U.S. news roundup: Congress shakeup and 193 million acres of forest

News you might have missed from the US — and why it’s important

Last week, many of us went to bed wondering if we would be at nuclear war in the morning because of a necrotic criminal’s delusions of dictatorship. That is absurd. Not that we necessarily felt it was a genuine threat, but that it had to be felt at all.

When Trump’s second term started last year, a recurring warning from historians and experts was to not allow Trump and his cronies to normalize their actions. When, just over a year later, the US is in an illegal war of choice with Iran and the president is threatening annihilation of a civilization on social media, we at least know that that is not normal.

But beyond the utter horror and inhumanity of the war itself, it also threatens to move the Overton window further toward Trump’s vicious and reckless regime by making all the other things he’s doing seem less critical.

This entire email could easily be about the depravity and delusion of Trump’s war in Iran, his kindergarten diplomacy over the Strait of Hormuz, and the rift its forming within MAGA (which while I write this further splits over an AI image Trump posted of himself as Jesus — because deporting and abusing children is fine, but a social media post is apparently their limit), but I’ll focus today on some of the other news from within the US.

Epstein files update

Many things Trump has done have been seen as attempts to cover up the Epstein files, but last week Melania brought the focus right back to them with a bizarre press conference where she dispassionately recited that she had no relationship with Epstein (despite him and Ghislaine Maxwell being at her wedding). Trump apparently did not know Melania was going to hold this press release, and there were no new accusations — which has many thinking something big is coming that she was trying to get ahead of. She did not include her husband in the statement of no relationship.

The files are also at play in Trump’s firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi who, despite callously ignoring Epstein survivors and obstructing the investigation, did not manage to quash public interest or prosecute Trump’s political opponents as he wished. Trump has replaced her for now with her former deputy, Todd Blanche, who immediately declared that no more Epstein files would be released, despite the legal order from Congress to the Department of Justice to release all the files by last December, and that Bondi will not appear for her deposition at the Epstein files hearing today, 14 April. Not a single man named in the Epstein files has been prosecuted.

Release their records

Sexual assault became a topic in the oversaturated Democratic primary race for California Governor this week, as multiple women, including former staffers on his team, came forward with accusations against Eric Swalwell, a frontrunner and current US Representative. After an unconvincing video in which he accused the women of lying, threatened legal action, and apologized to his wife for the things he… didn’t do… Democrats withdrew their endorsement and Swalwell announced the end of his candidacy.

The California gubernatorial primary will see the top two vote recipients advance to the election — regardless of party. There are two Republicans running, but still seven Democrats (even after Swalwell’s resignation), who face the increasing possibility of handing the entire election to the Republicans by refusing to narrow their field of candidates. There is, however, a speck of good news in that California Republicans have broken with Trump by not endorsing his pick for Governor, Steve Hilton, a Fox “News” contributor – and one-time adviser to David Cameron in the UK.

Eric Swalwell has also now resigned his seat in Congress, and so has Texas Republican Tony Gonzales (though he’s calling it “retirement” 🙄) – months after a staffer whom he pressured into having an affair died by self-immolation.

This comes just a month after the House voted not to make public all the records on allegations of sexual harassment by congressional lawmakers, and the names of those who have used the taxpayer-funded, so-called “sexual harassment slush fund” to reach settlement.

Felling the forest service

An issue particularly close to my heart, as someone raised in the forested mountains of the Pacific Northwest, is Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service. It was started in 1876 thanks to the conservation vision of President Teddy Roosevelt and forest scientist Gifford Pinchot, which created the idea of public land as an American national treasure. (If you’re interested in the history of public lands in the US, I highly recommend the book The Big Burn by Timothy Egan).

The Forest Service and all public lands have been in the sights of Republicans practically since their inception, because why should something be free when it can make rich people richer? 😑 That’s not to say it’s a perfect institution; it is in fact highly flawed. But it maintains 193 million acres of land — preventing and managing forest fires, conducting groundbreaking forest health and watershed science research, and providing access to nature for millions of Americans.

And now Donald Trump has closed every regional office, and 57 of the 70 research stations. 5,000 employees are affected, including several of my friends. 82% of public comments opposed it — but they did it anyway. For money.

Because the new Forest Service chief, Tom Schultz, was VP of one of the nation’s largest lumber producers, and president of the the timber industry’s lobbying arm in Washington. His stated priorities are timber production, critical minerals permitting, and energy development.  

Conservationist Will Pattiz explains better than I can:

“The U.S. Forest Service, standing, provides drinking water to 180 million Americans. Standing, it generates $40.3 billion in GDP. Standing, it stops 98% of wildfires before they become disasters. Standing, it supports more than 370,000 jobs in communities that have no other economic engine. Standing, it maintains the landscapes that 180 million Americans visit to hike, fish, camp, hunt, and remember what this country looks like when nobody’s trying to sell it.

Standing, it protects the Metolius. And the Pisgah. And the Tongass. And the Bob Marshall. And the Gila. And the giant sequoias. And every river that flows clean out of a national forest and into the tap of someone who has no idea where their water comes from.

Cut it down and that value doesn’t shift to the timber industry. It vanishes. Along with the water. The science. The fire protection. The institutional knowledge that took 121 years to build and cannot be rebuilt by executive order.

The U.S. Forest Service is worth more standing. So are the forests it protects.”

But Trump is preparing to sell it to the highest bidder, who I have a feeling will be one of his cronies. Of course, it’s also completely illegal.

–Alyssa