This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 265.

Ron Filipkowski Dec 7

… Pete Hegseth got several questions about the Sept. 2 boat strike at the Reagan National Defense Forum: “I stayed for probably 5 minutes or so after but at that point it was a tactical operation and I moved on to other things. A couple hours later, I was told there had to be a re-attack because there were a couple of folks who could still be in the fight, access to radios. I said, ‘Roger, sounds good’. I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.”

… Q - “When will see the video? Hegseth: We are reviewing it right now to make sure sources, methods - it is an ongoing operation. We have operators out there doing this now. Whatever we decide, we have to be responsible and we are reviewing it.”

… Q - “So you will be releasing the video? Hegseth: We’re reviewing it. Q - Is that a yes or a no? Hegseth: We’ll see.”

… Hegseth: “Washington, the founder of the War Dept, appealed to God. Ronald Reagan did the same, appealing to heaven. We do the same today with Jesus Christ as our guide. May he grant us the wisdom to see what is right.”

… Hegseth: “Allies that step up like Israel, South Korea, Poland - will receive our special favor. Allies that do not will face consequences.”

… Hegseth: “If you look at actual policies, Donald Trump is the true and rightful heir of Ronald Reagan.”

… Paul Rieckhoff with Independent Veterans for America: “Hegseth is the only person who believes this.”

… Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) on CBS: “Hegseth has no credibility on this matter. A week after this strike there was a briefing for Congress. Why was a follow up strike taken? The answer then, in the first week of Sept, was a follow up strike was taken because we needed to clear the wreckage so there wasn’t a danger to navigation. That was explanation #1.”

… “Explanation #2, right before we watched the video, was they might have had a radio and they might have been radioing a boat and they might have been trying to recover the cocaine. Then when you watch the video, you realize they don’t have a radio. They are barely hanging on and not slipping beneath the waves.”

… “Then we get this thing on how they are trying to right the boat. This was a 40-foot boat that had been hit with a massive piece of munitions. It probably destroyed everything in the boat. Oh, but ‘maybe they might have swum under, gotten a radio — probably waterlogged — and radioed a boat we are not even sure what is there.’”

… “What we’ve had are a series of shifting expectations, including ‘the fog of war.’ Hegseth said they took the second strike because of the fog of war. There was no fog. The military watched this boat very carefully - I shouldn’t say boat, they watched the wreckage of the boat very carefully for a long period of time before they took the second strike.”

… Q - “Do you have confidence in Adm Bradley? Himes: What it raises is what happens when an apparently good man like Bradley is placed in a context where he knows that if he countermands an order he’s uncomfortable with it’s very likely he’ll be fired, when he works for a guy, Hegseth, who wrote a book about how we shouldn’t observe the laws of war.”

… Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on NBC: Q - “You’re talking about the president protecting Arkansas from drugs and yet he pardoned the former president of Honduras who trafficked more than 500 tons of cocaine into the US. How does that make America safer? Cotton: Well, I haven’t spoken to the president about that pardon. I have to know more about the circumstances.”

… Q - “Is there any hard evidence showing this particular boat was headed to the US? Cotton: That didn’t come up in my briefing. Q - Are you comfortable having the US target a boat that you’re not sure is heading to the US? Cotton: I’m not just comfortable with it - I want to continue it.”

… Q - “Lawmakers say the 2 men appeared to raise their arms potentially to signal a surrender. Why did Adm Bradley interpret these actions as anything other than them trying to survive? Cotton: They were sitting or standing on top of a capsized boat. They weren’t floating helplessly in the water. I don’t think it matters all that much what they were trying to do.”

… Q - “Isn’t it possible that even the act of taking off a t-shirt could’ve been part of an attempt to get attention for help? Cotton: Or it could’ve been an attempt to signal to another cartel boat to come pick them up and pick up the cargo.”

… Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) on ABC: “How many videos have they released to date? It seems pretty clear that they don’t want to release this video because they don’t want people to see it because it’s very difficult to justify. There were two survivors on an overturned boat, and Cotton’s description of it is simply not accurate. When they were finally taken out, they weren’t trying to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated - a tiny portion of it remained capsized, the bow of the boat.”

… “They had no communications device, certainly they were unarmed. Any claim that the drugs somehow survived that attack is hard to really square with what we saw. So it was really disturbing. It did not appear that these two survivors were in any position to continue the fight. I think it’s important that people see what it looks like when the full force of the US military is turned on two guys who are clinging to a piece of wood, about to go under.”

… Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) on ABC: Q - “Do you support this pardon of the former Honduran president? Schmitt: I’m not familiar with the facts or circumstances. Q - What do you mean you’re not familiar with the facts? It’s been front page news. Schmitt: You spew Democrat talking points every single week, which is probably why your ratings are so bad.”

… Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on NBC: “I think that all of these strikes are unlawful. They are a form of extrajudicial killing. These boats are not invading the US in an armed assault - the fact the admin may put a group of organizations on a list doesn’t confer on a president the ability to kill them at sea.”

… Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) on CNN: “It is a war crime. It’s illegal. No matter how you put it, it’s all illegal. I’ve been shot down behind enemy lines. Under the laws of war, you are supposed to help render aid to that individual - you’re not allowed to go back in and kill them.”

… Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) on MS NOW: “He doesn’t look out for anybody. When you see what happened with this boat strike, it’s not leadership to throw your people under the bus. He turned away and ran from this as fast as he could.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “It’s important to remember there are two scandals here: 1. The Admin has likely committed war crimes. 2. But the entire operation - which now includes two dozen attacks - is illegal. In our democracy, the President CANNOT wage war without the consent of the people.”

… Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) on CNN: “If you were to take the confirmation vote again today, would you vote to make Hegseth defense secretary? Curtis: That’s a question I can’t answer without as much thoughtful research as I did the first time I did that vote. Q - But now you have actual evidence of job performance. Curtis: If you go by what’s in the newspaper, it’s near impossible to know exactly what’s going on.”

… Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): “After SignalGate I think I’ve seen enough. What I’ve really wanted to see was someone take some responsibility, own up to a mistake and then when he blamed the media or the journalists for the story, it just ruined his credibility.”

… USA Today: “Saturday Night Live is back to take on the Trump admin’s Venezuelan boat strikes. The sketch show’s latest cold open starred Colin Jost as Hegseth delivering a combative press conference about the US’ recent assault on alleged drug boats. In the skech, Jost’s Hegseth, after chugging an energy drink, angrily declared ‘we’re now at war with Venezuela,’ and before taking questions, he told reporters to pretend I’m a random fishing boat and fire away.’”

… “Jost as Hegseth then defended what he dubbed ‘Operation Kill Everybody,” and when asked for an official death toll from the strikes, he said, ‘Let’s just say if I had a drink for every Venezuelan we’ve killed, I’d really like that number of drinks.’”

… WaPo on how Trump’s lies about prices is hurting Republicans: “Trump’s flurry of sometimes extravagant claims comes amid a growing Republican fear, fueled by recent election results, that high prices could set the stage for a Democratic sweep in next year’s midterms. So far, there is little evidence that Trump’s urgent attempt to shift the economic storyline is working.”

… Former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich: “Any Republican who refuses to admit we have an affordability problem is not listening to the American people. It’s real because the American people think it’s real. I cannot overstate that - in a free country it’s the people who define what is real, not the politicians.”

… Former Biden economic advisor Jared Bernstein: “He often exists in an alternative reality that many of his followers are happy to follow him into, but the affordability issue is kryptonite for him, because even his most devoted followers know which way is up when it comes to prices. He may be able to convince people of his alternative vision in lots of different areas, but not this one.”

… Brent Buchanan, CEO of Republican polling firm Cygnal: “The biggest piece is message discipline and acknowledging how people feel - not telling them that things are affordable and you shouldn’t be complaining. If your message is Venezuela one day, Ukraine the next, telling them things are affordable, telling them Democrats made up affordability - voters then become concerned that you are not worried about what they are worried about.”

… Treasury Sec Scott Bessent was on CBS: Q - “When Trump says ‘affordability is a con job,’ his approval on the economy is now down to 36%. Don’t you need to show that you feel the pain? Bessent: The president is frustrated by the media coverage. Q - The polling is of average Americans. Bessent: Average Americans are hearing a lot of it from media coverage.”

… Fox business analyst Charles Gasparino: “The messaging coming from the WH that’s being funneled through right-wing talking heads is that the economy is fine, we’re still the greatest nation on earth (which we are) and you, the working class American, don’t know how good you have it. Sound familiar? It was exactly the disastrous messaging that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tried to sell and it failed.”

… “Trump vowed to lower prices but the tariffs have made that impossible and even worse they made wage gains difficult.So what should he do? It’s pretty obvious: End all tariffs except on China. Cut unnecessary spending. Slash the payroll tax and hope for a real economic revival that grows GDP. If you don’t do that then a midterm wipeout is coming for the GOP.”

… Trump exploded at financial analyst Peter Schiff, who criticized him for continuing to claim the economy is great: “Why would Fox & Friends Weekend (of all things?) put on a ‘Stockbroker’ named Peter Schiff, a Trump-hating loser. Either the show made a mistake, or it is heading in a different direction. He thinks prices are going up when, in fact, they are coming substantially down. Prices are almost all down. Biden caused the AFFORDABILITY CRISIS, I’M FIXING IT, along with everything else! Check out the ‘booker’ who put this jerk on!”

… Schiff is a Republican who endorsed and supported Trump in each of the last 3 presidential elections.

… Schiff responded: “Trump called me a loser, a jerk and a Trump hater for telling the Fox audience the truth about the rising cost of living. Biden had a lot of help in causing the ‘affordability crisis,’ including from Trump during his first term, and he’s not fixing it, he’s making it worse. Given how much Trump hates the truth, I think he should change the name of his social media platform to Lie Social.”

We make the entire Weekend Bulletins available to all subscribers while the rest of the daily ones during the week have about the first third available to free subscribers. I appreciate everyone who reads, shares and subscribes to my work. If you missed the last Bulletin, you can find it here.

This wasn’t a weekend where there were a lot of manic breaking news moments, but it was one where there were some really big stories with significant long-term consequences not only for this country but the world. That is probably also why I ended up spending longer stretches than normal on each subject.

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… CNN analyst Ronald Brownstein: “In 2024, Trump won Latino men - first GOP nominee ever to do so - but also made big gains with Latinas. He not only ran historically well among Latinos without a 4-year college degree but also notched significant gains among those with such degrees. Same with Latino Protestants and Catholics.”

… A massive new Latino survey from Pew Research found Trump has squandered those gains. Not only did 73% of Latinas disapprove of Trump’s job performance, but so did 67% of Latino men; not only did 3/4 of Latino Catholics and seculars disapprove, so did 3/5ths of Protestants.”

… “Even 66% of Latino men without a college degree and 72% of non-college Latinas now disapprove of Trump’s performance - a reminder they are not the same as non-college Whites, despite claims from some that Trump has realigned them on comparable cultural grounds.”

… “Trump’s major policy initiatives faced withering reviews in the poll. On the economy, the share of Latinos who said his policies were worsening conditions (61%) was 4x those who said he was improving them (15%). 7/10 said he was doing too much to deport undocumented immigrants.”

… “Few Republicans see much chance to really reverse this slide before 2026. Says former GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo: ‘It’s going to be hard for Republicans to recover some of the support’ Trump has lost this year. It’s getting ‘late in the cycle’ to reverse eco discontent, says pollster Daron Shaw.”

… Republican latino voter consultant Mike Madrid: “New polling data on Latinos show it may be the one true swing voter left in American democracy.”

… Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is reportedly about to announce she is jumping into the Democratic primary in the Senate race in Texas.

… The Telegraph: “Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will help run Gaza, officials have said. The negotiators will be involved in the practical rebuilding of the war-torn Strip, under US plans to be announced this month. According to briefings from Western officials to media in the US and Israel, Kushner and Witkoff will join Sir Tony Blair on Gaza’s executive board, which will sit under the Board of Peace, chaired by Trump.”

… “The Board of Peace will comprise heads of Arab and European countries, such as MBS, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Kushner, who holds no formal US govt position, has made a fortune from business interests in the Middle East since serving as a senior advisor to the US president during his first term. He is currently leading efforts to plan so-called ‘alternative safe communities’. The concept involves building temporary but functional small villages in what is now the ‘green zone’, the IDF-controlled east and south of Gaza.”

… The fake FIFA Peace Prize now has a prominent place on Trump’s desk in the Oval Office.

… Trump attacked Kaitlan Collins on Truth Social: “Caitlin Collin’s of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago. I said because it is going to be double the size, and the quality of finishes and interiors has been brought to the highest level. Also, the column SPAN has been substantially increased for purposes of viewing. It’s just much bigger and more beautiful than originally planned. FAKE NEWS CNN, and the guy who runs the whole corrupt operation that owns it, is one of the worst in the business. Their ratings are so low that they’re not even counted or relevant anymore.”

… “Stupid” and “Nasty” are two of his favorite adjectives for female reporters. He also spelled her first name wrong and put an apostrophe in her last name.

… Sen. John Curtis was asked about Trump calling the entire Somali-American community ‘garbage’: “All of us need to wake up every morning and say, ‘what am I doing to make immigrants feel welcome’ regardless of an individual says. Q - But he’s not just an individual - he’s the president calling an entire community garbage. Curtis: We knew very well what we were electing. We wanted a disrupter. For good or bad, that’s what a disrupter brings.”

… WaPo: “From her confinement in a remote detention center in LA, Bruna Ferreira recounted all the ways she said she has tried to maintain a friendly relationship with the family of WH press secretary Karoline Leavitt. After all, Ferreira shares a child with Leavitt’s brother. The Brazilian immigrant selected Leavitt to be her son’s godmother. She signed off on her son’s trip to the WH Easter egg hunt this spring. And she said she ‘moved mountains’ to ensure he could attend Leavitt’s wedding in January.”

… “Arrested Nov. 12 by ICE, Ferreira said it is insulting to sit in orange prison scrubs facing possible removal to Brazil after spending most of her life in the US while the Trump admin paints her as a criminal. She is being detained for being in the US after overstaying a visa when she was a child. Since her arrest, the WH media office has portrayed Ferreira as an absentee mother who had not been in Leavitt’s orbit in years. The White House issued a statement that said Ferreira had not spoken to Leavitt in years and that Ferreira had never lived with her son.”

… “Court records, family photos and Ferreira’s account tell a different story. Her son is a Leavitt, and she said she sees that side of the family frequently while visiting the boy or cheering him on at school or in sports. Ferreira said the WH claims that she had never lived with her child are ‘disgusting’ and false.

… “Before her arrest, she said, her schedule consisted of work managing cleaning and clothing businesses, going to yoga class, and spending time with her son. She said she takes him to Dave & Buster’s, drives him to school, cheers at his sports games and stocks his bedroom with teddy bears, video games and his boxing gloves, ‘everything a young boy needs.’”

… Ferreira: “I asked Karoline to be godmother over my only sister. I made a mistake there, in trusting. Why they’re creating this narrative is beyond my wildest imagination.”

… WGBH (Boston): “Becoming a US citizen takes years and involves immigrants acquiring a green card, extensive interviews, background checks, classes and a citizenship test. The naturalization ceremony is the final step to the process, where the oath of allegiance and a citizenship certificate are granted. Immigrants approved to be naturalized went to Faneuil Hall on Thur - known as the country’s cradle of liberty - for that long-awaited moment. But instead, as they lined up, some were told by ICE officials that they couldn’t proceed due to their countries of origin.”

… “The same situation is playing out at naturalization events across the country as USCIS directed its employees to halt adjudicating all immigration pathways for people from 19 countries deemed to be ‘high risk’. Gail Breslow, exec dir of Project Citizenship: ‘One of our clients showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.

… “People are devastated and they’re frightened. People were plucked out of line. They didn’t cancel the whole ceremony. One person was asking, ‘what did I do wrong? Why is this happening to me?’ She needed to be reassured that it wasn’t anything she had done. This wasn’t her fault.”

… Zohran Mamdani on the MeidasTouch podcast: “Oftentimes when we win elections, we tell people to go home and just trust us. But the message really has to be that we want you to come along with us - we want you to be part of this politics beyond just the ballot box. That’s something we’ve been looking to share with New Yorkers: your participation in democracy extends beyond Election Day. We want to not only win with New Yorkers, but also govern with New Yorkers.”

… “That will mean infusing city govt with a different kind of outlook and changing what we even think of as public engagement - really making sure that I’m not seen as a movement in and of myself, but as a messenger of a movement that continues to grow across the 5 boroughs of the city.”

… Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s head of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division: “I’ve been stuck at the same level of followers on this X account pretty much since I started my govt job. What, am I chopped liver over here? What kind of content do my folks want to see more of to like and share?”

… They are always focused on the important things.

… WaPo: “The year of Trump’s takeover will culminate Sunday with the Kennedy Center Honors, the building’s marquee event. It, too, is reflective of Trump’s tastes, whims and imprint on cultural life in Washington. During his first admin, Trump skipped the ceremony each year, breaking with a long-standing presidential tradition. Now, he’s not just attending the honors - he’s said he’s hosting it and that he was ‘98% involved” in picking the talent.”

… “The 2025 honorees - Gloria Gaynor, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, George Straight and Kiss - “all went through me. We had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be. Very different.”

… “The center now regularly hosts Christian and conservative-leaning programs, including a red carpet premiere for the Christian Broadcasting Network’s documentary ‘The Revival Generation’ and a ‘Christian Persecution Summit’. It has also partnered with Museum of the Bible to create a prayer wall for guests attending screenings of the movie ‘King of Kings’ and held a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk.”

… Trump: “The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees has been amazing. It’s got to be the hottest board. The Supreme Court is pretty hot. The Supreme Court, the Senate, the NFL owners committee.”

… Pretty random mix of entities he came up with there. Not really sure what any of them have to do with each other, but …

… Trump posted this after his pardon of Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar: “Can you imagine??? The Democrats, under the Crooked Joe Biden Admin, who always use extreme force and jail-time to destroy their political opponent, wanted to put Congressman Henry Cuellar, and his wife, Imelda, in PRISON, for 15 years, which I predicted these Radical Left Lunatics would do - And they never stopped wanting to fulfill this evil quest! his daughters wrote me a beautiful letter about their parents (Just posted on TRUTH!). After reading it I decided, in the interest of justice, and based on the daughter’s loving request, that I would give Henry and Imelda a Full and Complete Pardon.”

… I felt very good about fighting for a family that was tormented by very sick and deranged people - They were treated sooo BADLY! I signed the papers, and said to people in the Oval Office that I just did a very good, perhaps life saving, thing. God was very happy with me that day! THEN IT HAPPENED!!! Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Cuellar announced that he will be “running” for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!), as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison - And probably still do! Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”

… So he’s basically admitted he expects something in return for his pardons, and he expected Cuellar to switch parties.

… Cuellar was asked about it by Maria Bartiromo on Fox: Q - “Have you considered switching parties? Cuellar: Look, I’m a Democrat. Q - Okay, but Trump is out with a new Truth Social saying saying, ‘next time, no more Mr Nice Guy’. Cuellar: I was at church this morning praying for the president.”

… Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski responded to Musk complaining about the EU’s huge fine against Elon Musk’s X: “Go to Mars. There’s no censorship of Nazi salutes there.”

… Former WV Sen. Joe Manchin endorsed Susan Collins for her re-election campaign in Maine. I know, nobody cares. Least of all people in Maine.

… Actress and model Sydney Sweeney told People mag that she wishes MAGA hadn’t turned her American Eagle jeans ads into a political culture war issue: “I was honestly surprised by the reaction. I did it because I love the jeans and love the brand. I don’t support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren’t true.”

… “Anyone who knows me knows that I’m always trying to bring people together. I’m against hate and divisiveness. In the past my stance has been to never respond to negative or positive press, but recently I have come to realize that my silence regarding this issue has only widened the divide, not closed it. So I hope this new year brings more focus on what connects us instead of what divides us.”

… European leaders are in shock after the release of the new US National Security Strategy, which switches Europe from an ally of many decades to an adversary. Estonian political commentator Toomas Hendrik Ilves: “After the publication of the US NSS, we all now know Europe is seen as America’s primary enemy. No other part of the world is treated with such overt hostility and bellicose ‘regime change’ threats.”

… “Next time leaders of EU countries take another Haj to convince DC that Trump is still the Big Daddy, will they do so knowing THEY are the centrists the US admin abhors and explicitly wants to replace with right wing extremists? That the US goal is a continent of Hungaries? Intolerant, a Russian vassal state, with state capture by a corrupt oligarchy? A prewar patchwork of individual countries too weak to stand up to any security or economic threats? Easy to bully, invade, take over?”

… “As the common Enlightenment provenance of both Europe and US is explicitly ignored in the NSS, perhaps the EU needs a more biblical reference to understand what we are today: ‘Like a sheep being led to the slaughter or a lamb that is silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth’.” (Isaiah 53:7).

… Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov: “The adjustments to the US National Security Strategy largely align with our own vision.”

… CNN’s Jim Sciutto responded to Peskov’s statement: “…and against US treaty allies, US intelligence agencies’ assessments of Russia, and large bipartisan majorities in the US Congress.”

… WSJ’s chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov: “Imagine if the EU had issued a paper saying that its strategic priority is the breakup of the US into 50 separate states, and we will support the ‘healthy’ ones in the south and the east, because Europeans believe that America has lost its civilizational values. Not hostile to America, just to the United States.”

… “And the talk in Washington about the ‘unpopular and unelected’ Brussels bureaucracy is completely uninformed by public opinion. In every one of the 27 EU member-states, the EU leadership is trusted more than the national govt, with median 62% approval rating.”

… Carl Bildt, Chair of the Euro Council on Foreign Relations: “In saying that Europe faces ‘civilizational erasure’ the Trump new security strategy places itself to the right of the extreme right in Europe. Its language that one otherwise only finds coming out of some bizarre minds of the Kremlin.”

… Military historian Chris O: “The new US National Security Strategy blames ‘undemocratic’ European govts for failing to make peace with Russia, takes a pro-Russian position on NATO, reflects white nationalist views on European demographics, and pledges overt support for far-right parties.”

… “While the strategy states that ‘it is a core interest of the US to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine’, it says that ‘the Trump Admin finds itself at odds with European officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war perched in unstable minority govts, many of which trample on basic principles of democracy to suppress opposition.’”

… “The strategy blames European governments for failing to make peace with Russia, but does not mention the strongly pro-Ukrainian sentiment across European populations in virtually every country other than Hungary and Italy. A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those govts’ subversion of democratic processes.”

… “The strategy explicitly praises the rise of far-right ‘patriotic’ parties allied with the US Republicans: ‘America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.’ It is an open question whether Europe will view their place in the world, or their alliance with the US, in the same way as those who signed the NATO charter.”

… “The strategy places the US on the side of far-right white nationalist forces, saying that it wants ‘Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation.’ Another priority is taken straight from the Kremlin’s worldview: ‘Ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.’”

… “Overall, it’s very clear that the strategy reflects JD Vance’s views, as expressed in his 14 Feb 2025 speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he argued that Europe’s principal threat is from the erosion of democratic norms rather than Russia or China.”

…. The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum: “Can’t think of another example of a global power so demonstratively burning its assets and destroying its influence, in a single document.”

… Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): “After discussions with numerous Allied leaders and colleagues in Congress, it’s clear the Pentagon made the decision to withdraw troops from Romania without consulting Allies or Congress. This sent a terrible message to NATO and Russia. In response, Congress will attempt to codify that the Admin must obtain future approval to withdraw forces from Europe. Trust with the Pentagon has been frayed.”

… Task & Purpose: “Marines will once again be judged by how they look in an official photograph when they are up for key career opportunities, according to a policy released this week, partially reversing a 2020 rule aimed at removing unintended bias that photos can add to selection boards. Under the new rule, Marines will submit their official portrait when they apply for command screening boards for Lt. Cols and Cols, and in selection boards for educational and career opportunities like the Commandant’s Career Level Education Board, Naval Post Graduate School, Expeditionary Warfare School, and instructor at the US Naval Academy.”

… “Returning photographs to selection boards reverses a 5-year-old policy. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, appointed by Trump in his first term, issued a memo in July 2020 to ‘take the initiative against discrimination, prejudice, and bias in all ranks’ and directed a review of relevant policies by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.”

… “In Aug 2020, that office issued a policy prohibiting photos from being used in promotion boards and other selection processes for training, education and command assignments. Pete Hegseth rescinded those memos over the summer, according to the Marine Corps notice.”

… Longtime Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly, who wrote the book Commander in Cheat documenting the many ways that Trump cheats at golf, posted this in response to Trump bragging about his baseball prowess: “Here are the facts about Trump’s high school baseball career, when he says he was ‘the best player in NY’. This man is one giant sack of bullsh*t:”

Soph year: 0-10 (.000)
Jun year: 2-9 (.222)
Sen year: 1-21 (.047)

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