Ivanka Trump took to the electric Twitter machine this morning and she sent out one of the great own-goals of all time.

Right. And I tell you what, why don't you hang around for a while, because it'll save you and your ill-suited old man some airfare. From the Washington Post:

The Trump administration is canceling English classes, recreational programs, and legal aid for unaccompanied minors staying in federal migrant shelters nationwide, saying the immigration influx at the southern border has created critical budget pressures. The Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun discontinuing the funding stream for activities — including soccer — that have been deemed “not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation,” said U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Weber.

Look at the headline on that story. "Unaccompanied minors in U.S. shelters" should have been gob-stopping enough for any American with a democratic conscience, but, what the hell, let's make the experience even more joyless and degrading because that's easier than coming up with a plan that makes sense.

The move — revealed in an email an HHS official sent to licensed shelters last week, a message that has been obtained by The Washington Post — could run afoul of a federal court settlement and state licensing requirements that mandate education and recreation for minors in federal custody. Carlos Holguin, a lawyer who represents minors in a long-running lawsuit that spurred a 1997 federal court settlement that sets basic standards of care for children in custody, immediately slammed the cuts as illegal.

“We’ll see them in court if they go through with it,” Holguin said. “What’s next? Drinking water? Food? . . . Where are they going to stop?”

This is going to be the most dangerous future price we pay for electing a vulgar talking yam to be President* of the United States. We are taking poor, desperate people and, day after day, feeding them cause for deep resentment and hatred. And all this because a blustering coward wants to look tough for his rapidly shrinking core of support. People have long memories for that stuff.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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