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‘What Drunk on Power Looks Like’: Trump Goes on Attack in Wild Rants

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President Donald Trump continued his efforts to concentrate and consolidate power, launching attacks on Harvard University, The Federal Reserve Bank, and on “The Democrats,” including Democratic U.S. representatives who have called for the House to impeach him. Critics, including legal experts, are once again sounding alarms.

In a largely false missive, President Trump attempted to pressure the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, once again threatening the independence of the 112-year-old institution that sets and implements monetary policy.

The President also declared he is removing the tax exempt status from Harvard University, established 389 years ago, making it the oldest higher education institution in the country. Trump’s reason: “It’s what they deserve!

And, in another, lengthy broadside, Trump lashed out at his political opponents, declaring Democrats “are really out of control,” and claiming they “have lost everything, especially their minds!”

READ MORE: Democrats Call for Hegseth’s Ouster After Trump Demotes National Security Advisor

Trump alleged that Democrats have “two ‘No Name,’ little respected Congressmen, total Whackjobs both, throwing the ‘Impeachment’ of DONALD J. TRUMP around, for about the 20th time, even though they have no idea for what I would be Impeached.”

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) introduced seven articles of impeachment that, he said in a statement include “a sweeping abuse of power, flagrant violations of the Constitution, and acts of tyranny that undermine American democracy and threaten the rule of law.”

Among other criticisms, Trump falsely alleged he had to clean up, as he described, “the Highest Inflation in our Country’s History.” Under President Biden, the highest inflation was 9.1%, less than half the highest inflation in recorded U.S. history, and far lower than at other times the U.S. has experienced.

Trump ended that complaint with this threatening statement about Democrats:

“These are total LOWLIFES, who hate our Country, and everything it stands for. Perhaps we should start playing this game on them, and expel Democrats for the many crimes that they have committed — And these are REAL crimes. Remember, ‘Shifty’ Adam Schiff demanded a Pardon, and they had to use the power of the Auto Pen, and a Full Pardon, for him and the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, to save them from Expulsion, and probably worse!”

In calling for the Fed to lower interest rates, Trump made this claim:

“Gasoline just broke $1.98 a Gallon, lowest in years, groceries (and eggs!) down, energy down, mortgage rates down, employment strong, and much more good news, as Billions of Dollars pour in from Tariffs. Just like I said, and we’re only in a TRANSITION STAGE, just getting started!!! Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!! DJT”

READ MORE: ‘Absolutely No Clue’: Trump Roasted Over Unique Declaration of Independence Interpretation

According to AAA, which published the national average price of gas daily, Friday’s average is $3.18. The price of groceries overall has risen since Trump took office, egg prices at the retail level remain high. Trump repeatedly promised to lower the cost of “groceries” on “day one.” More than 100 days later, he still has not.

Mortgage rates have dropped over the past two weeks, according to the Associated Press, and employment remains strong, but a CBS News fact check published this week refutes most of the claims Trump made.

Political and legal experts sharply criticized President Trump, with many singling out his attack on Harvard as especially egregious.

“That’s blatantly illegal,” wrote New York Times columnist David French, a conservative, about Trump’s attack on Harvard. “Every American who cares about free speech should find this revolting. Is this a power we want to give presidents?”

“This is the President using the IRS to punish people for free speech,” noted former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer, also responding to Trump’s Harvard attack.

“This is what fascist do,” added The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, the well-known political scientist.

“Trump’s directive to the IRS to revoke Harvard’s tax exempt nonprofit status is clearly unlawful,” wrote U.S, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY). “It can’t be done without legitimate cause and the courts will not allow it to happen. But it goes directly to Trump’s attempt to crush dissent and his war against free speech and academic freedom. Any institution of higher learning who he disagrees with and who refuses to bow down to his views he will try to destroy. That is un-American and undemocratic and we must not allow it to happen.”

Professor of Law and former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance, the well-known MSNBC legal analyst, responding to Trump’s Harvard threat, added: “This is what drunk on power looks like. It’s why we don’t have kings. (Also, he’ll lose in court if he follows through).”

READ MORE: ‘Out of Order!’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Triggers Shouting Match Between Comer and Top Dem

 

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Six D’s and an F: Latino Focus Group Members All Regret Their Votes for Trump

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Many of the Latino voters who ran to Donald Trump, helping him win the 2024 election, now say they regret their vote. Trump’s approval rating among Latino and Hispanic voters is now underwater by 23 points, according to a poll by Somos Votantes and the Global Strategy Group, and he is “bleeding” Latino voters, according to The Bulwark, which hosted a focus group last week.

Newsweek reported that the poll results “closely mirrored a CNN survey last week showing similar declines in Trump’s approval among Hispanic voters. The latest Cygnal survey, conducted August 7-9 also showed Trump’s favorability with Hispanics has dropped significantly over the summer.”

The Bulwark reported that for their focus group members, “Every single one of the seven participants said they regretted voting for Trump.”

READ MORE: Navarro Demands Left Face ‘Accountability’ for MAGA’s Own Misdeeds—and Kirk Assassination

“The participants said they were angry over the state of the economy and frustrated by Trump’s handling of immigration and deportations,” The Bulwark’s Adrian Carrasquillo reported. “Asked to give the president a letter grade for his term thus far, six gave him D’s and one gave an F. Asked later about her grade, one participant who gave a D said she was just trying to be nice.”

While the tangible, measurable effects of the Trump economy appear to weigh heavily on some of the participants, several “painted a picture of a nation struggling to grapple with a darker blend of politics and open divisiveness from its leaders.”

“I think a lot of people are a lot more hateful, they feel they can be a lot more open about it, because they see it everywhere so much that no one is really trying to be nice and get along and respect differences,” a participant, from Colorado said. “They think it’s okay to pass their judgments and stereotypes willy-nilly because no one does anything about it, because they see the people in control doing it.”

Another participant said, “I live in America, I don’t want to be in a dictatorship. I still want to be in a democratic nation that has rules, has regulations. . . . This is America, we gotta treat people with respect and dignity and I think a lot of that has gone out the window.”

READ MORE: ‘This Isn’t a Close Call’: Dem Floats Shutdown After Trump’s Reporter Threat

Still another called Trump “super-extremist” and accused him of “ignoring history.”

“He’s taking down government history websites, he’s changing [the Department of Defense] to the Department of War. It seems that power has taken control of his mind where he thinks he can change the Constitution and control the entire country by himself.”

But the participants’ anti-Trump sentiment should not lead Democratic supporters to rejoice.

“While every single member of the focus group said they regretted their vote, none said they would back Kamala Harris in a hypothetical election rerun. Instead, they all said they would support a third party candidate or stay home.”

READ MORE: ‘You Have a Lot of Hate’: Trump Threatens Reporter After Hate Speech Question

 

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Navarro Demands Left Face ‘Accountability’ for MAGA’s Own Misdeeds—and Kirk Assassination

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Senior Trump White House Counselor Peter Navarro is raging at “they” — seemingly Democrats and the left — for consequences he and fellow MAGA allies have brought on themselves, including prison time. And he appeared to blame the left for the assassination of Charlie Kirk as well.

In a Fox Business interview, Navarro, who has promoted conspiracy theories, highlighted on Tuesday his prison sentence and that of Steve Bannon, both for contempt of Congress. Both were sentenced to several months in prison.

But Navarro’s long litany of complaints went further. He blasted the disbarment recommendation of coup memo author John Eastman, and that of Jeff Clark—who reportedly “tried to help Trump subvert the 2020 election.”

He also suggested that “they” attempted to “bankrupt” former Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

READ MORE: ‘This Isn’t a Close Call’: Dem Floats Shutdown After Trump’s Reporter Threat

And he appeared to blame the assassination of conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk on the left.

“As you know, ‘I Went to Prison, So You Won’t Have To’— it’s the book I wrote, and it’s just a warning,” Navarro told host Maria Bartiromo.

“Everybody involved in my imprisonment was a Democrat,” Navarro alleged, claiming he was a “political prisoner.”

“I’ll tell you this, this is the age of accountability, okay?” he declared. “If we don’t hold these people accountable, they’ll do it again.”

Navarro said that his book is “a warning to everybody in America that if they didn’t come for me and Donald Trump, put the Bannon in prison, bankrupt Rudy Giuliani, take away the law cards of Jeff Clark and John Eastman and kill, kill, kill Charlie Kirk, and try to kill President Trump — twice.”

READ MORE: ‘You Have a Lot of Hate’: Trump Threatens Reporter After Hate Speech Question

“There has to be accountability, ’cause they’re just gonna keep doing it,” Navarro declared, not specifying who “they” are, while having talked about Democrats.

Bartiromo chimed in, saying, “I mean, the level, the level that they have stooped to is so extraordinary, and it’s unbelievable. I mean, truly is unbelievable.”

She also did not explain who “they” are.

Navarro is also one of many on the right who appear to be placing blame on the left, as an entity, for the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The Trump administration, and especially the President, has directly or indirectly blamed the “radical left” for the assassination of Charlie Kirk, even as the suspected shooter’s motives and political beliefs, if any, remain unclear.

“For years,” Trump said in an address from the Oval Office the night of Kirk’s killing, “those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans, like Charlie, to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

Vice President JD Vance echoed Trump’s remarks on Monday, saying, “we have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years, and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday declared, “Yes, who killed Charlie [Kirk]?” Left wing radicals. And they will be held accountable.”

READ MORE: ‘Not a Monarchy’: Trump’s Lawsuit Against NYT Sparks Mockery — and Free Speech Warnings

 

 

 

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‘This Isn’t a Close Call’: Dem Floats Shutdown After Trump’s Reporter Threat

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A prominent Democratic Congressman is threatening to vote to shut down the federal government in response to President Donald Trump’s threat to target a journalist over a question about hate speech.

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked the President about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s claim that she will target those who engage in hate speech — which is largely constitutionally protected. Trump suggested the administration could go after the reporter.

“We’ll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart,” the President told Karl.

The federal government is again is poised to shut down unless Speaker of the House Mike Johnson can pass legislation to fund the government. The bill, a 91-page continuing resolution, was published Tuesday afternoon. It pushes a shutdown deadline from October 1 to November 21.

READ MORE: ‘You Have a Lot of Hate’: Trump Threatens Reporter After Hate Speech Question

According to Politico, the bill would “provide $30 million for lawmaker security and a total of $58 million in security assistance the White House requested for the Supreme Court and executive branch.”

“While GOP leaders plan to call a floor vote later this week, it’s still unclear whether Democrats will vote in support of the bill, with President Donald Trump calling on congressional Republicans to stiff-arm the minority party in government funding negotiations.”

In response to Trump’s comment, U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell asked, “How can we fund this? I am being asked this week to fund a government that locks up a reporter Trump doesn’t like. This isn’t a close call folks.”

The Trump administration has not yet actually locked up a reporter because the President does not like them, but critics, including California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, appeared to suggest that was the implied threat that Trump was making.

“Donald Trump says he will send the DOJ after the press if they say things he doesn’t like,” Newsom declared.

CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod asked, “So is the AG going to go after journalists who displease the @POTUS?”

READ MORE: ‘Not a Monarchy’: Trump’s Lawsuit Against NYT Sparks Mockery — and Free Speech Warnings

 

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