Tag: trump

Trump Trolls Times reporter again fishing for sources

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.2.2026 UPDATED

The Hill – 8.2.2026

For a President who is so media savvy and friendly when it suits him the blogger can only continue to look on with dismay as Donald Trump assaults the First Amendment and crush the right to publish.

During his second term Trump’s Department of Justice has already issued subpoenas against The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Does Trump seriously believe these mainstream media giants are standing idly by while its reporters are harassed by his DOJ? Thank goodness these publications are having none of it.

Excerpted from The New York Times 8.1.2026

Previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed 2019 SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the Trump’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of what Trump labels secrets.

A freelance reporter has been fighting a subpoena from the Trump administration seeking to force him to reveal his sources for a New York Times article about a failed top secret mission in North Korea, according to people familiar with the matter.

Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for The Times, said in a statement that the subpoena to Matthew Cole was “part of the government’s escalating attacks on journalists, which should concern all Americans.” He added that the demand to disclose Mr. Cole’s sources “is another brazen and illegal attack from the administration designed to deny the public information of vital importance.”

The subpoena, which has not been previously disclosed, reflects the administration’s intensifying campaign to investigate leaks of government secrets by pressuring reporters to divulge their sources. Until President Trump began his second term, federal subpoenas to reporters were exceedingly rare.

In February, F.B.I. agents showed up at the New York home of the reporter, Matthew Cole, to deliver the grand jury subpoena, which was issued by prosecutors in Newport News, Va., according to the people familiar with the matter, who described the private conversations on the condition of anonymity.

The Times is providing a legal defense to Mr. Cole.

Trump jabs the media on Air Force One

The investigators are seeking his testimony about two years’ worth of information about Mr. Cole’s contacts and conversations, as they try to identify his sources for the article about the operation in North Korea, the people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear if the administration has also sought Mr. Cole’s phone and email data, as it has done in other cases.

Last fall, Mr. Cole, along with a staff reporter for The Times, Dave Philipps, revealed the details of a Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in 2019 that went awry. The article described how the SEAL members killed two or three unarmed North Koreans who appeared to have stumbled upon the mission, a classified operation to plant a secret eavesdropping device near the country’s coastline. The Times’s account, published in September, drew on interviews with two dozen people.

The article also noted that the Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress who oversee intelligence operations, before or after the mission, an omission that may have violated the law.

The Justice Department has not subpoenaed Mr. Philipps, according to people familiar with the matter. He declined to comment.

Mr. Cole disclosed more details of his reporting on his Substack newsletter, stating that despite learning about the mission in 2023, he waited for months before making calls to find out more given the sensitive nature of the reporting.

Top graphic by: Dave Whamond

Angry Prez 1st Amendment attack on nemesis NY Times

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.23.2026 UPDATED

THE FIRST AMENDMENT SURVIVES!!!

Daily Beast 7.23.2026
The First Amendment survives
Wall Street Journal – 7.23.2026
Wall Street Journal – 7.20.2026

Donald Trump lives in America in 2026. His attitude and actions are akin to Germany in the 1930’s.

While Trump is precluded from going as far as 1930’s Germany he is using his Department of Justice to intimidate and bully the media for exercising its First Amendment rights to publish.

This is a chilling assault on the foundation of 🇺🇸 American democracy

One of the first things the National Socialists did after assuming power in early 1933 was quash the free press. This action was followed by a series of book burnings.

The  Nazi book burnings  were a campaign conducted by the  German Student Union  (German:  Deutsche Studentenschaft,  DSt) to ceremonially  burn books  in  Nazi Germany  and  Austria  in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to  Nazism. These included books written by  Jewish,  half-Jewish,  communist,  socialist,  anarchist,  liberal,  pacifist, and  sexologist  authors among others.[1]  The initial books burned were those of  Karl Marx  and  Karl Kautsky,[2]&n bsp;but the burned books came to include other authors, including the works of  Albert Einstein,  Helen Keller,  H.G. Wells, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. The first burning consisted mainly of LGBTQ books from the Institute of Sexual Research (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft)  founded by the pioneering Jewish sexologist  Magnus Hirschfeld  as the first medical center devoted to the study of gender and sexuality.[3]  In a campaign of  cultural genocide, books were also burned  en masse&n bsp;by the Nazis in  occupied territories  as well,  such as in Poland.[4] Nazi book burnings – Wikipedia

Donald Trump Is Tearing Up The First Amendment

The president is waging an across-the-board war against the First Amendment and its legal interpretations from the mid-20th century to today. – Huffington Post 3.13.2025

Excerpted from The New York Times – 7.20.2026

The Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in its effort to unmask the confidential sources who had provided information for articles about the security capabilities of President Trump’s new Air Force One jet.

The Justice Department told The Times late last week that it had issued subpoenas to third-party phone service providers seeking several journalists’ phone and text messaging records. That effort was in addition to the subpoenas issued on July 10  that sought to compel reporters  to testify before a federal grand jury.

The government’s actions amount to an extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox attempt by the Trump administration to unearth the confidential sources of independent journalists whose reporting  had angered the president.

The additional subpoenas — which also sought information about calls and messages on the phones of two of the reporters’ spouses — were described in a  motion  filed on Saturday by lawyers for The Times, which is  seeking to quash the requests. The motion was unsealed on Monday morning by Judge Arun Subramanian of U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The  First Amendment  (Amendment I) to the  United States Constitution&nbs p;prevents  Congress  from making laws respecting an  establishment of religion; prohibiting the  free exercise of religion; or abridging the  freedom of speech, the  freedom of the press, the  freedom of peaceable assembly  and the  right to petition  the government for redress of  grievances.[1]  It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the  Bill of Rights. In the original draft of the Bill of Rights, what is now the First Amendment occupied third place. The first two articles were not ratified by the states, so the article on disestablishment and free speech ended up being first.[2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Top drawing: Herblock in Washington Post June 1971 during Pentagon Papers First Amendment battle. The Nixon administration tried to enjoin the New York Times from publishing the history of the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court upheld the Times right to publish.

“A little bit of courage is all we lack. So, catch me if you can I’m going back.” The Byrds

If Trump gets his way Team USA will not be enjoying the World Cup

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.15.2026

Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade may snag its biggest prize. The current star of the American soccer world.

Team USA stunned its fans and media pundits when it soundly defeated Paraguay4-1 in its opening World Cup match last Friday in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The most goals ever scored by America in a World Cup game.

The man responsible for this feat is Folarin Balogun, the 24 year old Nigerian who earned “Birthright Citizenship” when his pregnant mother was obliged to stay in New York City during her pregnancy. Medical authorities told her it was unsafe to return to Nigeria. Folarin was born on July 23, 2001 and became an American citizen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folarin_Balogun

Now Donald Trump is attempting to take away Birthright Citizenship which was deemed legal in 1898. The Supreme Court heard arguments months ago and will soon issue its Decision. United States v. Wong Kim Ark – Wikipedia

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a landmark decision[3] of the Supreme Court of the United States which held that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China” became “at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”[1]

Wong Kim Ark was the first Supreme Court case to decide on the status of children born in the United States to alien parents. This decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.[3]

Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco, had been denied re-entry to the United States after a trip abroad, under the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law banning virtually all Chinese immigration and prohibiting Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. He challenged the government’s refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted “in light of the common law”.

Excerpted from The Hill 6.15.2026

U.S. men’s soccer striker Folarin Balogun scored two goals in the Americans’ victorious opener of the FIFA World Cup on Friday, a performance that would not have occurred had his mother not traveled to the U.S. just before he was born. 

Folarin Balogun scores for Team USA in the World Cup in Los Angeles – 6.12.2026

The performance has also put President Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship back in the spotlight. A challenge to Trump’s executive order ending the policy is before the Supreme Court. 

Balogun’s mother, Florence Balogun, traveled to New York while she was seven months pregnant with the future soccer star in 2001. Florence Balogun and her husband, Ben Balogun, were born in Nigeria and lived in London at the time. 

While Florence Balogun was at the airport to head back to England, airline employees refused to allow her to fly — saying she was too pregnant, according to an ESPN profile of her son from 2023.

As a result, she stayed with her sister-in-law in Brooklyn and gave birth to Folarin in America on July 3, 2001, ESPN reported. Nearly 22 years later, and despite coming up in the Arsenal academy and playing for England’s under-17, under-18 and under-21 teams, Folarin Balogun decided to play for the U.S. senior national team.

That decision paid off on his World Cup debut, as the 24-year-old scored the second and third goals of the Americans’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday. The win marked the most goals the U.S. has ever scored in a single World Cup game, and it’s one more than the three goals it netted in the entire 2022 tournament.

But if the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of the president on birthright citizenship, Folarin Balogun may not be able to play for the U.S. 

The president’s executive order, which he signed on his first day back in office, stated that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.” 

US soccer star’s 2 World Cup goals thrust Trump birthright citizenship push into spotlight

Trump malicious “Stick of dynamite” blows up weather center

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.18.2025

How tone deaf is the Felon President Trump. A totally cruel malevolent luddite with no concept of the danger fossil fuels increasingly threatens the longevity of Planet Earth.

The rainstorm season is about to hit San Francisco.

Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_for_Atmospheric_Research

Why? It’s based in Blue Colorado. An American State which has vigorously battled the Felon Trump. It is mind boggling that the spineless Republicans continue to bow down before this abhorrent man.

Excerpted from The Hill 12.18.2025

A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations bills before Christmas said that Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a “stick of dynamite” that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending.

A potential deal to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop President Trump’s efforts to dismantle a key climate agency.

Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a leading Democratic voice on climate issue, called the research a “global crown jewel of science” that “helps us learn a great deal about whether which matters a great deal to everyone.”

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) objected to moving forward with the so-called minibus spending package that, if enacted into law, would result in 85 to 90 percent of the federal government being funding through September of 2026.

But Bennet and Hickenlooper took the lead in bringing the package to a dead halt by objecting to an agreement to set up date and amendment votes on the Senate floor.

Trump move to dismantle climate agency blows up Senate funding deal

A genuine Nazi. Trump dropped a flamethrower on the News Media.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.5.2025 – UPDATED 12.9.2025

More seriously—more sinister—the White House has just put up a wall-of-shame webpage tracking media outfits and reporters who “misrepresent” or “lie” about the administration. Names are named, outfits identified and shamed. All this is meant to intimidate; it institutionalizes attacks on the media and, considering the broader context, potentially prompts and gives permission to unstable people who might want to act in the president’s supposed defense. The webpage, paid for by taxpayers as part of the White House website, looks not like an insult but part of a sustained campaign. It is a threat. It should be taken down. Peggy Noonan in Wall Street Journal 12.6.2025 – https://www.wsj.com/opinion/were-in-an-era-of-political-violence-cc359449?mod=hp_opin_pos_3

Donald Trump is a Clear and Present Danger to democracy.

I don’t know what’s more distressing.

The White House launching a Media Offenders Website titled ‘Hall of Shame’ https://www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/ or the general silence with few exceptions from the American media whose First Amendment rights are being trampled.

The shock of all this is that the publishers should be at the proverbial barricades. Press freedom and the First Amendment are under attack. Journalists, editors and publishers must be aware that when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 he destroyed the free press in Germany. If they’re not unaware they’re deluding themselves.

‘Art of Catastrophe’ – Charlotte Salomon

Trump will never get that far. But his intimidation tactics using the power of the Federal government is sending a chilling message

Trump’s genuine Nazi like assault on the media. Utilizing the White House to intimidate journalists

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.5.2025

A new government website lists journalists and media outlets that Donald Trump’s administration considers liars. Experts say the move endangers free media ― and thus erodes democracy in the US.

The website set up by the Trump White House amounts to threatening media outlets, Jonathan Katz, a fellow in governance studies at the think tank Brookings Institution, says, too.

“It can have a chilling effect on free speech, on independent media,” Katz told DW. “We’re watching carefully to see how this affects press freedom in the United States.”

It’s no secret that the current US administration doesn’t have too high an opinion of journalists. President Donald Trump recently called a female reporter asking him about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal “piggy.”

And in a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt talked about how much of her job is taken up by dealing with what she labeled inaccurate characterizations published by White House correspondents.

“The fake news that we see pumped out of this building on a day-to-day basis — it’s honestly overwhelming to keep up with it all,” she said.

In response to what Leavitt said were “fake news and … attacks” being spread by reporters, the White House has created a website that lists media outlets and reporters who, according to the government, publish false, biased or misleading stories.

The new “Media Offenders” website includes featured “Offenders of the Week” as well as a “Hall of Shame” that consists of four pages (at time of publication) of media reports the White House has sorted into the categories bias, lie, false claim, malpractice, omission of context, mischaracterization, circular reporting, failure to report and left-wing lunacy.

In a statement released on December 1, the White House said by creating the website, it “dropped a flamethrower on the Fake News Media.”

Adolf Hitler addressing fellow Nazis – The crushing of the press in Nazi Germany is something Donald Trump would like to do in America

https://www.dw.com/en/how-white-house-attack-on-journalists-affects-us-press-freedom/a-75040640

Top photo: Donald Trump only wants to hear what makes him look good. He closes his ears to everything else.

Media control. Trump launches tracker. Calls out ‘media offenders’

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 11.30.2025 UPDATED 11.9.2025

More seriously—more sinister—the White House has just put up a wall-of-shame webpage tracking media outfits and reporters who “misrepresent” or “lie” about the administration. Names are named, outfits identified and shamed. All this is meant to intimidate; it institutionalizes attacks on the media and, considering the broader context, potentially prompts and gives permission to unstable people who might want to act in the president’s supposed defense. The webpage, paid for by taxpayers as part of the White House website, looks not like an insult but part of a sustained campaign. It is a threat. It should be taken down. Peggy Noonan in Wall Street Journal 12.6.2025 – https://www.wsj.com/opinion/were-in-an-era-of-political-violence-cc359449?mod=hp_opin_pos_3

Donald Trump is now utilizing the extensive power of the federal government to clamp down on First Amendment free speech rights. Make no mistake. Trump is a master of the media. Now, with all the levers of power at his disposable, this convicted felon, racist, misogynist is shredding the media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

People need only to look at Hitler’s Germany, Putin’s Russia for guidance on how to suppress the media. Dictators are Trump’s favorite leaders and he is utilizing their perverse playbook to quash free speech.

Where is the American media in reporting this real threat to First Amendment and its own livelihood?

Deutsche Welle 11.30.2025

The Trump White House launched a new page on its website on Friday called “media offenders,” listing news sites, reporters, and stories it claims misled the public.

US President Donald Trump calls lawmakers’ actions “seditious” and “treason.”

This week, Trump called a female reporter from The New York Times “ugly” after she co-wrote a data-driven report about the president showing signs of aging.

The president, who is 79, drew fire two weeks ago after telling a Bloomberg reporter to be “quiet, piggy” when she tried to ask a follow-up question about disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s emails.

The top publications cited as “media offenders of the week” were the Boston Globe, CBS News, and the Independent. Reporters from those outlets were singled out for stories about a controversial video released last week by six Democratic lawmakers.

The lawmakers, all of whom are military veterans or former intelligence officials, reminded service members they are not obligated to follow illegal orders.

In a video posted online last week, the lawmakers said, “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.”

“Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal order. … You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution,” they added.

What the ‘media offenders’ page looks like

The page included an “offender hall of shame” with a list of stories the White House considers mistruths.

Each story is explained and categorized under labels such as “lie,” “omission of context,” or “left-wing lunacy.”

The White House described the site as “a record of the media’s false and misleading stories flagged by The White House.”

The page also features a leaderboard of news sites the administration claims reported stories incorrectly.

The Washington Post tops the list, followed by MSNBC (recently rebranded as MS NOW), CBS News, CNN, The New York Times, Politico, and The Wall Street Journal.

There’s also a section with “repeat offenders” with outlets that the Trump administration objects to.

Trump administration escalates fight with media outlets

All outlets on the leaderboard, along with others, turned in their Pentagon press badges last month after rejecting new rules imposed by the Department of Defense.

The rules would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they reported information, classified or otherwise, that had not been approved by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for release.

Trump has also been involved in court battles against The New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press over the past year.

Trump widens hostilities against female reporters

The administration’s broader conflict with media outlets has also taken a personal turn. In recent weeks, Trump has faced criticism for insulting female reporters.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.

https://www.dw.com/en/white-house-launches-media-bias-tracker/a-74954883

Trump “to quash European Union flagship environmental rules”

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.28.2025

When Felon Trump leaves the White House he will leave behind a legacy of environmental degradation. Not only in America but around planet Earth.

Felon Trump is the willing handmaiden of Big Oil. He loves the billionaires who have funded his three presidential campaigns and does their dirty work with no prompting whatsoever.

As the Wall Street Journal reports Trump is pulling all the political levers he can “to quash the European Union (EU) flagship environmental rules.“

What infuriates Big Oil the most is the clunkily titled Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Big Oil companies whose revenue exceeds 522M are being required to “pinpoint and curb human rights violations and the climate impact on their operations and global supply chains” reports the Wall Street Journal.

Big Oil Exxon Mobil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods met with Trump shortly after he took office in January. He told Trump, “he believed CSDDD would bog down U.S. Companies in Europe.”

That was all Trump needed to hear and he is now whining about “unfair regulatory burdens placed on American companies.” And doing everything he can to kowtow to his Big Oil benefactors.

Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal 6.28.2025

Oil executives enlisted President Trump in fights against clean-car rules, drilling restraints and climate laws from New York to California. Now, they have won his support in their effort to quash Europe’s flagship environment rules. 

American oil chieftains and their lobbyists have urged Trump and his cabinet members to use ongoing trade talks with the European Union to push for a rollback of two major climate laws in the European Green Deal. Trump officials have pressed their EU counterparts to scale back those laws in recent negotiations, according to people familiar with the matter.

The administration’s willingness to give priority to the interests of the oil executives—alongside those of several other industries—in a dispute with a vital trading partner shows how influential they have become in Trump’s second term. Oil donors sent millions of dollars to Trump’s third presidential campaign last year, and the administration in turn has tried to shore up demand for their products and rescinded U.S. environmental rules.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/trump-goes-to-bat-for-big-oil-on-climate-rules-in-eu-trade-talks-e38b35ec?st=vzVF3i&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Brazil condemns Nazi Felon Trump Deportees arrived handcuffed

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.26.2028

It’s just the beginning. Humans in chains. That’s the Nazi felon Donald Trump way.

This photo provided by the U.S. Dept. of Defense, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agents guide undocumented immigrants onboard a C-17 Globemaster III at the Tucson International Airport, Ariz., Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (Senior Airman Devlin Bishop/Dept. of Defense via AP)

The Nazi felon American President Donald Trump has done more to destroy people’s dignity and human rights than any President in my lifetime.

You won’t read in the mainstream media that Nazi felon Trump is deporting men, women and children to their native countries in handcuffs. The Brazilian government is calling out this wanton human rights abuse.

The inhumane treatment of Brazilian citizens by the US will sour relations between the felon Trump administration and Brazilian President Lula’s government

Earlier the Colombian government harshly condemned Nazi felon Trump for carrying deportees in military cargo planes. And refused permission for the American planes to land in Colombia.

The conduct of Nazi felon Trump has shamed America throughout the world. His obscene performance is reminiscent of Germany beginning in January 1933.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 1.26.2025

The use of handcuffs on migrants is considered controversial in Brazil. Even former conservative Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump supporter, has called for an end to the practice.

Brazil’s government decried the US after dozens of deportees arrived on a plane in handcuffs. The Brazilian justice minister called it a “blatant disrespect” of their rights.

Brazil strongly condemned the US on Saturday after dozens of deportees arrived to the country in handcuffs.

A plane carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 US security agents, and eight crew members, was originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais, but had to make an emergency landing in the city of Manaus due to a technical error, said a statement by the Brazilian government.

The smirking Nazi felon Donald Trump

Brazilian federal police received the plane at the instructions of Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski and intervened, asking US agents to remove handcuffs from the deportees.

Lewandowski told President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva it was a “blatant disrespect” of their fundamental rights, according to a statement by the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security.
 
“Upon learning of the situation, President Lula ordered that a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) aircraft be mobilized to transport the Brazilians to their final destination, in order to ensure that they could complete their journey with dignity and safety,” the ministry’s statement said.

https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-condemns-us-after-deportees-arrive-handcuffed-in-plane/a-71411774