This week in the dismantling of the republic

 Jeffrey St. Clair>>

 

+ Let’s try to reprise this week in the dismantling of the Republic: Trump proclaimed Super Bowl Sunday, Gulf of America Day, and announced his plans to “buy Gaza.” From whom it isn’t clear.

On Monday, Trump said he was ordering a 25% tariff/tax on all imports of steel and aluminum and warned Hamas that if all hostages in Gaza weren’t released by noon this Saturday, “all hell” would break loose. Then he banned paper straws.

 

On Tuesday, JD Vance and Elon Musk fumed that federal judges had no business intruding on their unconstitutional raids on the federal government and that Trump should ignore any injunctions imposed on them. Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order rolling back enforcement of a law that makes it illegal for US companies to bribe foreign officials, arguing that the restriction puts American firms at a disadvantage, and told the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. To be fair, Trump also abolished the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, making it easier for overseas corporations and governments to bribe US officials. (He also shut down the Justice Department’s task force responsible for tracking down Russian oligarchs evading US sanctions.)

 

On Wednesday, Trump demanded that the Education Department be closed “immediately!” The problem: the Department was opened by an act of Congress, which isn’t as insurmountable a problem as it once might have been given that Congress barely asserts its existence anymore. Later that day in the Oval Office, Trump was allegedly told by X Æ A-Xii, one of Elon Musk’s 12, make that 13 (known) kids, to “Shut up” and “You’re not the president!” Perhaps as compensation for being dissed by a four-year-old (who also wiped streams of snot on the Resolute Desk), Trump proclaimed himself the head of the Kennedy Center, whose annual awards he’d boycotted during his prior term, and called Putin to let him know he could take as much of Ukraine as he could carry back to Moscow, as long as he left the rare earth minerals behind for Trump.