Trump’s Plan to Shut Down Mexico Border Is His Most Dangerous Yet

Donald Trump, who sought to downplay the Covid-19 pandemic during his first term as president, is now trying to inflate the threat of a new disease in order to close the southern U.S. border.

The New York Times reports that the president-elect’s advisers have spent months looking for something to justify declaring a public health emergency and shutting down the border. The problem is that there’s no major outbreak of disease right now. But that hasn’t stopped Trump’s team, who considered conditions including tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases. They’ve even asked the Border Patrol what illnesses they’ve seen in migrants.

Trump officials are trying to replicate the public health restrictions of Title 42, which was invoked in 2020 as Covid-19 broke out around the world. In doing so, they are tapping into racist ideas that foreigners and minorities carry unfamiliar diseases with them. It’s no surprise that they can’t find a dangerous, easily spread illness like Covid, only isolated sicknesses and fear based on bigotry.

Even in 2020, the use of Title 42 was not clear cut—public health officials and the courts viewed immigration restrictions with skepticism, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the immigration hard-liners Trump is bringing with him for his second term also served in his first term—people such as Stephen Miller, who will be his deputy chief of policy, and Tom Homan, who will serve as the “border czar.”

These officials not only pushed for Title 42 but also came up with the horrific policies such as family separation and the “Muslim ban,” and they are clearly planning to revive or ramp up these efforts as soon as Trump is sworn in again. This time around, it seems that they’ll be looking for weaker justifications than Covid.

Back in 2019, before the pandemic, Miller tried to close the southern U.S. border over a mumps outbreak in immigration detention centers. It didn’t work, and technically, neither did the restrictions that came from Covid—Biden administration officials say migrants regularly tried to cross the border despite Title 42. But that’s not likely to stop nativist Trump and his cronies.

Donald Trump is promising “unlimited water” to quell the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, but his plan isn’t exactly adding up.

In an address Thursday night, Trump put the blame for the fires—which have so far ravaged a land area larger than Manhattan—on Gavin Newsom, falsely claiming that the California governor had allowed some of the region’s fire hydrants to run dry. In actuality, the power lines generating the hydrants had been temporarily shut off by utilities in order to prevent electrical fires from sparking.

“If you notice yesterday the hydrants were empty, they didn’t have any water, many of them,” Trump said. “They said 20 percent, but now I just heard 50 percent, and now none of them have water and that fire is still raging.

“When he turned that down, I was gonna give him unlimited water. It would—it really comes down from the north, way up north, including parts of Canada,” Trump said, referring to the nation he’s mocked for several weeks as being on the precipice of becoming the country’s fifty-first state. “So much water that they wouldn’t know what to do with. Just the opposite would have happened. And that’s the reason that this happened.”

Exactly where Trump would obtain “unlimited water,” however, isn’t clear.

“And we’re going to force that upon him now, but it’s very late, because I think it’s one of the great catastrophes in the history of our nation,” Trump said.

Trump then turned his attention to the real estate value of some of Los Angeles’s mansions that succumbed to the flames, lamenting $400 million homes that no longer exist before using the occasion to take another potshot at Newsom.

“I don’t know that they ever go back, either,” Trump said, abstractly referring to upper-class Angelinos who lost their houses. “Because you know they weren’t happy with California, they weren’t happy with Gavin Newsom.”

Canada, meanwhile, has been sending planes to dump water over the inferno, which so far has claimed the lives of 10 people.

“Canada is mobilizing to help fight the wildfires in southern California. Canadian water bombers are already in action. 250 firefighters are ready to deploy,” outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on X Thursday. “To our American neighbours: Canada’s here to help.”

Trump is claiming victory after becoming the first convicted felon who will enter the White House.

Judge Juan Merchan on Friday sentenced Trump to unconditional discharge, or a sentence without imprisonment, fines, or probation, saying that this was the “only lawful sentence” he could deliver.

Merchan was careful to note that it was the office Trump was about to take, and not his own crimes, that led to this wrist-slap of a sentencing for falsifying business records to cover up his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. But Trump viewed it as a win nonetheless.

He wrote on Truth Social shortly after the sentencing:

The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. That result alone proves that, as all Legal Scholars and Experts have said, THERE IS NO CASE, THERE WAS NEVER A CASE, and this whole Scam fully deserves to be DISMISSED. The real Jury, the American People, have spoken, by Re-Electing me with an overwhelming MANDATE in one of the most consequential Elections in History. As the American People have seen, this “case” had no crime, no damages, no proof, no facts, no Law, only a highly conflicted Judge, a star witness who is a disbarred, disgraced, serial perjurer, and criminal Election Interference. Today’s event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this Hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans in our once great System of Justice. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

But as Merchan stressed, there was a case and the president-elect is guilty. And even though Trump will walk free and take his oath of office on January 20, he still is and will always be a convicted felon.

Donald Trump gloated that the Americans “don’t need anything” from Canada, even as the Canadian government sent firefighters and supplies in response to the devastating wildfires in California.  

“Canada is mobilizing to help fight the wildfires in southern California. Canadian water bombers are already in action. 250 firefighters are ready to deploy,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a post on X Thursday. 

“To our American neighbours: Canada’s here to help.”

But that same day, Trump had a very different perspective on the relationship between neighbors: “We don’t need anything,” he said during a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, not speaking about the wildfires specifically but just generally complaining because that’s what he does.

“We don’t need their fuel, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need their oil and gas. We don’t need anything that they have,” Trump continued. 

“And I said to Trudeau, I said, ‘Why are, why are we subsidizing you 200 a—250 billion dollars a year? And he said, ‘I really don’t know.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know either.’ I said, ‘What would happen to Canada if we didn’t?’ He said, ‘Canada would be obliterated.’ I said, ‘Well, then Canada should be a fifty-first state.’”

Canada has actually been helping fight the fires all week through the use of water bombers operating around Los Angeles. One Canadian “Super Scooper” aircraft, two of which are loaned annually to the U.S., was grounded Thursday after colliding with a civilian drone—resulting in a loss of more than 1,500 gallons of ocean water per flight that could have been dropped on active fires.

But Trump doesn’t think we need any help at all. Take lumber, for example, an industry of which Trump clearly has a highly technical understanding: “We don’t need Canada for lumber ’cause we have big forests, that we have, you know, not utilized. In some cases they’re protected, which I can take that protection off. And you can take down that tree and grow a better tree. And you know that’s pretty common.”

Elon Musk is already sparking chaos in the federal government, sending representatives from his Department of Government Efficiency to agencies across the federal bureaucracy.

The Washington Post reports that employees from DOGE, which will be headed by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, are already beginning to interview federal employees as part of their plan to decrease the size of the federal government. DOGE has interviewed workers at the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service, and the departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services.

Musk and Ramaswamy already have 50 employees working out of the Washington, D.C., offices of Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, according to the Post, with plans to have 100 people in place by January 20, when Trump is sworn in as president. But their plans are already meeting skepticism from civil servants and members of Congress, including Republicans.

According to two government employees who spoke to the Post, Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s comments about the federal workforce have made them “wary” of the DOGE effort. The pair have cited a controversial Supreme Court ruling, Loper Bright v. Raimondo, that they say will help them enact sweeping budget cuts across the federal government—but the federal bureaucracy seems all but destined for a clash with the fast-moving, “disruptive” culture of Silicon Valley.

However, in recent days, Musk has been tempering his statements on DOGE, conceding that his goal of cutting the federal budget by “at least $2 trillion” probably won’t happen. Plus, since DOGE isn’t an official government agency and Musk and Ramaswamy aren’t actually federal employees, they can’t make any changes themselves. The most they can do is recommend changes and budget cuts to Congress and the president.

Still, Musk and Ramaswamy will at least attempt to make a big show of appearing to be slashing the size of government, and regardless of how it goes, will attempt to claim victory. If there are negative consequences, rest assured that they will find some way to blame somebody else—likely their critics.

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday morning in his hush-money case, after becoming the first president to be convicted of multiple felonies.

Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to unconditional discharge, or a sentence without imprisonment, fines, or probation, saying that this was the “only lawful sentence” he could pass down.

Merchan made clear that Trump was receiving this sentence only because he is returning to the White House in a few days. It is the legal protection of the office that determined the sentence, not the occupant of the office, Merchan stressed in delivering the sentence.

It’s a whimper of an end for the historic case, in which Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up his payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, with whom he had an affair. Still, it’s a national embarrassment. Trump is now the first convicted felon to be sworn in as president.

Appearing virtually in the courtroom Friday, Trump complained that he did nothing wrong.

“I was the first president in history to be under a gag order. I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong,” Trump claimed. “They talk about business records, but they were extremely accurate and I had nothing to do with them.”

Undeterred, Merchan accused Trump’s lawyers of trying to create a “chilling effect” on the Supreme Court in pressing for the sentencing to be waived.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass also warned that Trump’s actions during the case were an attack on the rule of law. “Such threats are designed to have a chilling effect, intimidate those who have the responsibility to enforce our laws in the hopes that they will ignore the defendant’s transgressions because they fear [Trump] is too powerful to be subjected to rule of law like the rest of us,” Steinglass argued, according to Lawfare reporter Tyler McBrien.

Trump tried very hard to stop this moment from happening, leaning on his presidential immunity, but to no avail.

“Sir, I wish you godspeed as you pursue your second term in office. Thank you,” Merchan said as the sentencing concluded.

The Supreme Court shockingly slapped down Donald Trump’s request to block the sentencing for his sole criminal conviction, leaving him with few other options than to finally face the music at the finale of his hush-money trial Friday morning. But Trump’s interpretation of the rejection—which attempted to frame the forthcoming legal comeuppance as something of a fight song—wouldn’t have you think so.

“I appreciate the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me by the highly conflicted ‘Acting Justice,’ who should not have been allowed to try this case,” Trump wrote Thursday night on Truth Social. “Every Legal Scholar stated, unequivocally, that this is a case that should never have been brought. There was no case against me. In other words, I am innocent of all of the Judge’s made up, fake charges.

“This was nothing other than Weaponization of our Justice System against a Political Opponent,” he continued. “It’s called Lawfare, and nothing like this has ever happened in the United States of America, and it should never be allowed to happen again.”

Trump then went on to lament the details of the gag order placed upon him in the case, claiming that preventing him from bashing the characters of witnesses and court staff in the hush-money trial was a violation of his First Amendment rights.

“For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL,” Trump wrote. “The pathetic, dying remnants of the Witch Hunts against me will not distract us as we unite and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 on Thursday against Trump, determining that there would be no further delays in processing the president-elect’s criminal conviction. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump nominee, sided with the court’s three liberal justices in the majority decision. The court issued a brief, one-paragraph statement explaining its two-pronged rationale for rejecting Trump’s request.

“First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,” the court wrote. “Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing.”

Last week, Judge Juan Merchan dealt the final blow to any suggestions of serious consequences for the president-elect. Merchan wrote in his order that “unconditional discharge” had become the “the most viable solution” for Trump, indicating that the incoming president would not be hampered down with fines, court-appointed supervision, or incarceration.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, with the MAGA leader appearing virtually.

An appeals court has denied an emergency motion from two of Donald Trump’s co-defendants to stop the release of a report on the president-elect’s felony classified documents case.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team had asked the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision blocking the report’s release in favor of Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Mar-a-Lago, and Walt Nauta, a Trump aide who was photographed carrying large boxes around the estate. The court agreed with Smith’s side, ruling Thursday that the report could be released after three days.

Cannon previously tossed out the felony classified documents case against Trump by ruling Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional, a move that has been criticized by legal scholars and repeatedly celebrated by Trump.

Lawyers for De Oliveira and Nauta argued that allowing Smith to publish his report was an “improper attempt to remove from the district court the responsibility to oversee and control the flow of information related to a criminal trial over which it presides, and to place that role instead in the hands of the prosecuting authority.”

The lawyers also pushed back on the notion that there was a sense of urgency to get the report published before Trump’s inauguration later this month.

“The only counsel in this case now claiming urgency is the Attorney General, but the government’s brief does not explain this urgency,” the lawyers wrote. “The Attorney General is an office and not an individual: It will continue in perpetuity. The urgency of political activity is a fake urgency.”

Still, their motion to block the release was denied, but the Eleventh Circuit left in place Cannon’s order enjoining its release.

U.S. attorneys said Wednesday that the report would not be made publicly available but would be accessible to members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, which the defense lawyers said could lead to possible leaks. Now Attorney General Merrick Garland can publicly release the report from Sunday.

De Oliveira pleaded not guilty to allegedly trying to help Trump delete security footage, and Nauta pleaded not guilty to moving the boxes (a tough one, as again, he was photographed).

The Senate voted to advance a bill Thursday that would allow the government to detain undocumented immigrants accused of committing nonviolent crimes, following the House’s passage of the bill Wednesday.

The Laken Riley Act advanced by a 84–9 vote in the Senate, with 33 Democrats voting with every Republican in the chamber, despite the fact that the bill doesn’t require a conviction or charge, but merely an arrest, to target an undocumented immigrant. There are also no protections for children or DACA recipients. The House bill saw 48 Democrats join Republicans to pass it, and the Senate version still needs a final vote.

Senate Democrats, like their counterparts in the House, seem to be backing the GOP’s rhetoric demonizing all undocumented immigrants, penalizing them just for being suspected of a crime. With less than two weeks until Donald Trump is sworn into office, many Democrats are already joining Republicans in granting him new powers to carry out his planned mass deportations.

See which Senate Democrats voted to advance the bill below:

1. Angela Alsobrooks—Maryland
2. Tammy Baldwin—Wisconsin
3. Michael Bennet—Colorado
4. Richard Blumenthal—Connecticut
5. Lisa Blunt Rochester—Delaware
6. Maria Cantwell—Washington
7. Chris Coons—Delaware
8. Catherine Cortez Masto—Nevada
9. Tammy Duckworth—Illinois
10. Dick Durbin—Illinois
11. John Fetterman—Pennsylvania (co-sponsor)
12. Ruben Gallego—Arizona (co-sponsor)
13. Kirsten Gillibrand—New York
14. Martin Heinrich—New Mexico
15. John Hickenlooper—Colorado
16. Tim Kaine—Virginia
17. Mark Kelly—Arizona
18. Angus King (independent who caucuses with Democrats)—Maine
19. Amy Klobuchar—Minnesota
20. Ben Ray Luján—New Mexico
21. Jon Ossoff—Georgia
22. Gary Peters—Michigan
23. Jack Reed—Rhode Island
24. Jacky Rosen—Nevada
25. Chuck Schumer—New York
26. Jeanne Shaheen—New Hampshire
27. Elissa Slotkin—Michigan
28. Chris Van Hollen—Maryland
29. Mark Warner—Virginia
30. Raphael Warnock—Georgia
31. Peter Welch—Vermont
32. Sheldon Whitehouse—Rhode Island
33. Ron Wyden—Oregon

The leader of Germany’s nativist far-right party wants us to believe that Adolf Hitler was actually a raging Communist.

Alternative for Germany Party, or AfD, co-leader Alice Weidel gave an interview with Elon Musk on Thursday live on X. She discussed everything from “woke mind virus” censorship to how stumped she was on the conflict in the Middle East. Her most eyebrow-raising assertion though was that Hitler was a Communist.

“Hitler was a Communist. He considered himself as a socialist.… The biggest success of our country was to label Adolf Hitler as a conservative or a libertarian,” Weidel opined. “He was a Communist socialist guy. Full stop. AfD is the exact opposite. It’s a conservative libertarian party. Hitler was not ‘on the right.’ Hitler played with people’s envy against each other. That was a socialist weapon. He was nothing other than an antisemitic socialist.”

Weidel’s shameless attempt to associate Hitler with her political enemies on the left was met with zero pushback from Musk.

In reality, Hitler was actually very specific about not being a socialist, even as his Nazi Party was called the “Nationalist Socialist Party” (a popular ‘gotcha’ among Weidel and her fans). Hitler changed the meaning of socialism to fit his own fascistic narrative.

“​​Socialism is the science of dealing with the common weal. Communism is not socialism. Marxism is not socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning. I shall take socialism away from the socialists,” Hitler said in a 1923 interview. “Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common.”

Hitler was also a staunch anti-Communist.

“In the years 1913 and 1914 I expressed my opinion for the first time in various circles … that the problem of how the future of the German nation can be secured is the problem of how Marxism can be exterminated,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf. He advocated for “the destruction of Marxism in all its shapes and forms” in those same pages.

Those on the left and the right quickly sounded off in opposition to Weidel’s claim.

“The fact that Alice Weidel—co-leader of Germany’s far-right extremists—calls Hitler a ‘communist’ and likening Nazis to ‘leftish Palestinian’ antisemites in ONE sentence epitomizes the distorted discourse the liberal center in Germany has normalized over the past 15 months,” wrote Guardian reporter Hanno Hauenstein.

“Hitler did not govern as a communist, where the state owned all of the means of production. All private companies were NOT nationalized as is claimed below. Hitler governed more like Mussolini (and sadly today’s America) via economic fascism,” wrote libertarian commentator Chris Rossini. “Private hands … but those hands are at the disposal of the state. That’s economic fascism. Not communism … where there are no private hands … and only the state.”

“Alice Weidel’s claim that Hitler was a ‘communist socialist’ is completely off. Hitler and the Nazis were far-right, deeply anti-communist, and focused on nationalism, not socialism. They worked closely with big businesses, not against them,” military news outlet Geo Insider posted.

Musk gave Weidel a huge, uninhibited platform to spread her right-wing misinformation campaign. The world’s richest man was already accused of election interference in Germany prior to his interview with the AfD leader, and is looking to bolster far-right politics in the U.K. and Italy as well.