International
Talk of ‘pre-emptive pardons’ sets the stage for Trump to drain the Washington swamp
President-Elect Donald Trump reacts during his meeting with Prince William, Prince of Wales at the Embassy of the United Kingdom’s Residence on December 7, 2024, in Paris, France
From LifeSiteNews
Once you understand how Donald Trump is assembling his White House and once you accept the mission of the DC system to defend itself by isolating a weak spot in the mechanism, then the assembly of cabinet based on loyalty makes sense.
Any time the professional leftists lose anything, they immediately become victims. Whether defeated in the battle of ideas (retreat to safe spaces), defeated in the field of pop culture, or even defeated linguistically through debate (words are violence). Whenever the professional left loses, they immediately become victims. It’s what they do.
The professional political left, newest version from the Chicago spawn of Dohrn/Ayers, has been waging full combat lawfare via a weaponized government for the past 16 years. However, Obama/Plouffe were defeated, “their kind” rose again and won the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
What we see in this “pre-emptive pardon” narrative, is a repeat of the victim narrative. This time the White House discussion boils down to “lawfare agents must be protected from any retaliation for their action.” Pardons presumably provide the mechanism to protect the victims. In the big picture of ideology, this is a continuation of the same mindset.
Politico started the narrative with an outline saying the White House was having an internal debate as to whether Joe Biden should pre-emptively issue pardons to members of the January 6 committee, members who constructed false impeachment accusations, members within the DOJ who fabricated political cases using the special counsel process, or generally people on the political left who supported/facilitated all the aforementioned false attack fronts.
As the narrative is told, all those who supported the attacks against President-Elect Donald Trump and his allies now need to be protected from “retribution.” Inherent in the argument, and within the use of pardons, is the baseline that some form of illegal activity was taking place. Heck, if it wasn’t unlawful conduct, then no pardon would be needed. This is the political catch-22 created by the pre-emptive pardon narrative.
Various congressional people, DOJ insiders, White House liaisons, State Department officials and underling staff are all possible recipients if Joe Biden decides to take this unprecedented approach. However, if you look at the expressed approach indicated by Trump and the assembly of cabinet members who would be in place to carry out such “retribution,” you will not find any indication of intent. Quite the opposite is true.
Trump does not appear to be in alignment with any approach that would lead to legal indictments, arrests, charges or other legal accountability measures. Beyond the public release of hidden, perhaps classified information that might put sunlight on the previous activity by those who weaponized their offices, there is nothing. Sunlight on prior events, while moving forward to restore functioning law and order, appears to be the most likely approach. From Politico:
… White House officials, however, are carefully weighing the extraordinary step of handing out blanket pardons to those who’ve committed no crimes, both because it could suggest impropriety, only fueling Trump’s criticisms, and because those offered preemptive pardons may reject them.
The deliberations touch on pardoning those currently in office, elected and appointed, as well as former officials who’ve angered Trump and his loyalists.
Those who could face exposure include such members of Congress’ Jan. 6 Committee as Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Trump has previously said Cheney “should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!” Also mentioned by Biden’s aides for a pardon is Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who became a lightning rod for criticism from the right during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The West Wing deliberations have been organized by White House counsel Ed Siskel but include a range of other aides, including chief of staff Jeff Zients. The president himself, who was intensely focused on his son’s pardon, has not been brought into the broad.
In addition to their professional victim approach, the one constant with the Marxist left is their use of projection. They weaponized government, so they anticipate the target of their weaponization efforts, Donald Trump, will return fire in kind. Again, I highly doubt it.
All outward indications are that Trump wants to create a legacy presidency for the Gen-Z generation (Barron), similar to what was created by Ronald Reagan for the Gen-X generation. Selecting Susie Wiles as chief of staff is the strongest indication of this intent.
The appointments to White House legal counsel positions and main justice legal offices by Trump all appear to have one common denominator: to protect the president. I strongly doubt there will be any effort beyond that.
Big picture
Once you understand what Trump is assembling (the phalanx) and once you accept the mission of the D.C. system to defend itself by isolating a weak spot in the mechanism, then everything from the assembly of the cabinet to the process being discussed makes sense.
Within a phalanx, if one shield drops the entire construct is compromised. The strongest shields need to surround the core with ferocity.
The recent Supreme Court decision affirmed the president of the United States as the unitary, plenary power that controls every mechanism of the executive branch of government, and as long as the president is acting within his “official duty” he holds absolute power and absolute immunity.
Think of each cabinet member as a shield in this political phalanx that surrounds the weapon, Trump.
Yes, the phalanx is by construct an offensive fortification used to advance upon the enemy. However, the strength of the phalanx is its ability to be impervious to attack from 360°.
The phalanx advances, inch by inch, against a larger fortification. In the transition team assembly, this is what Trump is putting together.
Hegseth is a key component of the phalanx, the fortification process that puts Trump at the center of the cabinet. Each component of the cabinet protecting the center.
The phalanx is the mechanism to carry the weapon that is President Donald Trump. The D.C. UniParty is looking for a weakness in the phalanx, like a wolf circling a porcupine.
Trump has turned his focus to the “war fighters,” the men and women who carry out the mission objective of the Defense Department. The nomination of Pete Hegseth represents the confrontation of a power struggle that has been decades in making.
The self-serving senators are trying to block Hegseth, while maintaining a position of pretending support for Trump. The DeceptiCon republicans in the Senate are in full circling mode, looking for a weakness to exploit.
The schemes of the conniving Republican senators are transparently visible in the efforts of Senator Joni Ernst, who is circling the phalanx Trump is creating – while simultaneously inserting herself into the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) mission.
Ernst is doing Mitch McConnell’s work, under instruction from John Thune and Mitch. See Ernst with clear eyes.
One does not become unattached to corrupt intent.
Clear eyes!
I did not think President-elect Trump had the accurate laser vision for the task.
I was getting concerned.
Then I saw the very specific wording of this:
The McGinley move makes a lot of sense. DOGE and the Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) are going to be joined at the hip. They are going to have to navigate the Impoundment Control Act, challenging the system that places limits on a president’s ability to unilaterally withhold funding.
Inside that legal battle, deciding what DOGE can do without legislative approval, the OMB is going to be the execution part. McGinley will be the legal liaison focused on what technical approaches DOGE/OMB can execute. In essence, can they stop funding XX, thereby eliminating it?
That said, that’s not the important part.
The language Trump is using to describe the role of David A. Warrington, the switched White House counsel, is something entirely new.
Donald Trump says: “to serve as Assistant to the President and Counsel to the President. Dave will lead the Office of White House Counsel and serve as the top attorney in the White House.”
Normally the White House counsel does not represent the interests of the president, the WHC represents the interests of the office.
It would appear to me, at least as I review the details, that Trump is now fully aware how his presidential interests can sometimes conflict with the interests of the White House counsel, and he is making a move to ensure that conflict doesn’t happen.
An example of the conflict I have explained repeatedly in the “declassification of information.”
Not kidding, it is almost as if someone very close to Trump read something I previously outlined, because it came with a serious warning borne out of years of frustration:
In Term-1 the IC message to the WH Counsel was that if Donald Trump declassified any documents, they would use the DOJ (special counsel weapon) to attack the office of the president for “obstructing justice.” The WHC was fraught with fear over what would happen and demanded that POTUS Trump stop trying to declassify information/documents the IC didn’t support.
The way Trump is now portraying the role of the White House counsel is to represent his interests first and foremost, then represent the interests of the office. In a few subtle, and not so subtle ways, this makes sense.
We can tell by the nominations to attorney general, deputy attorney general, and assistant attorney general-national security division, that main justice is already positioned to defend and protect Donald Trump. The people in charge of the silo are all loyalty-first people, aligned in the interests of Trump.
It would appear that Trump is now bringing that same outlook into the White House. The White House counsel aligning in common purpose, with the specific purpose of executing the intentions of President Donald Trump.
I’m glad to see this approach, because as I have repeatedly affirmed, only President Trump (the person) can confront the silo system in Washington, D.C.
That’s why the phalanx makes sense.
Reprinted with permission from Conservative Treehouse.
illegal immigration
TODD BENSMAN: What I discovered inside teeming Mexican migrant camps that proves Trump’s hardline policy is already working
From ToddBensman.com
I’m thinking right now of returning to Venezuela,’ said a man, who has been living in a makeshift tent of streets of Mexico City for eight months. ‘I’m just staying here until January 20 to see if I get [a CBP One appointment] and, if not, go back home.’
MEXICO CITY — President-elect Donald Trump won’t take office for another five weeks, but his election is already causing a sea change in America’s illegal immigration crisis.
In sprawling migrant camps across Mexico City, people are giving up their plans to cross into the United States and are instead planning to settle in Mexico or begin the long trek back home.
‘I’m just going to give up and go back to Venezuela,’ said a woman in one of the squalid encampments, where thousands of migrants have constructed tents with tarps and scrap material.
‘I have children to take care of,’ she added. ‘I’ll just go back because, with Donald Trump, it’s going to be too hard.’
This is a cruel reality for millions of people drawn to Mexico by the Biden administration’s indulgent border policies – only to find that Americans overwhelmingly rejected the misguided approach in the 2024 election.
The young mother of two had hoped to have already entered the US through President Joe Biden‘s ‘humanitarian parole’ program known as CBP One.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported that, since January 2023, the federal initiative has allowed entry into the US for 771,000 migrants, at a rate of about 1,600 people a day. But that program was also quickly overwhelmed by the volume of requests resulting in a massive backlog.
Now, the Trump transition team says the program will end on Day One of the new administration.
In sprawling migrant camps across Mexico City, people are giving up their plans to cross into the United States and are instead planning to settle in Mexico or begin the long trek back home.
‘I think they’re eliminating CBP One, so I’m thinking right now of returning to Venezuela,’ said a man, who has been living in a makeshift tent of streets of Mexico City for eight months. ‘I’m just staying here until January 20 to see if I get [a CBP One appointment] and, if not, go back home.’
To the Trump team, these prospective ‘self-deportation’ cases offer some proof that the President-elect’s border security plan may already be working as intended.
Now, they hope word of this deterrent effect will spread to the home cities, towns and villages of potential future migrants and dissuade them from making the dangerous trip.
Others interviewed said they plan to find work and live inside Mexico rather than return to their even more impoverished home countries.
‘I’m going to stay here,’ said a young Colombian man wearing a red, yellow and white shirt who’d travelled with his wife through the perilous jungle between Colombia and Panama.
He says he is loath to give up now after spending thousands of dollars to smugglers to get him this far. His wife agrees.
‘We went through the trouble and expense of traveling through the Darien Gap. I’ll look for asylum here in Mexico,’ she said. ‘As soon as I have a job with work to do, it’ll be fine.’
A migrant from Angola in central Africa said there’s no turning back for him either; the journey home would be too difficult and expensive.
‘I’m going to stay here,’ said a young Colombian man wearing a red, yellow and white shirt who’d travelled with his wife through the perilous jungle between Colombia and Panama.
A migrant from Angola (above) in Central Africa said there’s no turning back for him either; the journey home would be too difficult and expensive.
‘It is not my main goal to stay here in Mexico,’ he said in broken Spanish. ‘But if it just happens, you know, I’m going to stay here.’
Trump has also threatened Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, that the U.S. will impose debilitating 25 percent trade tariffs on her country if she does not dispatch Mexican military and immigration services to end the flow of migrants north.
The Mexicans now routinely capture migrants and transport them south to the Mexican cities of Tapachula and Villahermosa along the Guatemalan border.
The US currently estimates about 1,600 illegal border crossings daily. That’s down from the peak of 14,000 in a single day just one year ago.
Indeed, Mexico began this program earlier in 2024 at the urging of the Biden administration, but the Trump tariff threat has reenergized the operation in some regions.
‘The Mexicans don’t want us to go farther. They want us to go back. That’s why I’m staying in Mexico City,’ a migrant named Josmer told me.
A third anticipated Trump policy also appears to be having a deterrent effect – the President-elect’s promise to begin the ‘greatest mass deportation in American history.’
Trump reiterated those plans in an interview with NBC News this weekend.
‘We’re starting with the criminals and we’ve got to do it,’ Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker. ‘And then we’re starting with the others and we’re going to see how it goes.’
‘The Mexicans don’t want us to go farther. They want us to go back. That’s why I’m staying in Mexico City,’ a migrant named Josmer told me.
That message is apparently being received loud and clear in Mexico City.
‘He says he’s going to kick all the illegal people out of the country,’ another young mother said, as she prepared a pot of pulled chicken for dinner. She conceded, there’s ‘no point’ in trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
Not all of the migrants that I spoke to said they’d leave immediately.
At least one young Venezuelan told me that he’ll never stop trying to sneak into the US after working for six months as a barber in one of the camps.
‘We’re going to keep trying, you know, just climb the walls,’ he said. ‘[Trump] says that we’re going to get deported, but we’re going to try it again.’
By Todd Bensman as published by The Daily Mail
From LifeSiteNews
Trump’s previous statements about Trudeau as ‘weak’ and a ‘far-left lunatic’ place his recent jibe about Canada becoming the 51st US state into context, thus appearing more like a deliberate humiliation of the Canadian leader.
President-Elect Donald Trump’s second term has not yet begun, but he has already inaugurated hostilities with Justin Trudeau.
In a bid to head off Trump’s threat of massive tariffs, Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago last month to kiss the ring; during their dinner, Trump reportedly joked that Canada should become America’s 51st state. He was apparently taken with the jibe – and, in all likelihood, the Canada press reaction to it – and reiterated as much during a Sunday interview on NBC, as well as in a social media post.
“It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada,” Trump wrote. “I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!”
This is signature Trump trolling – an obvious joke with a sting in the tail. There are several likely reasons for it. First, this is simply how Trump does business: he throws his weight around, and he intimidates. It is a power play. Trudeau showed up at Mar-a-Lago, hat in hand, and Trump unsubtly reminded him that he holds most of the cards.
No doubt the jibe was (and is) aggravating, and it is intended to be – more so because Trudeau and his team have to publicly pretend that it is not. Many Canadians see it as a put-down; Trudeau’s team has to insist that it is evidence of “mutual respect and warmth.”
There is probably an element of revenge to this, as well. One of Trudeau’s signature smears when attacking socially conservative Canadians – such as parental rights protestors – is to insist that they are either bigots, or victims of “far-right American disinformation.” Trudeau has also gone to great lengths to label federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and Conservative MPs as “MAGA conservatives” – and he doesn’t mean it as a compliment. Using Trump’s signature phrase as an insult likely did not endear Trudeau to the MAGA team heading to the White House.
Indeed, in the context of Trump’s previous statements about Trudeau, his jokes seem like a deliberate humiliation. He has previously referred to Trudeau – respectfully and warmly, his team will no doubt insist – as “weak” and a “far-left lunatic.” Trump was also likely unenthused by Trudeau’s comment that he and other world leaders had “managed Mr. Trump” during his first term. There will be no “managing” him in his second term, which is likely to outlast Trudeau’s tenure in 24 Sussex. Fortunately for everyone – Canadians especially – we are likely to have a new prime minister sometime next year.
This tense relationship puts conservative Canadians in an interesting position. Some, of course, are experiencing some schadenfreude at seeing Trudeau being put in his place, especially after the prime minister tactfully used “MAGA conservative” as a pejorative for the past several years. Watching him eat his words and swallow hard is amusing.
Trudeau’s unearned arrogance is famously iron-clad, and watching Trump push him around is satisfying for some. At the same time, the threatened tariffs would be devastating for Canada, and patriotic Canadians are fully justified in finding Trump’s jokes about a “51st state” demeaning and distasteful. Calling Trudeau a “far-left lunatic” is one thing. Threatening to tank the Canadian economy is another.
Reactionary anti-Americanism is a longstanding and politically-cultivated Canadian trait, borne mostly of the insecurity that comes from living alongside the world’s reigning military and cultural superpower. Thus, there are some conservatives who may feel that Trudeau deserves their support simply for standing up for Canada. This may seem like an obvious point to make, but we must remember that Justin Trudeau is the problem here, not the solution.
Trudeau is uniquely unfit to defend Canadian interests in Washington, D.C., and not only because he has deliberately created a toxic relationship with the incoming president by essentially campaigning against him north of the border and attempting to constantly tie his ideological opponents to Trump’s MAGA movement. He is also unfit because he has denied that Canada has any core identity whatsoever: in 2015, he insisted that Canada is the first “post-national state.”
Trudeau created this looming crisis, and he did so deliberately. Patriotic Canadians owe him no loyalty whatsoever.
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