BY MATT BERG
& CROOKED MEDIA |
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“You can't take our country — and you can't take our game.”
— Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, taunting Trump after Canada defeated the United States 3-2 in overtime to win the 4 Nations ice hockey competition.
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A growing number of Republicans in Congress are rattled by Donald Trump’s chaotic, government-slashing bedlam. Some are getting an earful from their voters.
- Did the American people vote to witness a billionaire-led reenactment of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” with the role of the victims filled out by the country’s veterans, social security net and public safety programs? You might conclude that Republicans think they did, judging from DOGE-Bag-in-Chief Elon Musk’s performance onstage at the CPAC conservative conference yesterday, where he waved an actual chainsaw over his head while reveling in the bloodbath of dismembered government programs that he and Trump have left lying in the road.
- But polls are turning against Trump, Musk and their Federal Government Massacre… and the GOP is starting to get the hint. Last night, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), who represents a solid red district, held a town hall that devolved into angry voters screaming at him to denounce Trump’s overreach. One voter declared: “It’s clear from all the writings of our founding fathers that our great republic was never meant to be ruled by a dictator, nor a king.” Or a chainsaw-wielding billionaire, for that matter. Anti-monarchists, you say?... vive la résistance!
- McCormick pushed back, blaming Democrats. The crowd drowned him out with boos. So, the congressman changed his tune: “I don’t think executive privilege should be as strong as today. I think we're out of balance.”
- He’s not alone. During a recent business luncheon, Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH) said that Trump’s executive orders are “getting out of control.” Only Congress has the power to do things like get rid of the Education Department, he added. Privately, GOP lawmakers are frantically calling and texting the Trump administration, raising concerns about gazillionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts, according to Politico. “I thought we were supposed to be in a new era of meritocracy. Not the indiscriminate firing of people,” a GOP aide told the outlet.
You can read the room — or read the data. They both say the same thing.
- Trump’s political “honeymoon” has turned out to be one of the shortest in modern presidential history, according to Dan Pfeiffer, Crooked’s resident polling expert. Trump’s approval rating has quickly sunk back down to the mid-40’s. His policies, individually, are broadly unpopular, according to various polls. Musk appears to be dragging Trump down: only 1-in-3 approve of the job Musk is doing. Americans are particularly worried that he’s ignoring the economy, with 62 percent telling CNN he’s not doing enough to fight inflation.
- Is the MAGA leadership moderating in response? Hardly. It’s doubling down on right-wing, heel-clicking, anti-democratic despotism. At a Republican conference yesterday, MAGA Godfather Steve Bannon appeared to do a Sieg Heil salute while calling for a third Trump term. When Musk did that, his defenders chalked it up to an awkward gesture by an autistic man. Bannon’s salute… is harder to wish away. It even went too far for some far-right leaders: French politician Jordan Bardella abruptly canceled his speech at the conference afterwards, calling the gesture “a provocation, a gesture referring to Nazi ideology.” In turn, Bannon called Bardella “a boy, not a man.”
- Bannon’s not the only one in Trump’s clique with a case of Small Dictator Energy, though. Vice President JD Vance and Musk have joined forces to boost Germany’s far-right political party, which uses Nazi slogans and trivializes the Holocaust, according to the Anti-Defamation League. One of the group’s co-founders said that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis “are just a speck of bird poop in more than 1,000 years of successful German history.”
MAGAworld is lurching to the right while expanding its power over American democracy — and brushing aside the concerns of voters. Will Republican lawmakers stand up against demagogues, or watch as their party devolves even further? |
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Planes keep falling out of the sky, crashing into things, and literally flipping over. Is it even safe to fly anymore?
2025 is on pace to have fewer plane crashes than years past, per the National Transportation Safety Board. There have been 13 so far — including the deadliest one in 15 years. During the same period last year, there were 31. In 2023, there were 28. In 2022, there were 33. In 2021, there were 39.
The data includes crashes involving small aircraft and commercial airliners, which are historically way safer. It’s unusual that big planes have issues… but that’s what’s been happening lately — in particular with January’s major collision in Washington D.C., when 67 people died in the first major fatal commercial rash in over a decade. So flying feels extra scary right now.
It’s “exactly right” that flying is still safe, but the recent trend is also “fucking terrifying,” an Federal Aviation Administration employee confided to What A Day.
The Trump administration isn’t helping ease our nerves. Elon Musk’s DOGE fired hundreds of FAA workers, claiming they didn’t impact “critical” safety jobs.
Among those fired include lawyers who keep drunk pilots from flying, and staff who make sure flight routes account for hazards, ensure that pilots are medically cleared, and support air traffic control, Rolling Stone reports.
So, yeah, you can catch me being paranoid on the train!
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GOP senators stayed up until 4 a.m. to pass a backup spending plan that includes $300 billion for the border and defense, and follows through on Donald Trump’s tax plans. It went so late because Democrats raised dozens of unsuccessful amendments: “Democrats will be ready to come back and do this over and over again,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
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WE'RE ALL FRIENDS HERE
Over here at Crooked Media, we’re dedicated to cutting through the noise and focusing on what actually matters—especially when things feel overwhelming. The best way to support our work? Subscribe to Friends of the Pod. Get 25% off new annual subscriptions now through Saturday, February 22nd. If you're a monthly subscriber, upgrading is quick and easy—just visit crooked.com/friends or subscribe through the Pod Save America Apple feed. Your support is important, and so is making Presidents’ Day feel a little less dystopian in whatever way we can.
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Here’s a special pet feature from a reader, who tells the story of the late Janet the Snail:
“One day, Janet was chilling out on the sidewalk, oblivious to the risk of roaming Frenchmen. Janet’s parents were stumbling home drunk from a wedding, and took pity on this ignorant creature.
"They cobbled together a luxury terrarium, and fed Janet a steady diet of collard greens, kale, and carrots. And tomatoes. And cucumbers. And zucchini. She was a very hungry snail. She would often have breakfast with dad.
“Her favorite place to sleep was on her ceiling. Her favorite game was hide and seek, and her favorite hiding spot was buried in the dirt under a blob of moss. Her parents bragged about her so much that people thought they had a child.”
I think Janet may be the new What A Day mascot.
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