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‘Doddering Old Man’: Trump’s Russia-Alaska Blunder Fuels Questions and Concerns

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During his nearly 90-minute Monday morning press conference declaring an “emergency” and announcing that he is federalizing the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police force despite crime being at a 30-year low, President Donald Trump appeared to confuse the U.S. state of Alaska with Russia—twice—leading critics to again express concerns.

“This is a tragic emergency,” Trump told reporters packed into the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. “And it’s embarrassing for me to be up here.”

“You know, I’m going to see Putin, I’m going to Russia on Friday,” Trump said, stressing “Putin” and “Russia.”

“I don’t like being up here talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once-beautiful capital was. With graffiti all over the walls,” he complained.

But the President’s remark about going to “Russia” was incorrect. The meeting on Friday with the Russian President is scheduled to be in Alaska, not Russia.

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The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867.

“The reason Putin wants to meet in Alaska is because he wants it back,” noted The Washington Spectator’s Dave Troy, a historian and researcher who has written extensively about Russia, on Saturday. “He thinks because it’s former Russian territory he’s psyop-ing and dominating Trump.”

Critics, some of whom described the event as “rambling,” blasted the President.

“Trump is going to Alaska on Friday, which the Kremlin has been demanding back recently. Maybe that’s the ‘territorial concession’ Trump keeps ranting about,” observed political commentator and Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky.

“He’s going to Russia? This doddering old man has no idea where he is or what he’s talking about,” snarked U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell.

“Looking forward to all the articles about Trump’s cognitive decline,” wrote the political commentary account Blue Georgia.

“Since there are so many reporters in the briefing room listening to Trump ramble and rant and gaffe and dissemble, I assume there are going to be tons of stories about how mentally compromised the United States President is,” remarked The Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell.

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“Russia has a tremendous advantage with its ‘Alaska is ours!’ operation it did not have with its ‘Crimea is ours!’ operation. In 2014, the Ukrainian government was unsteady but loyal to Ukraine. In 2025, the U.S. government is chaotic and headed by Trump who is loyal to Putin,” noted political scholar Dr. Michael MacKay.

“Russian and Ukrainian social media are lighting up with Trump’s revealing announcement: ‘I’m going to Russia on Friday to meet with Putin.’ They know Alaska is Russian America to Moscow imperialists. The Putin regime is looking good to win another stunning victory over the USA,” MacKay added.

Trump announced, “I’m going to Russia” on Friday. This is a major foreign policy statement. Flanked by Hegseth & Bondi, who barely flinched, Trump declared an enormous diplomatic change. But it’s wrong. He’s going to Alaska. It’s not part of Russia (yet),” wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Laurie Garrett. “Hope Sen. Lisa Murkowski is paying attention.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Rogan on Epstein Files: ‘Looks Terrible’ for Trump

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Prominent podcaster Joe Rogan warned that the handling of the Epstein files “looks terrible” for President Donald Trump and his administration.

“During Tuesday and Thursday’s episodes, Rogan criticized redactions the Department of Justice made from the files,” The Hill reported.

“Who knows what f — — happens with all this Epstein files s — —,” he said, according to video of his streaming show. “It just keeps getting crazier and crazier and crazier and deeper and deeper.”

“Why would your name be redacted if you’re not a victim?” Rogan also asked. “Like, this is what’s crazy about all this. Like, how come you redact some people and you don’t redact other people?”

READ MORE: Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files

“Like, what is this?” the podcaster continued. “This is not good. None of this is good for this administration. It looks f — — terrible. It looks terrible. It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real. This is all a hoax. This is not a hoax. Like, did you not know?”

“Maybe he didn’t know if you want to be charitable? But this is definitely not a hoax. And if you’ve got redacted people’s names, and these people aren’t victims, you’re not protecting the victim. So what are you doing?”

“And how come all this s — — is not released?” Rogan asked.

 

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Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files

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Far-right extremist livestreamer Nick Fuentes — who leads a “Groyper” following of mostly young men and brands himself “America First” — is putting President Donald Trump on notice ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“I won’t even consider voting in the midterms unless the Epstein Files are fully unredacted, mass deportations resume, and we don’t go to war with Iran,” wrote Fuentes, who has 1.2 million followers on the X social media platform.

Some of Trump’s MAGA allies were furious this week as Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected numerous questions in a congressional hearing on that very topic.

Even before Bondi’s widely-criticized performance, Fuentes had called for her impeachment.

READ MORE: Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players

“Pam Bondi needs to be impeached,” he said on his February 9 Rumble show, “America First,” as The Daily Beast reported. “You lied about the existence of the files. You lied about unindicted collaborators and accomplices.”

Fuentes has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “white nationalist,” an “admirer of fascists,” and someone who “frequently relies on antisemitic tropes.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, “Fuentes has used his platforms to make numerous antisemitic, racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments,” and spreads “white supremacist propaganda.”

President Trump “has not condemned Fuentes,” and Vice President JD Vance “has only criticized him for attacking his wife,” The Week reported last month. “But Vance also appears keen to avoid alienating young Fuentes supporters, who could help him secure the GOP presidential nomination in 2028.”

READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same

 

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Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players

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President Donald Trump issued another batch of pardons on Thursday, granting clemency to five former NFL players — the latest in what the Cato Institute has labeled a “blizzard” of pardons.

Trump’s pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson praised the move, which covers cases including those involving drug-related offenses and perjury convictions, according to The Guardian,

“Today, the President granted pardons to five former NFL players—Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late great Dr. Billy Cannon,” wrote Johnson. “As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation.”

Johnson went on to applaud the president “for his continued commitment to second chances.”

“Mercy changes lives,” she added.

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The Cato Institute on Wednesday had said the scope and magnitude of Trump’s “blizzard” of pardons are “unprecedented.”

Before this latest round of pardons, Trump had issued 166 pardons — plus the mass pardons of about 1,500 people convicted on charges in connection with January 6 — since taking office just over one year ago. By comparison, President Joe Biden in four years issued 80 pardons.

“In other words,” Cato’s Dan Greenberg wrote, “even putting aside the rioters’ collective pardon, Trump is now issuing pardons at eight times the rate Biden did.”

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Greenberg put Trump’s pardons into several categories.

He noted that Biden’s pardons eliminated about $680,000 in penalties owed to victims or the federal government, whereas Trump’s pardons have wiped away about $1.5 billion.

Greenberg also said that “Trump has normalized the pardoning of disgraced politicians, such as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez (who orchestrated a spree of state-sponsored drug trafficking leading to a 45-year prison term),” and others, such as Nevada legislator Michele Fiore, Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins, Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, and Arkansas legislator Jeremy Hutchinson.

Other concerns Greenberg noted are that aspects of some of Trump’s pardons “set off alarm bells for self-corruption—either of the president or of his associates.”

Finally, “Trump has increasingly focused on providing pardons to his campaign supporters who stretched or broke the law, such as John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, and Jenna Ellis.”

READ MORE: ‘Politically Toxic’: Voters Say Biden Was Better Than Trump

 

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