Author | Lightnews

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 17h

Dems should push a bill banning such administrative claim payments to presidents even if claims predated their service. Republicans will block vote on it. Let them. Then hammer away at that to voters. Push media to cover GOP complicity in Trump's theft of taxpayer $.

newrepublic.com/article/2021...

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Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 1d

“Some days are a crystalized scream. They tell us in no uncertain terms that we have been taken hostage by a malignant force that rejects not only our laws and values, but our history and memories.”
www.americaamerica.news/p/confrontin...

Confronting the Ongoing Onslaught

Trump's East Wing demolition, demands for $230 million and the ongoing murders in the Caribbean Sea are the latest reminders that we must remain vigilant and push back

www.americaamerica.news

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Finch 🇵🇸🇵🇪🇧🇷 @finchowar.bsky.social · 12h

Well, in a certain way, Trump achieved what the flight 93 hijackers could not

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 12h

WASHINGTON (AP) — The entire White House East Wing has been demolished as Trump moves forward with ballroom construction, AP photos show.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

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FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 8h

Trump raises the price of the ballroom to $350 million

(It changed from $200 million, then $300 million, now $350 million within the course of a few days)

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House Judiciary Dems @democrats-judiciary.house.gov · 8h

NEWS: Ranking Member Raskin calls on Chairman Jordan to accept former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s offer to testify publicly before Congress regarding his investigations into Donald Trump’s criminal wrongdoing.

Ranking Member Raskin Urges Chairman Jordan to Accept Former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Offer to Testify Publicly Before Congress

Washington, D.C. (October 23, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Chairman Jim Jordan calling on him to accept former Special Counsel Jack...

democrats-judiciary.house.gov

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 10h

Call this what it is: rank corruption.

Major corporations funding a president's vanity project is a textbook model for pay-to-play. Why else would tech giants, crypto firms, and defense contractors care about a 90,000 sq ft ballroom?

A photo of former President Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office, holding up a large architectural rendering of an opulent ballroom interior. He is looking at the image seriously. The background features ornate gold decor. Below the image, a news article headline reads “White House releases list of donors for Trump’s multi-million-dollar ballroom,” and highlighted text names major companies such as Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Google, Coinbase, Comcast, and Meta as donors for the proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

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Ahmed Baba @ahmedbaba.bsky.social · 11h

Trump rewarded Changpeng Zhao, a business partner who boosted his crypto venture, with a pardon for crimes that Zhao pleaded guilty to.

Trading presidential favors for self-interest.

You can’t get more classically corrupt than this.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Q: On the pardon of Changpeng Zhao, Binance has significant business interests with World Liberty Financial, the president family's crypto company. How do you respond to criticisms that this is a corrupt act?

LEAVITT: I would respond and say the president is exercising his constitutional authority

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 11h

An actual terrorist would be thrilled to achieve this level of physical devastation of the White House

Katie Harbath @katieharbath.bsky.social · 12h

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Leavitt: "At this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president's main priority."

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Q: Can the president tear down anything he wants without oversight? Could he demolish this building or the Jefferson Memorial?

LEAVITT: Only for vertical construction will a submission be required.

Q: So it sounds like the answer is yes

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Katie Harbath @katieharbath.bsky.social · 12h

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

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Jon Farrington @jonfarrington.bsky.social · 12h

Brilliant piece, truly captures the depravity of this moment.

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 1d

The destruction of the East Wing is a reminder that America has violated the only check-and-balance that actually ends up mattering: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-only-c...

The only check-and-balance that actually matters

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 1d

The destruction of the East Wing is a reminder that America has violated the only check-and-balance that actually ends up mattering: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-only-c...

The only check-and-balance that actually matters

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 14h

President Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whose crypto exchange has been boosting the Trump family's own crypto venture.

Exclusive | Trump Pardons Convicted Binance Founder

The pardon follows months of efforts by Changpeng Zhao to boost Trump crypto company

on.wsj.com

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 14h

This is the much bigger problem than the actual construction project, bad as that is. He has completely destroyed the basic power of the purse, the tax and spend loop between executive and legislative powers. That's the hot molten core of the entire Anglo-American constitutional tradition.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 15h

It's bribery and corruption, a protection racket. But another way to describe money given to the government under threat of punishment is taxation, here imposed unilaterally and arbitrarily by the executive without the legislature.

Ship money is the analogy, if you're up on 17th C. English history.

Exclusive | Trump Hosts Corporate Ballroom Donors at Glitzy White House Dinner

The event included representatives from Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon.com and Palantir.

www.wsj.com

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

Trump didn’t just take billions of taxpayer dollars and give it to Argentina with no legal process to help a politician he likes avoid losses in domestic elections and hook up a billionaire he knows who made a bad bet on Argentina.

He gave away billions of Americans’ money and it didn’t even work.

Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 1d

Things are not going well in Argentina, official exchange rate has now decoupled from the market-implied exchange rate to the tune of about 8%

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 18h

Good: Jamie Raskin tells me he's formally demanding any/all internal communications between WH and DOJ on Trump's $230 million payoff.

More Dems should talk this way about Trump's criming. He's turning the presidency into a massive Bribe Delivery System.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2021...

Trump’s Vile New $230 Million Shakedown of DOJ Just Got Even Worse

It’s bad enough that Trump wants—and DOJ will likely fork over—this tribute payment. Now, get this: It can probably be done at first without even being revealed publicly.

newrepublic.com

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 17h

Trump is turning the presidency into a massive Bribe Delivery System, or BDS. He's creating many new avenues for media companies, law firms, universities, etc to channel tribute payments as he directs. Feeding the BDS is the cost of doing business in Trump's America.

newrepublic.com/article/2021...

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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 17h

The Louvre thieves were small time guys, only going after $100 million in jewels from a museum. When you're a real master criminal, you go after much bigger hauls from much bigger targets. Like the US Treasury. www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-dayli...

Trump’s Daylight Robbery Makes the Louvre Jewelry Heist Look Like Chump Change

Why stop at a few chokers and tiaras when you can just empty out Fort Knox?

www.thedailybeast.com

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Jon Farrington @jonfarrington.bsky.social · 18h

King Trump will now punish Indiana for its insolence.

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Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 19h

Another Russian ship has been added to the grain smuggling fleet, captured on camera and on satellite imagery, evading sanctions to deliver grain from occupied Crimea to Houthi-controlled Yemen. Follow its covert journey here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

Russia’s Grain Smuggling Fleet Continues Undeterred - bellingcat

Bellingcat has identified yet another Russian-flagged vessel exporting grain from occupied Crimea to Houthi-controlled Yemen.

www.bellingcat.com

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 19h

It is shocking that Trump is quickly tearing down a portion of the White House. But isn’t the bigger story that this action is of a piece with his autocratic presumption that he can unilaterally destroy public goods without any public consultation or explanation?
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/u...

Trump Is Wasting No Time in Tearing Down the East Wing

www.nytimes.com

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

I should probably have just published this in the morning, but I had some thoughts about the East Wing — particularly given something Trump said during his 2020 speech accepting the GOP nomination. www.pbump.net/o/the-presid...

The president has never understood that the White House (and government) aren’t his

Even if only intuitively, Donald Trump knows that the White House is a storehouse of power. He understands that, like the government itself, it is an institution that our impartial democratic system h...

www.pbump.net

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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

That would be Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, in the Oval Office for a meeting btwn the U.S. president and the NATO Secretary-General in the middle of a brutal war in Europe, staring at plans for a ballroom that will replace the now-demolished East Wing of the White House.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump waves around renderings of his new ballroom, which appears to be entirely gold

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