Today in Politics, Bulletin 54. 1/22/25

… The TV ratings for Trump’s inauguration were putrid. Nielsen had the inauguration at 24.59 million viewers, compared to 33.76 million for Biden’s 2021 inauguration and 30.64 million for Trump’s first in 2021. The figures combine the viewers for the 15 networks that covered it live.

… Even worse for Trump and the networks who covered it were the demographics of the viewers. In the crucial under-55 demo for advertisers, only 6.1 million watched. Only a microscopic 1.43 million in the 18-34 demo. 71% of the viewers were over 55.

… A new Reuters poll also shows a big majority of Americans were not happy with Trump’s initial moves during his first days in office. 58% said they were opposed to Trump’s pardon of any J6 insurrectionists, and only 29% said they agreed with his orders designed to radically transform DOJ and federal law enforcement.

… Trump finally revealed his secret plan to end the war in Ukraine and it is the same as his answer to everything - tariffs. The problem with that is the the Biden Admin has already maxed out every conceivable economic sanction against Russia. So we aren’t buying anything from them. Which means that Putin has to be laughing at Trump’s moronic post. Trump: “I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR.”

… Oh really. What could that be? “Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the US. We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!”

… I’m sure the war will be over tomorrow now. This had to terrify Putin.

… MAGA influencer Catturd had to check himself into the hospital last night and posted an update at 1:14 AM on X: “I’m in the hospital with a bowel blockage. I’ll give you more details tomorrow.” We already knew he was full of shit. This proves it.

… Turd also had the entire front end of his truck smashed in when he hit a deer driving up from Florida to an inauguration event. Rough week.

… Based on WaPo’s latest reporting on Musk’s breakup with Vivek Ramaswamy on the DOGE committee, it seems pretty clear that the whole thing was just a front so Elon could gain access to highly sensitive classified information to give him an edge against his business competitors in multiple sectors. This was supposed to be a committee to recommend budget cuts. That’s what Vivek thought. But their falling out began when Vivek realized that Musk had something completely different in mind.

… Vivek wanted the agency to remain outside the government and serve in an advisory role. But Musk wanted it to be inside the WH where he would be granted access to top secret information. Musk won, he is moving to an office in the West Wing, and senior Trump allies told WaPo that they “are concerned about extent of privileged government information Musk will have access to.”

... A bizarre scene then played out on X, as Trump announced (and tried to take credit for) Open AI’s partnership with SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX to invest $500 billion in a massive AI infrastructure project called Stargate. One of their main competitors happens to be Elon Musk. He responded with several posts trashing the idea and Open AI’s Sam Altman. Musk: “They don’t actually have the money. SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured. I have that on good authority.”

… Altman responded: “Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already underway? This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll put the country first.”

… So Musk ends up trashing Trump’s hype show by claiming the whole thing is a scam and they don’t really have the money to do what they are saying, proving that Musk will always side with his own companies over Trump. It will be interesting to see how this bromance between Musk and Trump plays out if that continues.

… Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) posted this on X about House DOGE committee Chair Marge Greene: “MTG specifically told (my friend) James Comer that she won’t allow any Republican women on her subcommittee.” I asked him if this was true or if he was just being snarky. He said it was 100% true. Doesn’t surprise me at all - Marge does not get along with other women at all. She doesn’t even look at her old friend Boebert anymore.

… But Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) is on the committee and he says he’s ready for battle: “I’ve been tapped to represent House Oversight Dems on the new DOGE committee chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Let’s be clear: this committee is designed to destroy federal agencies and the social safety net so that billionaires can enrich themselves. They ain’t ready for us.”

… The largest police union in the country - the Fraternal Order of Police, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police both denounced Trump’s pardon of J6 insurrectionists. Their joint statement: “Allowing those convicted of crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families.”

… More from the statement: “It sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence.”

… Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes walked out of prison and was asked by a reporter what he wanted to see happen next. He said that he wanted the Capitol Police officers prosecuted for supposedly lying on the stand in his trial. He specifically mentioned Harry Dunn.

… Former Capitol Police Office Michael Fanone was asked if he had anything to say to Stewart Rhodes on CNN: “This is what I would say to Stewart Rhodes - go fuck yourself. You’re a liar.” Since it was live, CNN apologized for the F word.

… Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio walked out of prison and immediately called for Merrick Garland and others to be arrested: “We need people like Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and the rest of the Trump cabinet to right all these wrongs. The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars.”

… J6 insurrectionist Vital Gossjankowski also walked out of prison. He tried to attack his judge during the sentencing and had to be tackled and physically restrained by court bailiffs.

… Trump signed an executive order revoking the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which was signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and has remained in effect for 60 years. It prohibits discrimination against protected classes in employment by any contractor who does business with the federal government. At least it did for the last 60 years.

… Elon Musk’s daughter Vivian responded to his denials that he did a Nazi salute twice at the Trump event: “I’m just gonna say let’s call a spade a fucking spade. Especially if there were two spades done in succession based on the reaction of the first spade. Fuck spades.”

Shorter column today than normal because Wednesday’s I do my live podcast Uncovered and that takes a big bite out of the middle of my day. This is the best I could do with the time I had left. I will make the whole column today free since it is shorter. On Uncovered, I do a deeper dive into the ten biggest stories of the week. If you wanted to check out today’s, here is the link.

… Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH) just hired Michael Peppel as his communications director this week. The Republican AG of OH says that Peppel ran a scam charity two years ago where he pocketed 94% of the $150,000 he raised which was supposed to go to victims of the E. Palestine train derailment.

… The president of California Citrus Mutual said that 25% of their workers did not show up for work on Tuesday and 75% did not show up yesterday. He said new raids “have sent shockwaves through out community. People aren’t going to work, kids aren’t going to school.” He said that the new Trump ICE raids are not targeting people suspected of committing crimes - they are racially profiling and looking for anyone.

… Trump’s long crusade against “windmills” (turbines) also found its way into an executive order. He banned all new leases for offshore wind turbines. His hatred of these began after the Scottish government put a wind turbine near one of his golf courses 15 years ago in Aberdeen, and he complained that it ruined the view from one of the holes. He sued Scotland and it went all the way to the UK Supreme Court and Trump lost. Ever since then he has been obsessed with them.

… He also claimed that Sean Connery (James Bond) spoke to members of the Scottish Parliament on his behalf to ask them to remove it, but when Connery was asked if that was true he said he had no idea what Trump was talking about.

… Longtime former CNN insider Oliver Darcy reports in Status that CNN CEO Mark Thompson told staffers at a meeting this past Sunday to avoid “pre-judging Trump.” At the end of the meeting, nobody said anything in response. Darcy: “He does not want them endlessly poking the eye of the sitting president and believes that Trump should be shown some deference. And he has made it clear that he wants the MAGA movement to have a seat at the table when discussing political topics, even if certain pundits use the platform to make incendiary and sometimes false claims."

… As you know, I have tremendous respect for CNN reporters out in the field covering Congress, campaigns, war zones, and other breaking stories. I think they are magnificent. I also like some of their studio hosts. But the network channel as a whole has become unwatchable under Thompson’s leadership. Fox viewers want Fox. Nobody wants Fox Lite.

… CNBC is reporting that CNN is laying off hundreds of employees tonight.

… Danish MP Anders Vistisen to the European Parliament: “Dear President Trump, listen very carefully. Greenland has been part of the Danish kingdom for 800 years. It’s an integrated part of our country. It is not for sale. Let me put it in words you might understand. Mr. Trump, fuck off.”

… The former sister-in-law of SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth sent an affidavit to Senators which detailed how his second wife lived in fear of him due to his drinking and erratic behavior. Danielle Hegseth said his his former wife Samantha hid in a closet once from Hegseth, that she developed escape plans for use if she felt she was in danger from Hegseth, and had to activate it with a designated code word to escape from him on one occasion.

… The affidavit also said he was frequently drunk in his military uniform, had to be carried out of a strip club during a National Guard drill weekend, he regularly got so drunk he vomited and had to be carried out of parties and events while shouting sexually and racially insensitive remarks, and he believed that women should not work or have the right to vote. All the best people.

… Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told CNN today she still is not sure if she is going to vote for Hegseth.

… Sen. Susan Collins was Susan Collinsing, saying that she is still “weighing” whether to vote for him and said she is “troubled” that she hasn’t been able to see the FBI background report on him yet.

… Sean Hannity will do the first Oval Office interview of Trump for his second administration. I’m sure there will be lots of hard hitting questions for his best pal and Palm Beach neighbor.

… WaPo reports that the Trump Administration ordered a communications blackout for the nation's health agencies. A new memo sent to these health agencies will pause all external communications, including new health advisories, scientific reports, updates to the website and social media posts.

… Surprise! Suddenly inflation is no longer a problem. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was asked on CNBC about the likelihood that Trump’s tariffs will cause inflation: “If it’s a little inflationary but it’s good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it.”

… Trump made two separate posts on Truth Social last night while in the White House, urging people to buy his crypo scam tokens that he is making billions from. He has presidential immunity now from the Supreme Court, so laws, policies, and norms mean even less to him now than they did before. Once again, legacy media ignored it.

… Ann Coulter responded to Megyn Kelly saying that Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend Lauren Sanchez “looked like a hooker” at the inauguration with this post:

… After Republican Senator Deb Fischer’s (NE) husband refused to shake Kamala Harris’s hand at her swearing in ceremony causing Harris to say, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to bite,” Bruce Fischer approached Doug Emhoff at an inauguration event and tried to shake his hand. Per CNN, Emhoff asked him: “Why would you try to shake my hand when you wouldn’t shake my wife’s hand?”

… Idaho State Rep. Josh Tanner introduced a bill today to encourage that state to prosecute Dr. Fauci: “Just because he received this federal pardon does not mean he can’t be prosecuted for the crimes he committed here in Idaho.”

… Dallas megachurch Pastor Richard Jeffress, who was a key player in 2016 when he convinced evangelicals to back Trump despite his immoral, non-christian past, is upset about Bishop Edgar-Budde’s sermon yesterday: “I attended the national prayer service today at the Washington National Cathedral during which Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde insulted rather than encouraged our great president Donald Trump. There was palpable disgust in the audience with her words.”

… Jeffress hosted Trump at his church on Christmas Day in 2021. One of only 3 times Trump attended a church service in the last 4 years. Jeffress asked Trump to come up on stage and share a Christmas message for the congregation. Trump got up and ripped Biden, complained about gas prices, the Afghan withdraw, inflation, etc. He barely mentioned Christmas and never mentioned Jesus or God. I’ll take Edgar-Budde over political pastor Jeffress any day.

… Trump also made a post today about the Bishop: “The so-called Bishop was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not good at her job. She and the church owe the public an apology!”

Has there ever been a bigger crybaby than Trump?

… Rep. Dan Crenshaw complained to Tim Cook today that Apple Maps still has not changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America after Trump’s executive order. (It does not apply to private businesses).