Citizen Tree

Footballer, RocknRoller

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Trump ripped up the walkway between the West Wing and the mansion to replace it with polished African granite carved in Italy. "Paid for by me," he claimed. Except that's not true. Taxpayers paid $689,232, per documents obtained by @michaelscherer https://t.co/7l2bkD0MIH

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Massie: "I think it's ironic that we control the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and the White House, and we're yelling 'election fraud'? I mean, we won all the damn elections."

[POLITICO @politico]

Gallego tapped campaign cash for family travel, Super Bowl tickets, records show https://t.co/VzXRoMYFv8

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

On June 13, 1777, a 19-year-old French teenager landed on a beach in South Carolina, uninvited, to fight in someone else's war. He would become one of the most important men in American history.

The Marquis de Lafayette was one of the richest young aristocrats in France. He had a beautiful wife, a fortune, and zero reason to risk any of it. But he believed in the American cause so fiercely that when the French king forbade him from going, Lafayette bought his own ship and sailed anyway. He literally went AWOL from a life of luxury to bleed for a country that didn't exist yet.

Congress was annoyed at first. Another foreign officer looking for a paycheck? Then Lafayette offered to serve for free and pay his own way. That got their attention.

He met Washington and the two formed one of the great father-son bonds in American history. Washington had no biological children. Lafayette named his only son George Washington Lafayette.

He took a bullet in the leg at Brandywine and kept rallying the retreat. He was instrumental at Yorktown, the battle that won the war. He went home a hero on two continents.

A foreign teenager believed in America before America did. 249 years ago today.

[Pat Dennis @patdennis]

Are you telling me my tax dollars are being sent to rebuild all the shit that Pete Hegseth blew up also with my tax dollars

[Nick Dixon @NickDixon]

Feel like this guy has waited his whole life to say this. Incredibly eloquent and accurate appraisal of the failure of Western elites.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.

Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.

IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.

The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.

The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.

Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.” 

Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.

The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.

This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.

Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?

https://t.co/La0nlLuz1r

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

COLLINS: “What about Trump’s promise to lower gas prices?”

JORDAN: “That’s life.”

@kaitlancollins: “If someone’s paying more for⛽️, saying ‘that’s life’ might not make them feel better.”

@Jim_Jordan: “Those are your words, not mine.”

COLLINS: “No you said that. Just now.”😬

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

Trump: These are tough questions. They say take a number, any number. I say ok, 99. Multiply it by 9. Divide it by 3. Add 4293. Divide by 2. Subtract 93. Divide by 9. What is your answer? I got it right. It was actually more complex than that.

[Isaiah Martin @isaiahrmartin]

I don’t think this Ramaswamy dude understands that he’s literally running to be Governor of Ohio. How do you not say your own state is the best state 🤦🏾‍♂️!

[Dominic Pino @DominicJPino]

Imagining explaining to the Founding Fathers that the president imposed tariffs without an act of Congress and then removed them at the request of the King of England

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

When Robert Hanssen’s former SVR handler tells you who the Russians are backing in U.S. politics, it’s worth listening.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

RFK Jr: "A Democratic senator claimed it's mathematically impossible to have a drug drop by 600%. I said, 'Well, if the drug was $100 and it raises to $600, that would be a 600% rise. If it drops from $600 to $100, that's a 600% savings.'"

Trump: "Right"

[Qasem Al-Ali @AlaliQasem]

$760M short on oil. Placed 20 minutes before the Hormuz announcement.
This is the 3rd time.
March 23: $500M short — 15 minutes before Trump delayed Iran strikes. Oil dropped 15%.
April 7: $950M short — hours before the US-Iran ceasefire.
April 17: $760M short — 20 minutes before Hormuz declared open.
The CFTC is investigating.

The ‘peace trade’ was sold to retail. Someone else got out first.
Who knew?

[Vince Mpls @vincempls]

July 21 1935: The Führer orders a new reception hall and ballroom to "entertain foreign diplomats" at the Chancellery. Underneath the dance floor is an air raid shelter. A 2nd deeper bunker is built next to this in 1944, where he would spend his last days as the Reich collapsed.

[Blue Georgia @BlueGeorgia]

Mike Thompson: Let's start with an easy one. Do you have a medical or public health degree?

RFK Jr: No.

Thompson: Yet you're overruling doctors, scientists, and public health experts across our country. Your dangerous conspiracy theories are undermining safe and effective vaccines.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Trump on Epstein victims: "I understand that the women didn't want to go under oath. That's what I heard. That the women, the victims or whatever, they refused to go under oath which was a little surprising. Melania felt strongly about it because she was accused that I met her through Epstein, but it turned out to be totally false."

[Max Burns @themaxburns]

A perfect image of the Trump era: A grandmother has to work at DoorDash in order to get by, while the president decorates his office in gold accent pieces.

[jordan @JordanUhl]

The guy who just flew to Hungary to get involved in their politics tells the Pope, who is from Chicago, Illinois to stay out of US politics.

[Trey Ferguson @PastorTrey05]

This one is gonna be hilarious to me until the day they call my time of death