'Kill Them All' Sums Up Trump's Policies Perfectly
The Pentagon is under fire after a bombshell report on a boat attack, Border Patrol heads to Louisiana, and the death toll from Israel's genocide in Gaza surpasses 70,000.
🚍 On this day in 1955, Rosa Parks was jailed for not giving up her bus seat to a white man in violation of Alabama’s racist segregation laws. Parks ignited the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted for over a year and catalyzed the national Civil Rights Movement. Eleven months later, the Supreme Court ruled the laws unconstitutional.
Good morning, all. It’s Swin (or, “Asawin Suebsaeng,” for the pedants) again. I’m back, filling in for Mehdi today, so my apologies! Last time I subbed in, we played a game (the answer was the Tom Morello choice); this time, I’m going to give you a window into how I see the world and ask that you send your rebuttals or personal views to me at asawin@zeteo.com. My favorite journalism movie of all time is Michael Mann’s ‘The Insider,’ by a country mile. The three best Iraq War movies are ‘In the Loop,’ ‘Smokin’ Aces,’ (it’s an Iraq War movie, the director says so), and ‘28 Weeks Later.’ And the best film ever made about the Trump era is William Friedkin’s ‘Bug’… even though it came out when George W. Bush was president.
In today’s ‘First Draft’: Trump’s language backfires, the White House and its legal position on strikes in the Caribbean, the pardon of a convicted drug trafficker, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘sacrificial’ pardon request, and more.
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I Still Can’t Believe the Host of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ Is the One Doing This to Us
By the summer of 2024, I had grown convinced that if Donald Trump managed to electorally vanquish Kamala Harris, his new administration would turn the US government, and therefore the nation, into the “blood orgy scene from ‘Event Horizon,’ if only every cannibal space-demon in that scene were played by the villain from ‘Happy Gilmore.’” This prognosis was based only on what he had done in his first presidency, and what he was vowing to do in his second. We are less than a year into the second Trump era, and I’d argue that my fears weren’t just realized. They were surpassed on every meaningful level, given how much this administration is an authoritarian personality cult buttressed by a grinning culture of mass death and degradation, as the president keeps telling us that up is down and hate equals “love.”
The latest of many examples this year came with a Washington Post story describing the directive issued by Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth. “Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all,” the headline reads, paraphrasing what the newspaper reports was a “spoken directive” from Hegseth, with a reduced paper trail. One of the unnamed sources simply told the Post: “The order was to kill everybody.” The incident was the first in what is now a lawless killing spree tied to Team Trump’s broader campaign for regime change and possible war on Venezuelan soil.
According to the Post, the commander overseeing the attack on the boat – which was supposedly carrying drug smugglers – ordered a second strike to eliminate two men who had survived and were clinging to the wreckage. While Trump’s boat bombing campaign is almost certainly illegal, attacking the two men in the water represents a possible war crime, because they were given no quarter, according to the paper. (It is inherently bizarre to talk about violent war crimes when there isn’t even a war going on in the Caribbean Sea, but that is another topic for another day.)
The impact from the Post article was quickly felt in Washington, with some top GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill joining Democratic colleagues in demanding investigations and answers. A significant number of legal experts in the field warn that what the Trump administration is reportedly doing is tantamount to murder, stretching the already atrocious frameworks of the so-called global “War on Terror” to an egregious breaking point. Some of these outraged observers have couched their horror in stressing that the double-tap strike and order are illegal, “if true” – an interesting choice of words given how Trump’s so-called “Secretary of War” emphatically did not deny the Post’s reporting in his initial public statement, and given how frequently senior Trump officials laugh off criticism that they don’t know whom they’re killing as they bomb these supposed “drug smugglers” and “narco-terrorists.”
Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, Trump – as if to further clarify his murderous intentions – blurted out on his social media website: “please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” At the time, US officials insisted to reporters, including at Reuters and here at Zeteo, that they were unaware of any US military operation to accomplish this hostile action. “What the fuck are you talking about?” a senior US official – who would be in a position to know about such operations – told me, moments after I described the commander-in-chief’s then-fresh online post.
Some of this would be funny, were the stakes not so unbelievably high. A bumbling, clearly mentally desiccated American president – who just so happens to be the former host of NBC’s terrible game show ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ – cannot help himself from barfing out bloodlusting nonsense on his poorly reviewed Twitter-clone, to the point that he’s doing the Michael Scott “I Declare Bankruptcy” bit, except it’s for threatening a war.
One reason none of this is particularly funny is because “Kill Them All” isn’t just a paraphrase of a Pentagon order – it is a perfect summation of so many of Trump’s current policies at home and abroad. And the long-term ramifications, not to mention the shorter-term ones, from this are going to be colossal, both in predictable and completely unexpected ways.
Domestically, the Trump administration and the ruling party are willing to let millions upon millions of people starve or get sicker, especially if he can score an obnoxious political point out of it. Trump is following through on his 2024 campaign promise to leave you to die and suffer in emergency scenarios, if local political leaders don’t give him what he wants. If your city or state pisses him off, Trump has spent months sending armed troops to punish and humiliate you. On top of that, he’s deploying his masked, militarized secret police across the country, and he doesn’t seem to care how many civilians are being hurt or shot in the process. Trump’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is waging a nonstop effort to institutionalize junk science and anti-vaccine hysteria that has grown so deranged that even multiple former senior Trump officials argue he’s likely going to get a lot of Americans needlessly killed. The president seeks to expand the death penalty and privately yearns for mass executions and modern gallows. And he so often endorses the slaughter of fellow Americans he doesn’t like, including elected Democrats, that it has become as routine in our political culture as discussions of tax hikes.
(The above is, unfortunately, a woefully incomplete list.)
And as I reported for Rolling Stone last year, when Trump was president the first time, he would slam his fist on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, and yell about suspected street criminals in the United States: “Fucking kill them all,” Trump would demand. “You just got to kill these people … Other countries do it all the time.”
That was during his first term, when “Fucking Kill Them All” was largely his violent fantasy – a bleakly quixotic goal.
Today, it is the defining public policy of an entire political party and its movement.
🗞️ What You Need to Know
Caribbean boat strike: A group of ex-military attorneys said Hegseth’s reported orders to “kill everyone” aboard a boat in the Caribbean in a Sept. 2 attack – and the execution of such orders – amount to “war crimes, murder, or both.” The Former JAGs Working Group, formed in February after Hegseth fired military lawyers, noted that international law not only prohibits targeting survivors, but requires the attacking group to protect and rescue them.
“Swamp Sweep”: Border Patrol is heading to its next target – New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana, where it plans to arrest about 5,000 people in the Trump administration’s latest needless attack on immigrants and Latino communities.
Words have consequences: Indiana GOP state Senator Michael Bohacek said he’ll vote no on a Republican redistricting bid after Trump used the r-word against Tim Walz while purporting that the Minnesota governor was letting ‘Somalian gangs’ take over his state. Trump has shamelessly used the ableist slur for years with virtually no accountability. “Perhaps he can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a congressional majority,” Bohacek, who has a daughter with Down Syndrome, said in pushing back against Trump.
This is not what democracy looks like: Trump launched a “Media Offenders” page on the official White House website, the latest move in his vicious campaign against a free press. Oddly on the list is CBS News, now run by conservative Bari Weiss. Apparently, no one’s safe.
MAHA plans new anti-vax push: Vinay Prasad, a top official in Trump’s FDA, claimed in an internal email, without offering evidence, that “at least 10 children have died after and because of receiving COVID-19 vaccination.” He promised “swift action regarding this new safety concern,” indicating the agency could limit pregnant women’s access to vaccines. Prasad additionally pledged that his team would “revise the annual flu vaccine framework,” calling it (again, without evidence) “an evidence-based catastrophe.”
First lady in showbiz: Melania Trump announced she’s launching a production company, Muse Films, just as Amazon prepares to air a $40 million documentary about her (that she produced) next month. Per the Wall Street Journal, the first lady pitched the film directly to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos over dinner at Mar-a-Lago, and she’ll now be taking home over 70% of the cut.
🧠 Pop Quiz!
Which actor took over ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ after Trump, and what was the actor’s highest-grossing film?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
💬 Quote Unquote
“You can take any country you want, if somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life.”
That’s Trump’s response to a question about why he plans to pardon a notorious convicted drug trafficker, just as he has vowed a purported drug crackdown on Venezuela. Forget two-faced – this president has at least five.
🇵🇸 Don’t Forget Gaza
Over 70,000 dead: The official death toll from Israel’s genocide in Gaza surpassed 70,000 this weekend, Palestinian health officials said, though it’s likely a vast undercount. The death toll includes the more than 355 Palestinians killed since the so-called ceasefire took effect in October. Palestinian officials in Gaza have documented nearly 600 Israeli ceasefire violations.
And in the occupied West Bank…
Settlers shoot Palestinian woman in the leg: Israeli settlers attacked several Palestinian villages over the weekend, Haaretz reported. Settlers shot a Palestinian woman in the leg outside Bethlehem with Israeli military-issued weapons, the newspaper said. Another attack took place in a Bedouin community in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
🚨 Don’t Miss It!
Do you have unanswered questions about the latest immigration raids, Caribbean boat strikes, or any of the other insanity in Trump’s America? Join Prem and me today for ‘Ask the Editor,’ Zeteo’s weekly livestreamed Q&A, at 11am ET (8am PT / 4pm GMT).
🌏 Anywhere But America
🇮🇱 Bibi asks for pardon: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially asked the country’s president for a pardon to end proceedings in his ongoing corruption trial. The request comes just weeks after Trump urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, who denies the allegations against him. Granting Netanyahu a pardon before the end of his trial would be an extremely rare step that critics say would threaten the rule of law. People were amused at how Netanyahu presented his request as some kind of a sacrifice.
🇭🇳 Honduras election: Preliminary and partial results from yesterday’s election in Honduras show the two right-wing candidates – Trump-endorsed Nasry Asfura of the National Party and the conservative Liberal Party’s Salvador Nasralla – were leading the race, with the candidate from the governing left-wing party far behind, per AP. Analysts cautioned that the results are still early and preliminary (only 43% of the vote had been counted by early Monday morning). They’ve also predicted that any result will likely be contested, with the lead-up to the election marred by accusations of possible voter fraud and concerns about election integrity.
🇭🇰 Scores dead in Hong Kong high-rise fire: The death toll from last week’s fire at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong climbed to at least 151 on Monday, with dozens still missing. At least 13 have been arrested in connection with the fire, the deadliest in Hong Kong in 75 years.
🇻🇦🇵🇸 Pope calls for two-state solution: Pope Leo reiterated the Vatican’s stance that any solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict must include a Palestinian state. “We all know that at this time Israel still does not accept that solution, but we see it as the only solution,” he said on a flight from Turkey to Lebanon on his first foreign trip since becoming pope.
🇮🇩🇲🇾🇹🇭 More than 1,000 dead in Southeast Asia floods: Catastrophic floods and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains have killed more than 1,000 people across Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, with hundreds of others still missing.
🇺🇦🇺🇸 Ukraine-US talks: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there’s “more work to be done” after speaking with Ukrainian officials for over four hours about Russia’s invasion and an end to the war. US special envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Paris today for talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
📊 Poll of the Day
As Americans continue to struggle in an increasingly worsening job market, many are losing trust in the promise of college.
A recent NBC News poll revealed that a majority of registered voters do not believe college degrees are worth the cost. It’s almost as if Americans are tired of bearing trillions in student debt for years. Hmm, who would’ve thought?
🧠 Trivia answer: Arnold Schwarzenegger; ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day.’
📺 Sunday Show Roundup
On ABC, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said no matter how the Trump administration spins the boat strike, it appears to be a war crime. “I do believe the secretary of defense should be held accountable for giving those kind of orders.”
But, in contrast, Trump’s GOP friends don’t have any issue with these boat strikes. Some are even doubling down. GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin expressed support for the Trump administration’s decision on CNN, saying, “They’re gonna use lethality against our enemies — home and abroad.”
On Fox, GOP Senator Eric Schmitt called immigration into the US a “civilizational issue for us here in the West.” This is the same congressman who has denounced those who take notice of the genocide of Indigenous people.
On NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ Minnesota Governor Tim Walz asked a question mainstream media won’t: Is Trump in his right mind? “Has anyone in the history of the world ever have an MRI assigned to them and have no idea what it was for?”
NBC’s Kristen Welker questioned Secretary Kristi Noem on DHS’s call for “remigration,” a term associated with the mass deportation of non-white immigrants in Europe, in a recent tweet. Unshockingly, Noem failed to distance DHS’s use of the term.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that he sees Trump’s promise to “permanently pause” all migration from “Third World Countries” as “a message that they don’t want brown people coming to the United States.”
💰 Here Comes the Bribe???
Donald Trump ended his first term without compiling a list of all the gifts he received during his four years in office. And judging by his second term, that list might also prove difficult to compile because world leaders have learned not to show up empty-handed when meeting the Donald.
Take the Swiss, for example, whose tariff rate dropped from an eye-watering 39% to a digestible 15% after Swiss billionaire businessmen gifted Trump a specially engraved gold bar worth $130,000 and a Rolex desk clock, alongside a pledge from Swiss companies to invest billions in the US.
But a gold bar and a desk clock are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump’s ‘art of the deal,’ so be sure to check out Zeteo’s full breakdown here.
As I reported in May, Trump has repeatedly told confidants that it was “stupid” of him and his family not to (very corruptly!) cash in much harder on the American presidency during his first stint in the White House. It is clear he is refusing to make the same mistake this time.
🗓️ Mark Your Calendars
Monday, Dec. 1: Luigi Mangione is expected to return to court ahead of his upcoming trial on murder charges over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Tuesday, Dec. 2: Voters in Tennessee’s 7th congressional district head to the polls for a special election to fill the seat of Republican Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from the House earlier this year. While Republican Matt Van Epps is still expected to defeat Democrat Aftyn Behn, the election has gained national attention in recent weeks, as polling shows a relatively close race in a district Trump won by 22 points last year.
Wednesday, Dec. 3: The Senate Commerce Committee is set to hold a confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman, Trump’s pick to lead NASA. It would be the second hearing for Isaacman, who was renominated after Trump angrily withdrew his earlier nomination, reportedly over Isaacman’s close relationship with Elon Musk and his past donations to Democrats.
Thursday, Dec. 4: Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to travel to India for the first time since 2021 for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, according to Bloomberg, will pitch buying Russian fighter jets and air defense technology. The visit comes after Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods over the country’s purchase of Russian oil.
ICYMI From Zeteo
Thank you, all, for reading and subscribing to ‘First Draft.’ It means the world to us, truly. You are now back in the much more capable hands of Mehdi and Peter. I’ll come back and see you here via this newsletter, if you’ll have me. As always, please send all your love and kindness to my Zeteo colleagues Melanie Riehl, Akshay Gokul, and Minnah Arshad, who make this newsletter the kickass read it is. ‘Til next time. - Swin
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I agree 💯%!!!!! Thank you for writing this. And please don’t apologize for subbing for someone else. Your writing and research is terrific.
If Agent Orange has shown nothing else, it's the limits of fiction and a sane imagination. The crazy hyperbole of the film, Event Horizon, is an excellent image for this regime.Thank you for this fine report of the unthinkable horrors.