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 Happening
President Trump’s promise to destroy impediments to his free-wheeling abuse of power took a new twist late Friday night when he summarily fired more than a dozen inspectors general across the federal government in a purge that removed one of the front-line defenses against corruption, malfeasance, and mismanagement.
The firings were not formally announced, and the accounting for which inspectors general were removed and the total numbers involved (ranging from 12-17) continued to evolve over the weekend.
Trump disregarded some of the legal protections to insulate inspectors general from political retaliation like this. He failed, for instance, to provide the required 30-days written notice to Congress with a basis for the firings. In what is likely to become a common theme of the Trump II presidency, it is not clear what the consequences might be for violating the law or who is in a position to enforce it.
What is clear is that Trump continues to undermine if not outright tear down mechanisms and institutions designed to be a check on runaway executive power. Watchdogs like inspectors general offer a modicum of accountability that Trump simply won’t tolerate being in the hands of anyone other than loyalists and flunkies who he can control and intimidate.
Things Are Not Normal At DOJ
- “Every new administration replaces the political leadership of federal agencies and, over time, changes some of the senior career officials. But what happened in just a matter of days at [DO] is much different — sloughing off decades of apolitical expertise to new assignments widely seen in the building as punishments likely to result in resignations.”–NYT
- “Ousted career executives at DOJ are considering their options after being given vague rationale for their firings.”–Government Executive
- “A new administration always brings changes in personnel and policy. But current and former [DOJ] officials said the pace, scope and tone of Trump’s early moves in his second term are unusual and signal that a more dramatic transformation lies ahead.”–WSJ
The Cruelty Is The Point
- State Department halts global land mine-clearing programs.
- Global program to fight HIV/AIDS paused in funding freeze.
- Trump terminates Anthony Faucis’s security protection
- Air Force scraps training course that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilots
Judiciary Rebuffs New Trump Mass Email Initiative
In an apparent effort to enable President Trump to directly message every federal government worker, the Office of Personnel Management sent out a test email Friday that included nearly the entire judicial branch. Let’s just say the executive branch overreach didn’t sit so well with its co-equal branch.
Trump II Clown Show
- It took a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance, but Pete Hegseth was confirmed as defense secretary by the Senate late Friday. Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Mitch McConnell (KY) were the only Republican senators to vote against the nomination.
- After South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) was confirmed as DHS secretary over the weekend, she stood up Vice President Vance for her swearing-in and would up being sworn in at the home of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Jan. 6 Trials And Tribulations
The reverberations over Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons and the dismissals of the pending Jan. 6 cases continued:
- NBC News: Jan. 6 prosecutors describe “shocking,” “guttural” week after Trump’s pardons
- USA Today: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, fresh out of prison, appears at Trump Las Vegas rally
- TPM’s Josh Kovensky: The Oath Keepers Want More From Trump
- TPM’s Josh Kovensky: Trump’s DC Prosecutor Tells Judge To Let Oath Keepers Run Free
Trump Sows Chaos Abroad
- Colombia: President Trump threatened to impose emergency tariffs on Colombia after it refused to accept U.S. deportation flights – before Colombia apparently relented.
- Mexico: America’s southern neighbor refused to accept a U.S. deportation flight
- Denmark: Donald Trump had a “fiery call” with Denmark’s prime minister over Greenland
Just Some Casual Ethnic Cleansing
Audio of Trump on Gaza: I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people. You're talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing…
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
[image or embed]
Elon Musk Watch
The world’s richest man addressed a meeting of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Sunday, telling the audience: “ I think there’s, frankly, too much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that. Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents … let alone their great-grandparents, maybe even.”
Who’s Your Daddy?
Wajahat Ali: “MAGA seems to have a very weird, twisted, and violent relationship with their dads. This most likely explains why they’ve turned to Donald Trump, a vindictive sexual abuser, as their surrogate father.”
The Most Important Thing You’ll Read Today
Our ingrained sense of American exceptionalism – even in those of us who reject it – gives us a blind spot to how much of what is happening to democracy in America has already happened elsewhere and follows common pathways.
Amanda Carpenter is contributing to a new series on the “entrenchment agenda“: “Entrenchment refers to how authoritarians consolidate and leverage government power to stay in power. They use various tactics to dig in, cement power, and crush electoral competition.”
FLASHBACK: ‘America for Americans!’
I am making my way for the first time through John Ford’s classic 1939 Western, Stagecoach, the film in which John Wayne as we know him came into his own.
In a striking moment about a third of the way into the film, the villainous banker Ellsworth H. Gatewood gives a mini-screed that is remarkable not so much for how much it echoes the current moment but for how it reflects the persistence of a particular kind of scoundrel in American life.
The screenwriter Dudley Nichols put words into Gatewood’s mouth that were designed to get a knowing eye roll from a 1939 pre-war audience, as if of course this is what you would expect this caricature to say:
I have a slogan that should be placed on every newspaper in the country: America for Americans!
The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking! Over one billion dollars a year!
What this country needs is a businessman for president!
That Gatewood, played by Berton Churchill, was already a caricature by the late 1930s makes sense given the America First movement of the 1920s, but it’s still a striking reminder that the thread of American politics Trump represents weaves itself deep and consistently through the history of American public life.
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Way to hide it.
Happy
And if you celebrate:
Happy Large Boulder the Size of a Small Boulder Anniversary.
Reporters need to keep an eye on corruption.
AND
Puppy in a Bag Remembrance Day.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen
Welcome to the Circus! The greatest show on earth. Who let the lions out?
Stewart Rhodes continues to violate the terms of his release by associating with known felons and traveling outside the district of his residence without permission.