TrumpVersusUS
LightNews LightNews
banner
trumpversusus.bsky.social
TrumpVersusUS
@trumpversusus.bsky.social
300 followers 120 following 380 posts
Chronicling the ways big and small that Donald Trump operates against the interests, values and well-being of America and our citizens.

🔗: https://trumpversusus.org/
📰: https://trumpversusus.substack.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
trumpversusus.bsky.social
"As for whether 'DOGE' is actually fighting fraud, or just building a surveillance dragnet, we still have no way to be sure — thanks, again, to the Supreme Court … [which continues] to shield 'DOGE' from having to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on its operations."
“The data [“DOGE”] seeks includes Social Security numbers, medical records, and tax and banking information,” NBC News reported. The government said “DOGE” needed the data to pursue its supposed mission of cutting waste in government — but employees of “DOGE” have been involved in reported efforts to merge federal information across agencies to track immigrants and create a master database of government data on Americans. As for whether “DOGE” is actually fighting fraud, or just building a surveillance dragnet, we still have no way to be sure — thanks, again, to the Supreme Court. In a separate Friday order, the court continued to shield “DOGE” from having to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on its operations.
June 8, 2025 at 9:22 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Folks …
The stock photo of a bald man — who's staring at a camera with a five o'clock shadow of stubble — that sits atop a Clickhole story with this headline: "Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point." (In this case, we're not sure if Musk or Trump is the actual worst person we know. But Trump's point was a good one.)
June 5, 2025 at 7:09 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
🤦: “The Trump administration has ended a program with a key role in funding research into a shot for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The move was the latest in a series of decisions to pull back funding of efforts to prevent and control the spread of the disease … both in the U.S. and abroad.”
The move was the latest in a series of decisions to pull back funding of efforts to prevent and control the spread of the disease, affecting work both in the U.S. and abroad. “The cuts will derail hard-won progress against HIV over the past few decades, public health experts said. This week, the administration also withheld funds that were due to states and territories for H.I.V. prevention work. In Texas, the State Department of Health Services asked grantees to pause all activities “until further notice.” In Mecklenberg County in North Carolina, the health department has already had to lay off 10 staffers. Already, many African countries have reported serious disruptions in their efforts to curb the epidemic.”
June 4, 2025 at 11:09 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
“Gender appears to be a particular focus of the ongoing purge at the agency, with Patel seemingly focused on ensuring that the FBI’s G-Men are … well, men. … ‘The actions have obliterated decades of experience in national security and criminal matters,” the New York Times reports.’”
Gender appears to be a particular focus of the ongoing purge at the agency, with Patel seemingly focused on ensuring that the FBI’s G-Men are … well, men: "A succession of top agents, all women, were given an ultimatum: Take a different post or be asked to retire. A senior agent, who was until April in charge of intelligence at the Los Angeles field office, was asked to relocate to the FBI’s campus in Huntsville, Ala., where former officials said she would take on fewer responsibilities — or to retire. Similar scenarios have played out in San Diego; St. Louis; Jacksonville, Fla.; and in Birmingham and Mobile, Ala.; as well as the Washington field office." “The actions have obliterated decades of experience in national security and criminal matters,” the New York Times reports, “and raised questions about whether the agents taking over such critical posts have the institutional knowledge to pursue cornerstones of its work.” Maybe this is why we haven’t really heard a lot of ‘Make America Safe Again’ rhetoric from this administration.
June 4, 2025 at 11:09 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
“This isn’t just a story about next level corruption and grifting — some of the president’s deals made money for his family at the expense of the rest of us. Take the recent pardon of a convicted tax cheat, who *had* been scheduled to pay $4.4 million in restitution to the federal treasury …”
Take the recent pardon of a convicted tax cheat, who had been scheduled to pay $4.4 million in restitution to the federal treasury: "Weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming, even as Mr. Trump issued clemency grants to hundreds of other allies. "Then, [the convicted tax cheat’s mother] was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla. "Less than three weeks after she attended the dinner, Mr. Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon." $1 million for Trump, $4.4 million from us — and that’s before counting the salaries and expenses that went into a now-nullified prosecution. Oh: this particular felon went to jail for literally stealing from his employees to the tune of $11 million, and using the haul to buy luxury goods like a yacht.
June 2, 2025 at 7:26 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
“The cash-grabbing frenzy makes concerns during Trump’s first term about profits from housing Secret Service agents in his hotels seem quaint. … [The] shameless sales pitch: doing business with Trump’s companies can buy his favor, while spurning his attention might land one in a world of hurt.”
You can personally dine with President Trump, but it’ll cost you $5 million. From The New Yorker: "The return on investment is uncertain, a government-affairs executive told me: 'What if he’s in a bad mood? You have no clue where the money is eventually going.' Another lobbying veteran described the frank exchange as 'outer-borough Mafia shit.'" Trump’s golf and entertainment enterprises are raking it in, too. Initiation fees for would-be members of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida have doubled to $1 million — and at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N,J., the membership prices have jumped from $75,000 to $125,000. The cash-grabbing frenzy makes concerns during Trump’s first term about his profiting from housing Secret Service agents in his hotels seem quaint. Behind the larger sums sought by the president’s family lies a shameless sales pitch: doing business with Trump’s companies can buy his favor, while spurning his attention might land one in a world of hurt.
June 2, 2025 at 7:13 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
So there was just a domestic terror attack, but rest easy: the FBI has its eyes locked on … (*checks notes*) … er, the stuff that matters? open.substack.com/pub/trumpver...
• Failed Fox News host and banned YouTuber Dan Bongino, now the deputy director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced through X on Memorial Day that the bureau would investigate the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House — at a time when the Biden family was out of town — and the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade and federal protection of the right to abortion. Later in the week he also announced an probe of "the cover-up of the origin of the Covid virus" … A post to X by FBI deputy director Dan Bongino: “As we read and process reports of a new COVID strain emerging, I want you to know that we are actively investigating, in multiple field offices, the cover-up of the origin of the COVID virus, along with associated matters requiring our attention. You deserve answers.”
June 1, 2025 at 10:42 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
The White House spun proposed GOP cuts to Pell Grants and student loans by saying 'let them eat trade schools' — without acknowledging that, as @gregsargent.bsky.social notes, their plans put college out of reach for working-class Americans … but offer trade schools no new funds.
The ‘big, beautiful’ mid-year budget package passed by House Republicans has an aspect we didn’t touch on in the last issue: deep cuts to student loans, grants, and other programs to make higher education affordable for middle- and working-class families. The House bill cuts off grants for part-time students, many of whom are trying to pay their own way toward a diploma. It also caps what undergraduate students and their parents can borrow to a total of $50,000 for each — a sum that, pooled together, only covers slightly over two-and-a-half years of study for an in-state student at the University of Kentucky. Political commentator Greg Sargent explains how the changes, if passed, would function as a limit on social and economic opportunity for the non-wealthy: "[The] grotesque subtext to all of it: Telling working-class families that the real obstacle their kids face is zero-sum competition from foreign students makes it easier to take away resources previously appropriated to boost working-class kids to fund tax cuts for the rich. … [What’s] particularly ghoulish about Trump’s suggestion that his blockade on international students is about helping American kids [is that] the 'big, beautiful bill' that House Republicans passed last week … could make attending college harder for countless such kids.
May 29, 2025 at 7:21 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
The world's richest man spoke to the newspaper owned by the world's _third_ richest man to seek pity — because amid the mass firings, re-hirings, and re-firings, and the impact that wrecking programs has had on communities, he wants us to understand that _he's_ the victim.
What’s the world’s richest man to do when his dreams of bringing a chainsaw to government crash into the reality that the federal workforce functions — or used to, before “DOGE” arrived — pretty well? Trump sidekick Elon Musk’s answer was to soothe his wounded feelings with an interview given to the newspaper owned by the world’s third richest man, The Washington Post. Musk offered that he’s the real victim in all the mass firings, foreign-aid cutoffs, and chaos he orchestrated around Washington: "He said repercussions over DOGE cuts had been severe. 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he said. 'So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.' … Musk appeared reflective Tuesday as he returned to his natural habitat … [a] remote spit of marsh under the sweltering South Texas sun that SpaceX transformed into the world’s most unlikely launch site." Let’s set this straight: Musk’s rampage through federal agencies resulted in a string of mass firings, re-hirings, and re-firings that left workers and their families in emotional and financial turmoil, to say nothing of the impact of gutted programs on communities. A devastating recent article described how some employees developed “problems they’d never experienced before: insomnia, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts.” Anyway, as if to welcome Musk home with the magic touch he brought to Washington, a SpaceX rocket launched on Tuesday spun out of control and burned up over southern Africa.
May 29, 2025 at 7:06 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Our very normal health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., joined a wellness podcast with _this_ home page to label the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet were “corrupt":
The home page of 'The Ultimate Human' podcast, which features a photo of a bare-chested host seated in what appears to be a sauna next to a sales pitch to join a challenge to "Flush Mold & Metals From Your Body."
May 29, 2025 at 6:59 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
"For billionaires, [the "Big, Beautiful Bill Act" comes with] a bonanza of new tax giveaways — resulting in people who earn over $1 million a year adding on average more than $89,000 to their annual take-home pay."
A bar chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which shows that people earning $1 million or more per year would see their incomes rise by an average 4.3% thanks to the Republican reconciliation package. The bottom 20% percent would on average gain just 0.6% — an amount more than wiped out by the bill's cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs.
May 27, 2025 at 8:54 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
The Justice Department went on a political prosecution and intimidation spree—announcing charges against House member and investigations of Chicago's mayor and New York's former governor, while the president posted threats to investigate Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Oprah. Mmm, freedom.
Other Stories We’re Following (warning: it’s a lot) From “investigate and indict” to “name and shame”? Shelving a policy in place for generations, the DOJ under Trump will apparently “name and shame” people it can’t find plausible reasons to prosecute. DOJ has traditionally kept silent about investigations unless and until the filing of charges. [The New York Times] DOJ targeting political foes: DOJ announced investigations this week of New York City mayoral hopeful (and polling favorite) Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace as governor of New York state, and sitting Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. [Associated Press, Chicago Tribune] … and charges against elected officials who speak out: The U.S. Attorney in New Jersey also announced charges against U.S. Rep. Monica McIver (D), ostensibly for “assaulting” ICE officers during a contentious recent encounter outside a Newark ICE facility. Video documentation of the encounter contained no clear evidence of any assault — and of course, members of Congress have oversight responsibility over ICE and every other federal agency. [Politico] … and investigating the Boss? The president posted to Truth Social twice about how he’d also love to see investigations of public figures Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Oprah Winfrey — in the name of “accountability for people who act as if they’re above the law,” or so said the least self-aware spokesperson in White House history. Springsteen recently called out Trump as he opened a concert set, and yesterday released a single of the song “Hopes and Dreams” that includes his rant against the President. [Rolling Stone] False claims against colleges: Using positively Orwellian language, the DOJ announced that its new “civil rights fraud initiative” would use a 19th-century law called the False Claims Act to investigate colleges for “divisive DEI policies.” [CNN] Hatcheting Harvard’s international enrollment? Inviting another lawsuit from America’s oldest university, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote Harvard administrators today to tell them she had revoked their ability to enroll international students. About 6,800 students, who make up 27% of the student body at Harvard, come from outside the United States. [The New York Times]
May 22, 2025 at 7:37 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
“Just so we’re clear … Secretary Kennedy — who urged parents to “do your own research” on childhood vaccines — has gone mask-off with his conviction that he should decide who gets access to medications. Even if you [want vaccines] he may restrict them — and restrict other safe medications, too.”
Our Health: Kennedy Clamps Down on Covid Vaccines The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “approved” the updated Novavax shot for Covid-19 last week — but with a catch. The FDA had previously certified the shot for broad use by Americans, but restricted the latest formulation for use only by Americans over 65 years of age and people from 12 to 65 with a condition that puts them at high risk. The FDA announcement short-circuited deliberations by Centers for Disease Control scientists, who typically judge who should receive shots and when. The downside is clear: the limited approval “may leave Americans who do not have underlying conditions at risk if a more virulent version of the coronavirus were to emerge.” The move may mean that fewer people get the shot — and that people under 65 who seek vaccination may have to pay out of pocket, since insurers don’t have to cover drugs administered for off-label use. Other Stories We’re Following Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has also said he might restrict access to medication abortion — citing a flawed and politically driven “study” as an excuse to consider limits on mifepristone, a drug with a history of fewer complications than wisdom-tooth removal, tonsillectomy, or Viagra. [Mother Jones] (Just so we’re clear what’s happening: Secretary Kennedy — who urged parents to “do your own research” on childhood vaccines — has gone mask-off with his conviction that he should decide who gets access to medications. Even if you “do your own research” and decide the life-protecting power of vaccines is worth having, he may restrict them — and restrict other safe medications, too.)
May 19, 2025 at 9:00 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
“Billionaires might reap a few more dollars of tax cuts as CDC and other agencies shrink, and the White House might amass more power as Trump’s appointees trample the spending directives of Congress. In exchange, however, Americans might lose life-saving and life-extending scientific progress.”
What makes it galling to watch the dismantling of assets that actually make America great — such as its best-in-the-world networks of medical and scientific research institutions and programs — is reading story after miraculous story about how much these American creations have benefited the American people. Just this week NPR reported on a breakthrough: the use of gene-editing to save an infant born with a rare syndrome: “KJ was born with … an inherited genetic disease known as a urea cycle disorder. The condition causes toxic levels of ammonia to build up in a child's body whenever they eat protein, making them prone to brain damage and possibly even death. “[KJ’s team created] a gene-editing therapy using a technique known as ‘base-editing,’ that was targeted specifically for KJ's genes. ‘Because we had spent so much time doing these dress rehearsals, we actually had gotten pretty good at doing this,’ [a doctor said]. ‘We had a solution in hand several weeks after birth.’” Both breakthroughs result from long-term investments in scientific discovery that profit-seeking companies wouldn’t necessarily make, given the lack of certain payoff. These investments are what Trump seems dead-set on destroying. Billionaires might reap a few more dollars of tax cuts as CDC and other agencies shrink, and the White House might amass more power as the president’s appointees trample the spending directives of Congress. In exchange, however, Americans might lose life-saving and life-extending scientific progress. Americans also might lose jobs, thanks to economic opportunities left unrealized — and researchers who leave the United States to continue their work. This week a Harvard scientist working on materials for use in quantum computing — a paradigm that could lead to devices exponentially faster than any computer in use today — posted that he’d lost multiple federal grants that fund his work …
May 17, 2025 at 10:09 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Going back to Musk, plans to upgrade air traffic control systems are sure to pique interest with the SpaceX and Tesla CEO — who's taken quite a keen interest in the contracting plans of the Federal Aviation Administration … trumpversusus.substack.com/p/cashing-in...
Here’s why people should watch this: Elon Musk has taken a close interest in the FAA, and he appears to see plans to upgrade its aging technology systems as a chance to grab contracts for SpaceX. Having forced out the confirmed administrator as Trump took office, Starlink began deploying communications terminals in March across the FAA’s communications infrastructure. This represented one of many examples where a Musk company benefited from the obvious conflict of interest presented by his role in job-slashing ‘government efficiency’ efforts. The acting leader of the FAA has said Musk and his “DOGE” team had no role in advancing the agency’s test of Starlink. We know it’s hard to keep track of everything going on with this government, but this statement doesn’t exactly pass the smell test. [Below this point sits a screenshot of a CNN headline, which reads as follows: 'Elon Musk says upgrade of FAA's air traffic control system is failing and SpaceX needs to take over Verizon's contract"]
May 9, 2025 at 6:50 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Overseas, Elon Musk has a new sales force working on his behalf: the U.S. diplomatic corps, which under Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly urging countries that want lower tariffs to do Musk's Starlink satellite-internet business a favor. open.substack.com/pub/trumpver...
The kicker: Starlink is owned by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace company. Government communications reviewed by the Washington Post apparently show that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm.” In essence, the law that gives presidents the power to impose ‘emergency’ tariffs has been invoked to manufacture leverage that Trump and Musk can use against foreign governments. Faced with a 50% tariff on exports to the U.S., the southern African nation of Lesotho gave Starlink a 10-year license to operate in the country, and expressed hope that its move “demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.” Several other countries have moved to ink deals or licenses with Starlink since Trump was sworn in — Including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam, although the Post notes that “this is probably not a comprehensive count.”
May 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Yep. ↘️ open.substack.com/pub/trumpver...
The White House released its official proposal for federal spending in fiscal year 2026 (starting October 1), and if you see the last few months of cuts made to science and medical research as severe ... well, buckle up. The big winners: Homeland Security and Defense. The big losers: pretty much everything else. Trump's proposal would cut funding for the National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency by more than half, chop nearly half of the budgets at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and make deep trims at the Department of the Interior, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (with Elon Musk's SpaceX primed to pick up the pieces), and - no surprise here - international aid programs such as the now-unstaffed U.S. Agency for International Development. But it's the smaller programs where even relatively minor decreases in funding will be devastating. Programs like: support for food banks, money toward utility bills for low-income households, and the Americorps volunteer-service program - which had all of its programs and projects (illegally?) shut down by Elon Musk's job-slashing "DOGE" effort last month. The cuts would take spending on discretionary non-defense programs - everything that's not taken up by the Pentagon or programs such as Social Security and Medicare - to its lowest point on record.
May 3, 2025 at 9:17 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
A month ago, the administration laid off 10,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services. www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/h...

How's that going, you wonder? Well …
The words 'one month later,' written in Spongebob Squarepants interstitial-card format.
April 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
A meme template. Next to a picture of a sad Trump, we've typed the words "raising taxes for a few millionaires." Next to a picture of a happy Trump, we've typed "taking medicaid from 20 million Americans."
April 24, 2025 at 6:18 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
People don't like seeing Trump trample on our laws, and our Constitution.
A result from a Pew Research/USA Today poll released on April 23. A graph showed that among people polled, 78% of people say that if a federal court ruled a Trump administration action illegal, the administration _has_ to follow the ruling (while 19% say the administration does not). Among those polled, 88% said that if the Supreme Court ruled that an action is illegal, the Trump administration has to follow the Supreme Court's ruling (while 9% say the administration does not).
April 23, 2025 at 5:41 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Old enough to remember when Trump inherited an economy described as “the envy of the world”? Yeah, so are we.
A cover of The Economist magazine from October 2024. Beside a photorealistic depiction of a stack of $100 bills propelled skyward by a massive array of rocket engines, the cover displays these words: “THE ENVY OF THE WORLD – America’s economy: a special report”
April 22, 2025 at 2:00 AM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Seems like double-digit inflation used to bother Trump a great deal more. How weird, hm?
A post by Donald Trump to Truth Social in 2022. It reads: "Americans Make Huge Sacrifices As Bidenflation Rises To 12.8% — But President Biden says, 'Our economy is strong as hell'"
April 8, 2025 at 10:23 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
And we talk about the president’s chronic inability to even act like he supports the troops:

“Trump skipped the dignified transfer ceremony for the remains of four U.S. soldiers who died in a training exercise. … Instead of showing his respects to the remains … Trump [opted] to golf.”
“ing all the judgment of a man who would fire a four-star intelligence agency chief on the word of a social-media crank, Trump skipped the dignified transfer ceremony for the remains of four U.S. soldiers who died in a training exercise in the eastern European nation of Lithuania. (Other presidents routinely attended these ceremonies.) Instead of showing his respects to the remains — which had been seen off by a delegation of Lithuanian leaders that included the nation’s president, Gitanas Nausėda — Trump traveled to Florida to golf.”
April 6, 2025 at 9:28 PM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Seems like a rough headline for a president who’s less than three months into his term.
A USA Today headline, which reads: “As universal tariffs begin, Trump golfs and tells Americans to ‘hang tough’”
April 6, 2025 at 3:16 AM
trumpversusus.bsky.social
Panorama shot from DC rally taken at about 12:15pm
April 5, 2025 at 7:37 PM