“The administration appears not to be able to attract the caliber of federal officials to which Americans have become accustomed.”
Date: 05/10/2025
Source: Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From An American
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/may-9-2025
From New York Times: “The Trump administration plans to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane as a donation from the Qatari royal family that will be upgraded to serve as Air Force One, which would make it one of the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the U.S. government… Sold new, a commercial Boeing 747-8 costs in the range of $400 million.
Date: 05/11/2025
Source: New York Times
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/11/us/trump-news
Source: U.S. Constitution, Title of Nobility Clause, Article I, Section 9 , Clause 8
URL: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei#section9
Source: Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act (1966)
URL: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/7342
Details:
From U.S. Constitution: “No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”
From Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act: “(i)The President shall direct all Chiefs of a United States Diplomatic Mission to inform their host governments that it is a general policy of the United States Government to prohibit United States Government employees from receiving gifts or decorations of more than minimal value.”
Date: 05/09/2025
Source: New York Times
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/world/africa/trump-afrikaner-refugees.html
Source: United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR)
URL: https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/
Detail:
From UNHCR:
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.
From New York Times:
Trump Officials Seek to Bring First White Afrikaners to U.S. as Refugees Next Week
A top State Department official told South African officials on Friday that the United States planned to transport 54 Afrikaners to the United States on a charter flight scheduled to leave Johannesburg on Sunday, according to a person briefed on the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the private conversation.
The arrival of the Afrikaners would cement Mr. Trump’s efforts to upend a program that for decades has allowed thousands of people fleeing war, famine and natural disaster to find safe haven in the United States.
South African government officials have vigorously disputed the claim by the United States that Afrikaners qualify for refugee status and conveyed those doubts in a diplomatic memo sent to the State Department this week, they said.
“It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy,” the spokesman, Chrispin Phiri, said in a statement.
He added that Afrikaners’ claims of discrimination “do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law.”
Date: 05/08/2025
Source: New York Times
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/trump-librarian-congress-carla-hayden.html
Details:
From New York Times:
Dr. Carla D. Hayden was the first African American and the first woman to serve as the head of the Library of Congress. Dr. Hayden, appointed as the 14th librarian of Congress by President Barack Obama in 2016, had overseen the library through President Trump’s first term. The library, the oldest government-run cultural institution in the United States, only rarely gets a new leader. Dr. Hayden was its first since 1987…
She was fired in a two-sentence email from Trent Morse, the deputy director of White House personnel…
Date: 05/08/2025
Source: New York Times
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/fema-cameron-hamilton.html
Detail:
From New York Times: Cameron Hamilton, the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was pushed out of the job on Thursday, according to several people familiar with his departure. His ouster came a day after he told members of Congress that FEMA — which President Trump has suggested should be disbanded — was vital to communities “in their greatest times of need” and should not be eliminated.
Date: 05/06/2025
Source: New York Times
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/us/politics/trump-libya-migrants.html
Source: Amnesty International
Source: U.S. Department of State (Travel Advisory, Human Rights Report)
URL: https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/libya/
Details:
From New York Times: The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately clear, but a flight to Libya carrying the deportees could leave as soon as Wednesday, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.
The decision to send deportees to Libya was striking. The country is racked with conflict, and human rights groups have called conditions in its network of migrant detention centers “horrific” and “deplorable.”
The planned use of a military plane for the flight to Libya comes after the Defense Department has assisted in transporting migrants to locations such as India, Guatemala and Ecuador…
From U. S. State Department (Libya Travel Advisory, 08/01/2024): Do not travel to Libya due to crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict.
Date: 05/04/2025
Source: usa.gov/inauguration
Source: NPR
Details:
President’s oath of office: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
NPR / Meet the Press: President Trump — when asked if he thinks he needs to uphold the Constitution on “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” — said, “I don’t know.”
Date: 05/02/2025
Source: ABC News
URL: https://abcnews.go.com/US/full-transcript-trumps-exclusive-100-days-broadcast-interview/story?id=121291672
Detail:
From ABC News:
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: — the person that you’re talkin’ about, you know, you’re makin’ this person sound — this is a MS-13 gang member, a tough cookie, been in lots of skirmishes, beat the hell out of his wife, and the wife was petrified to even talk about him, okay? This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland —
TERRY MORAN: I’m not saying he’s a good guy. It’s about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He came into our country illegally.
TERRY MORAN: You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I could.
TERRY MORAN: You could pick it up, and with all —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I could
TERRY MORAN: — the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, “Send him back,” right now.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.
TERRY MORAN: But the court has ordered you —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But he’s not.
Date: 04/30/2025
Source: KFOR.com
Source: Civil Discourse
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/not-ok-in-oklahoma
Details:
From Civil Discourse: [Federal agents] burst into a family’s home early in the morning on Thursday, April 24, and forced a mother and her three daughters, still in their underwear, out into the rain while they conducted their search, according to the family. They were not, however, the people identified in the search warrant, who had moved out two weeks earlier.
Date: 04/28/2025
Source: Religion News Service (RNS)
Details:
From RNS: [T]he Rev. William Barber and two others were arrested while praying in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday (April 28)…
The arrests occurred roughly 15 minutes after Barber, the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Steve Swayne, director of St. Francis Springs Prayer Center, started praying in the Rotunda as dozens of police stood nearby, some prepared with plastic handcuffs. The three took turns praying, lamenting potential budget cuts to social safety-net programs such as Medicaid, often chanting together:
“Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy. When we cannot depend on the courts and the legislative power of human beings, we can still depend on … the power of your love and your mercy and your truth.”
After issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Rotunda — including credentialed press — and shut the doors, obscuring any view. Press and others were then instructed to leave the floor entirely.
[A] Capitol police spokesperson said Barber and two others were charged with “crowding, obstructing and incommoding,” explaining demonstrations in congressional buildings are “not allowed in any form, to include but not limited to sitting, kneeling, group praying, singing, chanting, etc.”
The spokesperson also said the Rotunda is “not a dedicated press area unless it’s for a pre-approved event.”
Some quickly argued that Barber’s arrest appeared incongruous with President Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate “anti-Christian bias” in federal agencies.
