Democrat Politics

Two Colombian air force jets carrying migrants deported from the U.S. landed in the Andean nation early Tuesday, its government said, meaning the White House’s earlier declaration that Colombia acceded to all of President Donald Trump’s demands was a farce.

In a social media post, Colombian President Gustavo Petro shared two photos of himself and the migrants on the country’s aircrafts.

“Our compatriots come from the US free, dignified, without being handcuffed,” he wrote, according to an English translation. “The migrant is not a criminal, he is a free human person.”

News that the migrants were transported back to Colombia via air force plane and not using U.S. military planes suggests that the South American nation didn’t acquiesce to all of the president’s demands. 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro

After Trump threatened the country with hefty tariffs, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday that Colombia had accepted “all of President Trump’s terms,” including deporting the migrants “on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.” 

But as the BBC reports, “Diplomats from both countries reached a deal which has seen Colombia send its own air force planes to collect the migrants” (emphasis added).

This move gave Petro more control over the way Colombian citizens were returned home—which was what he wanted the entire time. Petro had argued that using American military jets was inhumane and that the migrants shouldn’t be treated like criminals. 

Trump, however, was adamant that the immigrants be returned and expressed annoyance at Petro’s demands. Early on Sunday, when the Colombian president refused to let two U.S. military planes carrying migrants land, Trump threatened the nation with 25% tariffs.

According to Bloomberg, which cited a U.S. official familiar with the Trump administration’s plans, the White House still expects to use military flights “on an as-needed basis” to deport people to Colombia over the next few weeks. 

The Trump administration has long said it plans to deport undocumented immigrants from the U.S. But the episode between the U.S. and Colombia shows just how low Trump will go to achieve that goal. Not only did he threaten the nation with hefty tariffs, but he also promised “Visa Sanctions” and “A Travel Ban and immediate Visa Revocations” on Columbian government officials and their allies.

A trade war with the United States would’ve devastated Colombia. The U.S. is historically the nation’s top trading partner. But Americans would’ve suffered too, and items such as fresh-cut flowers and coffee would’ve likely gotten more expensive.

What this newly reported flight arrangement suggests, though, is that both sides gave a little, despite Trump claiming complete victory on the matter. But, as Bloomberg noted, the entire incident reflects a well-worn playbook Trump is known to use: Stake out a radical and maximalist negotiation position that creates a crisis, resolve said crisis, then claim total victory for solving the crisis—no matter what the real truth is.

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A group of House Republicans on Monday introduced a bill that would ban medication abortion nationwide and impose a prison sentence of up to 25 years on anyone who dispenses the drugs, which are used in the majority of abortions across the country.

“I’m taking a stand against the irresponsibility of the Democrats and working to protect women and girls across America,” Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, the lead sponsor of the bill, wrote in a news release. “I’m taking a stand for life because, born or unborn, every single person is uniquely and wonderfully made. It’s not merely a political issue; it’s a moral duty to uphold the sanctity of life. I am committed to safeguarding the innocent and voiceless in our society.”

Ogles introduced the bill along with 18 other House Republicans, including Mary Miller of Illinois, who infamously declared that Adolf Hitler “was right on one thing”; Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who is against abortion but loves AR-15 rifles that are used to blow children to bits in school shootings; and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who believes teenagers should be paid below minimum wage. 

Republicans are targeting medication abortion even though 72% of Americans support it, according to a March 2024 Axios/Ipsos poll. Civiqs’ tracking poll also finds that 60% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 

Ogles’ proposed nationwide abortion-pill ban is a reversal of a position he took in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to allow states to ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

At the time, Ogles said he believed abortion is a state issue and that he wouldn’t vote for a federal ban. 

From a 2022 interview:

On the topic of abortion, Ogles’ opponent, former state senator Heidi Campbell, has said if elected, Ogles would pass a national abortion ban. Ogles said that is not true. 
“I’m not going to address ridiculous claims by my opponent, but what I will say is what the Supreme Court got right is they referred that issue back to the states,” he said.

So much for that promise.

President Donald Trump has made similar promises.

“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,” Trump said in a lie-filled video address during the 2024 campaign. “The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land—in this case, the law of the state.”

However, we shouldn’t take Trump’s word on anything. 

President Donald Trump

Since he was sworn in roughly a week ago, Trump has pardoned unrepentant anti-abortion activists who illegally blocked access to a health care facility that provided abortions. One of his pardons was for an activist who violently assaulted a facility employee. 

He also instructed the Department of Justice to stop enforcing the law that makes it illegal to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with someone “obtaining or providing reproductive health services” or to damage a facility “because such facility provides reproductive health.” And he reinstated the global gag rule, which blocks U.S. aid to foreign organizations that perform or discuss abortion care.

Trump has broken other promises, too.

He’s been hiring people connected with the right-wing Project 2025, and implementing Project 2025 policies—despite ridiculously claiming during the campaign that he had nothing to do with Project 2025. Project 2025 calls for banning medication abortion.

During the campaign, Vice President JD Vance said Americans don’t trust Republicans on the issue of abortion.

“My party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American’s people trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance said during the vice presidential debate.

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Can’t imagine why!

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Reports of ICE harassing even indigenous people are an extra layer of disturbing that I didn’t forsee. But here’s what should happen! Please share #laloalcaraz cartoons

At 27, Karoline Leavitt is the youngest White House press secretary since disgraced former President Richard Nixon picked 29-year-old Ronald Ziegler for the same position in 1969 (and the parallels are not lost on us).

Leavitt hit the MAGA-atmosphere during the first Trump administration, where she worked as an assistant press secretary before leaving to become New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director. 

In the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Leavitt made two social media posts that she has since erased: one that called the officer who tricked insurrectionists into going the wrong way, “A hero,” and another describing the insurrection as, “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.”

Like her previous boss Stefanik, Leavitt has been willing to debase herself and pretend any pretense of a conviction she might have had about justice and our constitution was no match for a position in President Donald Trump’s orbit.

A few months after Jan. 6, she was fully on board and promoting debunked election fraud claims on social media.

In 2022, she ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in the First District of New Hampshire  before folding herself back into Trump’s 2024 campaign for president. 

In the run-up to the election, Leavitt showed an almost unhinged ability to spin for Trump, unabashedly calling the Trump campaign “disciplined” after every disastrous press conference Trump gave.

In August, she denied that Trump’s campaign had any connections to Project 2025. Here she is featured in a Project 2025 training video “The Art of Professionalism.”

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While Trump and others repeatedly promoted lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and elsewhere in 2024, Leavitt showed the kind of shamelessness Trump desires in a mouthpiece. During an appearance on CNN, Leavitt’s lies and inability to answer simple fact-checking questions ended with the interview being cut short.

Since the election, and Trump’s announcement that Leavitt would be the next White House press secretary, Leavitt has continued her monomaniacal vigilance to create an alternative reality for her narcissist in chief. After Trump pardoned more than 1,500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists, including seditious conspirators, Leavitt tried to downplay the negative response.

“I don’t think it’s causing much controversy,” she told Fox News. “President Trump is restoring faith in our justice system,” she added.

A recent investigation from NOTUS shows that about a week ago, Leavitt “amended” campaign filings from her failed 2022 congressional run. It reportedly shows that she failed to disclose, for years, at least $200,000 in “inappropriate donations.” It also shows that she still owes more than $300,000 in unpaid debts. Only the best conartists people.

Leavitt will now join the ranks of other Trump press secretaries. That clowncar includes waste-of-space Sean Spicer, fancy-podium-hoarder Sarah Huckabee Sanders, afraid-of-the-press Stephanie Grisham, and world’s-worst-prognosticator Kayleigh McEnany.

Leavitt seems a perfect fit for Trump, as her first press conference Tuesday will undoubtedly show:

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Donald Trump claimed on Monday that the military was dispatched to California in an operation to provide water to fight the wildfires. This, of course, was the latest lie in years of Trump’s falsehoods on water-related issues—which has turned out to be a fixation for him.

“The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, California!!!”

A few hours later, the California Department of Water Resources corrected the record on its X account. 

“The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful,” the department said.

Trump’s post was an apparent attempt to deepen the false narrative he has clung to for years: That California’s wildfires are a result of water conservation policies promoted by the environmental movement.

During the latest crisis, state water officials and other scientific experts have made clear that water supply problems have not actually hurt ongoing firefighting operations.

Firefighters hose down a burning structure in California on Jan. 8, 2025.

“Water supply has not hindered firefighting efforts. Reservoirs in California are at or above average storage levels for this time of year, thanks in part to years of proactive water management,” an Association of California Water Agencies statement said.

The episode is just another example of Trump’s often absurd obsession with water-related rhetoric, including a reference to an apparently magical faucet that could solve long-standing resource issues.

In other discussions about California’s water management, Trump has argued that California officials merely had to “turn the valve” to provide “massive amounts of water” to Los Angeles. No such valve exists.

He has also argued that the state could use Canadian water sources like a “very large faucet” to alleviate water shortages. 

“It’s somebody that doesn’t fully understand how water works and doesn’t understand the intricacies of allocating water not only between two countries but also for the environment,” Tricia Stadnyk, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Calgary, said. 

Conveniently but perhaps not surprising, Trump’s California golf club could financially benefit from loosening environmental restrictions on water.

While campaigning last year, Trump took a break from spreading disinformation and lies about the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene and informed the public that the hurricane—as all hurricanes do—contained water.

“It was a vicious, it was water, the water was the worst we’d ever seen, it was a water hurricane, that’s what it was,” he said.

During his first term in 2017, Trump said that his administration’s response to Puerto Rico’s hurricanes was hampered by “big water.”

“This is an island. Surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water,” he said.

In 2019, Trump was widely ridiculed for using the White House’s historic Roosevelt Room to deliver a rant about toilets.

“We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms where you turn the faucet on—and in areas where there’s tremendous amounts of water, where the water rushes out to sea because you could never handle it, and you don’t get any water,” he said.

He went on to note, while hosting a roundtable with small business leaders, “People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once.”

At the same event, Trump also complained about faucets.

“You go into a new building or a new house or a new home and they have standards only you don’t get water. You can’t wash your hands practically, there’s so little water comes out of the faucet. And the end result is you leave the faucet on and it takes you much longer to wash your hands,” he said.

A year later, Trump still had water on his mind.

“So showerheads—you take a shower, the water doesn’t come out. You want to wash your hands, the water doesn’t come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair—I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect,” Trump said in 2020.

“Dishwashers—you didn’t have any water, so you—the people that do the dishes—you press it, and it goes again, and you do it again and again,” he added. “So you might as well give them the water because you’ll end up using less water.”

In similarly bizarre rants, Trump complained that regulations requiring electric batteries in boats would lead to shark attacks and suggested that magnetic power is disrupted by water.

Water doesn’t stop magnetism, just like there are no magical faucets. But Trump’s nonsensical water rhetoric continues to flow on and on.

Donate now to support Southern California relief efforts.