The Trump II Destruction Is Already In Full Swing

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

It’s Easier To Break Than To Build

We talk a lot about the structural imbalances in American politics, but perhaps the most consequential disparity arises from the Trump right’s fundamental commitment to breaking shit. We’ve seen it unfold in spades this week, as promises to destroy as much as they can as quickly as they can begin to be kept.

It’s not new to Trump. It’s been an essential element of the conservative project for decades now, reflected in anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist’s famous line about shrinking the federal government until it was small enough to drown in a bathtub.

When destruction is the point and there is no responsibility or accountability for building, creating, or even administering, all manner of democratic norms and civic consensus start to fall apart. Perhaps in the long term the consequences of the destruction will exact a political price, but in the meantime, the performative transgression is its own reward.

The Trump II Destruction Continues …

Swathes of the federal government have ground to a halt in the first week of the second Trump administration:

• Disturbing: Trump moves to close Pentagon office focused on curbing civilian deaths
• Shitty: Trump DOJ rescinds job offers in its Honors Program.
• Alarming: Health researchers are reeling as Trump administration pauses travel, communications, and meetings.

Vindictive AF

After yanking special security protection from his own former national security adviser, President Trump has now done the same thing to Mike Pompeo, his own former secretary of state, and Brian Hook, his former special representative for Iran. Both men have been under threat of retaliation from Iran.

Quote Of The Day

“Patriotism is loyalty to country and loyalty to the Constitution – not loyalty to a single head of state. No stroke of a pen and no proclamation can alter the facts of what took place on January 6, 2021. When others in the public eye are not willing to risk their own power or popularity by calling out lies when they hear them, the record of the proceedings in this courthouse will be available to those who seek the truth.”

–U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, joining other federal judges in Washington, D.C. in reluctantly dismissing a case against a Jan. 6 defendant at the request of the Trump DOJ

The Other Trump Pardons

Beyond the Jan. 6 pardons, President Trump is using his first week in office to abuse the pardon power in other ways: to signal whose side he is on regardless of the law, to score political points, and to reward supporters explicitly for their political backing:

• DC police officers convicted of egregious misconduct;
• convicted abortion clinic protesters;
• a convicted online drug kingpin who was a cause célèbre for pro-Trump libertarians.

A Weird Day On The Pete Hegseth Beat

Even as defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth cleared a significant confirmation hurdle in the Senate, new allegations continued to emerge about his prior misconduct:

• In response to questions from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Hegseth revealed that he paid $50,000 to the woman who accused him of a 2017 sex assault, the AP has learned.
• Pete Hegseth’s ex-wife has given a new statement to the FBI about his alcohol use, CNN reported: “He drinks more often than he doesn’t.”

A Senate floor vote on the Hegseth nomination is expected late tonight. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) were the only two Republican no votes on yesterday’s procedural vote. Hegseth can only lose three GOP votes, so it remains close but no real sign yet that enough Republican senators will rally to stop his confirmation.

Whither Kash Patel?

The confirmation hearing for Trump FBI pick Kash Patel has been scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 30

• NYT: F.B.I. Pick Pushed False and Misleading Claims About Trump Investigations
• Bloomberg: FBI Nominee Patel’s CNN Defamation Lawsuit Fails to Advance 
• NYT: Trump’s F.B.I. Pick Sees ‘Deep State’ Plotters in Government, and Some Good in QAnon

The Intimidation Is The Point

As President Trump rolls back anti-discrimination rules across the federal government, including some that date back to FDR, law professor Samuel Bagenstos makes the point that the way Trump is doing it is designed to squelch pro-diversity voices in the private sector, too:

But there’s an even more pernicious aspect to the new anti-DEI EO.  It will be used–and appears to have been carefully designed to be used–to intimidate and harass private institutions that are outspoken in their support for a robust vision of equity.  And it will be used to encourage those institutions to silence their employees who speak out in favor of such a vision (and, on university campuses, to silence those who speak out on other matters).

‘A Blatantly Unconstitutional Order’

President Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship did not survive first contact with a federal judge.

In a court hearing to temporarily block the executive order, U.S. District John C. Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, called it a “blatantly unconstitutional order”

I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order. There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say where were the judges, where were the lawyers?”

Coughenour savaged Trump administration lawyers for arguing otherwise. “Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” Coughenour said. “It just boggles my mind.”

He granted the temporary restraining order while the case, one of several challenging the executive order, proceeds.

Xenophobia Watch

• NYT: Trump Officials Move to Quickly Expel Migrants Biden Allowed In Temporarily
• A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Newark, New Jersey, swept up citizens, including a U.S. military veteran, according the city’s mayor.
• WaPo: DOJ focus on ‘sanctuaries’ follows prison threats by Stephen Miller’s group

‘It’s Become Too Violent An Environment’

The current political atmosphere is prompting some churches to pull back from offering sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. Seth Kaper-Dale, a pastor at the Reformed Church of Highland Park in central New Jersey, told the WSJ: “It’s become too violent an environment, and the current president’s sort of invitation to violence makes us not want to have a label of sanctuary,” he said. “I do not need this to become the next Tree of Life synagogue.”

The Toils Of Cassidy Hutchinson

In the midst of their bogus counter-investigation last year of the Jan. 6 committee, some House Republicans got jumpy that if they subpoenaed former Trump White House aide-turned-whistleblower Cassidy Hutchinson then sexually explicit texts to her from members of Congress might come out, according to a bizarro report in the WaPo:

Before that meeting, a Johnson aide told Loudermilk’s staff that multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker’s office about the potential for public disclosure of “sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors” with Hutchinson, according to correspondence produced at the time that detailed the conversation.

The exact nature, timing, and scope of the sexts remains pretty opaque in the WaPo report. In her 2023 book, Hutchinson recounted some creeptastic moments involving then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rudy Giuliani, which they each denied.

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