Trump Shoots Messenger for Exposing His Risky New Air Force One Fiasco

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Don’t You Dare Say the New Air Force One Has No Clothes

Just 18 months into Trump II, the president feels the confidence and swagger to demand that grand jury subpoenas be served immediately upon the nation’s leading newspaper for reporting that his beloved new Qatari-gifted Air Force One doesn’t haven the same defensive capabilities as the older models.

In a striking move to intimidate and coerce a free press, FBI agents were at the homes of New York Times reporters with the grand jury subpoenas Friday night, only a day after newspaper’s second big scoop of the week on the airplane’s deficiencies. But as stark as it was an overreach of government power, it was also a fit of personal pique from a thin-skinned president who pushed hard to rush the aircraft into service even if meant reduced capabilities.

One of the ironies of the story is that initial reports were that FBI Director Kash Patel was summoned to the White House Friday because of irritation that he was planning to use a government plane that day yet again to fly to go see his country music singer girlfriend perform, this time in Chicago. Subsequent reporting from the NYT itself revealed that the White House put the screws to Patel in that meeting to investigate the leaks that produced the NYT’s scoops (emphasis mine):

Mr. Patel scuttled a planned trip to Chicago and spent roughly eight hours at the White House on Friday, running the investigation from there rather than F.B.I. headquarters — a major departure from historical practice. Mr. Patel also briefed senior administration officials on the investigation, two people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive internal discussions.

Of course, both versions of why Patel was summoned to the White House can be true — and given Trump’s way of doing business they plausibly are both true. The eager-to-please Patel — under the gun for his travels to the point that Republican senators are becoming irritated — was an easy mark for Trump to strong-arm into launching a leak investigation and targeting his nemesis, the NYT.

The speed of the subpoenas to the NYT was breathtaking and undermined DOJ claims that the leakers were the target, not the NYT. The earliest the investigation could have started was Wednesday, after the first NYT story on Trump taking the old Air Force One back from the NATO summit in Turkey, before transferring to the new one in the U.K. (pictured above) for the transatlantic flight home. The subpoenas call for the reporters — Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt — to appear before a grand jury in Manhattan this Wednesday.

To ramp up an investigation up that quickly and begin serving subpoenas stretches the bounds of the space-time continuum under which the Justice Department has historically operated in almost any circumstance. It was especially striking given long-standing DOJ policies, since dispensed with under Trump II, that made seeking evidence from journalists an investigative avenue of last resort.

While there are no substantial legal impediments to the feds subpoenaing journalists, coercing testimony from reporters was typically treated gingerly, researched thoroughly, came after other investigative techniques proved fruitless, and was made at the highest levels of the DOJ, not the White House. The abbreviated time frame between the first NYT story and Friday’s subpoenas suggests the Trump DOJ is starting the investigation by coercing reporters to testify.

The contrast isn’t just a stark sign of how much has changed or pearl-clutching over norms. The facts give away the game: The NYT is a Trump target here. It is not merely incidental to the leak investigation.

At a minimum, targeting the NYT gives him a chance to take some of the political heat off by flexing his executive powers and avoiding the appearance of being on the defensive over having undermined national security and the continuity of government by using an inferior aircraft. But much more is at stake than that.

I don’t know how to say it any more clearly: The president of the United States is ordering investigations, being run from the White House, of the nation’s leading newspaper in order to intimidate it into ceasing to publish stories that are personally and politically embarrassing to him.

This is all of the worst fears of a Trump II presidency coming home to roost.

Trump DOJ Watch

• Politico: U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly of D.C., a Trump appointee, reluctantly granted the Trump DOJ request to drop the seditious conspiracy convictions of high-ranking members of the far-right Proud Boys, but not before taking one last shot at conveying to posterity the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack.
• Bloomberg: Top Trump DOJ officials plan to drop charges against alleged $722 million crypto fraudster Matthew Goettsche, who was indicted in Trump I and was scheduled to go to trial in October. Even then-acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba resisted pressure to drop the case:

But after further advocacy from Goettsche’s team earlier this year, senior DOJ official Aakash Singh convened a meeting in Washington last month between the defense and prosecutors to discuss a resolution. … The mediation culminated in the deputy attorney general’s office decision that New Jersey’s new US attorney, Robert Frazer, would back away from criminal charges while still seeking to recoup a portion of investors’ losses, the people added.

Scenes From a Gerontocracy

The sudden and unexpected death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 71, from an aortic dissection was followed this weekend by the barely convincing written statement from hospitalized and soon-to-retire Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 84, that he is still alive and functioning.

Lindsey Graham’s Real Legacy

President Trump gives the late Sen. Lindsey Graham a lifetime score of 99 out of 100:

Trump on Lindsey Graham: "He had one bad moment in the January 6 thing when he stood up — 'alright, now I've had it, that's it, I can't do it anymore' — then he called me about 40 minutes later and said, 'Did I really said that? I can't believe it.' And he took it back."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-07-13T12:18:58.373Z

The Corruption: Gov’t Contracts Edition

• DHS: Inspector General Joseph Cuffari has found evidence that Corey Lewandowski may have been involved in improperly awarding government contracts while he served as a unpaid senior aide to then-Secretary Kristi Noem, the WSJ reports:

The investigators are examining many of the contracts the department signed in Noem’s tenure, and department officials had been surprised at how involved Lewandowski was in the process, some of the people said. He personally signed specific contracts, according to people who reviewed those documents or had knowledge of the approvals, despite not technically serving as a full-time U.S. government official. 

Lewandowski denies issuing contracts while at DHS and says he hadn’t been contacted about the ongoing investigation.

• Kennedy Center: Former project managers claiming whistleblower status have sent Congress internal documents that they say show how the performing arts venue bypassed government contracting norms in work carried out under President Trump, the NYT reports.

Must Listen

The New Yorker’s David Remnick interviews Atul Gawande, the author and Biden-era USAID official, on the astounding death toll since the Trump administration’s obliteration of the foreign aid agency and the difficulty of tracking mortality rates: “The U.S. was the provider of some of the best, highest-quality data in the world—out of U.S.A.I.D., which was dismantled.”

Marco Rubio: Viceroy of Venezuela

An essential read from the NYT on on how Marco Rubio effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources, and its government in a quasi-colonial arrangement since the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

Breaking: Possible ICE Shooting in Maine

Authorities haven’t released any information yet on an incident this morning in Biddeford, Maine, but state Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau (D) said in a Facebook post that it was a fatal shooting and ICE was involved.

Piecing Together the Houston ICE Shooting

The NYT visual investigations team does its best with the limited footage available of the pursuit that ended in the ICE shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston last week.

Sign of the Times

Dave Matthews: “This father and grandfather who was murdered by ICE in Houston, Texas. Then they say he’s not even the guy they were looking for. Well then don’t pull the trigger you assholes. It just makes me mad. I want to send this to the memory of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo”
byu/CantStopPoppin inEyesOnIce

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