First Draft: 😥 Team Trump Under ‘Maximum’ Pressure to Jail More of His Foes
Todd Blanche is set to be nominated as attorney general proper but even he knows demands for vengeance will catch up to him sooner or later. Plus, Rashida Tlaib raises GOP tempers on Lebanon.
On this day in 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which, after ratification by the states, finally gave women the right to vote. We now have a defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, whose church network says that right should be taken away.
Here’s to a lovely Thursday morning: ☕ ☕ It’s Swin, again. Last month, we told you how the Pentagon has been put under a shocking amount of pressure by the White House and by higher-ups at the Pete Hegseth-fronted Defense Department to essentially cook its own Iran war data and twist its own intel before it is presented to Donald Trump. Because why hurt the Mad King president’s feelings with numbers that show he’s losing his illegal war?
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we take a look at other parts of the U.S. government that Trump and his White House are coaxing with a very simple message: the boss will be monumentally livid at you if you don’t get very serious – very soon – about jailing his political enemies. Elsewhere, Rashida Tlaib’s Lebanon war powers push infuriates Republicans while a senior Democrat warns about Bill Pulte’s election danger.
Trump to AG: Don’t ‘Fuck Up’ on Revenge
Two months ago, Donald Trump fired then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, because she wasn’t corrupt or zealously authoritarian enough for his liking. With her fall rose the acting AG, Todd Blanche, yet another of Trump’s former personal lawyers turned federalized hatchetmen. Off the bat, the Trump White House, including the president himself, made something clear to Blanche in private discussions, according to people familiar with the matter.