Even Lindsey Graham Knows Trump’s Friday Night Purge Was Illegal

Lindsey Graham is fully aware that Donald Trump’s inspectors general purge was illegal—he just doesn’t care.

The senator appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday and discussed the president’s firing of 17 crucial department watchdogs in the middle of the night, when the law states that they require a 30-day advance notice before being terminated.

“It’s a very common thing to do,” Trump told reporters in Florida. “I don’t know them … but some people thought that some were unfair or some were not doing their job. It’s a very standard thing to do.” Trump does know some of these people, as he fired multiple inspectors general who were appointed during his first term.

Graham’s media appearance just served to reaffirm the president’s lie.

“You know, I’m not overly worried about [the firings],” Graham said. “It’s not the first time people have come in and put their team in—when you win an election, you need people in your administration that reflect your views. So I’m not really worried about that.”

“But very quickly, the law says he’s supposed to give 30 days’ notice. He didn’t do that,” said host Kristen Welker. “Do you think he violated the law?”

“No, he didn’t. No, well, technically, yeah. But he has the authority to do it,” Graham said, waffling shamelessly. “So I’m not, you know, losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out. I just want to make sure that he gets off to a good start. I think he has. I’m very supportive of what he wants to do with America.”

Republican leadership has made it very clear that they’ll be dutifully falling in line behind Trump, even if it means turning long-held rules into mere suggestions.

Trump reportedly doubled down on his threat to seize Greenland in a phone call with Denmark’s prime minister, sending the country’s government into a panic.

Trump spoke to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on the phone for about 45 minutes last week. While neither leader has commented specifically on the call, officials close to the situation said it went poorly, as reported by The Financial Times. They stated that Trump was “aggressive and confrontational” on the call.

“It was horrendous,” one official said. “He was very firm,” another added. “It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”

“The intent was very clear. They want it. The Danes are now in crisis mode,” another official told the publication. “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.”

“It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark, such as targeted tariffs,” said a former Danish official.

Trump has threatened to buy Greenland since his election victory, along with vows to take back the Panama Canal and make Canada the fifty-first state. And while many took his comments in jest, the recent phone call shows that he is seriously interested in seizing Greenland, perhaps due to its unique geopolitical position, its significant U.S. air base, or its potential real estate development.

Republicans in Mississippi are considering a law to help Donald Trump with his massive deportation plans—by enlisting bounty hunters.

A new bill introduced in the Magnolia State’s legislature Wednesday would pay bounty hunters a $1,000 reward for every undocumented immigrant they help deport. House Bill 1484, proposed by Republican state Representative Justin Keen, would create the “Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program.”

“President Trump’s administration has made it clear that deporting illegal immigrants is a priority, and we are proud to do our part here in Mississippi to help support his agenda and protect our citizens,” Keen said in a statement.

The reward money would come from the state’s general assembly and be administered by the state treasurer, according to a statement, meaning ultimately Mississippi taxpayers would foot the bill. The bill has backing from the DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton, who says the whole thing was originally his idea.

Trump’s mass deportation plans, including the Laken Riley Act, which awaits his signature, will be very expensive to implement across the country. Trump wants to target every single undocumented immigrant in the U.S., estimated at 11 million people, and would need assistance from local and state law enforcement.

While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing a new slate of state laws to assist the president, it seems that Mississippi is choosing to outsource the task and create a legal nightmare as bounty hunters in the state stand to profit from targeting the marginalized.

Donald Trump’s administration issued a 90-day pause on all foreign aid, with exceptions for Israel and Egypt, according to a new State Department memo Friday.

The memo signed by new Secretary of State Marco Rubio “shall ensure that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, no new obligations shall be made for foreign assistance” until Rubio carries out a review, which will take place over the next 85 days, at which time he will make his recommendation to Trump.

According to the memo, this will ensure that America’s foreign aid obligations “are not duplicated, are effective, and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy.”

The memo contains a special waiver for “foreign military financing” for Egypt and Israel, “including salaries, necessary to administer foreign military financing.” Those two countries happen to guard the exits to Gaza. While Gaza is currently experiencing a reprieve from the months of endless bombings, Trump recently admitted he is “not confident” that the ceasefire agreement he helped to negotiate will hold, leaving the door open for more brutality there.

Notably, Ukraine, which has received hundreds of billions in aid from the U.S., did not receive a waiver. Earlier this week, Trump said he was interested in discussing “denuclearization” between the U.S. and Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled this week that he was prepared to talk with Trump about ending the war in Ukraine. Trump has threatened sanctions if his efforts at diplomacy fail.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order blocking all “new obligations and disbursements” of foreign aid to countries, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors for 90 days, while the country’s commitments went under review for 90 days.

The anti-abortion movement is “entering a new era,” according to Republican leadership.

Speaking before a crowd at the March for Life in Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson pointed to a flurry of actions by Donald Trump in the last week that have aided the right’s anti-abortion efforts. They included the pardoning of 23 anti-abortion activists who blockaded the entrance of a Washington clinic in October 2020.

And an executive order signed by Trump earlier this week also elevated fetal personhood to the national stage while simultaneously cementing language at the executive level to delegitimize transgender identities.

Meanwhile, progress against abortion rights also churned in Congress. On Thursday, House Republicans passed a “born alive” abortion bill, insisting that the effort was more akin to an anti-infanticide effort than another attempt to restrict abortions. The bill would require health care professionals to administer the “same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence” for a premature child that lives through an abortion as for a child that is carried to term. Democrats in the Senate blocked a twin bill from advancing in the upper chamber.

The effort was, of course, redundant due to a 2002 statute, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which already prevents the “intentional killing of a child born alive”—otherwise known as murder.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley also made a personal appeal to Trump on Thursday, asking the newly minted forty-seventh president to restore reproductive policies he had implemented during his first term. That would include requiring women to pick up their abortion medication in person, a move that could significantly impact people’s ability to acquire the abortion pill via mail in states where the procedure is currently banned.

Hawley also suggested to Trump that, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the rearview, states would prove to be “the most important theaters” for the fight to rid America of the procedure, according to The New York Times.

“House and Senate Republicans are committed to protecting innocent life,” Johnson told the crowd on Friday, championing his caucus’s efforts over the last five days.

Trump and JD Vance also gave remarks at the march. Speaking at the National Mall, Vance pledged to protect Christians and anti-abortion activists from federal prosecution.

“This administration stands by you, we stand with you, and most importantly we stand with the most vulnerable,” Vance said. “America is fundamentally a pro-baby, a pro-family and a pro-life country.”