Donald Trump’s unhinged newest: Health fears, Hegseth in peril and one other racist rant
Pete Hegseth has learned from a master – and came out swinging against a report that found he had put troops lives in danger by putting bombing plans in the group chat
Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election concluded, and his campaign’s links with figures in Moscow, uncovered extensive criminal activity. It produced 37 indictments, seven guilty pleas or convictions and evidence that Trump obstructed justice on multiple occasions. It found evidence that Russia engaged in extensive attacks on the US election system in 2016, and found “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign”. The author, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, explicitly stated that his report “does not exonerate” the president, but acknowledged that Department of Justice policy is that a sitting president could not be indicted.
But before most Americans could read the 500 page report, or even get their heads around a summary, Trump declared victory. He tweeted that the report found “no collusion, no obstruction” and was a “Complete and Total EXONERATION.” This was, of course a lie. But he’s stuck to it for so long, and repeated it so often, it has in many people’s heads replaced the truth. To this day, he refers to the “Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax” as if it’s a settled issue, which it very much is not. The report found Trump repeatedly broke the law, in ways that would have landed any other individual in prison.
Pete Hegseth, the “Secretary of War”, has clearly been paying attention. This morning, ahead of the publication of the Signalgate scandal, Hegseth tweeted: “No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission. Thank you for your attention to this IG report.” Reports suggest this is very much not the case – read on for more.
Meanwhile in Trumpworld
- Trump puts his name on another building
- Pete Hegseth is probably screwed
- Trump (again) demands election tamperer be released
- He tells Citizen and Congresswoman to “go back to your own country”
Here’s everything you need to know
1. Plasters spotted on Trump’s hand
Eagle eyed photographers have spotted an escalation in the condition affecting Trump’s hand. The White House has dismissed concerns about the massive purple bruise on his right hand, putting it down to him shaking hands with people a lot. But the discolouration is apparently so bad at the moment that the concealer won’t cut it and he’s taken to wearing Elastoplast.
2. The Donald J Trump Institute of Peace
The State Department announced yesterday that he was renaming the US Institute of Peace to the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace, “to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.”
Which is a bit like me launching the “Mikey P Smith Campaign Against Snark in Journalism”.
It is, of course, another case of state-sponsored trolling, and/or an attempt to placate Trump for not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s particularly ironic considering Trump targeted the Institute of Peace to be abolished, but a court ruled the President did not have authority to eliminate it through executive order.
3. Pete Hegseth on course to be next Ambassador to somewhere
Regular readers will know the report into Pete Hegseth’s involvement in the Signalgate debacle is due for publication today – and the “sSecretary of War” was given a classified version yesterday for his perusal.
Turns out it is not at all good for him. The Defence Department’s Inspector General concluded in his report that Hegseth had shared information that was considered classified on a Signal group chat, and in doing so put the lives of American troops at risk. The report also concludes he had broken military regulations by using his personal phone for official business.
It’s the latest in a string of embarrassing stories about Trump’s haywire Defence chief. And as we all know, Trump doesn’t fire people who are embarrassing to him, because that makes him look like he made a mistake hiring them in the first place. What he does is wait a few weeks and make them the Ambassador to somewhere. We fully expect Hegseth to start his new life in Honduras or somewhere, probably shortly after Christmas.
4. Trump still calling for election tamperer’s release
Tina Peters, a former election official, who last August was convicted of tampering with voting machines in the 2020 election, is serving nine years in prison. Republican Peters, 68, helped breach the election computer systems in Mesa County, Colorado, and allowed a man affiliated with Mike Lindell, the pillow magnate, election denier and serial conspiracy theorist, to access them. But despite her being tried by a grand jury, and convicted by a jury of her peers, Trump has repeatedly called for her to be released.
In a Truth Social post last night, he branded Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado a “SLEAZEBAG” for not arbitrarily releasing the convicted criminal. “She was preserving Election Records, which she was obligated to do under Federal Law,” he claimed. The jury decided she was not, and she was not.
Trump is clearly quite frustrated that unlike other Republican cronies he’s been able to pardon for their extensive Federal crimes, Peters was convicted at the state level, and he has no authority to set her free.
5. Trump tells US Citizen and congresswoman: ‘go back to your own country’
Another racist slur to add to the list, last night Trump told a Congresswoman who is a citizen of the United States that she should “go back to your own country.”
The Congresswoman in question is Ilhan Omar, who has been a US citizen for quarter of a century. America is her own country.
Trump also dredged up a vile and decade-old racist conspiracy theory about Omar “marrying her brother” in order to get into the United States. Or in order to get her “brother” into the United States. Both ideas are absurd and false.
Omar and her family sought asylum in the US in 1995, along with all her siblings, when she was 17. She was granted Citizenship in 2000, two years before she entered into her first religious marriage, and nearly a decade before her first US-legal marriage. So the idea that she used it to gain citizenship is obviously nonsense.
Her 2009 marriage to Somali/British dual national Ahmed Nur Said Elmi appears to be the focus of the theory. They split in 2011 and Elmi returned to live in the UK, which is a weird thing for someone who wants to be an American citizen to do. Anyway, in the unlikely case that Elmi was some kind of secret sibling who for some reason didn’t seek asylum in the US at the same time as Omar, they wouldn’t need to be married for him to seek citizenship. The route to permanent residency, and then to citizenship is open both to spouses AND SIBLINGS of US Citizens.
6. Trump says people of certain ethnic backgrounds ‘shouldn’t be allowed’ to be congresspeople
All of which was part of Trump, once again, launching into a straight-up racist rant about Somali Americans, particularly those in Minnesota.
“Look how bad their nation is. It’s not even a nation. It’s just people walking around killing each other,” Trump said, referring presumably to Somali. Wrongly, as it turns out. About 95% of Somali-heritage people in Minnesota are US Citizens, so “their nation” is the United States of America.
“Look, these Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country. Billions and billions,” he went on. It’s unclear what he’s referring to here. It may be the fraud scandal recently uncovered where around 80 Somali Americans were accused of running various schemes to defraud government welfare programmes. But even that topped out at around $1bn worth of fraud. Not “billions and billions.”
He went on to claim Somali Americans have turned Minnesota into a “hellhole”. Which given they make up around 1.7% of the state’s population is pretty impressive work.
He said: “What these Somalian people have done to Minnesota is not even believable. And a lot of it starts with the governor. A lot of it starts with Barack Hussein Obama because that’s when people started coming in.”
Point of fact, if we’re looking at who was in charge when people “started coming in” from Somalia, it’s more accurate to look at the 90s and 00s – when successive Georges Bush led interventions and resettlement programmes related to Somalia.
Returning to the subject of Omar, Trump said: “Her friends shouldn’t even be allowed to be congresspeople. They shouldn’t even be allowed to be congresspeople, because they don’t represent the interests of our country.”
This is, of course, unconstitutional.
7. Zelensky meltdown meeting was ‘right time’ for Ukraine to ‘settle’
Putin last night said elements of Trump’s plan to end the Ukraine war are “unacceptable” to the Kremlin, indicating a ceasefire is probably some way off.
Trump said yesterday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from their marathon session confident that he wants to find an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he added.
Putin refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.
“I think it is premature. Because it could simply disrupt the working regime” of the peace effort, Tass quoted Putin as saying.
Pressed about the conflict in the Oval last night, Trump said: “You know when I was in this office and I talked about “no cards”, I said “You have no cards”. That was the time to settle. I thought that would have been a much better time to settle but they [presumably Ukraine], in their wisdom decided not to do that.”
8. New York Times sues Pentagon over press policy
The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon in a bid to overturn the new rules Hegseth brought in that sparked a mass walkout of anyone who might be considered a journalist.
The newspaper said the rules violate constitutional freedom of speech and due process provisions, since they give Hegseth the power to determine on his own whether a reporter should be banned.
Since the walkout, the Trump administration has populated the Pentagon press room with a gaggle of wide-eyed MAGA influencers, who will hold Hegseth to account with questions like “when are you going to sue the Washington Post?” – a genuine question raised at yesterday’s Pentagon “press” briefing.
“The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes,” said Charles Stadtlander, spokesperson for the newspaper. The Times filed the case with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
