GOP Governor Tossed Thousands of Cast Votes In Order to Help Trump
GOP Governor Tossed Thousands of Cast Votes In Order to Help Trump
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry wasted no time trying to overturn votes.
Louisiana’s secretary of state has already received tens of thousands of absentee ballots for the state’s primary elections, but now won’t count them because of Republican Governor Jeff Landry’s desperate move to please Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 last week to throw out Louisiana’s congressional map and get rid of its only Democratic (and majority-Black) district. Landry immediately suspended the primary elections for Louisiana’s U.S. House seats in order to implement a new map that could give Republicans an advantage.
By the time the governor pushed the date of the race from May 16 to July 15, more than 42,000 absentee votes had already been received, the Louisiana Illuminator reported Monday.
Landry’s blatant attempt to overturn thousands of votes comes at the bidding of Trump, who has pressured red states to redraw their congressional maps.
Several Democratic candidates and civil rights advocates have urged voters to continue voting in these races, as Landry’s move is subject to an array of legal challenges. Other races in the party primaries on May 16 are going forward, including those for the two Senate contests.
How Trump Plans to Profit Off Renaming of Palm Beach Airport
President Donald Trump has made a deal with Palm Beach Airport that will make him even richer.
President Trump has trademarked the name “Donald J. Trump International Airport”—and could soon generate millions of dollars for his family.
Palm Beach County commissioners will vote on Tuesday on whether to use taxpayer dollars to rename Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” If they approve the name change, a trademark deal between the county and DTTM Operations LLC—a company run by Donald Trump Jr.—will force the airport to run all airport-branded merchandise by the Trump family for approval.
Trump would become the first and only president with an airport named after him who has trademarked his own name in this manner.
While Trump’s companies have claimed that the trademark is only for legal protections, and that Trump won’t directly profit, the agreement signed by Trump and reviewed by the Miami Herald would leave loopholes for the president’s companies to sell “President Donald J. Trump Airport” branded merchandise off-site, and even gives the president control over biographical information included at the airport.
The agreement also allows Trump to create the list of “approved retailers” from which airport stores have to buy Trump-branded items. If the county or any retail businesses want to sell DJT Airport merch, they have to buy those products “exclusively and directly from such entities designated by Licensor.” The licensor is DTTM—of which Trump Jr. is the president.
“Normally a license agreement says that the goods have to be of a certain quality. It doesn’t say that you have to purchase them from a retailer that we’re approving them from,” trademark lawyer Josh Gerben told the Herald. “It’s not just a nonpartisan individual that’s going to be able to write marketing materials or talk about Donald Trump. It’s going to be him and his organizations getting to control the messaging here.”
Doubts about the ethics of the deal were raised months ago, with Palm Beach lawmakers stating over email that the airport renaming would confer “a commercial benefit upon the president and his companies.” Even still, the deal may very well be approved on Tuesday, giving perhaps the most blatantly corrupt president yet another free pass.
GOP Finds Way to Give ICE Even More Money—With Way Less Accountability
Senate Republicans are putting forward a new reconciliation package for immigration enforcement.
Senate Republicans are looking to funnel nearly $70 billion with absolutely no strings attached to Donald Trump’s lawless immigration enforcement campaign.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley unveiled the legislative text Monday night for the Republicans’ reconciliation package, directing $38.2 billion to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The bill also allocates $26 billion for offices under Customs and Border Protection, including $3.5 billion for border security technology and screening, according to Punchbowl News.
Meanwhile, another bill from the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee would provide an additional $32.5 billion, bringing the total package for immigration enforcement to roughly $69.2 billion, with ICE set to receive approximately $38.2 billion, according to Migrant Insider.
Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy for the Center for American Progress, warned on X Monday night that these funds had “enormous flexibility, with far less accountability or oversight than typical annual appropriations for DHS funding has.”
Senate Republicans have framed this massive expenditure as giving ICE and CBP enough funds to be shutdown-proof until the end of Trump’s term. But in reality, ICE already had twice as much funding as it needed to run from the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July. Now ICE has roughly four or five times the amount of funding it needs to run until 2029, while CBP only has the funds to make it to 2027, according to Kogan.
There do not appear to be any offsetting cuts to pay for this bill.
Since Trump launched his sweeping immigration crackdown, American voters have borne witness........
