Today in Politics, Bulletin 73. 2/17/25 Ron Filipkowski Feb 18 ∙ … The President of the NYU Young Republicans was forced to resign after calling Barron Trump “an oddity on campus.” The College Republicans: “We have been made aware of a statement made by the NYU chapter president that does not align with the values and principles of our organization. Though Vanity Fair unfairly framed what was said, we still found it to be inappropriate.” … The CRs then invited Barron to have a social life: “Barron Trump represents the future of the conservative movement, and we would be honored to have him join College Republicans of America. Strong leadership is built on resilience, courage, and the humility to rise above petty hostility - qualities that Barron has demonstrated.” … None of these people have ever even heard Barron speak, or seen him accomplish anything at all, but they already have him as the next George Washington. A weird cult. … Musk reposted a random account today that showed a picture purporting to show migrants storming a hospital with axes and knives. The photo turned out to a screen shot from the movie The Dark Knight Rises. … Musk also reposted a QAnon account today that said Tom Hanks is a pedophile. … Free Speech Absolutist Musk was upset about the 60 Minutes segment about him wiping out USAID: “60 Minutes are the biggest liars in the world! They deserve a long prison sentence.” … Maybe he was upset about this line in the 60 Minutes segment: “The world’s richest man cut off aid for the world’s poorest people.” … Rep. Mike Haridopolos on Fox: “I really applaud the president for creating the DOGE and using a mastermind like Elon Musk, who understands computers and technology to root out this corruption.” … AP reports that criminal charges have been filed by attorneys against Trump-loving Argentine President Javier Melei, who is now being investigated by a judge for a crypto scam. Melei promoted a crypto coin on his good friend Elon Musk’s platform, which caused many investors to go in big. Then he withdrew his support hours later in a classic “rug pull”, which caused the coin to plummet in value with investors losing $4 billion in just hours. … Breitbart’s editor reports that the Trump admin is now ready to work on lowering egg prices: “USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins told me regarding record high egg prices that she and Trump and other top White House officials have spoken about it. ROLLINS: “We’re on it.’” … After every disaster - whether it was a train derailment or storm - Trump and right-wing media immediately hammered Joe Biden on why he didn’t immediately rush into the scene and “do something” or showed how much he cared. Then Trump would typically visit the site a week later and soak up all the optics while continuing to denounce Biden and lie that FEMA wasn’t helping. … With the major storm hitting TN, KY and other states this weekend resulting in at least 9 fatalities with thousands of homes and businesses devastated, Trump attended the Daytona 500 on Sunday and played golf in Florida on Monday. He also made dozens of posts on Truth Social about himself. He did not say a single word about the disaster. … But with a few stray exceptions, Democrats didn’t say anything about Trump ignoring it because they choose not to play the game that way, or maybe they were busy or something. I kept checking and waiting. It was crickets. As Joe Walsh once sang, “Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through … I can’t complain but sometimes I still do. … Trump arrived early before the race started, then did his little ride around the track, while his photo op stunt ended up delaying the start of the race, which then pushed the race into a storm causing it to be stopped until it blew over, and he left before the race started and didn’t watch any of it. … Commerce Secretary Doug Burgum on Fox & Friends: "Watching President Trump in the Beast, leading the pace car, leading the field of the most talented drivers in the world, kicking off the entire NASCAR season for America, when he was doing that it reminded me of how he's actually leading the world right now. He was courageous during his first term, but this time he's fearless. He's operating at a next level. He's at a different gear. His ideas are brilliant, and they're powerful, and they're simple."     … It’s a cult.  (BETTER KNOWN AS BRAIN DEAD!) … Rep. Clay Higgins had a meltdown last night, posting a deranged video where he was fuming at the Postal Service. MailboxGate started because Clay’s custom mailbox that looks like a brick pizza oven didn’t have a door: “They’re not gonna deliver my mail anymore because my box don’t have a door. I grew up in the country. This is the nicest mailbox I’ve ever had. If they’re not gonna deliver mail to this mailbox, what are they gonna do to country folk!”  (REP. CLAY HIGGINS (R-LOUISIANA CLOWN)  … Rand Paul told Fox he would like to “audit” the gold in Ft Knox: “I've been trying to go down and see the gold and make sure it's all there for about 10 years. During the first Trump admin, I got permission. You have to get permission all the way up to the Sec of Treasury. And then he said, ‘well, I want to go down there, too. I want to go down there when the eclipse is coming through KY, too, so I can see the eclipse and the gold at the same time.’ But they came when I wasn't there, so I didn't get to go down, but the Sec of the Treasury and McConnell did go down and attest that they believe they saw the gold down there.” … This, of course, got the right-wing conspiracy theorists cranked up into high gear. Elon Musk: “Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Ft. Knox? Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not. That gold is owned by the American public! We want to know if it’s still there. It would be cool to do a live video walkthrough of Fort Knox!” … Then the big storm hit Kentucky, which them got the “Dems control the weather” people going. One right-winger posted: “All this talk of auditing Fort Knox and all of a sudden that area is completely FLOODED. IF only I were a conspiracy theorist …” … Georgia GOP elected official and flat-earther Kandiss Taylor said the Deep Staters who tried to cover up the Fort Knox gold audit who caused this storm are responsible for the deaths: “Whoever did this has the blood of a 7 year old child on their hands.” … The FAA has fired hundreds of employees that help with the installation, maintenance, and inspection of air traffic control communications and computer systems in the US. … Pete Buttigieg: “The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?” … Trump lawyer Alina Habba claimed on Fox that the conservative Republican federal prosecutors handing the Eric Adams public corruption case were only going after him because Adams opposed sanctuary cities: “This man was prosecuted because he was anti-sanctuary city policies. He wanted NY to be safe. And then all of the sudden, ‘Wow, he’s prosecuted!’” … Not the bribes Adams solicited from foreign entities. It was sanctuary cities thing. … Habba, who said on a podcast during the campaign, “I’d rather be pretty than smart,” also posted photos of herself on IG getting prepped backstage for her big Fox appearance. … Trump nominated crazy ‘Stop The Steal’ leader Ed Martin, who also represented multiple J6 defendants, to serve as DC US Attorney. Martin was appointed on an interim basis when Trump took office, but obviously his threats to prosecute anyone who bothers Musk’s DOGE team members got him the gig full-time. … Rep. Claudia Tenney has introduced a bill to make Trump’s birthday a national holiday: “No modern president has been more pivotal for our country than Donald J. Trump. Today, I introduced legislation to designate Trump's Birthday as a federal holiday, ensuring President Trump's contributions to American greatness are forever enshrined into law.” … WaPo’s Josh Rogin reports that JD Vance’s support of the far-right AfD during his visit to Germany may have actually hurt the party a week before their election: “In Munich, a minority of officials and experts posited that anti-Americanism in Germany was high enough that Vance’s endorsement might hurt AfD more than help them. Early data seems to support this theory. Let’s see where the numbers end up.” … A bizarre report from Financial Times that Trump Special Envoy Ric Grenell met with and pressured Romania’s foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu to ease travel restrictions on Andrew Tate, who is charged with human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, and money laundering. … If there’s really weird stuff going on behind the scene in Trump World, there’s a pretty good chance Grenell is involved somehow. Today was a RELATIVELY quiet day because of the holiday. Trump spent the day playing golf (shocking), Congress wasn’t in session, and Dems didn’t have much going on. I expect that will change tomorrow, though. See you tomorrow night! … Trump was asked about the deadline he gave for noon on Saturday for Hamas to return all the hostages or else “all hell” will rain down on them, which they ignored: “I told him, Bibi, you do whatever you want.” Student protestors might be missing ‘Genocide Joe’ soon. … President Zelensky reiterated that he will not be a party to talks in Saudi Arabia, since Marco Rubio is holding his initial discussions with Russia only: “Ukraine will not participate. Ukraine knew nothing about them. Ukraine perceives any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as those with no results. We can not recognize anything or any agreements about us without us." … CNN reported that the head of Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Kirill Dmitriev is part of the Russian delegation meeting with Rubio this week. This comes days after the Trump Admin tried to extort Zelensky to sign an agreement to sign over 50% of his country’s rare earth minerals to go into a US fund for ‘Reconstruction’, and two weeks after Trump announced he was creating a US Sovereign Wealth Fund despite the fact that we have no budget surplus money to invest. … I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I know Trump. I believe all these things are connected. … Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia will not give up any of the territory is has conquered and currently occupies. … WaPo refused to run “Fire Elon Musk” ads from Common Cause and the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund. The groups took out full-page ad for the front and back pages of the paper, which showed Musk laughing in front of the White House with the caption: “Who's running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?". … Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón told The Hill that WaPo accepted their ad initially and had no issues with it, then suddenly canceled it while giving no explanation. WaPo refused The Hill’s request for comment. … MAGA is outraged about Tom Hanks’s skit on SNL where he played a racist Trump supporter in a MAGA hat. After years of claiming that libs can’t take a joke, MAGA snowflakes were melting down crying about how they were being unfairly stereotyped. … Joe ‘Tiger King’ Exotic complained that he is the only Trump supporter still in prison without a pardon: “I have endorsed Trump since 2016 and the only thing that has happened to me was kidnapped by the American Justice System as a political prisoner so Kamala Harris could sponsor the Big Cat Safety Act for Carole Baskin to profit 19 million dollars off of selling her non-profits after Peta helped Netflix make Tiger King to fraud the public out of millions.” … If Musk doesn’t volunteer to go on his first manned flight to Mars, I might. I got to get out of here. … MAGA activist Laura Loomer: “I’ve been involved in Republican politics for 12 years. What is conservative about our party? The GOP has become a Jerry Springer episode. We have no standards. It’s like an all-you-can-eat-buffet.” … When you’ve lost Laura Loomer … … Melania Trump has not made a single public appearance as First Lady since Trump’s inauguration. She has done a book tour, promoted her movie, and sold some crypto though. … Several groups who monitor the national debt are sounding alarm bells on Mike Johnson’s draft budget. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said a bill that includes the Trump’s 8-year tax cuts at the spending levels proposed would increase debt the debt by 2034 to 126% of GDP. … Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation: "Unfortunately, this resolution sets the stage for adding trillions more in new deficits and debt. It allows for $4.5 trillion in revenue reductions, with only $1.2 trillion in offsets. All told, this plan would add more than $25 trillion to the debt over the next decade.” … Gene Dodaro, U.S. Comptroller General and head of the GAO: "We project that public debt will reach an unprecedented level by 2027. We're calling on Congress and the Administration to act now to develop and implement a strategy to address this acute challenge. Inaction could result in great difficulties for many Americans and impede policymakers' flexibility to respond to future economic recessions or unexpected events." … Rand Paul told Fox he isn’t happy: “I've told the negotiators from the very beginning, if they want my vote, they have to talk to me about the numbers. They have to be believable numbers. If the numbers in the budget resolution will be adhered to by the Appropriations Comm, I could be inclined to support the budget. But so far I've seen no indication. For example, there's $1 trillion difference between the budget document and what we're going to spend this year. So it becomes a fiction. And if it's not honest accounting and they're not honestly going to do it, I don't want to vote for a rubber stamp that actually leads to increased spending.” … JD Vance and Elon Musk chimed in after Charlie Kirk claimed that Sen. Tom Cotton was quietly working behind the scenes to sabotage the nomination of Pete Hegseth’s deputy at DOD. Kirk started it with this post: “Tom Cotton is working behind the scenes to stop Trump’s pick, Elbridge Colby, from getting confirmed at DOD. Why is Tom Cotton doing this?” … Republican Senators Roger Wicker and Mike Rounds have also expressed concerns about Colby based on his past statements and writings. … Fox Business host Stuart Varney to Tom Homan: The administration said the worst of the worst were the people who would be held in Gitmo. But there's an article in the Washington Post saying the family members of those detained say they're being falsely branded as members of Tren de Aragua. HOMAN: “That's the Washington Post. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - no one is off the table.” … Adam Klasfeld reported on the hearing today before Judge Chutkan on federal employees v. DOGE: “When asked whether thousands of federal employees were fired last week, a govt lawyer responds: ‘I have not been able to look into that independently, or confirm that.’ Judge Chutkan responds, incredulously: ‘The firing of thousands of federal employees is not a small or common thing. You haven’t been able to confirm that?’” … More from Klasfeld: “Trump DOJ's lawyer says the states have no evidence that Elon Musk has ‘any formal or actual authority’ over the government's actions. Judge Chutkan seems skeptical of that argument: ‘I think you stretch too far.’” … “Judge Chutkan said she plans to rule on the case challenging DOGE's constitutionality within 24 hours. She also plans to set a schedule for the requested preliminary injunction. By the hearing's end, she still appeared skeptical of the TRO, without deciding.” … Trump trolled Ron Desantis after rumors have been swirling that Casey Desantis may run for Governor in 2026. He posted screenshots of a poll showing Rep. Byron Donalds substantially ahead of every other candidate in a hypothetical race. Trump’s post also signals a potential early Donalds endorsement from Trump against a Desantis-backed candidate, which could be his wife. … AP reports that the NAACP is including in their annual advisory to members a list of companies who have disbanded their DEI programs since Trump was elected. They included Lowe’s, Target, Walmart, Amazon, Meta, McDonald’s, and Tractor Supply. The group also praised companies who reaffirmed their commitment to diversity, which included Costco, Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Delta Airlines, and JPMorgan Chase. … GA Gov Brian Kemp took a little shot at Trump, who he has feuded with since 2020, by making it clear that he is against Trump’s tariffs while refusing to mention his name: “We celebrated this Presidents’ Day by visiting the hardworking team at the Georgia Munich Office who promote our state to companies all across Europe, work to sell Georgia-made products to the European market, and help us bring jobs and opportunity back to our communities.” … Democratic Rep. Angie Craig: “I am giving serious consideration to the open Senate seat in Minnesota. I’ll be talking to Minnesotans in the weeks ahead about the best way to continue to serve my community and will make a decision in the near future.” … Former Republican State Rep. Brad Sherman announced he is running for governor of Iowa against Gov. Kim Reynolds. Although Reynolds would have a huge fundraising advantage, she endorsed Desantis against Trump in the presidential primary, and has the lowest approval rating (47%) of any governor in America per Morning Consult. … Meanwhile, Sherman is working hard for the Trump endorsement: "I look forward to working with President Trump - who I endorsed early and supported in rallies, caucuses, conventions, and elections - in his agenda to restore the America we love.”