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The News Not Noise Letter: A Pentagon Thirst Trap
Will Pete Hegseth’s bare chest tank his nomination? Plus: Trump says he'll use the military for mass deportations, and a tip from Australia on how to add 10 years to your life.
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Since Trump’s election I’ve seen two trends in our community. On the one hand there’s a huge spike in news engagement. Our subscriptions are growing and more of you are reading and responding. On the other hand, some of you say that your nervous system can’t take the onslaught of difficult news. My advice? Take the breaks you need. And I will work to incorporate a variety of content so you get a reprieve. With that in mind we end the newsletter with News That Doesn’t Suck. First, the latest from Trump land.
Here are your Headlines
Playground Fighting: The next Congress hasn’t even been settled yet — several House races are still up in the air — and Senate Republicans are already at each other’s throats. On Sunday, New Yorker staff writer Jane Meyer, who is very well sourced, posted on X that former Senate Leader Mitch McConnell warned Trump’s team that “there will be no recess appointments.” (Recess appointments are Trump’s preferred way to seat his cabinet picks.) Trump loyalist Sen Rick Scott clapped back on X: “Yes, there will be.” And Utah’s Mike Lee posted, “Remember that time when McConnell decided he wouldn’t be speaking for Senate Republicans anymore?” Meow. Meyer has since deleted her tweet, no explanation offered. The question now: How many GOP Senators share McConnell’s view, and is it enough to force votes or even block some Trump’s more controversial choices? (You can read all about them in our newsletters here and here.)
Another Day, Another Drama: Here’s the latest news on Trump’s cabinet picks. Trigger warning: The below includes multiple mentions of sexual assault.
Will it matter? ABC News interviewed a lawyer who alleges that two of his clients were paid to have sex with Attorney General pick Matt Gaetz, and that one client saw Gaetz committing statutory rape by having sex with a 17-year-old. The House Ethics committee is set to meet Wednesday to discuss how to handle its report about Gaetz. According to NBC, a majority of Senate Republicans doubt that Matt Gaetz will be confirmed as attorney general.
Questionable Character: Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, reportedly paid an undisclosed sum to a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her at a conference of the California Federation of Republican Women in 2017. Hegseth’s lawyer insisted that the Fox News host was innocent and suggested that the accuser “extorted him” into the confidential settlement. Trump’s team apparently only became aware of this last week, when they received a memo detailing the allegations against Hegseth. Nevertheless, Trump — who last year was ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million for sexually abusing her (and $83.3 million for defamatory denials of her claims) — has reportedly told his team that he’s sticking with Hegseth.
The Call is Coming From Inside the House: In his memoir, Hegseth recounts a formative moment in his life: When “the military I loved, I fought for … spit me out.” He’s referring to an incident that occurred in early January, 2021. As the nation reeled in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, senior military officers were investigating concerning information about Hegseth — specifically, some of his tattoos. One was a Jerusalem Cross, another the phrase “Deus Vult.” Both have long histories in Christianity, but have recently been used by far-right extremists, including groups who participated in the insurrection, like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters. These extremists, including military veterans, had battled and seriously injured officers protecting the Capitol, including Hegseth’s fellow National Guards. As Biden’s inauguration loomed, officers wondered if Hegseth could be trusted. “This falls along the lines of [an] Insider Threat,” the National Guard’s then-Head of Physical Security warned in an email sent January 14. Hegseth was told not to deploy. Infuriated and hurt, he writes, he resigned days later. “F*** Biden anyway,” he wrote in his memoir. This raises a host of questions including about Hegseth’s judgment, temperament, and political views. By pre-Trump standards he’d likely be disqualified. The question is how far from the mainstream can Trump’s candidates veer without losing Senate support?
Carr Crash: Remember when Trump insisted he had “nothing to do with Project 2025,” just a couple of months ago? Yesterday, Trump announced his pick for the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission: Brendan Carr, the author of the Project 2025 chapter on the FCC. Trump’s “warrior for Free Speech” announced he will “dismantle the censorship cartel” — in other words, crack down on the tech companies and media outlets that have infuriated Trump and his allies over the years. Specifically, Carr wants social media platforms to do less to limit hate speech and disinformation, and he wants news organizations to do more to limit what journalists can say about the Trump administration (he doesn’t say this explicitly but it’s clear).
Silver Lining: The FCC doesn’t actually have much power over tech companies, so Carr would likely need Congress to pass legislation in order to achieve many of his goals. And he can’t pull the licenses for broadcast networks over speech, at least under current law.
Musk-Approved: Elon Musk, who is reportedly weighing in on every staffing choice, is apparently delighted at Carr’s nomination. Why? Perhaps because Carr is a close ally who could direct the FCC to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet provider. And who knows how he could be helpful for Musk’s work at X?
Dangerous Talk: Today, Trump confirmed that he plans to use the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. As we’ve previously discussed, doing so would be incredibly costly — morally, economically, socially, and politically. It would almost certainly spark furious opposition, including by Democratic governors, who’d take the federal government to court.
Enemy Within: Deploying troops in the homeland is patently incompatible with American values and freedom from tyranny, but Trump has done it before. During his first term, protests erupted across the country after the killing of George Floyd. Trump infamously threatened to “deploy the United States military” to crush these protests, which, despite depictions to the contrary, were largely nonviolent; he sent thousands of National guard troops to D.C. and scores of unidentified federal law enforcement officers to Portland, Oregon.
Repeated Threats: Since losing office, Trump has repeated these threats, and more. On the campaign trail, he was asked about “outside agitators,” and responded by saying “the bigger problem is the enemy within,” elaborating that he’d deploy federal troops against “radical left lunatics.”
Deadly Don Quixote: Trump has warned he’d deploy troops on US soil in a variety of settings. He wants them sent to the southern border; but migrant encounters have fallen almost fivefold in the last year, and there’s reason to believe that an influx of federal troops could actually create more violence. “You just never wanna see your community change into a military zone,” one resident of Eagle Pass, a border town that has become a hotspot in Texas’ border crackdown, told reporters. “It makes you feel hopeless.” Trump has also called for deploying troops to major U.S. cities, which he calls “crime dens;” statistically big cities are often the safest places to live, and have collectively seen violent crime drop by as much as 25% over the last year. What about states rights, you wonder? “You just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in,” Trump told an Iowa audience last year. “The next time, I’m not waiting.” Buckle up.
What Would Reagan Do? In 1988, President Ronald Reagan — about as far from a “radical left lunatic” as you can get — signed into law the Civil Liberties Act. The Act formally acknowledged and apologized for the internment of some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during and after the Second World War, many of them American citizens. This “grave wrong,” as Reagan called it, was justified by inflammatory rhetoric of national security, warnings that an entire ethnic group’s very presence was a fundamental threat to America. Later analysis confirmed that none of those rounded up and imprisoned were ever found guilty of subverting the country.
Matthew 6:24: Oklahoma School Superintendent Ryan Waters announced on Thursday that he had requested some $3 million “to provide Bibles to the Oklahoma classrooms.” Not just any Bibles, though — Trump-endorsed “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bibles, which go for $60 each. In one video, Waters said he’d already bought some 500 of them; a spokesman told The Oklahoman that they’d cost the state $25,000.
1 Timothy 6:10: We’re not businesspeople, but Bibles are available at major retailers for about $10. Economy versions go for as little as $2. And there are entire societies dedicated to distributing hundreds of thousands of Bibles across the U.S. for free.
Ecclesiastes 5:10: When pressed on CNN about why he opted for the costly Trump-endorsed version, Waters said it was because they included the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, so kids could “understand the full context of the founding documents.”
Hebrews 13:5: These Bibles are far from Waters' only educational plan. When asked in the same interview about his attempt to force schools to play a prayer video, he deflected, accusing the interviewer of “pushing the left-wing narrative.”
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News That Doesn’t Suck
Global Superstar: Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippo whose adorably round body and bratty antics captured hearts around the world, is now the (likely unaware) owner of an official song, released in no fewer than four languages.
Copycats: A zoo in China has been accused of purposely overfeeding its animals in an attempt to make them go viral, just like Moo Deng. Imitation truly is the highest form of fattery — erm, flattery.
Stairway to Heaven: How much would you pay for an extra decade of life? According to a new study from Australia, every hour you walk could add up to six hours to your lifespan. By emulating the most active 25% of Americans — who do about 160 minutes of normal-paced walking (or the equivalent in other forms of exercise) every day — the average American over the age of 40 could add five years to their life. The least active 25% of Americans could add a hefty 11 years!
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I enjoyed the Bible verses that you cited. I had to look up each of them, but had a chuckle at their meaning. Very apt! I thank you so much for your column each day. I look forward to reading it and getting your take on the news. Keep up the good work - It is very much appreciated.
I appreciate getting my news from you online. I can’t stand watching TV news anymore. Hearing his voice and seeing his face makes me physically ill. 🤮