Day 74: I smell a scandal!

Well, today felt like it was just one long list of scandal-worthy material. Warning: reading all of the following will give you a serious case of depression.

• Holy shit, Trump is trying to start a war with North Korea. Today he claimed that the US will deal with North Korea with or without China's assistance. Where are the State Department experts whose duty is to temper these rash statements? Oh, right. He fired them all. Trump is just adding kindling to an already (literally) explosive situation.
• Big news from the Washington Post: Betsy DeVos' brother Eric Prince met with high-ranking Russian counterparts to initiate a backdoor communication channel between Putin and Trump in January. This is getting ridiculous.
• Trump also signed the bill repealing internet privacy laws that most of the country was urging him to veto. The vast majority of the country (including Trump voters) were united against this bill. For the record, Ajit Pai is still a complete dick.
• After previous reports revealed that Trump had not been donating his salary, Trump made a grandiose spectacle of donating around $78K to the National Parks Service today. People were quick to point out that he wants to decrease the NPS's funding by about $2 billion, and that that amount covers less than half a day of security at Trump Tower (when he's not present).
• Democrats claim to have the numbers to uphold a filibuster in the Senate over the Supreme Court nominee. Gorusch's views are so extreme, masquerading behind a gentle face, that they are will justified in doing so. I seriously doubt that Republicans are well-justified in going nuclear.
• Trump met with President el-Sisi of Egypt today, and was lavish in his praise for a state that has previously received the cold shoulder because of human rights abuse and dictatorial rule. Trump said "We agree on so many things"; evidently, autocratic rule being one of them. Once again: THIS IS NOT NORMAL. Quick history recap: el-Sisi is the "leader of the military takeover that removed an elected president, oversaw a vicious security operation in which hundreds of protesters were gunned down in the streets of Cairo and has cemented his authority by filling prisons with his opponents while strangling the free press." And Trump is legitimizing him.
• More back-channel diplomacy: Business associates of Trump's met with the National Security Council to discuss lifting sanctions on Venezuela. What the hell are business-people doing petitioning the security council for??? This is all incredibly shady.
• Senators are looking into Jeff Session's decision to re-establish the use of private prisons by the DoJ, claiming it looks a lot like a reward to campaign donors. Keep digging, senators. I wish you luck!
• Finally, Trump changed his "Trust" clauses in Februrary - to allow him to take control of any assets at any time (assets range from profits to the entire business). He is, in all but name, still running his businesses.