The few Republicans who still oppose Trump gather in search of a path to oppose him

• February 24, 2025

By BILL BARROW, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservatives from across the country filled a ballroom a few blocks from the White House and lamented that the United States is abandoning the ideals that forged a great nation. Some attendees donned red hats with various inscriptions mocking President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement.

It was the largest gathering to date of the “Principles First Summit,” expanded upon Trump’s second term to welcome independents and center-left Democrats under a shared pro-democracy, anti-authoritarian aim.

“This is not a time to bend the knee, to play along,” said Heath Mayo, the Yale-educated attorney who founded Principles First five years ago for self-identified politically homeless conservatives. “This is a time for stiffening your spine, standing up and getting ready for a long fight.”

Yet three days of conversations and recriminations still left 1,200 attendees without a clear roadmap to loosen Trump’s grip on the conservative movement and America’s national identity. There was not even consensus on whether to fight within Republican spheres at all, migrate to the Democratic Party or find a different path altogether.

“It makes you feel better to know that you’re not alone and that you’re not crazy,” said Jeff Oppenheim, a retired U.S. Army colonel from Austin, Texas. “The question is how to translate that into action in a political system that’s very difficult to influence, because it’s structured in a way that two parties have complete control.”

Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” co-host who was one of then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ most prominent surrogates last fall, got a rousing ovation when he took the stage but vowed that he would not run for the White House. He dismissed the Democratic Party, profanely, as unable to sell its own message.

“I’m not here to throw him under the bus,” Cuban said of Trump, praising the Republican president’s ability as a marketer who convinced voters he could help them.

Democrats, Cuban said, make their critiques of Trump moot because they “can’t sell worth s—.”

Trump’s allies mocked the gathering in advance as full of “RINOs,” or Republicans in name only. White House communications director Steven Cheung called it “the Cuck Convention” on his government account. The word “cuck,” which describes a man who likes to watch his wife have sex with other men, was frequently used during the campaign to insult and emasculate rivals.

Trump has far greater control of the Republican Party in his second term, with allies across Congress and the loyalty of most of the party’s base. But his few remaining rivals within the party argue there are still ways to break his hold.

Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a frequent Trump target who was among the people to receive a preemptive pardon from President Joe Biden, pointed to Republicans’ narrow 218-215 majority in the House and said lawmakers are privately nervous as recent town halls show voter anger over billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and his sweeping moves to fire federal workers, shut down agencies and limit federal services.

Kinzinger urged critics to ratchet up pressure in public settings because critical town hall audiences, he argued, offer the most “uncomfortable” moments of a politician’s job.

“Right now, Republican members of Congress fear one person: Donald Trump. They don’t fear you,” Kinzinger said. “When they start fearing you, that’s when they start having a different calculus.”

Julie Spilsbury, a councilmember from Mesa, Arizona, wants to maintain her place in Republican ranks. Like more than two dozen attendees and speakers interviewed by The Associated Press, Spilsbury cast her 2024 ballot for Harris for president. But she also publicly endorsed the Democratic nominee, saying it was a matter of “character and integrity.”

She now faces an ongoing recall effort by Trump backers in Mesa.

“If you’re looking for something you can do, send me $10” for her retention campaign, Spilsbury told fellow conference attendees.

When Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor who ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a centrist Democrat, offered carefully measured assessments of Trump’s opening weeks, they got mixed or muted responses. Especially tepid was the reaction when Hutchinson said he believes Trump when the president says he will respect court decisions in the many early challenges to his executive actions.

But roars rang out for the police officers who tried to protect the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and their unyielding assessments of Trump and his pardon of 1,500 supporters who breached the seat of Congress, including many who violently attacked law enforcement.

“We need to hold on to the outrage and hold on to the anger and set aside the fear,” insisted Michael Fanone, a former Washington officer who was attacked by rioters. Asked whether he would accept an invitation to talk to Trump, Fanone said the president is incapable of being convinced he is wrong and dismissed him with a profanity.

Fanone and his fellow officers later were accosted in an upstairs lobby by Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, freshly freed from prison by Trump’s pardon. The following day, Principles First leaders received an emailed bomb threat specifically mentioning Fanone, his mother’s address and other potential targets. The summit space was evacuated as Washington police and Secret Service agents swept the area and found no bomb, allowing the conference to conclude Sunday evening. Organizers blamed the threat on Tarrio, who denied the claim in a post on his social media.

Maria Stephan, a progressive at her first Principles First gathering, called the evacuation “emboldening” given the weekend’s themes.

Yet Rich Logis of Broward County, Florida, offered caution as a former MAGA acolyte whose red hat now reads: “I LEFT MAGA.” Another wave of converts, Logis argued, is coming if Trump continues to impose tariffs, cut public services and impose policies that hurt Americans broadly.

“Everyone has to find their own breaking point,” Logis said. “Our job is to be there talking to people as they find it.”

​ Orange County Register 

Bravo for these teens and businesses being recognized for excellence

• February 24, 2025

Irvine student receives top honors from U.S. Figure Skating

Josephine Lee, a 16-year-old Irvine student athlete, was named to the 2025 Scholastic Honors Team and was recognized by U.S. Figure Skating at the 2025 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships, held Jan. 20-26 in Wichita, Kansas, as well as the 2025 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, to be held Feb. 26-Mar. 1 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Josephine, a junior at Connections Academy, was one of 10 student athletes selected to be part of this prestigious award program, which rewards top student athletes in the country who not only excel in their figure skating careers, but are also dedicated students and community leaders.

Out of 60 applications, only 10 are selected based on their competitive achievements, academics, and community involvement and service.

South OC teen appears in new movies

A 15-year-old South Orange County actress continues making her name in Hollywood.

Kayden Tokarski is best known for playing a young Julia Roberts in the TV series “Gaslit.” She is now starring in her second thriller of 2024, “Killer in the Woods,” which premiered via Lifetime Movies on Dec. 6. Previously, she starred in “My Professor’s Deadly Secret,” which premiered on the Lifetime Movie Network on Oct. 17.

On top of that, Kayden will play a mean girl in the upcoming sci-fi feature “Roswell Delirium,” directed by Richard Bakewell and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Dee Wallace, Reginald VelJohnson, Sam Jones and others. Variety recently featured the movie, which premiered Jan. 10 on Apple TV.

“Being part of these films and working with amazing directors and actors has been a dream come true, and I am looking forward to audiences really enjoying them,” she said.

Kayden has won more than 30 awards since she embarked on her acting journey in 2020. In July, she won a Young Artists Academy Award for her work in “Gaslit.”

The teen also sings and reached Junior Olympian status on the 1-meter diving board. Her dedication to community service is evident through her keynote speeches at the 33rd annual Walk Against Drugs in Mission Viejo and a Red Cross LA fundraiser as well as her participation in the Joyful Child Foundation’s “Be Brave” pilot and her work as an emcee for Breaking the Chains Foundation’s How to Love YourSelfie Youth Camp.

Irvine artist receives prestigious YoungArts award

Orange County School of the Arts student Ariana Kim of Irvine has been named a 2025 YoungArts winner with distinction in classical music, the highest honor of the organization.

Ariana has been recognized for the caliber of her artistic achievement and joins more than 800 of the most accomplished young visual, literary and performing artists from throughout the country. 2025 YoungArts award winners join a community of artists who are offered creative and professional development support throughout their careers.

As a winner with distinction, Ariana participated in National YoungArts Week, held Jan. 5-12 in Miami. During the week, participants had opportunities to share their own work, which was further evaluated for cash awards of up to $10,000; experience interdisciplinary classes and workshops; and receive mentorship from leading artists in their fields.

2025 winners with distinction had the chance to learn from notable artists such as ballerina Misty Copeland, dance artists Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Reiner, actress Lorna Courtney, multidisciplinary artist Brian Ellison, and national bestselling author and filmmaker Abigail Hing Wen.

Following National YoungArts Week, Ariana is eligible to be nominated to become a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, one of the highest honors given to high school seniors by the president of the United States. YoungArts, the sole nominating agency, nominates 60 artists to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, from which the 20 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts are selected.

This year, YoungArts award winners were selected from nearly 11,000 applications across 10 artistic disciplines – classical music, dance, design, film, jazz, photography, theater, visual arts, voice and writing. Each award winner will receive a monetary award of $250.

For the duration of her career, Ariana is eligible for exclusive creative and professional development support, microgrants and financial awards, as well as presentation opportunities in collaboration with major venues and cultural partners nationwide. She has become part of an intergenerational network of more than 22,000 past award winners.

As a YoungArts award winner, Ariana joins a group of accomplished artists such as Daniel Arsham, Jon Batiste, Terence Blanchard, Camille A. Brown, Timothée Chalamet, Viola Davis, Amanda Gorman, Denyce Graves, Judith Hill, Jennifer Koh, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Andrew Rannells, Desmond Richardson, Jean Shin, Hunter Schafer and Shaina Taub.

The YoungArts competition is open to artists 15-18 years old, or in grades 10-12.

– Submitted by YoungArts

California schools named state finalists in national STEM competition

Samsung named 300 public schools state finalists in the 15th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow STEM competition, and nine schools in California were selected, including two in Orange County. Each state finalist will win a $2,500 technology prize pack for the school.

The Orange County finalists are Costa Mesa High School in Costa Mesa and Westminster High School in Westminster.

Following the state finalists announcement, the competition advances to its next phase, culminating in April with the selection of three national winners, each receiving a $100,000 prize package as part of a $2-plus million prize pool.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a national competition designed to empower students in grades 6-12 to unleash the power of STEM to create innovative solutions addressing critical issues in their local communities. The competition engages Gen Z and Gen Alpha students in active, hands-on learning that can be applied to real-world problems, making STEM more tangible and showcasing its value both inside and outside the classroom.

The 300 state finalists were chosen from thousands of U.S. entries, with 60% from Title 1 schools, showcasing STEM education’s broad appeal. This year’s entries highlight common student concerns nationwide: the climate crisis, mental health and wellness, and school safety.

Sixty percent of the students’ STEM solutions use emerging technologies like AI, 3D printing and robotics to drive meaningful community change.

– Submitted by Sharon Oh

Orange County hotel employees recognized as Hotel All Stars

The California Hotel & Lodging Association (CHLA) honored 144 remarkable individuals at its new and improved Hotel All Stars awards luncheon. Among the honorees were hotel employees from Orange County.

Hotel All Stars, an evolution of the association’s long-running Stars of the Industry Awards, builds upon past traditions by recognizing all top nominees for their exceptional contributions. This new, inclusive format celebrates a distinguished class of professionals who consistently perform at the highest level.

Awardees from diverse categories showcased their exceptional contributions, from maintaining top-notch facilities to creating unforgettable guest experiences.

The Orange County employees are Jesse Hebner, chief engineer at Pasea Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach; Nic Hockman, general manager at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa in Anaheim; Barbara Reyes, chef concierge at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa in Anaheim; Katie Pool, director of events and catering at Balboa Bay Resort & Club in Newport Beach; Eric Smith, bell attendant at The Waterfront Beach Resort, a Hilton Hotel in Huntington Beach; Jigna Patel, breakfast supervisor at Homewood Suites Anaheim Main Gate in Garden Grove; Melissa Rodgers, lead barista at Balboa Bay Resort & Club in Newport Beach; Fabrizio Khalona, director of member experience at Balboa Bay Resort & Club in Newport Beach; Julio Flores, engineer at Tiller House A Tribute Portfolio Hotel by Marriott in Laguna Hills; and Sierra Smith, VIP guest services senior guest experience manager at The Hotels of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

Irvine students take part in San Bernardino Forestry Challenge

Students from Cambridge Virtual Academy in Anaheim participated in the 2024 San Bernardino Forestry Challenge, among 102 high school students from 13 schools in Southern California.

One of the highlights for the students was the opportunity to learn about mixed conifer-oak woodland forest restoration. Students collected data at the Big Horn Camp area to determine species composition and recommended areas of the property to replicate this forest community.

Teams of students also completed a field test to assess their technical forestry knowledge and data collecting skills.

“It was my first time here,” said Bara’ah Musa-Alzabin, a freshman at Cambridge Virtual Academy. “Honestly, this experience taught me a lot. I highly recommend the Forestry Challenge to anyone who wants to reconnect with nature or to anyone wanting to experience great teamwork.”

– Submitted by Diane Dealey Neill, Founder and Coordinator, Forestry Challenge

University High School Irvine team wins regional chess championship

Chess players at University High School Irvine came out victorious at a regional tournament. The second annual San Diego Regional High School Team Chess Championship saw a surge in participation, drawing teams from across Southern California and even Arizona.

Building upon the success of the inaugural event last May, the tournament expanded beyond San Diego County, attracting a diverse field of 18 high schools, ranging from experienced competitors such as University High School and Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego to newcomers from across the region.

The opening round saw University High School face off against Canyon Crest Academy. Top board matches, including FM Sihan Tao (University) versus David Liu (Canyon Crest) and Warren Zhang (San Marino High) versus NM Vedant Maheshwari (Westview High), were streamed live.

After five rounds of intense competition, University High School emerged victorious with an undefeated record of 5 out of 5 team score.

Canyon Crest Academy secured a strong second place with 4 out of 5 team matches won, followed by Del Norte High School in San Diego with 3.5 out of 5 and San Marino High School with 3 out of 5. Westview High School in San Diego placed fifth on team tiebreaks also with 3 out of 5 points.

The  University High School Irvine team has been awarded a perpetual golden cup championship trophy as the first-place winners. This prestigious trophy will return to San Diego each year for the subsequent High School Team Championships.

The event not only provided a platform for talented young players to showcase their skills but also cultivated a strong sense of sportsmanship, camaraderie and leadership among all participants.

– Submitted by Irina Nizmutdinova, SDCC Board Member, SCCF Board Member

The Bravo! section highlights achievements of our residents and groups. Send news of achievements for consideration to [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

Senior living: Elders, caregivers deserve better than funding hurdles and shuttered programs

• February 24, 2025

By Courtney E. Martin, CalMatters guest columnist

Editor’s note: This is a guest commentary from CalMatters, a nonprofit newsroom that covers statewide issues that affect all Californians. Martin is an author and podcaster and writes a Substack newsletter called “Examined Family.” She is also a caregiver in El Cerrito.

When my dad was young, he took off his own braces with pliers in the garage after his parents ran out of money to take him to the orthodontist. He answered the door for debt collectors, faking as if his parents weren’t home to avoid confrontations.

He knew economic precarity in his tiny bones.

It’s no wonder, really, he became a bankruptcy lawyer when he grew up. More on the nose than any novelist could write it, my dad’s “hero’s journey” was largely determined by his craving to create the safety he never had as a child.

My dad doesn’t remember any of this, mind you. He is about a decade into his dementia journey, and almost all of his memories — short- and long-term — have burned to ash in the relentless fire of the disease. These days, it is me, his adult daughter, and my brother and mom who are the keepers of the plot twists, characters and narrative tensions that animate his life story.

Because my dad was on a quest to never be poor again, we are in a minority of family caregivers who have access to the money we need to care for him.

For a while, that meant taking him to a day program for adults with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It was an oasis in an otherwise overwhelming life of family caregiving. My mom, brother or I would drop him off and enjoy a solid day of uninterrupted work, household administration or even just a much-needed nap.

But last December, the center closed down because of the inexplicably high fees the state charges such programs annually and the unconscionably low Medicaid reimbursement rates it pays. The state gave the organization $76.27 a day for care that costs $250 to provide — a reimbursement rate that hasn’t changed since 2009.

The closure sent us and about 40 other families into a tailspin. There are so few affordable day program options for families across California. In fact, in 32 counties Medi-Cal recipients have no access to programs like these, according to the California Association of Adult Day Services.

Instead, we have been relying on an in-home health aid about 20 hours a week and are touring memory care facilities, some of which cost as much as $15,000 a month out of pocket. The wait lists are long. Figuring it all out is exhausting, on top of the daily work of caring for my dad — cooking him every meal, bathing him, making sure he takes his ever-changing combination of medications at the right times, weathering his agitation.

And we have the absolute best possible scenario: three committed family caregivers and one professional, as well as research acuity and the financial resources to make sure we can honor my dad in these last months of his life.

The proposals that have surfaced during the first few weeks of the Trump administration threaten to make this already bad situation even worse for families whose financial picture doesn’t look like ours — the majority of American families caring for an elder with dementia who are totally dependent on Medicaid.

One likely proposal will be Medicaid work requirements, which may sound innocent enough, but as Justice in Aging explains: “Though most people targeted by work requirements should remain eligible, the red tape alone will take away coverage from people who are already working, older adults who are retired or have difficulty finding work, people with disabilities, and family caregivers. Moreover, resources spent on implementing these bureaucratic hurdles will delay access to critical health, financial, and food support for everyone.”

Our elders, and their caregivers, deserve a better story. My dad’s ability to build wealth was born out of his childhood trauma and accelerated by his White, male privilege. None of that should be a prerequisite for a dignified ending in this extremely rich country.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump has good reason to complain about limits on his ability to fire executive officers

• February 24, 2025

President Donald Trump likes to fire people, and he resents congressional constraints on that presidential prerogative. While Trump’s opponents may view that attitude as one more manifestation of his autocratic instincts, his complaint is grounded in legitimate concerns about the separation of powers that presidents of both parties have raised for many years.

A century ago, the Supreme Court held that Congress overstepped its constitutional authority when it decreed that presidents could remove “postmasters of the first, second, and third classes” only “with the advice and consent of the Senate.” Based on extensive historical analysis, the majority concluded that Article II of the Constitution “grants to the President” the “general administrative control of those executing the laws, including the power of appointment and removal of executive officers.”

In that case, it was a Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson, who was asserting that power by dismissing a postmaster in Portland, Oregon. Nine years later, the court addressed a similar controversy involving another Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, who had fired a member of the Federal Trade Commission appointed by his Republican predecessor.

The commissioner’s restrained view of the FTC’s mission was inconsistent with Roosevelt’s policy agenda, which was the reason the president gave for dismissing him. This time, the Supreme Court sided with Congress, which had said an FTC commissioner “may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

Reading that language as a limit on the president’s power, the court nevertheless upheld it, reasoning that FTC commissioners, unlike postmasters, were not “purely executive officers.” Rather, the FTC was a “nonpartisan” panel of “experts” with “predominantly quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative” functions that was meant to be “independent of executive authority.”

The Supreme Court implicitly recognized the difficulties with that approach in 1988 and 2010, and in 2020 it ruled that Congress had violated the separation of powers by putting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the command of a single director whom the president could remove only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Although the majority distinguished that arrangement from the one upheld in 1935, which involved a “multimember” commission that supposedly did not “wield substantial executive power,” its logic cast doubt on the viability of that precedent.

The CFPB decision reaffirmed that “the entire ‘executive Power’ belongs to the President alone,” which means he must have “power to remove — and thus supervise — those who wield executive power on his behalf.” The majority also conceded that “the Court’s conclusion that the FTC did not exercise executive power has not withstood the test of time.”

The following year, the court ruled that the principle it had defended in the CFPB case also condemned the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which like the CFPB was run by a single director, whom the president could remove only “for cause.” By the same logic, the Trump administration argues, the president should have unlimited power to fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an investigative and prosecutorial agency charged with protecting federal employees from prohibited personnel practices.

At this stage of that case, the president’s lawyers are not questioning the constitutionality of independent agencies like the FTC. But the Supreme Court may ultimately revisit that issue in this case or another involving Trump’s assertion of executive power.

The CFPB decision “repudiated almost every aspect” of the court’s ruling in the case that Roosevelt lost, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a partial concurrence joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch. They think the court should explicitly overturn that 1935 precedent, which they say blessed “unaccountable independent agencies” that “exercise vast executive power outside the bounds of our constitutional structure.”

They have a point. Under the Constitution, the federal government consists of three distinct branches: legislative, executive and judicial. In recognizing an amalgam that is independent of presidential control, the justices effectively authorized a fourth branch of government that the framers never imagined.

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @jacobsullum.

​ Orange County Register 

The biggest takeaways from Germany’s election, which will bring change to the EU’s leading power

• February 24, 2025

By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Germany faces its second change of leader in fewer than four years after the head of the center-right opposition, Friedrich Merz, won Sunday’s election, which saw a surge for a far-right party and a stinging defeat for outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

After the collapse of Scholz’s three-party government in November, it’s now up to Merz to restore stability to the European Union’s most populous country and traditional political heavyweight, which also has the continent’s biggest economy.

Merz faces a difficult task. But it could have been worse

Merz has one realistic option to form a government: a coalition with Scholz’s Social Democrats. His Union bloc and its center-left rival have a combined 328 seats in the 630-seat parliament.

He says he hopes to do the deal by Easter. That’s a challenging timeframe: The possible partners will have to reconcile contrasting proposals for revitalizing the economy, which has shrunk for the past two years, and for curbing irregular migration — an issue that Merz pushed hard during the campaign. That will likely require diplomacy and a readiness to compromise that often weren’t evident in recent weeks.

It’s still a much easier task than it might have been. For hours on Sunday night, it looked likely that Merz would need to add a second center-left partner, the environmentalist Greens, to put together a parliamentary majority.

Germany’s traditional heavyweights erode further

The Union and Social Democrats were post-World War II Germany’s heavyweights. But their support has been eroding for at least two decades as the political landscape has become more fragmented. Their combined showing Sunday was their weakest since the postwar federal republic was founded in 1949.

The Social Democrats had their worst postwar showing with just 16.4% of the vote. The Union had its second-worst with 28.5%. This is only the second time that the winning party polled less than 30%; the first was in 2021.

Geographical divide: The far right leads in the east

The far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, emerged as the strongest party across the country’s formerly communist and less prosperous east. That cemented its primacy in a region that has long been its stronghold, and where it won its first state election last year.

Other parties were stronger in only a few eastern constituencies outside Berlin. In western Germany, which accounts for most of the country’s population, AfD trailed Merz’s Union and sometimes other parties too but still polled strongly on its way to 20.8% of the nationwide vote, the highest postwar score for a far-right party.

Young voters lead a hard-left revival

While AfD made the biggest gains, the Left Party made the most unexpected. The party appeared headed for electoral oblivion at the start of the campaign but pulled off a resounding comeback to take 8.8% of the vote.

The Left Party appealed to young voters with very liberal positions on social and migration issues and a tax-the-rich policy, backed up by a savvy social media campaign.

It benefited from polarization during the campaign after a motion that Merz put to parliament calling for many more migrants to be turned back at the border passed thanks to votes from AfD. Merz’s conservatives have long refused to work with the Left Party, so there was no prospect of it putting him in the chancellery.

Ukraine can still expect German support

Merz has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s invasion. He wrote on social network X Monday that “more than ever, we must put Ukraine in a position of strength.” He added that “for a fair peace, the country that is under attack must be part of peace negotiations.”

Germany became Ukraine’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the United States under Scholz. Merz has at times criticized the outgoing government for doing too little, notably calling for Germany to supply Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Kyiv. Scholz refused to do that.

Merz, like Scholz, has been tightlipped so far on whether Germany might contribute to a possible peacekeeping force, suggesting that the discussion is premature.

Where Scholz went wrong

Scholz pulled off a narrow come-from-behind victory in 2021 after presenting himself as the safest pair of hands available.

But his government’s agenda was quickly upended by the Ukraine war and the ensuing energy and inflation crises. His coalition became notorious over time for infighting and poor communication. Scholz has suggested recently that he maybe should have ended it sooner than he did.

Scholz sought another unlikely comeback. But too many voters, and even some in his own party, had cooled on the unpopular chancellor.

​ Orange County Register 

Ex-Secret Service agent and conservative media personality Dan Bongino picked as FBI deputy director

• February 24, 2025

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent who has penned best-selling books, ran unsuccessfully for office and gained fame as a conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast, has been chosen to serve as FBI deputy director.

President Donald Trump announced the appointment Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.” He called the announcement “great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice.”

The selection places two staunch Trump allies atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency at a time when Democrats are concerned that the president could seek to target his adversaries. Bongino would serve under Kash Patel, who was sworn in as FBI director at the White House on Friday and who has signaled his intent to reshape the bureau, including by relocating hundreds of employees from its Washington headquarters and placing greater emphasis on the FBI’s traditional crime-fighting duties.

The deputy director serves as the FBI’s second-in-command and is traditionally a career agent responsible for the bureau’s day-to-day law enforcement operations. Bongino, like Patel, has never served in the FBI, raising questions about their experience level when the U.S. is facing escalating national security threats.

The two are inheriting an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Bongino served on the presidential details for then-Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, before becoming a popular right-wing figure. He became one of the leading personalities in the Make America Great Again political movement to spread false information about the 2020 election, which Trump and allies have continued to maintain was marred by widespread false even though such claims have been widely rejected as false by judges and former Trump attorney general William Barr.

For a few years following Rush Limbaugh’s death in 2021, he was chosen for a radio show on the same time slot of the famous commentator.

Bongino worked for the New York Police Department for several years in the 1990s before joining the Secret Service. He began doing commentary on Fox News more than a decade ago, and had a Saturday night show with the network from 2021 to 2023. He is now a host of The Dan Bongino Show, one of the most popular podcasts, according to Spotify.

Bongino ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in 2012 and for congressional seats in 2014 and 2016 in Maryland and Florida, after moving in 2015. He lost the three races.

During an interview last fall, Bongino asked Trump to commit to forming a commission to reform the Secret Service, calling it a “failed” agency and criticizing it for the two assassination attempts last year.

“That guy should have been nowhere near you,” Bongino said about the man who authorities say camped outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, before he was spotted with a rifle.

During the same interview, Trump praised the Secret Service agent who saw the rifle’s barrel coming out of a bush.

Patel and Bongino will succeed the two acting FBI leaders, Brian Driscoll and Robert Kissane, who have led the bureau since the departure in January of former Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017 and held the job for the next seven years before resigning at the end of the Biden administration to make way for his chosen success.

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump meets with French President Macron as uncertainty grows about US ties to Europe and Ukraine

• February 24, 2025

By MATTHEW LEE and AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House for talks on Monday at a moment of deep uncertainty about the future of transatlantic relations, with Trump transforming American foreign policy and effectively tuning out European leadership as he looks to quickly end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The two leaders were starting their day by taking part in a virtual meeting with fellow leaders of the Group of Seven economies to discuss the war.

Trump also has made demands for territory — Greenland, Canada, Gaza and the Panama Canal — as well as precious rare earth minerals from Ukraine. Just over a month into his second term, the “America First” president has cast an enormous shadow over what veteran U.S. diplomats and former government officials had regarded as America’s calming presence of global stability and continuity.

Despite some notable hiccups, the military, economic and moral power of the United States has dominated the post-World War II era, most notably after the Cold War came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. All of that, some fear, may be lost if Trump gets his way and the U.S. abandons the principles under which the United Nations and numerous other international bodies were founded.

“The only conclusion you can draw is that 80 years of policy in standing up against aggressors has just been blown up without any sort of discussion or reflection,” said Ian Kelly, a U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administration and now a professor at Northwestern University.

“I’m discouraged for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons is that I had taken some encouragement at the beginning from the repeated references to ‘peace through strength,’” Kelly added. “This is not peace through strength — this is peace through surrender.”

Visits start on anniversary of war in Ukraine

Trump, a Republican, is hosting Macron on Monday, the three-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine. Trump is set to hold a meeting Thursday with another key European leader, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Their visits come after Trump shook Europe with repeated criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for failing to negotiate an end to the war and rebuffing a push to sign off on a deal giving the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, which could be used in the American aerospace, medical and tech industries.

European leaders also were dismayed by Trump’s decision to dispatch top aides for preliminary talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia without Ukrainian or European officials at the table.

Another clash is set to play out at the U.N. on Monday after the U.S. proposed a competing resolution that lacks the same demands as one from Ukraine and the European Union for Moscow’s forces to immediately withdraw from the country.

On the minerals deal, Zelenskyy initially bristled, saying it was short on security guarantees for Ukraine. He said Sunday on X that “we are making great progress“ but noted that “we want a good economic deal that will be part of a true security guarantee system for Ukraine.”

Trump administration officials say they expect to reach a deal this week that would tie the U.S. and Ukrainian economies closer together — the last thing that Russia wants.

It follows a public spat, with Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” and falsely charging Kyiv with starting the war. Russia, in fact, invaded its smaller and lesser-equipped neighbor in February 2022.

Zelenskyy, who said Sunday in response to a question that he would trade his office for peace or to join NATO, then angered Trump by saying the U.S. president was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space.” Confronting Trump might not be the best approach, analysts say.

“The response to President Trump doing something to you is not to do something back right away. You tend to get this kind of reaction,” said retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, former foreign policy aide to the late Sen. John McCain and current senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

He added, “This is part of a broader issue where I know the administration’s characterizing themselves as disruptors. I think a better term might be destabilizers. And, unfortunately, the destabilizing is sometimes us and our allies.”

That complicated dynamic makes this week’s task all the more difficult for Macron and Starmer, leaders of two of America’s closest allies, as they try to navigate talks with Trump.

High-stakes talks between European and US leaders

Macron said he intends to tell Trump that it’s in the joint interest of Americans and Europeans not to show weakness to Putin during U.S.-led negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. He also suggested that he’ll make the case that how Trump handles Putin could have enormous ramifications for U.S. dealings with China, the United States’ most significant economic and military competitor.

“You can’t be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest,” Macron said on social media. “How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?’”

Yet, Trump has shown a considerable measure of respect for the Russian leader. Trump said this month that he would like to see Russia rejoin what is now the Group of Seven major economies. Russia was suspended from the G8 after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

Trump dismissed Zelenskyy’s complaints about Ukraine and Europe not being included in the opening of U.S.-Russia talks, suggesting he’s been negotiating “with no cards, and you get sick of it.”

Putin, on the other hand, wants to make a deal, Trump argued Friday. “He doesn’t have to make a deal. Because if he wanted, he would get the whole country,” Trump added.

The deference to Putin has left some longtime diplomats worried.

“The administration should consider going in a different direction because this isn’t going to work,” said Robert Wood, a retired career diplomat who served in multiple Republican and Democratic administrations, most recently as the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations until December. “Let’s not kid ourselves: Russia started this war, and trying to rewrite the narrative isn’t going to serve the best interests of the U.S. or our allies.”

AP writer Chris Megerian contributed reporting.

​ Orange County Register 

Western leaders visit Kyiv and pledge military support against Russia on the war’s 3rd anniversary

• February 24, 2025

By JUSTIN SPIKE, Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — More than a dozen Western leaders attended events in Ukraine on Monday marking the third anniversary of the country’s war with Russia, many pledging more military aid in a conspicuous show of support for Kyiv as uncertainty deepened over the commitment of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to helping it fend off Russia’s invasion.

The fourth year of fighting could be pivotal, as Trump uses his return to office last month to press for a peace deal. But Ukrainian and European officials have been rattled by his cordial approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his tough words for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

World security is at stake in talks over how the war ends, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned.

“The autocrats around the world are watching very carefully whether there’s any impunity if you violate international borders or invade your neighbor, or if there is true deterrence,” she told a conference in Kyiv.

Some observers say Russian success in Ukraine could embolden China’s own ambitions. Just as Moscow claims that Ukraine is rightfully Russian territory, China claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as its own.

In a cascade of unwelcome developments for Kyiv, Trump has in recent days called Zelenskyy a dictator, suggested Ukraine is to blame for the war and ended Putin’s three-year diplomatic isolation by the United States. U.S. officials have also indicated to Ukraine that its hopes of joining NATO are unlikely to be realized and that it probably won’t get back the land that Russia’s army has occupied, amounting to nearly 20% of the country.

Meanwhile, Putin’s troops are making steady progress on the battlefield while Ukraine is grappling with shortages of troops and weapons.

Some of Ukraine’s most important backers, including European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were among the stream of dignitaries arriving by train in Kyiv. Others spoke at a conference via video link.

The guests had similar messages: Ukraine and its European partners must be consulted in any peace negotiations, Putin’s ambitions must be thwarted, and Europe must take on more of the burden for its own defense.

Alarm bells sound in Europe as Washington changes course

The shift in Washington’s policy has set off alarm bells in Europe, where governments fear being sidelined by the U.S. in efforts to secure a peace deal and are mulling how they might pick up the slack of any cut in U.S. aid for Ukraine. The changes have also placed strain on transatlantic relations.

European Council President Antonio Costa on Sunday announced that he would convene an emergency summit of the 27 EU leaders in Brussels on March 6, with Ukraine at the top of the agenda.

“We are living a defining moment for Ukraine and European security,” he said in a post on social media.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are to both visit Washington this week.

EU foreign ministers on Monday approved a new raft of sanctions against Russia. The measures target Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of ships that it uses to skirt restrictions on transporting oil and gas, or to carry stolen Ukrainian grain. The EU said 74 vessels were added to its shadow fleet list.

Asset freezes and travel bans were imposed on 83 officials and “entities” — usually government agencies, banks or companies.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his country would provide a $1.04 billion military systems package to Ukraine this year.

Starmer said Ukrainians’ voices “must be at the heart of the drive for peace,” while Trump’s intervention had “changed the global conversation” and “created an opportunity.”

“Russia does not hold all the cards in this war,” he said.

Coming off a victory in Sunday’s German elections, conservative leader Friedrich Merz — also a staunch backer of Ukraine — posted on X Monday: “More than ever, we must put Ukraine in a position of strength.“

“For a fair peace, the country that is under attack must be part of peace negotiations,” he wrote.

Diplomacy ramps up after record Russian drone attack

On Sunday, Russia launched its biggest single drone attack of the war, pounding Ukraine with 267 drones.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, insisted that the U.S. cannot seal any peace deal to end the war without Ukraine or Europe being involved. She highlighted what she claimed were pro-Russian positions being taken up by the Trump administration.

“You can discuss whatever you want with Putin. But if it comes to Europe or Ukraine, then Ukraine and Europe also have to agree to this deal,” Kallas told reporters in Brussels, where she was chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Kallas travels to Washington on Tuesday for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Washington and Moscow draw closer

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the third anniversary was “a grim milestone.”

“More than 12,600 civilians killed, with many more injured. Entire communities reduced to rubble. Hospitals and schools destroyed,” he said in Geneva.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Saturday that preparations for a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin were underway, and U.S. officials have said that they had agreed with Moscow to reestablish diplomatic ties and restart economic cooperation.

Kallas rejected Trump’s earlier inflammatory assertion that Zelenskyy was a dictator for not having held elections after his regular term expired last year, saying, “Russia hasn’t had elections in 25 years.”

Ukrainian law prohibits elections being held while martial law is in place, and Zelenksyy said as recently as Sunday that after martial law is lifted, “there will be elections and people will make their choice.”

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed. Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

​ Orange County Register