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After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” as part of his freewheeling, often wild speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump said. “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”

Trump’s proposal has already picked-up steam among his most faithful allies in Washington, D.C. At some point during Trump’s hourlong speech, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she’ll introduce a bill to officially rename the Gulf of Mexico.

“President Trump’s second term is off to a GREAT start,” she posted to X.

Trump’s most recent comments about Mexico highlight his continued focus on the country as he prepares to begin his second term in the White House. By proposing a name change, in addition to harping on his vanity projects to acquire Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, the president-elect seems to be reasserting his plans for U.S. sovereignty across the globe.

He wouldn’t be the first to toy with renaming the Gulf of Mexico, however. According to ABC News, former Mississippi state Rep. Steve Holland, a Democrat, proposed a bill in 2012 that would’ve renamed the gulf “the Gulf of America.”

Holland later admitted, however, that he was just kidding and introduced the legislation as a joke to mock his Republican colleagues for being anti-immigrant.

Trump, who is known for his racist and xenophobic remarks toward Mexicans, didn’t seem to be joking. This is despite the fact that the name “the Gulf of Mexico” actually predated the United States. As the St. Augustine Record noted, the name appears on maps as far back as the 16th century.

Trump’s comments made waves, in part, because he’s currently in an ongoing—and very public—rift with Mexico’s leadership including its president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Despite the two sharing a “wonderful” phone call in late November, they previously butted heads after Trump falsely claimed that Sheinbaum promised to close her country’s northern border with the United States. (Sheinbaum has not publicly responded to Trump’s latest remarks.)

Indeed, any goodwill between Trump and Sheinbaum might be lost after Tuesday’s speech. In the same tirade, he denounced Mexico as a “very dangerous place.”

“We have a massive deficit with Mexico,” Trump said. “We help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by the cartels, can’t let that happen. Mexico’s really in trouble, a lot of trouble. Very dangerous place.”

Trump has complained about the nation’s trade deficit with both Mexico and China. During his most recent campaign run, he raised concerns about the issue and has since promised to levy tariffs across the board, including a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico.

Trump has a long history of making false, and oftentimes broad, pronouncements about Mexico’s management of its side of the border. But his comments disparaging Mexico on Tuesday were particularly notable, in part, because the Mar-a-Lago news conference was intended to share what was billed as good news.

Before going off-script, Trump announced a $20 billion investment in data centers in the U.S. by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Laura Loomer

Loomer Trashes Musk Again -- And She's Right

Far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer just said what we’ve all been thinking: Elon Musk wields far too much power in the MAGA world—and it’s getting tiresome.

Appearing on Steve Bannon’s right-wing podcast “War Room,” Loomer, a racist piece of work in her own right, torched the billionaire CEO as a “welfare queen” and technocrat who has outsized influence in the U.S. political sphere due to his burgeoning relationship with President-elect Donald Trump.

Loomer also called Musk a “stage 5 clinger,” an apparent reference to how Musk continues to relentlessly “slither” around Mar-a-Lago.

“I don’t think it’s acceptable for billionaires to have this much power and this much access,” she said. “What is it going to mean for the future of our country, our national security, and the incoming Trump administration if we have a bunch of technocrats, who are also essentially welfare queens because their companies are receiving government subsidies, and they want to take over our defense industry?”

Loomer’s comments are the latest escalation in the civil war between Trump’s billionaire tech bros, Musk and fellow DOGE dork Vivek Ramaswamy, and the MAGA faithful, such as Bannon and Loomer. The rift began when Musk pushed back on attacks on H-1B visas, which are often awarded to highly skilled immigrant workers.

Bannon, for his part, has blasted the visas as a “scam” that he falsely claims “[take] American jobs and [bring] over what essentially become indentured servants at lower wages.”

He’s also referred to Musk as “sociopathic” and said that American workers are owed “reparations” for the jobs that have allegedly been stolen by immigrants.

The infighting between the two groups has gotten rather nasty, as Loomer has used her five seconds of fame to launch attacks on Indian immigrants, who she called “third world invaders.” In the same sentence, she managed to lavish praise on the “white Europeans” who she claims built the nation.

While Trump has publicly sided with Musk in the debate, telling the New York Post that he supports the H-1B visa program, that hasn’t stopped certain MAGA allies from ripping into it—and anyone who supports it.

During a Monday appearance on former Fox News host Eric Bolling’s Newsmax show, Loomer suggested that some Republicans don’t want to cross Musk because he’s rich. Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help Trump win his second term as president.

“This is the problem when you allow for a billionaire to make a $200 million donation and so maybe we really do need to have campaign finance regulations in this country,” she said.

Of Trump, Loomer said that she “love[s]” him, but worried his recent backing of Musk was due to the billionaire’s aid in his re-election efforts.

“It sounds like people are scared of crossing the king, the king of the world, Elon Musk, the monarch,” she said.

It’s annoying that valid criticism of Musk is coming from a far-right character known for her virulent racism and support of conspiracy theories, but thankfully she’s not the only person to hit Musk in recent days.

During his New Year’s address, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz not-so-subtly admonished the billionaire after he tried to tip the scales in Germany’s snap election, which will take place on February 23. His comments came shortly after Musk reiterated his support for Germany’s right-wing, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.

“You, the citizens, decide what happens in Germany,” Scholz said. “It’s not up to the owners of social media.”

Musk already has immense influence over U.S. politics, but it’s unclear whether he can take his political meddling to the international level. It’s also unclear who will win this MAGA war, but it seems safe to say that the interpersonal chaos that has rocked Trump’s party for years will continue into the new year.

Maybe we can continue this trend of dunking on Musk in 2025?

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

John Fetterman Victory Speech

What Is Behind John Fetterman's Rightward Pivot?

On Thursday, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman became the first Senate Democrat to meet with Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s problematic pick to lead the Department of Defense. Oddly, Fetterman hasn’t ruled out supporting Hegseth, whose own mother once wrote him an angry email calling him an abuser of women. (She now says she doesn’t hold the same view of her son.)

“He could theoretically become the head of the Defense Department,” Fetterman told Politico in explaining his logic. “I've discovered in my time in D.C. that that’s important. And, ‘Are you having a conversation with someone?’ I don’t know why that’s shocking.”

Fetterman also said he’s aware of “some” allegations against Hegseth. Those include, but are not limited to, Hegseth allegedly raping a woman in 2017—Hegseth said the sex was consensual—and supposedly drinking on the job. But that hasn’t stopped the Pennsylvania senator from being open to joining Republicans in confirming the Fox News host.

Fetterman said he’s not sure why it’d be “controversial” to meet with Hegseth—and even suggested the two might find common ground on some issues. And on its own, meeting with the likely next defense secretary may not be a strange thing. But that’s not the only eyebrow-raising action Fetterman has taken recently.

On Wednesday, Fetterman apparently became the first Democratic senator to join Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform. And in his debut post, he made the surprising call to pardon Trump in his New York hush money case.

Fetterman also said he was a “hard YES” on confirming Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as the next ambassador to the United Nations.

Stefanik isn’t the first Trump Cabinet pick that Fetterman has voiced his support for. In November, he said he would vote to confirm Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as the next secretary of state.

Once a self-described progressive, Fetterman has pivoted to the right since winning his 2022 Senate election. But backing Trump’s Cabinet picks isn’t the first time the senator has found himself on the outs with the progressive movement. He’s one of many Democrats to make stringently pro-Israel statements during its ongoing war in Gaza. In that, he found allies in the Democratic Party, such as New York Rep. Ritchie Torres.

However, Fetterman is making the case that he hasn’t abandoned progressivism—but that the movement dumped him.

“I didn’t leave the label, it left me on that,” Fetterman said in a June interview with comedian Bill Maher.

But a review of his history with the label makes his change appear more cynical in nature. After all, the senator happily embraced the label for years and courted the endorsement of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, when Fetterman successfully ran to be Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. Now, though, Fetterman seems more keen to taunt progressivism than to embrace it.

It’s a convenient scapegoat for Fetterman to blame the left for his shift to the right. It keeps his name in the limelight while making him seem to be some sort of brave truth-teller who isn’t afraid to stand up to his own party.

However, he might find it hard to have it both ways, with both parties, especially during a time when center-left and establishment Democrats are coming under fire for frequently losing elections and major policy fights.

At least for now, Fetterman hasn’t made clear what his end goal is in fighting his own party’s interests. But in the short-term, he is apparently trying to fill the void of the non-Republican rabble-rouser now that independent Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are leaving.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Former Aides Say Tulsi Gabbard Was Duped By Kremlin Propaganda

Former Aides Say Tulsi Gabbard Was Duped By Kremlin Propaganda

Tulsi Gabbard, the onetime Democrat who is Donald Trump’s pick to be the country’s next director of national intelligence, was a faithful consumer of Kremlin-controlled media, three of her former congressional aides told ABC News.

According to ABC’s report, the aides said that the failed presidential candidate regularly read and shared stories from RT—a state-run media outlet formerly known as Russia Today—even after being told that it wasn’t a credible news source. Gabbard’s former staffers suggested that they didn’t buy some claims from Democrats that their former boss is a “Russian asset.” But they do believe she’s become a staunch advocate for one of the United States’ chief adversaries thanks to her routine consumption of pro-Russia propaganda.

It’s unclear just how much consuming news from these outlets shaped Gabbard’s worldview. In fact, her former aides said that Gabbard read news from a plethora of outlets, ranging from stories peddled by far left factions to articles from extreme-right sources. But Gabbard’s views on Russian aggression in Europe, specifically, have become increasingly eyebrow-raising since her days as a Democratic House member representing Hawaii.

The aides provided ABC News with an internal memo that Gabbard sent to staff in 2017, for instance, which showed her extending unwarranted sympathy to the Kremlin. Among many other damning things, the former Bernie Sanders loyalist-turned-MAGA apologist complained about the United States’ “hostility toward Putin” and bemoaned the fact that “there isn’t any guarantee to Put that we won’t try to overthrow Russia’s government.”

“In fact, I’m pretty sure there are American politicians who would love to do that,” she added.

These fresh allegations against Gabbard have heightened some Democrats’ fears about her securing a spot in Trump’s Cabinet. Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration, told ABC News that the thoughts outlined in Gabbard’s 2017 memo were “basically the Russian playbook.” He also expressed anxiety that she could soon be charged with overseeing America’s most sensitive intelligence assets.

Her sympathy toward the Kremlin only grew after 2017. During her unsuccessful presidential run in 2020, Gabbard criticized America’s involvement in Syria’s civil war as a “regime change war” on President Bashar Assad, a key Russian ally. And in 2022, Gabbard defended Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and went so far as to blame the United States and NATO for provoking the war by ignoring Russia’s security concerns.

And she didn’t stop there. In October, Gabbard baselessly suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris was the main instigator of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Gabbard’s pro-Russia takes have not gone unnoticed by the senators who will determine whether she earns a spot in the Trump administration. Even before ABC News’ bombshell report, some Republicans indicated that they were nervous about Gabbard’s worrisome positions on foreign policy issues, as well as her promotion of Russian propaganda.

“Behind closed doors, people think she might be compromised. Like it’s not hyperbole,” one Republican Senate aide told The Hill. “There are members of our conference who think she’s a [Russian] asset.”

These latest revelations certainly aren’t good news for Trump, who has already had two of his nominees drop out (see: Matt Gaetz and Chad Chronister, his picks to head up the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration).

The good news for Gabbard, at least for now, is that another one of Trump’s potential appointees, defense secretary nominee and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, is now in the hot seat for a series of scandalous revelations and accusations about his own past. That means Gabbard’s troublesome views and actions have flown mostly under the radar.

But who knows how long that will last.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

‘Big Announcement’ Coming From Beto O’Rourke?

‘Big Announcement’ Coming From Beto O’Rourke?

Reprinted with permission from The Texas Tribune. 

All signs indicate Beto O’Rourke will run for president in 2020.

But the former congressman remained coy on Saturday during a question-and-answer session at the SXSW Film Festival, where he dodged an inquiry as to whether he would soon join an already crowded Democratic field.

Still, it would seem the former congressman is set to make an announcement sooner rather than later.

During a two-hour screening of a documentary titled Running with Beto that chronicles O’Rourke’s failed U.S. Senate bid, his camp sent an email to supporters inviting them to be the “first to hear Beto’s big announcement.”

“There’s been an outpouring of speculation, excitement, and support from people across the country — everyone eagerly waiting for the news,” the email said. “Many of us are crossing our fingers and hoping that Beto has decided to run.”

It continued: “And now I’m ready for us to bring our movement to the rest of the country. It’s the exact kind of campaign that America needs right now, and it’s why so many of us are hoping that Beto has decided to launch a campaign for President of the United States.”

O’Rourke’s name was thrown in the ring as a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate after his closer-than-expected loss last year to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). At a separate, post-screening question-and-answer session with reporters the former congressman said that he wanted to make sure the announcement regarding his 2020 plans was done “the right way.”

He said he wanted to be sure “I tell everyone at the same time, adding that “I’ve got to be on the timeline that works for my family and for the country so that’s the timeline we’re on.”

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.