by Steve Benen | Jun 5, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
To a degree without modern precedent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has used his powerful office to advance a Christian nationalist agenda. In recent months, Americans have seen him lead Christian prayer services in the Pentagon’s auditorium, invite radical Christian nationalist figures to speak at official prayer services, use social media to promote messages that suggest his faith should dominate other religious traditions, and even argue during an official press briefing that Americans should take a knee and pray “in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Since the war in Iran began, the former Fox News host has intensified these efforts. The New York Times reported in March, “More than any top American military leader in recent history, Mr. Hegseth has framed U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America as bigger than politics or foreign policy. Often he has imbued these actions with a Christian moral underpinning that suggests they are divinely sanctioned.”
Soon after, Hegseth explicitly likened the rescue of a missing American airman shot down over Iran to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The week after that, the Pentagon chief started equating journalists he doesn’t like with “pharisees.”
This week, however, a related problem emerged, though in an unexpected way: Instead of seeing Hegseth’s Defense Department take steps to elevate one faith tradition, Americans are seeing the Pentagon demote other faith traditions. The Religion News Service reported:
The Department of Defense is substantially reducing the number of religions it officially recognizes, reportedly excluding atheists, pagans, humanists and New Age faiths, an independent military-focused news website reports.
The reduction of recognized faith groups represents the first time the military has revised the
by Steve Benen | Jun 5, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
When Donald Trump announced this week that Bill Pulte, the highly controversial director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would serve as the acting director of national intelligence, the president’s move sent shockwaves through political and intelligence circles for the most obvious of reasons.
Pulte has literally no background in intelligence or national security, failing to meet the statutory qualifications for the office, and he’s earned a reputation as a hyperpartisan official who has routinely abused his office to target the White House’s perceived political foes. Complicating matters, MS NOW reported last fall that a federal grand jury investigated whether Pulte illegally shared sensitive information with unauthorized people.
MS NOW’s Chris Hayes added that Pulte’s “utterly insane” appointment only makes sense “if you want to turn the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus into a tool for domestic persecution and domination.”
With this in mind, the president announced during an unrelated White House event on Thursday afternoon that Pulte would fill the role temporarily and would not be formally nominated to succeed Tulsi Gabbard. But that’s not all Trump said.
Trump on acting DNI Bill Pulte: “He’s a very smart guy and he may find out some things about the rigged elections, et cetera, et cetera. I think he’d like to do it. I’d like to. I think he wants to do it very much.”— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-06-04T20:23:29.953Z
Asked specifically why he sees Pulte as “the best person for the job,” the president’s answer meandered a bit (he spoke at some length about the potential sale value of Fannie Mae), before getting to the heart of the matter.
“He’s a very smart guy, and he may find
by Steve Benen | Jun 4, 2026 | Crime & Courts, Criminal Justice, Maddowblog, News, Politics
At an Oval Office event on Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump took some time to claim that restaurants in Washington, D.C., are “reopening,” thanks to his role in creating a “vibrant” capital. The president made similar claims at a White House Cabinet meeting last week, patting himself on the back, insisting that “everyone’s going out to dinner,” in large part because he positioned National Guard troops to keep local residents safe.
The rhetoric was part of a pattern that began last summer when the Republican deployed Guard troops to D.C. streets, followed immediately by claims of extraordinary success. “I’ve made Washington, D.C., just an incredible place in literally four days,” he boasted during a Fox News appearance in August. The comments came the day after the president wrote on his social media platform, “People are flocking to D.C. again,” pointing to a trend he apparently made up.
In the weeks and months that followed, polls showed broad public skepticism about Guard troops patrolling civilian streets, but Trump nevertheless repeatedly boasted that, thanks to his Guard deployments, lawbreaking was a thing of the past in the nation’s capital. Even during his State of the Union address, delivered in February, the president assured the public that “we have almost no crime anymore” in Washington.
Though I wish that were true, there’s evidence to the contrary. NPR reported:
President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. has reduced petty property crimes, but has had little to no effect on violent crime, despite the high cost to taxpayers, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan think tank Niskanen Center.
The study’s findings were published just weeks after
by Steve Benen | Jun 4, 2026 | Crime & Courts, Criminal Justice, Maddowblog, News, Politics
Donald Trump has made no effort to hide his contempt for John Bolton, who served as the president’s White House national security adviser in his first term, and his desire to see Bolton punished for becoming a Trump critic.
With this in mind, the president will likely be thrilled with the latest developments in Bolton’s criminal case: MS NOW’s Ken Dilianian and Carol Leonnig report, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information contained in a private diary entry.
The plea deal calls for up to 60 months in jail and a $2.25 million fine, according to the sources. It would resolve a massive indictment that threatened Bolton with millions of dollars in legal fees and decades in prison. CNN was first to report on the plea deal.
The apparent resolution of the Bolton case appears to be very similar to what happened with former CIA Director and retired Gen. David Petraeus, who also pleaded guilty in 2015 to a single count of retaining classified information for a diary that was shown to a co-author, reported MS NOW’s Dilanian and Leonnig.
The difference, however, is that Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, while Bolton appears poised to admit to a felony.
The path to this point has been rocky and circuitous. Bolton, after having served at the president’s side for a year and a half, warned the public during the 2024 election cycle that Trump was “unfit to be president.” The Republican responded with an endless stream of insults and complaints about his former aide.
At one point, Trump even published an item
by Steve Benen | Jun 4, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
As this week got underway, the Trump administration made an unexpected announcement: It had agreed to back off plans for a $1.766 billion compensation fund, which had been condemned by members of both parties as a “slush fund.” A day later, during congressional testimony, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that the scheme was no more.
“We’re not moving forward with the fund. Period,” he told a House Appropriations Committee panel.
The comments were clearly intended to be definitive, though one day later, his boss took the conversation in a noticeably different direction.
On Wednesday morning, The New York Post’s Miranda Devine released her latest podcast interview with Trump, including an exchange in which she asked whether the White House had “dropped” the fund. He initially replied, “No,” before suggesting that he continues to believe that Jan. 6 rioters “should be reimbursed.”
POD FORCE ONE: The anti-weaponization fund, have you dropped that?TRUMP: No. A court ruled against it. But just so you understand, these are people that’ve been decimated. … I’m very proud to have given them pardons. And I think they should reimbursed for a crooked government.— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur.bsky.social) 2026-06-03T14:23:22.338Z
Hours later, during an unrelated Oval Office event, a reporter asked whether the fund was “dead.” Instead of answering directly, the president said the fund “was a beautiful thing” and “was the greatest thing.”
As part of the same Q&A, the Republican went on to say, in reference to the fund, “I love it. I think it’s so important.”
The mixed messages were tough to miss. Indeed, over the span of a few minutes, Trump talked about the fund in both past and present tense.
So
by Steve Benen | Jun 3, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
When it comes to U.S. ambassadors, Donald Trump has two broad problems. The first is that the president just hasn’t nominated enough people to serve in key diplomatic posts.
The Wall Street Journal reported a couple of weeks ago, “Over 100 U.S. ambassador posts around the world are sitting empty in the Trump administration, a vacancy rate without modern precedent and one that some current and former officials warn is hamstringing U.S. diplomatic power abroad.”
Even in the midst of a war in the Middle East, the United States doesn’t have ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq or Kuwait. What’s more, this isn’t a situation in which a sclerotic Senate has struggled to confirm nominees; rather, there are vacancies because the White House hasn’t bothered to even nominate anyone for many of these posts.
But the other element to the problem is just as notable: In too many instances, Senate-confirmed ambassadors are in office, but they’re doing a remarkably bad job. The Hill reported:
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra on Monday morning shared a post from President Trump about Canada being the “51st State,” reupping his acquisition push for the U.S.’s northern neighbor.
Hoekstra posted a screenshot of a Monday Trump Truth Social post in which the president said “51st State!” and linked to a Bloomberg article about economic struggles in Canada.
The online antics did not go unnoticed north of the border, though Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that Ottawa would not take steps to expel the U.S. ambassador.
Of course, the fact that the Canadian prime minister was even asked about the possibility of expelling the U.S. ambassador was
