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The Frog Abides: We The People Are Pissed
Just like smarmy tiny MAGA Mike warned, up to eight million Marxists, terrorists, Hamas fighters and other patriots - along with hordes of radical inflatable frogs, chickens, unicorns, bananas - stormed America's streets to march, sing, dance, feel "joyful and connected," not get arrested, and flaunt brutal hilarious signs slamming the evil idiots now unimaginably in power; in response, their idiot leader posted a grotesque AI video of himself in a crown and fighter jet dropping shit on his own citizens. What a day.
Despite a suddenly silent GOP after their incendiary drivel about a "hate America" rally - which organizers said saw RSVPs more than double - the mood of No Kings' over 2,700 rallies was jubilant. Many said it felt like a giant block party, and it was giant: Protests in small towns and big cities in all 50 states - yes Alaska! - drew two million more people than the first No Kings, and 14 times more than both Trump's inauguration crowds combined. (What a loser.) Among Dem pols was Chicago Mayor Johnson: "We will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower." Global rallies included London, Berlin, Vancouver, Mexico, a sole patriot in Estonia: "One person, one pebble is all it takes to start a landslide. Sir, thank you for your service." The message, organizers said, was clear: "America will not be ruled by fear, force, or one man’s power grab."
In New York City, over 300,000 people packed Times Square. In D.C., over 200,000 streamed through the National Mall, with one contingent carrying a massive Constitution. Chicago saw "an astonishingly large crowd," San Francisco formed a giant human banner, crowds overflowed the Boston Common, the other Portland was flooded with protesters - historically aptly, with many frogs visible among them after organizers began giving out free costumes. Many Dems turned up. BStartlingly, among over seven million terrorists gathering in thousands of locations, there were reportedly “zero protest-related arrests." There were also zero sightings of ICE, because they only appear where they can grab people with zero oversight or opposition. One observer: "They know. We know. It's all illegal. Fourth Amendment. They are cowards is what they are."
The signs, as always, were fabulous: History Has Its Eyes On Us. Trump Is the Enemy Within. This Sucks. Fuck Nazis. Nice Oligarchy You Got There: Would Be A Shame If Anything Happened To It. Fascists Are Losers. Impeach Trump Again. Stop Pretending Your Racism Is Patriotism. Know Your Parasites: Dog Tick, Deer Tick, Lunatick. Uncle Scam: Dissent Is Patriotic. So Many Things, So Little Sign. We Thought This Was Going To Be Bad But Holy Shit. Unicorns Against Fascism. Fight Truth Decay. Elect A Rapist, Expect To Be Fucked. This Is My Resisting Bitch Face. Not A Terrorist, Just A Former Republican. Attention, Clean Up On Aisle USA: Orange Stain. I Pray Big Beautiful Bill Will Be the Name of Trump's Cellmate. (Stephen Miller with horns): Fuck You Pee Wee German. Trump We All Hate You. The Frog Abides.
Republicans, of course, graciously acknowledged their fear-mongering was unjustified bullshit. Just kidding. Hysterical, face-palm-shameless Fox News chyron: "CHAOS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. No Kings Protests Brought Mayhem to Many Cities." Nancy Mace: "Democrats hit the streets today protesting law and order. Nothing says 'We care about democracy' like showing up to a rally sponsored by Communists." (Jesus, what planet/timeline do these cretins come from?) Trump, ever-astute: "I hear very few people (are) going to be there." No Kings participants, in contrast, were notably, succinctly eloquent on why they were there. History teacher Ariel Fernandez: "What I tell my students all the time is democracy is a verb. You do it. So I’m here to do it." An unnamed Black guy in Oakland: "This is the point of America right here."
Still, the mindless atrocities go on. Customs and Border officials just implemented a new rule requiring airlines to reject "X" sex markers on passports, available since 2022, and impose an "M" or "F" just to make the lives of trans or non-binary people more difficult and/or prevent them from flying internationally; said one, "The more they can keep us confused and freaked out, the more they can do whatever they want." Unions are filing dozens of lawsuits - with some success - to fight efforts to cut hundreds of thousands of government jobs, strip collective bargaining rights and gut federal agencies. Each suit demonstrates the same thing, said one attorney: "A government willing to break the law just to see if anyone will stop it. It’s governance by impulse..like handing the keys to the country to a group of 12-year-olds. They’ll keep testing the limits until an adult stops them.”
Alas, the adult is definitively, lamentably not their evil idiot leader, who somehow keeps plunging to "a new low, until the next new low." On Sunday, he said Colombia's president Gustavo Petro was an "illegal drug dealer,” also "a low-rated and very unpopular leader (pot/kettle) with a fresh mouth toward America" after Petro rightly charged Trump with murder in his latest extra-judicial killing - "It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE" - of a Colombian fisherman Petro said "had no ties to the drug trade," the 29th U.S. execution of likely innocent poor brown people. Trump brazenly threatened to cut U.S. funds to Colombia and close their "killing fields" or he would, not "nicely.” (With a horse's head in his bed?) Petro: "I respect (the) culture and people of the USA...The problem is with Trump, not the USA." Join the large, sorrowful crowd.
On No Kings Day, Trump hid at Mar-A-Lago, where he hosted a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser in his gold-drenched ballroom for MAGA super Pac billionaires during a government shutdown. Then he went online and shared several AI videos, each more puerile and bizarre. In one, he and J.D. wear crowns as Dem leaders wear sombreros (again). Then he has a crown and sword as Dems bow down to him. Finally, piloting a "King Trump" fighter jet, he drops a massive load of shit on protesters below. Ha! Good one! Talk about presidential leadership! Let the American people and Billy Bragg -- who were all bigly not amused - eat shit! CNN host Manu Raju: "I don't really know what to say (except) this is the President of the United States." Maybe say this: "History will be kind to the first Republicans who meaningfully say 'enough.'" Or this: "Fuck you, you fucking fuck." Or this: "Every day is No Kings Day."
Oct 20, 2025
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Nationwide Backlash Brewing Against Big Tech's Energy-Devouring AI Data Centers
America's biggest tech firms are facing an increasing backlash over the energy-devouring data centers they are building to power artificial intelligence.
Semafor reported on Monday that opposition to data center construction has been bubbling up in communities across the US, as both Republican and Democratic local officials have been campaigning on promises to clamp down on Silicon Valley's most expensive and ambitious projects.
In Virginia's 30th House of Delegates district, for example, both Republican incumbent Geary Higgins and Democratic challenger John McAuliff have been battling over which one of them is most opposed to AI data center construction in their region.
In an interview with Semafor, McAuliff said that opposition to data centers in the district has swelled up organically, as voters recoil at both the massive amount of resources they consume and the impact that consumption is having on both the environment and their electric bills.
"We’re dealing with the biggest companies on the planet,” he explained. “So we need to make sure Virginians are benefiting off of what they do here, not just paying for it.”
NPR on Tuesday similarly reported that fights over data center construction are happening nationwide, as residents who live near proposed construction sites have expressed concerns about the amount of water and electricity they will consume at the expense of local communities.
"A typical AI data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, and the largest under development will consume 20 times more," NPR explained, citing a report from the International Energy Agency. "They also suck up billions of gallons of water for systems to keep all that computer hardware cool."
Data centers' massive water use has been a consistent concern across the US. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Monday that residents of the township of East Vincent, Pennsylvania have seen their wells dry up recently, and they are worried that a proposed data center would significantly exacerbate water shortages.
This is what has been happening in Mansfield, Georgia, a community that for years has experienced problems with its water supply ever since tech giant Meta began building a data center there in 2018.
As BBC reported back in August, residents in Mansfield have resorted to buying bottled water because their wells have been delivering murky water, which they said wasn't a problem before the Meta data center came online. Although Meta has commissioned a study that claims to show its data center hasn't affected local groundwater quality, Mansfield resident Beverly Morris told BBC she isn't buying the company's findings.
"My everyday life, everything has been affected," she said, in reference to the presence of the data center. "I've lived through this for eight years. This is not just today, but it is affecting me from now on."
Anxieties about massive power consumption are also spurring the backlash against data centers, and recent research shows these fears could be well founded.
Mike Jacobs, a senior energy manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, last month released an analysis estimating that data centers had added billions of dollars to Americans' electric bills across seven different states in recent years. In Virginia alone, for instance, Jacobs found that household electric bills had subsidized data center transmission costs to the tune of $1.9 billion in 2024.
"The big tech companies rushing to build out massive data centers are worth trillions of dollars, yet they’re successfully exploiting an outdated regulatory process to pawn billions of dollars of costs off on families who may never even use their products," Jacobs explained. "People deserve to understand the full extent of how data centers in their communities may affect their lives and wallets. This is a clear case of the public unknowingly subsidizing private companies' profits."
While the backlash to data centers hasn't yet become a national issue, Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), predicted in an interview with Semafor that opposition to their construction would be a winning political issue for any politician savvy enough to get ahead of it.
“For any Democrat who wants to think politically, what an opportunity,” he said. “The people are way ahead of the politicians.”
Oct 14, 2025
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Fed Governor Warns 'Job Growth Has Probably Been Negative' as US Labor Market Stalls
Christopher Waller, a Federal Reserve governor, warned on Friday that the US labor market at the moment is in poor shape and showing little sign of improvement.
In an interview on CNBC, Waller said that the data released by processing firm ADP earlier this month showing that the economy lost 32,000 jobs in September was "consistent with what we're starting to see with [Bureau of Labor Statistics] data."
"Job growth has probably been negative the last few months," he explained. "It doesn't look like it's doing much better. Anecdotally... I don't hear anybody with big hiring plans. All I ever hear is, 'We're not backfilling, we're not firing, we're holding off any job things.' That's the anecdotal evidence."
Fed Governor Christopher Waller: "Job growth has probably been negative the last few months. it doesn't look like it's doing much better. I don't hear anybody with big hiring plans." pic.twitter.com/aXDZPNTixq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2025
Waller's analysis was shared by Ed Al-Hussainy, rates strategist with Columbia Threadneedle investments, who told Axios on Friday that the job market was "bed rotting," with employers reluctant to make any major hiring commitments in the face of economic uncertainty.
Al-Hussainy also warned that the current problems with the job market could "continue to get worse, until they reach a tipping point where consumption starts to degrade, and then you have another recession scare."
Earlier in the week, Fortune reported that Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimated that there was "essentially no job growth" in the last month, while pointing to the Conference Board's recent report showing that US consumers haven't been this pessimistic about the labor market since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"There’s no better predictor of changes in unemployment, which thus likely rose again in September," he added.
Abby McCloskey, a columnist at Bloomberg and a former economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, argued in a Friday column that the US economy had now slowed down so much that even supporters of President Donald Trump were rating it unfavorably.
"Only 44% of Republicans think the economy is excellent or good, according to new data from the Pew Research Center," McCloskey explained. "Compare this to the soaring approval of GOP voters in Trump’s first term before Covid hit—when 81% thought the economy was good."
She then noted that, despite a record-breaking stock market and stabilized inflation, voters' concerns about the economy appeared to be justified.
"Despite enormous tax cuts in this summer’s reconciliation bill and sweeping reductions to the federal workforce—things Republicans would typically cheer—tariffs and political uncertainty are taking a toll," she argued. "When a voter balances the tax cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act against tariffs raising prices on everything from groceries to clothes, it feels like running just to stay in place."
Oct 10, 2025
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ACA Marketplace Previews Show Staggering Premium Spikes Due to GOP Subsidy Cuts
More than 20 million Americans are expected to see their health insurance premiums more than double next year after Republicans refused to extend a tax credit for those who purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
And as the GOP remains firm in its stance that it will not vote to extend the credits in order to end the government shutdown entering its third week and the open enrollment period for ACA insurance fast approaching, Americans in some states are already getting a glimpse into how the price of their insurance will skyrocket in 2026.
On Wednesday, ACA health insurance marketplaces in six states—California, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, Oregon, and Kentucky—launched "window shopping" tools that allow residents to compare their current insurance premiums with the ones they can expect to pay next year.
Across each of these states, the advocacy group Protect Our Care found plans that are expected to increase dramatically, sometimes to prices several times higher than they were this year.
“There is no longer any doubt about the healthcare disaster Republicans have created,” said the group's chair, Leslie Dach. “Working families can now log onto a computer and see the Republican healthcare betrayal right before their eyes."
Middle-income Americans who are older, but not yet old enough to receive Medicare, are expected to see the steepest increases in their premiums, according to KFF. When Protect Our Care looked at plans for 60-year-old couples making $85,000 a year, the group found staggering results in each state.
In Clay County, Kentucky, the group found that a Clear Silver plan, which charges that couple a premium of $559 per month this year, will cost $2,736—nearly five times that amount—next year after subsidies expire.
A screenshot of California's Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace website shows the price of an Anthem Blue Cross Silver plan for a couple in Mission Viejo, California, in 2025 (L) vs. 2026 (R). (Screenshot from Protect Our Care)
In Mission Viejo, California, premiums for the same couple's Anthem Blue Cross Silver plan would more than quadruple, from $516 per month this year to $2,188 next year.
The same is true in Medford, Oregon, where a Moda Health Silver plan would increase from $622 this year to $2,644.
In Burlington, Vermont, an MVP Silver plan that costs $602 per month this year will spike to $2,577.
While these are particularly egregious examples, KFF estimated earlier this month that the average ACA recipient will see their premiums increase by 114% next year, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expects will result in more than 4 million people becoming unable to afford health insurance.
State-level estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that across the states that have opened window shopping, costs for many families were doubling, tripling, or worse.
Residents across the country are beginning to grapple with the extraordinary rise in costs they are about to face.
In Tennessee, where more than half a million people pay lower premiums due to the ACA subsidies, a 62-year-old Chattanooga resident, Cheri Roberts, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that if they are allowed to expire, her current $10 a month premium will explode to $1,140 next year.
"I just had no idea," Roberts said about the expiring tax credits, adding that she sees eight different specialists for varying health issues and has multiple surgeries planned. "I'm not trying to exaggerate, but I might die if I stop going to the doctor."
Julia Tilley, a resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told PennLive/The Patriot-News that she fears her premiums will soar as Pennsylvania's insurance department predicts a premium increase of 102% on average for its 530,000 ACA recipients.
Though she says she has not yet received a letter from her insurer, Tilley said one of her friends was told their family's premiums were ballooning from $100 to $1,800 a month.
“There’s really no way to prepare for it,” Tilley said. “I mean, how do you suddenly come up with $15,000 more a year? My husband can’t work more because he has a head injury."
Tilley says she already works full-time taking care of her adult daughter, who has autism. "It’s not like I can go get another job," she says. "So we’re stuck.”
She says she has tried on multiple occasions to reach out to her Republican congressman, Rep. Scott Perry, but has not heard back.
According to KFF, 57% of ACA recipients live in congressional districts represented by Republicans, and polls by the organization have suggested that failure to extend the subsidies may hurt their electoral chances.
A poll from early October found that 78% of adults say that Congress should extend the subsidies, including the vast majority of Democrats and independents and even 57% of self-identified "MAGA" Republicans. If the subsidies are not extended, 39% who support extending them have said they'd blame US President Donald Trump, while another 37% say they'd blame Republicans in Congress. Just 22% say they'd blame Democrats.
"Virtually all marketplace enrollees—across states, ages, family sizes, and income levels—will see big premium increases," said Gideon Lukens, a senior fellow and director of health policy research for CBPP. "These are real people facing real consequences if Congress doesn’t act to extend the enhancements as soon as possible."
Oct 16, 2025
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'We're Not Going to Forget': Pritzker Warns Trump Enforcers Miller, Homan, Bovino That Immunity Not Forever
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is warning top lieutenants of President Donald Trump's violent and unlawful immigration enforcement policies that they will not always have the protection of presidential immunity and that lawmakers in the future will seek to hold them to account for their behavior, including unlawful orders given at the behest of the president.
With episodes of violent raids, unlawful search and seizures, and the mistreatment of immigrants, protesters, journalists, and everyday citizens, Pritzker, in a Thursday evening interview on MSNBC, specifically named White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, border czar Tom Homan, and Gregory Bovino, the Customs and Border Patrol commander operating in the Chicago area, as people whose actions will not be forgotten.
"All these people need to recognize, you may have immunity because Donald Trump's willing to pardon anybody who's carrying out his unlawful orders," said Pritzker, "but you're not going to have it under another administration."
Pritzker: "Stephen Miller is clearly ordering people to break the law. So he should know that yeah, it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know that whatever they do now, it's not like we're going to forget." pic.twitter.com/ExpdyijtnO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 17, 2025
Pritzker said that all the people serving the president, "including all the way down to ICE agents, can be held accountable when there's a change in administration that's willing to hold them accountable when they break the law."
Calling out Miller in particular, the governor charged that the xenophobic Trump advisor, who has been a leading champion and director of the harsh crackdown measures and federal deployments in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, and elsewhere, has "clearly ordering people to break the law."
Critics and legal experts have said the deployments themselves are unconstitutional, and the heavy-handed tactics of agents have resulted in numerous violations of civil liberties and constitutional protections.
Miller should know, said Pritzker, that "it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know that whatever they do now, it's not like we're going to forget and it's not like we don't have a record of what they're doing."
On Thursday, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jeremy Raskin (D-Md.) led a letter from Democrats on the committee demanding that the Trump administration "immediately end its unlawful and violent enforcement campaign in the Chicagoland region, warning that the Administration’s actions are undermining public safety, violating constitutional rights, and destabilizing communities."
According to a statement from Raskin's office:
For months, personnel from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have employed military-style tactics in enforcement operations across Chicago, spreading fear, chaos, and violence. Such extreme enforcement tactics have only escalated since the Administration’s announcement of Operation Midway Blitz in September. In early October, President Trump went further, federalized the National Guard—over the objections of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker—and ordered troops to Illinois to enable these unlawful and unconstitutional assaults on Chicagoland residents.
In October alone, DHS personnel have shot two people and publicly advanced self-serving narratives that were immediately contradicted by body camera and surveillance footage, handcuffed an Alderperson at a hospital checking on the welfare of a constituent being detained by ICE, indiscriminately deployed tear gas in front of a public school and against civilians and local law enforcement, placed a handcuffed man on the ground in a chokehold, shot a pastor in the head with a pepper ball, thrown flashbang grenades at civilians, and raided an entire apartment complex and reportedly zip-tied U.S. citizens, children, and military veterans for hours.
In a letter addressed to Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, the 18 Democratic members of the committee, including Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, who represents the Chicagoland district, said, "The Administration claims the mantle of law and order, yet its actions in the Chicagoland
area demonstrate it is a catalyst for lawlessness and dysfunction."
"Violently abusing residents, kidnapping parents and children and disappearing them into detention facilities without access to basic necessities, and illegally deploying the militaryagainst a great American city," the letter continues, "does nothing to make anyone safer—in fact, it jeopardizes the safety and well-being of every community members."
Demanding a halt to the attacks by federal agents in Chicago, the lawmakers said "[t]he American people want a common- sense approach to public safety and immigration, not violent tactics that traumatize and destabilize communities. They want leadership, not theater. We urge you to step back from the brink and use your positions to enhance public safety, instead of undermining it."
Oct 17, 2025
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Venezuelan Ambassador Warns Trump Admin Is ‘Bloodthirsty’ Killer ‘Roaming Around the Caribbean’
Venezuelan United Nations Ambassador Samuel Moncada on Thursday delivered a scathing denunciation of US President Donald Trump's drone attacks on purported drug boats off the coast of his country.
While holding up a copy of Thursday's edition of the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, which highlighted two Trinidadian citizens who were killed by a US drone strike while on a boat, Moncada lambasted the Trump administration and compared it to a serial killer.
"There is a killer roaming around the Caribbean!" he declared. "He's bloodthirsty! He's killing everyone who is on the sea working! And people from different countries—Colombia, Trinidad, etc.—are suffering the effects of these massacres!"
🇻🇪 At the UN, Venezuela alerts of "a killer roaming around the Caribbean" committing massacres@SMoncada_VEN displays today's @GuardianTT newspaper, which reported that two Trinbagonians were murdered in the latest U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean pic.twitter.com/ztIBxawWQk
— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) October 16, 2025
According to Reuters, Moncada this week also sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council asking it to rule on the legality of the US strikes, while also releasing a statement affirming Venezuela's sovereignty.
The two Trinidadian citizens mentioned by Moncada were killed in a Tuesday drone strike that also reportedly took the lives of four other men.
In interviews with the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, friends and relatives of 26-year-old Chad Joseph, one of the men killed in the strike, denied that he was involved with any drug trafficking.
"I find it wrong because it have—people will be innocent and they will still do and say otherwise," Joseph's mother, Lenore Burnley, told the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. "The sea law is they supposed to stop the boat and intercept it, not blow it up like that.”
With the Tuesday strike, the total number of people killed by the Trump administration's attacks on suspected drug boats totaled at least 27.
The administration carried out yet another boat strike on Thursday, and Reuters reported that at least two crew members had survived the attack, marking the first time that an attack on suspected drug vessels had left any survivors.
Reuters noted that "the development raises new questions, including whether the US military rendered aid to the survivors and whether they are now in US military custody, possibly as prisoners of war."
The Trump administration so far has provided no legal justification for the strikes on boats, nor has it provided any evidence that any of the boats it has targeted were involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs.
Many legal experts believe that the strikes on the boats would be illegal even if they were found to have been carrying drugs, however, and some critics have accused the Trump administration of extrajudicial murder.
Moncada said Thursday that the Trump administration, which has also reportedly approved "lethal operations" by the CIA in Venezuela, is "looking for wars."
“Everybody knows what’s going on here," he said. "They are fabricating a war. The emperor is naked. Stop pretending this is complicated.”
Oct 17, 2025
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'Naked Corruption': Trump Commutes Fraud Sentence of Ex-GOP Congressman George Santos
"Trump says it plainly: Crimes don’t count if you 'vote Republican,'" said one Democratic congressman. "Just like his pardons of those who violently attacked police."
Oct 18, 2025
Continuing his pattern of pardoning allies and prosecuting adversaries, President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison term of former Republican Congressman George Santos, who was less than three months into a seven year sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
"George Santos was somewhat of a 'rogue,' but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren't forced to serve seven years in prison," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
Once again, Trump randomly attacked Sen. Richard Blumenthal's (D-Conn.) admitted lie about taking part in the US invasion and occupation of Vietnam. Blumenthal was a Marine stationed stateside during the war, in which Trump—who has been derided as "Capt. Bone Spurs"—avoided serving.
"This is what a wannabe king does."
"He never went to Vietnam, he never saw Vietnam, he never experienced the Battles there, or anywhere else," Trump said of Blumenthal. "His War Hero status, and even minimal service in our Military, was totally and completely MADE UP."
"This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!" the president added. "George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!"
Santos was subsequently released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey after 10:00 pm Friday.
According to a copy of the commutation posted on social media, Santos will also no longer have to pay $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to victims of his fraud. Trump's action does not erase Santos' conviction.
Santos, 37, resisted pressure to resign from Congress over lies about his education, employment, family, religion, residence, net worth, and more.
As The New York Times reported Friday:
Mr. Santos claimed that he was descended from Holocaust refugees. His mother, he said, had been in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He claimed to be a college volleyball star. And Mr. Santos boasted of extensive Wall Street experience that allowed him to report loaning his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars. None of that was true.
Between May and October 2023, Santos was indicted on 23 criminal counts including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States.
In December 2023, House lawmakers voted 311-114 to remove the freshman lawmaker from office. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was among the 112 Republicans and two Democrats who voted against expulsion. Santos became just the sixth lawmaker to ever be booted from the House.
In August 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to two felony counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The following April, he was sentenced to 87 months behind bars and ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture totaling nearly $600,000.
Trump's commutation of Santos' sentence follows a series of high-profile acts of clemency. Most notorious among these was his blanket pardon earlier this year of more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, for which the president—himself a 34-count convicted fraudster—was impeached for a historic second time. He was not convicted by the Senate either time.
George Santos is the 10th GOP Congressman to get a pardon or clemency from President Trump. The other nine were also all convicted of various criminal charges:
[image or embed]
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Friday's commutation also stands in stark contrast with the Trump administration's recent indictments of political foes including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Critics were quick to note this pattern, which Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) called "naked corruption."
"George Santos pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud, a small part of his lying and stealing that really hurt people," Beyer wrote on social media. "Trump says it plainly: Crimes don’t count if you 'vote Republican.' Just like his pardons of those who violently attacked police."
Wow, Trump just commuted disgraced former Congressman George Santos’ sentence.He must really want to distract from the Republican shutdown and the Epstein files.
[image or embed]
— Rep. Ted Lieu (@reptedlieu.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 4:46 PM
West Coast Trial Lawyers president Neama Rahmani said on X following Trump's announcement: "It's weeks away, but Trump is handing out pardons like Halloween candy. Disgraced former Rep. George Santos is the latest beneficiary, showing once again that flattering the president gets you everywhere."
"Sneaking it in on a Friday night means it will get less press too," Rahmani added. "I can’t wait for Santos’ first cameo appearance post-federal prison. Is Diddy the next recipient of Trump’s clemency?"
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) also reacted to Trump's commutation on X, writing, "This is what a wannabe king does."
"Join us tomorrow at a No Kings rally near you," Pocan added, referring to the more than 2,700 pro-democracy demonstrations set to take place Saturday from coast to coast and around the world.
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As Suit Filed Over Memphis, Trump Takes Chicago National Guard Fight to Supreme Court
"Militarizing our communities against their will is not only un-American but also leads us down a dangerous path for our democracy," said Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Oct 17, 2025
While Tennessee elected officials sued over Republican Gov. Bill Lee deploying the National Guard in Memphis at the request of President Donald Trump, the White House on Friday escalated a battle about a similar deployment push in Illinois to the US Supreme Court.
Illinois and Chicago's top attorneys are challenging Trump's attempt to federalize and deploy National Guard soldiers from the state and Texas amid the administration's anti-immigrant "Operation Midway Blitz" in and around the nation's third-largest city. US District Judge April Perry, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, last week issued a temporary restraining order.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit—featuring judges appointed by Trump as well as former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama—paused Perry's decision on federalization of Guard troops but unanimously upheld her block on their deployment, declaring that "political opposition is not rebellion."
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul called the 7th Circuit's order "another win for the people of Illinois and the rule of law in our state," and welcomed that "National Guard troops will not be seen patrolling the city of Chicago, Broadview, or other communities throughout Illinois."
"The responsibility of addressing local crime continues to fall to state and local law enforcement officers who are best trained to protect their communities," he added. "There is no need for troops in the state of Illinois, and my office will continue to vigorously oppose the administration's unlawful overreach."
Now, the Trump administration is appealing to the country's top court, which has a right-wing supermajority that includes three Trump appointees. In the application, Solicitor General John Sauer asks the justices to stay Perry's injunction, which was sought by the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, so the president can immediately deploy troops.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
The 43-page petition also asked for an immediate administrative stay "given the pressing risk of violence," but the court had taken no action on that as of 5:00 pm Friday.
The filing said Illinois' resistance to a National Guard deployment mirrors similar actions still unfolding in California and Oregon. It asked that President Donald Trump be allowed to deploy some 700 troops in Illinois—300 from the Illinois National Guard and another 400 federalized out of Texas earlier this month.
The Supreme Court asked lawyers for Illinois to respond by 5:00 pm Eastern time on Monday.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a frequent critic of the president, said on social media Friday that "Donald Trump will keep trying to invade Illinois with troops—and we will keep defending the sovereignty of our state. Militarizing our communities against their will is not only un-American but also leads us down a dangerous path for our democracy. What will come next?"
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, seven elected Democrats—Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Memphis City Councilmember JB Smiley Jr., Shelby County Commissioners Henri Brooks and Erika Sugarmon, state Reps. GA Hardaway (93) and Gabby Salinas (96), and state Sen. Jeff Yarbro (21)—filed a lawsuit and motion for immediate relief over Lee's "patently unlawful" deployment.
The plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward, National Immigration Law Center, and Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, which submitted a complaint to the Davidson County Chancery Court arguing that "defendants have trampled on Tennessee law by unilaterally deploying Tennessee National Guard members in Memphis as a domestic police force."
Smiley, who's also an attorney, said in a statement that "Lee's decision to send the National Guard into Memphis at President Trump's request isn't leadership…it's illegal. The governor has disregarded our laws to deploy troops to intimidate our city, and the president's talk of using communities like Memphis as training grounds is dangerous and dehumanizing. Memphis deserves to be respected, not treated like the playground of an out-of-control dictator."
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, tied the current conditions in Memphis to other US communities—more than 2,700 of which are planning "No Kings" protests against Trump's increasing authoritarianism on Saturday.
"Yet, again, the president and his allies are engaged in an unlawful and harmful use of military force in an American city. There has been no invasion or rebellion in Memphis, which is the prerequisite for National Guard deployment," Perryman said. "The people of Tennessee deserve leaders who respect the limits of their office and the rule of law. Using military forces in our cities and communities without legal justification threatens democracy and puts communities at risk."
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Under Pressure From Trump, UN Shipping Regulator Delays Vote on Net-Zero Rules
“With climate warming impacts being felt everywhere on Earth, kicking this decision down the road is simply evading reality," says one campaigner.
Oct 17, 2025
Advocates of establishing an international framework for decarbonizing global shipping on Friday decried a postponed vote on proposed rules—a move that came amid pressure from the administration of US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia.
Members of the United Nations International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee gathered in London for a special meeting, MEPC 83, to vote on its Net-Zero Framework (NZF), a new set of global regulations aimed at slashing the shipping industry's greenhouse gas emissions.
A Saudi proposal to adjourn the meeting and delay a final decision on the NZF narrowly passed by a vote of 57-49, with 21 abstentions, Mongabay reported.
The NZF—whose goal is net-zero shipping by 2050—has two main interconnected components, a global fuel standard requiring ships to gradually reduce emissions, and a pricing mechanism meant to encourage the industry to voluntarily slash greenhouse gas output.
"The delay leaves the shipping sector drifting in uncertainty."
The NZF was approved at the last MEPC meeting in April, then shared with member nations for review, with an eye toward final assent during the current special meeting. However, while the European Union and nations including China and Brazil have been pushing for the NZF, the world's two largest oil producers—the United States and Saudi Arabia—are working to scupper the proposal, which Russia also opposes.
Trump took to his Truth Social network Thursday to pressure MEPC members to vote "no" on the NZF:
I am outraged that the International Maritime Organization is voting in London this week to pass a global Carbon Tax. The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form. We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers OR, the creation of a Green New Scam Bureaucracy to spend YOUR money on their Green dreams. Stand with the United States, and vote NO in London tomorrow!
The one-year postponement drew sharp rebuke from supporters of the NZF.
“We are disappointed that member states have not been able to agree a way forward at this meeting," International Chamber of Shipping secretary general Thomas Kazakos said following Friday's vote. "Industry needs clarity to be able to make the investments needed to decarbonize the maritime sector, in line with the goals set out in the IMO [greenhouse gas] strategy."
"As an industry we will continue to work with the IMO, which is the best organization to deliver the global regulations needed for a global industry," Kazakos added.
John Maggs, who represents the Clean Shipping Coalition at the IMO, said in a statement, “By delaying adoption of its Net-Zero Framework, IMO has today squandered an important opportunity to tackle global shipping’s contribution to climate breakdown."
“With climate warming impacts being felt everywhere on Earth, kicking this decision down the road is simply evading reality," he added. "Governments serious about climate action must spend the next 12 months rallying every nation that supports the framework, convincing those who are on the fence, or opposing, that its adoption is the only sane way forward.”
Elissama Menezes, co-founder and director of the advocacy organization Equal Routes, said: "Delay costs the climate—and coastal Indigenous peoples and Arctic communities are already paying the price for inaction. This week’s non-outcome should mean that states and the marine sector should double down on related efforts to reduce the impacts from the triple planetary crisis.”
Faig Abbasov, director of shipping at the green group Transport & Environment, told Reuters that "the delay leaves the shipping sector drifting in uncertainty."
Global shipping accounts for approximately 3% of the world's CO2 emissions. Approximately 90% of all international trade is conducted at sea, and proponents of the NZF warn that emissions will soar without the regulations.
While leading shipping companies including Maersk and CMA CGM have taken steps to transition their fleets to zero emission vessels, they are still falling short of the goals laid out in the landmark Paris climate agreement or even the IMO’s own 2023 emissions reduction strategy.
”However, all is not lost—not by a long shot," said Maggs, "as there is an immediate opportunity to slash [greenhouse gas] emissions from shipping, minimize fuel burn, and the overall cost of the energy transition, and that is to strengthen and make enforceable the carbon intensity indicator (CII), the IMO’s cornerstone energy efficiency measure."
CII is a shipping industry regulatory metric that measures a vessel's annual carbon intensity.
“There’s no time to waste," Maggs added. "At MEPC 84 in April 2026 member states need to focus all their attention on transforming the CII into the energy efficiency powerhouse needed to quickly right this ship and put it back on route to being a climate solution.”
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