“When asked when he signed the proclamation invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, by which Trump claimed that Venezuela is invading the United States…, Trump answered: “I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it.” … “But Marco Rubio’s done a great job. And he wanted them out, and we go along with that. …””
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump #donaldtrump #rubio #marcorubio

“…on Friday White House communications director Steven Cheung said Trump personally signed the proclamation, and his signature appears on the document in the Federal Register of official government documents.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

“Trump’s habit of deflection might explain last night's statement, and his habit of distraction might explain today’s social media post, in which the president returned to an exchange of words between him and Maine governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, more than three weeks ago…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump #deflection #distraction

“Trump asked if the governor of Maine was in the room.
“Yeah, I’m here,” replied Governor Mills.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” she said.
“We are the federal law,” Trump said. …
“We’re going to follow the law,” she said.
“You’d better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” he said.
Mills answered: “See you in court.””
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025

“On March 11 the Department of Education abolished more than half of the offices in its Civil Rights Division, getting rid of more than half of the division's employees.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump #civilrights #usa

“This morning, the president posted on social media: “…we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
Always challenge Unlawful #Trump

“Exactly what she is [the Governor] supposed to be apologizing to him [the President] for is unclear, unless it is that she stood up to him, a rare enough event…”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

“At the White House, Governor Mills was not only reinforcing the rule of law in the face of an authoritarian who is working to shatter that principle; she was standing up to a bully who claims to be protecting women and girls but who has bragged about sexual assault, been found guilty of sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll, and barged in on teenaged girls dressing in the Miss Teen USA changing room.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

“He has worked to deny women and girls access to health care, including the right not to die needlessly from a miscarriage. He has undermined women’s right to control their own bodies and defunded or stopped the programs that protect their right to be safe from domestic violence and sexual assault. He has ended programs designed to protect women’s employment and has fired women from positions of authority.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump

“While Trump’s demand that Mills make a “full throated apology” to him is in keeping with his habitual attempts to dominate women, Mills follows in a tradition of women from Maine who stood up for the principles of American democracy against bullies who would destroy it.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025
#trump vs #mills

“In a similar moment, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, of Skowhegan, Maine, stood up to Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 22, 2025

“I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear… I condemn a Republican Fascist just as much as I condemn a Democrat Communist. … It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
—Senator Margaret Chase Smith, 1950