Dispatches

TRUMP’S PLAN TO RELOCATE GAZANS TO JORDAN AND EGYPT TRIGGERS OUTRAGE. President Donald Trump said Jan. 25 he would like to see most of the population of war-torn Gaza be relocated to Jordan and Egypt, a plan that a number of observers said was tantamount to ethnic cleansing, Eloise Goldsmith noted at Common Dreams (1/26). Trump made the remarks the same day that he lifted a Biden-era hold on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

“I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump said, according to the Financial Times. “You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.” Gaza’s population was 2.2 million in 2023.

“He’s just openly endorsing/encouraging ethnic cleansing,” wrote journalist Mehdi Hasan on Jan. 25. Others chimed in with similar remarks.

Trump’s comments were made nearly a week after a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, halting 15 months of war that was triggered by a Hamas deadly attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, and which left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, according to local health officials.

Homes, shelter, and infrastructure has also been largely decimated in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s military campaign there. Trump said Gaza is “literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change,” per CNN.

“What the occupation has failed to achieve through its criminal bombardment and genocide in Gaza will not be implemented through political pressures,” said independent Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, according to CNN. “The conspiracy of ethnic cleansing will not succeed in Gaza or the West Bank.”

Trump also told reporters that he had already discussed the idea to relocate Gazans with King Abdullah of Jordan on Jan. 25. He said he planned to bring up the plan during a Jan. 26 phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Trump’s proposal would be a departure from the United States’ official position of forging a negotiated “two state solution” for Israel and Palestine, although some say that the United States’ policies towards the region, including the nearly unqualified support for Israel during its campaign in Gaza, have undercut that goal.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich endorsed Trump’s remarks, according to CNN, saying “the idea of helping [Gazans] find other places to start new, better lives is a great idea.”

DEMS SLAM TRUMP FOR BAILING ON PLEDGE TO LOWER GROCERY PRICES. Congressional Democrats are calling out President Trump’s inaction on food prices, even though he campaigned on lowering them. On Jan. 27, 19 of them sent him a letter demanding that he act on record prices impacting American consumers, Morgan Stephens noted at Daily Kos (1/27/25).

“Your sole action on costs was an executive order that contained only the barest mention of food prices and not a single specific policy to reduce them,” wrote the lawmakers. “You have tools you can use to lower grocery costs and crack down on corporate profiteering, and we write to ask if you will commit to using those tools to make good on your promises to the American people.”

The letter proposed six concrete measures the White House could take to lower prices, including banning price gouging during crises like pandemics and allowing the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Agriculture to address monopoly practices in the food industry. Democrats bolstered their argument by citing recent examples of corporate price manipulation.

“Last year a Kroger executive admitted in federal court that the company raised the price of eggs and milk ‘significantly higher than the cost of inflation’ in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Democrats said. “In 2023, a federal court found that the country’s largest egg producers had engaged in a pricefixing conspiracy in the mid-2000s. Major beef, poultry, and potato producers have similarly been accused of or admitted to price-fixing.”

Trump’s presidential campaign harped on inflation and food costs, blaming former President Joe Biden for skyrocketing grocery prices. The majority of voters indicated that the economy was one of the top deciding factors in the 2024 election, if not the top reason.

“First, we must get economic relief to our citizens,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention in July. “Starting on Day 1, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again. We have to make it affordable. It’s not affordable. People can’t live like this.”

Yet Trump spent his first week in office focused on muting health agencies, enacting mass deportations across the country that included wrongfully detaining at least one U.S. veteran, pardoning violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists, potentially getting rid of FEMA, and dismantling DEI programs.

Chocolate, beef, coffee, and orange juice are some of the foods that have seen staggering price spikes over the past year. Meanwhile, egg prices have soared to an all-time high due to inflation and a spike in bird flu, which has led to significant shortages. Prices are expected to continue to increase 20% this year, with some states like California reporting $8 per dozen. Some restaurants have resorted to adding a surcharge for items with eggs in them.

Lowering food costs for working Americans is clearly not a top priority for the Trump administration. His vague executive order that focused on pricing directed the executive branch departments and agencies to “pursue appropriate actions” to lower prices on housing, health care, and home appliances—without any details on how to do so.

Instead of taking decisive action to lower food prices, Trump’s administration seems intent on raising them even higher. Case in point: the ongoing mass deportations of undocumented people, which could lead to labor shortages in industries that rely on migrant agriculture workers. This could further drive up costs for everything from food production to restaurant bills.

TRUMP’S MASS DEPORTATION PROMISE IS FAILING. SO WHY IS HE STILL BRAGGING? Donald Trump’s mass deportation promise has hit some logistical and ethical hiccups in his first week back in office, forcing his administration to abandon the numbers and instead focus on PR, Alix Breeden noted at Daily Kos (1/27).

Even Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan has admitted that the feat of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants just isn’t possible.

While the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is bragging on X about arrests and publishing its numbers across social media, an insider told the Washington Post that the Trump administration is far from happy.

According to the anonymous source, the White House has issued new daily quotas on ICE agents, telling the federal officers to ramp up their hundreds of daily arrests to at least 1,200 or 1,500.

The Trump administration has even employed the help of a right-wing celebrity talking head to boost public morale: Dr. Phil McGraw.

The talk show host tagged along with Homan on a raid in Chicago where he spoke with a handcuffed undocumented immigrant from Thailand.

“The first arrest in Chicago with @RealTomHoman was a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand,” McGraw wrote on X along with a video of the arrest.

And while Homan told McGraw that they aren’t just “picking up anyone with a tan,” at least 15 Native Americans across Arizona and New Mexico have reported being stopped, questioned, or detained by federal law enforcement.

According to CNN, one indigenous woman was in her workplace when it got raided. She and seven other Native Americans were lined up behind white vans where they were questioned for two hours without access to their phones or any way to contact their families.

“There’s a lot of fear, and I know they’re probably feeling frustrated knowing that they don’t feel safe in the country where they were born or where their ancestors come from and there’s a lot of frustration of them being stereotyped,” Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley told CNN. “I think there’s a confusion with other races, maybe just because having a brown skin, automatically being profiled or stereotyped to be in a certain group or race.”

Undocumented immigrants who were detained by ICE officials also made headlines for the demoralizing treatment from the US government.

The inhumane shipment of Colombian and Brazilian immigrants back to their home countries caused a massive reaction from Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Brazilian officials.

Photos showed undocumented immigrants handcuffed and lined up as they were hurried on to military aircrafts where they were reportedly denied food and water.

One Brazilian minister said the practice of handcuffing undocumented immigrants was “blatant disrespect” to their people.

​​“On the plane they didn’t give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn’t even let us go to the bathroom,” Edgar Da Silva Moura, a Brazilian immigrant, told France 24. “It was very hot, some people fainted.”

“Things have already changed [with Trump], said Luis Antonio Rodrigues Santos, a 21-year-old who was deported. “Immigrants are treated as criminals.”

TRUMP BACK TO GOLFING AFTER DEMANDING FED WORKERS RETURN TO OFFICE. Donald Trump is already playing hooky one week into his job as commander in chief, spending his Monday morning golfing at one of his golf properties in Florida, rather than working, Emily Singer noted at Daily Kos (1/27).

Trump was golfing even though he told reporters aboard Air Force One over the weekend that he didn’t think he would have time to golf at his Doral course—where he was grifting off taxpayers to host a retreat for congressional Republicans to come up with a plan for how to pass his tax cuts for the rich.

“No. I don’t think so. I’m busy,” Trump told reporters who asked if he’d be golfing.

Trump’s visit to one of his resorts to hit the links took place much earlier than his first disastrous term, when he waited until the first week of February to golf, according to the Washington Post, which tracked Trump’s frequent golf outings.

Trump golfing instead of working comes after he issued a memorandum on Inauguration Day requiring that all federal employees return to the office five days a week.

According to the memo:

“Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

Of course, return to work policies hurt women and minorities the most, research found—two groups Trump and his MAGA fans hate. The Washington Post reported:

“Research from Gartner and McKinsey, released in 2024 and 2022, respectively, said office mandates mostly impact women and people of color, who are more likely to quit over flexibility or office mandates. In a separate 2024 study released by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers who studied the start-up labor market found that changing a job opening to remote work increased female applicants by 15% and minorities by 33%.”

Of course, the return to office policy could just be another one of Trump’s efforts to kill diversity in government.

Trump has vowed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the federal government, and has even ordered federal employees to snitch on their coworkers who are involved in efforts to diversify the workforce so they can be fired.

As for Trump golfing, it’s likely to cost taxpayers a pretty penny. During Trump’s first stint in office, he played at least 142 rounds of golf, costing taxpayers $142 million, according to data tracked by the now defunct site TrumpGolfCount.com.

GOP GRAPPLES WITH TRUMP’S RELEASE OF VIOLENT RIOTERS AMID BACKLASH. Democrats and Republicans responded very differently to President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally grant pardons to more than 1,500 people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in his name, Oliver Willis noted at Daily Kos ˜(1/27).

Republican leaders struggled to defend him:

Vice President JD Vance appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” and was asked about the pardons handed out to one offender who used a stun gun to electroshock Capitol Police officer Michael Fanone, and another who hit an officer while wearing brass knuckles.

“Is violence against a police officer ever justified?” host Margaret Brennan asked.

Vance responded, “Violence against a police officer is not justified, but that doesn’t mean that you should have Merrick Garland’s weaponized Department of Justice expose you to an incredibly unfair process.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” longtime Trump ally and booster Sen. Lindsey Graham was more blunt when asked about Trump’s boost to convicted criminals.

“Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that’s an okay thing to do,” Graham admitted.

Republicans will face more pressure to answer for Trump’s actions as Senate Democrats introduced a resolution condemning the pardons.

See more Dispatches at Populist.com.

The text of the document says: “Resolved, That the Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers.”

Nearly every member of the Senate Democratic caucus has signed on sponsoring the resolution, including all of the members in leadership positions. New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, who was on the scene as a member of the House during the attack, explained to CBS News why Democrats objected to the pardons.

“It gives the stamp of approval now to political violence, saying that if you conduct political violence, and it’s in favor of Donald Trump, for the next four years that you’ll be okay,” he said.

A few days after the pardons were first issued, Trump tried to defend his actions in an interview with Fox News. He lied and claimed the convictions were for “very minor incidents.”

Contrary to this falsehood, the convictions were given out in response to violence committed in the act of attempting to overturn a presidential election. In the case of pardoned Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio, he was convicted in federal court of seditious conspiracy against the United States.

In the hours following the pardons former Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell, who was severely injured in the attack, said in a statement “I feel betrayed. Despite what we all witnessed four years ago, the American people voted [Trump] back in office, and one of the first things that he does is pardon the criminals who nearly took my life. It’s a desecration to our service and the sacrifices made to keep everyone safe.”

Yet during the same period where Trump handed out a gift to hundreds of convicted criminals, his administration started a mass deportation anti-immigration initiative that detained a military veteran.

In the first week of his presidency, Trump was already showing that under his leadership the innocent will find trouble, while those who commit violence on his behalf will get a pass.

TRUMP MULLS GETTING RID OF FEMA. Donald Trump has signed an executive order to create a “review council” to find ways to change the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which allocates relief funding and assists with recovery in areas hit by disasters, Emily Singer noted at Daily Kos (1/27).

“Americans deserve an immediate, effective, and impartial response to and recovery from disasters,” reads the order, which was announced on Sunday. The order creates a review council made up “not more than 20 members,” including the secretary of homeland security, the secretary of defense, as well as other nongovernmental representatives.

“FEMA therefore requires a full-scale review, by individuals highly experienced at effective disaster response and recovery, who shall recommend to the President improvements or structural changes to promote the national interest and enable national resilience,” the order continues.

The executive order is the first step Trump is taking to upend FEMA, which he has said he wants to get rid of altogether and force states to handle their own disaster relief—an idea ripped straight off the pages of Project 2025.

“FEMA is a whole ‘nother discussion because all it does is complicate everything. FEMA has not done their job for the last four years,” Trump told sycophantic Fox News host Sean Hannity on Jan. 22. “But unless you have certain types of leadership, it’s really, it gets in the way. And FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.”

Trump’s FEMA executive order is toothless, however, as a review council can do nothing but offer ideas for changing the agency.

What’s more, Trump cannot nix FEMA without an act of Congress, which is unlikely to get rid of an organization that helps millions of its constituents—many of them Trump supporters who live in states that don’t have the money or infrastructure to do disaster relief on their own. Congress can barely agree on how to keep the federal government’s lights on, let alone find agreement to get rid of an agency that has broad public support.

Republican-led states like Texas, Florida, and Louisiana have used the lion’s share of FEMA resources over the past decade as they reeled from hurricanes that have become more powerful and destructive thanks to climate change.

Axios spoke to an unnamed former senior FEMA official who said that getting rid of FEMA would hurt Trump supporters the most.

From Axios:

The official said dismantling or reducing FEMA’s operations would ultimately hurt the president’s supporters, many of whom live in vulnerable regions and who lack the money to quickly rebuild without government assistance.

In fact, Trump’s idea to get rid of FEMA may just be his way of punishing California, which is reeling from a spate of devastating fires that have decimated parts of the Los Angeles area. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have threatened to withhold or condition disaster relief to California out of pure spite since the state reliably votes for Democrats up and down the ticket.

In the wake of California’s fires, rather than offer condolences or help to the state’s residents, Trump has instead launched childish attacks at Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling him “Newscum” and falsely blaming Newsom for the devastation the fires caused.

Trump wrongly accused Newsom of not providing enough water to battle the blazes. But firefighters have said that no municipal water system on earth could have stopped the blazes, which were so devastating because of hurricane-force winds that blew embers and ignited the arid landscape, which was bone-dry from a lack of rain.

In fact, Trump signed another executive order on Friday that includes lies about California’s water management and its role in the fires that have ravaged LA.

But ultimately, when Trump traveled to California on Friday, he folded like a typical bully does when Newsom showed up uninvited to the tarmac to greet Trump.

“We’re working to get something completed,” Trump said of helping California. “He’s the governor of this state, and we’re going to get it completed. They’re going to need a lot of federal help.”

‘HE’S IN ON THE RACKET’: WATCHDOG SLAMS TRUMP’S CRYPTO ORDER. Following a torrent of executive orders issued in his first few days back in the White House, Donald Trump added another one to the list Jan. 23, this time aimed at promoting U.S. leadership in cryptocurrency—an industry he now holds a considerable stake in, Eloise Goldsmith noted at Common Dreams (1/24).

Co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, Robert Weissman, decried the move, writing in a statement Thursday that “Trump is pushing crypto because he’s in on the racket.”

This executive order “will help super-inflate what’s already a dangerous speculative bubble in an artificial, unregulated asset that will, eventually, burst. The inevitable crash will badly injure millions of everyday Americans,” Weissman wrote.

The executive order calls for the establishment of a working group on digital assets to explore the possibility of creating a “national digit asset stockpile”—something that crypto industry has pushed Trump’s administration to create. That group would also “propose a federal regulatory framework governing the issuance and operation of digital assets.” The order, however, didn’t go as far as some in the crypto industry had hoped, remarkedThe New York Times.

Just prior to his inauguration, Trump launched a so-called meme coin—”$TRUMP”—which as of Jan. 23 had a market cap of about $7 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The digital asset bitcoin also surged to new heights Monday, the day of Trump’s inauguration, buoyed by expectations that the incoming administration will be friendly to the crypto industry.

Trump’s decision to launch his crypto coin has been criticized on ethics grounds.

Jeff Hauser, the executive director of the Revolving Door Project, wrote in an MSNBC op-ed published Jan. 24 that having wealth linked to cryptocurrency will “obviously impact” how Trump’s administration approaches regulation the market.

What’s more, Hauser warned, “crypto markets are frequently believed to be subject to manipulation by ‘whales,’ i.e., large investors. Having a Trump asset so susceptible to manipulation is highly concerning. Consider whales who might manipulate the Trump coin’s worth to buy influence with the president by intervening with purchases at strategic moments.”

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2025

Populist.com