Some things Sean Spicer did at today’s White House press briefing: He fed the theory that there is a so-called deep state “burrowed into government”; he said, on the recent favorable jobs report, that “they may have been phony in the past but it’s very real now” (in response to which the room laughed??); and he wore his American flag pin upside down, a stirring reminder that the United States is being destroyed by a team of absolute idiots.
Ousted national security advisor Michael Flynn was paid more than $500,000 by Turkey’s repressive government to represent its interests while he served as an advisor to the Trump campaign. This was around the same time he was screaming “lock her up.” [New York Times]
GOP Rep. Justin Amash cried in public today when he accidentally missed a vote in Congress for the first time, fucking up his perfect record. He was giving an interview attacking the GOP’s replacement bill, which he finds too Obamacare-y. Honestly, this story made me feel bummed. [Politico]
Trump “abruptly” ordered 46 Obama-appointed prosecutors to resign immediately, including, reportedly, Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan whom Trump previously asked to stay on. The Times notes that this occurred shortly after Sean Hannity demanded a “purge” of Obama officials on Fox News. [New York Times]
Ivanka Trump products saw a huge increase in sales after the Nordstrom/Kellyanne dust-up, because as it turns out, people are actually pretty okay with corruption. [Huffington Post]
Energy Department appointee Sid Bowdidge has stopped working at the department after BuzzFeed inquired about violent Islamophobic statements he’s made on social media (“exterminate them all”). His qualifications for the job: former Trump campaign worker, massage therapist. [BuzzFeed]
Trump is expected to nominate Scott Gottlieb, a former Bush administration official with substantial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, to run the FDA. [Washington Post]
Here are some tweets that the president was allowed to publish:
