As always, President Trump has given us several things to chew on to start the week. First, there is the MAGA occupation of Washington, D.C, and its deployment of the National Guard to the city. Next, there is his invitation to meet war criminal Vladimir Putin in Alaska so they can continue to carve up Ukraine. And he just announced that he is appointing a MAGA loyalist to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after firing their predecessor for presenting job numbers that he did not like.

He is taking the reins in D.C. based on false crime statistics that Vice President JD Vance promoted last week. Putin is coming to American soil at the president’s invitation, even though his movement is restricted due to his status as a war criminal. And the change at BLS can be chalked up to the old adage, “If you don’t like the message. Shoot the messenger!”

Marshall Trump is Coming to the Nation’s Capital

If you want to reduce urban crime. Call in Marshall Trump. The president announced today that he was placing the D.C. police department under federal control. He is also deploying 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital in an effort to reduce violent crime in the city. Trump said this about his actions.

“This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back. I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.”

He was later quoted about these actions when he stated, “Now, the D.C. Police can do whatever they want to stop the crime in the city.”

As with most of the president’s statements and actions, the facts regarding the situation in D.C. are a little more complicated than they appear. First, the city is experiencing a 30-year low in violent crime. Second, Vice President Vance was touting figures on the social media platform X last week that portrayed Washington, D.C. as one of the 10 cities in the world with the most homicides per capita. This reporter fact-checked those numbers and found that D.C. was not even in the top 30 cities in the world in per capita homicides.

Those darn facts always get in the way.

Welcome to the Home of the Free Comrade Putin

And in a big show of defiance to global democracies, Trump has invited Putin to Russia this Friday to meet to hammer out a cease-fire and ultimately end the over three-year conflict between them and Ukraine. Seems like a good idea until you realize that Ukraine may not receive an invitation to the meeting.

But even if they do, the details of the agreement spell doom for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his country. In exchange for a cessation of the violence, Russia will retain not only Crimea, which they illegally seized in 2014, but also large swaths of Eastern Ukraine, some of which are not in the war zone.

The United Sates and Trump will receive for their participation in the process future mineral rights in Ukraine. And the Ukrainians. Their reward will be a big fat nothing. Unless you count the fact that their application to join NATO will be moved to an indefinite hold period. Pretty nice return for a sovereign country that has been attacked by a large rival twice in the last 11 years.

And the insult of Putin stepping on free soil is beguiling and tragic. Putin usually does not travel outside of Russia because of his indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes during their conflict with Ukraine. These crimes include the theft of Ukrainian children and other atrocities committed by Russian troops and their mercenaries. It sickens me that an American President could be a party to such a breach of international law.

Project 2025 Further Infiltrates Trump Administration

And in another, “of course, why didn’t we see this coming,” Trump also announced today that Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni has been selected as the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He, of course, succeeds former commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who Trump fired on August 1 for allegedly doctoring up job statistics to paint a dim light on the president and his administration.

This despite the fact that Ms. McEntarfer, nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023, was confirmed in a bipartisan 86.8 vote in the U.S Senate. Among those voting for her confirmation were Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were both senators at the time. Now, with Antoni, one of the architects of Project 2025, at the helm, he should find future labor statistics that are more to his liking.