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MAGA Goes Global & Trump Backs Down on Gaza Ethnic Cleansing

Last week, we talked about the U.S. teetering on the edge of a constitutional crisis. We may now be on the brink of a moral one, too.

Huma Razvi

Huma Razvi

— 12 min read
MAGA Goes Global & Trump Backs Down on Gaza Ethnic Cleansing
Photo by m. / Unsplash

It’s been a month since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

On the fringes, some could argue in favor of some of his actions—cracking down on the border, cutting government spending, and threatening foreign leaders to fall in line.

But nothing justifies the White House’s social media post this week, featuring ICE agents swinging shackles and promoting the clanking of chains as an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) to calm one's senses. It wasn’t just a display of power—it felt like they were taking pleasure in the suffering of others.

Leadership requires tough and often unpopular decisions. But reveling in the hardship of those simply seeking a better life reeks of indecency and moral bankruptcy that’s hard to defend.

Politicking is one thing. Celebrating human suffering is another.

Last week, we talked about the U.S. teetering on the edge of a constitutional crisis. We may now be on the brink of a moral one, too.

No matter our differences, we must stay connected to our humanity.

Let's get into this week's top news:

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

yellow and blue wooden fence
Photo by Tina Hartung / Unsplash

Last week, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke – the first time a US president has spoken to Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The two discussed a peace deal to end the war with Ukraine and agreed to meet in person soon. After the call, Trump informed Ukrainian President Zelensky that Ukraine would be excluded from peace talks, a message later relayed to European allies.

This week, Trump escalated, blaming Zelensky for starting the war and accusing him of dictatorship. However, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Zelensky cannot hold elections during wartime due to martial law. With millions fleeing, 800,000 serving in the military, and many living under Russian occupation, a fair election is impossible.

The about-face in American foreign policy is not surprising, given Trump's proclivity to act in self-interest above national security and American values.

In the first step of what seems to be normalizing relations with Russia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia, signaling a shift away from Ukraine and NATO expansion.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with European leaders, raising concerns about the U.S. becoming a political liability.

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“In Brussels, Hegseth told European leaders that Ukraine wouldn’t receive NATO membership and couldn’t advance militarily. He advised them to strengthen their defenses, warning that U.S. support was no longer guaranteed.” - The Associated Press
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"In all, it was a bruising, 72-hour crash course in the geopolitical realities of a job that critics complain Mr. Hegseth, a 44-year-old former National Guard infantryman and Fox News host, is unqualified to hold." - The New York Times

In Berlin, Vance urged leaders to embrace extremist groups like the AfD – which is polling second in an upcoming election and under surveillance for suspected extremism – and criticized Germany’s free speech laws.

The BBC reported, “Vance shocked delegates on Friday by attacking Washington’s allies, including Britain, accusing them of spreading misinformation and attacking free speech.”

In response, French President Macron convened an emergency meeting to discuss alternatives to the U.S. alliance as Trump-Putin relations warm.

brown wooden board
Photo by Kadir Celep / Unsplash

📃 A White House official told a federal judge in a signed affidavit that Elon Musk is not a DOGE employee but simply a senior advisor to Trump. The affidavit states Musk has no more authority than any other senior White House advisor and cannot make decisions himself—he can only advise the president.

Which is weird… cause Musk was previously presented as the de facto leader of DOGE, making major decisions and acting with executive authority. Now, in a legal setting, the White House is suddenly downplaying his role, claiming he’s merely a "senior advisor" with no real power.

🚩 The red flags:

    • If Musk isn’t in charge of DOGE, who is? The administration has dodged all questions about who is in charge of the agency.
    • Musk has been publicly directing policy—from slashing federal jobs to overseeing key agencies. So why is the White House now pretending otherwise?
    • Is this a legal maneuver? By downplaying Musk’s role, the administration could be trying to shield him from legal accountability for DOGE’s actions.
    • Did something change behind the scenes? This sudden shift could suggest internal conflicts, legal concerns, or a strategy to avoid congressional scrutiny.
💡
Each federal agency has inside it a "mini-DOGE" team that informally reports to the bigger DOGE, supposedly led by Musk. By officially naming Musk as the head of DOGE, it cements his influence not just as an advisor to the president, but as someone who has decision-making influence across the entire government. Sounds like someone who should be confirmed by Congress, no?

✂ The administration continued its widespread firings of federal employees, this time targeting probationary employees — those who have worked for the government for 1-2 years depending on the agency and position:

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"FEMA is actively responding to more than 100 disasters and emergencies across the United States, including hurricanes Milton and Helene and the historic fires in Los Angeles. Each event requires scores of workers and contractors who coordinate disaster response, oversee debris removal, and instruct local and tribal authorities in the grant application and disbursement process, as well as helping communities understand what FEMA does. With billion-dollar disasters now the norm, more FEMA employees have been responding to disasters for sometimes 60 days at a time.” - The Washington Post

🔺 Some Republican lawmakers are privately concerned about the rapid pace of dismissals, particularly regarding military veterans and essential personnel.

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“For the most part, Republican members are publicly cheering the administration’s push to slash the federal government... But privately, many are feeling helpless to counter the meat-ax approach that has been embraced so far, with lawmakers especially concerned about the dismissal of military veterans working in federal agencies as well as USDA employees handling the growing bird flu outbreak affecting poultry and dairy farms.” - Politico

💰 DOGE now has access to IRS tax records—including Social Security numbers, bank accounts, business and nonprofit tax info, and even pending adoption records.

    • The IRS tech system is being “upgraded” by Gavin Kliger, a 25-year-old
      engineer who published a now-deleted Substack post about why he joined
      DOGE echoing white supremacist ideologies.
    • The administration claims Kliger will only have access to "anonymized
      taxpayer information", but concerns remain over his role in handling sensitive data.


🧑🏽‍💻 DOGE launched a website claiming to show agency cost-cutting measures, but its figures are questionable, at best:

💵 Trump has spent nearly $11 million in taxpayer funds on golf trips in his first month in office. This week, he visited the Daytona 500, where his motorcade did a lap, likely costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Air Force One costs about $177,000 per hour of flight time. His Super Bowl trip cost taxpayers at least $1 million.

💉 Trump ordered his administration to explore making IVF more affordable. However, it’s unclear what options exist, given that Trump and Musk oppose additional government spending, and any changes would require congressional approval. Additionally, would such benefits be available to all people—including LGBTQ+ couples—who Trump and his allies openly oppose?

    • Democrats—sensing a potential bluff—introduced the Right to IVF Act on Friday, hoping to corner Republicans into putting their vote where Trump’s mouth is. In 2024, Republicans blocked a similar bill on IVF.
💬
“The political dynamics are complex. Conservative lawmakers, who have long been allied with the anti-abortion movement, would likely oppose enacting any new laws that expand IVF benefits. The fertility regimen has drawn criticism from staunch abortion opponents because it requires the development of multiple embryos, not all of which can or will develop into healthy pregnancies, and some of which patients may ultimately discard. Some anti-abortion activists view that as murder.” - The 19th

🥑 The State Department recently designated eight Latin American crime organizations as terrorist groups, a label typically reserved for groups that use terrorism for political purposes, not financial ones like cartels. According to The Washington Post, this 'foreign terrorist organization' designation "allows the State Department to impose special sanctions and expands the U.S. government’s ability to prosecute those who support the groups, as well as collect intelligence for military action, according to a Wilson Center analysis."

    • The cartels are also competing for control of Mexico’s billion-dollar avocado business. The AP reports that aid groups warn some past U.S. designations of groups as foreign terrorist organizations have disrupted food imports, with shipping companies fearing prosecution for indirectly supporting the targeted groups.
    • Mexico is looking into constitutional changes that would protect them against US intervention:

WILL HE OR WON'T HE?

Sometimes, Trump uses America as a focus group, tossing out ideas to test reactions. It’s unclear whether to ignore them or give them attention, which makes it hard to know the best course of action. These ideas should be documented and monitored without giving him the attention he craves.

Here are the most notable proposals Trump made this week:

    • 💭 Proposed that the federal government take control of Washington, DC, citing the city’s crime rate, homelessness, and graffiti as proof that local leaders “are not doing their jobs.” He added that it doesn’t look good when foreign leaders visit him at the White House.
    • 💭 Proposed moving the USPS under the Commerce Department, which could allow for more political influence over mail services. Trump holds a grudge against the USPS for their part in successfully processing mail-in ballots in the 2020 election – which skewed Democratic. The USPS also coordinated with the Biden Administration to mail free COVID tests to households.
    • 💭 Proposed returning 20% of DOGE savings to voters and another 20% toward the national debt.

For example, Trump appears to have backed off his plan to forcibly remove Gaza’s population and relocate them to other Arab countries. In a Fox News interview Friday, Trump said he was surprised that Egypt and the UAE rejected his proposal—which he still believes is “the best”—but stated he wouldn’t force them to comply.

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"The comments were a striking reversal for one of the most brazen foreign policy proposals ever made by a sitting president. And they came after weeks of back-and-forth that included several high-ranking Trump administration officials trying to downplay the proposal, followed by the president insisting that he was serious." - The New York Times
⬇️
More on the latest from Gaza below

TRUMP'S CABINET

🚨 Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI Director in a narrow 51-49 vote, breaking from tradition of broad bipartisan support for this position. Previous FBI directors received at least 92 votes.

    • Critics cite his lack of experience and statements calling January 6 rioters "political prisoners"
    • On Friday, Patel announced plans to transfer 1,500 FBI employees out of Washington, D.C. to field offices that the Trump Administration says have high crime rates
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“ His nomination prompted alarm from many national security veterans and people who have worked with him, who said he lacked the temperament and experience needed for such a pivotal and powerful law enforcement role." - The Washington Post

⚕️HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to restructure the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which recommends vaccine schedules. Critics argue this could negatively impact public health policy.

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"Kennedy and his allies have long targeted [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] as rife with conflicts of interest, though those on the panel and other public health experts have dismissed the criticism as misguided. The committee’s members are vetted for conflicts of interest and required to file regular disclosure reports.” -Politico

⚖️ The Department of Justice shut down the database tracking federal police officer misconduct. Trump originally suggested creating this database after George Floyd's murder in 2020. Biden implemented it in 2022. The database included records from 90 executive branch agencies dating to 2017.

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“The national database encompassed nearly 150,000 federal officers and agents, from the FBI and IRS down to the Railroad Retirement Board. And though it launched only in December 2023, by the end of last year all 90 executive branch agencies with law enforcement officers had provided thousands of disciplinary records dating to 2017, a report issued by the Justice Department in December said.” - The Washington Post

⚖️ Also at the DOJ, Senior prosecutor Denise Cheung resigned after being pressured to investigate the Biden Administration over an EPA contract despite insufficient evidence.

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Cheung stated “she and other experienced white-collar prosecutors looked at whether the DOJ had met its threshold for a grand jury investigation… Cheung and others didn’t believe the evidence on hand was enough for a grand jury investigation, her letter and additional sources told CNN. She said after the pushback, the Justice Department instead wanted to freeze assets in a bank related to the Biden-era EPA funding.” - CNN

🗞️ The State Department ordered the cancellation of "non-mission critical" news subscriptions globally, affecting hundreds of U.S. embassies and consulates that affect their security teams' ability to assess threats in conflict zones.

📚 The Department of Education told schools they’ll lose federal funding if they consider race as a factor in awarding scholarships or hiring decisions.

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THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

House Republicans proposed a significant tax cut plan, which has been approved by the House Budget Committee and includes:

    • Up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade. 
      • Extending Trump's 2017 tax law, which is set to expire
      • Potentially lowering the corporate income tax rate to 15% or 20%
      • Eliminating the federal estate tax, which would cost an estimated $370 billion over a decade
    • To offset the tax cuts, the plan proposes $1.5 trillion in spending reductions.
      • $2 trillion in cuts to mandatory federal spending programs
      • Potential cuts to programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP (food assistance)
    • The proposal has sparked debate due to its potential impacts:

Sen. Mitch McConnell announced his retirement this week.

Republican lawmakers returning to their districts and states this week faced irate constituents demanding answers to Trump's government cuts.

THE JUDICIAL BRANCH

Federal courts have issued conflicting rulings on challenges to Trump's federal workforce reduction.

This week, one federal judge ruled that courts lack jurisdiction to block the administration's "deferred resignation" plan. Another judge blocked a similar program last week.

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"The unions, representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers, maintain that Trump's efforts to slash the federal workforce conflicts with Congress' power to shape the size and direction of agencies through funding decisions, as well as laws detailing how such layoffs must be carried out." - PBS

THE MIDDLE EAST

Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, but Israel says one of the bodies does not match the provided identity.

    • Shari Bibas was kidnapped alongside her two young children, including an infant son.
    • Hamas claims all three were killed by Israeli bombardment.
    • Hamas claimed to have returned the remains this week but says Shari Bibas' remains were mistakenly mixed up with another individual’s from Gaza and that the correct remains have now been given to the International Red Cross.

King Abdullah of Jordan did not publicly confront Trump over his proposal to "take over" Gaza, but an Egyptian official said the king privately warned that it would provoke Islamic extremism and could lead to the collapse of pro-U.S. governments across the region," according to Middle East Eye.

Meanwhile, Egypt presented its plan to reconstruct Gaza during a meeting with leaders from six Arab nations in Saudi Arabia on Friday, though details have not been disclosed publicly.


In the Occupied West Bank, Defense for Children International reports that Israeli forces shot and killed a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl in separate incidents this week. At least 16 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces since January, according to DCIP.


The Israeli military has filed indictments against five soldiers for torturing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military facility last July. Kan News reports the attack was caught on tape, showing soldiers:

    • Beating the blindfolded and shackled detainee
    • Sexually assaulting him
    • The victim suffered multiple broken bones, a collapsed lung, a tear near his anus, and required intestinal surgery.

HEADLINES

Early evidence suggests two dairy workers transmitted bird flu to their cats.

Pope Francis is battling double pneumonia. Doctors say his condition isn't life-threatening but he's not "out of danger."

Mexico is threatening legal action unless Google changes "Gulf of America" back to "Gulf of Mexico" on its maps.

A measles outbreak in Texas has spread with 55% more cases reported in the last week. Another outbreak in New Mexico has not been linked yet.

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