Political censorship

Anti-Semitic?

He Ran the above editorial Cartoon on the War in Gaza, and Gannett Fired Him

Instead, it's critical of the government of Israel for essentially destroying Gaza. Unless you think criticism of Israel is, by definition, anti-semitic. No self-respecting editor would believe that.

Rob Rogers was fired by a Pittsburgh paper during the first Trump administration for his editorial cartoons criticizing President Trump. 

For example:

Rogers is still at it!

Elon Musk: Scientist

A 2023 story:

Elon Musk’s brain chip experiments have killed 1,500 animals

The problems don’t seem to be ending for Elon Musk. A group of doctors has called for an investigation into Neuralink, the biotechnology startup founded by the magnate, for the suspicious deaths of a group of monkeys. According to the accusations, these monkeys were allegedly used for experiments involving brain implants.

It was the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) that filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that the primates had died due to complications with the neural implants developed by Neuralink.

Elon Musk confirmed that a group of monkeys had died from a series of terminal illnesses. The South African entrepreneur clarified in an interview that for the initial implants, the primates used were already “near death.” 

He emphatically denied that the deaths were related to Neuralink’s implants. In fact, Musk stated last fall that they were being “extremely careful” with these trials.

However, the group of doctors claims that these comments are “false.” The PCRM obtained a series of reports demonstrating that the monkeys had undergone “extreme suffering.” 

WIRED also reported on these records, confirming the animals’ horrific ordeals.

The Committee also clarifies that Musk’s statements about the monkeys’ condition do not represent the truth. While some of the animals had physical traumas and had suffered the aftermath of other experiments, “there is no evidence that they were near death”....

Appeasement uber alles

Nick Anderson

 

US capitulation to Putin

Trump: Appeasing Russia is US policy

Andrew Harnik (Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin has had Donald Trump's number since Helsinki: Putin understood right away that Trump was a windbag and a hollow man he could dominate. Even as a businessman, he wasn't very good, to put it mildly.

Trump has always posed as a strong leader, but in reality, as Putin immediately understood, he's a weakling. That's increasingly obvious to everyone except those delusional souls in the Republican Party's political base. 

I suspect even many of those "deplorables," as Hillary accurately described them in days of yore, will abandon Trump as he ruins the US economy and alienates our traditional allies around the world.

Meanwhile, for the next four years, we're fucked. 

The only question now: How much permanent damage will he and his contemptible political party do to the country?

Today: US eyes easing Russia sanctions

Vermont welcomes the vice president

Vermont welcomes Vance

Vote for Republicans, you get this

Rob's comment:

What did you expect? Vote for assholes, you get shit. Trump is the biggest asshole in American history, and Republicans make him president. We need to make the Repugnant Party pay for this disaster in every election---local, state, national---from now on.

Who is Trump representing? Russia, not Ukraine or the American people

Is Trump a Russian asset?

From Daily Kos:

Putin likes it!

Trump's overture to Putin sets off appeasement alarm in Europe

Is Trump a Russian agent?

Susan Glasser today in The New Yorker:

With today’s extraordinary televised fight in the Oval Office between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky, we all saw clearly something that has been unfolding over the past couple of weeks: the United States of America has switched sides in the war between Russia and Ukraine. The country is no longer on the side of Ukraine.

This is a momentous shift by Trump, one that has implications not only for Ukraine’s very survival but for the survival of America’s partnership with its European allies. 

Last week, I wrote my column about what I called Trump’s Putinization of America, both in a foreign-policy sense—as in, actually pivoting toward Russia—and also in the sense of deploying an array of Putin-like tactics at home. 

This week, we see that shift even more clearly. On the third anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Donald Trump—even before he fought with Zelensky today—directed the United States to vote with Russia, Belarus, and North Korea at the United Nations....

Axios: The free world needs a new leader

Is Trump a Russian agent?

Trump shames the US by bullying Zelensky

Are we the bad guys now?

Our president tried to bully the leader of Ukraine in the White House today. Zelensky wasn't having it, which of course made both our bullying president---and our vice president bully---mad. 

What gall this leader of that small country has! Doesn't he understand that Trump and Putin want him to shut up about how Russia invaded his country and is still occupying it?

Liz Cheney tries to salvage what little honor our country has left:

“Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine,” Cheney wrote in a post on the social platform X. “History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.”

Recall how in his first term Trump betrayed and denigrated the Kurds. 

Putin is pleased with Trump

See also Donald Trump: Chickenhawk.

Trump's Russian ties

Trump and Putin

What is the real story of Donald Trump and Russia? The answer is still unclear, and Democrats in Congress want to get to the bottom of it with an investigation. 

But there’s no doubt that a spider web of connections—some public, some private, some clear, some murky—exists between Trump, his associates and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

These charts illustrate dozens of those links, including meetings between Russian officials and members of Trump’s campaign and administration; his daughter’s ties to Putin’s friends; Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; and his short-lived mixed martial arts venture with one of Putin’s favorite athletes. 

The solid lines mark established facts, while dotted ones represent speculative or unproven connections.

There’s nothing inherently damning about most of the ties illustrated below. But they do reveal the vast and mysteriously complex web behind a story that has vexed Trump’s young presidency from its start—and is certain to shake the White House for months to come....

Rob's comment:

This story is from 2017, Trump's first term. No shaking detected, just a national/international shrug. But hunker down. Trump's second term is just starting. He should be tried for treason.

A question

Driftglass

Charles Johnson

Trump's toxic Gaza fantasy

Trump's fantasy

Truthout:

President Donald Trump has posted an AI-generated video on social media depicting a version of Gaza that has been colonized by the U.S. and made into a beach resort for the rich — a disturbing show of his desire to forcibly displace Palestinians from the region and create a billionaires’ playground on the rubble of Israel’s genocide.

The 33-second video shows what appears to be the enactment of Trump’s “Riviera” plan — a plan for the total ethnic cleansing of Gaza. 

At the beginning, the video shows the words “Gaza 2025” and “What’s next?” overlaid on AI-generated video of Palestinians walking through rubble and being pursued by armed soldiers.

It then shows artificial footage of a white sandy beach resort with a sprawling skyline, bustling streets and buildings like Dubai’s Burj Al Arab. 

The scene is chilling and surreal, depicting a genocidal fantasy of a U.S.-owned Gaza where Palestinians have been erased and rich people vacation on the rubble of their homes, cultural sites and graveyards.

The resort appears to be called “Trump Gaza.” There are glitzy monuments to Trump scattered throughout, including a roundabout with a massive gold Trump statue in the middle and a wall displaying rows of Trump figurines. The video also depicts a child holding a large balloon of a gold Trump face.

Excessive wealth is a focal point of the video. Elon Musk is shown eating on the beach in two clips; in another, he is being showered with money at the resort. The sea is littered with yachts and the streets full of cars resembling Teslas.

The video also shows Trump himself vacationing there. It includes a scene of him dancing with a woman in a club, and ends with a clip of him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lounging in swimsuits next to a pool with drinks.

An eerie AI-generated song plays over the video, the lyrics touting “Trump Gaza.”

“No more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here,” the song lyrics say. “Feast and dance, the deal is done. Trump Gaza, number one.”

The video is a show of Trump’s utter disregard for Palestinian lives and his willingness to celebrate and exploit genocide in order to bolster his own image and profits. It is just the latest example of Trump pushing his plan for the forced, permanent expulsion of over 2 million Palestinians from Gaza — a plan only feasible through military force and yet more mass brutality by occupiers.

Trump’s plan for Gaza has been roundly condemned by Palestinians and human rights experts across the globe. 

Earlier this month, a group of UN human rights experts said that Trump’s plan would constitute numerous “blatant violations” of international law. If enacted, it could plunge the world into the “dark days of colonial conquest” and threaten the very structure of international order, the experts said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has previously called out the heinous nature of the plan, noting that it would displace millions to create a “billionaire’s paradise.”

“It is grotesque. It is almost unspeakable,” Sanders said.

Palestinians in Gaza have said that Trump’s plan will fail, as they will not comply with orders to flee their homes, even if those homes have been reduced to rubble.

“America and Israel have always been doing their best to ‘clean out’ lands by force or facilities, but they also always fail as our souls are connected to the sand of this land,” Zaid Ali, from northern Gaza, told Middle East Eye last month.

Trump:

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump declared at the press conference with Netanyahu. “We’ll own it, get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area....do something different, just can’t go back, if you go back, it’s gonna end up the same way it has for 100 years.”

See also Israel destroys Gaza, Gaza: Coming soon a Trump casino.

They make a desert and call it peace

Elon Musk's empire: Billions in military contracts

Feb 11 Reuters:

Elon Musk's companies have a variety of contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, highlighting the growing relationship between the tech entrepreneur's ventures and the U.S. military.

SpaceX Provides launch services to the Department of Defense, including the launch of classified satellites and other payloads. SpaceX's CEO Gwynne Shotwell has said the company has about $22 billion in government contracts. The vast majority of that, about $15 billion, is derived from NASA.

SpaceX's biggest Pentagon contracts include the $733 million National Security Space Launch contract awarded in October to lift satellites into orbit. The company has been tapped for more Pentagon launch contracts potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars more.

Starlink, the satellite-based internet service, which falls under the SpaceX umbrella, has been used by the Pentagon to provide connectivity in remote and austere environments. 

Starlink's commercial broadband service has some 7,000 satellites in orbit.

In 2023, the Pentagon awarded SpaceX a contract worth about $23 million to use Starlink to support military operations in Ukraine through mid-2024.

Starlink has had contracts with Special Operations Command, the Air Force, Army and other parts of the Pentagon.

Starshield: Though not broken out in government contracting, this satellite unit of SpaceX is similar to its commercial Starlink business but designed for government national security programs. 

While details of the program are scarce, it is believed to have more secure communication pathways for classified information. Starshield has a contract with at least one intelligence agency believed to be worth billions of dollars, Reuters has reported.

The total value of Musk's companies' contracts with the Department of Defense is estimated to be in the billions of dollars, but the true figure cannot be determined since many of them are classified. 

The contracts demonstrate the growing importance of private sector technology companies in supporting U.S. military operations and national security initiatives.

See also: Trump bullies Zelensky to get Ukraine's minerals.

Elon Musk’s Business Empire Benefits Under Trump

Elon Musk's cruel experiments on animals.

Neo-colonialism

State capture by the radical right.

Elon Musk and Russia.

Germans know what this means

Trump's pal

 A reminder to President Trump:

Trump's ties to Russia.

Rob Rogers

Neighborhood opposes 22-story high rise: Supervisor Engardio? No comment

Plan for 2700 Sloat Blvd.

CBS News:

San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood could soon look a little more like downtown after permits were filed for a proposed 22-story high-rise condo development.

While those behind it argue the structure will provide some much needed affordable housing, longtime residents counter that it just doesn't fit.

Renee Lazear has been living in the quaint Outer Parkside neighborhood in the Sunset District for more than two decades. As a fifth-generation Californian, she says historic single-family homes right by the San Francisco Zoo and Ocean Beach are what make her neighborhood so charming.

"My home was built when there were only 12 houses on the block in the sand dunes. We were built on sand," Lazear told CBS News Bay Area. Her family has been living in the neighborhood for nearly 100 years.

She said she is disappointed to hear that plans for a skyrise condo building at 2700 Sloat Blvd. have been proposed again to the city.

"It's why people moved out here in the first place. They loved the neighborhood. Changing it with a super high sky rise making it downtown or Miami is not going to make what people love and adore about our neighborhood," she said.

"It's a very lowkey vibe, family-oriented community that we have a lot of long-term multigenerational people who still live in the neighborhood, like myself," she added. "And people now finding out that this is where they want to be, they want to have a single-family home. [The] newer younger generation are moving in."

This is the second plan for a high-rise to replace the Sloat Garden Center. In a previous plan, developers had pitched a 50-floor skyrise tower that was quickly rejected by the city.

This latest proposal at 2700 Sloat Blvd. would have 24 floors, standing at about 250 feet tall.

"We've lost our ability and our voice to speak and have a say. They've taken away notifications to the neighbors about projects like this," Lazear said.

She is the co-founder of SON-SF, Save our Neighborhoods SF. The organization has collected almost 4,000 signatures to stop the 2700 Sloat project.

Lazear added that her concern for this new building is the impact the glass windows would have on the shadow, potentially impacting the animals at the zoo.

"The animals at the zoo will be affected by a lot of different factors: traffic, light, noise pollution," she said.

CBS News Bay Area brought these concerns to SCB Architects, who is leading the project for this new tower. The company is also partnering with San Francisco Housing Development Corp.

"You can see that there are actually two different buildings. This is the 100% affordable, senior housing building, and this is the market-rate condominium. And it's important that we have that component in the project, because it helps to subsidize the constructions, so that the affordable housing could be delivered," Strachan Forgan, the principal at SCB Architects, told CBS News Bay Area.

He said the plan is to build 446 units, of which 207 of them will be for affordable senior housing.

"There's a lot of people that want to live in the west side of the city, but can't necessarily afford a single-family home. So this can provide a new price point so we can increase density in the neighborhood but also provide new residents that can help support businesses," Forgan said.

He also added there will be about 10,000 square feet for retail space. But that is a concern for Lazear.

"Not something we are thrilled about in the neighborhood. It's kind of big and boxy, that we're afraid is going to happen on a larger scale," she said.

The Westerly San Francisco is right across from the proposed new building site. The condominiums by the ocean front were built a few years ago, but neighbors said many of those units and retail spaces have been left vacant.

Lazear is wondering how this new building, should it be approved, would be any different. "It's been basically storage unit for the building that has not been leased," Lazear said.

CBS News Bay Area reached out to the Westerly San Francisco for comment on how many units were currently occupied and whether there were plans to bring retail businesses into the space, but have not heard back.

Forgan, on the other hand, said the proposed units of studios, one and two-bedrooms will be smaller and more affordable.

"Change is sometimes difficult, but we also think that it's important to invite new neighbors into the community, because we have to rejuvenate the community, provide affordable housing," he said.

He also added that he understands the concerns of the impact of the building on the zoo, but he said they have participated in studies recently on that issue.

"We have done some shadow studies. That shadow moves across the zoo very quickly. The zoo obviously a very big footprint, so it really won't impact the animals," Forgan said....

Lazear, however, said she will be speaking with new Mayor Daniel Lurie along with city leaders to see if there are any alternative ways to transform the Sloat Garden Center.

"You could take part of it, and you could turn it into a community center, maybe you could build 20 units or something that would be truly affordable to help people," she said.

"Our area is the epitome of change, density and welcoming new neighborhoods to the community. We're not opposed to change, but we are opposed to irresponsible, unnecessary, oversized projects that will not fit," Lazear added.

CBS News Bay Area also reached out to Supervisor Joel Engardio for comment, as well as the San Francisco Housing Development Corp and have not heard back.

See also Joke or bargaining chip?

The original proposal

Is Trump a "Russian asset"?

Disappearing story about spy chief allegations Trump recruited as Russian asset in 1987

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh speculated that President Donald Trump may be a "Russian asset" or "plant" of the Russian government during an appearance on CNN on Thursday.

During a discussion on "CNN This Morning" about Trump criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Walsh argued, "The American president right now could be a plant, could be a Russian asset. I mean, think about that."

"Here I am. I know it’s early in the morning to say something like that, but think about that. And if the American people don’t care about that, that Putin might have something on Trump, that he’s an asset, that he’s a plant, that he’s doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin"....

See also Trump's ties to Russia.

Trump: Not popular

Dropping fast

 

See also "State capture" by the radical right

Trump loves Russia

Rob Rogers

Trump's valentine for Russia

Above the law?

The New Republic:

Our descent into authoritarian rule continues. Over the weekend, Elon Musk raged on Twitter that people at CBS News deserve a “long prison sentence” based on a fabricated rationale. 

Meanwhile, President Trump tweeted out a line saying straight out that his presidency is above the law. 

And Trump nominated a nominee for U.S. attorney in D.C. who has elevated the idea that DOJ should have no independence from the president. 

According to scholars of authoritarianism, these are the things that happen when a country is sliding into authoritarian rule....

The Torture Memos and Donald Trump

John Yoo

Balls and Strikes:

....These tenacious defenses of the president’s right to invade foreign countries and states’ rights to ignore international law drew the attention of scouts at the highest levels of conservative legal thought. 

In 2001, President George W. Bush promoted him to deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, where Yoo would pull off his masterpieces: the Torture Memos, which justified some of the worst atrocities America committed during the War on Terror.

In his memos, all of Yoo’s pontifications about the wishy-washy nature of international law paid off. He answered a series of questions from the CIA and Defense Department with veteran confidence: Al Qaeda? Not a “state,” and thus not covered by the Geneva Conventions. The Taliban? Not a real “government,” and thus not covered, either. Anyone we detain? 

If they’re not wearing army uniforms, they might as well be al Qaeda. And what can we do to them? Since the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to “enemy combatants,” we can do whatever we want. 

These memos and their principles were used to justify years of extraordinary renditions, waterboarding, and assassinations. Torture went from a rumor about CIA blacksites to official U.S. government policy, all thanks to John Yoo and the other merry men at the Office of Legal Counsel....

Trump thinks torture "absolutely works"

Yoo and Fox News

"Disinformation Space": Trump sucks up to Putin, smears Zelensky

Summit for bullies

Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine

US President Donald Trump has appeared to accuse Ukraine of being responsible for the war with Russia, in a flurry of claims from his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.

Speaking to reporters, Trump also made claims about President Volodymyr Zelensky's popularity and observed that Ukraine had yet to hold scheduled elections due to martial law. He later doubled down on those comments in a fiery Truth Social post on Wednesday.

Trump's accusations - some of which appeared to mirror common Russian talking points about the war - came just hours after US officials met a Russian delegation in Riyadh to open talks to end the conflict, which has raged for almost three years.

Zelensky later accused Trump of "living in a disinformation space" created by Russia....

Does Putin own Trump?

Oliver Stone: "Years of bullshit" on JFK murder

See also The assassination of JFK: Case not closed

Judge hammers Trump's lawyer on trans bias

From The Independent:

A federal judge eviscerated language in Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order targeting transgender service members in the U.S. military and “radical gender ideology” and the use of pronouns.

During Tuesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., where lawyers for trans service members are challenging Trump’s order that has triggered Department of Defense policy blocking gender-affirming healthcare and new trans recruits, a furious District Judge Ana Reyes interrogated Trump’s “demeaning,” “biologically inaccurate” and “frankly ridiculous” language.

Reyes, who was appointed by Joe Biden, fired off a series of questions attacking the order’s statements that suggest trans Americans are dishonorable and lack “warrior ethos” and humility.

She also grilled government lawyers over the order’s statements against “shifting pronoun usage” and the “use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

“Would you agree that if the military is negatively impacted, we all have a lot bigger problems than pronoun use?” Reyes asked. If that is the case, “our military is incompetent,” she said.

“I can’t agree with that,” Justice Department attorney Jason Lynch said.

“Do you think usage of that preferred pronoun by that small group of people is going to impact our ability in combat situations?” she asked. “Explain to me how pronoun usage impacts [military readiness]. Because any common sense human being would understand it doesn’t.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has instructed U.S. military branches to pause gender-affirming care procedures and prescriptions and deny trans recruits.

Reyes called the assertion “frankly ridiculous,” and even said she would entertain testimony from an officer of the U.S. military to testify in the government’s defense, if they could find one.

“If you can get me an officer of the United States military to get on the stand and say that because of pronoun usage we are less prepared, I will be the first to buy you a box of cigars,” she said.

Trump’s order, which he issued in his first days in office, was implemented by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this month, directed all branches to pause the admission of new transgender service members, and to pause all affirming healthcare procedures and prescriptions for active troops.

The order also claims that the “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order states.

Reyes repeatedly asked whether that language is “demeaning” to transgender people.

“The government is not willing to take a position [that] to categorically call a group of people selfish is demeaning?” she said. “The answer is ‘yes it is,’ ‘no it isn’t,’ or ‘I can’t say.’”

Lynch said he could not speak to it in a “constitutional sense.”

“I want to know from the government, whether that language expresses animus,” said Reyes, suggesting that she could strike against the executive order to prove that it was motivated by prejudice.

“This is the policy of the president of the United States that is impacting thousands of people,” she said. “Calling an entire group of people lying, dishonest people with no integrity....how is that anything other than showing animus?....You have an answer, you just refuse to give it.”

Trump is facing a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn executive orders targeting transgender service members as well as incarcerated trans women and gender-affirming healthcare.

Earlier, Reyes noted that Trump’s separate executive order that eliminates federal recognition of trans people inaccurately states there are only two sexes, without accounting for intersex people.

“This executive order is premised on an assertion that’s not biologically correct. There are anywhere near 30 intersex examples. Anyone who doesn’t have XX or XY chromosomes is not just male or female, they’re intersex,” Reyes said. “If I’m intersex, where am I allowed to go?”

Reyes is weighing whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would effectively block the order.

Trump’s order also rails against what the president and his allies have labeled “radical gender ideology,” which government lawyers could not define in court.

“If you can’t articulate what radical gender ideology means, how is the defense secretary going to know what it means?” Reyes asked.

Lynch said he is “loathe to speculate“ what Trump meant.

“It’s not like I randomly picked you off the street,” Reyes fired back. “You’re the government’s representative here.”

Affidavits from trans service members and plaintiffs in the case — including decorated veterans and long-serving troops from across the military branches — illustrate the far-reaching impacts of Trump’s order within the days after it was issued.

In one case, a 27-year-old Navy officer who has served for five years and is a transgender man was literally on a surgery table for a planned double mastectomy when a surgeon delivered “unfortunate news” that his surgery could not be performed.

Tricare, the military health insurer, “would no longer cover my surgery,” according to his affidavit.

“I want to be able to serve my country on the same terms as any other service member,” he wrote. “My treating physicians have all determined that this surgery is medically necessary for my care plan. But I am being denied this care solely because I am transgender.”

Trump has also signed an executive order designed to push transgender women and girl’s from women’s sports.

At least two lawsuits are asking courts to overturn Trump’s order.

Thousands of transgender troops are currently serving, “and are fully qualified for the positions in which they serve,” filling critical roles in combat arms, aviation, nuclear engineering, law enforcement, and military intelligence, among other fields, according to SPARTA Pride, which represents trans Americans in the military.

“The readiness and physical capabilities of transgender service members is not different from that of other service members,” the group said in a statement.

With God on his side, Trump "saving the country"

The New York Times:

President Trump on Saturday posted on social media a single sentence that appears to encapsulate his attitude as he tests the nation’s legal and constitutional boundaries in the process of upending the federal government and punishing his perceived enemies.

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Mr. Trump wrote, first on his social media platform Truth Social and then on the website X.

By late afternoon, Mr. Trump had pinned the statement to the top of his Truth Social feed, making it clear it was not a passing thought but one he wanted people to absorb. The official White House account on X posted his message in the evening.

The quote is a variation of one sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, although its origin is unclear.

Nonetheless, the sentiment was familiar: Mr. Trump, through his words and actions, has repeatedly suggested that surviving two assassination attempts is evidence that he has divine backing to enforce his will. (emphasis added)

He has brought a far more aggressive attitude toward his use of power to the White House in his second term than he did at the start of his first. 

The powers of the presidency that he returned to were bolstered by last year’s Supreme Court ruling that he is presumptively immune from prosecution for any crimes he may commit using his official powers.

During his first weeks in office, Mr. Trump has signed numerous executive orders that pushed at the generally understood limits of presidential power, fired numerous officials, dismantled an agency in clear violation of statutory limits, and frozen spending authorized by Congress without clear authority. 

Many of his policy moves have been at least temporarily frozen by judges....