First Draft: 🪖 Let Wag the Dogs of War
Trump signals he’ll send stormtroopers into US streets before the midterms, Democrats secure a big Supreme Court win, and Jeff Bezos sets the Washington Post ablaze.
💣 On this day in 2003, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a presentation to the UN Security Council arguing that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and had ties to terrorism. It became one of the most consequential speeches of the 21st century – and one of the most infamous because many of its key claims were later shown to be false, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died.
Howdy, folks! Peter here, with a heavy heart this morning. Last night, my Twitter feed was riddled with posts from friends and mentors who had just lost their jobs at what for decades was one of the two key pillars of the fourth estate. “WaPo,” as we in the biz tend to call it, has such a storied history that I couldn’t possibly do it justice in this intro, but please do yourself a favor and watch two movies this weekend: The Post (2017) and All the President’s Men (1976). I was lucky enough to have Bob Woodward as a seminar professor my senior year of college; it will forever be one of the greatest honors of my life.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the Trump administration can’t stop using the language of war when discussing domestic law enforcement, Democrats propose major ICE reforms in exchange for Department of Homeland Security funding, billionaire Jeff Bezos shreds the newspaper that broke Watergate, and Elon Musk cries on Twitter?
‘The President of Peace’ Declares War on America
Over the last year, the Zeteo team has reported doggedly on “Donald the Dove’s” wanton military adventurism abroad.
We’ve covered the fact he’s bombed not one, not two, but SEVEN countries: Iran, Venezuela, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Nigeria.
We’ve covered how he’s kidnapped a foreign head of state: Nicolás Maduro.
And, of course, we’ve covered how he risked outright World (NUCLEAR) War III by initiating the oh-so-masculinely named “Operation Midnight Hammer,” striking an Iranian underground uranium enrichment facility.
My Zeteo colleagues and I have been rather remiss, however, in covering how the president is clearly attempting to distract from his historic unpopularity by also unleashing the dogs of war at home.
“The one thing that I think many, if not every, FBI agent and personnel and law enforcement [officer] across the country love about this president is that he backs them,” FBI Director Kash Patel told a Fox host on Tuesday evening, responding to a question about shocking reports that Trump had called investigators during or shortly after their unprecedented raid on a Fulton County election center earlier this week.
“He backs the blue, he gives them resources, and he’s always congratulatory of their efforts. And so to hear from the commander in chief for my troops on the ground there was a pretty cool thing.”
It’s one turn of phrase in that second quote that gives me a great deal of pause: troops on the ground.