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LetMyPeopleVote's JournalWhite House roasted for not knowing where penguins actually live: 'Wrong hemisphere!'
The trump administration is full of idiots.
White House roasted for not knowing where penguins actually live: 'Wrong hemisphere!'
— #TuckFrump (@realtuckfrumper.bsky.social) 2026-01-24T00:50:15.000Z
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-greenland-2675020856/
As Trump openly fantasizes about taking over Greenland from Denmark, the official White House account posted an artificial intelligence-generated photo of the president walking next to a penguin on a block of ice. In the photo, the penguin carries a U.S. flag and the two walk toward a Greenland flag.
Observers quickly pounced on the post, noting the massive island contains no penguins. Indeed, all 18 penguin species are confined to the Southern Hemisphere, with the highest concentrations on Antarctic coasts and sub-Antarctic islands.
The anti-Trump account PatriotTakes wrote on X, "There are no penguins in Greenland. All Penguins live in the southern hemisphere except one species from the Galapagos Islands. Perhaps you shouldn’t have dismantled the Department of Education so quickly."
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) chided on X, "Wrong hemisphere."....
Brian Espinoza, writer for the Rogue Rocket & Philip DeFranco Show, wrote on X, "You dumb mother f---ers, there are no penguins in the North."
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2014819683757678654
MaddowBlog-'She just rubbed me the wrong way': Trump says more than he should about tariffs
At the heart of the White House’s tariffs policy are alleged “emergency” conditions. The president, however, keeps forgetting to keep up appearances
‘She just rubbed me the wrong way’: Trump says more than he should about tariffs - MS NOW
— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T18:02:59.635Z
apple.news/A6-pXdmk4ThG...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/she-just-rubbed-me-the-wrong-way-trump-says-more-than-he-should-about-tariffs
President Trump said on Wednesday that he imposed higher tariffs on Switzerland last year, at least in part, because of a phone call with the country’s president that ‘rubbed me the wrong way.’
The tariff rate, which Mr. Trump set at 39 percent last August, was significantly higher than the rates he imposed on the European Union, which negotiated a 15 percent tariff, and Britain, which reached a 10 percent tariff deal.
As part of his remarks, the American president admitted that he didn’t remember the name of the Swiss president at the time, Karin Keller-Sutter, or her title. (“I guess prime minister, I don’t think president,” Trump said.).....
As for Congress, which is actually empowered by the Constitution to set tariff rates, a reporter asked House Speaker Mike Johnson whether lawmakers will ever get around to exerting their authority.
Johnson: I have no intention of getting in the way of President Trump and his administration. He has used the tariff power that he has under Article II. He has not exceeded his authority. There is no reason for the Article I branch to intervene.
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T00:13:59.067Z
The Louisiana Republican, who’s long described himself as a “constitutional lawyer,” replied, “I have no intention of getting in the way of President Trump and his administration [on tariffs policy]. He has used the tariff power that he has under Article II very effectively.”
As Johnson really ought to know, there is no such thing an Article 2 tariff power. As a legal matter, the House speaker’s comments were gibberish.
DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources
A judge refused an FBI warrant that proposed investigating dead Minnesota mom for suspected assault on an officer.
MS NOW EXCLUSIVE: DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-01-24T00:11:10.166Z
www.ms.now/news/doj-sou...
https://www.ms.now/news/doj-sought-to-probe-renee-good-for-criminal-liability-even-after-her-death-sources
After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.
It was widely reported that the Justice Department chose not to investigate the ICE officer who shot and killed Good, but the details about how top Justice officials directed the altering of the investigation and search warrant — and how it was rejected as weak by a federal judge — have not been previously reported.
It’s extremely rare for judges to reject federal prosecutors’ requests for search warrants, as the standard for evidence needed to grant one is low. Prosecutors and investigators need to only show probable cause that they will find evidence of a crime in the location they wish to search. .....
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Minneapolis has suffered a string of embarrassing blows from the federal bench, where magistrate judges have rejected arrest warrants and criminal complaints the office has submitted against protesters. That is also exceptionally rare, because the standard for an arrest warrant is also probable cause to believe the suspect committed a crime. As MSNOW reported Friday morning, magistrate judges have ruled in several cases that the the federal prosecutors and officers who provide accounts of their interactions with protesters have not provided sufficient evidence to meet that low bar.
DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources
Source: MS NOW
Aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents based in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into an officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good and instead alter it to probe Good for possible criminal liability, according to three people briefed on the discussions.
After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.
It was widely reported that the Justice Department chose not to investigate the ICE officer who shot and killed Good, but the details about how top Justice officials directed the altering of the investigation and search warrant — and how it was rejected as weak by a federal judge — have not been previously reported.
It’s extremely rare for judges to reject federal prosecutors’ requests for search warrants, as the standard for evidence needed to grant one is low. Prosecutors and investigators need to only show probable cause that they will find evidence of a crime in the location they wish to search. .....
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Minneapolis has suffered a string of embarrassing blows from the federal bench, where magistrate judges have rejected arrest warrants and criminal complaints the office has submitted against protesters. That is also exceptionally rare, because the standard for an arrest warrant is also probable cause to believe the suspect committed a crime. As MSNOW reported Friday morning, magistrate judges have ruled in several cases that the the federal prosecutors and officers who provide accounts of their interactions with protesters have not provided sufficient evidence to meet that low bar.
Read more: https://www.ms.now/news/doj-sought-to-probe-renee-good-for-criminal-liability-even-after-her-death-sources
MS NOW EXCLUSIVE: DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-01-24T00:11:10.166Z
www.ms.now/news/doj-sou...
MaddowBlog-The absurd claim at the heart of Trump's suit against JPMorgan Chase
“You’re not allowed to do what they did,” the president said of the banking giant, making a claim that’s difficult to take seriously.
After Jan 6, JPMorgan Chase saw a scandal-plagued politician with a history of bankruptcies and business failures taking dangerous steps to overturn an election. It effectively said, “Let's not do business with this guy anymore.â€
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-23T20:34:48.092Z
Five years later, Trump decided this entitles him to billion.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-jpmorgan-chase-suit-jamie-dimon
This week, he went even further. My MS NOW colleague Erum Salam reported:
President Donald Trump on Thursday sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for closing his accounts five years ago and allegedly putting him and his family on a ‘blacklist.’
The lawsuit centers on the banking giant’s closure of several accounts linked to Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of MAGA supporters. Trump is seeking at least $5 billion in damages.
In the complaint, filed in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the president alleged, among other things, that JPMorgan Chase engaged in “debanking” after Trump’s role in the assault on the Capitol, as part of the bank’s “woke” beliefs.....
That position seems likely to prevail. Trump’s argument, in a nutshell, is that JPMorgan Chase saw a scandal-plagued politician with a history of bankruptcies and business failures taking dangerous steps to remain in office after he lost an election. At that point, the bank effectively said, “Maybe we shouldn’t be doing business with this guy.”
Five years later, Trump decided that this conclusion was “woke” and that it entitles him to at least $5 billion in damages.
It’s difficult to say why exactly the president waited five years to file this civil suit, though it’s worth noting for context that Jamie Dimon, the bank’s CEO (who is also a defendant in the case), said in November that he wouldn’t donate to Trump’s White House ballroom vanity project.
MaddowBlog-Key CDC leader calls measles outbreaks the 'cost of doing business'
Deputy Director Ralph Abraham appears unconcerned that the U.S. is losing its measles elimination status. Public health experts aren’t pleased.
https://x.com/foggybottomgal/status/2014761318629216492
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/measles-outbreaks-elimination-ralph-abraham
With measles transmission in the United States at levels that haven’t been seen in decades, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that he would not view the loss of the country’s measles elimination status as a significant event.
‘Not really,’ said Ralph Abraham, a physician who formerly served as Louisiana’s surgeon general. ‘You know, it’s just the cost of doing business, with our borders being somewhat porous [and] global and international travel.’
.
..Abraham added, “We have these communities that choose to be unvaccinated. That’s their personal freedom.”
As The San Francisco Chronicle noted, public health advocates responded to the CDC deputy director’s comments with disgust. Pediatrician and vaccine specialist Paul Offit said in an online discussion hosted by the health blog Inside Medicine this week, “When you hear somebody like Abraham say ‘the cost of doing business,’ how can you be more callous? Three people died of measles last year in this country.”....
Abraham has gone so far as to describe Covid shots as “dangerous” (they are not) and touted ivermectin during the 2020 pandemic, despite science showing the drug was an ineffective treatment.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nevertheless brought the Louisiana Republican in to serve as principal deputy director at the CDC, effectively the agency’s No. 2.
Three months later, Abraham appears wholly unconcerned about the United States losing its measles elimination status.
My siblings and I all had measles before the vaccine. It was not fun. My sister had polio and was on crutches for a while but has recovered. We need vaccinations for all of these diseases.
MaddowBlog-White House pushes manipulated image of arrest of Minnesota civil rights attorney
As one prominent political scientist summarized, “We are at Stalinesque levels of propaganda.”
We’re all accustomed to White House deceptions, but pushing an AI-manipulated image — and then bragging about it — is qualitatively worse than the usual nonsense.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-23T18:15:00.053Z
When there’s no real difference between the White House and your annoying friend on facebook who pushes AI trash, there’s a problem.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-pushes-manipulated-image-of-arrest-of-minnesota-civil-rights-attorney
That the White House celebrated Levy Armstrong’s arrest was not surprising. What mattered, however, is how the White House celebrated the development. The Associated Press reported:
On its official X page, the White House shared an image of Nekima Levy Armstrong that showed her in tears with her arms behind her back, standing in front of someone wearing a badge around their neck.
The problem? Levy Armstrong wasn’t actually crying. The image was manipulated to make the moment more dramatic than it actually was. … The original image, which shows Levy Armstrong with a neutral expression, was altered to make her appear emotional.
A related report in The New York Times noted that the newspaper ran the image through an artificial intelligence detection system that concluded the White House’s version of the photo “showed signs of manipulation.”....
The image of Levy Armstrong was qualitatively different: It was designed to mislead. Don Moynihan, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, noted via Bluesky, “This is the first example I’ve seen of an American government using AI to meaningfully misrepresent actual events with the intent to deceive the public. We are at Stalinesque levels of propaganda.”....
But in 2026, the White House is no better than that annoying guy you went to high school with or that weird uncle who consumes conservative media all day. The president and his team, like your Facebook friends, have no qualms about spreading manipulated content without regard for accuracy.
The difference, of course, is that the White House knows it’s promoting deceptions, contributing to an information landscape in which Americans no longer know who or what to believe.
MaddowBlog-'Sometimes you need a dictator': Trump shines new light on his political philosophy
‘Sometimes you need a dictator’: Trump shines new light on his political philosophy
‘Sometimes you need a dictator’: Trump shines new light on his political philosophy - MS NOW apple.news/AYutFvuXcT-W...
— LOUISE Rose (@louise0202.bsky.social) 2026-01-23T14:17:24.360Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/sometimes-you-need-a-dictator-trump-shines-new-light-on-his-political-philosophy
But the Republican didn’t stop there, going on to suggest that he’d somehow managed to subvert the audience’s expectations.
Trump: "Sometimes you need a dictator."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-21T18:00:16.139Z
....Up until very recently, it would’ve been considered a political story of dramatic significance for a sitting American president to say — out loud, in public, on the record — that he believes dictators are ever preferable to self-rule. But Trump’s comment went largely overlooked, in part because the rhetoric was overshadowed by other developments and in part because much of the political world is simply accustomed to the Republican’s overt hostility to democracy.
That said, I remain convinced that it’s best not to brush past these declarations too quickly. The president’s comment offered a fresh peek into a political philosophy he appears to embrace without embarrassment: By his own admission, Trump believes there are some conditions in which freedom should be discarded and replaced by something a bit more totalitarian.
This is the same Republican who has more than once talked about creating a temporary American “dictatorship” that he expects to lead. He has promoted images of himself in a crown. He has made Napoleonic declarations such as “he who saves his country violates no law.” He’s talked about “terminating” parts of the Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions. He’s “joked” about canceling elections. He’s freely admitted that he believes (what passes for) his alleged conscience is “the only thing that can stop me.” He’s expressed admiration for foreign authoritarians — not despite their despotism, but because of their despotism.
To the extent that there was ever a serious debate about Trump’s authoritarian impulses, the president keeps offering unambiguous answers to the question.
MaddowBlog-After seeing discouraging poll numbers, Trump eyes conspiratorial new lawsuit
Occasionally, when the president is especially frustrated by Americans’ attitudes, he reaches out to his lawyers.
As a rule, when Trump is confronted with polling numbers that hurt his feelings, he makes up a generous new approval rating and asks the public to play along.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-23T13:59:29.263Z
Occasionally, however, he gets his lawyers involved. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/after-seeing-discouraging-poll-numbers-trump-eyes-conspiratorial-new-lawsuit
As 2026 gets underway, Trump is taking further steps down the same ridiculous path. After The New York Times published the results of its latest national poll, which also showed horrible results for the White House, the president published a tirade to his social media platform:
The Times Siena Poll, which is always tremendously negative to me, especially just before the Election of 2024, where I won in a Landslide, will be added to my lawsuit against The Failing New York Times. Our lawyers have demanded that they keep all Records, and how they ‘computed’ these fake results. … They will be held fully responsible for all of their Radical Left lies and wrongdoing!
The lawsuit he referred to was filed in the fall, when Trump announced that he was seeking $15 billion from The New York Times for coverage he said damaged his reputation. (It was one of several civil suits the president has filed of late against major news organizations.).....
No one in Republican politics has ever even attempted to produce evidence of independent news organizations having secretly conspired with pollsters to generate public opinion data that hurts the president’s feelings. The very idea — even by Trump standards — is ludicrous.
In a normal and healthy political environment, American presidents struggling with sinking public support, especially in their second term, have options: They can predict a future turnaround. They can argue that they don’t consider public opinion research to be especially important, since they can’t run for a third term anyway. They might even adopt a longer view and insist that they expect history to vindicate them.
They might even consider changing course and moving away from the policies that are dragging down their popularity.
In 2026, however, Americans are not living in a normal and healthy political environment
MaddowBlog-Trump says 'people will soon be prosecuted' as part of his 2020 election crusade
More than five years later, the president’s obsession with his failed re-election bid appears, somehow, to be intensifying.
Trump says ‘people will soon be prosecuted’ as part of his 2020 election crusade
— Mike Walker (@newnarrative.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T17:43:00.923Z
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-says-people-will-soon-be-prosecuted-as-part-of-his-2020-election-crusade
A day later, during remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump repeated the same nonsense — this time with a fresh element.
Trump: "It was a rigged election. Everyone knows that, they found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. It's probably breaking news, but it should be. It was a rigged election."
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-01-21T15:18:23.612Z
.....It’s tempting to wonder why the president would have direct, personal knowledge about who “will soon be prosecuted,” but there’s no point in playing dumb about the White House’s control of the Justice Department.
That said, there’s no reason to assume that Trump was telling the truth. To the contrary, there’s every reason to believe the opposite — in part because he’s the most prolific liar in American public life, and in part because there’s still no evidence that anyone committed any crime connected to the 2020 race (apart from the president and his allies).....
In October, Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who has touted election conspiracy theories, joined the administration as a special government employee with one focus: investigating the 2020 election.
With time running out in the 2024 presidential election and early voting underway across much of the country, then-Sen. JD Vance refused to answer questions about who the rightful winner of the 2020 race was. The Ohio Republican complained at the time that political journalists were “obsessed” with the election from four years earlier.
More than a year later — and roughly five years since Trump lost his re-election bid — someone is obsessed with the 2020 race, and by all appearances that fixation is intensifying.
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