TRUMP’S WEATHERED MAN

Trump’s top hurricane response guy said he was unaware of hurricane season — in what the White House now claims was a joke. Ha ha! Very funny! But that’s hardly the only sign that he’s got a lot of catching up to do.

• Imagine you’ve just been named the country’s top disaster relief official. Sweet job, right? Except then you find out: This country has an entire season of hurricanes, six whole months when storms lash the Southeast! You’re on duty, like, that whole time, from like June 1 to November 30. And here’s the kicker: It just started! 

• Big shock, right? Well, apparently, that jarring surprise just hit President Donald Trump’s new acting FEMA administrator, David Richardson. He told his staff yesterday: “I didn’t realize it was a season,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

• In fairness, the guy has no experience in emergency response, so it’s understandable he’s learning on the job (even if that’s a scary prospect for the emergency chief, and he shouldn’t have been hired in the first place). He served in the Marines and later in a government post countering weapons of mass destruction. So, if one of those hurricanes tries to nuke us, I guess he’ll know what to do?

• A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security slammed “meanspirited attempts to falsely frame a joke as policy,” and insisted FEMA is ready for whatever storms may come. And, sure, it might have been a joke. Then again, Trump has a long track record of dismissing his own most hair-brained statements as jokes, too.

But this is hardly the only area where Richardson has seemed unaware of his new portfolio, according to a former FEMA official who briefly crossed paths with him at the agency.

• “He also didn’t know about the full range of potential hazards that exist,” the official told What A Day. In a meeting once, “he made a comment about the fact that he wasn’t aware that volcanoes were a thing we were concerned about. Again, it was kind of offhand.”

• It’s the kind of thing that a FEMA director might want to know, even if volcanos aren’t on the forefront of most Americans’ concerns. The U.S. has about 169 active volcanoes, located in places like Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. True, the U.S. has had fewer than 1,000 volcano-related deaths in its entire history. Then again, if Mount St. Helens ever went up again — after killing 57 people in 1980 — it would be cool if the FEMA guy had given this issue at least a moment’s thought. “He was seeing there’s a lot more there than just floods and tornadoes,” the official told me.

• Even if Richardson was joking about hurricanes, the joke seems… in poor taste. “What’s the joke? Is it self-deprecating, like, ‘I’m so incompetent that I don’t know what hurricane season is?’ He’s aware of himself, that he has no experience?” Jeremy Edwards, former FEMA press secretary under the Biden administration, told What A Day. “You’re pointing out the fact that you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing.”

• Forecasters expect more storms than average this year, including three to five major hurricanes. FEMA struggled to respond to deadly hurricanes last year, and the agency is even more unprepared now: The Trump administration cut 2,000 workers — about one-third of FEMA’s full-time workforce — and slashed its funds. “Every day, FEMA is getting less ready, not more ready,” the former official added.

“It’s like a mix between comedy and tragedy,” Edwards said, explaining that his friends who work in FEMA share memes about Richardson. “They’re like, ‘This guy’s a fucking clown,’ they’re making jokes about him … But on the other hand, it’s really scary.”

D-BAG DUO

Donald Trump’s latest obsession is trying to force American companies to bring their business back to the United States. His own family hasn’t gotten the memo.

The Trump Organization, the family real estate firm led by douchebag duo Don. Jr. and Eric Trump, has publicly announced 12 international projects since their daddy took office. That includes residential high-rises, hotels and golf courses.

That number dwarfs the two — TWO!!! — deals the Trump Organization announced during the president’s first term. Adding insult to injury, the business empire unveiled an ethics agreement in January promising to avoid doing deals directly with foreign governments. Surprise, surprise: Many of the deals involved foreign governments, mostly in the Middle East.

“The Trumps say there is a crucial distinction. The company isn’t transacting directly with foreign governments. Rather, some of the Trump deals are joint ventures with companies that are doing business with foreign governments,” the Wall Street Journal writes. The dozen deals were finalized before Trump won election, a company representative told the outlet.

Aha! That makes it okay! Nothing to see here folks.

NEWS NEWS NEWS

Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians who were walking toward a new food distribution site in the Gaza Strip today, killing at least 27 people, according to local health officials. It’s the second major shooting by Israeli forces in three days near that aid site, as famished Palestinians try to secure enough food to survive.

Donald Trump has privately complained for at least a year about the Supreme Court justices he nominated, particularly Justice Amy Coney Barrett, for not supporting his agenda enough. Trump’s ire has been fueled by his allies, who have accused Barrett of being “weak” and not aligned with how she interviewed for the job. I bet Donald’s moping around, angry that this isn’t one big episode of “The Apprentice.” You can’t just fire THESE people, loser!

Trump has posted on Truth Social, his company’s social media platform, more than 2,200 times since taking office. He’s being helped out by a team of aides, allowing him to directly communicate with millions of people without the media calling out his bullshit (like his claim that former President Joe Biden was executed and replaced by a “soulless mindless” robotic clone). Takes one to know one!

Scientists are warning that Trump’s cuts to their budgets will cause the most talented researchers to leave the country. One stunning example: Scientist Ardem Patapoutian, who won a Nobel Prize after discovering how humans sense touch, was studying new ways to treat pain when his federal grant was frozen. He posted online about the situation — and within hours, he received an email from China, offering to move his lab to “any city, any university I want” with 20 years of guaranteed funding, he told the New York Times. Patapoutian decided to stay… but other less-experienced researchers may not have much of a choice, he said.

Sales of subscriptions for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. fell 36 percent this year, causing staffers to raise the alarm about the Trump administration’s botched takeover of the arts center. “We feel that we no longer have a choice but to force complete transparency with the public,” a current staffer said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Navy to rename a ship that was named after Harvey Milk, the gay rights leader and Navy veteran who was assassinated. What a twisted way to start Pride Month…

South Korean politician Lee Jae-myung, a left-leaning candidate who has argued his should not be  over-dependent on the United States, won the country’s presidential election. Lee once likened himself to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)… which sounds like a vast improvement from the previous dude who tried to declare martial law, then barricaded himself in his residence before being arrested.

Has the warm smell of brownies baking at grandma’s house been getting… skunkier lately? It could be because older folks are smoking (and eating) weed way more than they used to. Marijuana use among people 65 and older rose from 4.8 percent to 7 percent from 2021 to 2023, according to new research. No word yet on whether they’re listening to more Pink Floyd, though.

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