The Dictatorship
The Trump and Musk mass firing spree is getting increasingly messy
Trump’s accidental firings continue
As Elon Musk continues to try to take a chainsaw to the federal governmentthe billionaire seems to be having a hard time keeping track of whom he is actually firing. And the leaders of the gutted agencies will be forced to clean up his mess.
Last week, 950 employees working for the Indian Health Service were laid off, only to be told hours later that new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had “verbally rescinded” their firing.
This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture “accidentally” fired several employees working on the country’s bird flu prevention response. As of Friday afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed 70 human cases of bird flu in the U.S. and egg prices are soaring.
The USDA insists it’s “working swiftly” to rehire the fired workers. Consider me skeptical.
Because we’ve seen this movie before. Just last week, the National Nuclear Security Administration mistakenly fired employees and then couldn’t figure out how to contact them because they hadn’t collected personal contact information.
And let’s not forget the Small Business Administrationwhere the Trump administration fired probationary employees, then told them their termination was a mistake, only to turn around the next day and fire them again.
A story you should be following: Musk’s money in Wisconsin
Musk has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping to elect President Donald Trump and Republican House candidates. Now, as I discussed with Wisconsin state Democratic Party Chair Ben Wiklera nonprofit he funds has poured $1.6 million into a crucial Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
Here’s why it matters: Wisconsin’s Supreme Court currently has a 4-3 liberal majority. But with a liberal judge retiring, that balance is at stake. If conservative candidate Brad Schimel wins on April 1, Republicans will gain control of the court and the power to potentially roll back abortion rights, weaken labor protections and undermine voting rights in a crucial swing state.
Musk’s group is using the same deceptive playbook we saw in 2024. Last election, Building America’s Future funded misleading and contradictory ads about Kamala Harris’ stance on Israel, sending different, targeted messages to Arab American and Jewish voters. It also ran Facebook ads designed to look as if they came from Democrats and falsely claimed Harris supported banning all gas-powered cars.
Wisconsin’s last off-year judicial election, in 2023, broke national spending recordswith $51 million spent in total. At the current rate, this election’s ad buys could blow that record out of the water.
The GOP’s Russia reset
For years, Republican senators positioned themselves as staunch defenders of Ukraine — even Sen. Mitch McConnell — calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and warning that failing to stand up to Russia would embolden dictators worldwide. But now, as Trump openly cozies up to Putin and pursues backdoor deals, many of these same Republicans have gone quiet — or worse, are suddenly on board.
Sen. Lindsey Graham
Then: In 2022, Graham called Putin a “thug” and compared him to Adolf Hitler. He even warned that Putin was “a war criminal that needs to be dealt with.”
Now: Graham has praised Trump’s approach and voiced support for a deal Trump proposed that would grant the United States a 50% stake in all of Ukraine’s rare earth mineral resources in exchange for U.S. support.
Sen. Tom Cotton
Then: In 2022, Cotton warned that letting Putin invade Ukraine would embolden China’s Xi Jinping to invade Taiwan.
Now: Cotton has echoed claims accusing former President Joe Biden of “tempting” Russia to invade and echoed Graham’s support for a deal tied to Ukrainian mineral resources.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune
Then: In 2024, Thune noted “America cannot retreat from the world stage” and warned Russia would invade other European countries in addition to Ukraine if we allowed Putin to be successful.
Now: Thune has changed his tuneclaiming the conflict has “dragged on” and we need to “bring an end to the war.”
Tune in to Episodes 5 and 6 of “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” on Monday
A huge thank-you to everyone who’s already tuned in to my new podcast, “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki.” On Monday, don’t miss our new episodes with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and journalist Melon Hill.
Pritzker has been on the front lines of the fight against Trump’s abuses of power, but in this conversation, he also opens up about what shaped him — from his mother’s passion for civil rights to his Jewish heritage and efforts to curb discrimination.
Hill, never one to hold back, calls out the danger of Democrats “playing nice,” the urgency of bold leadership, and why she thinks politicians like Reps. Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are showing the party how it’s done.
Subscribe here for the full conversations!
Jen Psaki is the host of “Inside with Jen Psaki”airing Sundays at 12 p.m. ET and Mondays at 8 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.
A federal judge who was disciplined after an investigation found that she had sex with a police officer in her chambers and attended a partisan event, then lied when confronted with the allegations, has recused herself in a fight over Georgia election records after the U.S. Department of Justice raised questions about her ability to be impartial.
The Justice Department sought to remove U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross from the case, citing her reported attendance at an event for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who prosecuted President Donald Trump. Ross on Tuesday filed an order recusing herself, writing that she was doing so “out of an abundance of caution for the potential perception of bias.”
The Justice Department had sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger seeking an unredacted statewide voter list, and Ross was presiding over that case.
“Both the Trump administration’s present and Willis’s past efforts have become heavily polarized,” Ross wrote, explaining that she “cannot discount” that an objective observer might interpret her attendance at an event sponsored by Willis’ campaign as support for the district attorney’s position, even if she only went to see former colleagues.
Ross received a “private reprimand” after a court investigation found that she had sex in the courthouse with a high-ranking uniformed police officer within earshot of staff, attended a partisan event and then initially lied to deny the allegations.
The investigation report says Ross went to an event hosted by a district attorney’s campaign. The judge said the district attorney had been a friend since 1999 and acknowledged having gone to the a private mixer held on the sidelines of the event to visit with former colleagues in the district attorney’s office.
Ross previously worked in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and overlapped there with Willis there before Willis was district attorney.
Willis in August 2023 obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. That case was ultimately dismissed in November.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is rallying support within the State Department to help secure a visa for the mother of a World Cup goalkeeper who was unable to attend her newly-famous son’s match in the United States.
Jeffries learned of the situation after Republic of Cabo Verde goalkeeper Josimar Dias helped his team secure a 0-0 draw with Spain during the island nation’s World Cup debut on Monday. Dias stunned fans after making seven saves against the 2010 World Cup champions.
Dias told ESPN that his mother was unable to attend the match in the U.S. because of difficulties obtaining a visa.
“She didn’t manage to be here because of the visa,” Dias said in press conference after the match, noting that the World Cup was the “most important moment of our lives.”
“The money we have to pay for the visa, we didn’t manage on time. And I would like her to be here,” the goalie said.
After learning of Dias’ story, Jeffries said he reached out to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in hopes of helping the goalie’s mother attend Cabo Verde’s the next match in the U.S.
“No mother should miss the chance to see her child make history,” Jeffries wrote on X.
The Cabo Verde national football team shocked Spain on the strength of a historic performance by goalkeeper Vozinha.
His Mom was unable to be there because of visa complications.
No mother should miss the chance to see her child make history.
I have asked Secretary of State…
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) June 16, 2026
In an effort to prevent visitors from overstaying their visas, the U.S. State Department requires that eligible travelers from certain countries, including Cabo Verde, “must post a bond for $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000.”
The Department said that it will waive those visa bond requirements during the 2026 World Cup for “athletes and team members — including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives — who are nationals of countries that are competing,” provided that they meet all visa requirements.
While Dias suggested money was a factor for his mother’s inability to attend the match, a State Department official told MS NOW that it has no record of her applying for one. The official said all relatives of players are eligible for visa bond waivers, and said the State Department is attempting to help with the matter.
Dias, known to fans as Vozinha, is significantly older than most players at 40 years old. Nevertheless, he was named FIFA’s “player of the match.”
After his standout World Cup performance, his following on his Instagram page grew from about 10,000 before Monday’s game to more than 10.5 million by Tuesday.
Cabo Verde’s next match is against Uruguay in Miami on Sunday.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
President Donald Trump celebrating his 80th birthday with UFC fights on the White House lawn was classless enough. Then Josh Hokit was given a microphone. After the UFC fighter won his cage match at Trump’s flamboyant celebration Sunday night, Hokit, who spoke mostly in disturbingly trite rhymes after his win, managed to further degrade the event. At the conclusion of his post-fight interview with announcer, podcaster and manosphere extraordinaire Joe Rogan, the athlete declared,“Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”
Many in the crowd of thousands of UFC fans ate it up, and expecting anything less would require an exceptional level of delusion. Misogynoir and transphobia have been lobbed against Obama at least since 2008, when America elected her husband, Barack Obama, president.
Misogynoir and transphobia have been lobbed against Obama at least since 2008, when America elected her husband, Barack Obama, president.
Misogynoir was coined by academic Moya Bailey in 2008 to describe the intertwining of racism and misogyny that targets Black women. As pervasive as it is, it took 15 yearsfor Merriam-Webster to add the word to its dictionary. Even in writing this piece, each time I’ve typed the term, spell-check suggests I have made a typo.
While it’s tempting to categorize Hokit’s remark as random, it was fully on brand for the athlete. ESPN reported, “In his post-fight interview at UFC 324 in January, Hokit called WNBA star Brittney Griner ‘a man.’”
He’s the poster child for misogynoir.
But his statement was also characteristic of the machismo that drove the event itself. Trump’s entire political persona is crafted in the mold of a strongmanan archetype that couldn’t exist without toxic masculinity. And when he was elected to the presidency a second time, Trump brought back to the forefront an erroneous vision of manhood. Hokit, and a lamentable number of other public figures, have since been empowered to espouse misogyny and preach the shallow gospel of toxic masculinity.
But showmanshiprepressed emotionality and a desperate adherence to benighted notions of manhood alone don’t suffice. Toxic masculinity also requires an allegiance to the desirability politics that are often informed by white supremacy. And Hokit gave it a shoutout Sunday night.
If toxic masculinity is a declaration of what we are expected to perceive as a quintessential depiction of manhood, then completing that picture requires a similar declaration about what we are expected to perceive as a quintessential depiction of womanhood. As has historically been the case, the beauty of Black women, as a whole, doesn’t align with mainstream ideals of attractiveness. So a Trump supporter’s recycling of a racist trope about the first Black first lady being a man was a natural offshoot of Sunday’s glorification of problematic masculinity.
Obama addressed misogynoir-laden and transphobic insults, among others, that she has faced over the years in her 2018 book “Becoming.” She writes, “I’ve smiled for photos with people who call my husband horrible names on national television, but still want a framed keepsake for their mantel. I’ve heard about the swampy parts of the internet that question everything about me, right down to whether I’m a woman or a man. A sitting U.S. congressman has made fun of my butt. I’ve been hurt. I’ve been furious. But mostly, I’ve tried to laugh this stuff off.”
I’ve been furious. But mostly, I’ve tried to laugh this stuff off.
michelle obama in her book “becoming”
Hokit thumping his chest after a violent brawl per the request of a strongman-in-chief, then deriding a high-profile Black female figure as masculine and thus, unappealing, was a true full-circle moment for the manosphere. Notice that Hokit didn’t do a full stop after he insulted Obama. He asked, “Am I right, America?”
At least that part made actual sense — Hokit’s instinct to seek validation is yet another manifestation of toxic masculinity. His question offered a boisterous representation of the need for male approval that exists in the manosphere and the willingness of problematic men to give one another an outsized influence on their behavior. It wasn’t enough for Hokit to disparage a prominent Black woman. He wanted someone to say, “Well done.”
As for his question, the answer is “no.” Hokit was the farthest from “right” as one gets. But the derision of Obama surely scored him brownie points in the manosphere. What better way to secure a nod of respect from the community than to denigrate, arguably, the most high-profile Black woman in the United States while at an event teeming with hypermasculinity?
But neither Obama nor any other woman, Black or otherwise, should have to bear the burden of men insulting them in a desperate quest to secure approbation from other men.
Hokit appears to be developing a habit of ascribing masculinity to Black women. He would be better served by questioning why his idea of manhood includes belittling women for applause.
Zahara Hill is a coordinating producer for MS NOW. She previously worked as a front page editor for HuffPost and the deputy editor for Blavity News.
- Judge disciplined over courthouse sex recuses herself in Georgia election case
- Jeffries asks Rubio to help World Cup star secure mother’s visa to watch match
- Rick Jackson wins Georgia GOP governor runoff, will face Bottoms in November
- Congressional staff visit prison facility where Ghislaine Maxwell is held
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- Senate Republicans want assurances from Todd Blanche. So far it’s working.
- Congressional staff visit prison facility where Ghislaine Maxwell is held
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