Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News

Drudge Retort

User Info

qcp

Subscribe to qcp's blog Subscribe

Menu

Special Features

Monday, March 17, 2025

Not a single president in the history of the United States has ever asserted the authority to unilaterally deport someone outside of the procedures set by Congress until now. read more


President Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Monday doubled down on the decision to defy a court order that barred the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.


The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, "The President's Own." Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last year, when the Marines judged a contest for teenage musicians. The winners would perform with the band. Thirty students were chosen. The concert was scheduled. But, last month, it was cancelled. President Trump had issued his executive order against diversity programs, and the young musicians were Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. Because they were silenced, many wanted to hear them including veterans of military bands who gathered in an improvised orchestra of equity that you might call America's own.


Page honoring Charles C Rogers for his Vietnam war service is now defunct with letters DEI' added to website address.


Sunday, March 16, 2025

The Trump administration on Thursday removed the Internal Revenue Service's top lawyer and rolled out plans to downsize nearly 20 percent of the agency's staff as billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service seeks access to sensitive taxpayer records, according to five people familiar with the matter. read more


Comments

More: Why it matters: The White House's decision to disregard a federal judge's order has set up a legal battle that could make its way to the Supreme Court and define the limits of Trump's deportation powers.

Driving the news: Homan claimed in a Fox News interview Monday that the two deportation flights to El Salvador did not need to be turned around because they were already above international waters when the order came through.

"We are going to make this country safe again ... I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the Left thinks. We're coming," he added.
Asked what was coming next in the administration's deportation efforts, Homan said: "Another flight. Another flight every day."

Catch up quick: By going through with the flights, the White House effectively ignored U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's Saturday order barring the deportation of about 250 Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act of 1789.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement the judge's order had "no lawful basis" and "was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory."
It's not clear how many of the immigrants were deported under the 18th century law or other immigration statutes. It's likewise unclear what process was used to determine whether all the people on the flights were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, as the administration claimed.

Zoom out: Homan confirmed to Fox News that the administration's decision came after Trump signed an executive order Saturday invoking the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II.

The act allows the government to detain and remove immigrants with little to no due process. It was most famously used during World War II to help justify Japanese internment.
Homan called Trump's use of the law a "game-changer."

More: On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers's Medal of Honor webpage led to a "404" error message. The URL was also changed, with the word "medal" changed to "deimedal".

Rogers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by then president Richard Nixon in 1970, served in the Vietnam war, where he was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base.

According to the West Virginia military hall of fame, Rogers was the highest-ranking African American to receive the medal. After his death in 1990, Rogers's remains were buried at the Arlington national cemetery in Washington DC, and in 1999 a bridge in Fayette county, where Rogers was born, was renamed the Charles C Rogers Bridge.

As of Sunday afternoon, a "404 " Page Not Found" message appeared on the defense department's webpage for Rogers, along with the message: "The page you are looking for might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable."

A screenshot posted by the writer Brandon Friedman on Bluesky on Saturday evening showed the Google preview of an entry of Rogers's profile on the defense department's website.

Dated 1 November 2021, the entry's Google preview reads: "Medal of Honor Monday: Army Maj Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers." Below it are the words: "Army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers served through all of it. As a Black man, he worked for gender and race equality while in the service."

"Google his name and the entry below comes up. When you click, you'll see the page has been deleted and the URL changed to include DEI medal,'" Friedman wrote.

The Guardian has asked the defense department for comment.

More: Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for $5 million, according to sources with direct knowledge of the meetings. At a so-called candlelight dinner held as recently as this past Saturday, prospective Mar-a-Lago guests were asked to spend $1 million to reserve a seat, according to an invitation obtained by WIRED.

"You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump," the invitation reads, under a "MAGA INC." header. MAGA Inc., or Make America Great Again Inc., is a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. "Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person."

Invitees were asked to RSVP to Meredith O'Rourke, who served as national finance director and senior adviser at Donald J. Trump for President 2024, a campaign committee, and who is the owner of The O'Rourke Group, which O'Rourke describes on her LinkedIn page as a "Republican political fundraiser." Invitees were also directed to email Abby Mathis, the finance coordinator at MAGA Inc. Mathis was previously a staff assistant for Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama"a former Auburn University football coach"and also served as an intern at the White House office of the staff secretary, according to LegiStorm, a research organization that posts information on politicians and their staffers.

"I can't recall a sitting president in the first weeks of his administration asking for millions of dollars in fundraising," says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. "The concern is less about fundraising and more about access and influence ... People hoping to get favorable treatment view it in their interest to donate money to Trump."

"Part of what is worrying," Moynihan adds, "is the lack of ethical guardrails in the current Trump administration, where there doesn't seem to be a clear line between Trump's businesses and the presidency."

Drudge Retort
 

Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy