Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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James Carville Shares Theory on Why Trump ‘Hates’ America

The Democratic strategic railed against the president’s latest pick.

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville has cited Donald Trump’s latest inexperienced hire in a crucial role as evidence that the president “hates” America.

Carville, 81, is a regular critic of Trump, who turns 80 this month. On Wednesday’s episode of his podcast Politicon, the former Bill Clinton aide expanded on his theory that the president is attempting to destroy the U.S.

It follows Trump’s appointment of federal housing regulator Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence this week, despite having no traditional intelligence background. He replaces Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned in May to care for her husband after his diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer.

During her time in the job, Gabbard clashed with Trump over his war on Iran.

Trump ally Pulte is also retaining his existing jobs overseeing federal housing and mortgage policies, positions he has used to attack the president’s political foes.

Carville’s co-host, veteran Washington journalist Al Hunt, labeled Pulte’s hiring “absolutely laughable, if it weren’t so tragic.”

Hunt said Pulte served “as a hitman” for Trump in his role as a housing regulator and called him “a man of no reputation.”

“He is totally unqualified for this post,” Hunt said, claiming his “disgraceful” appointment details “the utter contempt that Trump has for the American intelligence community.”

The journalist also shared his theory that Pulte will potentially claim that “national intelligence shows that foreigners are trying to help Democrats win this election.”

Carville agreed that Pulte has been installed in his new role to do one job, which is “to do everything he can to f--- with the election on the behalf of Trump.”

“I always say, I don’t know if Trump is a traitor,” Carville said. “But he would do everything that a traitor would do. So if you were a traitor president, you’d put an idiot in [that role].”

Pointing out the major influence the director of national intelligence has over the FBI and the CIA, Carville said, “This is what you would do if you are trying to destroy the country.”

He added, “I fundamentally believe this, Trump hates the United States. And this is just more evidence.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

Trump praised Pulte on Truth Social for his “has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets”.

Pulte, the grandson of billionaire homebuilding mogul William J. Pulte, pushed for Justice Department investigations into claims that Trump foe, New York Attorney General Letitia James, committed insurance fraud, related to her properties in Illinois and Florida.

Former Obama adviser David Axelrod called out in an X post the concept of Trump appointing his “political hatchet man” in his key intelligence role with “no relevant experience” while the U.S. is at war with Iran.

Axelrod then posted that Pulte is “an unqualified errand boy” who’s only intelligence experience is “spying on [Trump’s] perceived `enemies,’ rummaging through their mortgage documents as head of FHA, looking for dirt. It was a total abuse of his authority there. Imagine what he can do as DNI!”

Mark Warner, the vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Pulte appeared to have been selected “because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need”.

“The president has chosen an official who has demonstrated not just willingness but eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution,” Senator Warner said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also called Pulte a “partisan thug”.

“A guy who can file such baseless, political and outrageous charges against political office holders he doesn’t like can’t be entrusted to protect our national security,” Schumer said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/james-carville-shares-theory-on-why-trump-hates-america/?

ps:You'd think this administration couldn't get anymore pathetic, and than they prove you wrong!!

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⚖️ Breaking: Bolton, Blanche

John Bolton, national security adviser in the first Trump administration, has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the Justice Department that could allow him to avoid prison time. He'll face a $2.25 million fine. Go deeper. 🏛️ President Trump said he'll nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve permanently. That would touch off a bruising confirmation battle for his former personal lawyer in the Senate. Go deeper.

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Senate passes $70B immigration enforcement bill without limits on Trump settlement fund Just before 5 a.m. Friday, Senators voted 52-47 for legislation to fund ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years. It came after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that resolves President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS. Read more.

Why this matters: The final vote came after Republicans narrowly defeated multiple attempts by Democrats and Republicans to add language to the bill that would permanently ban Trump’s settlement fund for political allies who believe they have been politically persecuted. Republicans defeated an amendment proposed by one of their own members, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, that would have redirected payments from Trump’s settlement to members of law enforcement who were injured in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.   The amendments were a test of party unity that complicated what should have been an easy vote for Republicans who wanted to keep the focus on immigration enforcement in an election year. Instead, they spent almost a full day haggling among themselves over whether to block the settlement fund, even after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had said earlier this week that it would not go forward.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump says Pulte won’t be his nominee for director of national intelligence   Ex-national security adviser John Bolton will plead guilty in classified information case: AP source   Senate blocks extending key surveillance program following backlash over Trump pick to lead intel   US employers likely added 105,000 jobs in May with labor market stable despite costly Iran war   Trump announces $700 million in new support for struggling coal industry   House passes bill to aid Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia   US sanctions Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel in latest move to pressure island’s leadership   Prosecutors lose appeal in Arizona’s fake elector case but vow to present it again to a grand jury   With Oval Office replica and skyline views of Chicago, Obama’s new museum is political and personal   Kennedy Center moves to erase Trump references after judge said they were illegally added   Water begins refilling Reflecting Pool after Trump’s renovation to repaint it ‘American flag blue’   Planning commission seeks more details on Trump’s planned 250-foot arch near the Lincoln Memorial

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The Jolly Donald

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The U.S. Navy was born to fight piracy. After the Revolutionary War, the United States maintained no standing fleet, but attacks by the Barbary pirates—corsairs based in North Africa who preyed on American merchant ships and took sailors ransom—drove Congress to reestablish a navy in the 1790s. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson dispatched ships to the Mediterranean to fight the pirates, and the successful war that followed proved a template for American interventions for centuries: The U.S. showed it was willing to use military force to defend American commercial interests and to punish bad international actors.

Trump has already rejected much of this vision of American foreign policy, a point he demonstrated vividly last month by approvingly likening the U.S. Navy to pirates while describing an interdiction in the Persian Gulf. “We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business. Who would have thought we were doing that?” the president said in West Palm Beach, Florida. “We’re like pirates.”

Perhaps a man as enthralled by gold as Trump was bound to find a natural affinity with pirates. In fact, the Trump administration is taking a buccaneering attitude around the globe—not just in the actions in the Middle East that Trump described. The U.S. continues to blow up boats, including one yesterday, in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean without any due process or basis in law. And in Washington, a prominent senator has proposed that the U.S. government commission privateers—basically, government-licensed pirates—to battle narco-traffickers.

Since the start, the strikes have been a lawless operation. Few legal experts believe there is any justification for them. The Trump administration claims that those targeted are drug smugglers but has presented no evidence for this. Surely, some of them are, though reliable reporting suggests that others are not. Even if the administration had evidence of drug smuggling, that is not the same thing as a conviction; and even if these people had a conviction, federal law does not establish capital punishment for drug trafficking.

The attacks received lots of attention when they began, much of it negative, and a few outlets (especially those based overseas) have stayed focused on covering them. But the attention of the public and, especially, Congress has moved on: There are flailing wars and cartoonish corruption going on. Meanwhile, the strikes have actually accelerated. Like the pirates of the golden age, the U.S. military is functioning as an unseen menace, dealing death with no warning or recourse. More than 200 people have been killed in the strikes, but as The New York Times reported a few days ago, the campaign has made no dent in the cocaine trade to the United States.

Senator Mike Lee would rather this work be done by private individuals. The Utahn introduced a bill in December that would authorize the president to issue letters of marque, a tool by which the government licenses private individuals to attack foreign interests by seizing ships, as a way of taking on drug traffickers. The Constitution does specifically grant Congress the power to issue letters of marque, though they were effectively abolished by an international treaty in 1856. The wisdom of encouraging private Americans to get into armed battles with cartels is certainly debatable, and the Senate has not advanced the bill.

In the absence of privateers, Trump seems to enjoy the idea of the U.S. military acting as outlaws on the seas. During his protracted attempt to figure out what he wants and what he can get out of the war in Iran, Trump announced a full blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. As Lawfare’s Todd Huntley writes, a full blockade would be a violation of international law, though that’s not actually what the U.S. is doing. (One sometimes gets the sense that Trump uses maximalist language without knowing or caring what it means, simply because it sounds cool to him; he also futilely called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”)

No one disputes that the Iranian government is acting illegally in the strait. Under international law, the Strait of Hormuz is open to navigation, but Iran has mined the strait and allowed only certain vessels to pass through it, attacking others. The question is what the United States can do in response. (Complicating the matter is the fact that Iran closed the strait after Trump launched a war that is dubious under international law and unauthorized by Congress.) The traditional—and responsible—role for the United States, in the lineage of fighting the Barbary pirates, would be to defend the international norm of free navigation and push to reopen the strait.

Trump has been willing to mouth these words. Visiting China last month, he said he raised the issue with Xi Jinping, but Trump did not make it a major focus and received no commitments from Xi. What seems to really excite Trump is not freedom of navigation but financial gain. As his remarks in West Palm Beach indicated, Trump is taken with the idea of seizing ships and selling their cargoes. He had the same impulse with oil tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, which the U.S. seized this winter. The problem is that, as with many of Trump’s past schemes to make money, this one is a mess in practice. As The New York Times reported in March, maintaining just one seized oil tanker had cost $47 million.

Perversely, Trump’s war in Iran has driven up the price of oil, so the cargo on board is more valuable. Still, seizing ships doesn’t seem like a very effective way to fill the Treasury’s coffers, and embracing freebooting carries risks besides financial ones. Free and peaceful navigation have enabled the prosperity of the United States and much of the world. No child, or reader of Robert Louis Stevenson, can deny the allure of pirates, but the marauders are rarely the good guys in the story.

Related:

• 20 U.S. boat strikes in three months
• Trump’s logic for blockading the blockaders

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Crime Spree of Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioters Revealed as Worse Than Known

One in 16 of the rioters whom the president freed has since been arrested, charged, or convicted of other crimes.

At least 97 of the more than 1,500 Capitol rioters pardoned by President Donald Trump have since been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of crimes unrelated to Jan. 6.

The figure, published Thursday by the independent legal outlet Lawfare, is nearly triple the largest prior tally and amounts to nearly one in 16 of the insurrectionists swept up in the clemency order Trump, 79, signed on his first day back in office.

The crimes “run the gamut,” Lawfare reports, from low-grade offenses such as trespassing and drug paraphernalia to grand larceny, stalking, plots to kill politicians and police, and fraud against the government. At least 14 pardonees have been charged with sex crimes or offenses tied to child sexual abuse material. At least six have faced domestic violence charges. At least 20 have been hit with DUI or public intoxication charges.

Most damning, five of those Trump freed were arrested over conduct that happened at least partly after their release. That means the clemency order may have actively enabled their alleged crimes.

One of the five, Lawfare reported, is Andrew Paul Johnson, 45, a Florida handyman freed by the pardon in 2025. A Hernando County jury convicted him in February of five charges, including the molestation of two children, and he was sentenced to life in prison in March. Police said he tried to silence one victim by promising to share restitution money he expected from the Trump administration over his Jan. 6 case.

Another, as PunchUp exclusively revealed last month, is Christopher Quaglin, 40. The violent Proud Boys member was sentenced to 12 years after he committed some of the most heinous crimes on Jan. 6, but served only four before Trump pardoned him. As our sister Substack reported on May 29, the electrician from North Brunswick, New Jersey, who currently lives in Florida, has been arrested twice in the past three months alone—including in May, when he allegedly fought with officers who arrested him for disorderly conduct.

The new count dwarfs earlier figures. The New York Times editorial board counted 39 reoffenders in March. The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington identified 33 in December 2025, a figure echoed by a report from the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee.

Tracking the pardonees is difficult because, unlike parolees, they face no monitoring or reporting requirements, Lawfare noted. The job has been made harder by the Justice Department’s deletion of Jan. 6 defendant records, which Lawfare has worked to restore.

Trump signed the sweeping proclamation hours after his second inauguration, with no pardon attorney review and no victim notification, undoing what had been the largest federal investigation in U.S. history.

The findings come weeks after the administration floated a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate those it says were politically targeted. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche would not rule out letting pardoned rioters who assaulted police claim payouts, per CNBC, though the DOJ is now backing off the plan amid Republican pushback.

One case shows the pardons cutting the other way, too. Andrew Taake, 37, a Houston man, had pleaded guilty to soliciting what he believed was a 15-year-old girl for sex—a charge that predated the riot. He escaped a sentence by drawing on prison-time “credit” banked while detained for bear-spraying a police officer at the Capitol, a conviction Trump then erased, the Daily Beast revealed last November. He didn’t reoffend after walking free—but the clemency still spared him punishment for a separate child sex crime.

“President Trump has exercised his constitutional authority to issue pardons and commutations for a variety of individuals, including those who have been victims of Biden’s weaponized justice system,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast, before pivoting to an attack on former President Joe Biden’s clemency decisions.

“The White House has a rigorous pardon review process which includes the White House Counsel, the Department of Justice, and ultimately the President as the final decider. And the only pardons anyone should be critical of are from President Autopen, who pardoned and commuted sentences of violent criminals including child killers and mass murderers—and that’s not to mention the proactive pardons he ‘signed’ for his family members like Hunter on his way out the door.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-jan-6-pardon-crime-spree-revealed-as-even-worse-than-known/?