When it comes to Attorney General Pam Bondi and luxury jet from Qatar, I give Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin credit for asking the right questions.

I just wish he were likely to get answers.

This was dubious guidance in its own right, but there was a related problem hanging overhead: Bondi used to work as a registered lobbyist for foreign clients, including the government of Qatar — the same government that’s apparently prepared to reward Trump with a jet.

Now, a key Senate Democratic leader is asking all the right questions. NBC News reported:

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, sent a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking how she came to a conclusion that the Qatari gift of a $400 million jet to Trump would be ‘legally permissible’ and pressing her to provide the committee with information about whether the Justice Department determined there were no potential conflicts of interest. In the letter, provided first to NBC News, Durbin asks Bondi if she recused herself from decision-making related to the matter because Bondi previously worked as a lobbyist for Qatar.

“There are serious questions about whether you should have recused yourself from this matter,” Durbin wrote in the letter, noting that Bondi “did not list the State of Qatar as a conflict of interest on your Senate Judiciary Questionnaire, despite serving as a lobbyist for this foreign government prior to your confirmation as Attorney General.”

The Illinois Democrat, who’s retiring next year, asked Bondi to provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with:

the memo the attorney general prepared that concluded that the acceptance of the Qatari gift would be “legally permissible”;

and “the names and titles of the Department ethics officials with whom you consulted on your potential conflict of interest in this matter and any records or materials related to this consultation.”

Durbin asked that Bondi comply with his request by May 28.

For those interested in accountability and legal ethics, the good news is that Durbin is pressing the attorney general on an important point, and the facts appear to be on the senator’s side. The bad news is that Durbin’s correspondence is a request, not a subpoena, and given that the Illinois Democrat is in the minority, he has no way to compel Bondi to cooperate with this line of inquiry.

When it comes to the Republicans' reconciliation bill, normal people would be forgiven for saying, "Wake me when there's something to care about."

But after six months of incremental steps, we've now reached the time-to-start-paying-attention-to-this stage.

Almost immediately after Election Day 2024, as Republicans celebrated the fact that they would soon control the White House and both chambers of Congress, GOP officials began preliminary discussions about how they could try to transform the country.....

I can now report that the alarm bell is going off, and after half a year of deliberations and incremental steps, the Republicans’ megabill has reached the it’s-time-to-start-paying-close-attention-to-this stage. The Associated Press reported:

Republicans in Congress are moving with rapid speed to advance President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts and beefed-up border security funding as leaders work to enact many of his campaign promises. House committees have been laboring for months to draft the legislation, which Republicans have labeled “THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,’’ a nod to Trump himself. Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to approve the package and send it to the Senate by Memorial Day.

It’s unrealistic to think the entire package can be summarized in a blog post, but in broad strokes, the public should recognize the GOP’s legislation as a potentially transformative bill, filled with trillions of dollars’ worth of tax cuts, provisions that would increase food vulnerability for struggling families, funding for mass deportations and an ineffective border wall, a wholesale abandonment of efforts to combat the climate crisis, and perhaps most notably, massive cuts to Medicaid — a celebrated health care program that Trump vowed not to cut — that would strip millions of Americans of their health care coverage, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii told The Wall Street Journal, in reference to the GOP proposal: “It’s like this was designed in a lab to piss off the maximum number of people.”

I’m going to start writing a lot more about the legislation in the coming days and weeks, but at this point, it’s worth pausing to take stock of where things stand......

If the House speaker has his way, this will happen very soon: Johnson wants a reconciliation bill done, on the floor, and passed before members leave for their Memorial Day break — which means a vote by late next week.

If that happens — and given that GOP leaders can lose the support of only three of their own members, success is hardly assured — the package would then move on to the Senate, where Republican members have already said they have significant changes in mind.

Trump apparently expects a final product, approved by both chambers, on his desk by July 4. Watch this space.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta slammed his fellow vice chair, David Hogg, on Wednesday, disputing the reason the gun control activist has said is why they may need to run for their positions again.

Kenyatta argued in an interview on MSNBC that he has tried to ignore what Hogg has been saying recently to avoid party infighting and division, but Hogg’s statement after the DNC’s Credentials Committee voted in favor of holding a new vice chair election “pushed me over the edge.”

“David has a very casual relationship with the truth,” he told host Symone Sanders Townsend. “And he has not been truthful on so many points that have been raised on this show.”

The Pennsylvania state legislator added that he’s “frustrated” with the decision to hold the election again given that he received considerably more votes than necessary to clinch one of the vice chair positions, but he respects it.

“But David’s first statement out of the gate was, here’s the Democratic Party doing some maniacal thing to push me out because of what he’s doing with his PAC,” Kenyatta said. “David knows that that is not true.”

Why The Qataris Are Happy To Dump Their 747 On Trump"

"There may be a simpler rationale: they just don’t want it anymore."

The royal family of Qatar, owner of one of the largest private jet fleets in the world, has been quietly getting rid of some of its biggest planes. It may have found the perfect taker for one of its Boeing 747 jumbo jets in President Donald Trump, who has been frustrated with the multi-year delays in replacing Air Force One.,....

The royals have failed to sell the plane, which was put on the market in 2020, according to an archived listing. Giving it away could save Qatar’s rulers a big chunk of change on maintenance and storage costs, aviation experts told Forbes. Making Trump happy would be an added bonus.

Qatar, which has given away another blinged-out 747 and may have mothballed two more, epitomizes the fading demand for these huge, fuel-guzzling, highly personalized airplanes. There aren’t many who want to buy them, and many of the governments and royal families who own them have been trying to ditch them over the past decade.

“Qatar, like many modern states, is shifting toward leaner, more versatile aircraft, which offer better economics and more discreet presence for official travel,” Linus Bauer, managing director of the Dubai-based aviation consulting firm BAA & Partners, told Forbes. Giving the plane to Trump would be “a creative disposal strategy” that marks “a farewell to a bygone model of geopolitical theater in the skies.”.....

Beyond poor fuel efficiency, large ostentatious planes are a security risk, notes Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace consultant with Aerodynamic Advisory. “These things are big targets.” And bigger planes can only land on longer runways, limiting their usage. “There are a lot more airports you can get into if you have a narrowbody, and many more still if you have a traditional business jet,” he said......

Giving the 747-8 to the U.S. would also allow the Qataris to avoid maintenance costs that are only getting higher with the 747 fleet shrinking worldwide and fewer mechanics available who know how to work on them, said John Goglia, a former airline mechanic and member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. The 2020 sales brochure noted that the plane was due for a landing gear overhaul in 2024 and a 12-year check in 2027. A check in which the airplane and engines are taken apart, typically carried out every six to 12 years, can take months to complete and cost millions of dollars. “The numbers are staggering,” said Goglia.

Thus far, Trump’s presidency has been a reign of lawless aggression by a tyrannical wannabe king, a rampage of presidential lawlessness in which Trump has proudly wielded the powers of the office and the federal government to persecute his enemies, while at the same time pardoning, glorifying, and favoring his political allies and friends—among them those who attacked the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection that Trump fomented on January 6, 2021. The president’s utter contempt for the Constitution and laws of the United States has been on spectacular display since Inauguration Day.

For the almost 250 years since the founding of this nation, America has been the beacon of freedom to the world because of its democracy and rule of law. Our system of checks and balances has been strained before, but democracy—government by the people—and the rule of law have always won the day. Until now, that is. America will never again be that same beacon to the world, because the president of the United States has subverted America’s democracy and corrupted its rule of law......

When Trump again assumed the presidency in January, he—like every American president before him—swore an oath to faithfully execute the laws of this nation, as commanded by the Constitution. In the short time since, Trump hasn’t just refused to faithfully execute the laws; he has angrily defied the Constitution and laws of the United States. In America, where no man is above the law, Trump has shown the nation that he believes he is the law, even proclaiming on social media soon after assuming office that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

From the moment he entered the White House on January 20, 2025, Trump has waged war against the rule of law. He not only instigated a worldwide economic crisis with his hotheaded, unlawful tariffs leveled against our global trading partners and our enemies alike; he deliberately provoked a constitutional crisis with his frontal assault on the federal judiciary, the third and co-equal branch of government and guardian of the rule of law—grabbing more and more power for nothing but power’s sake......

The 47th president of the United States may wish he were a king. But in America, the law is king, not the president.

Donald Trump may wish he could dictate his unconscionable global tariffs; dispense with due process and deport whomever he pleases, citizen and not; and vanish away huge swaths of the federal government without check or rebuke. He may wish he did not have to contend with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the free press, or the Constitution’s birthright-citizenship guarantee. He may wish he could ignore the Constitution’s elections clauses and run America’s elections from the White House. And he may wish he could intimidate the nation’s lawyers and law firms from challenging his abuse of power and commandeer them to do his personal bidding.

LOSE, LOSE, LOSE - OH & LIE, LIE, LIE

India pushes back on Trump claiming credit for India-Pakistan ceasefire

For example, Leavitt claimed the president “reached a trade deal” with United Kingdom, which wasn’t entirely true. She said the president “negotiated a trade deal” with China, which also wasn’t true. She said the president signed a “historic” executive order “to slash drug prices,” which wasn’t even close to being true.

But Leavitt also credited Trump with “securing a ceasefire” between India and Pakistan, and this too warranted some fact-checking......

Nevertheless, while in Saudi Arabia, Trump was eager to boast about how effective his strategy was with India and Pakistan. “I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’ll do a trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade,’” the Republican claimed. “And all of a sudden, they said, ‘I think we’re going to stop.’”

According to India, Trump didn’t know what he was talking about. NBC News reported:

The Indian government on Tuesday disputed President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S.-mediated ceasefire between India and Pakistan came about in part because he had offered possible trade concessions. Addressing a weekly news conference, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, said top leaders in New Delhi and Washington were in touch last week following the Indian military’s intense standoff with Pakistan, but that there was no conversation on trade.

“The issue of trade didn’t come up in any of these discussions,” Jaiswal said, referring to the conversations with Trump administration officials.

It serves as a timely reminder: Trump sometimes takes credit for accomplishments that don’t exist, and he sometimes takes credit for accomplishments for which he’s not actually responsible.

Last week: The National Intelligence Council produced facts Trump didn't want to hear.

This week: Tulsi Gabbard fired the National Intelligence Council's leaders.

The broader message to the IC isn't subtle, but it is dangerous.

As NBC News reported last week, a declassified memo drafted by the National Intelligence Council — the top entity for analyzing classified intelligence and providing secret assessments to policymakers — explained that Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan regime is not orchestrating Tren de Aragua’s operations in the United States. (The document came to light by way of a Freedom of Information Act request by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit organization.)

A week later, as The Washington Post reported, Trump’s highly controversial and wildly unqualified national intelligence director decided to fire the leaders of the National Intelligence Council — the office that dared to tell the White House what it didn’t want to hear.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the top two officials at the National Intelligence Council, weeks after the council wrote an assessment that contradicted President Donald Trump’s rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process. Gabbard removed Michael Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, as well as his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, according to a spokesperson for Gabbard’s office.

The official line from Gabbard is that she’s combatting the “politicization” of the intelligence community, a conspiratorial line embraced by partisans who disapprove of the extent to which intelligence agencies have presented evidence the president doesn’t like.

Indeed, as the Post noted, Gabbard has actually “removed or sidelined officials perceived to not support Trump’s political agenda.”

Or put another way, if anyone is “politicizing” U.S. intelligence, it’s Gabbard and her Team Trump colleagues. What’s more, the DNI’s latest purge sends a dangerous signal to intelligence officials throughout the government: Produce reports that make the president happy, regardless of the facts, or you might be next.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Post, “Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the president’s agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical.”

The developments come against a backdrop of Trump ignoring intelligence briefings and reports, as he moves forward with a “major downsizing” at U.S. intelligence agencies. In case that weren’t quite enough, let’s also not forget that the president recently fired the leadership of the National Security Agency, a key intelligence gathering department, as well as the National Security Council’s director for intelligence.

In Trump’s first term, he and his team were merely hostile toward the U.S. intelligence community. In his second term, the broader offensive against the U.S. intelligence community is far more aggressive and damaging.

In its first 100 days, the second Trump administration’s actions have upended seemingly every aspect of American life and government. More than 200 federal lawsuits have challenged its moves, and at least 149 have won initial victories. Given the sheer volume of cases, it’s easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture of what’s at stake for our democracy. But zooming out reveals a clear trend: The administration is pushing to create an all-powerful executive that can ignore and usurp Congress’s constitutional authority at will.

There is a reason the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, broad authority to pass laws, spend money, and otherwise shape government — it’s the branch most directly accountable to the American people. The public directly elects its representatives to legislate in a way that meets their communities’ specific needs. As James Madison himself explained, the government’s success would rely on Congress’s “immediate dependence on, and intimate sympathy with, the people.” In contrast, the president’s only duty is to follow, and execute, the law as Congress enacts it.

Three of the administration’s high-profile actions, all facing fast-moving legal challenges in the appellate courts, demonstrate its desire to overhaul this democratic arrangement and empower itself at Congress’s expense: its efforts to remove the heads of independent agencies, impound federal funds, and shut down federal offices.....

Impoundment

The administration’s attempts to freeze federal spending raise similar concerns that the executive branch is aggrandizing itself at Congress’s expense. In an unprecedented move, the Trump-appointed acting director of the Office of Management and Budget ordered a government-wide impoundment of trillions of dollars that Congress had already appropriated to federal agencies. According to the office’s memo, the pause would end only after it reviewed whether agency activities implicate policies the president opposes, specifically citing “DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” It created immediate chaos, throwing critical programs and services such as veteran nursing care, childcare assistance, and disaster relief into limbo.

Multiple lawsuits won early victories that temporarily halted the funding freeze. In the words of one court, the budget office’s order “fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government.” Indeed, it violates one of Congress’s most important authorities: the power of the purse. The Constitution requires members of Congress to decide how taxpayer dollars are spent because lawmakers, not the president, are best situated to know how those decisions will affect their constituents and communities. The resulting congressional appropriations are laws as inviolable as any other. The president, in turn, merely executes those laws — the executive branch has no inherent authority to withdraw spending that Congress has authorized.