, Social Security is now on the brink. Dudek has proven again that he is in way over his head.”

… Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, said Dudek’s leadership has been the “darkest in Social Security’s nearly 90 year history. He has sown chaos and destruction.”

… Barry Kaufmann, NY President of Alliance for Retired Americans, at a rally against DOGE: “DOGE claims to have found Social Security payments going to 11 year olds and under. It's a survivor benefit annuity to young children whose parents have passed. That's the problem with IT programmers and billionaires without a clue doing a job they don't understand.”

… Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Greg Casar to MeidasTouch: “You can quickly explain Doge with just two numbers. First: $8 million a day. That’s how much Elon Musk collects in fed govt contracts. Second: $65 a day. That’s how much the average senior—someone who has worked their entire life—gets from Social Security. Elon Musk isn’t looking to cut actual waste, fraud, and abuse from Big Pharma, Big Tech, or his own $8 million a day. He’s looking to cut the $65 a day your parents receive from Social Security.”

… MD Gov. Wes Moore on Fox News Sunday: "People were looking for disruption. I think they've gotten destruction. And I think that's the thing that's making people so scared."

… Toddler Trump posted that he will block all fed funds going to Maine’s colleges until Gov. Janet Mills personally apologizes to him: “While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the WH Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases. Therefore, we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Fed Govt again, before this case can be settled. I’m sure she will be able to do that quite easily. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

… Trump revoked the security clearances of more people who were mean to him, including Joe Biden and his entire family, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, NY AG Letitia James, and several others.

… JD Vance has the lowest approval ratings right now of any VP in history. Real Clear Politics reports that Vance’s approval rating based on a average of all polls is a putrid 41.7%. His approval rating was never high, but it went down more after his meeting where he demanded Zelensky show more gratitude to Trump for doing absolutely nothing.

… WaPo reported that Treasury Department and IRS officials predict that they expect to take in $500 billion less tax revenue this year caused by draconian cuts to IRS staff. The IRS collected $5.1 trillion in 2024, so that would mean a massive 10% loss of revenue. For context, the US spends $825 billion on the Defense Department.

… DOGE has already fired 11,000 IRS workers with the total number of terminations expected to reach 20,000. WaPo: “The IRS has dropped investigations of high-value corporations and taxpayers, according to several agency employees involved in those inquiries, because it’s had to triage resources to keep internal systems operating. Two agency commissioners have resigned since Trump took office. The IRS’s head of compliance, Heather Maloy, stepped down effective Friday.

… Reports show that the IRS has received 1.7% fewer returns this year compared with the same point in the 2024 filing season. The IRS has “noticed an uptick of online chatter from individuals declaring their intention to not pay taxes this year. Individuals are wagering that auditors will not examine their accounts” because the IRS doesn’t have enough employees to go after people.

… It isn’t W-2 waged employees who are going to try and take advantage of these draconian cuts to the IRS to cheat on their taxes. Their income is reported by employers to the IRS. It is the wealthy who will take advantage, as they always do.

… NYT: “Within the Trump admin’s Defense Department, Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocketry is being trumpeted as the nifty new way the Pentagon could move military cargo rapidly around the globe. In the Commerce Dept, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service will now be fully eligible for the federal govt’s $42 billion rural broadband push. At NASA, after repeated nudges by Musk, the agency is being squeezed to turn its focus to Mars, allowing SpaceX to pursue federal contracts to deliver the first humans to the distant planet. And at the FAA and the WH itself, Starlink satellite dishes have recently been installed.”

… Former FCC official Blair Levin: “The odds of Elon getting whatever Elon wants are much higher today. He is in the White House and Mar-a-Lago. No one ever anticipated that an industry competitor would have access to those kinds of levers of power.”

… After Musk’s planned Pentagon briefing on war plans for China was outed by the NYT and then canceled after public furor ensued, Pete Hegseth said he is going to hunt down the leakers. Bloomberg reported that DOD has launched an investigation and is using polygraph tests on their employees. Musk has called for the employees to be put in prison for leaking “maliciously false information.”

… Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, said they are investigating “unauthorized disclosures” of national security information with those found responsible to “be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution.”

… Musk claimed that the report he was getting a briefing was false, but DOD appointees leaked a false story. Which makes absolutely no sense. Either it was a true story and it was leaked, or it is a false story. It was leaked by very senior DOD employees or military officers who were alarmed that Musk would get such a briefing of highly sensitive information, and they wanted to stop it. They succeeded, so now their reward is possibly prison.

… Former Rep. Tom Malinowski: “One tell is that Musk said today that this was a leak, and the people who leaked it will be prosecuted. Now, you don't get prosecuted for leaking a made up story. You might get criticized for it. But a leak is something that is true, that you're not supposed to tell.”

… Trump and Musk have both gone all-in to try to help Republican WI Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel in next week’s big election. WSJ reports that Musk’s PACs have spent $12 million so far on the race. He is expected to spend $20 million by election day. He is also buying votes like he did in PA and other key states, offering to pay people $100 to “sign a petition” saying you are against “activist judges.”

… Trump has made multiple posts on Truth Social about the race. This is one: “In the Great State of WI, a Radical Left Democrat, one who is insistent on bringing hardened CRIMINALS, that we removed to far away places, back into our Country, allowing men into women’s sports, Open Borders, and more, is running against a strong, Common Sense Republican, JUST CALL HIM BRAD, for the WI Supreme Court. It’s a really big and important race, and could have much to do with the future of our Country. Get out and VOTE, NOW, for the Republican Candidate — BRAD!!!”

… Another: “Brad Schimel is running against Radical Left Liberal Susan Crawford, who has repeatedly given child molesters, rapists, women beaters, and domestic abusers ‘light’ sentences. She is the handpicked voice of the Leftists who are out to destroy your State, and our Country — And if she wins, the Movement to restore our Nation will bypass Wisconsin. All Voters who believe in Common Sense should GET OUT TO VOTE EARLY for Brad Schimel.”

… The script that Musk’s PAC is using to support Schimel: “Can President Trump and Elon Musk count on you to vote for Brad Schimel and keep these radical judges from ruining America and stopping the implementation of the America First agenda.”

… But Schimel’s Democratic opponent, Susan Crawford, is turning Musk’s involvement to her advantage, since his approval rating among voters is so low because of his DOGE efforts. She is running an ad that includes: “Elon Musk is trying to buy Schimel a seat on the Supreme Court.”

… Valerie Costa, who organized protests at Tesla dealerships in Seattle, has been flooded with threatening messages after Musk accused her to his 220 million followers on X of “committing crimes.” Costa told ArcaMax that she scrubbed all her personal info from the internet and looks over her shoulder constantly when going out in public. No incidents of violence or vandalism connected to her protests have been reported to police.

… Costa: "I think we're at a pretty dangerous crossroads where our rights, our civil liberties are being challenged by this administration. If we cannot speak out against our government, against corporations, and if we're criminalized and penalized for speaking out, then we are living in an authoritarian state and regime, and this is not a free country. This is not a democracy if we can't do that."

… Costa referenced John Lewis as her inspiration for the name of her group, ‘The Troublemakers’. She says she gained 300 new members after Musk’s threat.

… WSJ reported the backstory on how Bernie’s rallies with AOC came together. Sanders said when DOGE got out of control, he told his top advisor Faiz Shakir that it was time to hit the road: “I have a feeling that people are pretty angry out there.” They had to move their original 800 capacity venue in Omaha, NE to 3,400 to have enough room for people that signed up. After another 15,000 people showed up in Tempe, he said: “That is insane, I’m not running for anything. People are outraged and they’re frightened and they want to fight back. And this is one form of beginning the struggle to fight back.”

… “Sanders said the Democratic Party has lost its way. It is strong on women’s rights, civil rights and gay rights, Sanders said. But in terms of fighting for the working class of this country, Democrats have been virtually nonexistent. ‘They haven’t been there.’”

… Shakir said their campaign should be viewed through a class-based lens, not an ideological one. Rather than left versus right, the correct framework “is to think of the top versus the bottom, particularly the very top.”

… AOC’s Campaign Manager, Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben: “The past three days, over 86,000 people came out to rally with Bernie Sanders and AOC in Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Millions more watching at home. People all across this country are willing to fight for a better world. They deserve leaders that will too.”

… AOC: “86,000 people in three days. At our first stop alone, half the crowd were brand new people not previously on any of list or contact. Many were first timers. What is happening right now is different. We must use this moment to fight back and defend our democracy.”

… Shakir: “If you're a longtime Democratic consultant/operative/pundit, I'd like to extend a formal invitation to you to come to the next Bernie Sanders rally. Reach out to me. I'll make sure you can get in. All I ask is that you go around, talk to people, ask them why they're here.”

… Bernie got upset and briefly walked out of his interview with Jonathan Karl when he asked him multiple times if he will endorse AOC for a Senate run. Bernie to Karl as he was leaving: “If you want to do nonsense, do nonsense. I don’t want to talk about inside the beltway stuff. We just had 32,000 people show up.”

… Karl then coaxed Bernie back to his seat by assuring him that he just had one more question and it wasn’t about that. He then asked Sanders if he was going to run for president in 2028. Ugh. Bernie said has was happy serving in the Senate, and reminded Karl that he was 83 years old. Then he left.

… Jessica Aber, who was Biden’s US Attorney for the Eastern District of VA, was found dead Saturday morning. She resigned two months ago right before Trump’s inauguration. She was 43 years old. Police are investigating her cause of death.

… Elon Musk received a firestorm of angry responses to his post about his trans daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson. My post about it went viral with over 8 million views and 124,000 likes. This was his post: “My son, Xavier, died. He was killed by the woke mind virus. Now, the woke mind virus will die.”

… SecDef Pete Hegseth responded with a post on X to the a temporary restraining order preventing DOD from discharging trans service members: “Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids…after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.”

… Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Special Envoy to negotiate an end to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, went on a media tour this weekend that showed he is fool who is completely owned by Putin.

… Witkoff on Fox about Ukraine: "There's a view within the country of Russia is that these are Russian territories, that there are referendums within these territories that justify these actions. I just don't see that Putin wants to take all of Europe. I take him as his word."

… Oh, he doesn’t want ALL of Europe. Just a part of it. What a relief. And he takes Putin at his word. Comforting.

… Sen. Adam Schiff: “‘I take him at his word’, Trump’s envoy says of Putin. Was there ever a more dangerously naive statement?”

… Witkoff was then asked if people unfairly view Putin as a tyrant: “I think in my 68 years on this earth, I've never, ever seen a situation where there isn't two sides to a story. There are grievances on both sides.”

… Fox host: Are you convinced Putin wants peace? Witkoff: “I feel that he wants peace.” (Putin continues to launch drone attacks on Ukrainian apartment buildings every day).

… Witkoff went on Tucker Carlson’s podcast and said how moved he was by a story Putin told him about after the shooting at the Trump rally in PA: “President Putin commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump, and he went to church and prayed for the president. He has a friendship with him.”

… Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis: “No wonder Tucker Carlson says Witkoff is the most effective negotiator. When both sides take Putin at his word and reject objective reality, it’s a capitulation, not a negotiation.”

… Kremlin Spokesman Dmitri Peskov says Witkoff and Trump’s claims that they are close to reaching a ceasefire deal are false: “Don’t be fooled that a Ukraine ceasefire is just around around the corner. A lot of work remains to be done.”

… Witkoff to Tucker: “I underestimated the complications in the job, that’s for sure. I thought I was going to roll in there on a white horse. But no, it turns out it wasn’t anything like that.”

… Former CIA official Marc Polymeropoulos: “It would be helpful if national security reporters would focus a bit on this Tucker interview. It is appalling. Both content, and that he did it in the first place. The transcript demonstrates that Witkoff is biased, misinformed, naive, out of his league, and unqualified for this job.”

… Witkoff to Fox on Israel ending the ceasefire in Gaza: “I thought we had a deal. Maybe that was me just getting duped.”

… NSA Mike Waltz was asked on NBC why funding was cut off to group tracking kidnapped Ukrainian children. He passed the buck to Lil Marco: “Secretary Rubio is conducting a review of all of those programs, so I can’t speak to that one specifically.”

… Sen. Chuck Schumer continued to pitch his fantasy that Republicans in Congress will join us to oppose Trump in 2026: "Our plan is to make Donald Trump the quickest lame duck in modern history by showing how bad his policies are. I believe by 2026, the Republicans in the House and Senate will feel like they are rats on a sinking ship because we have so gone after Trump."

… Schumer: "If he defies the Supreme Court, then we are in uncharted territory - our entire democracy is at risk. I believe that if Trump should defy the courts, the public will rise up. Democrats will fight it in every single way - autocrats only succeed if the public lets them."

… Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) was asked about Democrats saying we are in a constitutional crisis as the Trump Admin increasing signals that it will ignore court orders: "When everything is a crisis, nothing is a crisis. President Trump has been very clear multiple times he will obey court orders. So I don't see the crisis."

… Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) launched his re-election campaign in GA with a huge rally. Republicans view his seat as the most vulnerable for Democrats. Ossoff: “It was reported that dinner with the President is on sale for $5 million. The whole family is cashing in. Don Jr. is setting up a new business empire. Jared’s investment firm got $2 billion from the Saudi Royal Family. Hunter Biden should’ve been more ambitious.”

… Ossoff: “Trump’s cabinet is worth like $60 billion. That’s not even including Elon. They are literally the elites they pretend to hate. The President is not at his palace in Florida thinking about whether you can afford daycare or how to stop insurance companies from denying you claim or anything that matters to our daily lives.”

… Anna Bower from Lawfare posted a series of statements from law firms who vowed to fight Trump’s attacks on them, unlike Paul, Weiss who surrendered on Friday:

• Keker, Van Nest, & Peters: “Our liberties depend on lawyers who are willing to unpopular people and causes. An attack on lawyers who perform this work is inexcusable and despicable. We encourage law firm leaders to sign on to an amicus effort in support of Perkins Cole's challenge to the Admin's executive order targeting the firm, and to resist the Admin’s erosion of the rule of law."

• Kwall Barack Nadeau PLLC: “Make no mistake, the goal of the Trump Admin is not only to punish specific lawyers or firms, but to chill the legal profession itself, until there is no one left willing to stand up in court and say, 'This is wrong.'”

• Elias Law Group: “Today's White House Memo targets not only me and my law firm, but every attorney and law firm who dares to challenge his assault on the rule of law. Trump’s goal is clear. He wants lawyers and law firms to capitulate and cower until there is no one left to oppose his Admin in court.”

• Williams & Connolly: “The Order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice. Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Admin.”

• Albert Sellars LLP on whether they will settle with Trump: “Fuck that fascist nonsense.”