The Leopards Remain Undefeated
Last week was quite the week for our face-eating leopards.
A Republican congresswoman has released a campaign ad criticizing Donald Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement, in the latest sign that a key plank of the president’s 2024 re-election campaign has become a liability for his congressional allies ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“Mr President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Florida’s MarÃa Elvira Salazar says in a 30-second ad. “In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy.”
Salazar represents a competitive Miami-area district that is nearly three-quarters Hispanic, and where Trump won by a 15-point margin two years ago after a campaign in which he promised to carry out “mass deportations”. While his administration has implied that those targeted would be undocumented immigrants who committed crimes in the United States, in reality, a substantial portion of the people arrested since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 have no criminal record.
Salazar won re-election by a 20-point margin in 2024, but this year is facing a significant challenge from Eliott Rodriguez, the Democratic nominee and a former television news anchor. A poll conducted for his campaign late last month found him tied with Salazar.
“The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,” Salazar said in the ad. “You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism. I’m not talking about giving them amnesty. I’m talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land.”
Then there were reporters from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico being banned from the White House. From NPR:
WASHINGTON— Reporters from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico on Saturday said they were denied access to White House grounds after President Trump announced a ban on the three media outlets.
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Friday he was banning these outlets from the White House, citing negative coverage of his administration and saying media outlets shouldn't be able to constantly report "FICTION and LIES" when they cover the president of the United States. He warned other news outlets would follow. It's Trump's latest move in an ongoing battle against the media.
On Friday afternoon, a Bloomberg News reporter asked Trump about the ban at a press conference and whether he was trying to intimidate the press. "No, no, no, no. I dislike dishonest press, like you. I think you're terrible," Trump responded.
He also said: "They purposely write negative news, and they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration." Trump said there was no specific news story that led to his decision, instead it was a frustration that had built up over the last two years.
On Saturday morning, MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, said in a statement on X that their journalists were unable to access the White House grounds. MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner said on air that she was denied access to the White House, and an officer asked her to "hand over" her badge because it was "disabled."
"I asked why I was not able to get inside," Gardner said. "He said it was above him."
However, Gardner said an MS NOW producer was able to access the grounds. MS NOW said they will continue to report on the president.
"The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars," MS NOW said in their statement. "MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy."
CNN reporter Betsy Klein said she was also denied access Saturday morning. Klein said she has been covering the White House in some capacity since the Obama administration, but on Saturday morning a Secret Service agent took her badge.
"I asked him if he could provide an explanation as to why it had been deactivated. He said he had no further information," Klein said. She said she was referred to the White House press office.
CNN said in a statement on X Saturday that they have "a right under the U.S. Constitution" to report without interference from the government.
"We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account, and we will continue to report on the actions and processes of this administration without fear our favor."
Politico Global Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger told the newsroom on Saturday that Cheyenne Haslett, a White House reporter, was denied entry to the White House.
"We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. As we said yesterday, we will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights," Greenberger said in a statement shared with NPR.
And, of course, let's not forget our poor farmers who are now facing record-high diesel costs. From a CBS News profile of a North Carolina farmer:
Matt Bell, 52, has been farming for more than half his life in central North Carolina. He grows soybeans, corn and wheat and raises beef cattle on more than 1,000 acres. But Bell, who voted for President Trump, says soaring prices for fuel, fertilizer, and equipment are hurting his farm and leading some of his fellow farmers to consider calling it quits once this growing season ends.
"I've done this 34 years. I have never worried and stressed like I have the last year," Bell told CBS News in an interview on Wednesday at his farm in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
Bell has been forced to make significant changes to his operation as a result of the high costs. He's shifting some of his acreage, trying to stretch out the lifespan of his equipment and producing his own fertilizer. His children have also opened up a storefront where visitors can pick pumpkins and take hayrides in the fall. But Bell is still feeling the pinch.
"We've cut everything we can cut," he said. "The last several years in agriculture have been terrible, and we have, you know, just cut the fat anywhere we could. But we're just getting to the point now there's nothing left to cut. You cannot run without fuel. You cannot run without fertilizer. You have to have that..."
...Bell initially supported Mr. Trump's policies and even thought short-term price increases resulting from the Iran conflict would be worth ensuring Iran never has a nuclear weapon, one of the president's stated goals of the war.
But he now says the administration has made miscalculations in the war. "We're just being strung along as a country and that's not good," Bell said.
Bell criticized the administration's decision-making around the war, saying, "I think we've been misled."
He also says the administration's agriculture policy is not what he was promised.
"We were sold a bill of goods that agriculture was going to be on the forefront … and there was going to be some policy that would put America's farmers and ranchers first. And right now, that has not happened."
Bell said that while the administration's farmer bailout program sounds significant, "it's not a lot of money.
This November, Bell says he'll be voting for candidates who he says have "common sense," and listen to Americans' concerns.
"I'm a Republican, but I'm probably going to vote a split ticket," he said.
And it couldn't have happened to a better group. For the Maria Salazars of the world, what exactly did you think would happen with Donald Trump and Temu Nazi Stephen Miller at the helm of our country's immigration enforcement agency? Did you think that they'd only target "bad hombres"? Did you think the Meal Team Six members of ICE would go into gangbanger territory with guns blazing? Did you think the agency would be careful not to "accidentally" pick up American citizens? Or did you have a good idea that everything mentioned would happen and you didn't care because you thought your proximity to Whiteness would prevent ICE from ripping apart families in the South Miami district that you're paid $174,000 a year to represent?
For our friends in the media, was it worth it? CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were habitual Kamala Harris haters throughout the 2024 election cycle. They didn't just want a horse race; they wanted Trump back in the saddle. They needed him to sell their 2029 memoirs, where their embedded White House correspondents eventually reveal startling criminality and incompetence that should have been reported in real time. Trump spent his entire 2024 campaign vowing retribution against his political enemies, and you three thought you were somehow above his vengeance? Did you really think that he'd forget what you all said about him in his first term if you simply toned down your criticism this time around? You three have been hemorrhaging viewers as you've been trying to both-sides the news for the last 21 months, and what did it get you? A ban from the White House six weeks out from the midterms. How does it feel knowing you sold out for nothing?
For our farmers like Matt Bell, how does it feel being duped by Trump for a second time? Did you morons not remember the first Trump term when he lost a trade war to China and ended up spending $28 billion to bail your sorry asses out? Of course you don't remember that, because Trump won a whopping 78% of the country's most farming-dependent counties in 2024. Four out of five of you didn't have amnesia; you were simply too scared of the Black lady with the French cookware. But hey, great job owning the libs! You're not only paying record-high diesel prices, but with the high cost of fertilizer, breakeven is now out of reach for all major row crops. Are you still committed to the GOP, or will you be brave enough, like Mr. Bell, and courageously split your ticket come November?
These quasi-emphanies have become all too common these days. That's what happens when your lord and savior is polling at record lows on both gas prices and inflation; two issues that seemingly won Trump the election in 2024. But while it's nice to see the light finally come on for this aforementioned trio, they should get no sympathy from any of us. They brought this on themselves. They ignored all the obvious warning signs that a second Trump term would be exponentially worse than the first for themselves and those closest to them. Latinos were always going to be targeted by ICE, citizens or not. The "liberal media" was always going to be censored by the administration, even if they tempered their criticism of Trump during his second term. And farmers were always going to be tied to the whims of a 'D' Wharton Business School student, whose entire 2024 campaign was based on the idea that tariffs would magically transform the American economy. The public anguish we're seeing this week from these groups was completely preventable if they had simply voted differently in 2024. But for each of the three, that was a bridge they were simply unwilling to cross.
The leopards are eating well these days. As well, they should. Over 77 million Trump supporters voted for this, including Miami Latinos, corporate media executives, and North Carolina farmers. These groups voted to hurt others; to own the libs by re-electing the carnival barker from Queens. Trump wanted to hurt the same people they did, so they willingly gave him their vote for a third time. The regret they're experiencing now is only happening because they're the ones who are feeling the negative impacts of this administration. It's buyer's remorse, but instead of learning the car that they purchased was secretly a lemon, they've known the car in question was a broken-down hunk of junk the entire time and were praying it wouldn't die on the interstate. But die it did. And instead of having a jack and spare tire in the trunk, these three groups are now left hoping that someone (read: Democrats) can come along and help them get back on the road.
Maria Salazar doesn't deserve to be re-elected. MS NOW, CNN, and Politico don't deserve our page views. And Matt Bell and his ilk don't deserve a second round of billion-dollar bailouts. They tied their hitch to the Trump wagon knowing full well who he was. Knowing what he would do. Believing that their wealth and privilege would make them immune from his cruelty. They don't get invited to the cookout because they're just now realizing Donald Trump is a lying, spiteful person. That much has been clear for over a half-century in his personal life and nearly two decades in his political life. Finally waking up, in September of 2026, to the cruel realities of the Trump administration gets you no gold stars or passing grades. What it does get you is the opportunity to finally do the right thing. But as we heard with Mr. Bell, even the idea of voting for Democrats up and down the ticket is still an action so extreme that it feels repulsive. They simply can't bring themselves to do it. And if after everything that's happened, they still can't vote for Democrats, what good are they to any of us?
The only thing they're good for is more and more fodder for our feline friends.