#tr*mp the biggest loser

[malenipshadows]

"As the economy shows signs of cooling, many executives sour on Trump"

**Excerpted from The Maddow Blog, MSNBC, 002-28-2025**.

As Election Day 2024 arrived, the U.S. economy had reached an extraordinary sweet spot, featuring strong growth, low unemployment, falling inflation, record highs on Wall Street, and low gas prices. The Washington Post’s Heather Long explained in an October column, “We are living through one of the best economic years of many people’s lifetimes.”

The same day, the British publication, also described the U.S. economy as “the envy of the world,” adding that the American economy had “left other rich countries in the dust.”

After Election Day, all Donald T*ump had to do was avoid screwing it up. The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell explained in a*column, “How could Donald Trump deliver on his promise to fix the U.S. economy? On Day 1, [he] should simply proclaim he’s already fixed it — and go play golf. By which I mean: Declare victory but do absolutely nothing else.”

The Republican pres-ident, of course, had a very different approach in mind, and at least so far, the results haven’t been great. The New York Times reported this week [May 24-28, 2025], “The United States economy is starting to show signs of strain as Pres-ident Tr*mp’s abrupt moves to shrink federal spending, lay off government workers and impose tariffs on America’s largest trading partners rattle businesses and reverberate across states and cities.”

The latest data on consumer confidence doesn’t look great. The latest data on inflation expectations doesn’t look great. The latest data on new unemployment claims also doesn’t look great. The latest data on consumer spending — you guessed it — doesn’t look great.

Even on Wall Street, the major stock market indexes — which Tr*mp has long obsessed over — are lower than they were on Inauguration Day, and behind the pace of the major indexes abroad. [Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

US democracy always has been fragile. It is up to us to preserve it.

elon musk did a nazi salute twice at the inauguration, and republicans are defending him.

trump revoked executive order 11246, which prohibited discrimination.

trump put all dei employees on leave to be fired.

trump blamed the dc plane crash on dei.

trump banned all lgbtq+ flags from being hung in government buildings.

trump ordered the pentagon to cancel celebration of mlk jr. day, black history month, women's history month, holocaust remembrance day, asian american pacific islander heritage month, lgbtq+ pride month, juneteenth, women's equality day, national hispanic heritage month, national disability employment awarenessmonth, and national american indian heritage month.

trump proposed removing all palestinians from gaza, turning the area into a vacation resort called “riviera of the middle east”.

trump rolled back biden’s executive order to lower prescription drug costs for people using medicare and medicaid.

trump rescinded the $35 cap on insulin, and prices are expected to rise to $1500 a month.

trump ordered the national institutes of health to cancel their review panels on cancer research.

trump ended the guidelines to prevent ai misuse. the guidelines prevent many things, but notably it prevents production of ai child pornography.

when sean hannity asked trump about the economy, he said “i don’t care”, after campaigning with the economy as his main talking point.

trump has withdrawn the us from the world health organization.

trump is ordering health agencies to stop reporting on bird flu and halt publications of scientific reports.

trump has pardoned over 1500 people who stormed the capitol on january 6th.

trump changed denali back to mount mckinley.

trump signed an executive order to rename the gulf of mexico to gulf of america.

trump shut down cbp one, an app which granted legal entry to 1 million+ immigrants.

trump is allowing ice raids at churches and elementary schools.

trump announced plans to declare a national emergency at the us-mexico border.

trump signed an executive order to expand the use of the death penalty.

trump disbanded the school safety board that works to prevent school shootings. it was comprised of survivors, educators, and gun violence prevention advocates and formed after the school shooting in parkland.

trump withdrew from the paris climate act.

trump revoked all protections for transgender troops in the us military.

trump rescinded executive orders made by biden that benefited and protected women, lgbtq+ people, black americans, hispanic americans, asian americans, native hawaiians, and pacific islanders.

trump is attempting to make it legal to refuse to hire or fire pregnant women.

multiple state legislators are drafting bills to allow the punishment for abortion to be the death penalty.

trump pardoned 23 individuals convicted under the freedom of access to clinic entrances (FACE) act for their anti-abortion activism, including oftentimes violent protests at abortion clinics.

trump signed an executive order allowing deportation of foreign students who they believe express support for hamas or hezbollah.

trump announced that the us government will from here on out only recognize male and female as sexes. intersex is not legally recognized anymore.

the trump administration paused health communications to prevent the fda from announcing food recalls.

andy ogles drafted a constitutional amendment to allow trump to be president for a third term.

the us senate confirmed russell vought, one of the main authors of project 2025, will lead the white house budget office.

andy biggs introduced a bill to abolish osha and completely eliminate federal workplace safety protections.

georgia republican congressman mike collins called for the deportation of new jersey born mariann budde, the bishop who urged trump to “have mercy” on the lgbtq+ community and immigrants during a service at the national cathedral.

six states (arizona, idaho, iowa, kansas, mississippi, and north dakota) are planning on challenging obergefell v. hodges, which would end same-sex marriage nationwide. about a dozen more states have representatives are also considering filing similar resolutions.

amazon revoked protections for lgbtq+ and black employees.

the cdc has removed their hiv prevention page.

the united states state department has officially changed its “travelers with special conditions” page which previously said “lgbtqi+ travelers” to “lgb travelers”, completely getting rid of the tqi+.

every single republican told us we were overreacting. trump swore he had nothing to do with project 2025 yet continues implementing details outlined in it. not a single person has the right to tell us we’re being dramatic anymore.

hope “cheaper eggs and gas” was worth it.

EDIT: i removed the “trump refused to swear on the bible” point because it was being taken as me being an offended christian. i’m not christian, im agnostic. the reason i included it in the first place is because he’s the first president in history to ever refuse to swear on ANYTHING. meanwhile his “conservative christian” followers had no issue with this, and decided to continue to scramble for excuses instead of admitting he may not be as religious as he claims he is. i figured taking that point out entirely is probably better than filling this with an explanation in the middle of the other important issues.

[deepermadness]

Okay, look

I'm not saying that it's absolutely fucking hilarious that they announced not only a Covid vaccine, but strong stock growth AND multiple companies announcing commitment to the Paris Accord moments after announcing Tr*mp lost by having the largest ever count against any politician in American history, but if you ever wanted a sign that shit will instantly get better once hateful people like him are gone then there it is.

And I'm in stitches after laughing so hard at the biggest loser in American history.

[meaningtotellyou]

Apparently Tr*mp says he won’t be attending Joe Biden’s inauguration. I don’t want any of his supporters saying he’s not a sore loser ever again. No more of those bullshit posts “If we lose we’ll go to work the next day like any other day and we won’t complain! ✨🙏💞” because it’s a fucking lie. I’ve never SEEN a pack of sorer losers in my life.

THEY ARE THE BIGGEST PACK OF SORE LOSERS AND THAT’S WHY WE’RE IN THIS HELLHOLE NOW

[mandaloriangf]

tr*mp didn’t finish the wall, likely has long-term health problems after catching a deadly virus that he allowed to spread across the US, lost the electoral and popular vote, got some red states to go blue for the first time in years, and became the first president to get impeached twice in their first term. What a loser.

literally one of the biggest losers in american history

[malenipshadows]

Putin's puppet with a thumbs-up for stupidity.

[lanaarwenlazar]

in honor of villain releasing and me starting it later today, here is a special insight into my brain in the form of the notes i made on my phone as i was reading monster last year, completely unedited (so with all my spelling mistakes and freakouts)

there are spoilers for monster, obviously

(keep in mind that i was very emotional about being back in the gone-universe, so don’t judge me lmao)

i ship malik and shade already. can’t habdle them they’re too cute

oh my god shade is basically a true crime fan, thanks i hate it

“WHATEVER MALIK DID IT GENERALLT SOMEHOW WORK” MY LOVE

...it will be interesting to see what people have to say about mg writing his first trans character

transphobic violence already, i think someone will have a problem with this chapter being called “the meet cute”

where

is

dekka

WHAT THE FUCK SHADE WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOURE INSANE

I WAS RIGHT BY THE WAY THE MOVIE SUCKED AND WAS A BAD IDEA AND I HOPE ASTRID AND SAM ARE SUFFERING AND HAVE NO FRIENDS

nooo dekka sweetie :(((

oh my god a dekka chapter what if we get updates on everyone i’m not ready

dekka is broke no :(((

but she drives a motorcycle i’m so in love

dekka has a cat. marry me

“Of those three hundred thirty-two kids, fifty-one developed one supernatural power or another. Only nineteen of you developed major powers and survived. And of these nineteen, seven have since developed serious psychological disorders” NO MY KIDS IM CRYING

“Lana Lazar spent time in a mental health facility” eeelp

“I know, she’s a friend of mine. She’s fine now.” THEY ARE FRIEND.jzoddbfb

“Others’ like Sam Temple, the supposed hero of the fayz, have had-”

HAVE HAD WHA TOM??!!!?!

“’Supposed hero?’ Screw you. You don’t disrespect Sam Temple where I can here it.” I’m 😭😭😭😭😭😭

sam was in rehab has an alcoholic kill me

and he’s on the wagon sober for sixteen months ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

DEKKA REMEMBERINH BRIANNA KILL ME

Hey, Sam’s sober and Astird got her head screwed on straight so leave them out of this - dekka out there defending her people

MG in the online: edilio is the true hero of the fayz MG in the books: sam is the true hero of the fayz me: so what is the truth?

oh my god that just means edilio is still underappreciated

DEKKA WANTS SAM AND ASTRID TO GO TO COLLEGE WORK AND ONE DAY HAVE A BABY GIRL NAMED DEKKA WHAT THE FUCK SHOOT ME

Me @ me: mg loves edilio. he will be in here. mg loves edilio. he will be in here. mg loves edilio. he will be in here. mg loves edilio. he will be-

Four year old Sean is here to cause trouble

Cruz singing my love ❤️❤️

We’ve literally just met him and Justin DeVeere already sounds like a potential school shooter

also how dare mg give him the same name as justin roger’s little brother

He’s so disgusting yikes

I don’t understand what just happened and what erin and justin are up to but WHY do i feel like they just had sex so they could have a gaia-like baby

is justin turning into the hulk or orc

Justins arm is turning into a sword

Is justin turning into drake...

Or orc/britney? Orc/britney/justin?

If Aristotle Arno Adamo is anything like Ari from Aaddtsotu i already love him

oh he’s not

Armo is the Quinn of Monster pass it on

Will Quinn be mentioned in this book?

“Armo was not part of any clique, because there was one, only one Armo at Malibu High School” oh my god he’s awful i love him

“I want to take Danish. My family is danish” bitch mine too

“You understand that everyone in Denmark speaks english right? Usually better than most Americans?” drag america i love t

god i love him

armo just survived a serious accident and he’s crying because he wreacked his car whaya guy

what are they doing to armo :(((

SHADE WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT

noo poor cruz

whyy would mg introduce malik tenerife, the biggest sweetheart and shade’s closest friend and make me fall in love with him, and then in the SAME CHAPTER introduce cruz, a new best friend for shade and then just never mention malik again???? i love cruz but i miss malik

where is knightmare

“I REREAD THE ELLISON BOOK” ASTRID WROTE A BOOK

yikes a milady dude and homophobia all in one page!!

WHY IS EVERYONE IN THIS BOOK JUST TRANSFORMING INTO BOOKS

oh shit i just understood why mg says this is part animorphs

Malik’s back my boy

DEKKAS CAT IS NAMED EDITH WINDSOR I JUST----

DEKKA TOOK THE FRAMED PICTURE OF BRIANNA WITH HER OH MY GODDD

“Only now did Dekka see that those last four years had been a dream, unreal, somehow. The FAYZ was real.” dekka bby no :(((

oh my goooood taylor is back bitches i just got chills

SHE GRABBED THE CELEBRITY GOSSIP MAGAZINES OF COURSE SHE DID I LOVE HER

dekka be nice to taylor she’s had a hard life she deserves to know the goss :))

when they’re only talking baout the kids with power... when will edilio come in

aaaand there is drake ugh. “a violent, sadistic psychopath. A rapist. A torturer. A murderer”

EDILIO WAS THERE TOO THERE TOO THE FUCK

DID MG FORGET EDILIO ECISTS

BRIANNA DEKKA SAM ASTRID TAYLOR DRAKE LANA HUNTER ORC HAVE ALL BEN MENTIONED

WHERE IS EDILIO AND LANA

Drake responsible for 18 instances of rape mutilation and murder in the last year y i k e s

Justin has a lobster claw for one hand and a sword for the other o k a y

oh my god shade could kill tr*mp

“There are three types of superheroes, Shade: Hero, Villain and Monster” *looks into the camera like i’m on the office*

CAINE AND PENNY GOT THEIR MENTIONS

NOW GIVE ME EDILIO

Malik is still in love with shade rip me

oh no cruz bby you’re invisible :((

i feel like this series will be more hard sci-fi with aliens and government and powers than gone was, gone was more of a sci-fi/dystopian/lord of the flies/survival-mix

i’m worried about armo :((

me: had never read an animorphs book in my life also me: wow this reminds me so much of animorphs!

HES A POLAR BEAR NOW

THEY’RE LITERALLY SAYING THE WORD MORPHING

should be interesting to see what kind of shit mg will get for this y i k e s

WHAT THE FUCKKKKKK IS HAPØENING THE SEAN WAS HE TURNING INTO A CATERPILLAR WITH NO MOUTH WHAT THE FUCK HE IS FOUR YEARS OLD

OH THERES HIS MOUTH WHAT THE FUCK

fuuuuck i knew he would be knightmare

at least knightmare really is the name of a shitty pretentious art student dude

a group of girl scouts just fell to their deaths off the golden gate bridge

WHO ARE THE DARK WATCHERS

i actually think they’re aliens

pls get over brianna dekka

at least mg is realizing that brekka was kind of weird

why is dekka watching danish sex. what does that even mean.

this book is unrealistic bc it’s page number 208 and dekka still hasn’t thought about edilio. who goes that long without thinking about edilio.

oh no dekka is morphing with some animal too

DEKKA HAS MEDUSA HAIR WHAT THE FUCK

the cat died WHAT THE FUCK

“Motorcycle gangs and white supremacists and registered sex offenders, that’s who dominated Perdido Beach today” yikes

Dekka mentioned the word gaiaphage and i had a physical disgusted reaction, but not because of the actual gaiaphage, but bc of that fucking website. god i lvoe that gaiaphage.com is dead.

why has mg created a worldwide perdido beach situation but just given is three books to fix it

“I was Sam’s soldier” NO??? You wrre edilio’s soldier the fuck

EVERY TIME I SEE EDITH MY HEART SKIPS BECAUSE IT STARTS WITH EDI AND I THINK ITS FINALLY GOING TO BE EDILIO

Armo and Dekka is my new brotp

WHO THE FUCK IS JEHOVA

LESS VILLAIN POVS MICHAEL PLEASE

“Hey. You. Should. Um.... Stop. Being. An. Asshole.” SHADE

Combining the villains into one villain. Very schmart michael 👌🏻

PAGE 308 EDILIO MENTION OH MY GOD

Edilio on page 309 kill me cant even quote it

GRAVES STILL THERE

IN RESPECTFUL MEMORY TO BOTH THE WISE AND THE FOOLISH WHO STRUGGLED TO SURVIVE UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS IN THIS PLACE im 😭😭

ALBERT GOT HIS DUES YEAH

BUT HOW IS EDILIO TODAY

WHERE IS DINAA LOSER

GRAVE FOR MARY 😭

GRAVE FOR DUCK 😭

GRAVE FOR HUNTER 😭

GRAVE FOR ORC 😭

Grave for Caine 😐 “Caine Soren. “King of the FAYZ. Blaze of Glory”

FIRST DIANA MENTION AND ITS HOW MUU CAINE LOVED HER IM

BRIANNA HAS A LAST NAME SOS. “Brianna Berenson. “The Breeze”. None More Bold.”

DIANA IS HERE I REPEAT DIANA IS HERE IN THE FLESH AND STILL BEAUTIFUL

DIANA PUTS FLOWERS ON THE GRAVES ONCE A WEEK OH MY HOD YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BE SORRY ABOUT I MEAN YOU DID GIVE BIRTH TO GAIA AND EAT PANDA BUT STILL

DIANA HAS A JOB AS A BARISTA HER OWN PLACE IS SEVEN MONTHS SOBER AND HAVENT TRIED TO KILL HERSELF LATELY

WAS HER AND SAM DRINKING BUDDIES

THEY SERVE A SAM TEMPLE CUCKTAIL AND A LANA VODKA

“I GUESS THEIRONY THAT FAYZERS HAVE A TENDENCY TO DRINK TOO MUCH IS LOST ON THEM” TELL THEM DEKKA

“YOU WERE GOOD TO KEEP SAM AND STRID OUT OF IT” NO TELL THEM LOSERS

DOES DIANA LIVE IN PERDIDO BEACH :((((

“THIS IS THE MOST INTIMATE IVE EVER BEEN WITH A DUDE” SAME

When Roger still hasn’t been mentioned and you know he wasn’t really that important so you can’t really complained but you miss him

and how is edilio really dekka hmmm???

Eww this Drake Brittany thing is worse if possible

wait wait wait what hoe did they get there what

if i finish monster and still don’t know how edilio is doing i’ll sue

the villain...breathes fire. he’s a dragon

Shade looks like a the bizzare cross between a flea, a Power Ranger and a teenaged girl w h a t

Vincent Vu: part fish!

noooo not malik :(((

one half of me: where the fck is edilio go talk to him dekka other half of me: edilio deserves a peaceful life thank i for keeping him away from it all

OKAY BUT WOULD EDILIO AND SAM AND EVERYONE SEE DEKKA ON THE FBI MOST WANTED LIST AND HEAR ABOUT EVERYTHING GOING ON AND SAY YIKES NOT OUR PROBLEM??? No tf they would help her!!!!

DEKKA IS WITH SAM DEKKA IS WITH SAM I REPEAT DEKKA IS WITH SAM AND HE IS HER STRONG RIGHT ARM SHOOT ME LET ME DIE

im emo

the end

missing: quinn and roger

[shortiedoowop]

I think my biggest beef with tr*mp supporters is that they literally think everyone else is just a sore loser, like our hometown football team lost a game and we're pouting about it, but they have their heads so far up their asses that they don't - and refuse to - understand that people are literally fearing for their lives because *they* elected some unqualified shit heel who wants to work with a bunch of other unqualified super villains to run the entire country into the ground and send us all to hell in a grocery bag. They literally will not accept that this is bigger than our chosen candidate not winning and it drives me up a wall when I hear people say we just have to deal with it or get over it. Fuck those people and fuck their demagogue.

[malenipshadows]

Trump revokes security clearances for top diplomat, security official under Biden

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) -President Donald Tr*mp has revoked security clearances for Antony Blinken, the former secretary of state, and Jake Sullivan, the former national security adviser, White House officials said on Saturday.

The move came a day after Tr*mp said he had revoked the security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden, stopping his access to daily intelligence briefings.

Tr*mp also revoked security clearances for Biden's Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who helped coordinate the Department of Justice's response to the January 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol, the officials said.

He also removed the clearances of the New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg who led cases against Tr*mp, the officials said. [Excerpted from Reuters.com. Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

Pentagon denies workspace to 8 news outlets to allegedly make room in 'media rotation'

In addition to the four media outlets ordered to vacate their workspace in the building by Valentine's Day, the Pentagon announced four more this evening.

Last Friday [01-31-2025], the Pentagon issued a memo signed by DOD spokesman John Ullyot announcing an "annual media rotation program."

Last week’s memo specified The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio and Politico would be swapped with the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network and HuffPost. ...

The memo noted that while the outlets' workspaces are being revoked, as is the prerogative of the secretary of defense, the reporters affected will maintain their building access and ability to attend briefings, and will still be considered for trips. [Excerpted from ABC News. Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

Judge blocks Tr*mp administration from placing 2,200 USAID employees on leave

A federal judge blocked the Tr*mp administration from orchestrating its plan to place 2,200 employees of the United States Agency for International Development on leave at midnight [02-07-2025].

In an order late Friday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols -- a Tr*mp appointee -- issued a temporary restraining that prevents Tr*mp and the Department of Government Efficiency from placing the employees on administrative leave as had been planned.

The judge also ordered the reinstatement of some 500 USAID workers who had already been put on administrative leave and ordered that no USAID employees should be evacuated from their host countries before Feb. 14 [2025] at 11:59 p.m.

The judge's order came several hours after a hearing Friday afternoon during which Nichols said he would issue the temporary restraining order. [Excerpted from ABC News. Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

US judge temporarily blocks M*sk's DOGE from accessing payment systems

A federal judge early Saturday [02-08-2025] temporarily blocked billionaire Elon M*sk's government efficiency team from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments, citing a risk that sensitive information could be improperly disclosed.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan issued the order after a coalition of Democratic attorneys general from 19 U.S. states filed a lawsuit late Friday arguing M*sk's Department of Government Efficiency has no legal power to access the U.S. Department of Treasury systems.

The ruling also applied to other political appointees of President Donald tr*mp's administration. [Excerpted from Reuters. Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

Texas man becomes the latest Jan. 6 pardon recipient to be arrested again

A Texas man has been arrested on an outstanding charge of soliciting a minor, more than two weeks after he was freed from prison upon receiving a Jan. 6 pardon from President Donald Trump.

Andrew Taake, 36, was arrested Thursday in Leon County, Texas, by a Houston-area fugitive task force, authorities said. According to court documents, he is accused of sending sexually explicit messages in 2016 to an undercover police officer who was posing as a teenager. (Houston Public Media reported that the defense attorney listed for Taake did not immediately return its request for comment.)

In his Jan. 6 case, Taake was sentenced to more than six years in prison after pleading guilty to a felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon. According to federal prosecutors, Taake deployed bear spray on Capitol Police officers several times and also hit an officer with a metal whip.

Taake was on pretrial release in the Texas case on Jan. 6. Later that day, he detailed his actions during the Capitol attack to a woman on an online dating app and she reported him to the FBI, according to prosecutors. He was arrested in July 2021.

Taake was serving time in a federal facility in Colorado when Trump issued his sweeping pardon of Jan. 6 defendants on his first day back in the White House. Although authorities in Texas said they had previously requested that Taake continue to be detained by federal officials, he was nevertheless released on Jan. 20. [Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

“FBI searched Tr*mp’s home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say,”

The former pres-ident said on social media that he won’t oppose a Justice Dept. request to unseal the search warrant, By Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Perry Stein, and Shane Harris; The Washington Post.  Updated August 12, 2022 at 12:10 a.m. EDT.   

   Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Tr*mp’s Florida residence on Monday [8/08/2022], according to people familiar with the investigation.    Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Tr*mp’s Mar -a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands.    The people who described some of the material that agents were seeking spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. They did not offer additional details about what type of information the agents were seeking, including whether it involved weapons belonging to the United States or some other nation. Nor did they say if such documents were recovered as part of the search. A Tr*mp spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.    Attorney General Merrick Garland said he could not discuss the investigation on Thursday [8/11/2022]. But in an unusual public statement at the Justice

Department, he announced he had personally authorized the decision to seek court permission for a search warrant. ...    Material about nuclear weapons is especially sensitive and usually restricted to a small number of government officials, experts said. Publicizing details about U.S. weapons could provide an intelligence road map to adversaries seeking to build ways of countering those systems. And other countries might view exposing their nuclear secrets as a threat, experts said.    One former Justice Department official, who in the past oversaw investigations of leaks of classified information, said the type of top-secret information described by the people familiar with the probe probably would cause authorities to try to move as quickly as possible to recover sensitive documents that could cause grave harm to U.S. security.    “If that is true, it would suggest that material residing unlawfully at Mar -a-Lago may have been classified at the highest classification level,” said David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section, which investigates leaks of classified information. “If the FBI and the Department of Justice believed there were top secret materials still at Mar -a-Lago, that would lend itself to greater ‘hair-on-fire’ motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible.” ...    It was Garland’s first public appearance or comment since agents executed the warrant at Mar -a-Lago Club, taking about a dozen boxes of material after opening a safe and entering a padlocked storage area. The search was one of the most dramatic developments in a cascade of legal investigations of the former president, several of which appear to be growing in intensity.    The investigation into the improper handling of documents began months ago, when the National Archives and Records Administration sought the return of material taken to Mar -a-Lago from the White House. Fifteen boxes of documents and items, some of them marked as classified, were returned early this year.  The archives subsequently asked the Justice Department to investigate.    Former senior intelligence officials said in interviews that during the Tr*mp administration, highly classified intelligence about sensitive topics, including about intelligence-gathering on Iran, was routinely mishandled. One former official said the most highly classified information often ended up in the hands of personnel who didn’t appear to have a need to possess it or weren’t authorized to read it.  [Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

Analysis: Citizen Tr*mp may have broken a law that Pres-ident Tr*mp made a felony

Analysis by Philip Bump, National correspondent, The Washington Post, published online August 10, 2022, at 4:17 p.m. EDT. [excerpt]

   There are not many people who know exactly why FBI agents searched Donald Tr*mp’s Mar -a-Lago estate on Monday [8/08/2022]. The FBI knows, certainly, and the former president and his attorneys probably have a good sense as well, given that they saw the search warrant. Everyone else is operating on what’s been revealed by Tr*mp’s team and public reporting: The FBI search was largely or entirely a function of the investigation into Tr*mp’s retention of documents after leaving the White House.    We know that he did, by his own admission. This year [2022], a number of boxes of material were turned over to the National Archives. Included in that material were some that were classified. On Monday [8/08/2022], the FBI removed another dozen boxes, with speculation rampant that more of that material was similarly restricted.    If Tr*mp is found to have violated federal law in removing and retaining classified documents without authorization, he could be convicted of a felony punishable by five years in prison. And that conviction would be a felony carrying that punishment because of a law signed by Pres-ident Donald Tr*mp.    Tr*mp’s 2016 campaign was intertwined with a similar question. His Democratic opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, had been found

 to have operated a private email server that she used for official business — including, the FBI determined, some that was classified. Tr*mp and his allies pushed for Clinton to face criminal charges but in July 2016, FBI Director James B. Comey announced that the FBI wouldn’t seek an indictment. Tr*mp was furious, but he won, anyway.   During his first year in office, a central tool used for surveillance by the intelligence community — Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act — was set to expire. Shortly before it did, Congress passed an extension of the authority for another five years.    But that didn’t come without turmoil. Tr*mp came into office angry at the intelligence community for revealing to reporters that it believed Russia had interfered in the 2016 election. He excoriated intelligence agencies on Twitter — and continued to do so as the contours of the investigation into that interference became clear.    On the day that the House was set to vote on the reauthorization, Tr*mp complained on Twitter:    “House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.” This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Tr*mp Campaign by the previous administration and others?  (That initial phrase is in quotes because Tr*mp, characteristically, was responding to something he saw on Fox News.)    The tweet freaked out advocates of the extension. A few hours later, he tweeted his support and it passed. On Jan. 18, 2018, he signed it into law.    What became law was S. 139. It had been introduced by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) as the Rapid DNA Act of 2017. But sometimes Congress hollows out existing legislation and replaces it entirely with other legislation to move the process forward more quickly. So S. 139 was replaced with H.R. 4478, which extended Section 702 for another five years.    It also had a stipulation editing 18 U.S. Code §1924. It originally read:

   “Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.”

    With Tr*mp’s signing S. 139 into law, that became: “shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.” And with that, it became a felony.    You can see how Tr*mp absconding with classified material to Mar-a-Lago facially would violate the law as articulated. So, Tr*mp’s allies have already been offering a rationalization: He had declassified everything he took to Mar -a-Lago. [Remainder omitted.]

[malenipshadows]

   Some of the documents from former Pres-ident Donald Tr*mp's White House that were turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration were torn up by the former president and had been pieced back together, the agency said.    The Archives confirmed in a statement Tr*mp's habit of tearing up records, citing press reports from 2018 that detailed his practice. The Archives said "White House records management officials during the Tr*mp Administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records.  These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Tr*mp Administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House."     Politico reported in 2018 that the former pres-ident's unofficial "filing system" consisted of him ripping up papers and throwing them on the floor or in the

trash, which led to the arduous process of taping documents back together to ensure compliance with the Presidential Records Act. The law requires memos, letters, emails and other documents be preserved and given to the Archives at the end of an administration.     The statement from the Archives came after CNN and the Washington Post reported that some of the documents from the Tr*mp White House that the Archives handed over to the House select committee investigating the January 6 assault had been torn up and then reassembled.    House investigators received more than 700 pages of documents from the Archives late last month after Tr*mp lost a court battle with the committee to shield their release. The select committee had requested from the Archives reams of records surrounding the events of January 6, including presidential diaries, visitor logs, handwritten notes from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, binders from then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and a draft executive order on election integrity.