Trump’s Fave Snarling Spox Exits Stage Right
INSIDE: Abrego Garcia ... Eric Trump ... Randy Fine
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Good Riddance
Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson who trafficked in scurrilous lies about Trump’s mass deportation operation and in over-the-top attacks on the press, is leaving the administration on her own terms.
McLaughlin was a key contributor to a particular Trump II aesthetic: young, photogenic, often blonde women going feral in front of cameras on behalf of President Trump and his most odious nativist policies, in a performative spectacle that rejected the very premise of transparency and public accountability.
The peak example of McLaughlin’s angry-white-woman theatrics came in May, when the Trump administration rushed out a planeload of immigrants to South Sudan, in violation of an order from U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy of Boston. McLaughlin raced in front of the cameras to attack Murphy as he was convening an emergency hearing in the matter:
The deportees sat on a tarmac in Djibouti for days while the case made its way to the Supreme Court, where the six-justice conservative majority stayed Murphy’s order over a vigorous dissent from the three liberal justices, allowing the deportations to South Sudan to be completed.
No accountability then, and no accountability now.
In the Trump administration, where time is a flat circle, McLaughlin’s departure is virtually meaningless. It doesn’t represent a rejection of the mass deportation policy after the debacle in Minnesota, of the white nationalist gloss of DHS social media posts, or of her rampant false statements and made-up facts. It’s not a retrenchment or a retreat.
In its own odd way, it’s just the typical cycling through of staff at the one-year mark of a new administration — but with the twist of Trump bringing the prerogatives of reality TV casting to bear. Someone else — probably young, blonde, female, and snarling — will emerge as Trump’s favorite bombastic spokesperson, dodging tough questions from the press with pro-wrestling bluster and playground taunts. Rinse and repeat.
Mass Deportation Watch
Minnesota: State and federal authorities are investigating last month’s alleged beating of a Mexican national by federal agents in a St. Paul parking lot that left him in the ICU with eight skull fractures.
New York: An immigration judge dropped the Trump administration’s case against Columbia University graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Palestinian protestor, because the government failed to properly authenticate a key document, his lawyers say.
Nationwide: In an attempt to prevent a repeat of Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, Democratic mayors in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Oakland and Seattle have signed executive orders attempting to restrict how and where ICE can operate in their cities, while a coalition of local Democratic prosecutors is warning that they will prosecute ICE agents who break the law.
Judge: ICE Can’t Re-detain Abrego Garcia
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland issued a new order barring ICE from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongfully deported El Salvadoran national that has been relentlessly targeted by the Trump administration.
In extending her prior injunction prohibiting ICE from taking Abrego Garcia back into custody, Xinis rejected a bad faith Trump administration argument that because last month it had issued an order of removal for Abrego Garcia retroactive to 2019, the clock restarted on when he could be detained and for how long.
Three Lawless Boat Strikes in One Day
Eleven people were killed Monday in a trio of unlawful U.S. strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, raising the known death toll in the months-long campaign to 144 or 145 (reports vary).
About Those Supposed ‘Rescues’ …
I’ve treated with considerable skepticism the reports that the Pentagon has summoned the Coast Guard to rescue survivors of its lawless boat strike campaign. Given the distances and time lag involved, the rescue efforts seem half-hearted at best. Now The Intercept puts some meat on the bone of at least one supposed rescue attempt and shows how inadequate and belated it was:
Eight men leapt into those rough seas on December 30 when the U.S. rained down a barrage of munitions, sinking three vessels. They required immediate rescue; chances were slim that they could survive even an hour. In announcing its strike, U.S. Southern Command or SOUTHCOM, said it “immediately notified” the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue protocols to save the men. …
Using open-source flight tracking data, Airwars and The Intercept learned that a Coast Guard plane did not head toward the site of the attack for almost two days. A timeline provided by the Coast Guard confirmed that it was roughly 45 hours before a flight arrived at the search area.
The slow response and lack of rescue craft in the area suggests there was scant interest on the part of the U.S. in saving anyone. It’s part of a pattern of what appear to be imitation rescue missions that since mid-October have not saved a single survivor.
The Corruption: Drone Edition
WSJ: Eric Trump Invests in ‘Low Cost Per Kill’ Drone Company
The Corruption: Ballroom Edition
President Trump has named his longtime executive assistant Chamberlain Harris — a 26-year-old with no relevant experience — to the 116-year-old Commission of Fine Arts, which will review Trump’s plan for his vanity ballroom project. The WaPo wryly notes that the commission’s initial membership included Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Daniel Burnham. Trump has similarly placed loyalists on the National Capital Planning Commission, which must also review the ballroom plan.
Thread of the Day
Mistrial in Texas ‘Antifa’ Case
The judge in the federal terrorism trial of protestors allegedly involved in the July 4 incident at an ICE detention center in Prairieland, Texas, where a police officer was shot declared a mistrial during jury selection because a defense attorney was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with images of civil rights leaders.
Back to the Well on Islamophobia
With Texas Republicans trying to juice their midterm election chances by whipping up a fresh round of Islamophobia, the Trump Department of Housing and Urban Development has opened a new discrimination investigation into a large housing development centered on a mosque outside of Dallas.
The Trump DOJ had already quietly closed an investigation into the development last summer, but HUD Secretary Scott Turner jumped loudly into the fray with early voting already underway ahead of the March 3 primary election, which features a hard-fought GOP race for U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), a Jewish first-term congressman, engaged in straight-up anti-Muslim bigotry, posting on social media: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Quote of the Day
“Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for. As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”—Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, which filed a new lawsuit in federal court in Boston challenging President Trump’s March 2025 executive order on “restoring truth and sanity to American history”
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I’ve been thinking for years that working in a refugee camp for 6 months should be a legal prerequisite for every candidate for national office.
It feels like the energy is building. Thank you for your work on this, David. Intense days ahead.