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川普觀察：爛人爛事錄 -- 開欄文
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美國司法部長邦蒂去職 ---- A. Faguyand/B. Debusmann Jr.
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美國司法部長通常是總統的頭號殺手。邦蒂去職顯然表示她的「槍法」太遜。如果伊朗戰爭再膠著三到五週，國訪部長就該捲鋪蓋了。
Trump removes US Attorney General Pam Bondi
Ana Faguyand/Bernd Debusmann Jr., 04/03/26
US President Donald Trump has removed Attorney General Pam Bondi - a longtime ally and fierce defender of his administration - from her post as America's top law enforcement officer.
Trump praised her in a post on Truth Social and said she would be "transitioning" to a role in the private sector.
Bondi's time leading the justice department was often overshadowed by its handling of the release of files relating to Jeffrey Epstein and its investigation into the convicted sex offender.
She is the second Trump administration official in recent weeks to be cut from her post, after Kristi Noem was ousted as homeland security chief in March. Bondi will be replaced by her former deputy, Todd Blanche.
Bondi said she would be "working tirelessly" to transfer her work to Blanche, adding that the job had "been the honour" of a lifetime.
She added that in her new private sector position - which she did not identify - she would "continue fighting for President Trump and this administration".
The announcement comes less than two months after a combative congressional hearing in which Bondi was peppered with questions from lawmakers - at times descending into shouting matches in which she called one Democrat a "washed-up loser".
As recently as Thursday morning, Trump was defending Bondi, saying: "She is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job."
But hours later, Trump confirmed her departure on Truth Social, saying that her new private sector role would be "announced at a date in the near future".
Trump lauded Bondi's performance as attorney general in his post, saying she had done "a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in crime across our country".
But the president had reportedly grown increasingly frustrated with Bondi, in particular over her handling of the Epstein files.
When she was sworn into the post in February 2025, she vowed transparency over the Epstein case and promised to release an alleged client list associated with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019.
The department later said no such list existed.
In the end, millions of files related to Epstein were released under pressure - including from Trump supporters - and only after Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to make unclassified records public.
The agency, and subsequently Bondi, faced bipartisan backlash, with lawmakers accusing the justice department of failing to obscure some identifying information about survivors, while protecting the identities of those who were not victims.
A handful of Republicans who worked with her closely over the years praised her on Thursday.
"Pam Bondi led this Department with strength and conviction and I'm grateful for her leadership and friendship," Blanche wrote on X. "We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe."
Others celebrated her departure.
Among them was Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie, a regular critic of Bondi's handling of the Epstein files.
"I hope the next AG will release all the Epstein files according to the law and follow up with investigations, prosecutions and arrests," he wrote on X.
California Democrat Ro Khanna - who worked with Massie on the bipartisan law to compel the release of the files - told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "This shows that Congress isn't a doormat."
Khanna said lawmakers should refuse to confirm Blanche as the next attorney general unless he will "submit to investigating and prosecuting this Epstein class, this group of men who felt that they could write their own rules, play by their own roles, and treated the rest of us as dispensable".
Watch: Next Attorney General must release remaining Epstein files, Ro Khanna tells BBC Newsnight 視頻
Another Republican critic of Bondi's, South Carolina representative Nancy Mace, accused her of having "stonewalled every effort to hold the guilty accountable" and "seriously undermined" Trump with her handling of the files.
Survivors also told the BBC that Bondi had yet to meet them or respond to their emails about Epstein's wrongdoing, and that the matter had become a political liability for Trump.
Bondi has called Epstein a "monster" and told the victims she was sorry for the abuse they endured.
Most recently, a congressional committee formally summoned Bondi to answer questions over her handling of the Epstein investigation. She was expected to appear before them this month.
Under her leadership, the justice department has pursued a number of criminal investigations into political opponents of the president, including California Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
In September, Trump pushed Bondi to more aggressively investigate his political adversaries. He said in a social media post addressed directly to Bondi: "We can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility."
The justice department under her tenure faced questions over its handling of the investigation into federal immigration agents fatally shooting two people during confrontations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which sparked nationwide demonstrations in January.
With Trump's announcement, Bondi becomes the third high-profile member of Trump's cabinet to leave this term, following Noem and, last year, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz - whose duties were given to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The relatively intact inner circle of this Trump presidency stands in stark contrast to his first term in office between 2017-21, which was a revolving door of firings and replacements.
In the first year alone, the administration saw the departure of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, FBI Director James Comey, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon and two press secretaries, among others.
Since returning to the White House last year, commentators and political strategists had remarked that Trump's approach in his second term had been more disciplined and less chaotic.
Bondi was part of Trump's legal team during his first impeachment trial and when he claimed without evidence that the 2020 election had been stolen from him through mass voter fraud.
She also publicly supported him by showing up at court during his hush money trial in New York, which ended in May with a conviction of 34 counts of fraud. Trump is appealing against the verdict.
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反川普抗議全美遍地開花 ---- Shimon Prokupecz等
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Huge crowds protest against Trump on 'No Kings' day in the US and abroad
(Organisers said the protests may add up to one of the largest demonstrations in US history, with more than 3,100 events taking place in major cities, suburbs and rural areas. They expect the total number of participants to be above nine million.)
‘King’ Trump, 79, Suffers Another Worldwide Humiliation
‘No Kings’ protests: Large crowds attend nationwide rallies against the Trump administration
West Coast marches are underway on a day of protests large and small across the US, including a marquee event in Minnesota.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz reflects on "No Kings" protests, Updated 03/28/26
What to know
• Widespread protests: “No Kings” demonstrations have taken place from coast to coast today, with attendees rallying against President Donald Trump’s policies, the rising cost of living and the war with Iran.
• On the ground: West Coast rallies are in full swing, including huge marches in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Throughout the day, crowds have gathered to sing, dance and wave signs in major cities, suburbs and small towns across red and blue states. A marquee event in Minnesota featured a Bruce Springsteen performance and a slate of high-profile speakers.
• Third round: Last year, millions of people attended largely peaceful protests on two “No Kings” days. Since then, Trump’s nationwide immigration enforcement blitz has come and gone in several major cities. Now, Americans are facing skyrocketing gas prices and a flagging economy due to the war.
WATCH: "No Kings" co-organizer talks about the impact of the nationwide rallies
TuAnh Dam, CNN
Indivisible Co-founder Ezra Levin talks evolving "No Kings" movement
Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, spoke with CNN’s Omar Jimenez about organizing the “No Kings” rallies to “be a place for everybody to come and exercise their rights as Americans in a patriotic and safe way.”
Almost half of "No Kings" protests took place in GOP strongholds, organizers say
Nina Giraldo
Demonstrators gather for a "No Kings" protest in Clarkesville, Georgia, on Saturday, 003/28/26.
“No Kings” protesters marched through suburbs, major cities and small towns across the US, carrying signs and showing off many inflatable costumes. Almost half of protests took place in GOP strongholds, according to event organizers.
Texas, Florida and Ohio each had over 100 events scheduled today, and states like Idaho, Wyoming and Utah had events in the double digits, organizers said. One of the most far-flung demonstrations took place in the Alaskan community of Kotzebue.
A litany of rural, red-leaning communities participated in the “No Kings” movement for the first time today, from Seward, Alaska, to East Glacier Park, Montana.
Here were some other red states that saw protests today:
* Texas: Protesters marched in Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth, many listening to music, chanting and holding signs over their heads. CNN saw thousands gather near Dallas City Hall, where speakers denounced Trump administration policies from a stage. Officers detained one person in Dallas, according to the city’s police, although it is unclear why or whether they were a counterprotester.
* Georgia: Protesters lined the road leading into Jekyll Island on the state’s coast, waving American flags and carrying signs. The protest received mostly positive feedback.
* Florida: The crowd of “No Kings” protesters in Boynton Beach, Florida, was “very enthusiastic” and “for the most part pretty peaceful,” said the city’s vice mayor, Thomas Turkin. In neighboring city West Palm Beach, about 50 supporters of President Donald Trump engaged in verbal altercations with protesters, some flashing “Proud Boys” caps, T-shirts and flags.
CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Chris Youd, Elise Hammond, David Williams and Aditi Sangal contributed to this report.
Mother at Chicago rally recalls trying to flag down her daughter, who didn't realize it was her
Veronica Morales and Nic F. Anderson
Maria Isabel Trejo, a Chicago resident and mother, said she showed up to the “No Kings Day” demonstration in Chicago after she had a case of mistaken identity with her daughter in Portland.
Trejo said she saw her daughter, who lives in Portland, leaving a grocery store and attempted to chase her down, but it didn’t go as planned.
“She ran to her car, locked the doors, and displayed her American passport. She was shaking, she was crying. They, they would have grabbed her,” Trejo told CNN.
Rallies are underway nationwide. Get caught up here
Tori B. Powell
Big crowds are marching against President Donald Trump and his policies today in “No Kings” protests taking place from coast to coast.
Here’s what you should know:
Minnesota protests: At a Minnesota rally in St. Paul, Gov. Tim Walz offered fierce criticism of Trump’s policies, particularly with regard to immigration enforcement. Sen. Bernie Sanders lauded the people of Minnesota at the rally and warned against what he called “an unprecedented and dangerous moment in American history.” Rock legend Bruce Springsteen called Minnesota “an inspiration to the entire country.” And in Minnesota, “we are built different,” proclaimed Rep. Ilhan Omar. Actress and progressive advocate Jane Fonda opted not to make a speech and instead read a statement from Becca Good, the wife of Renee Good.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a "No Kings" protest against President Donald Trump's policies in St. Paul, Minnesota, 03/28/26.
Tim Evans/Reuters
West Coast demonstrations: Rallies on the West Coast are kicking up. As demonstrators gather and set up for the “No Kings” protest in downtown Los Angeles, a familiar face has been seen bobbing through the crowds: a giant blimp depicting Trump as a diaper-clad baby. Scores of protesters filed into San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza wielding American flags and “No Kings” signs.
A giant inflatable Donald Trump balloon is seen while protestors gather in front of Los Angeles City Hall during the "No Kings" national day of protest on 03/28/26.
New York marches: In Manhattan, “No Kings” protesters held anti-ICE, anti-Trump and anti-Iran war signs, chanting as they marched south from Midtown in New York City this afternoon. Amid flashing billboards and marching crowds in Times Square, progressive influencers Hasan Piker and Harry Sisson attended demonstrations.
Demonstrators take part in a "No Kings" protest against President Donald Trump's policies, in New York City on Saturday.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Florida rallies: The crowd of “No Kings” protesters in Boynton Beach, Florida, was “very enthusiastic” and “for the most part pretty peaceful,” said the city’s vice mayor, Thomas Turkin.
CNN’s Zoe Sottile, Danya Gainor, Sophia Peyser, Donie O’Sullivan and Nina Giraldo contributed reporting.
In pictures: Demonstrations are taking place coast to coast
People hold a banner reading "End the wars, stop ICE, May 1 general strike" as they march during the "No Kings" national day of protest in Chicago on Saturday.
下略
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川瘋求援硬是被友邦打臉 ----- Jack Revell
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Key Ally Instantly Slaps Down Trump’s Demand for Help
Jack Revell, 03/14/26
Sometimes it takes a good friend to call you out when you’re wrong.
For Donald Trump, that pal is the nation of France, which has delivered an emphatic “Non!” to the American president’s request for military support in his Middle Eastern campaign.
The 79-year-old conducted diplomatic relations via Truth Social on Saturday, begging America’s allies to intervene in the Strait of Hormuz. The maritime shipping lane, which is the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, is currently being blockaded by Iran following the U.S. and Israel’s joint attacks on the country.
As a result, approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil supply is not moving, rapidly driving up the prices of gas and aviation fuel in America.
“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
Trump has claimed the Iranian military is both destroyed and posing a significant issue to American forces. / Truth Social 川痞直屬網頁
“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat,” he continued, in what appeared to be a veiled plea for help from America’s allies.
French Response, the official X account of the French government’s foreign office, was quick to clarify that it would not be sending the ships Trump requested.
“No. The [French] aircraft carrier strike group remains in the Eastern Mediterranean. France’s posture is unchanged: Defensive. Protective,” the diplomatic outlet wrote. “Stop the scaremongering.”
The official French Foreign Office account has denied that the country will be sending military support. / X X社交網頁
The account repeated the message to multiple posts on X that had claimed France would be deploying warships to the Middle East.
Earlier, Trump had posted a separate message, calling for a coalition to help reopen the Strait.
“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help—A LOT!” he promised.
“The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well. This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be—It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!”
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence has said that it is discussing “a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region.”
Trump has claimed that allies will come to the aid of the U.S. in getting the Strait open. / Truth Social 川痞直屬網頁
The Financial Times had previously reported that both France and Italy were seeking to negotiate a deal to guarantee safe passage of their ships through the Strait, though Italy has since denied the report.
Two French officials also previously told Reuters that the country was working on attempting to build a coalition to allow European ships through the strait, but French Response’s message suggests this may not include military activity.
Trump has made a series of posts in recent days suggesting that the Iranian military is both “completely decimated” and proving to be highly resilient, with continued bombardment required to open the vital maritime passageway.
Shipping traffic has all but come to a standstill through the Strait of Hormuz as the war enters its third week. / JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP via Getty Images霍爾木茲海峽地圖
“In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water,” Trump wrote. “One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz is, in fact, open for shipping but that it carries a high risk of being bombed by Iranian forces.
“The only thing prohibiting transit in the Strait right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that,” Hegseth said.
Iranian military leaders have said that they will continue to block shipping through the strait and drive up the price of oil, which has already climbed to more than $100 per barrel. It is the largest disruption to global oil supplies in history.
While Iran’s historical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening salvo of the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has since taken over and vowed to keep fighting.
On Friday, Trump announced that the U.S. had struck more than 90 military targets on Kharg Island, the deep-water fuel terminal through which most Iranian oil flows, typically to its main buyer, China. Fuel infrastructure reportedly remains intact on the strategic island, which is considered vital to the regime’s finances.
A satellite image shows an oil terminal at Kharg Island last month. Trump said he did not bomb oil infrastructure “for reasons of decency” as he tries to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. / 2026 Planet Labs PBC / via REUTERS 卡格島煉油設施照片
On Saturday, however, Trump said the U.S. “may hit it a few more times just for fun,” telling NBC that Tehran is ready to make a deal but he won’t accept it as the “terms aren’t good enough yet.”
Iran has downplayed the damage on Kharg and is now targeting fuel ports in nearby Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab Emirates.
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伊朗戰爭帶來的負面政治效應 – Will Weissert
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Two weeks into war with Iran, Trump has been knocked back on his political heels
WILL WEISSERT, 03/15/261
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In the two weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump increasingly has been knocked on his political heels.
He's grown more agitated with news coverage and has failed to find a way to explain why he started the war — or how he will end it — that resonates with a public concerned by American deaths in the conflict, surging oil prices and dropping financial markets. Even some of his supporters are questioning his plan and his overall poll numbers are declining.
Meanwhile, Moscow is getting a boost from the war's early days after Trump eased sanctions on some Russian oil shipments. That, combined with rising oil prices, undercut the yearslong push to crimp President Vladimir Putin's ability to wage war in Ukraine.
Then there are Democrats, who were left reeling after Trump won the 2024 election. With control of Congress at stake in November's midterms, the party has come together to oppose Trump's Iran policy and point to the economic turmoil as proof that Republicans haven't kept their promises to bring down everyday costs.
“I think Democrats are well-positioned for this November and the midterms,” said Kelly Dietrich, CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee, which trains party backers to run for office and staff campaigns.
Dietrich said the past two weeks show the Trump administration has failed at long-term planning. “They're flying by the seat of their pants, and rest of us are paying the price,” he said.
Trump seeks help securing the Strait of Hormuz
On Saturday, Trump spent hours at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, before attending a closed-door fundraiser for his MAGA Inc. super PAC at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Last weekend, he also golfed at another of his South Florida properties a day after witnessing the dignified transfer for six U.S. soldiers killed in the Iran war. That death toll rose this past week.
Trump is increasingly complaining about media coverage of the conflict, on Saturday writing: “Media actually want us to lose the War.” His broadcast regulator subsequently threatened to pull broadcast licenses unless they “correct course.”
The president — who kept allies other than Israel in the dark about his war plans for Iran — also for the first time suggested the U.S. would need to lean on the international community to help oil tankers move through the Strait of Hormuz, where transportation has been severely disrupted, throwing global energy markets into a tailspin.
Iran has said it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure and use its effective closure of the strait as leverage against the United States and Israel. A fifth of the world’s traded oil flows through the waterway.
“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump wrote on Saturday, later adding, “this should have always been a team effort.”
It was not clear if that multi-nation push was set to begin or if Trump only hoped it might, however. That's because he also wrote: “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected” will “send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer” be threatened by Iran.
The White House did not provide further details or clarity on what Trump's post meant. But Britain's defense ministry said Saturday: “We are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region” without providing details.
Trump had pledged at the beginning of the war that U.S. naval ships would escort tankers through the waterway. But that hasn’t happened yet. “It’ll happen soon. Very soon,” he insisted while boarding Air Force One to fly to Florida on Friday night.
Still, questions about the strait continue to undermine Trump's recent pronouncement during a Kentucky rally that, “We’ve won.”
“You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won,” he said. “We won the, in the first hour, it was over.”
The war has far-reaching political implications
The U.S. Treasury Department also announced this past week a 30-day waiver on Russian sanctions aiming to free up Russian oil cargoes stranded at sea to help ease supply shortages caused by the Iran war.
That's despite analysts saying that spiraling oil prices due to Persian Gulf production blockages are benefiting the Russian economy. Moscow relies heavily on oil revenue to finance its war on Ukraine, and sanctions were a growing handicap.
Some of Washington's key allies have decried the move as empowering Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called easing sanctions “not the right decision” and “certainly does not help peace” because it leads to a “strengthening of Russia’s position.”
With midterm races now starting to heat up, Trump was asked Friday night about his message to voters who believe gas is too expensive.
“You’re going to see a very big decrease in the prices of gasoline, gas, anything having to do with energy, as soon as this is ended,” Trump said.
The longer the conflict goes, the more pronounced questions about the midterms will become. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, suggested on Fox News Channel this past week that if gas and oil prices continue to stay high “you’re going to see a disastrous election” for the GOP.
Iran also has even divided Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base, between those who support the action and others who say that Trump expressly campaigned on ending wars.
Leading figures on the right, including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, have sharply criticized Trump. Trump, though, has continued to insist that he created the MAGA movement and that it will follow him anywhere, on any issue.
The political turbulence has some Democrats predicting their party could see midterm gains rivaling 2018’s “blue wave” election during Trump’s first term.
“Democrats just have to keep reminding people that he made a promise to bring prices down, and they’re still going up,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said of Trump. “And now they’re going to go up even more because prices in gasoline can increase prices of everything else, including at the grocery store.”
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張口就來的川瘋及其內閣閣員 - Amanda Terkel
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自欺欺人乎？無頭蒼蠅？我曾說過：
「在川普大盲人趕著一群蠢瞎馬的情況下，以後兩年間，各種亂七八糟的政策或方案將層出不窮，…」(《《國際現勢：2025》補充說明》)
果不其然。
'Already won' or 'got to finish the job': The Trump administration's mixed messages on Iran
President Donald Trump and top administration officials have offered statements explaining their thinking behind the war with Iran that often shift or contradict one another.
Amanda Terkel, 03/13/26
The Trump administration’s talking points on the Iran war have been a moving target, with officials giving sometimes conflicting takes of the operation’s goals in language that evolves in real-time.
President Donald Trump initially said the strikes constituted “major combat operations” that would likely be over in four or five weeks. But since then, he’s declared that the war is already “won” while also saying the U.S. still needs to “finish the job.” The operations could end “soon” or the military may need to go “further.”
The Trump administration’s decision to strike Iran and enter into a conflict with no solid end date in the early hours of Feb. 28 took many Americans by surprise, coming from a president who campaigned on an “America First” agenda and railed against foreign interventions. While Trump did address Iran in his State of the Union address — saying the U.S. military had “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program” in June — he did not go to Congress for authorization for the war, and he did not spend weeks making the case to the public that the war was necessary.
Instead, the administration now finds itself in the position of having to justify the war to a skeptical public, as Americans are already seeing hits to their pocketbooks from rising gas prices. A new NBC News poll released last week finds that 54% of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling and say the U.S. should not have taken military action.
Asked for comment for this article, the White House referred NBC News to a post on X by press secretary Karoline Leavitt, which said it’s a “fake narrative” that there has been “‘mixed messaging’ about the objectives of Operation Epic Fury.” She said the administration has consistently pointed to the goal of destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, annihilating its navy and ensuring the “regime’s fellow terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and attack our forces.”
Here’s a look at the Trump administration’s messaging on the war.
Why did the U.S. strike Iran?
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How significant is the war?
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What is the goal?
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Is the war over?
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How long will the war last?
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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川瘋騎虎難下 -- Ian Prasad Philbrick
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As the Iran War Fallout Widens, Trump Seems to Be Turning to an Old Tactic. He’s in for a Rude Awakening.
Ian Prasad Philbrick, 03/11/26
The American presidency is an alphabet soup of acronyms. POTUS issues statements from the EOP. (That’s the Executive Office of the President.) FLOTUS lives at the WH. VPOTUS meets with the NSC. SCOTUS issues rulings, sometimes making POTUS mad. But Donald Trump’s second presidency has given rise to an abbreviation heretofore unheard in the sanctum of the Oval Office: TACO.
That acronym, coined by the Financial Times commentator Robert Armstrong last May, stands for “Trump always chickens out.” At the time, it described the presidency’s tendency to slap tariffs on foreign goods only to quickly retreat when the stock market recoils. As Armstrong put it then, the key insight of TACO theory is that “the US administration does not have a very high tolerance for market and economic pressure.”
Since then, TACO has become a byword among political observers trying to understand a president whose bluster masks a repeated tendency to cave when his controversial policies touch the hot stove of reality. Trump has TACO’d on tariffs, sometimes levying and rescinding the same import duties in the course of a single weekend. He’s TACO’d on Greenland after his threats to annex the autonomously governed island caused markets to swoon, ultimately settling for what he described as the “concept of a deal” with Europe. And he’s done it on immigration: Where once the White House was aggressively deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Minnesota and Maine, it’s now reportedly telling congressional Republicans to stop talking about “mass deportations.”
Now Trump may be trying to TACO his way out of Iran, too. On Monday, he told CBS News’ Weijia Jiang that “the war is very complete, pretty much,” adding that the U.S. was “very far ahead” of the four- or five-week timeline he’d previously floated for the conflict. The statement, which Jiang tweeted at 3:16 p.m. on Monday, reversed sliding stocks and brought the price of oil back below $90 a barrel.
On its face, the sequence of events fits the recipe for a TACO: As the costs (both monetary and human) of the war mounted, Trump pulled an about-face. Except later that day, the president appeared to walk back the walk back. “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” he told House Republicans assembled at his golf club in Doral, Florida, for a policy retreat. “We’re gonna go further,” he later affirmed to reporters. By Wednesday, Trump was back to declaring that the war would end “soon” because there’s “practically nothing left to target”—but also that “we could do a lot worse” and “we’re not finished yet.” Can you TACO a TACO?
TACO theory is in some ways downstream of Trump’s well-documented tendency to verbally hand-wave the kinds of pronouncements that presidents used to carefully script, not unlike his vague “concepts of a plan” on health care or other logorrheic tics that signal indecision (“We’re looking at it very strongly”). But in the case of Iran, the whole exercise is a bit of a red herring. That’s because TACO’s secret sauce, so to speak, is that it works best when Trump acts unilaterally and in ways he can personally defuse by lowering a tariff, recalling immigration agents, or disavowing a threat. Trump almost certainly doesn’t have that option this time. As TACO progenitor Armstrong put it in his latest column, “Wars don’t end just because someone declares them to be finished.”
The real question, then, isn’t whether Trump is trying to TACO his way out of Iran; it’s whether Iran will let him if he tries. It’s difficult to assess how the Islamic theocracy’s degraded leadership thinks the war is going so far, and they have every reason to project defiance even if they think it’s going poorly. Iran might well welcome a TACO. But many foreign-policy watchers have interpreted the election of the late Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba to be the country’s new supreme leader as a signal of resolve. Meanwhile, a growing share of Iranian drones appears to be finding their mark as neighboring countries’ ability to intercept them flags. Shipping traffic remains throttled in the Strait of Hormuz, a trade route off Iran’s coast that fully a third of the world’s seagoing oil exports traverse in a normal year. Tuesday, Iran reportedly began dotting the strait with mines, and the Pentagon said it had destroyed Iranian minelaying ships.
Iran isn’t even the only country with veto power over a Trump TACO. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Trump-friendly prime minister, reportedly helped persuade the president to go to war in the first place. Trump has spurned Netanyahu in the past, but in this case, Trump’s own secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said the president pulled the trigger in part because he believed Israeli attacks would invite retaliatory strikes on U.S. military bases. So if Trump wants to end the fighting quickly but Netanyahu doesn’t—a dynamic that, according to the Wall Street Journal, may already be upon us—who wins out? Then there are Iran’s regional neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq, which each have interests and motives of their own.
Never put it past Trump to change course abruptly. If the war sends gas prices spiraling even higher, disrupts supplies of other key goods, or kills more U.S. soldiers, the pressure on him to back down may grow. But even if he does, here’s one other ingredient of TACO theory to consider: As a descriptor of Trump’s behavior, it isn’t really accurate much of the time. Trump might temporarily withdraw or have his wings clipped by a court ruling. But he’s often more like the proverbial dog with a bone: unable to let it go.
It’s been true on tariffs, with Trump promptly levying new import duties after the Supreme Court ruled many of his earlier ones unlawful last month. Despite many court rulings to the contrary, the president keeps circling back to his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, even dispatching the FBI to look into debunked allegations of fraud in Georgia and Arizona. He took a break from the war last week to post multiple times on Truth Social about his running feud with the comedian Bill Maher. And of course he bombed Iran less than a year ago, degrading its nuclear facilities during a 12-day Israel-Iran war that killed several top Iranian officials. Yet here we are. So even if this round of fighting ends, another could be right around the corner.
In place of TACO, it would be more accurate to say that Trump sometimes, temporarily, maybe chickens out. But that theory isn’t very helpful in forecasting where the war in Iran might go next. TSTMCO doesn’t make for a very good acronym, either.
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川普的臉又痛了---- Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
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US House votes to overturn Trump's tariffs on Canada
Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, 02/12/26
The US House of Representatives has voted to rescind US President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods.
In a 219 to 211 vote, six Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to back a resolution that seeks to end the tariffs Trump imposed on Canada last year.
The vote is largely symbolic as it will still need to be approved by the US Senate and then approved by Trump, who is very unlikely to sign it into law.
Since his re-election, Donald Trump has imposed a series of tariffs on Canada, recently threatening a 100% import tax in response to Canada's proposed trade deal with China.
As the vote was taking place on the House floor, Trump posted on Truth Social: "Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time."
"TARIFFS have given us Economic and National Security, and no Republican should be responsible for destroying this privilege," he added.
The vote came after US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally in Congress, unsuccessfully tried to block discussion on the chamber's floor by lawmakers on Trump's tariffs.
With Republicans holding a thin majority in the US House, the six Republican defections along with a near-united front from Democrats was enough to secure the votes.
The measure had been introduced by Democrat Gregory Meeks who said that Trump had "weaponized tariffs" against allies and destabilized the global economy.
"Not only have these tariffs done immense harm to our relationship with Canada, pushing them closer to China, they have driven up prices here at home," he said before the vote.
Representative Don Bacon from Nebraska was one of the six Republicans who crossed the aisle to join Democrats in approving the measure. Before the vote, he said "tariffs have been a 'net negative' for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying."
The bill now heads to the US Senate where Republicans also hold the majority. Even if it cleared that hurdle, it is unlikely to be signed into law.
Separately, Trump's tariffs are also facing legal scrutiny as the US Supreme Court is set to rule soon on a case questioning the president's legal authority to impose the levies.
Meeks, the top Democrat on the US House Foreign Affairs committee, said the measure on Canada is the first of several bills he plans to introduce that aim to roll back Trump's signature trade action.
"Our fight doesn't stop here," he said in a video posted online before the vote. "I have resolutions also to end trump's tariffs on Mexico, on Brazil, and on his Liberation Day global tariffs."
相關報導
Trump threatens Canada with 100% tariffs if it 'makes a deal with China'
Canada's deal with China signals it is serious about shift from US
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川痞第n次慘被打臉 –– Joey Cappelletti等
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請參看本欄 2026/01/23貼文。
Annual governors' gathering with White House unraveling after Trump excludes Democrats
JOEY CAPPELLETTI, STEVE PEOPLES and STEVEN SLOAN., 02/11/26
WASHINGTON (AP) — An annual meeting of the nation’s governors that has long served as a rare bipartisan gathering is unraveling after President Donald Trump excluded Democratic governors from White House events.
The National Governors Association said it will no longer hold a formal meeting with Trump when governors are scheduled to convene in Washington later this month, after the White House planned to invite only Republican governors. On Tuesday, 18 Democratic governors also announced they would boycott a traditional dinner at the White House.
“If the reports are true that not all governors are invited to these events, which have historically been productive and bipartisan opportunities for collaboration, we will not be attending the White House dinner this year,” the Democrats wrote. “Democratic governors remain united and will never stop fighting to protect and make life better for people in our states.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs the NGA, told fellow governors in a letter on Monday that the White House intended to limit invitations to the association’s annual business meeting, scheduled for Feb. 20, to Republican governors only.
“Because NGA’s mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program,” Stitt wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The governors’ group, which is scheduled to meet from Feb. 19-21, is one of the few remaining venues where political leaders from both major parties gather to discuss the top issues facing their communities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Trump has “discretion to invite anyone he wants to the White House.”
“It's the people's house,” she said. “It's also the president's home, so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the White House.”
Representatives for Sitt and the NGA didn't comment on the letter. Brandon Tatum, the NGA's CEO, said in a statement last week that the White House meeting is an “important tradition” and said the organization was “disappointed in the administration's decision to make it a partisan occasion this year.”
In his letter to other governors, Stitt encouraged the group to unite around common goals.
“We cannot allow one divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us,” he wrote. “The solution is not to respond in kind, but to rise above and to remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve. America’s governors have always been models of pragmatic leadership, and that example is most important when Washington grows distracted by politics.”
Signs of partisan tensions emerged at the White House meeting last year, when Trump and Maine's Gov. Janet Mills traded barbs.
Trump singled out the Democratic governor over his push to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, threatening to withhold federal funding from the state if she did not comply. Mills responded, “We’ll see you in court.”
Trump then predicted that Mills’ political career would be over for opposing the order. She is now running for U.S. Senate.
The back-and-forth had a lasting impact on last year’s conference and some Democratic governors did not renew their dues last year to the bipartisan group.
Peoples reported from New York.
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川瘋把一手好牌給打臭了 ---- Eric Levitz
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《聲音》網誌的立場傾向「進步派」或「中間偏左」；其針對川普的論調自不可盡信。請自行斟酌下文的評論或解讀。可參見此欄2026/01/31和2026/02/03兩篇貼文。
註解：
under water (net-negative)：「負面評價淨值」，也就是說：「不贊成」百分比高於「贊成」百分比的數值。
Trump has turned his biggest political asset into a liability
How America soured on mass deportation.
Eric Levitz, 02/02/26
When President Donald Trump launched his deportation campaign last January, he had the American public at his back.
Under Joe Biden, unauthorized border crossings had soared to record levels — and threw America into a nativist mood. In November 2024, a CBS News/You Gov poll found 57 percent of Americans expressing support for “a national program to find and deport all immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally,” while 73 percent said that the next president should make deportations a priority.
The Trump White House was happy to oblige. And during its first months in office, the public seemed pleased with its efforts. In early 2025, voters approved of Trump’s handling of immigration by as much as 12 points, while favoring his “program to deport immigrants illegally in the US” by 16.
Immigration was the foundation of Trump’s political strength — the issue where he consistently enjoyed the trust of a supermajority of Americans.
And he squandered it within a year.
Key takeaways
* Trump entered office with strong public support on immigration.
* Unauthorized border crossings have been historically low since February 2025.
* Yet the administration hasn’t been able to capitalize politically on its success at the border, due to the unpopularity of its radical enforcement policies.
Once, the phrase “Trump’s immigration policy” evoked images of order in the American imagination: a wall ringing the nation’s borders, migrant panhandlers and criminals airbrushed from city streets.
Today, those words conjure much different pictures — of masked paramilitaries pepper-spraying protesters, breaking into people’s homes, tearing parents from their crying children, and pumping bullets into American citizens.
Voters do not like what they see. Trump’s approval on immigration is now underwater by 12 points. Americans disapprove of his “deportation program” by 8 points and say ICE is making communities “less safe” rather than “more safe” by 21. Not long ago, “Abolish ICE” was among the most politically toxic propositions in American politics. Now, 46 percent of voters — including one-fifth of Republicans — support the idea, according to a recent YouGov poll.
Until this week, the White House evinced little concern for its immigration agenda’s collapsing support. When an ICE agent needlessly shot a 37-year-old mother to death in Minneapolis in early January, the Trump administration immediately rallied to the shooter’s defense. When Border Patrol agents were caught on video Saturday firing 10 bullets into the back of a protester, the Department of Homeland Security swiftly smeared the victim as a domestic terrorist, effectively asking Americans to trust its word over their lying eyes.
Even conservatives struggled to stomach that last act of depravity. The administration’s handling of Alex Pretti’s killing provoked rebukes from Republican senators, right-wing magazines, and the NRA.
Faced with a backlash so broad and overwhelming, Trump finally decided to change course, however minutely.
In recent days, he demoted his hardline Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, extended an olive branch to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, discussed Democratic demands for DHS reform with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and suggested that Pretti’s death would receive a thorough investigation (although, there are signs this may not actually be the case).
Given the scale of ICE and CPB’s lawlessness, it would be generous to call these half-measures. The administration still appears staunchly opposed to reforms that would actually ensure its deportation forces’ professionalism and legal accountability. It is still eager to use immigration policy as a tool for terrorizing ethnic minorities and punishing the administration’s political adversaries.
By indulging these radical impulses, Trump has achieved an extraordinary feat of political self-sabotage: He has managed to turn his greatest source of political vitality into a vulnerability — and done so despite successfully addressing the electorate’s chief complaint on that issue as of 2024.
Trump lost with a winning hand
The Biden-era surge in migration fueled widespread discontent.
Vast and sudden influxes of asylum-seekers — who were often both indigent and legally barred from employment — burdened many municipalities’ social services, increased visible homelessness, and sparked an array of fears and resentments in longtime US residents (not least, among those who had themselves immigrated in the recent past).
By the time Trump took office, however, the migrant wave had already crested.
This was partly due to America’s softening labor market. Border crossings had first started soaring in late 2020, as US employers expanded hiring and hiked wages to satisfy rebounding consumer demand. Faced with more tepid recoveries in their home countries, many migrants went north in search of opportunity.
By 2024, however, job growth in the US was slowing — and the American economy’s magnetic force was weakening. Illegal border crossings fell by 53 percent between December 2023 and May 2024.
The following month, Biden enacted various new restrictions on asylum, which helped reduce unauthorized migration by another 44 percent between June and November of 2024.
Biden and Kamala Harris derived little political benefit from this decline, likely because they were associated with the spike that had preceded it.
But Trump did not have that problem. His reputation for “toughness” on immigration was unquestioned.
And it served the new president in more ways than one: Upon his inauguration, unauthorized immigration immediately plunged to its lowest point on record. In February 2025, only 8,326 migrants crossed the US southern border, down from 47,300 in December 2024 — and 249,740 in December 2023.
In other words: Before Trump had changed virtually anything about immigration policy, the border crisis was effectively solved.
Given these conditions, little stood between Trump and political success on immigration. He could have done nothing and still credibly claimed to have secured the border. Had Trump pursued a normal, restrictionist agenda — higher spending on border enforcement, more deportations of (even low-level) criminal offenders, restrictions on opportunities for asylum — he likely would have appeased his base and swing voters alike.
But he didn’t.
The bizarre, self-defeating flamboyance of Trump’s radicalism
Granted, there is more to governance than maximizing your approval rating. The point of politics is not merely to gain power but to use it. Trump and his allies were not content to deter future immigration or deport undocumented criminals. They wanted to purge America of all undocumented immigrants — or at least, all those who did not work for their cronies in the hospitality and agricultural sectors.
Yet even this may undersell their ambitions. Some in the White House plainly wish to exile legal immigrants from certain countries, on the grounds that their ethnic groups corrode our nation’s culture and poison its blood.
Apparently, the only thing more unpopular than a nakedly authoritarian immigration policy is a Democratic one.
Nevertheless, even from the standpoint of advancing its incendiary ideological goals, the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement appears self-undermining. After all, the White House hasn’t just pursued radical objectives, but made a big show of its own extremity and authoritarianism.
Perhaps, the administration’s immigration enforcement operations were motivated by racial animus rather than a desire to uphold the law. But it still would not have been wise to say as much: Trump would not have won the 2024 election without substantial support from both nonwhite and immigrant voters.
And yet Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has chosen to post on social media white nationalist slogans from its official social media accounts, while the president has derided all Somali-Americans as “low-IQ people.”
Meanwhile, it seems obvious that, if you want to limit backlash to intensive deportation operations, you must ensure that they burden US citizens as little as possible.
And yet, even as stories of ICE and CBP’s maltreatment of Americans piled up last year, the administration sought to reduce their legal accountability while loosening training standards.
This posture reached its apotheosis with the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
In each of those cases, the administration had every incentive to proceed cautiously. Video evidence of both shootings indicated that — at the very least — they may have been illegitimate.
And if its deportation forces had in fact lawlessly executed an American citizen, the White House would be ill-advised to take ownership of such violence.
The administration could have responded to each killing with expressions of sorrow and calls for investigation. It might have even declared the killers a few bad apples, whose recklessness undermined ICE’s fundamental mission: to keep Americans safe.
Instead, it chose to immediately defend the killer and defame the victim — by telling lies blatantly contradicted by video evidence.
The White House’s commitment to this messaging strategy was as strategically puzzling as it was morally odious. In the weeks following Good’s killing, polling revealed that a supermajority of Americans had not bought the White House’s line. Disapproval of ICE shot up past 60 percent.
Nevertheless, when Border Patrol fired 10 bullets into Pretti’s prone body, the administration sang an even shriller rendition of the same tune.
America still favors Republicans on immigration
Given all this, it is remarkable — and disconcerting — that Trump’s standing on immigration is not even worse.
Immigration remains the president’s best issue. According to the progressive data journalist G. Elliott Morris’s poll tracker, Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration by 9 points — while disapproving of his handling of inflation by 26. Trump’s marks on all other major issues fall between those two poles.
More troublingly, the GOP seems to have retained an advantage on immigration. In a Wall Street Journal poll taken after Good’s killing, voters said that the Republican Party was “better equipped” to handle immigration than the Democrats by an 11-point margin.
Apparently, the only thing more unpopular than a nakedly authoritarian immigration policy is a Democratic one.
Nevertheless, Trump’s unabashed extremism has made the Democratic Party’s vulnerabilities on border security less salient. As the public has soured on the president’s immigration agenda, the Democrats’ lead in 2026 midterm polling has grown from a measly 0.2 points last April to 5.5 points today.
Trump could have embraced a center-right immigration agenda and coasted to political success on the issue. Or he could have pursued Stephen Miller’s radical plans for America’s ethnic purification with a modicum of stealth and message discipline. Instead, his administration has behaved as though only Truth Social users have voting rights.
相關報導
Trump's approval rating on immigration has collapsed
Unauthorized migration collapsed before Trump's border buildup even began
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川普又被打臉 -- Will Neal
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請參考
Country Calls BS on Being Part of Trump’s Peace Grift
Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza to require $1 billion payment for permanent membership
身居總統高位還明目張膽搶錢，川痞堪稱古往今來第一人。或許，我該讓他升級：姓川、名普、字痞、號瘋、又字「川盜」、亦號「川匪」；時人或稱「川老慫」。
Trump Snubbed by Every Major Ally for Big Signing Ceremony
Will Neal, 01/22/26
Some of the United States’ longest standing allies have scorned en masse a signing ceremony for Donald Trump’s new “Board of Peace” initiative.
Not a single representative from a Western European country was present at the launch Thursday morning at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Fewer than 20 nations made an appearance, among them Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, along with Argentina and Paraguay. The number stands well below the 35 anticipated by senior White House officials.
“Every one of them’s a friend of mine,” Trump said from the stage. “In this group I like every single one of them, can you believe it? Usually I have about two or three that I can’t stand.”
“They’re great people,” he added. “They’re great leaders.”
As about a dozen world leaders sat stone-faced on the stage, Trump went on to brag that his new group would bring “glorious peace” to the Middle East.
“For that region and for the whole region of the world, because I’m calling the world a region,” he said. “The world is a region.”
“Everybody in this room is a star. You’re all stars,” he said.
At several points throughout the signing ceremony, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to be the only person in the room loudly applauding before others slowly joined in.
Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which offers permanent membership for a $1 billion dollar fee, has the stated goals of “promoting stability” and restoring “lawful governance” in conflict zones, initially focusing on reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. But critics have slammed the initiative as an effort by Trump to create a MAGA-fied corollary to the United Nations.
Israel, whose president Isaac Herzog is presently at the Davos summit, did not send a representative to Wednesday’s ceremony.
Other invitees who’d otherwise attended the conference—among them French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney—also did not show up.
European partners have expressed skepticism about the “Board of Peace” given the U.S. president’s decision to invite Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, who’s engaged in a bloody war against Western ally Ukraine, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally and key enabler of that conflict.
The initiative’s unveiling also came amid Trump’s own mounting threats to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, which the president has chalked up to his snub for the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” the MAGA leader wrote in a letter to Norway’s prime minister earlier this week.
The Norwegian government is not in any way affiliated with the Nobel Committee, a non-state body that decides independently who will be granted its various prestigious awards.
On Wednesday, Trump said progress had been made toward a deal on advancing U.S. interests in Greenland while avoiding military confrontation with other NATO members and the brewing trade war with Europe his threats have helped spark.
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