A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Still Obsessed
Amid all the justified criticism of his flimsy deal to end his reckless and unlawful war against Iran, nothing seems to get under President Trump’s skin quite like unfavorable comparisons to President Obama’s deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump famously pulled the plug on the JCPOA in one of the worst disasters of his first term, so the comparison is more than apt. It’s an essential point of reference for the capitulation Trump just made to Iran for it to get him out of the war he started against it.
“And you know what the Iranians did? They laughed at Obama, and they said, ‘He’s a stupid son of a bitch,’” Trump said in one of his biggest tantrums of the week.
The memorandum of understanding, which Trump unbelievably chose to sign while at dinner at Versailles last night, punts entirely on Iran’s nuclear program. It saves those negotiations for another day, with no real mechanism to force the parties back to the table or to compel Iran to strike a new nukes deal. In that narrow sense, Trump is right when he claims his deal is the “complete opposite” of Obama’s.
“When a reporter asked Trump about that absence, he said that what would guarantee Iran’s compliance is fear of renewed U.S. bombing,” Heather Cox Richardson notes. “But Iran has shown it can withstand such attacks, and in any case, the U.S. has no stomach for them.”
In any event, if it turns out badly, Trump can just blame JD Vance.
Trump coming out on the short end of these Obama comparisons happens to coincide with the opening of Obama’s presidential library in Chicago, which itself has stirred up Trump enough that he has felt compelled to mock it.
Boat Strike Survivors Lost at Sea
The two survivors of a U.S. strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat this week have presumably died at sea, after the U.S. Coast Guard suspended search and rescue operations:
Since a double-tap strike in September that killed the survivors of the first attack in the lawless U.S. campaign, most of the survivors of subsequent strikes have perished at sea.
The ostensible rescue missions, either launched by the U.S. Coast Guard or handed off to the Mexican Navy, have been too little too late and raise serious questions about whether the Trump administration wants to deal with survivors at all.
Senate GOP Shows Sign of Life
The Senate has tucked a provision into the must-pass annual defense bill that would drastically cut Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s personal travel budget unless the Pentagon coughs up more information on the lawless campaign of high seas boat strikes.
The bill, which passed the GOP-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee last week, is trying to force the disclosure of the unedited footage of every boat strike in the campaign. It also wants more information on the Pentagon’s investigation into the apparent U.S. missile strike on a girls school in the opening days of the Iran war.
If the Pentagon fails to provide the information, Hegseth’s travel budget would be cut by 75%. The Senate tried a similar but less draconian move late last year, which the new provision suggests didn’t succeed in obtaining the requested information.
‘Mistakes Are Made’
Good Read
TPM’s Josh Kovensky: DOJ Invokes McCarthy-Era Law to Strip Somalia-born Minnesotan of Citizenship
Mass Deportation Watch
- Politico: Immigration judges are denying ICE detainees release. Federal judges are stepping in.
- WaPo: ICE removed detainee protections after private outreach from top contractor
- Politico: ICE’s detention policy won at the 5th Circuit. Then judges found another way to reject it.
- NYT: Internal Emails Raise Questions About D.H.S. Ending Haiti Protections
For Your Radar: Bill Pulte Edition
With President Trump having successfully torpedoed yesterday’s Senate intel committee confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton as DNI, Bill Pulte is poised to become acting DNI tomorrow. The amount of mischief, disinformation, and chaos Trump’s favorite gremlin can generate in that position is alarming, even though DNI doesn’t have a direct operational intel function.
For our purposes though, pay particular attention to the upcoming elections. DNI served as a clearinghouse in recent elections for intel on attempts by foreign adversaries to influence the vote. It sets up an opportunity for Pulte to use the position to plant seeds of conspiracy theories, sow doubt about the results, and enable ratfuckery in various forms.
Important
The Trump DOJ moved this week to block an NAACP lawsuit in Mississippi against Elon Musk’s AI company which alleges that its dozens of gas-burning turbines violate the Clean Air Act. In doing so, the DOJ third-ranked official, Stanley Woodward Jr., made the extraordinary claim that the federal government has the authority to stop environmental lawsuits brought by private groups or individuals.
Anti-White Supremacy Lesson Costs Prof Her Job
Indiana University has declined to renew the contract of a non-tenured lecturer who was suspended in October from teaching the graduate-level course “Diversity, Human Rights and Social Justice.”
The scrutiny of the instructor, who showed a graphic in class that identified “Make America Great Again” as an example of covert white supremacy, came after Indiana passed a law claiming to promote “intellectual diversity” while protecting students from being subjected to political views unrelated to the course, the NYT reports.
Headline of the Day
The New Republic: Tommy Tuberville Hit With Lawsuit Over Secret Life as Florida Man
Travel Alert
I’ll be away until July, doing something I’ve always wanted to do but in my race to see as much of the world as possible have never managed to do: Go abroad to one place for a couple of weeks and just stay there. No city hopping. No multiple border crossings. No sandwiching in a wilderness trek or a mountain climb.
Copenhagen is my one and only destination (although day trips are allowed … hello, Malmö?). I’m a first-time visitor. Recommendations? Tips? Off-the-beaten path gems? I’m keen to simply be a local for a few days.
TPM contributing writer Sarah Posner will be subbing for me here. Please make her feel welcome.
Enjoy Your Long Weekend
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good morning
Just more abject failure. Indeed, The Art of the Schlemiel. Except now he can’t fail upward anymore. Sad.
Lest we forget…
Trump’s war and how he feels about it…
The Tuberville Lawsuit
Can we all just get along??