Presidents Day sure hits differently this year. The long weekend is supposed to celebrate the presidency and, in a bigger sense, our country’s long tradition of peacefully transferring power between political parties.
Instead, President Donald Trump kicked off the festivities by comparing himself to French dictator Napoleon and implying his illegal attempt to fire thousands of government employees is above the law.
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” he posted on social media Saturday.
Yeah, the vibes are definitely off.
Trump’s historic war against government employees accelerated this week, though most of the nation’s major news outlets chose to focus instead on the sideshow in Congress, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard became the latest incompetents to win a federal paycheck.
The circus around Trump’s nominees has worked wonderfully as a smokescreen to mask his administration’s historic efforts to dissolve the Department of Education, a longtime conservative goal. That play worked so well that Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee to lead the department, didn’t face a single serious media interview this week. She’ll now coast into this week’s planned confirmation hearing having faced no serious press scrutiny.
What a mess. Let’s dive into two more big stories the mainstream media missed this week.
Trump’s war on religion
Millions of Republicans view Trump as a savior “anointed by God” to save the world from evil. But the faith leaders who lead some of the nation’s largest houses of worship disagree—and as Lisa Needham reports for Daily Kos, over two dozen Jewish and Christian religious groups are now suing Trump over his extreme immigration reforms.
Twenty-seven religious organizations—including the Mennonite Church, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Episcopal Church, the Latino Christian National Network, and North Carolina Council of Churches—allege that Trump’s order allowing ICE agents to raid churches violates those groups’ religious freedom. Ironically, the churches are suing for violations under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law passed by Republicans with the intention of protecting houses of worship from Democrats. Go figure!
