ICYMI: Weekend Roundup March 30, 2025

Pete Hegseth Won't Stop Bringing Family Members to Classified Meetings

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has brought his brother and his wife along for....some reason.

Nepo baby brother Phil Hegseth is serving as a "Pentagon aide". His tasks so far? Meeting with the convicted rapist and UFC fighter Conor McGregor and joining his brother on the Pentagon’s Boeing 747 for taxpayer-funded trips to Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, and Japan. His official title is “senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department.”

The Pentagon organizational chart shows the younger Hegseth directly below his brother. It lists his role as senior adviser to the defense secretary.

Federal law prevents government officials from hiring their relatives, but this may not be illegal, because Republicans love a good loophole.

There are exceptions to nepotism restrictions in the federal government for the president’s office. Like Donald Trump hiring his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior adviser during his first term. But this would not apply to Hegseth. It also doesn't help that he brought his wife to high-level intelligence meetings on at least two occasions, including one at the Pentagon.

The spouses of senior officials are often granted low-level security clearance, but none of them go to their partners to high-level meetings. so it's especially weird that Hegseth's wife has been spotted in at least two.

Delaware Senator Chris Coons said of the incident, “That’s not normal at all. Look, I’ve traveled overseas on congressional delegation trips with Republicans and Democrats. On some of those trips, our spouses come along with us [but] they are not allowed in any secret, sensitive, classified meeting with foreign heads of state, with foreign officials.”

It's very possible that his wife is wary of what he gets up to at work, especially since that's how they started their whirlwind romance (when he cheated on his then-wife with her).

ICE Arrested Another US Citizen for "Looking Mexican"

ICE has refused to comment on its warrantless arrest and detainment of an American citizen, citing the “ongoing litigation". Here instead is a statement about the attempted disappearing of an American citizen:

Julio Noriega is 54 years old, was born in Chicago, and is a U.S. citizen. On January 31, 2025, he was walking near the corner of Cermak Road and Harlem Avenue in Berwyn, Illinois, handing out his resume to local businesses. As he walked out of a Jiffy Lube, he was approached by ICE officers who grabbed and handcuffed him and put him into a van, without an opportunity to explain his citizenship. The officers drove Julio and others around for more than an hour before bringing him to an ICE processing center, where he remained, still handcuffed, for several more hours. All the while, Julio had a wallet containing identification that ICE had confiscated. The officers never showed Julio a warrant, and they did not ask him any questions to ascertain whether he was a noncitizen or a flight risk. After about 10 hours, ICE officers reviewed the contents of Julio’s wallet, realized he was a U.S. citizen, and released him with no money and no paperwork.

This is just the beginning. We have to stop this now before it gets any worse.

Trump is Deadly Serious about Illegally Running for a Third Term

Seeking a third term in the White House, is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment, BUT THAT'S NOT GONNA STOP DONALD TRUMP.

“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said in a Sunday-morning phone call with NBC News. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. I’m focused on the current."

When asked whether he wanted another term, the president responded, “I like working. I’m not joking. But I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.”

When asked whether he has been shown plans to allow a third term, Trump said, “There are methods which you could do it.” NBC News asked about a possible scenario in which Vice President JD Vance would run for office and then pass the role to Trump. Trump responded “that’s one” method.

“But there are others, too,” Trump added, in the most ominous way possible.

Asked to share another method, Trump simply responded “no.”

The other methods include amending the Constitution to abolish the two-term limit, which would require either a two-thirds vote of Congress or two-thirds of the states agreeing to call a constitutional convention to propose changes. Either route would then require ratification from three-quarters of the states.

The president pointed to his poll numbers, saying that “a lot of people would like me to” hold office for a third term.

Let's pray he's wrong.

The IRS Unit in Charge of Auditing Billionaires Has Been cut by 38%

The IRS’s unit that audits billionaires and other ultrawealthy individuals has lost 38% of its employees this year thanks to Trump and Musk.

The office, known as Global High Wealth, employed 353 people before the cuts and has experienced a far higher rate of terminations compared to the IRS as a whole, data shows.

The unit’s losses have left behind unfinished audits of ultrawealthy individuals and cases that have either stalled or are being closed, according to four current revenue agents within the high-wealth office. If I worked a the IRS I would be funneling every asset we had left into this unit, but, alas.

Earlier this year, the IRS had around 100,000 employees overall. Last month, the Trump administration terminated more than 7,000 IRS probationary staff members across the agency. The IRS also reportedly lost another 4,000 or 5,000 workers, who took the administration’s much-publicized buyout offer, probably out of fear of being unceremoniously fired by Musk.