It isn’t always easy to keep up with what’s happening in the US. “Shorter America” is a series where Dr Emma Shortis loops you in on what’s going on in America and shares news and analysis that you can trust.
By Emma Shortis
Fri 13 Feb 2026 13.35 AEDT
The White House/Flickr
A leadership spill! How quaint. Meanwhile, American politics continues to have a normal one.
The House of Representatives has just passed the SAVE Act, which is designed to do the exact opposite of saving American democracy, Attorney General Pam Bondi is on a tear, and there is no peace under this president. But at least the Mormon moms are having a good time.
The Trump-approved Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE, urgh) Act has just passed in the House of Representatives, with unanimous support from House Republicans and one Democrat (I know, what? It was Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, who, as far as I can tell, is the same Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas who was pardoned by President Trump last year after he and his wife faced bribery charges, which…checks out).
Anyway, as this Mother Jones piece outlines, the Act would potentially, and very deliberately, “disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans” by requiring registering voters to show very particular forms of ID and proof of citizenship, in person. As the piece notes, that would mean, for example, that women who have changed their name after marriage would have a very hard time registering. Which, again, is the whole point.
The general consensus seems to be that the Act won’t pass the Senate, which is a rare piece of good news.
But if a recent performance by Attorney-General Pam Bondi is anything to go by, Republicans aren’t likely to let up. On Thursday Australian time, Bondi appeared before the Judiciary Committee and dodged questions about the Epstein files, waxing lyrical about the “greatest president in American history”.
Bondi’s behaviour indicates that she is unafraid of consequences.
Her performance was clearly aimed squarely at the President – she apparently wasn’t at all worried about pissing off the head of the Judiciary Committee, which most Attorneys General would try to avoid. Bondi doesn’t seem to be worried that after a power shift, or perhaps a change of administration, that there might be some consequences for, I don’t know, participating in a cover up of some of the most egregious crimes in modern American history, or, I don’t know, getting the Department she runs to surveil Democratic members of congress.
I wonder why that might be.
The Irish Times published a story this week that seems to have been largely missed in Australia. Irish man Seamus Culleton had lived in the United States for 20 years on a valid visa.
He was detained by ICE in September and has been held in a detention facility in Texas ever since. Culleton alleges that ICE agents are lying about him signing a deportation document – Culleton claims he never signed anything. It’s also not clear why he would be deported, or why he is still being detained.
ICE agents are of course overwhelmingly and disproportionately targeting communities of colour, but they don’t stop there. The agency’s willingness to do this to a white Irish man is a pretty big indication of its confidence. When there is no rule of law, no one is safe – and that includes traditional allies of the United States.
Culleton’s case highlights, in very real terms, just how much what the Trump administration is doing affects the rest of the world.
The stories trickling out of those detention facilities – which, it is increasingly clear, is a sanitised term for concentration camps – are harrowing.
Take this Guardian headline: “Calls to shut down Texas ICE facility for children grow amid measles outbreak”. Yes, you read that right: “facility for children” and “measles outbreak”.
This ProPublica piece has more horrible detail on the children being held. It’s really hard going. But this is what our most important security ally is doing.
That violence is exported outwards and then brought back home again in a nightmare loop. As this Al Jazeera piece documents, American-made bombs are being used by Israel to “evaporate” Palestinians. And our own government, in inviting the President of Israel here, and in its doubling down on the US alliance, is complicit.
If you need an escape from the horror – or maybe just a different variety? – try this in The Cut, on the rise of the Mormon influencer. I’m off to re-watch Big Love.
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