Raw Story

Republicans control the U.S. Senate by a 53-47 margin, but the newest member of the Senate Republican Conference may prove to be a thorn in President Donald Trump's side over the next four years.

On Tuesday, the Christian Science Monitor published an interview with Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), who was recently elected to replace the outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) after he retired from politics. Curtis already made waves despite being a senator for less than a month, after he made it clear that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) would not have his support to lead the Department of Justice. He's since said that Trump is "far better served" with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his second attorney general nominee.

Because Republicans can only afford four defections, Curtis is expected to play a significant role in whether some of Trump's more controversial Cabinet appointments are ultimately confirmed by the full Senate.

While the Utah Republican ultimately voted in favor of confirming former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be the next defense secretary, he's been cagey about whether he would back Director of National Intelligence-designate Tulsi Gabbard, whose confirmation hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled for later this week.

READ MORE: 'She lied to us': Ex-Gabbard staffers speak out about 'insane' meeting with Syrian dictator

Hegseth was only confirmed after Vice President JD Vance had to cast the tie-breaking vote, with Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voting no. If those three remain opposed to Trump's most contentious Cabinet appointments, Curtis' vote could prove impactful in deciding the makeup of the Trump administration.

"I view myself as somebody who has commitment to my constitutional responsibility – and I’m not a rubber stamp," Curtis told the Monitor.

The outlet noted that like his predecessor, Curtis is a Mormon, and that members of the Mormon church are typically warmer toward immigrants than other Republicans. In a January op-ed for the Hill, Curtis recalled one instance in which he watched a migrant get arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and argued that Trump's mass deportation agenda was not being "wielded with a proper portion of compassion."

“I saw in his eyes both his plight and my role in trying to fix this human crisis,” Curtis wrote. “No words were spoken, yet the look in his eyes seemed to be asking me the question, ‘How can you be letting this go on?’ He was the one in handcuffs, yet I felt as though I was the one who had failed.”

READ MORE: 'Terrified': Senator describes death threats lobbed at Republicans who opposed Hegseth

by Léon BRUNEAU

Tariffs, just as they were during his first term from 2017 to 2021, are Trump's weapon of choice on the global stage.

While it may be too early to tell how successful of a tactic they are against both US allies and rivals such as China, it shows how Trump -- who prides himself on his negotiating skills -- will not hesitate to take a hard line to get what he wants.

- 'Leverage' -

After a rollercoaster Sunday with dueling tariff threats between Washington and Bogota, the White House said Colombian President Gustavo Petro had backed down and accepted the terms of repatriating immigrants from the United States.

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Trump had first threatened to levy 25 percent tariffs on all imported Colombian goods in a heated response to Petro refusing to accept two military planes carrying deported migrants.

It was not clear whether leftist Petro had conceded his demand that the migrants be treated "with dignity."

Planes sent by Bogota to ferry the migrants would nonetheless return by Monday or Tuesday "at the latest," according to Daniel Garcia Pena, Colombia's ambassador to the United States.

Eddy Acevedo, chief of staff at the nonpartisan Woodrow Wilson Center think tank, said Petro "quickly became aware of the amount of leverage the United States has with Colombia and that his reckless decision could jeopardize."

"Last year alone, Petro had no problem allowing in 14,000 Colombians that were deported from the United States back to Colombia," Acevedo said.

- 'America First' in action -

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was quick to declare victory Sunday, saying: "Today's events make clear to the world that America is respected again."

Trump himself echoed the sentiment on Monday, telling reporters on Air Force One that "it serves the world well to look at" the Colombia spat.

Trump's plan for mass deportations of migrants has put him on a potential collision course with governments across Latin America, the original home of most of the United States' estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

"The message that's being sent is how willing the Trump administration is to use these tools, and the fact that they got the opportunity to make that point in the first week of the administration, I'm sure, is quite pleasing for them," said Kevin Whitaker, the former US ambassador to Colombia who now serves as a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council.

True to the promises he made on the campaign trail, Trump spent his first week back in power working to implement his "America First" diplomatic credo.

In doing so, he has also threatened to levy tariffs against Canada and Mexico if they did not comply with his immigration demands.

He also announced the United States' withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO) during a slew of executive orders he signed.

In addition, Trump ordered a pause to US foreign aid -- except for Egypt, Israel and emergency food aid -- until a complete review is performed to see if it aligns with his agenda.

Trump has also threatened to "take back" control of the Panama Canal, claimed it was in Canada's best interest to become the 51st state, and reaffirmed his desire to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

In the latter case, Trump has brandished tariffs against a fellow NATO ally.

And at the Davos forum last week, Trump in a videocall told the audience of business leaders to be prepared to come and produce goods in the United States, or else get ready to pay tariffs.

Career attorneys and Justice Department staff are said to be rattled by the sea of changes upending the agency in President Donald Trump’s first week in office, as they struggle to adjust to the new reality.

The latest development affecting the department – which Trump spent four years blasting as overly political as it pursued criminal cases against him – came Monday when he fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked with special counsel Jack Smith on Trump’s charges.

The DOJ has also seen Trump’s acting attorney general order a shake-up of senior personnel across major divisions “and dramatically shifted workplace rules — all in a matter of days,” according to a report in Politico.

But what’s “more disruptive” than the policy changes has been Monday’s purging of attorneys, as well as the moving of veteran national-security prosecutors and a call by a Trump appointee for prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases to turn over their files for an internal review, the report added.

While Trump was expected to transform the DOJ as president – and campaigned on many of the changes he is now seeing through – they were still taken by surprise, according to Politico.

“It feels like a non-violent war. It’s just wild. Everybody’s a sitting duck and these people have no power or control over the situation,” one DOJ career employee told Politico. “People are just in a state of shock and devastated. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen … Nothing that happened during the first Trump administration came anywhere close to this.”

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The publication said that it spoke with more than a dozen current and former DOJ officials, the majority of whom were granted anonymity over fears of "potential retribution."

“It’s got to be among the most demoralizing moments in the history of the Department of Justice,” a former DOJ career official said to Politico. “It is a flat-out purge of individuals who this administration must view either of suspect loyalty or have worked on matters they just did not like. … We are in the early phases of what to me is just looking like a wholesale politically inspired demolition of the Department of Justice in key places.”

For another career staffer, the government-wide directives issued by the administration urging agencies to “identify all employees on probationary periods” have caused panic for DOJ personnel “who’ve been at the agency for less than two years and lack most civil service protections," according to Politico.

“It’s the probation announcement that has people completely terrified,” the career staffer told the publication. “There are a lot of question marks around some of these programmatic shifts, but there are not really question marks with respect to some of these fundamental employment issues.”

President Donald Trump has ordered a halt to a decades-old program dating back to the George W. Bush administration that has saved millions of lives abroad by distributing HIV medications to low-income countries, The New York Times reported — "even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics."

The shutdown of the program, known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is part of a broader directive by the Trump administration to suspend nearly all foreign aid, except for emergency food assistance and arms deals for Egypt and Israel. It also comes amid Trump's move to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, which many in the GOP have accused of being overly protective of the Chinese government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That foreign aid pause only applies for three months. However, according to The Times, "On Monday afternoon, officials worldwide were alerted that PEPFAR’s data systems would shut down at 6 p.m. Eastern — roughly three hours after the email was received — immediately closing off access to all data sets, reports and analytical tools," which has some experts worried the Trump administration has no plans to restart the program.

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Meanwhile, the report continued, "Appointments are being canceled, and patients are being turned away from clinics, according to people with knowledge of the situation who feared retribution if they spoke publicly. Many people with H.I.V. are facing abrupt interruptions to their treatment."

PEPFAR is widely considered one of Bush's greatest legacies as president and is thought to have saved around 25 million lives worldwide, with many being in Africa where HIV has ravaged communities for decades. However, many Republican lawmakers who distrust family planning care have wanted to get rid of it for years.

Already, PEPFAR was in jeopardy under former President Joe Biden's administration, with significant cuts to the program planned even before Trump was re-elected.

"Without treatment, virus levels in people with H.I.V. will quickly spike, hobbling the immune systems of the infected people and increasing the odds that they will spread the virus to others," The Times noted. "One study estimated that if PEPFAR were to end, as many as 600,000 lives would be lost over the next decade in South Africa alone. And that nation relies on PEPFAR for only 20 percent of its H.I.V. budget. Some poorer countries are almost entirely dependent on the program."

Minnesota Senate Republicans tried to expel Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, from the chamber Monday, arguing that her felony burglary charge restricts her from adequately representing her constituents and that the nature of the allegations is unbecoming of a Minnesota senator.

Mitchell’s trial for the burglary charge was scheduled to begin Monday, but lawyers for Mitchell successfully delayed it until after the Legislature adjourns on May 19. In their motion to delay, Mitchell’s lawyers cited a 2007 appellate ruling stating that legal proceedings involving legislators should be delayed until after the legislative session to ensure constituents still receive representation.

Mitchell was arrested last spring at her stepmother’s house by Detroit Lakes officers responding to a burglary call. Officers searched the basement and found Mitchell dressed in black clothing and a black hat.

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Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, who offered the motion to expel, said doing so would restore integrity to the Senate.

“We don’t need the results of a criminal trial to know Sen. Mitchell’s conduct fails to meet the standards of ethical behavior that we expect from senators,” Rasmusson said. “We shouldn’t be complicit in delaying justice for the victim of a crime by allowing Sen. Mitchell to use her membership in this body to shield herself from criminal consequences.”

The Senate is currently tied 33-33 between Republicans and Democrats after Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, died of cancer last month. The Senate has been operating under a power-sharing agreement since the session began on Jan. 14. The special election to fill Dziedzic’s seat is Tuesday, and the blue-leaning district is expected to elect a Democrat. The winner of the special election will likely be seated next week.

The move by Senate Republicans to expel Mitchell likely ended the warm feelings that have suffused the proceedings during the first two weeks of session. Members of both parties shared encomiums to Dziedzic on the first day and have seemed to revel in the comity that has eluded the Minnesota House, where the two parties are locked in a heated battle for control.

Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, asked Senate President Bobby Joe Champion to rule the expulsion motion out of order. After conferring with Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, and the leaders from both caucuses — as required by the power-sharing agreement — Champion ruled the expulsion motion out of order.

Members appealed Champion’s decision, and senators voted 33-33 to uphold it. Mitchell cast the deciding vote in favor of herself, and a tie vote to uphold the ruling. The vote to appeal failed and Champion’s decision that the expulsion motion was out of order was upheld.

Rasmusson, after his expulsion motion was ruled out of order, told reporters that he brought the motion forward Monday because it was supposed to be Mitchell’s first day of her trial, and he wanted to make sure Mitchell’s charge and impending trial wouldn’t “distract from (the Senate’s) important work.”

Prominent Democrats, including DFL Chair Ken Martin and Gov. Tim Walz, have sought to force Mitchell to resign. Her Senate DFL colleagues have banned her from their caucus meetings and stripped her of committee assignments, though Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, has said Mitchell is owed due process on her legal case before the Senate begins proceedings to expel her.

“I would love this issue to be behind us, but it’s not,” Murphy told reporters Monday.

Mitchell told a police officer that her father died and her stepmother had stopped all contact with her and other family. Mitchell said “I know I did something bad,” according to the charging document. And, while being arrested Mitchell said something to the effect of, “I was just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore.”

On Tuesday, I went out with a jarring piece that I wish to hell I never had to write, but I reckon needed telling.

In Hell is Here, I told you what you should already know: We are in the middle of a national emergency that is growing more dire by the minute. America, and the roots of her existence are being torn from her moorings by the most callous, lawless uncaring group of miscreants in our nation’s history.

I told you that:

“We simply cannot survive this obscene level of anti-Democratic lawlessness from the fascist White House, and that makes it incredibly important how this moment in history is framed for the public.”

And this:

“This is a five-alarm fire. It is far beyond what any reasonable person who has been around for awhile feared in their lifetimes. Our Democracy is burning out of control, and the response from our Democratic representatives on the frontlines in Washington has been appalling.”

And this:

“On the first day of his reign of terror, the sick, vengeful king released 1,600 dangerous thugs, who beat the life out of cops and tried to set fire to our country, by violently stopping the certification of our election. The people he said that he “loved” now have safe harbor, but just as long as they vow to work for him, because, you see, he has proven he is both capable of getting them in and out of their terrible messes.”

So let me get at the nut of what is frying my ass this afternoon in the wake of that piece, and the bloody hell that has in fact been coming at us in a torrent the past 48 hours:

All of this complete horses---I am seeing from many people I respect telling us to stay calm — that all this was to be expected.

While I believe this is coming from a genuine place of goodness, it is bordering on gaslighting.

So let me tell you something, dammit: Anybody telling you to stay calm just because "all this was to be expected" is either a damn fool, or lying to themselves and you, because NONE of them have been through a transition like this in America.

All this “stay calm, all this was to be expected” stuff might be easy on the ears, but it is impossible to digest.

We are in deep, deep trouble right now, patriots, and it is not only OK to say that, it is paramount we do. We might yet get through all of this, but that won’t mitigate for one damn minute all the trouble and pain people are in RIGHT NOW.

Good and decent folks are being hurt as I click on my keyboard, and it is getting worse by the minute. These feelings of dread and helplessness you are having are all-too real. The voices crawling around inside your head won’t stop, because they are borne from a place deep inside you that has been through a few things.

You hurt because you care. You scream because you feel like you are being ignored. You are mad, because of this terrible and vulnerable situation we find ourselves in thanks to the disregard from the last administration of what was most assuredly coming for, and at us, if we didn’t win November’s election.

WE have been left holding the bag. THEY are gone.

All these feelings deserve justification, not disregard.

Look, if you’ve read my stuff at all, you will know I’ve been sounding the alarms around here for years — that a second Trump Administration simply was not tenable. Everything needed to be done to stop it.

Former Attorney General Merrick Garland failed us catastrophically by not going after Bastard No. 1 and the Republicans who attacked us the minute after he took office.

I will not spend more time on this here, because it turns out that I was sadly right all along. I pounded on the table, and it did no good. That doesn’t mitigate my anger right now, though, and it shouldn't yours.

You have a right to it.

Just because a meteorologist can predict the Category 5 hurricane it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with in its terrible aftermath …

We have fought hard the past eight years, and invariably some of the political infrastructure we put in place will slow this unrelenting Republican attack, but it won’t erase the damage that has already happened, and too much of what is coming.

I have lost much of the trust I had in our courts and the notion of law and order since hell arrived in November of 2016. Members of our nation’s highest court are bought-off and corrupt.

And you don’t need me to tell you that we are craving bold leadership on the Left, who will not only oppose this anti-American attack, but will speak to it in ways that inspire a call to action.

Let these words help to light that flame. Let your voices rise up until they shake.

Do not let anybody deny you of your feelings.

Millions of people are scared to death right now, because they are brave enough to be paying attention.

The minute that stops, WE ARE DONE.

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D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.