A Less Perfect Union
Ignore the noise generated to distract us.
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Americans aren’t happy with the direction the Trump Administration is taking the country, moving us further away for the “more perfect union” that’s described in the U.S. Constitution Preamble. From Gallup News: [1]
Six months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his first term. Trump’s rating has fallen 10 percentage points among U.S. adults since he began his second term in January, including a 17-point decline among independents, to 29%, matching his lowest rating with that group in either of his terms.
And of course, here’s a few reasons why.
“You’ve Got No Rights Here”
People in America have rights. But, from one incident in Florida, law enforcement claims they’ve “got no rights here.” From reporting in The Guardian: [2]
On the morning of 2 May, teenager Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job in North Palm Beach with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol.
In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest.
A highway patrol officer asked everyone in the van to identify themselves, then called for backup. Officers with US border patrol arrived on the scene.
Video footage [3] of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men*, two of whom are undocumented. They appear to use a stun gun on one man, put another in a chokehold and can be heard telling Laynez-Ambrosio: “You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.” Afterward, agents can be heard bragging and making light of the arrests, calling the stun gun use “funny” and quipping: “You can smell that … $30,000 bonus.”
…
Laynez-Ambrosio can also be heard telling officers: “I was born and raised right here.” Still, he was pushed to the ground and says that an officer aimed a stun gun at him. He was subsequently arrested and held in a cell at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) station for six hours.
….
Laynez-Ambrosio was charged with obstruction without violence and sentenced to 10 hours of community service and a four-hour anger management course. While in detention, he said, police threatened him with charges if he did not delete the video footage from his phone, but he refused.
[Jack] Scarola, his lawyer, said the charges were retaliation for filming the incident. “Kenny was charged with filming [and was] alleged to have interfered with the activities of law enforcement,” he explained. “But there was no intended interference – merely the exercise of a right to record what was happening.”
More arrests are occurring by groups of masked agents – in this video, agents appearing to be from ERO Police (a branch of ICE), ATF Police, DEA, Border Patrol, and Homeland Security conducted arrests at a Home Depot in Encinitas. Six of the seven agents wore masks (the only one not wearing a mask was a Black female officer from ATF Police), and challenged by people watching the raid: [4]
“If you’re proud of your job, take your f***ing mask off.”
Your Tax Dollars to Glorify Dear Leader
Republican officials are debasing themselves to please Donald Trump and doing so with our tax dollars. From reporting in Rolling Stone earlier in the summer about the “Billion-Dollar Effort to Make Trump Feel Good About Himself”: [5]
Trump has said he will not use the [Boeing 747-8 offered by Qatar] for personal use, but in private, he has referred to it as “one of my new big, beautiful planes,” as Rolling Stone reported. The jet is expected to be transferred to Trump’s presidential-library slush fund after he leaves office. In the meantime, experts say it could cost taxpayers $1 billion and multiple years to retrofit it for use as Air Force One. Lawmakers have expressed concern about upgrading the plane so Trump can maximize his time luxuriating in it as president. Trump has scoffed at the bipartisan criticism of what many have called a bribe, insisting he would be “stupid” to not accept the plane.
“This is the $400 million golden jet that personifies corruption,” says Canter of the Democracy Defenders Fund. She adds that the plan to retrofit it and then turn it over to Trump’s library fund “would be the greatest abuse possible…. It’s as plain as day that he just wants his hands on a golden plane.”
The Defense Department said it had accepted the “sky palace” from Qatar as it prepared an exorbitant military parade through the streets of Washington, D.C. The parade was scheduled for June 14, the 250th anniversary of the Army’s formation, which also happens to be Trump’s 79th birthday. The celebration is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, and feature tanks and other armored vehicles, aircraft filling the skies overhead, and thousands of soldiers traveling into town from bases around the country.
….
Last year, Republicans introduced a very real resolution to rename the Washington area’s Dulles airport after Trump, and another to rename America’s coastal waters after the president, with Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) citing how Trump “took several commendable actions for our oceans.” Shortly after Trump took office this year, Republicans tried to formally censure a bishop at the Washington National Cathedral whom Trump attacked after she delivered a sermon asking him to have mercy on the less fortunate. They’ve also introduced bills to rename D.C.’s Metrorail the “Trump Train,” to amend the Constitution so he can run for a third term, to put his face on the $100 bill, and if that wasn’t enough, to put his face on a newly created $250 bill.
“The most valuable bill for the most valuable president!” said Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.).
Trump wants to see his face on something much larger than a piece of currency, though. He talks to this day about how much he deserves to see himself on Mount Rushmore. Yes, Republicans have introduced a bill to make it happen.
Trump is serious about this, according to current administration officials who’ve heard him discuss it. One of them says that since returning to office, the president has told close allies he wants to be the first American president to live to see his face sculpted into the South Dakota cliff. Trump, this official notes, pointed out that George Washington, who had been dead for around 140 years by the time the memorial was completed, never got to see his face put on the mountain.
“He’s not kidding,” says the Trump administration official. “He wants his [redacted] face up there with all those other greats. Donald Trump does not think Teddy Roosevelt was a better president, I’m sorry to say.”
Epstein
The tentacles of the Jeffrey Epstein tragedy are coming for President Trump, and Republicans officials are choosing to protect him. House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House session prematurely to avoid a vote on the release of files related to the indicted sex trafficker: [6][7]
House Speaker Mike Johnson is rebuffing pressure to act on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, instead sending members home early for a month-long break from Washington after the week’s legislative agenda was upended by Republican members who are clamoring for a vote.
…
The speaker’s stance did little to alleviate the intra-party turmoil unfolding on Capitol Hill as many of President Donald Trump’s supporters demand that the administration meet its promises to publicly release a full accounting of the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Under pressure from right-wing online influencers, as well as voters back home, rank-and-file Republicans are demanding that the House intervene in the matter.
“Remember the Girls”
While the political scandal involving Trump and Epstein has gained public interest (again), it’s important to remember that there were real victims for the crimes that Epstein and his partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, engaged in.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison “for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade.” [8]
Victims testified at Epstein’s and Maxwell’s hearings, and some chose to testify anonymously. From CNN reporting: [9]
Annie Farmer, who testified under her full name, has spoken out publicly about Epstein and Maxwell for years. She spoke in open court during both Epstein’s 2019 bail hearing and Maxwell’s bail hearing a year later.
She testified for three hours, the fourth and final accuser to do so. Her older sister worked for Epstein, and Farmer met him during the 1995 holiday season. Epstein paid for her commercial flight to New York and at a movie held hands with her and caressed her foot, she said in court.
She described going to the billionaire’s ranch in New Mexico in 1996 at age 16, where she thought she would be joining other peers but she was the only teen there.
The article describes more graphic details from the testimony provided by those who were under the age of 18 at the time of the abuse.
Kara Swisher, in her podcast Pivot with co-host Scott Galloway, described Maxwell and Epstein as “the Bonnie and Clyde of pedophiles” and advises us to “remember the girls.” [10]
Attempts at Distraction
Trump has tried everything recently to distract the public from this. Here are just a few: [11]
Accusing former President Barack Obama of treason [12]
Battling with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell over lowering interest rates [13]
Revoking the US citizenship of Rosie O’Donnell [14]
Coca-Cola using real cane sugar [15]
Releasing files related to the government surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. despite objections from King’s family [16]
Threatening to prosecute from Vice President Kamala Harris, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Al Sharpton “for fees that were paid to the stars during the 2024 election.” [17]
Why Trump is trying to distract his supporters and the public is not yet known. Why his former personal attorney, now Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell and offering her limited immunity [18] is also not yet known.
A political satire from nearly 30 years about political distraction in the midst of scandal is worth remembering.
From IMDb: [19][20]
Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.
Dustin Hoffman received an Academy Award nomination for his performance. Hilary Henkin and David Mamet received nominations for best screenplay based on previous material.
GIF Game
Happy Summer!
Notes and Sources
[1] Megan Brenan, “Independents Drive Trump's Approval to 37% Second-Term Low,” Gallup News, July 25, 2025, https://news.gallup.com/poll/692879/independents-drive-trump-approval-second-term-low.aspx
[2] Clare Considine, “Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest,” The Guardian, July 25, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/25/florida-teen-immigration-arrest
[3] “'You’ve got no rights’: teenage US citizen records violent arrest by immigration officers,” Guardian News, YouTube, retrieved July 27, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX7I4znDOKk
[4] CajunBlueAZ [@cajunblue.bsky.social], Bluesky, July 25, 2025, https://bsky.app/profile/cajunblue.bsky.social/post/3lusx3xg3xs26
[5] Ryan Bort, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Andrew Perez, “Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Make Trump Feel Good About Himself,” Rolling Stone, June 6, 2025, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-dear-leader-bondi-noem-republican-propaganda-1235356187/
[6] Stephen Groves and Lisa Mascaro, “House ending session early as Republicans clash over Epstein vote,” AP News, July 22, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/congress-jeffrey-epstein-trump-f2a03eca247268b14a9e38858338eded
[7] “Jeffrey Epstein Charged In Manhattan Federal Court With Sex Trafficking Of Minors,” U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, July 8, 2019, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/jeffrey-epstein-charged-manhattan-federal-court-sex-trafficking-minors
[8] “Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Conspiring With Jeffrey Epstein To Sexually Abuse Minors,” U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, June 28, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse
[9] Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson, ”4 women testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial that they were sexually abused. Here’s what they said,” CNN, December 29, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/15/us/ghislaine-maxwell-trial-accusers
[10] Pivot Podcast [@pivotpod.bsky.social], Bluesky, July 25, 2025, https://bsky.app/profile/pivotpod.bsky.social/post/3lusmssg4xc2p
[11] Jeff Mason, “Trump's distraction methods fall flat against Epstein uproar,” Reuters, July 26, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-distraction-methods-fall-flat-against-epstein-uproar-2025-07-26/
[12] Monica Alba, Vaughn Hillyard, Dareh Gregorian, and Zoë Richards, “Obama pushes back on Trump's 'outrageous' and 'bizarre' treason claim,” NBC News, July 22, 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/obama-pushes-back-trumps-outrageous-bizarre-treason-claim-rcna220393
[13] Ann Saphir, Jasper Ward and Kanishka Singh, “Trump presses Powell to cut rates during tense visit to Fed,” Reuters, July 24, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-presses-powell-cut-rates-during-tense-visit-fed-2025-07-24/
[14] Rory Carroll, “Rosie O’Donnell dismisses Trump’s threat to revoke her US citizenship,” The Guardian, July 13, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/jul/13/rosie-odonnell-dismisses-donald-trump-threat-revoke-us-citizenship
[15] Edward Helmore, “Coca-Cola defends corn syrup after Trump claims he struck cane sugar deal,” The Guardian, July 17, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/17/trump-coca-cola-cane-sugar-corn-syrup
[16] “Trump officials release FBI records on MLK Jr despite his family’s opposition,” The Guardian, July 21, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/21/trump-administration-release-mlk-fbi-records
[17] Ryan King, “Trump demands Kamala Harris, Beyoncé, Oprah be prosecuted over 2024 campaign payouts: ‘Totally illegal’,” New York Post, July 27, 2025, https://nypost.com/2025/07/27/us-news/trump-demands-kamala-harris-beyonce-oprah-be-prosecuted-over-2024-campaign-payouts-totally-illegal/
[18] Aaron Katersky, Katherine Faulders, Brandon Baur, and Jon Haworth, “Ghislaine Maxwell received limited immunity during meetings with deputy attorney general: Sources,” ABC News, July 25, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/US/deputy-ag-blanche-set-meet-2nd-day-ghislaine/story?id=124064062
[19] Barry Levinson, Wag the Dog. New Line Cinema, 1997.
[20] “Wag the Dog,” IMDb, retrieved July 27, 2025, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/
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