Trump Starts Presidency by Failing Basic Geography Question

Donald Trump is already failing the implicit geography test that is taking office as the president of the United States.

Just hours after being sworn in Monday, a reporter asked Trump about his demand that NATO member states spend at least five percent of their GDP on defense, citing Spain’s defense spending level. The president responded completely incorrectly.

“Spain is very low. And yet, are they a BRICS nation?” Trump asked.

“What?” the reporter replied.

“They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. You know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out,” Trump said, managing to be both snide and wrong.

“But uh, and if the BRICS nations want to do that, that’s OK, but we’re gonna put at least 100 percent tariff on the business they do with the United States,” Trump said.

The ‘S’ in BRICS does not stand for Spain at all.

The countries in BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and new member states Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, UAE, and Iran. No state in the entire European Union is a member of BRICS. Here’s hoping that the president of the United States will eventually “figure it out.”

Mehdi Hasan, the editor-and-chief of Zeteo News, shared a video of Trump’s gaffe on X late Monday, writing, “We need to talk about the president’s age and memory and mental health.”

“If Biden had said this, it would be on a 24/7 loop on cable, and all over TikTok,” Hasan wrote in a separate post on X.

Donald Trump has been president for less than a day, and Elon Musk already has a White House email address—and is expected to receive office space as well. 

The Hill reports that the world’s richest man, who will be the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (that isn’t officially a government department) already has an email address searchable by the Executive Office of the President, according to an unnamed source. 

“It seems to confirm he’s going to have an [Eisenhower Executive Office Building] office,” the source said. According to The New York Times, however, Musk will likely be granted even greater access with a coveted West Wing office in the White House, where the Oval Office is located. 

How often Musk will actually use that office isn’t clear, considering that the tech mogul also serves as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, owns X (formerly Twitter),  has 12 children with three different mothers, and spends his free time cheating in online gaming. But spending $250 million to help Trump get elected seems to buy a lot of access to the president. 

Earlier on Monday, Vivek Ramaswamy, who was expected to be co-chair of DOGE with Musk, was forced out of the non-department, allegedly for wearing out his welcome. This gives Musk near-total control of an entity charged with reducing the size of the federal government, where he will surely try to slash anything Trump and the MAGA right think isn’t important. 

Less than two weeks ago, DOGE reportedly had 50 employees working out of SpaceX’s D.C. offices, with that number expected to double by Inauguration Day. With his own small army in tow, it seems that Musk will have the ear of President Trump whenever he wants, only having to walk a short distance to the Oval Office if he so chooses.

Donald Trump’s 2025 inaugural entourage was noticeably more flush than the crowd at his first presidential ceremony, with the attendees’ total net worth approaching $1.2 trillion. The New Republic broke down the net worths of the attendees with the biggest pockets.

• Donald Trump

Trump himself is worth upwards of $60 billion as of Monday. That’s in large part thanks to his memeified crypto coin, $TRUMP, which skyrocketed in value on Sunday, bringing his holdings to an astonishing $58 billion, according to Axios. That’s enough to jettison him into the top 25 wealthiest people in the world, according to data from Forbes’s real time billionaires list.

• Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg
  

Trump’s inauguration saw a band of Silicon Valley’s top leaders appear on the metaphorical dais, representing a prioritization of the tech industry’s interests on the eve of a new administration. The trio, on their own, represent the three richest people in the world. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is worth $433.9 billion. Amazon chief Jeff Bezos comes second with an estimated net worth of $239.4 billion. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pulls right behind Bezos, with a net worth hovering around $211.8 billion, according to Forbes.

Altogether, the three men are worth upwards of $885.1 billion. The median net worth of an American, meanwhile, is $192,200, according to Investopedia.

• Sam Altman, Tim Cook
  

Open AI CEO Sam Altman and Apple CEO Tim Cook were also present in the Capitol Rotunda Monday after donating millions to his inaugural fund. Altman’s estimated net worth is $1.1 billion, while Cook’s estimated net worth is $2.2 billion, per Forbes.

• Shou Zi Chew
  

TikTok’s CEO received a last-minute invite to Trump’s celebration, as the pair are reportedly working toward a solution to keep the popular video-sharing platform alive in the U.S. market. But the Singaporean executive’s presence at the inauguration also bumped up the total net worth of its attendees, adding some $200 million to the pot, according to the New York Banner.

• Rev. Franklin Graham
  

Televangelist minister Reverend Franklin Graham gave a short sermon on Trump’s behalf Monday, standing before the crowd to bestow a blessing of success and protection on the 47th president, who over the course of his campaign survived two assassination attempts. Estimates for Graham’s net worth vary wildly, though his total value is believed to be somewhere around $10 million. 

• Vivek Ramaswamy
  

Vivek Ramaswamy has been a presence by Trump’s side for the better part of the last year, supporting and bolstering Trump’s ideals to the American public. The biotech executive’s net worth is estimated at just over $1 billion, according to The Economic Times. Though all the money in the world apparently isn’t enough to stay in Trump’s good graces, especially now that the 47th president is out of the campaign cycle. Reports swirled on Monday that Ramaswamy was on the outs of Trumpworld, even reportedly exiting the not-yet-real Department of Government Efficiency in favor of running to replace  term-limited Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

The impact of Trump’s anti-immigrant policy at the southern border was felt the minute he reassumed the presidency.

People were sobbing at the U.S.-Mexico border Monday afternoon after an app to book appointments with Customs and Border Patrol went offline.

“Migrants in Ciudad Juárez who were waiting for their 1pm CBP1 parole appointments learned 20 minutes ago that the app has shut down & those appointments are no longer valid,” said The Washington Post’s Arelis R. Hernández, who was at the scene.

The CBP One app was a critical resource for people looking to enter the United States, allowing them to check border wait times, get their products inspected, and most importantly, schedule appointments in hopes of entering the country legally. But on Monday, the app went dark right as Trump was getting sworn in, and all the appointments afterwards were cancelled. In Biden’s term, the app helped an estimated 930,000 people schedule appointments, according to federal officials.

“Effective January 20, 2025, the functionalities of CBP One™ that previously allowed undocumented aliens to submit advance information and schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry is no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled,” the Customs and Border Patrol website reads.

“The people losing CBP One appointments were patiently waiting in Mexico & complying with a smart process that could modernize asylum,” wrote Buzzfeed Tech’s Andrea Flores. “Eliminating CBPOne is not only deeply unfair to the human beings who were following the rules, but this move will destabilize the border.”

This kicks off Trump’s draconian immigration plans, including what he promises to be the “largest deportation program in US history.” He either already has or plans to later sign multiple executive orders regarding the border: declaring a state of emergency there, labeling drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, directing the military to concentrate on the southern border, and attempting to revoke birthright citizenship.

The specific result of the CBP One app’s closure remains to be seen.

“The CBP1 app is credited for moving migrants into a lawful process of entry since it created an orderly system of proof, all on the other side of the US border,” professor Juliette Kayyem wrote. “Trump argues ending it means they will stop trying to enter. History suggests many will just try unlawfully.”

The hardline shift to the right on immigration is materializing even faster than anticipated. Communities everywhere can only prepare.

During a speech at Capitol One Arena Monday following Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk appeared to deliver a Roman salute not once, but twice.

The gesture is associated with Nazi Germany, and Musk was speaking triumphantly about Trump’s election victory when he made the salute.

What was Musk thinking when he decided to point his arm unambiguously in a fascist symbol? It would seem that the billionaire tech CEO and major Trump backer doesn’t care if he is called a Nazi or racist anymore now that Trump is officially president.

Just one month ago, Musk came out in full support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been accused of neo-Nazi sympathies. Less than two weeks ago, Musk hosted AfD leader Alice Weidel in a livestream on X, where the pair dismissed Adolf Hitler as a “communist.” Musk has also voiced his support for British neo-Nazi Tommy Robinson in an attempt to influence politics in that country. All of these would seem to suggest that despite earlier denials, Musk does seem to harbor actual Nazi sympathies.

Of course, the tech mogul is probably going to claim later that he was trolling the libs, or that the media is out to get him, or something else dismissive. He can probably count on Trump defending his gesture, claiming that he didn’t see it, or having no idea what it means. After all, Trump has defended Hitler in the past. But one thing is clear: Every Nazi sympathizer who has a soft spot for Trump is probably feeling emboldened.

President Donald Trump plans to pardon people convicted for participation in the January 6 Capitol riot, which may include two of its organizers: Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, and Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, ABC News reported Monday.

Rhodes and Tarrio were both convicted for seditious conspiracy, a Civil-War era charge, and were sentenced to 18 years and 22 years in prison, respectively. Tarrio’s sentence was the longest of any January 6 defendant.

Federal prosecutors previously described Tarrio as the driving force behind the masses of self-described “Western chauvinist” Proud Boys who arrived in Washington on January 6. Several of his organization’s leaders were the first to enter the U.S. Capitol. Earlier this month, Tarrio requested a pardon from prison via his lawyer.

In addition to pardoning those who have already been convicted, the Justice Department is also expected to dismiss cases that have not yet gone to trial, a Trump transition official told CNN.

This sets a disturbing precedent that the president could potentially push to dismiss any charges placed against his supporters—even the most dangerous.

Donald Trump’s inaugural address Monday showcased an unusually refined version of the MAGA leader on the cusp of his presidency: it toiled over the economy and immigration, promising to bring America into a “golden age.”

But Trump’s unscripted second speech to a throng of his supporters served as his cutting room floor, sharing all the gripes that his script writers implored him not to dish. Seemingly unrehearsed and riddled with grammatical errors, Trump’s second speech of the day was remarkably more like him.

Trump ripped into a cohort of his so-called enemies, torching former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for supposedly allowing his supporters to tear through the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

“She’s guilty as hell,” Trump said, claiming he had promised to send 10,000 soldiers to the complex that day—despite the fact that multiple witnesses said Trump watched TV and stood by doing nothing as his supporters hunted and chanted death threats for Pelosi and former Vice President Mike Pence. “Maybe she wanted that to happen,” Trump wondered aloud.

“If you did that civilly, that would be a criminal offense,” Trump continued, blaming the former House speaker for failing to thwart some of his most ardent and violent supporters. (You cannot be charged with a criminal offense in a civil case, though a civil case can launch a companion criminal investigation.)

Trump also complained about former Representative Liz Cheney and other members of the House January 6 investigative committee. “Why are we helping some of the people—why are we helping Liz Cheney? She’s a crying lunatic,” Trump rambled.

And minutes after Trump was sworn in, a portrait hanging in the Pentagon of former Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley—who refused Trump’s orders to send the military to crush protesters in Washington in the wake of George Floyd’s death, and who has since referred to Trump as a “fascist” and a “wannabe dictator”—was suddenly stripped from the wall. (President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Milley on Monday, saving him from the Trump administration’s litigious ire.)

Trump has repeatedly promised to enact revenge on individuals he deemed to be “enemies of the state.” In the weeks leading up to the election, former Trump White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews warned that the ex-reality TV star had morphed from someone with a vision for America into a vindictive far-right ideologue “hellbent on revenge and retribution.”

Donald Trump will rename the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali by executive order in one of his first acts as president. 

The news broke shortly before he was sworn in Monday morning, and Trump confirmed it during his inaugural address. The order will rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and Mount Denali to Mount McKinley, which was the official name recognized by the federal government from 1917 until 2015. 

Trump first announced his plans to rename the gulf nearly two weeks ago in a rambling press conference, saying, “We’re gonna be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America…. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate…. Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them.”

Not long after that declaration, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum held a news conference of her own where she asked, “Why don’t we call it Mexican America? It sounds pretty, no?”

Denali is the tallest mountain in North America, and gained its name from the Koyukon Athabaskans, the original inhabitants of Alaska. A gold prospector gave it the name McKinley in 1896 as a show of support for William McKinley, who was running for president at the time, and the federal government made the name official in 1917. In 1975, the state of Alaska sought to have the name changed, only to be blocked by Ohio politicians supporting their native son McKinley. 

In 2015, President Obama officially renamed the mountain to what Alaska natives had called it for centuries. Last month, though, Trump told supporters in a speech in Arizona that he would  “bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it.”

Trump could also be making the move because he wants to stick it to Obama, or because he admires McKinley’s imperialism. In any case, changing both names will be costly to U.S. taxpayers, and serve no strategic purpose whatsoever. It’s the first of likely many more pointless moves in the new Trump administration.

Trump wants to carry out another “manifest destiny” —but this time on Mars..

“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,” the newly inaugurated president said on Monday to the audience gathered in the Capitol Rotunda, who reacted to his comments with a standing ovation. “Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation. And right now our nation is more ambitious than any other. There’s no nation like our nation.”

“Manifest destiny” was the violent, presumptuous 19th century idea that white American settlers had some religious obligation to seize Native land in the West, to convert Native Americans to Christianity, and to exploit the region’s ample resources.

Trump’s Mars pledge elicited a huge grin and enthusiastic double thumbs up from billionaire and top Mars colonization enthusiast Elon Musk, who has been pushing his Mars colony agenda for nearly a decade via his SpaceX company.

Donald Trump used his inauguration speech to whine about tech billionaires’ homes being burnt down. 

During his address Monday, Trump whined about the federal government’s response to natural disasters. 

“Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency,” he groused. 

Trump cited people in North Carolina still struggling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. In Los Angeles, “we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense,” Trump said. 

“They’re raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country. Some of whom are sitting here right now,” Trump said, smiling slightly at the reminder of his Silicon Valley invites, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Sundar Pichai. 

“They don’t have a home any longer,” Trump mused. “That’s interesting.”

In fact, not a single one of these men appear to have lost their home in the Los Angeles wildfires. 

Crucially, these aren’t the kinds of guys who can lose a lot by losing just one residence: each one owns an extensive property portfolio worth hundreds of million dollars. Bezos’s is worth $500 million, and Zuckerberg’s is $200 million. Meanwhile, Musk owns several properties, though his primary home is a $50,000 tiny home in Texas, near SpaceX’s headquarters. So maybe the president could save his tears for the people who have lost their actual homes.  

Rather than actually acknowledging the devastating and widespread impacts of natural disasters, Trump’s comment merely suggests his special affinity for tech billionaires. After all, it’s Trump and his fellow Republicans who are ensuring those affected by the wildfires stay struggling by insisting that no disaster aid will be provided to California until the state agrees to reinstall Trump-era policies.