Cognitive Decline? Trump Goes on Bizarre Rant About “Water Drugs”

Donald Trump has a strange new excuse for attacking Venezuelans.

Seated beside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during a White House press conference Tuesday, the president blamed his administration’s dubious airstrikes on several Venezuelan boats allegedly carrying what he described as “water drugs.”

“We call them the water drugs,” Trump said. “The drugs that come in through water. They’re not coming.”

“There are no boats anymore. Frankly, there are no fishing boats. There are no boats out there, period, if you want to know the truth. We’re saying, ‘Does anybody go fishing anymore?’ The fact is we knocked out, probably saved at least 100,000 American lives—Canadian lives, by taking out all those boats coming in,” Trump said.

He did not elaborate on how his administration had reached the conclusion that killing more than a dozen Venezuelans outside of U.S. waters could save so many people in the northern hemisphere.

Over the last several weeks, the U.S. has destroyed at least four small Venezuelan boats traversing international waters that Trump administration officials deemed—without an investigation or interdiction—were smuggling drugs. At least 21 have been killed in the attacks.

In a memo to Congress on Thursday, Trump declared that the U.S. government is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.

“The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations,” the leaked memo, obtained by the Associated Press, read.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has accused the Trump administration of violating U.S. and international laws by striking the boats. He condemned the attacks as a “heinous crime,” and also suggested that the strikes were an attempt to goad Venezuela into a “major war.”

Is the Department of Homeland Security lying about the victim of yet another shooting by an immigration enforcement officer?

Marimar Martinez, 30, was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago Saturday, after she and several other drivers trailed the officers’ car through the Chicago streets. In a press release, DHS claimed that when the officers exited their vehicle, Martinez tried to run them over, “forcing the officers to fire defensively.”

Martinez and 21-year old Anthony Ruiz were both charged with felony assault of a federal officer. But Christopher Parente, Martinez’s attorney, claimed during a federal court hearing Tuesday that body-camera footage disproved the government’s claim, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Parente said that he had repeatedly viewed the footage, and it appeared that the agent suddenly turned his wheel, indicating that Border Patrol had rammed into Martinez’s car and not the other way around. That officer was reportedly caught saying, “Do something, bitch,” before leaping out of the car and shooting her multiple times within a matter of seconds.

Parente also claimed the body camera footage captured another officer asking, “Hey, what happened?” The first officer pointed to his body camera and said, “Hey, don’t speak. You’re good.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Hennessy, arguing that the duo should not be released pending trial, told the judge that Martinez had been following the agents for 30 minutes before the shooting happened. He claimed that body camera footage showed the agents fretting that their cars were going to collide. “We’re getting boxed in! We gotta get out of here! She’s going to make contact!” one of the agents reportedly said, before the car was allegedly hit on both sides.

Hennessey claimed that Martinez and Ruiz were “extremely dangerous and extremely reckless,” but Parente argued that the Border Patrol agents careening through the streets of Chicago while carrying assault rifles were the bigger threat.

U.S. District Judge Heather McShain denied the government’s bid to keep Martinez and Ruiz locked up, saying it was “a miracle” that no one was more seriously injured.

Last month, DHS claimed that ICE had shot and killed “a criminal illegal alien with a history of reckless driving,” while trying to detain him—but a closer look found that the man had no criminal history, and his last traffic violation was in 2013. DHS also claimed that the ICE agent responsible for the shooting had been “seriously injured” in the line of duty, but bodycam videos from shortly after the incident showed the agent describing his injuries as “nothing major.” One witness speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times claimed that ICE’s account of the fatal shooting had been inaccurate, and questioned whether the incident would be properly investigated.

Attorney General Pam Bondi sidestepped a series of simple yes-or-no questions at a Senate judiciary hearing on Tuesday about border czar Tom Homan and the $50,000 in cash he allegedly accepted from undercover FBI agents in a paper Cava bag.  

“There’s a tape, right, with Mr. Homan. First of all, is there a tape that has audio and video of the transfer of the $50,000?” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Bondi, referencing reports that such a recording indeed exists. 

“You would have to talk to Director Patel about that,” Bondi replied.

“No, I’m talking to you.” 

“I don’t know the answer, Senator.” 

“You do know the answer to that,” Whitehouse pressed. 

“Don’t call me a liar!” Bondi shouted. 

“I didn’t call you a liar.”

“You just said I know the answer, I said I don’t know the answer, you have to talk to Director Patel.”

“Let me put it another way. If you don’t know, why don’t you know whether there was a tape and video?” 

“Senator, I believe that was resolved prior to my confirmation as attorney general.” 

Bondi continued to insist that she had no clue about the investigation, and that Director Patel “resolving” the case was enough for her. 

“But it’s not resolved. There’s $50,000. Homan has it, or somebody has it,” Whitehouse responded. “Do you have no interest in knowing where it is?” 

“You’re not gonna sit here and slander Tom Homan.” 

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Shortly thereafter, Bondi had a similar spat with Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. 

“You were asked by my colleague from Vermont, whether or not you will support providing a video or audio tape if it exists, of Mr. Homan taking $50,000 in bribe money from the FBI,” Schiff said, referring to Whitehouse. “Will you support a request by this committee to provide that tape or tapes to the committee, yes or no.” 

“Senator Schiff, you can talk to Director Patel about that,” Bondi replied.

“Well I’m talking to you about it. You’re the attorney general. This will be your decision. Will you support—”

“You don’t have to tell me what is my decision and what is not my decision, you think you got a gotcha with Tom Homan our border czar, who’s been out there fighting for our country—”

“You don’t have to refer to the FBI director to pass the buck. So I’m asking you, will you support a request, so that the committee, or indeed I believe the American people should be able to see that video or audio tape. Will you support that request?” 

“Will you apologize to Donald Trump for trying to impeach him?” Bondi shot back, avoiding the question entirely and pivoting to Hunter Biden theories. 

Our very own FBI bribed Tom Homan with $50,000 and he accepted it. Now the attorney general is pretending that she doesn’t know anything about it at all, and is instead demanding that Schiff say he’s sorry rather than acknowledging a very warranted further investigation into Homan’s bribe. 

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California took Attorney General Pam Bondi to task Tuesday for her incessant deflections and evasions throughout a Senate judiciary hearing.

Bondi had verbally attacked Democratic senators throughout the hearing rather than answer their questions. Schiff was, evidently, keeping track of questions Bondi left unanswered, and he ran through the lengthy (yet inexhaustive) list after the attorney general derailed his own inquiry about releasing a video of Tom Homan, now Trump’s border czar, accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents in 2024.

“I think it’s valuable that the American people get a sense of what you’ve refused to answer today,” Schiff told Bondi. The following questions are those that Schiff noted went unanswered, or were met with personal attacks, by the attorney general:

1. Did Bondi consult with career ethics lawyers when she approved Trump’s acceptance of a $400 million jet gifted by Qatar’s royal family?

2. Who ordered that Donald Trump’s name be flagged in the FBI’s review of the Epstein files?

3. Did Homan keep his $50,000 from the undercover agents?

4. Did Homan pay taxes on the $50,000?

5. Did DOJ prosecutors determine there was “insufficient evidence” to charge former FBI Director James Comey before he was indicted?

6. How did the administration determine whether U.S. military strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean were legal?

(Here, Bondi interrupted, asking the senator, who worked for the justice department before his career in politics, “Do you have a law degree, Senator Schiff?”)

7. Did Bondi discuss indicting Comey with Trump?

8. Did Bondi approve the dismissal of antitrust lawyers who opposed the Hewlett Packard–Juniper merger?

9. Does Bondi support a “compensation fund” for people prosecuted in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots?

10. Is Bondi firing career prosecutors for working on January 6 investigations?

11. Does Bondi think government officials must follow court orders?

After concluding the list, Schiff made the following statement, though he was peppered with interruptions from Bondi—who brought up red herrings, such as wildfires and riots in his home state, and threw personal barbs, calling the senator a “failed lawyer.”

This is supposed to be an oversight hearing of the Justice Department, and it comes in the wake of an indictment called for by the president of one of his enemies. This is supposed to be an oversight hearing, and it comes in the wake of revelations that a top administration official took $50,000 in a bag, and this department made that investigation go away. This is supposed to be an oversight hearing, when dozens of prosecutors have been fired simply because they worked on cases investigating the former president.… This is supposed to be an oversight hearing in which members of Congress can get serious answers to serious questions about … the cover-up of corruption, about the prosecution of the president’s enemies.

Schiff implored members of the committee to “demand answers to those questions” and to refuse “personal slander as an answer to those questions.” Bondi in turn said Schiff should apologize for “slandering” Trump.

Invoking the Insurrection Act is still very much on the table, according to the president.

Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to enforce a nineteenth-century law that would let him utilize the military for domestic purposes, allowing the troops to police and arrest citizens. If invoked, Trump would be able to deploy active duty forces in order to enact his agenda, which involves federalizing the law enforcement agencies of Democratic cities.

“I’d do it if it was necessary. So far it hasn’t been necessary. But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump has claimed that the troops are a necessary precaution to safeguard federal buildings and agents enacting his administration’s immigration agenda.

“If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that. I mean, I want to make sure that people aren’t killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe,” Trump continued.

The law has not been invoked since 1992, when President George H. W. Bush used it to subdue riots in Los Angeles after the local police force brutalized Rodney King.

Trump has floated the idea of leveraging the Insurrection Act for years, though the idea has picked up steam since his inauguration.

But the president has so far not aligned his desire for militaristic order with quelling real violence in the country. After mass shootings devastated communities in Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Illinois late last month, the president decided to order the National Guard to the hipster paradise of Portland. His rationale for sending them, according to the president himself, was not informed by statistics or data, but because of something he saw on TV.

“I spoke to the governor, she was very nice,” Trump said at the time, referring to a phone call he had with Oregon Governor Tina Kotek. “But I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? My people tell me different.’ They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place.… It looks like terrible.”

So far, federal judges have temporarily staved off Trump’s efforts to force the National Guard into Oregon. In the meantime, though, the president has directed the Guard to deploy to Chicago and Memphis. He has already federalized the law enforcement of Washington, D.C., as well as areas of Los Angeles.

“What President Trump is trying to do is an abuse of power,” Kotek told PBS News Hour Monday. “And it is a threat to our democracy. Governors should be in command of their National Guards, our citizen soldiers who sign up to stand up in an emergency to deal with real problems.

President Donald Trump came off unintelligibly Tuesday while comparing the Democratic Party to Somalia.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump appeared to brag that he didn’t even know the names of the Democratic lawmakers hoping to speak with him about ending the government shutdown.

“I’m getting calls from Democrats wanting to meet. I never even heard their names before. And they’re claiming to be lead—the Democrats have no leader. They remind me of Somalia,” Trump said.

Appearing pleased with his weirdly racist analogy, Trump continued babbling.

“And I met the president of Somalia, told him about the problem it’s got. I said, ‘You got somebody from Somalia that’s telling us how to run our country, from Somalia.’ I said, ‘Would you like to take her back?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t want her!’” Trump ranted incoherently.

Trump was referring to Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, who has previously been targeted with threats of deportation by racist Republicans. The president, who has a tendency to repeat himself, was rehashing a joke he made earlier this month at Omar’s expense when he claimed he’d asked Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud if the Michigan lawmaker could be “taken back” to her home country.

Trump’s insistence that he doesn’t know who the Democrats are, and that they have no leaders, tells you everything you need to know about how seriously Trump is taking efforts to end the government shutdown. His own spokesperson revealed Monday that she wasn’t aware of any efforts the president had taken to speak with Democrats directly, but he is instead working through his own proxies in the House and Senate.

Trump previously met with very real Democratic leaders House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (whom Trump has repeatedly called a “Palestinian,” as another form of racist insult) ahead of the shutdown last week. But the president used the meeting as a meme photo op before proceeding to blame Democrats for the shutdown, as well as his administration’s efforts to enact massive layoffs and illegally withhold back pay from furloughed workers.

President Donald Trump gave the least reassuring answer Tuesday about ensuring federal workers receive backpay after the government shutdown.

During a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump was asked about the White House’s position on paying back furloughed federal workers for the shutdown. While federal law requires the government to provide backpay for federal workers sent home during the shutdown, the Trump administration is reportedly making preparations to renege on its obligation to pay up once the government reopens.

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” Trump replied.

“I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about,” Trump continued. “But for the most part, we’re gonna take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’re gonna take care of them in a different way.”

Trump limply attempted to blame the Democrats for his potentially lawless acts—but it’s Russell Vought’s White House Office of Management and Budget that is behind the newest threat.

A drafted memo from OMB reportedly offered a wild new interpretation of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act Trump signed during a previous shutdown in 2019, undermining assurances that federal employees will eventually get paid. OMB also quietly deleted a line from a document about Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations that referred to the GEFTA rule that “employees will be paid retroactively as soon as possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested Tuesday morning that paying federal workers was something he hoped for—but not something he could promise. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Republican’s own website states: “Under federal law, employees are entitled to back pay upon the government reopening.”

When asked why only some people would receive backpay, Trump simply replied, “You’re gonna have to figure it out.”

But it’s not clear who exactly the president believes will receive pay, or why. During a shutdown, government employees are either furloughed or “excepted” from furlough, meaning they continue to work and earn pay, but their pay is postponed until appropriations are authorized. And Trump has already picked some convenient projects to keep federal employees working on, ensuring that immigration enforcement and tariff offices are fully staffed, while threatening to gut Democrats’ “favorite” programs. Trump could potentially plan to pay those working on his own pet projects, and illegally withhold funding from everyone else.

It’s also not clear how the president intends to deal with those he believes do not deserve pay. The president could potentially be referring to the scores of federal employees OMB has instructed agencies to lay off amid the shutdown, in an unprecedented move he certainly appears to be enjoying.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he hopes federal workers receive their back pay, making it seem possible that they won’t—even though he knows federal law requires that they be compensated.

Speaking on the House floor, the Louisiana Republican suggested that there was new analysis that showed that federal workers furloughed during the government shutdown might not be entitled to back pay.

“I hope that the furloughed workers receive back pay, of course,” Johnson said immediately after, claiming that was why he and President Donald Trump had begged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to spare federal workers from a government shutdown.

“We don’t want this to happen,” Johnson said.

But as Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff for Representative Don Beyer, noted on X, this was a blatantly dishonest gambit—and Johnson knew it. As Johnson’s own website states: “Under federal law, employees are entitled to back pay upon the government reopening.”

It seems that Trump’s administration may be preparing to withhold back pay from federal workers in the president’s latest ploy to force Democrats to abandon their fight for health care subsidies.

Axios reported Tuesday that a draft of a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget claimed that federal workers may not be entitled to just compensation after the government reopens, under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act Trump signed during a previous shutdown in 2019.

“Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn’t,” one senior White House official told Axios. OPM’s draft memo claimed that the law had been previously misconstrued to ensure back pay to furloughed workers.

The White House claimed that an amendment to the law assuring workers will be paid “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse” refers to when federal employees will be specifically appropriated funds by Congress, and not how it has always been understood as the completion of the shutdown. A joint resolution that accompanied the 2019 amendment said that the government would pay “obligations incurred.”

It seems OMB is preparing to move forward with holding federal employees’ pay hostage. Government Executive reported that OMB had quietly deleted a line from a document about Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations that referred to the GEFTA rule that “employees will be paid retroactively as soon as possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

But OPM’s special instructions for agencies affected by a lapse in appropriations starting October 1, 2025, stated just the opposite. “The appropriate retroactive pay for periods of furlough and excepted work will be provided after the lapse ends, as required by law,” the instructions say.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who helped write the 2019 back-pay measure, told Government Executive the meaning of the statute was clear.

“The law is the law,” he said. “After the uncertainty federal employees faced in the 2019 Trump Shameful Shutdown, Senator Cardin and I worked to ensure federal employees would receive guaranteed back pay for any future shutdowns. That legislation was signed into law—and there is nothing this administration can do to change that.”

This isn’t the only dirty trick the administration has pulled to intimidate Democrats into submission. Trump has also threatened to execute mass layoffs amid the government shutdown. Administration officials have insisted that the Democrats forced the president’s hand, but the move is entirely in line with Trump’s agenda as outlined in Project 2025, and the president has touted the “unprecedented opportunity” to make sweeping permanent cuts to programs and departments that he doesn’t like.

Attorney General Pam Bondi somehow managed to be smug and combative while offering an incredibly weak answer to a basic question about her department’s handling of the Epstein files. 

“So who gave the order to flag records related to President Trump?” Senator Dick Durbin asked Bondi during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. 

Bondi paused for a beat. 

“To flag records for President Trump?” she said, as if she was confused or unfamiliar with what Durbin asked. 

“To flag any records which included his name.” 

Bondi shook her head, smiling slightly. 

“I’m not going to discuss anything about that with you, senator.” 

“Eventually you’re going to have to answer for your conduct in this,” Durbin replied. “You won’t do it today, but eventually you will.” 

This all goes back to July, when Durbin’s office found that Bondi told personnel to flag any mention of Trump in the Epstein files. It was later revealed that once flagged, Trump’s name was redacted from the files.  

This is such a clear example of the attorney general—historically a politically neutral position (or at least meant to be such)—openly caping for her president. If she can’t be transparent and honest in a Senate hearing, how are we expected to take anything she says seriously? 

At least eight times during a Tuesday hearing, Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Attorney General Pam Bondi about what border czar Tom Homan did with the $50,000 cash bribe he received from undercover FBI agents in 2024.

Again and again, Bondi refused to answer.

“What became of the $50,000 in cash that the FBI paid to Mr. Homan, in a paper bag evidently?” the senator asked the attorney general, who slowly flipped to a page in a binder so she could quote a statement from her deputy attorney general.

“Senator,” she said, “as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently stated, the investigation of Mr. Homan was subjected to a full review by the FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any wrongdoing.”

Nowhere in that response was an actual answer, Whitehouse observed, so he again asked what became of the $50,000. Bondi vaguely urged the senator to “look at your facts.”

“Are you saying that they did not deliver $50,000 in cash to Mr. Homan?” Whitehouse pressed. Bondi began reciting the statement she previously attributed to Blanche, which Whitehouse noted addresses a “different question.”

He repeated his question, asking if the FBI ever got the $50,000 back. Bondi told the senator to consult the FBI.

“They report to you,” Whitehouse pointed out. “Can’t you answer this question?” Bondi said he could talk to FBI Director Kash Patel, leading Whitehouse to ask if Homan kept the money. The attorney general, chuckling, began to repeat her previous spiel verbatim.

“I can see I’m not going to get a straight answer from you to a very simple question,” Whitehouse said. Out of the blue, Bondi leveled a personal attack, accusing Whitehouse of working with “dark money groups.”

Staying on track, Whitehouse asked whether the reported investigation looked into whether Homan declared the $50,000 on his tax returns, leading Bondi to make another unrelated accusation, this time that Whitehouse “pushed for legislation that would subsidize [his] wife’s company”—an imperfect telling of allegations first made by a conservative watchdog group and amplified by people like Elon Musk.

Whitehouse pointed out the irrelevance of that claim, promising to submit the questions Bondi failed to answer as “questions for the record,” or written, formal questions Congress provides witnesses after a hearing for inclusion in the record.

The questions about Homan were far from the only ones that Bondi avoided answering during Tuesday’s hearing, in which she frequently seemed more interested in verbally attacking Democratic senators attempting to conduct oversight.