This previous week the Trump administration has placed on a bravura show of impunity and seeming incompetence, however maybe we are able to glean some perception into how they operate.
As I posted final week, competence, corruption and management restrict the powers of Crew Trump, however their audacity and ambition imply they have to be watched intently.
There’s at all times an immense WTF issue when monitoring POTUS Trump and perhaps the obvious impunity and incompetence is concealing different issues.
Impunity
It doesn’t get far more flagrant than this, per MSNBC (in fact it’s MSNBC):
https://t.co/0K6Hg9diWk pic.twitter.com/5zNXLjRsgg
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
In an undercover operation final yr, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White Home border czar, accepting $50,000 in money after indicating he may assist the brokers — who have been posing as enterprise executives — win authorities contracts in a second Trump administration, in line with a number of individuals acquainted with the probe and inside paperwork reviewed by MSNBC.
The FBI and the Justice Division deliberate to attend to see whether or not Homan would ship on his alleged promise as soon as he turned the nation’s prime immigration official. However the case indefinitely stalled quickly after Donald Trump turned president once more in January, in line with six sources acquainted with the matter. In current weeks, Trump appointees formally closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a standing replace on the case, two of the individuals mentioned.
It’s unclear what causes FBI and Justice Division officers gave for shutting down the investigation. However a Trump Justice Division appointee referred to as the case a “deep state” probe in early 2025 and no additional investigative steps have been taken, the sources say.
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In a press release offered to MSNBC, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche mentioned, “This matter originated below the earlier administration and was subjected to a full evaluate by FBI brokers and Justice Division prosecutors. They discovered no credible proof of any legal wrongdoing. The Division’s assets should stay centered on actual threats to the American individuals, not baseless investigations. Because of this, the investigation has been closed.”White Home Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson slammed the probe as a “blatantly political investigation, which discovered no proof of criminal activity, is yet one more instance of how the Biden Division of Justice was utilizing it’s assets to focus on President Trump’s allies reasonably than examine actual criminals and the tens of millions of unlawful aliens who flooded our nation.”
“Tom Homan has not been concerned with any contract award choices. He’s a profession legislation enforcement officer and lifelong public servant who’s doing an exceptional job on behalf of President Trump and the nation,” she added on behalf of Homan, a senior White Home worker.
Megyn Kelly, previously of Fox Information, previously of NBC, spoke up in protection of Homan and dismissed the caper:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
Time journal outlined the Trump administration’s plan to develop its assault on media firms to incorporate NGO’s:
Within the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination earlier this month, President Donald Trump and members of his administration have overtly mentioned punishing left-leaning organizations they consider gasoline political violence. Specialists say one tactic that’s been talked about might be particularly dangerous to a number of the focused teams: going after their tax-exempt standing.
The cost was made most explicitly final Monday, when Vice President J.D. Vance singled out the Ford Basis and the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundations whereas internet hosting Charlie Kirk’s podcast.
“We’re going to go after the NGO community that foments and amenities and engages in violence,” Vance mentioned, referring to non-governmental organizations.
Requested concerning the Administration’s plans, a White Home official informed TIME in a press release: “The White Home is exploring all kinds of choices to place pen to paper to deal with left-wing political violence and the community of organizations that gasoline and fund it. Specifics on what that appears like proceed to be mentioned.”
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“The everyday IRS investigations are based mostly on how the cash is getting used and whether or not the cash is getting used to additional exempt functions or if total the group shouldn’t be really operated for its exempt functions or offering personal advantages or is self dealing, or one thing like that,” says Roger Colinvaux, professor of legislation at The Catholic College of America. IRS investigations, he provides, are usually not normally “focused towards a corporation’s viewpoint and actually viewpoint shouldn’t come into it in any respect.”
Trump himself had different prosecutions on his thoughts. In a Reality social put up that he might need supposed to ship as a direct message to Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi, he referred to as for scalps of his enemies:
https://t.co/upHJLkII7e pic.twitter.com/nSISdVeTCa
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
NBC Information had extra:
Alongside the extraordinary demand to prosecute his adversaries, the president additionally named his former protection lawyer, now a senior White Home aide, to exchange the top of a key prosecutor’s workplace he compelled out a day earlier.
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He mentioned individuals have been complaining that “nothing is being accomplished” and name-checked some public officers with whom he has tussled: former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James.Comey led the investigation into Trump’s attainable ties to Russian management, which concluded that Trump’s marketing campaign didn’t collude with Russian operatives.
Schiff, as a member of the Home, led the primary impeachment of Trump throughout his first time period.
James introduced a profitable civil go well with towards Trump in 2022 that accused him of overvaluing property, together with actual property, in mortgage functions. The go well with’s monetary penalty towards Trump was later voided.
In a follow-up put up an hour later, Trump praised Bondi.
“Pam Bondi is doing a GREAT job as Legal professional Normal of the US,” he wrote.
In a press release to NBC Information, White Home spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt mentioned: “President Trump appreciates all Legal professional Normal Bondi is doing to Make America Protected Once more. The President desires justice and accountability for the numerous corrupt criminals and politicians who weaponized our justice system towards him and his tens of millions of patriotic supporters.”
Maybe I ought to have included the final instance below the following subject header, however I promised bravura incompetence and I don’t need to disappoint.
Incompetence
Trump’s White Home dropped the next “reality sheet” on Friday:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
Factors from the very fact sheet:
- The Proclamation restricts entry for aliens as nonimmigrants to carry out providers in specialty occupations within the H-1B program until their petition is accompanied by a $100,000 fee.
- It directs the Secretary of Homeland Safety to limit approvals for petitions from aliens which are at present outdoors the US that aren’t accompanied by the fee, and permits case-by-case exemptions if within the nationwide curiosity.
- The Proclamation requires employers to retain documentation of fee remittance, with the Secretary of State verifying fee in the course of the petition course of and the Departments of State and Homeland Safety denying entry for non-payment for the related aliens and taking different related steps wanted to implement the Proclamation.
- It requires the Departments of Labor and Homeland Safety to problem joint steering for verification, enforcement, audits, and penalties.
- The Proclamation directs the Secretary of Labor to initiative rulemaking to revise the prevailing wage ranges for the H-1B program and directs the Secretary of Homeland Safety to provoke rulemaking to prioritize high-skilled, high-paid H-1B staff.
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt instantly clarified in a tweet that drew the dreaded “Group Be aware” from X (nothing says impunity and incompetence like getting slapped by Musk’s neighborhood):
To be clear:
1.) That is NOT an annual charge. It’s a one-time charge that applies solely to the petition.
2.) Those that already maintain H-1B visas and are at present outdoors of the nation proper now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter.
H-1B visa holders can go away and re-enter the…
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) September 20, 2025
Right here’s the whole textual content of her tweet for these not wishing to click on over to X.com to see the impunity and incompetence up shut:
To be clear:
1.) That is NOT an annual charge. It’s a one-time charge that applies solely to the petition.
2.) Those that already maintain H-1B visas and are at present outdoors of the nation proper now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter.
H-1B visa holders can go away and re-enter the nation to the identical extent as they usually would; no matter potential they’ve to try this shouldn’t be impacted by yesterday’s proclamation.
3.) This is applicable solely to new visas, not renewals, and never present visa holders.
It’s going to first apply within the subsequent upcoming lottery cycle.
Video from the announcement backed the neighborhood word, exhibiting Sec of Commerce Howard Lutnick saying the $100,000 H-1B visa charge is annual, 5 occasions in a row appeared to again up the MSM’s accusations of impunity and incompetence:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
Trump’s enemies at The New York Occasions and NBC Information have been fast to pounce on the perceived impunity and incompetence:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
From the NYT, famous haters of Trump’s impunity and incompetence:
Wall Avenue banks and tech firms large and small have been scrambling on Saturday to determine how their tens of 1000’s of workers could be affected by President Trump’s proclamation imposing a $100,000 charge for visas granted to expert international staff.
The change set off rapid confusion over the precise guidelines and the way they might be enforced. Shortly after Mr. Trump signed the proclamation on Friday, workers at Microsoft, Amazon and JPMorgan acquired notices advising these with H-1B visas who have been outdoors the US to return earlier than the brand new guidelines take impact at 12:01 a.m. Japanese time on Sunday.
The Trump administration sought to deal with the confusion on Saturday by saying that the charge would solely apply to new candidates, and renewals or present visa holders wouldn’t be affected. In a put up on social media, the White Home mentioned the change would “not affect the flexibility of any present visa holder to journey to/from the U.S.”
The Monetary Occasions had extra on the muddied waters of Trump’s visa coverage:
Outstanding members of Trump’s political coalition have beforehand expressed assist for the H-1B programme, together with his largest donor Elon Musk. However others resembling former White Home strategist Steve Bannon have referred to as for the scheme to be abolished in order that American staff are protected.
Garry Tan, chief govt of start-up incubator Y Combinator, mentioned in a put up on X that the choice by Trump was a mistake that “kneecaps start-ups” and represented a “huge reward to each abroad tech hub” together with Vancouver and Toronto in Canada.
“In the midst of an AI arms race, we’re telling builders to construct elsewhere. We’d like American Little Tech to win — not $100K toll cubicles,” Tan added.
Legal professionals performing for main US firms informed the FT that their shoppers have been awaiting additional clarification from the Division of State, which points visas and had but to make any assertion on Sunday. Firms have been additionally contemplating bringing a authorized problem to contest the proposed charges.
Reuters illustrated which nations Trump’s transfer impacts probably the most:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 22, 2025
In that very same Reuters piece, reporters Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B elaborated on the affect on India and American multi-nationals:
India’s $283 billion info know-how sector must overhaul its decades-old technique of rotating expert expertise into U.S. tasks following U.S. President Donald Trump’s transfer, opens new tab to impose a $100,000 charge for brand new H-1B visas from Sunday, in line with tech veterans, analysts, attorneys and economists.
The sector, which earns about 57% of its complete income from the U.S. market, has lengthy gained from U.S. work visa applications and the outsourcing of software program and enterprise providers — a contentious problem for a lot of Individuals who’ve misplaced jobs to cheaper staff in India.
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Trump’s transfer to reshape the H-1B program will drive IT companies with shoppers resembling Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab, Walmart (WMT.N), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google to pause onshore rotations, speed up offshore supply, and ramp up hiring of U.S. residents and inexperienced card holders, specialists mentioned.
Perception?
Maybe it was solely the roll out which was incompetent.
Maybe the H1-B visa coverage change roll out was intentionally chaotic to make issues tougher on Indian nationals working within the U.S. and India on the whole.
Maybe a part of Trump’s perceived impunity and incompetence comes from his administration not caring what the MSM makes of their actions.
In spite of everything, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Modi, a feud that reportedly started when Modi refused to appoint Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for, Trump claims, ending the temporary taking pictures battle between India and Pakistan earlier this yr. India refused to let Trump mediate between them and Pakistan.
This was adopted by Trump instantly imposing brutal tariffs and pressuring the EU to chop off their imports of “Indian oil” (ie sanctioned Russian oil resold by India).
Trump has additionally cancelled a deliberate go to to India later this yr.
So there could also be a way behind the impunity and incompetence.
Trump’s State Dept. can also be impacting India with new sanctions towards Iran that can affect India’s Chabahar Port mission, beforehand exempted from U.S. sanctions.
M. Ok. Bhadrakumar at Indian Punchline has extra:
…what’s at stake right here as Trump 2.0 retracted from the Trump 1.0 resolution of November 2018 to offer a sanctions waiver for Indian operations at Iran’s strategic Chabahar Port is a basic shift. Though Washington flags it as a “most stress” technique in direction of Iran, the purpose is, Trump 2.0 has taken one other overtly unfriendly stance of “secondary sanctions” in direction of India…
With the elimination of the 2018 sanctions waiver on India’s Chabahar mission, the Trump administration goals to complicate India-Iran relationship and to finally stymie the prospects of a land path to India’s prolonged neighbourhood for Russian / Iranian vitality provides. It, subsequently, turns into an important a part of Trump’s technique to stress India to purchase extra of US vitality.
…the US sanctions on Chabahar will paralyse India’s capability to be an efficient presence in Central Asia in partnership with Russia and Iran. It’s an unfriendly transfer inconsistent with Trump’s bombastic claims of friendship with Prime Minister Modi at a private degree, and so forth. and, curiously, it comes at a time when the US-Indian commerce talks are reportedly reaching the house stretch.
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Bearing in mind the current Saudi-Pakistani defence pact, which has been famous approvingly by the US Central Command, the sanctions on India-Iran partnership can solely be seen as a calculated step in a containment technique geared toward blocking India’s entry to the huge Eurasian hinterland that might present it with strategic depth, and isolate it as a substitute within the South Asian subcontinent.The US is making a decided bid to return to Afghanistan and is working intently with MI6 to re-establish its intelligence presence. Notably, Trump’s dramatic disclosure that the US is demanding management over the Soviet period army base in Bagram adopted his talks in London with the UK prime minister Keir Stammer.
Keir Stammer, he he. Good one, M.Ok.
John Helmer has some perception into how the Trump administration may go at Dances With Bears, explaining the impunity and incompetence:
President Donald Trump isn’t making the foremost home or international coverage choices of his administration.
Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of workers on the White Home, is directing the militarization of home policymaking and propaganda; the Central Intelligence Company and Pentagon are executing the international operations towards Russia, China, Iran, Palestine, Yemen, Venezuela; Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, the Commerce and Treasury Secretaries, are directing the commerce battle schemes. Trump’s tweets, some immediately authored by Miller, comply with their motion, stamping presidential approval after the occasion. Trump’s press remarks — staged in small bursts in entrance of media prompters — create the looks that Trump is operating the present. The present, sure; the operations, no.
To patch over the hole between what Trump’s males are doing and what Trump says he’s doing, the president repeats catchwords, slogans, jingles: “I’m disillusioned in Putin”; “if Russia’s not promoting oil, they haven’t any alternative however to settle”; “if Europe did one thing with respect to China, I feel China would most likely perhaps drive an finish to the battle”; “the US has been a sucker lengthy sufficient on this planet by way of commerce. Now, we’re doing unbelievably effectively, and we’re making more cash than we’ve ever made”; “I really mentioned, Charlie [Kirk], sometime I feel you may have a great likelihood of being president. I feel you may be president, perhaps”; “the King of Saudi Arabia, an excellent gentleman — nice gentleman, you all know him. He mentioned, sir, your nation was lifeless one yr in the past and now you may have the most popular nation wherever on this planet and it’s true.”
Since Trump’s males perceive that is how Trump is deciding coverage retroactively, and each the NATO allies and the Kremlin perceive the identical factor, it’s everyone’s calculation to compel Trump’s acquiescence by forcing the motion pre-emptively leaving him no different, and presenting the profitable end result of their operations in picture-book briefings which mix shock and flattery. Trump is the primary president in US historical past to signal written resolution memoranda after the choices have been pre-empted. He can’t bear in mind what they have been as a result of he hasn’t learn the papers.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Former Chief of Employees to Secretary of State Colin Powell, talking on the Neutrality Research podcast had a complimentary evaluation of resolution making, impunity and incompetence within the Trump administration:
Col Lawrence Wilkerson: Perhaps Trump is so incompetent he doesn’t even know what’s occurring as a result of he doesn’t take Nationwide Safety Council briefings. He doesn’t have a Nationwide Safety Adviser who, by job description, appears to be like over the complete inter-agency, significantly protection and state, and coordinates coverage for it. (Trump) doesn’t have one.
(Secretary of State and nominal Nationwide Safety Adviser Marco) Rubio is just too busy attacking individuals in Latin America or attempting to assault individuals in Latin America. He’s not even a great secretary of state. And he’s not a nationwide safety adviser.
So, who’s coordinating coverage within the Trump administration? On Monday, it’s the chief of workers. On Tuesday, it’s (Deputy Chief of Employees) Steven Miller. On Wednesday, it’s (Sec. of Protection) Hegseth. On Thursday, it’s Rubio. You are taking your choose.
Secretary of the Treasury weighs in every so often. Director of the FBI weighs in from time to time. There isn’t a coordinated coverage popping out of the Trump administration.
There’s simply assist for wars that he helped begin in his first administration.
…There isn’t a coordination of coverage on this administration. Zero. It simply flows out of Trump’s mouth when he tweets or does no matter he does. However the basic items which are occurring are occurring beneath him, and so they’re occurring with the varied people who find themselves doing what they’ll whereas he’s oblivious to what they’re doing.
Or he’s orchestrating the entire thing all on his personal. And it’s actually form of hideous what he’s doing each domestically and internationally. However I don’t consider that for a minute. This man is incapable of orchestrating motion on his personal. So what’s occurring is we have now chaos. We now have chaos from one finish of the administration to the opposite.
Provided that the Trump administration is each dramatically extra bold than the sclerotic Biden administration and arguably simpler than its predecessor, we shouldn’t be too fast to dismiss them for his or her impunity and incompetence.
Provided that 340 million Individuals are on board the ship of state piloted by Trump’s administration, resembling it’s, and roughly 7.75 billion different human beings need to share the planet with the quickly declining hyperpower, we’ll proceed to do our greatest to doc the administration’s doings as occasions proceed and can attempt to filter out the seeming impunity and incompetence.
