He is disgusting, grotesque and sadistic. Chauncey DeVega (SALON) notes:
Donald Trump imagines himself as a moral crusader fighting the forces of evil at home and abroad. But his morality is not guided by ethics, humanism or respect for the common good. The president instead relies on himself, something he made explicit in a January 2026 interview with the New York Times. “My own morality,” he replied when asked if he observed any constraints on his power to use the military, including invading other countries. “My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
In
his mind, Trump is the beginning, end and final judge of what
constitutes right and wrong — and he feels free to impose his dogma on
America and the rest of the world. His is a totalistic mindset, and it’s
one of the defining features of a personality cult like MAGA.
In the president’s framework, “good” is defined as those who support him and MAGA. “Evil” means those who dare to oppose him and his agenda. In this zero-sum view of the world, any perceived enemies must not merely be defeated but vanquished altogether. Now, in the wake of Trump’s expanding war with Iran, that framework has multiple faces at home and abroad.
Applied domestically, his belief is antithetical to American democracy and pluralism because it makes compromise, consensus politics and respect for institutions a virtual impossibility. You cannot negotiate with evil. Trump and other leaders on the right have repeatedly attacked Democrats, liberals, progressives and other perceived enemies as evil, “poison in the blood” of the nation and “the enemies within,” “takers” and “parasites,” and as un-American traitors. These phrases are examples of stochastic terrorism: language designed to inspire violence without directly ordering it. Research has shown that this kind of rhetoric encourages political violence and eliminationism.
Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
In the days after President Trump launched U.S. forces in an attack against Iran, support for the strikes is far lower than what it has been at the beginnings of previous foreign conflicts.
So far, polls have found that most Americans oppose the Iran attacks. Support ranges from 27 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll to 50 percent in a Fox News poll. The wide variation suggests that public opinion is still taking shape as more Americans learn details of the attacks and the aftermath.
But even the highest level of public support for this conflict falls far lower than that at the start of most other conflicts, including World War II, the Korean War and the Iraq War.
Five days before the war began I pointed out that Trump’s Treasury was, as Kris Kristofferson would say, busted flat in Baton Rouge. Already Trump’s “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill had pissed away $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years, nearly doubling the budget deficit. The Supreme Court’s cancellation of Trump’s illegal 10 percent tariffs on all foreign products meant Trump might end up tripling the budget deficit over the next decade. Trump is trying to recoup his tariff losses by imposing temporary tariffs under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act. But Trump’s own lawyers have argued in court that such an application is illegal, a conclusion with which 24 Democratically-controlled states agreed in a lawsuit filed March 5.
Worries about the budget deficit already had the bond market raising the cost of government borrowing. The outbreak of war pushed the 10-year yield on Treasuries even higher as the price of oil shot past $100 per barrel thanks to the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. This is a president, you may recall, who won in 2024 on the strength of his promise to lower inflation. Instead, we’re getting an oil-driven inflation spike. On top of that, last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics released an unexpectedly poor jobs report showing the loss of 92,000 jobs in February. The simultaneous occurrence of an oil-price spike and a possibly-faltering economy means we may get our first serious bout of stagflation since the 1970s.
Did I mention the stock market has been tanking since the war began? So much for Pam Bondi’s “The Dow is 50,000” deflection. The Dow closed Monday at 47,740.80.
As the criminal US-Israeli war on Iran entered its second week, the Trump administration vowed to continue the bombardment and refused to rule out sending ground troops or implementing a military draft—even as it has failed to overthrow the Iranian government or compel surrender.
“We have won in many ways, but not enough. We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all,” US President Donald Trump declared at the House Republican policy retreat at his Doral resort in Florida on Monday.
Asked if the war would end this week, he said flatly: “No.” Hours earlier, in a desperate effort to calm oil and stock markets, Trump had told CBS News that the war “is very complete, pretty much” and that US forces are “very far ahead of schedule.”
Trump has acknowledged that more American troops will die. “And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends,” he said in a Truth Social address on March 1 after the first three US service members were killed. “That’s the way it is. Likely be more.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday, stated the administration’s war aims with unvarnished brutality. “This is only just the beginning,” Hegseth declared. “The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re gonna live.” Asked about limits on the operation, he said: “You don’t tell the enemy, you don’t tell the press, you don’t tell anybody what your limits would be on an operation.” On Monday, the Pentagon’s official social media account posted an image of a launched missile with the words “No Mercy” and the caption: “We have Only Just Begun to Fight.”
The administration is taking increasingly desperate and escalatory actions amid its failure to achieve its stated aims. In January, the administration sought to exploit mass protests as the vehicle for regime change; when that failed, it turned to the targeted assassination of Iran’s leadership, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war. Iran’s Assembly of Experts appointed Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the slain supreme leader, on Monday in defiance of Israeli threats to kill any successor.
Rudd lacks “familiarity with basic constitutional rights” on surveillance of Americans
Watch a video of Wyden deliver his remarks here
As prepared for delivery
I rise to speak in opposition to the nomination of Joshua Rudd to be Director of the National Security Agency.
During his confirmation hearing, General Rudd demonstrated a lack of familiarity with basic constitutional rights, which should be a bare minimum qualification for this extremely powerful position. His responses to questions about privacy and transparency were simply unacceptable. I asked the nominee if he would pledge to not secretly violate existing public guardrails on NSA surveillance, and he refused.
Few Americans understand the incredible scope of NSA’s surveillance operations or the broad authorities under which the NSA operates. The agency plays a central role in conducting surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA gets all the attention from the American public and from Congress because it’s a public law and because Congress debates the reauthorization of FISA Section 702 every few years. But the NSA also conducts extensive intelligence and surveillance operations outside of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and pursuant only to Executive Order 12333. And when NSA operates entirely under that executive order, there is no judicial oversight, not even from the secret FISA Court. And congressional oversight is often dependent on what the executive branch wants to disclose. The potential for abuse is enormous. I was here in 2005, when the New York Times revealed that the NSA had conducted an illegal warrantless wiretapping program. For four years, the program had been hidden from the American people. It was also hidden from Congress. I was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee then, as I am now, and even we were not told about the program.
This was one of those infamous “Gang of 8” situations where the Intelligence Community informs only the Committee’s two leaders and instructs them not to tell other members or staff. So when the Committee’s Vice Chair, Jay Rockefeller, was told about the program, he hand-wrote a letter to Vice President Cheney saying he had concerns but that, on his own, he couldn’t fully evaluate the program. And so the program continued on for years, with no oversight and no opportunity for Congress to address it through legislation. This history demonstrates what happens when the NSA’s enormous capabilities are abused by administration officials who are willing to break the law. And, unfortunately, that is an accurate description of this Administration.
It is indisputable that constitutional rights are under attack right now. For example, we only recently learned that, nine months ago, the Administration secretly decided that the government doesn’t need a judicial warrant to break into a private home.
In other words, this Administration thinks it can just ignore the Fourth Amendment. And, if the Administration will ignore the Fourth Amendment to break down doors, what assurance could we possibly have that they won’t also tap Americans’ phones without a warrant? And why should we believe that they wouldn’t do it secretly, hidden from the American people, from the full Congress, or even the full intelligence committees?
When it comes to surveillance, I subscribe to Ben Franklin’s principle that those who would give up liberty for security will lose both and deserve neither. We need both. That’s not a partisan proposition. Refusing to promise to not violate the Constitution does not make us safer.
That is why I was particularly focused on General Rudd’s understanding of the constitutional limitations on the NSA’s operations. So I asked General Rudd whether, if he were directed to target people in the United States for surveillance, he would insist that there be a judicial warrant. I told him in advance that I was going to ask the question. Then, at the hearing, I offered him the opportunity to answer with a yes or a no. I didn’t get an answer.
So I tried to cut him some slack and encouraged him to just offer general thoughts on the matter, but I still got nothing of substance. I did everything in my power to allow him to demonstrate some understanding of the basic guardrails of NSA’s authorities and got only vague assurances that he was interested in following the law.
Given the history of NSA abuses, and this administration’s clear contempt for the Constitution, General Rudd’s inability to answer this question in any meaningful way would have been enough for me to oppose his nomination.
But there were other topics on which General Rudd’s responses were troubling. He wouldn’t associate himself with the NSA’s previous commitment to not buy and use Americans’ location data. Then-NSA Director Nakasone made this commitment in a public letter in 2023. But General Rudd would not stand by that public policy.
Location data, which is bought and sold by sleazy data brokers, can reveal extremely sensitive private information about Americans, including what medical clinics they go to, what houses of worship they visit, what stores they shop at, what protests they attend, and which friends and family they are seeing.
The threat to Americans’ privacy is even more serious when you stop to consider how artificial intelligence can be used against enormous amounts of commercially available data, including location information on Americans. So it is deeply troubling that General Rudd refused to endorse the NSA’s past commitment not to collect and use all this sensitive data on Americans. General Rudd also refused to say whether the government should mandate backdoors into encryption used by Americans. Encryption is the code that protects your messages, pictures and private data from predators and criminals.
For years, officials have argued that the government should force tech companies to build back-doors into their encryption products. But if you talk to security researchers, or cryptographers, they’ll tell you there’s no way to create encryption backdoors that only the government can use. Once you weaken encryption, it is inevitable that foreign spies and criminals will exploit that vulnerability. As hacking has gotten more and more sophisticated, the threat that our adversaries will use any and all cyber vulnerabilities against us has gotten more and more obvious.
In fact, the constant headlines about successful hacking campaigns are probably the reason why we’re not hearing as much these days about weakening encryption. So this question for General Rudd should have been easy, particularly since the job to which he is nominated includes responsibility for the nation’s cyber security. But, again, he refused to take a position. General Rudd’s responses related to transparency were especially troubling. In addition to laws and the Constitution, NSA is bound by numerous policies and procedures which are publicly available. These public policies and procedures are especially important because they provide some guardrails on NSA’s surveillance and intelligence activities under Executive Order 12333, which, again, are not governed by FISA and not reviewed by the FISA Court.
To take just one example, if the NSA is going to conduct a search of its 12333 collection for an American’s communications, it generally needs the Attorney General to determine that there is probable cause that the American is an agent of a foreign power.
This is not a law. It is a policy that has been made public by successive administrations so that Americans could better understand the guardrails that apply to the NSA’s surveillance activities. The NSA is supposed to be hunting for terrorists and spies. It is not supposed to be hunting for Americans who simply do things that the president doesn’t like, such as criticizing their government or buying abortion medication online.
So I asked General Rudd what I thought was another easy question: If he were directed to operate in violation of those public policies and procedures, would he inform the American people? He refused to make that commitment. I also asked him whether, if the administration secretly decided to withdraw or change any of these public policies, he would ensure that the public sees the new policies? He wouldn’t make that commitment either.
Let me be clear. The operational details of the NSA’s operations are sources and methods and must absolutely be protected. National security is at stake. Lives are at stake. But I did not ask General Rudd about sources and methods. I asked him whether Americans can rely on the NSA to conduct its operations within the guardrails that the government has already made public. Based on his response, it’s not clear that they can. And when Americans can no longer trust whether intelligence agencies are respecting their own public policies, it’s bad for Americans, bad for democracy, and bad for the intelligence agencies.
General Rudd was even asked whether, if the President secretly decided not to follow these public policies, would he at least immediately inform the Senate Intelligence Committee. General Rudd wouldn’t even answer that question with a clear yes, which makes me wonder what abuses even the intelligence committee won’t ever hear about
I have great respect for General Rudd’s many years of military service, but, besides his troubling statements about constitutional rights, he is simply not qualified for this job. We are now in the second week of this catastrophic and reckless war that Donald Trump started. This war and its global fallout have created new and serious threats to U.S. national security. The country needs an NSA Director with experience in U.S. signals intelligence activities around the world. General Rudd does not have that experience.
The Director of NSA has another job, that of Commander of U.S. Cyber Command. The demands of this job are mind-boggling. The cyber threat to the United States cannot be overstated. And, as SALT TYPHOON demonstrated, our adversaries have succeeded in inflicting serious damage to U.S. national security. Just last week, the government acknowledged ongoing hacking of U.S. government agencies. And now we are at war and are facing an incredibly complex set of cyber threats and options.
The country needs someone who is prepared from day one to protect this country from cyber adversaries, including Iran as well as China and Russia.
The Commander of CYBERCOM needs to have a deep and sophisticated understanding of this threat and how it is evolving. He or she needs to be able to see this threat in its geopolitical context and to fully grasp the technical capabilities and the policy options that might help NSA and CYBERCOM counter the threat. We are at war, and we cannot afford to promote someone who lacks the experience for the job.
General Rudd’s predecessors in this job had that experience. They came up through CYBERCOM. They were ready. General Rudd is not. And, when it comes to the cybersecurity of this country, there is no time for on-the-job learning. The threat is just too urgent for that.
For all these reasons, I oppose this nomination, and urge my colleagues to do the same.
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