His plate’s full: The long and sometimes puzzling arm of the law has reached out and snagged Steve Holck, a retired Kailua resident and the current District 51 chair of the Hawaiʻi Republican Party.

This because somehow — he doesn’t know how — the city got wind of the 2-year-old license plate on his Tesla which reads “4-MAGA.”

Last week Holck got a letter telling him the plate is being recalled because it is, in the city’s view, inappropriate. This despite the fact that city took his $60 and issued him the plate no problem in 2024.

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Here’s the actual law covering what’s prohibited on a license plate. The Blog may be missing something here, but the rule seems to ban words that are sexual, obscene or vulgar, or that relate to illegal drugs and alcohol, or that relate to groups defined by race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Nowhere can The Blog find that political groups are a legal no-no.

Holck has been ordered to turn in the plate by Monday.

“No way. I’m keeping it, man,” Holck tells The Blog. “I don’t know what will happen.”

On Friday, Holck sent certified letters to the city’s Department of Customer Services and Mayor Rick Blangiardi appealing the recall notice on the grounds that it violates his First Amendment rights, is not obscene, drug-related or a gang reference and doesn’t violate the city law prohibiting such stuff on license plates.

Readers who pay attention to life in Our Town will recall the case in 2022 when the city demanded the return of another license plate, the one that said “FCK BLM.” In that case, also a fight over free speech, the city won when a federal appeals court ruled that “FCK” is indeed not something that should be displayed on a license plate whether it was a suggestion regarding Black Lives Matter or, perhaps, the Bureau of Land Management.

Holck, a pro-life activist and longtime GOP stalwart, has long displayed his fondness for Donald Trump and conservative issues. He sent The Blog this picture of the flags on display at his Enchanted Lakes home. “Flags at my house, flyin’ proudly for 25 years since 9/11 and lit up at nite,” he wrote. “Building inspector sez tons of complaints, and he tells em FREEDOM OF SPEECH!”

The Blog will be interested to see how this one turns out. Despite what some people may think, MAGA is not a four-letter word. In that sense anyway.

Read the letters from the city to Holck and from Holck to the city:

Is Tulsi next?: Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market, is running the odds on who will be next to be axed from the Trump administration following the recent firings of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi. On Friday it was giving the Director of National Intelligence a 67% chance of being dumped.

But some political wags say Gabbard, a former Democratic U.S. representative from Hawaiʻi, is still in Trump’s good graces. Politico, for example, reports that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer are the likely next Cabinet members to get a pink slip. He has reportedly soured on both. FBI Director Kash Patel is also a possibility.

Gabbard is not out of the woods, though. News18, The Times of India and Times Now say bad feelings linger over Gabbard’s handling of a dispute involving Joe Kent, a former deputy who resigned after stating Iran did not pose an immediate threat. 

“Tulsi Gabbard on thin ice as Donald Trump poised for third firing within days — insider,” The Mirror said in a headline Friday.

“Who’s the Next Lady on Trump’s Chopping Block,” said a headline Friday from Talking Points Memo.

Still others say that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is next to be excised. He’s been busy with his own office cleaning, having fired the Army chief of staff just this week.

With Trump, it’s anybody’s guess.

Off with your beard: Anyone flying Hawaiian Airlines this week notice anything different about the male pilots? Alaska Airlines, which acquired Hawaiian in September 2024, banned the wearing of beards effective April 1.

The Blog confirmed that the policy applies to all pilots on all fleets. The primary reason, according to a memo from Chief Pilot Scott Day, is based on FAA guidance and flight deck safety.

The Blog hears that the change, apparently made without warning or discussion, has not gone over well with the Hawaiian pilots. They are asking for it to be rescinded.

“This has affected morale and angered a significant portion of the pilot group and highlighted a white washing of the Hawaiian brand,” a tipster tells The Blog. “Native Hawaiian pilots are calling out Alaska for taking advantage of the Hawaiian culture to sell tickets but not respecting it in real life.”

Alex Da Silva, a spokesman for for Hawaiian, issued this statement Saturday: “We understand this is a meaningful change for our Hawaiian Airline pilots as we bring Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines together with a shared focus on safety and commitment to embrace our distinct brands. Our decision to prohibit facial hair for all our pilots is based on engagement with regulatory agencies, placards on flight oxygen masks, and data from our own safety review — all of which recommend that, for safety reasons, facial hair should not be allowed in the flight deck.”

The Hawaiian Airlines Master Executive Council, in a statement also on Saturday, expressed a very different view: “For decades, Hawaiian Airlines has maintained an outstanding safety record and nothing about that record suggests this change is necessary or warranted. Beyond the operational question, several of our pilots with Native Hawaiian ancestry have made clear that this policy disregards the cultural and personal significance that facial hair holds within Hawaiian culture. ALPA takes those concerns seriously, and we believe the airline should as well. We are currently engaged with Alaska Airlines management to review this decision, and we are asking that the beard prohibition be rescinded. Our pilots deserve policies that reflect both the realities of their professional performance and respect for their cultural identities.”