The Most Dangerous Line Trump Could Still Cross
INSIDE: Elon Musk ... Darren Beattie ... Pete Marocco
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Will The Judiciary Hold?
Nothing about the last week in American politics should be sugarcoated. We are in a bad way. How bad remains to be seen.
A key marker for how bad things might get is whether the executive branch defies the judicial branch. Things are touch and go right now, and it’s too early to draw any concrete conclusions. But here’s what to watch:
Late yesterday, a DC federal judge put a firmer block on the Trump White House’s spending freeze ordered by the OMB. The extension came only after the judge expressed concern that funds were still being held up in violation of an earlier pause of the freeze that she’d ordered.
It’s not clear whether the continuing cut off of funding was intentionally in violation of the court order or could be more benignly explained by a lag or a disorganized response in a chaotic period. There are other indications, such as distributing a required notice, that the Trump administration did comply at least in part with the DC court order and a similar one issued by a federal judge in Rhode Island late last week.
Elon Musk’s DOGE Rampage
Elon Musk’s role in the opening days of the Trump II administration is going to be studied for years. It is so hard to get one’s head around this actually happening in these utterly bizarre ways:
Wired: A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System
Politico: DOGE’s access to federal data is ‘an absolute nightmare,’ legal experts warn
NYT: Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government
CNN: Elon Musk is serving as a ‘special government employee,’ White House says
HuffPost: Unions Sue Treasury Department Over ‘DOGE’ Access To Sensitive Data
USAID Under Siege
USAID’s DC headquarters is closed for a second day as President Trump continues to threaten to unlawfully eliminate it as an independent agency by folding it into the State Department:
Bloomberg: Behind DOGE’s Standoff at USAID: Desk Searches and Elon Musk Calling
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) vowed to put a “blanket hold” on President Trump’s State Department nominees until USAID is restored.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he is now dual-hatting as acting administrator of USAID and notified lawmakers that he intends to work with Congress to reorganize USAID.
The Pandering To Elon Musk Knows No Limits
I’ve never seen anything like this letter from DC acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, a Missouri political hack, to Elon Mush, on DOJ letterhead no less:
The implication of Martin’s letter seems to be that the USAID security officials who tried to block Musk’s team from physically accessing classified information over the weekend may be criminally investigated. It also serves as a warning to anyone else who might try to enforce the law against Musk’s rampage through the federal government.
Trump Himself Ordered Jack Smith’s Prosecutors Canned
Of course he did, via The Guardian:
After Trump instructed his advisers that he wanted the prosecutors gone, the White House presidential personnel office, led by longtime Trump ally Sergio Gor, issued a memo that directed the justice department to proceed and gave the move a degree of legal cover.
The memo was then sent to the acting attorney general’s office, which issued the actual termination notices to those still at the department. The precise number is unclear because the department did not release names, but the trial team consisted of at least 18 lawyers
Trump DOJ Is Leading The Purge Of The FBI
The FBI general counsel concluded that bureau leaders had no legal choice but to comply with the lawful DOJ order to turn over the names of agents who worked on the Jan. 6 cases, NBC News reports.
Prosecutors and agents caught up in the DOJ and FBI purges are preparing to file lawsuits over their unlawful terminations.
The Battle For The Soul Of The FBI
Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa:
An agency that is defined by loyalty to a person, rather than principles can neither be guided nor reined in by rules. It is built around, and driven by, contempt for them. The current Justice Department’s willingness to decimate almost half of its agent workforce without due process protections owed to those employees and despite the danger to Americans that will result from the vacuum left by agents no longer investigating and monitoring critical threats, is already signaling a step in this direction.
The Trump II Clown Show
Jan. 6 conspiracist Darren Beattie, who has a history of deeply racist and misogynistic social media posts, is now the State Department’s acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs.
Devin Nunes acolyte Michael Ellis is now the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has tapped Pete Marocco, the director of foreign assistance at the State Department, to lead a review of USAID. Who is Marocco, you ask? Ummm …
In early 2023, online sleuths who aided the FBI in cases against hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters identified Marocco and his now-wife as being among the rioters who stormed the Capitol in 2021, pointing to multiple images of them on the Capitol grounds that day and CCTV video that shows the man they identified as Marocco entering the Capitol through a broken window.
Photos of the person who entered the building were a strong facial recognition match for publicly available images of Marocco, online sleuths said. Marocco, like hundreds of others whom sleuths identified as people who entered the Capitol, was not charged before Trump pardoned all Jan. 6 defendants.
Hollowing Out The Federal Government
Other departments and agencies President Trump is unlawfully attempting to cripple:
CFPB: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau halted most of its work as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was dual-hatted as acting CFPB director.
Department of Education: The Trump White House is seeking to unlawfully dismantle the department, in part by issuing an executive order to “shut down all functions of the agency that aren’t written explicitly into statute.”
The Anti-DEI Crusade
TPM’s Josh Kovensky: Trump II Punishes Fed Workers For Attending Trump I Diversity Training
A coalition of various interests filed suit in federal court in Maryland to block President Trump’s anti-DEI order.
Understanding Anti-DEI As A Cultural Code
A good thread from Nathan Ruser comparing the MAGA attack on DEI to the way anti-Semitism evolved into a cultural code in Germany that came to represent more than hatred of Jews.
Sweet Justice
The historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., has been awarded control of the Proud Boys’ name, trademark, and symbols in partial settlement of its default judgment against the right-wing extremist group that vandalized its building in December 2020.
Cry Harder, Mediocre White Boys
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The Good Guys are Out; the Bad Guys are In. Up. Is. Down.
As a writer of dramatic fiction (science fiction and political thriller movies) and someone who has considered the Right a threat to the country going back 50+ years, there is no way I could have come up with what is now history.
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