Good morning and Happy Tuesday! Thanks for reading LMP today. Uh, hey — does anyone else have a problem with the US government holding a prayer service at the National Mall?
In Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments (the book, not the Hulu series), we learn that Gilead has taken the Washington Monument and turned it into a giant cross. Way back in 2019, when I thought we were coming close to seeing the last of Donald Trump, I scoffed at that imagery, thinking it was a bit heavy-handed, even for Gilead.
Welp, Margaret, I was wrong. I now feel like we’re about a week away from Trump proposing to gild the Lincoln Memorial in gold leaf and, indeed, turn the Washington Monument into a giant cross, probably with a casino somehow attached.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday billed as a "rededication of our country as One Nation under God."
Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event's Christian focus. Arched stained-glass windows, set underneath grand columns resembling a federal building, depicted the nation's founders alongside a white cross.
Most speakers celebrated Christianity's ties to American history, a blending of ideas that critics flagged ahead of the prayer gathering as supporting Christian nationalism.
President Donald Trump read a passage of Scripture in a video shown at the rally. Filmed in the Oval Office, it was the same footage used during a marathon Bible-reading event last month. The verses from 2 Chronicles are often cited by those who believe America was founded as a Christian nation.
Hey, if the Catholic Church or Young Life or some religious group wants to get a permit to hold a prayer service on the National Mall, more power to them. After all, our Constitution doesn’t outlaw religion or public religious practices, despite what Republicans want their constituents to believe. The Constitution does, however, prohibit the US Government from choosing to elevate one religion over all others, which is exactly what the GOP is doing.
Other top Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were also on the schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.
Only one name on the Rededicate 250 program was not Christian. Most were among Trump's longtime evangelical supporters, including Paula White-Cain of the White House Faith Office and evangelist Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse.
The US Constitution doesn’t explicitly mention the “separation of church and state.” We have Thomas Jefferson to thank for that. Here’s what he wrote about the need for a separation of church and state in a Massachusetts newspaper in 1802.
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
And Jefferson wasn’t alone. James Madison wrote, “The tendency of government and religion to mix and corrupt each other is so great that the danger cannot be too carefully guarded against,” adding that religion “flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government".
And, lest you think Jefferson and Madison were outliers, the entire United States Senate, in 1797, ratified a treaty with Tripoli, which included this wording in Article 11:
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
So it irks me in no small part to see the President of the United States, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and God knows how many others in the current administration holding a prayer service to “rededicate” the National Mall to Christianity.
Many in the crowd wore Trump hats and patriotic colors, joining the festivities under a sweltering sun.
"It's all about Jesus," said Denny Smith, 72, of Rhode Island, who rented a motorized scooter to traverse the National Mall.
Yeah, it sure sounds like it’s all about Jesus. Orange Jesus.
I’ll be honest: I never thought anyone would be dumb enough to fall for Trump’s shtick as a church-going Bible lover. I bet Trump couldn’t name a single book in the Bible if he was asked to answer without help. On the contrary, Trump has lived his life more like the money changers whom Jesus famously threw out of the Temple than anyone whom Jesus associated with. (Shout out to my CDC teachers; that’s the one Bible story that stuck with me. Probably because it’s the most anti-capitalist - ha.)
Thanks to Trump, there are so many shenanigans happening that it’s hard to keep your eye on any one ball — it’s like playing three-card monte in hell. But I wanted to take a moment to say that what happened on Sunday is not okay. In fact, it’s downright un-American.
I believe I’ll give Thomas Paine the last word on the topic today:
My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches... appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
In other news: Trump gets $1.8 billion to hand out to his loyalists; Sam Altman bests Elon Musk in the trial of the two worst men on the planet; Minnesota sets its sights on ICE; and The High Note.
Here we go.
It pays to support Donald Trump
I’ve often wondered what it is about Donald Trump that engenders such batshit loyalty from his followers. He’s clearly not very intelligent. He’s not attractive, and he has no record of doing anything notable for humanity. He’s not even particularly charismatic. No one would call him a good orator or public speaker like Barack Obama. He’s not even charming like Bill Clinton (I know, I know, but it’s true) or kind like Jimmy Carter. He certainly doesn’t have the television presence or Ivy League pedigree of JFK.
So why is it that so many people are willing to toss their reputations and their souls into the sewer to align themselves with this sniveling, petty, odiferous crybaby in chief? I think the answer is that it pays to back Trump. Exhibit A: Yesterday, Trump “dropped” his lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a $1.7 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a $10 billion lawsuit President Trump filed against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns years ago, following Trump's request.
Ethics watchdogs and Democrats in Congress had sought to intervene in what is the first known instance of a president suing the government he leads.
Hours after the request to dismiss the case, the Department of Justice announced an "anti-weaponization fund" as part of the settlement with Trump. In a statement, the department said the $1.7 billion fund would allow the DOJ to settle and pay cases.
Let’s be clear about what this is: This is like Elon Musk suing Tesla if Tesla didn’t have a board of directors and Musk was the sole decision-maker. This is Trump treating the US Treasury like his own personal piggybank. He just helped himself to $1.7 billion of our money, and he’s going to use it as reparations for white guys who stormed the Capitol and wanted to hang Mike Pence.
It’s worth noting that even the judge overseeing the case wasn’t sure this was legally on the up-and-up, and she had ordered the parties to submit briefs explaining whether or not the case was even legal, pointing out that Trump was literally negotiating with himself. Believe it or not, I agree with JD Vance on this.
Indeed. And by “dropping” his lawsuit before the settlement was announced, Trump will likely avoid judicial review of the settlement. At any other time in America’s history, this would be the scandal of the century. In our current timeline? It’s second-page news on a Monday.
Jury finds Elon Musk to be worse than Sam Altman
Okay, not really. But I have always said that juries tend to believe the party they like more. So, in a sense, they chose Altman (blah) over Musk (yarg). Imagine being a juror who had to listen to these two blowhards on the stand. I would have been whipping spitballs at them from the jury box.
OAKLAND, Calif. - A jury in California took less than two hours to decide that Elon Musk waited too long to file a lawsuit against his one-time business partner Sam Altman over the direction he's steered the artificial intelligence company OpenAI since the two had a falling out nearly a decade ago.
In a unanimous decision, the nine-member advisory jury said Musk was beyond the statute of limitations when he launched his case in 2024. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, agreed, tossing the case out.
My immediate thoughts about Musk when I heard this verdict:
I also wanted to take a second to share this story about AI CEOs, who can’t understand why no one likes their products.
Maybe handing the world over to entitled nerds with zero social skills was a bad idea.
Minnesota is going after at least one ICE agent
When it comes to holding ICE accountable for what it did to their state, Minnesota is not playing around. The state is currently suing DHS and the DOJ to force the Trump administration to hand over evidence in the Renee Good and Alex Pretti murders.
Yesterday, Minnesota announced it has charged ICE agent Christian J. Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime, in relation to the shooting of Julio C. Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, in Minneapolis on January 14, 2026.
State prosecutors on Monday charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with assault in the January shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis, an incident that sparked violent protests at the height of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The identity of the agent accused of firing the shot, Christian J. Castro, 52, had not been disclosed until Monday. Mr. Castro was charged with four counts of second-degree assault, a felony, and one count of falsely reporting a crime, a misdemeanor.
“His federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota,” said Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County attorney.
There’s now an active warrant out for Castro’s arrest. You may recall this incident as the one in which Castro claimed that Sosa-Celis picked up a shovel and hit him with it, though the remote camera footage showed that Sosa-Celis never picked up the shovel. You can read the whole complaint here.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
Lately, I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole on YouTube with regard to nature scenes that calm and relax me. There are thousands of these things on YouTube, including this one that I always have on when reading:
And this one is for you - enjoy this field of grass, blowing gently in the breeze.
And, if you like sleeping to storms or crickets or just about anything else, you can find hours’ worth of sounds to fall asleep to. My favorite is airplane cabin noise.
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
