An unhinged Donald Trump cuts Volodymyr Zelensky meeting short after Zelensky doesn't suck up to Trump, the fall flu is all but assured, FBI agents are pissed, and more

Socialite Life is a lively celebrity and pop culture website that offers a daily dose of divas, drag queens, hot male celebrities, models, and all the latest celebrity news. Given that our democracy is currently in turmoil, we feel compelled to keep everyone informed about the chaotic situation the Trump administration is creating in this country.

In Democracy Watch, we’ll share a roundup of the most alarming and mostly illegal activities that the Trump administration engages in a few times a week, along with some ridiculous things that Donald Trump and co-president Elon Musk are attempting to do.

We’ll also offer some useful resources to keep you informed about current events and guide you on how you can help prevent the United States from becoming the next Russia.

A remarkable shouting match broke out in the Oval Office today (Feb. 28, 2025) between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who was hoping to appeal to the US for continued security assistance during his trip to Washington. Raising their voices, Trump and Zelensky — along with Vice President JD Vance — engaged in a tense back-and-forth about the nature of US support and whether Zelensky had demonstrated enough gratitude.

Simply embarrassing for the United States. Trump and Vance are unhinged.

Brace yourselves for most likely coming down with the flu next year. The Trump regime seems to be doing everything it can to give the seasonal flu a helping hand. The Food and Drug Administration (thanks to RFK Jr.) has reportedly canceled a meeting next month meant to help decide the mix of influenza strains that should be included in next winter’s flu vaccine. [Gizmodo]

FBI agents are PISSED at the appointment of Dan ~~OingoBoingo~~ Bongino as Deputy Director. In a memo on Sunday evening, the FBI Agents Association told its 14,000 members that new director Kash Patel had assured them that he would follow tradition and name a career special agent with operational expertise as his deputy director. “Director Patel agreed,” said the memo, which Reuters reviewed.
An hour after the memo was sent, Dan Bongino, a right-wing podcaster who has never been an FBI agent and who has called the agency “irredeemably corrupt,” was named to serve as Patel’s deputy director. That position oversees day-to-day operations and carries enormous power to supervise investigations across the nation. [Reuters]

This is how much of a joke our new FBI director, Kash Patel, is. He is considering bringing in trainers from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to beef up agents’ martial arts and self-defense skills, according to four people familiar with the plan laid out on a call this week with FBI field offices. The newly appointed director discussed the idea during his first video conference call with the bureau’s 55 field office supervisors on Wednesday, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the call’s contents because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Two people briefed on the matter said current FBI agents described the idea as “surreal” and “wacky.” [Reuters]

President Donald Trump has said he is planning to hit goods made in the European Union with tariffs of 25%, claiming the bloc was created to “screw the United States.” “We’ll be announcing it very soon,” he told reporters at an appearance with members of his cabinet. “It’ll be 25% generally speaking and that will be on cars and all other things.” Then, of course, the European Union said it would react “firmly and immediately against unjustified tariffs.” [BBC]

Speaking of tariffs, tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico will go into effect on March 4 “as scheduled,” President Trump said on Thursday morning, claiming that those countries were still not doing enough to stop the flow of drugs into the United States. China will also face an additional 10 percent tariff next week, on top of the 10 percent he imposed earlier this month, the president wrote in a post on Truth Social. [The New York Times – Gifted Article]

As if DOGE and Elon Musk don’t have already have enough power already, Donald Trump on Wednesday (Feb. 26, 2025) signed an executive order meant to expand the power of Elon Musk’s governmental cost-cutting program, the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” or Doge. The new order calls for a “transformation” in federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans by requiring agencies to create a centralized system to record and justify payments, which may be made public for transparency – an initiative that would be monitored by Musk’s team. [The Guardian]

The Defense Department will begin removing transgender troops from the military (about 0.4 percent of those serving), giving service members 30 days to voluntarily separate or be removed, according to a Pentagon memo released in a court filing Wednesday (Feb. 26, 2025). “The medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service,” the memo reads. [AP]

In other utterly disturbing transgender erasure news, Iowa became the first U.S. state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code on Friday when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that opponents say will expose transgender people and other Iowans to discrimination in all aspects of daily life. The new law, which goes into effect July 1, follows several years of action from Reynolds and Iowa Republicans to restrict transgender students’ use of such spaces as bathrooms and locker rooms, and their participation on sports teams, in an effort to protect people assigned female at birth. Republicans say those policies cannot co-exist with a civil rights code that includes gender identity protections. [AP]

If you didn’t invest in cryptocurrency before. Now is probably not the time to do so. Just over a month since President Trump’s inauguration, U.S. regulators have almost entirely dismantled a yearslong government crackdown on the crypto industry, a volatile sector rife with fraud, scams, and theft. Regulators are following through on campaign promises that Trump made last year as he courted donations from deep-pocketed crypto investors and marketed his own digital currency to the public. Last week, the S.E.C. agreed to drop its lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest crypto company in the United States. Then, in rapid succession, top executives at the crypto firms Gemini, OpenSea, and Uniswap Labs announced that the agency had halted its investigations into their companies. An executive at another major crypto firm, Consensys, said on Thursday that the S.E.C. had agreed to withdraw a lawsuit targeting one of the company’s popular products. [The New York Times – Gifted Article]

How You Can Help Save Democracy

Join an Indivisible group in your area. The organization strives for an inclusive democracy where everyone has a voice and challenges and replaces right-wing political agendas. Through grassroots organizing, lobbying, media campaigns, and advocacy strategies, activists pressure elected officials to support progressive values.

Check out the new Indivisible Guide: “INDIVISIBLE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DEMOCRACY ON THE BRINK” — Strategies, Tactics, & Tips For How Everyday Americans Can Fight Back Together Wherever We Live

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