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@GregTSargent
Sep 29, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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1) The second installment of the NYT investigation into Trump's taxes is a tour de force, a narrative masterpiece.

It shows how Trump created a "fictional alter ego" as a business success, and milked it for years.

That's exactly what he did in 2016.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
2) Trump's creation of a fictional self on "the Apprentice," followed by years of squandering his gains through incompetence and narcissism, parallel his election in 2016 on a fraudulent platform and his disastrous first term with eerie precision:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
3) The NYT offers this killer summary:

"Trump’s genius, it turned out, wasn’t running a company. It was making himself famous — Trump-scale famous — and monetizing that fame."

But then he used this image to fleece desperate people w/scams like Trump U.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
4) In 2016 Steve Bannon performed the same role that Mark Burnett did in producing "The Apprentice." Both created a fictional Trump that he milked for years while the managerial disasters piled up.

This time we are the losers. But his bill is coming due:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
5) Bringing the scam full circle, two producers of "The Apprentice" helped stage Trump's convention, which also peddled massive illusions -- that Trump crushed coronavirus and that the real threat to the rule of law is leftist terrorism.

Full case here:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

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More from @GregTSargent

. Profile picture
Apr 7
If Trump bombs Iran power plants, the humanitarian crisis will be horrific. Experts predict water shortages, closed hospitals, many deaths.

“We’ve never had a US president so proudly promise to commit war crimes," Sen Chris Murphy says. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/208709…
This is how to do it. Sen Chris Murphy tells me:

"Everybody in that chain of command has to think hard about whether they want to be part of the execution of that order."

He predicts bombing Iran power plants/bridges will kill thousands at outset. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/208709…Image
Trump's threat to bomb "every" power plant in Iran is the key. That leaves no doubt he's threatening war crimes. The threat to destroy "a whole civilization" only hammers it home.

The key is what happens in the aftermath of bombing all those plants. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/208709…Image
Read 8 tweets
. Profile picture
Mar 30
Pete Hegseth just held a prayer service in which he appealed for God's help in killing our "enemies" with maximal violence and brutality. Hegseth's bloodlust and sadism are drawing sustenance from his brand of far-right Christianity. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/208322…
In his prayer, Hegseth asked for divine assistance in unleashing "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy."

By now it's become unmistakable that Hegseth is practically oozing with bloodlust. There are many examples of this. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/208322…Image
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Hegseth appears to be a devotee of Christian Reconstructionism. As one religious scholar notes, this posits that "all authority belongs to God," which renders the state’s authority wholly subordinate to a "higher category of Biblical law." 3/

newrepublic.com/article/208322…Image
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Read 7 tweets
. Profile picture
Feb 4
Remarkable: Trump's planned migrant prison camps are hitting deep resistance in red areas. In Virginia's partly rural Hanover (+26 Trump) opposition is intense. GOP leaders in other states are opposed.

Voters are rejecting mass deportations. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/206094…
These vast prison camps would allow for the detention of 80,000 more migrants, doubling Trump/Miller's capacity for deportations. Yet resistance is breaking out in red Virginia, reddish parts of New Jersey, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Utah, and more. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/206094…Image
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This passed unnoticed: New Pew poll finds 64% oppose mass detention of migrants while cases are decided.

That directly repudiates MAGA. Trumpism treats release of migrants awaiting hearings as a mortal blow to the nation. Broader public does not. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/206094…Image
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Read 5 tweets
. Profile picture
Dec 15, 2025
Stephen Miller is employing state terror in service of the open goal of shifting the ethnic mix of the country. In numerous ways he's doing this at the expense of public safety.

We spent weeks reporting on Miller's real aims. The result is this piece:
newrepublic.com/article/204191…
Highlights from our Miller piece:

First, his grandmother has written an unpublished history of some of his ancestors' immigration to the US. We are publishing it online for the first time. They were attacked in terms similar to those he uses today.

newrepublic.com/article/204191…Image
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Some news on Trump's doling out of most refugee slots to white South Africans: Two former State Department officials tell us basic protocols designed to determine whether this group actually merits protection have simply been scrapped. It's just whim.

newrepublic.com/article/204191…Image
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Read 9 tweets
. Profile picture
Dec 12, 2025
Remarkable how brutal the ruling against Trump on Abrego Garcia truly is: It details malicious abuses of power all throughout. Trump and Stephen Miller were testing their ability to spread lawless state terror. But the court held the line. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/204355…
For Trump/Miller, the Abrego Garcia case is a crucial gauge of how far they can get in disappearing undesirables/placing them beyond the law entirely.

Judge Xinis' ruling is important in that context. It calls out Trump's lawless conduct throughout. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/204355…Image
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For weeks, Trump officials have refused to send him to Costa Rica even though he said he'd accept that. The ruling details extensive misconduct here.

We all know what happened: Trump/Miller decided sending him there wouldn't be dehumanizing enough. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/204355…Image
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Read 5 tweets
. Profile picture
Dec 1, 2025
News --> The commander who oversaw Pete Hegseth's alleged killing of two boat bombing survivors is now likely to come in and face questions from House Armed Services Committee, ranking Dem Adam Smith tells me.

In this piece, I try to make sense of it all:
newrepublic.com/article/203789…
Pete Hegseth denies he gave the order to kill them all. But even some Republicans now appear to be demanding answers, so Frank Bradley, who oversaw bombings, is in talks with House Armed Services about coming in.

Rep Adam Smith lays out his Qs here:

newrepublic.com/article/203789…Image
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This is big: Jack Goldsmith, former head of OLC, says that if WaPo's report is right, Pete Hegseth's order might have been an illegal one.

WaPo reports that the commander overseeing the strikes gave a rationale but Goldsmith says it doesn't hold up:

newrepublic.com/article/203789…Image
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Read 5 tweets

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