Donald Trump has a rather sickening way with words, weaponizing them in awful ways. Steve Almond has ideas for fighting back:

Trump’s budget bill (for instance) could become the “big, beautiful boondoggle.”

Why? Because this phrase establishes a linguistic frame that identifies the legislation for what it might be: the largest transfer of wealth from poor people to rich people in American history.

Trump himself could be called “Tariff Trump,” to remind Americans that Trump — and Trump alone — is the person to blame for the economic pain inflicted by his tariffs.

The rising cost of goods and services caused by “Tariff Trump” could be called “Trumpflation.” Not once or twice, but in every single public appearance.

If the media is going to echo what politicians say, politicians should make those words count.

Newark Airport has recently had a series of problems related to air traffic control. It is, at best, concerning. Nevertheless, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been proclaiming it safe for some time. Despite those claims, he recently rerouted his wife to avoid the airport:

“My wife was flying out of Newark tomorrow. I switched her flight to LaGuardia,” Duffy told the host of The David Webb Show as they discussed the recent problems at the airport.

There’s a ringing endorsement.

The shameful detention of Rümeysa Öztürk ended on Friday. She is finally back home in Somerville, but her deportation proceedings are still ongoing. The fight for justice for Öztürk, and the many other people ICE has detained, continues.

As reported two weeks ago, lawyers from the increasingly misnamed Department of Justice appealed a judge’s ruling that Rümeysa Öztürk be transferred to Vermont for a bail hearing. Yesterday, they correctly lost that appeal. Barring a government appeal to the Supreme Court, Öztürk should be headed back to Vermont for a bail hearing soon.

“No one should be arrested and locked up for their political views. Every day that Rümeysa Öztürk remains in detention is a day too long,” Öztürk attorney Esha Bhandari said in a statement after the ruling was issued. We’re grateful the court refused the government’s attempt to keep her isolated from her community and her legal counsel as she pursues her case for release.”

This unconscionable matter has now dragged on for over six weeks since Öztürk’s sickening abduction by federal agents. Justice has yet to be properly served, and it must be reiterated that Öztürk has been accused of absolutely no crime. Her visa was secretly cancelled by the government, seemingly for the act of co-authoring an op-ed that criticized Tufts University’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict. She was then arrested on the basis of not having a valid visa. Everyone should be outraged by this, and by too many similar travesties from Donald Trump’s executive branch.

Since shortly after Rümeysa Öztürk was abducted by federal government agents on March 25, she’s been trapped in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. The situation is a disgrace, and there are many, many officials who should be ashamed of themselves. I’m certainly ashamed of their actions.

Öztürk now has a substantial legal team in her corner, and they’ve submitted a filing in which she describes her experience.¹ It is chilling, and it ought to be required reading for every American. Excerpts follow:

5. I was detained on March 25, 2025 in the early evening. I was speaking to my mother on the phone when several men approached me on the street and then surrounded me and I screamed.

6. Since appearing on the Canary Mission website in February, I had begun to be afraid that I could be targeted for violence. When the men approached me, my first thought was that they were not government officials but private individuals who wanted to harm me. I felt very scared and concerned as the men surrounded me and grabbed my phone from me.

7. I asked who they were, and they said they were the police. I asked them for badges and one showed me a gold badge but it happened so quickly I couldn’t tell what it said. But I didn’t think that they were the police because I had never seen police approach and take someone away like this. I thought they were people who had doxxed me and I was afraid for my safety. They also didn’t respond when I asked why and if they were arresting me. I saw a neighbor recording the scene.

10. They took me out of the car and shackled my feet and belly and then put me in the car again. I again asked to speak with my attorney, but they told me that I could not.

12. We changed cars and different officers got into the car with me. I asked for a woman officer to be with us, but they said none were around. They were all wearing civilian clothes. I thought this was a strange situation and was sure they were going to kill me.

I’ve added that emphasis, but it’s a very poor substitute for screaming it out loud at every single person in the government. This is sickening. No arrest should be carried out in this manner, least of all the arrest of a graduate student who has been accused of no crime whatsoever. A foundational aspect of the rule of law in America is that even the most hardened criminal deserves due process. Yet these despicable people, and their despicable actions, caused Öztürk to reasonably fear for her life. That is simply monstrous.

There has been some progress, as last Friday, a judge ruled Öztürk must be returned to Vermont for a bail hearing by May 1. That’s a small glimmer of hope. Disgustingly, however, the federal government appealed that ruling yesterday. It remains to be seen if things will end better than they began.

Footnotes:

1. That declaration is archived here. ↩︎

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security sent Nicole Micheroni an email stating it was “exercising its discretion to terminate [her] parole”, and telling her “[i]t is time for you to leave the United States…Do not attempt to remain in the United States – the federal government will find you.”. There was just one problem.¹ Micheroni is an American citizen, born in Massachusetts.

Per her LinkedIn profile, Micheroni is an “immigration attorney representing asylum seekers, families, artists, and small businesses in complex immigration matters”. Even if we follow Hanlon’s Razor and attribute this error not to malice but to stupidity, it remains horrifying that the government of Donald Trump is so incompetent that it’s telling US citizens to self-deport.

Footnotes:

1. There are actually myriad problems, including using email to deliver such a message, as well as the inaccurate contents of the message even for those who are not citizens. ↩︎

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most famous sculptures in the world. It’s also one of the most famous gifts in the world, having been given to America by France. For well over a century, it has served as a prominent symbol of the United States. Quoting from the relevant Wikipedia page:

The statue is a figure of a classically draped woman, likely inspired by the Roman goddess of liberty Libertas. In a contrapposto pose, she holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot she steps on a broken chain and shackle, commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War. After its dedication the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, being subsequently seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.

In the pedestal of the monument, a plaque with Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” can be found. It includes this text:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The Statue of Liberty has represented the very best that America has been, and all that it should aspire to be.

Now, French politician Raphael Glucksmann is demanding it back:

“We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,'” he told cheering supporters.

Right now, America is unworthy of this statue. One day, I hope we may be again.

Recently, while reading about one pathetic bootlicker’s attempt to create a new $250 bill featuring the hideous visage of Donald Trump, I found myself diverted toward more pleasant politics of the past. Specifically, our story today dates to around the Civil War, when the restriction barring the living from appearing on American currency was enacted. The reason for that prohibition is one Spencer Clark, the first superintendent of the National Currency Bureau.

In June 1864, the country was ready to produce its third round of fractional dollar notes. Congress decided it would honor William Clark, who famously explored the Louisiana Purchase with Meriwether Lewis between 1804 and 1806. But when Congress passed the bill to memorialize William Clark, the language of the bill only read “Clark.”

Given the opportunity presented, you may be able to guess what happened next.