Republican Congressman Compares Town Hall Protesters to Nazis

Once again, Republicans are asking the American public to forgo the evidence of their eyes and ears.

Republican lawmakers were met with fire and fury over the weekend as their constituents hounded them for failing to intervene in a budget resolution that will result in billions in cuts to Medicaid, as well as refusing to speak out against Elon Musk’s unchecked dissolution of federal agencies and, with it, thousands of federal jobs and popular social programs.

But at least one Republican has decided the best option is to threaten criminal charges for Americans who dare to dissent against Donald Trump’s agenda. Speaking with the Meg Ellefson Show on Friday, Wisconsin Representative Derrick Van Orden likened his constituents to Nazis, claiming that only Communists and fascists would protest their lawmakers.

“People who associated with the Communist movement and the National Socialism movement used to get their way politically, is—they would do stuff like this, and they were called agitators,” Van Orden told the podcast.

Fact check: It was notoriously unsafe to speak out against the government in Soviet Russia, as well as in Nazi Germany. Under the Nazi regime, Germany shuttered anti-Nazi newspapers, controlled what media appeared in newspapers and on the radio, banned books that the Third Reich determined were “un-German,” and by 1934 had made it officially illegal to criticize the Nazi government, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Freedom of speech and the right to protest, on the other hand, have been cornerstones of American democracy since the country was founded.

Van Orden then said that if protesters came to his town halls and acted “in an unlawful manner,” or if they were “disrupting or refusing to leave a venue,” then he would have them “arrested and charged with a class B misdemeanor.”

Van Orden’s outlandish comments preceded instructions by the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who on Tuesday directed party members to stop holding in-person town halls to avoid the backlash. House Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed the order later Tuesday, washing his hands of lawmakers’ upset constituents by watering them down as “professional protesters.”

Meanwhile, Trump explicitly threatened to violate the Constitution on Tuesday, pledging to prosecute protesters and withhold federal funding from universities or schools if attendees choose to express their First Amendment rights.

Within weeks of returning to office, Donald Trump has tossed America’s greatest alliances in favor of a rocky relationship with Russia—and world powers have taken note.

The battered relationships are partially the result of Trump’s spontaneous trade war, threatening America’s economic relationships with a handful of its longest allies, including Canada, Mexico, the U.K., and a collection of European nations.

The president’s controversial tariffs went into effect first thing Tuesday, imposing 25 percent levies on Canada and Mexico as well as a 10 percent tariff hike on Chinese goods. In return, Canada and China slapped the U.S. with equal tariffs, while Mexico promised to do the same with further details to come Sunday. The spontaneously unpaused levies immediately followed reports that Trump had directed administration officials to draft a proposal that would lift sanctions on Russia.

In doing so, Trump has morphed America—previously understood to be the strongest global power—into an international pariah.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used profoundly strong language in describing what he believed to be Trump’s plan to dismantle Canada’s economy in order to “annex” its land as a potential fifty-first state.

“I can tell you that every country is very, very aware that if the American government is willing to do this to their own closest ally, neighbor, and friend,” Trudeau said, “then everyone is vulnerable to a trade war.”

Trudeau continued that the international focus has extended not just to the Trump administration’s movements but to the American public’s reaction to the fracturing of these alliances as the president continues to align U.S. policy with Moscow (a detail that Trump has repeatedly failed to deny.)

“What do the American people think?” Trudeau said. “How do Americans feel about jettisoning one’s friends and allies in favor of a country that has never wished Americans well, and continues to act in ways that harm the global economy and, specifically, the American economy and American values and principles?”

Speaking directly to the American public, Trudeau added that Canadian citizens still view the southern nation as their “neighbor” and “partner.”

“This is a policy decision by the American government designed to go after the Canadian economy. This is a trade war, yes. But Canadians are hurt. Canadians are angry,” Trudeau said, adding that the country’s residents would continue their boycotts of American goods and services.

“We’re probably going to keep booing the American anthem,” Trudeau said. “But let me tell Americans, we’re not booing you; we’re not booing your teams or players. We’re booing a policy that is designed to hurt us.”

Trudeau’s missive echoed similar comments made by a top European diplomat following Trump’s disastrous meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday, which in just a handful of minutes effectively tanked peace talks with the war-battered nation while elevating Kremlin talking points.

“Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in reaction to Trump’s performance.

Former Polish President Lech Wałęsa wrote a letter to Trump on Monday describing how Poland had watched the U.S. leader’s treatment of Zelenskiy with “horror and distaste,” likening the White House’s ruthless bullying of a beleaguered wartime leader to the Soviet Union’s Communist courtrooms.

“The history of the 20th century shows that every time the United States wanted to maintain a distance from democratic values ​​and its European allies, it ended up being a threat to itself,” the letter read. “President Woodrow Wilson understood this, deciding that the United States would enter World War I in 1917. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this, deciding after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the war in defense of America would be fought not only in the Pacific, but also in Europe, in alliance with the countries attacked by the Third Reich.”

Wałęsa also scorned America’s sudden decision to reverse course on its signed treaties, calling on the U.S. to honor the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which America and the U.K. mutually agreed to defend Ukraine’s borders in exchange for its surrender of nuclear weapons.

“These guarantees are unconditional: there is not a word about treating such aid as economic exchange,” Wałęsa wrote.

The letter was signed by Wałęsa as well as 38 other Polish activists who were imprisoned under Poland’s USSR-backed regime prior to the fall of communism in 1989.

In a shocking reversal, President Trump is reversing a directive to fire thousands of probationary federal employees.

The Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal workforce, issued a memo Tuesday to all federal agency heads saying that they don’t have to comply with previous instructions to fire employees who have held their jobs for one year or less. The memo states that instead, federal offices now have until September 13 to determine how to reduce staff.

The surprise shift comes only a few days after a federal judge ruled that OPM’s instructions to federal agencies to fire probationary employees was illegal, stating on Friday that “[t]he Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees within another agency.”

What this means to the many federal workers who have already been axed is unclear, although several federal agencies have scrambled to rehire workers working in critical areas since last week’s court ruling. These employees include bird flu experts and people working with nuclear weapons.

Federal workers have been put through the wringer ever since Trump was sworn in, being subject to ultimatums from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which now plans to track them. Even with this latest reversal, many of them may still get axed in “large-scale” reductions. But now, at least some of them will get to keep their jobs.

This story has been updated.

People are paying millions to wine and dine President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, Wired reported Tuesday.  

Trump’s team clearly saw an opportunity for a cash grab in the frenzy of business moguls scrambling to court the president and get on his good side. For $5 million, business leaders can meet one-on-one with Trump at his estate, a “hot ticket” opportunity in the business world, sources told Wired. 

For those looking for a classier affair, they can pay $1 million to dine with the president in a candlelit group setting. Invitations to a March 1 candlelit dinner were sent out by MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC that contributed over $400 million last year to help get him elected. 

“You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump. Additional details provided upon RSVP,” the invitation read. “RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person.” 

“Donald J. Trump is appearing at this event only as a featured speaker, and is not asking for funds or donations,” the invitation continues. 

The dinner was formally titled “MAGA INC. Candlelight Finance Dinner,” and was included on the president’s official schedule, yet more evidence of the blurry lines between Trump and the private business world.

The Washington Post reported that Trump hosted two similar candlelit dinners at Mar-a-Lago before he took office, one on December 19, 2024, and one on January 19, the eve of his inauguration.

Amid the turmoil over his crazy decision to slap tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, President Trump saw fit to post a bizarre lie about banks in Canada—forcing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to correct him publicly.

“Canada doesn’t allow American Banks to do business in Canada, but their banks flood the American Market. Oh, that seems fair to me, doesn’t it?” Trump posted Tuesday morning. But this isn’t true, and Trudeau made sure Trump knew it.

Hours later, while speaking to the press, Trudeau called out the president for “not really being able to see what it is that he wants.”

“I heard he talked about banking again this morning in a tweet, which doesn’t make any sense because 16 American banks [are] currently active in Canada, holding about $113 billion worth of assets in this country, so American banks are alive and well and prospering in Canada,” Trudeau said.

“What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” Trudeau added, alluding to Trump’s threats to annex Canada as the “fifty-first state.”

In a move usually made by U.S. presidents toward people living under autocratic rule, Trudeau made a direct plea to the American public, telling them Canada was forced to enact retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.

“We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally. And we don’t want to see you hurt, either, but your government has chosen to do this to you,” Trudeau said.

“Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada, or because of consumers in Canada, or both,” Trudeau added.

Trump is not going to take kindly to Trudeau correcting him, and he’ll never admit that he was wrong. He may even be lying on purpose to stir up the MAGA base. But he’ll have to come up with a better way to spin the economic fallout from his plan, which promises to hike prices on all kinds of goods in the U.S. and cause untold damage to the economy.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s embrace of vitamin A as a course of treatment amid a deadly measles outbreak has sparked concern among health experts, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

In an op-ed published by Fox News Sunday, Kennedy touted the recent update to CDC guidance on “therapeutic medications.” Last week, a new section outlining the benefits of using vitamin A was added to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online resources about measles treatment. While the section mentioned the risk of inappropriate dosing, it failed to mention that vitamin A can lead to liver failure and death.

“Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality,” Kennedy wrote in his op-ed, but he also made no mention of the health risks of vitamin A.

Meanwhile, he described the decision to vaccinate as a “personal” one.

But health experts have taken issue with Kennedy’s push for vitamin A, which can be used to treat patients who are already sick but does nothing to prevent the spread of measles.

“In fact, relying on vitamin A instead of the vaccine is not only dangerous and ineffective, but it puts children at serious risk,” Dr. Sue Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Post Monday. “Taking too much vitamin A can cause serious health problems, including liver damage.”

Summer Davies, a pediatric hospitalist in Lubbock, Texas, told the Post that there wasn’t enough data to support the government’s decision to push vitamin A as a treatment for measles. “There’s not enough information there to say, ‘Yeah, this is great, this will cure you.’ And it’s not a wonder drug and miracle drug,” Davies said.

Much of the data supporting claims of vitamin A’s effectiveness is based on malnourished children, Davies explained.

“So it’s not going to make measles go away. And it may prevent some complications, but we’re not giving it to every child in the hospital because the evidence just isn’t there,” Davies said.

Peter Hotez, the co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, was concerned that the Health and Human Services Department’s lean on vitamin A to ensure public health would present as an alternative to vaccination.

“It could lead to the impression of a false equivalency: To make the best decision for your children, you can either vaccinate or give vitamin A,” Hotez told the Post. “And that would be highly misleading.”

Last week, Kennedy said during a Cabinet meeting that measles outbreaks were not unusual, despite the fact that measles had been declared eliminated in 2000, according to the CDC. The same week, an unvaccinated child in west Texas died of measles. This week, Kennedy’s leading spokesperson resigned over disagreements about his response to the deadly outbreak.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly addressed the American people in a pleading appeal on Tuesday after Donald Trump followed through on his promise to implement 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada.

“I want to speak first directly to the American people. We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally. And we don’t want to see you hurt either, but your government has chosen to do this to you,” Trudeau said in a press conference from Ottawa.

The normally cheery Trudeau was stone-faced and somber as he warned Americans about the economic consequences of taxing Canadian products.

“Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada, or because of consumers in Canada, or both,” Trudeau said, further warning of rising prices on groceries, gas, cars, and homes.

“What do the American people think? How do Americans feel about jettisoning one’s friends and allies in favor of a country that has never wished Americans well and continues to act in ways that harm the global economy and specifically the American economy and American values and principles?” Trudeau asked, referring to Trump’s recent overtures to Russia on Ukraine.

Last month, Trump paused his plans to implement 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico—the top U.S. trading partners—amid international backlash and the threat of retaliatory actions from both countries.

On Monday, however, the president announced the tariffs would begin on Tuesday, a backstabbing blow to America’s northern ally that Trump wants to annex and make the fifty-first state. The president claims the tariffs will protect U.S. manufacturing and prevent illegal immigration, but they will ultimately just drastically raise costs for both American and international consumers.

Canada has already responded with 25 percent tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. imports, effective immediately, Trudeau announced Tuesday.

Anti-American sentiment has skyrocketed in Canada since Trump took office, and support for the wildly unpopular Trudeau and his Liberal Party has grown for the first time in years amid a wave of country-wide nationalist sentiment.

Trudeau’s speech makes it clear that he’s given up all hopes of rational communication with the Trump administration and that America’s betrayal is a dire warning to the rest of the world.

“Every country is very aware that if the American government is willing to do this to their own closest ally, neighbor, and friend, everyone is vulnerable to a trade war.”

Donald Trump’s tariff plan is already spurring tremendous pain in American markets.

The president’s controversial tariffs went into effect first thing Tuesday, imposing 25 percent levies on Canada and Mexico as well as a 10 percent tariff hike on Chinese goods. In return, Canada announced a retaliatory tariff of 25 percent on nearly $100 billion of U.S. imports, while China announced tariffs of 10 to 15 percent on a range of U.S. products. Mexico also said it would retaliate, with details to come on Sunday.

That will raise electronics prices by roughly 10 percent and clothing prices by 8 percent for American consumers, according to Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Yale Budget Lab and former White House chief economist.

Meanwhile, Americans are still grappling with the rising prices of groceries—specifically eggs, which saw the cost of a dozen jump to $8.42 in the Chicago exchange.

But that’s just the beginning of a very long road, according to Trump’s own administration. The Agriculture Department announced last week that the current cost of eggs could rise by more than 40 percent before the end of the year. To alleviate the crisis, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins unveiled a $1 billion investment by the federal government to tighten up biosecurity measures on American farms amid an outbreak of avian flu. Rollins also proposed stripping regulations from the egg industry to further dampen the rising price tag and on Tuesday pitched that Americans should just buy chickens to supply their own eggs.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that Americans would share the brunt of the tariff costs. “Americans will lose jobs. Americans will be paying more for groceries, for gas, for cars, for homes—because we have always done best when we work together,” he said during a press conference Tuesday. “Now that [Trump has] moved forward with tariffs, we’re going to see the real impact of a trade war between our countries. And that impact will be to hurt American families.”

Trump’s previous tariff proposals are predicted to affect just about every product under the sun, from ground beef and bananas to liquor and gas. An executive order signed by Trump in February reinstated his 2018 tariff on steel and aluminum, raising tariffs for both to 25 percent. That regulation is slated to take effect March 12. Once it does, production costs for America’s automakers are likely to jump, as will costs for the country’s construction industry, which is already struggling to meet the demands of a historic nationwide housing crisis.

Trump has leaned into tariffs as a key component of affording an extension to his 2017 tax plan, which overwhelmingly benefits corporations and is projected to add as much as $15 trillion to the national deficit. But experts believe that a trade war would be to the overwhelming detriment of American consumers and its allies abroad—and that the self-inflicted pain could only serve to benefit U.S. adversaries around the globe.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas warned last month that if the U.S. and the European Union were to enter into a trade war, then “the one laughing on the side is China.”

Republicans in Congress seem to be afraid of their own constituents, and are now trying to avoid in-person town hall meetings.

At a closed-door Tuesday meeting, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Representative Richard Hudson, told his colleagues to put their phones down and listen, saying that his colleagues should not be holding town hall meetings.

The North Carolina representative compared the atmosphere at recent Republican town halls, which have resulted in protests and heckling, to those during the first year of Donald Trump’s first presidential term in 2017. Hudson also said that protests at town halls, as well as at district offices, are likely to get worse.

Democrats quickly called out the Republicans’ spinelessness.

Democratic Representative Theresa Leger Fernandez said Republicans “are afraid of their constituents,” and a spokesperson for House Majority PAC, the leading political action committee for House Democrats, called them “cowards.”

“If you’re going to have the audacity to raise prices and rip away health care from millions of Americans, you should at least have the courage to face your constituents,” said the spokesperson, CJ Warnke.

President Trump has claimed that “paid troublemakers” are responsible for the unrest at Republican town halls, posting on Truth Social Monday that “it is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them!”

House Speaker Mike Johnson has also accused paid protesters of stirring up trouble for Republicans, and another House Republican, Mark Alford, used the age-old bogeyman of “outside agitators” to try to explain away the hecklers at a town hall he held last month.

In reality, discontent is growing across the country as Trump and Elon Musk lead a radical overhaul of the federal government and gut vital policies. Republicans are unwilling to recognize that the growing protests are actually legitimate, and in one case in Idaho, even used violence to squash one of them. The more they ignore the discontent, though, the more likely Hudson’s prediction will come true: The protests will only get worse.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed she had the “facts” to back up Donald Trump’s trade war–launching tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China but stopped short of saying anything actually true.

During an interview with Fox News Monday night, host Sean Hannity opined that people weren’t talking enough about the tariffs as a rhetorical tool in negotiations with foreign countries, and instead were too focused on how “bad, bad, bad” they are.

“Why don’t people understand the president is a never-ending negotiator?” Hannity asked.

“He’s a never-ending negotiator, it’s the art of the deal,” Leavitt replied.

“But also, the president has proven, as he did in his first term, that tariffs can bring good-paying jobs back here to the United States of America. They protect critical industries here at home. And President Trump is serious when he says he wants to make America the manufacturing superpower of the world,” she continued.

So, even Trump’s chief propagandist seems a little confused about whether the tariffs are a masterful bluff or a legitimate economic policy. Leavitt seemed intent on painting the tariffs as both—carefully eliding the fact that Trump’s so-called negotiations might better be understood as a global trade war that will inevitably affect the lives of everyday Americans.

It’s also important to note that the tariffs that Trump levied during his first term didn’t actually demonstrate any of what Leavitt claims, so her rationale for his newest round of tariffs falls completely flat.

The first Trump administration placed tariffs on Chinese goods, solar panels, washing machines, steel, and aluminum. And ultimately, this had little impact on the economy, positively or negatively. The tariffs certainly never delivered on Trump’s promise of more factory jobs.

This time, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports and 10 percent tariff on Chinese exports are likely to have a greater impact because they will restrict a wider range of products than his previous tariffs, which were placed on industrial, rather than consumer, products.

During her appearance on Fox News, Leavitt gushed about Trump and claimed to have the statistics to back up his masterful tariff plot.

“So, there’s no spin, it’s all truth. We have the facts on our side, you know, in explaining these tariffs, right? Most people would run away from that argument. But we have the truth, and the statistics, and the facts on our side, and everything the president does is backed by what’s right for the American public,” Leavitt said.

Unfortunately for Leavitt, it’s not enough to simply claim “facts”; one must actually provide them.

China, Canada, and Mexico have already retaliated against Trump’s steep tariffs, placing their own tariffs on U.S. exports. A retaliation clause Trump included in the order he signed last month promises that the U.S. will hit back at any tariffs other countries levy with, you guessed it, more tariffs.

Earlier this month, conservatives were aglow after Trump backed off imposing his tariffs on Mexico, claiming that they’d agreed to send more troops to the Southern border (which the country had already agreed to do). This appeared to prove that the threat of dangerous tariffs he’d been wielding was just that: a threat. In reality, Trump seemed to be responding to the stock market plummeting as he announced tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners.

Now his threat has become all too real, sending the stock market sinking once again.