Official White House X account posts image of ‘king’ Trump wearing crown
The White House's official social media account on the X platform posted an image of President Donald Trump wearing a crown and referred to him as "king."
The Wednesday social media post came after Trump shared a message on Truth Social, in which he also called himself king.
"CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED," Trump wrote. "LONG LIVE THE KING!"
Trump's message referred to his administration's decision to pull approval for congestion pricing on New York City transportation on Wednesday.
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The White House's post on X included a fake Time magazine cover that showed Trump wearing a crown. "LONG LIVE THE KING," the phony magazine cover read.
‘This is a mess!’ Trump admin chastised by judge shocked at handling of USAID shutdown
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols chastised President Donald Trump's administration, saying that what has happened at USAID has created a "mess."
Politico legal reporter Kyle Cheney wrote Wednesday that it became clear in court that the administration had no idea what is happening with USAID employees who were abandoned abroad after it conducted mass firings.
On Feb. 10, Trump's appointee to manage USAID, Peter Marocco, said in a sworn statement that those overseas would be given a "choice" and an "option" to remain in their posts with existing benefits despite being put on administrative leave, Cheney wrote.
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Then, just four days later, he changed his mind, saying an employee “who is directed to depart post and fails to do so” would no longer be “officially stationed overseas." He further told the staffers that they could lose access to the benefits given to foreign service workers.
“This is a mess!” Nichols announced in the hearing.
The Marocco statement contradicted the "crystal clear" understanding from the last hearing, he argued.
"Nichols’ consternation comes as he considers whether to further extend his legal block on the Trump administration’s plans to abruptly dismantle USAID — the agency responsible for administering billions of dollars in foreign assistance — and 'repatriate' thousands of workers living abroad within 30 days," wrote Cheney. "He ordered the Justice Department to submit a new declaration by noon Thursday clarifying its position on overseas employees."
In the case of the pregnant wife of a foreign service worker, the stress of not knowing what was happening sent the wife to the hospital, an affidavit said.
"Because of these medical complications, she was told she needed to immediately evacuate because of a high risk of hemorrhage, which would be life-threatening to both my wife and our baby," the man said in the affidavit. "The embassy medical unit concurred with our local physicians's direction that she needed to urgently depart and they requested an urgent medical evacuation approval through State Foreign Programs/State Med Washington."
They were denied twice, "with a message from State Med stating that 'there is no USAID funding for medevacs.'"
"I later learned that there was a verbal directive from State Department Washington leadership to Regional Medical Officers and the Medical Evacuations Team to cease all USAID medical evacuations, hospitalization support, and guarantees of payment for urgent medical service," the affidavit read.
Nichols temporarily suspended the firings — a hold has been in place for the past several weeks but was set to expire Friday.
A Trump Justice Department attorney promised the judge that the department would "do better going forward" and would reinstate emergency flights for USAID employees.
‘Play hardball’: Writer caught up in DOGE purge plots ‘massive’ and ‘illegal’ hit back
To defeat the Trump administration's dismantling of the civil service, wrote Mary Harris for Slate, there's a break-glass solution that is difficult and legally risky — but could turn up the heat on the president: a massive strike by federal workers, suspending the public sector.
"Like a lot of people, I see the president’s self-coup and think: Is now the time folks hit the streets?" wrote Harris, whose husband was a recent casualty of Trump's move to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Democrats will have little leverage when it comes time to negotiate to avoid a government shutdown. But, she wrote, "some have suggested Dems refuse to work with the GOP at all, sending whatever’s left of the government workforce home."
"But given their relatively toothless actions so far, I think Democratic leadership will need their spines stiffened to play hardball. That’s where a strike comes in. Which, in essence, would be the government sending itself home," she added.
There's precedent for this, she wrote. In Wisconsin in 2011, then-Gov. Scott Walker advanced Act 10 to eviscerate the state's public-sector unions.
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"American government workers got so pissed off at the people running things that they called out of work and protested for weeks," she wrote. "They rolled out SpongeBob SquarePants sleeping bags on marble floors that were usually filled with the clacking of legislators’ shoes. They brought in drums and vuvuzelas so they could make themselves loud. They chartered buses to bring in nurses and teachers; corrections officers and cops showed up too. In the end, their ranks swelled to 100,000, maybe more."
Democrats, despite being a minority in the gerrymandered legislature, were empowered by these protests to flee the state, shutting down regular business.
Walker ultimately found a way to force through Act 10, but he was forced to fight for his life in a bruising recall election, and the anti-union legislation is currently facing an existential challenge in state court. Meanwhile, such strikes have had success in other countries, Harris noted: "after South Korea’s president declared martial law, unions pressed for consequences. When an initial effort to impeach the president failed, a strike effort gained steam."
Now, he's facing possible removal in an impeachment trial.
"General strikes" of this kind aren't legal, wrote Harris. They require massive fundraising to support the thousands of workers not getting paid; even then, the workers face punishment for illegal work stoppages. And they are often undermined by outside agitators, and government officials who push misinformation to portray the workers as violent or destructive.
But when they hold the line, she wrote, they can produce results — and it might be the last power workers have right now to save their jobs and their democracy.
"I am floating this general strike idea for a simple reason: Workers are running out of options. Unions are, too. Because if they represent a population of government employees who can be summarily dismissed for political reasons, then who, exactly, are they protecting anymore?" Harris concluded. "The First Amendment still exists. I think it’s time to use it."
