A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Scenes From a Personalist Regime
The man who famously slapped his name on everything from steaks to vodka to cologne to chocolate is eager to emblazon his name prominently on national landmarks. And in his distinctly personalist regime, there’s a line of enablers out the Oval Office door apparently eager to flatter him and curry his favor by coming up with new and more preposterous naming opportunities for him.
The latest is the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site commemorating the site of President Lincoln’s assassination, according to a new report by MSNow:
It is unclear how seriously the theater is being considered or how the administration would attach Trump’s name to it. One administration official said the idea had been discussed, but they didn’t know where it stood. The prospect sparked a flurry of discussion over the past week among people responsible for the historic site.
The White House and Interior Department each denied the MSNow report.
But Ford’s Theatre is is just one of several possibilities in an apparent move to line up new naming honors for Trump after he ran into a legal buzzsaw in his attempt to add his name to the Kennedy Center, a memorial for another slain president.
“One person with knowledge of the broader renaming effort who requested anonymity to address a sensitive topic said officials were looking for buildings and other sites that could carry the president’s name while presenting an easier legal path than the Kennedy Center push,” MSNow reports.
Like the Kennedy Center and United States Institute of Peace, the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site was named by an act of Congress, so this particular renaming may not be the layup Trump courtiers are looking for.
Update on ICE Shooting in Austin
Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, 28, remains in ICE custody after being shot Sunday during a traffic stop:
- After he complained of being unable to move his arm, he was taken back to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken collar bone and given morphine.
- The ICE agent who shot Garcés Perez was a new recruit who wasn’t wearing a body camera, The Atlantic reported.
A federal judge has set a hearing for Sept. 30 in the habeas case filed by Garcés Perez and ordered him to appear personally.
DHS Stiffs Congress on ICE Shootings
DHS has still not shared the findings of its limited investigations into the fatal January shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, says Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Nope, Not Blatantly Racist at All
The Trump administration plans to limit the number of refugees admitted to the country to 17,500 mostly white South Africans, according to a notice it provided to Congress that was obtained by the AP.
RFK Jr. Used Minority Health Money for Personal Security
HHS swiped $12 million from its Office of Minority Health and used $7 million of it to cover the cost of expanded personal security for Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Wall Street Journal reports.
Midterms Watch: Blue Wave Edition
- Hispanic voters are abandoning Trump, the latest polling shows, which could transform the midterm map and make Texas and Florida “ground zero for a possible Democratic tsunami,” Nate Cohn writes.
- “The map is hilariously big right now,” a national Republican pollster told Politico.
- Republicans are increasingly worried that the North Carolina Senate race is a lost cause, the WaPo reports.
Missouri Map Is Back at SCOTUS
The Missouri redistricting saga has landed back at the Supreme Court, but the Roberts Court is expected to quickly reaffirm its prior order that requires Missouri to use a 2022 congressional map in the midterms that is less friendly to Republicans. Justice Brett Kavanaugh set a brisk filing deadline of this morning for the administration to respond to the emergency application that seeks to sidestep the late intervention in the case by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
This Is How It’s Done
Politico’s legal reporting duo of Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney do a masterful job of framing the Trump DOJ’s ill motives around voter fraud in a new piece. At issue is the administration’s seizing on a lazy postal worker’s alleged dumping of 300 mail-in ballots in the garbage ahead of the June primary election in Utah.
During a televised briefing featuring Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, the Trump DOJ trumpeted a newly unsealed indictment in the case as justification for the administration’s attack on mail-in voting nationwide:
Yet, prosecutors quickly conceded some facts about the mailman mystery that make the episode seem somewhat different than the kind that typically attracts the attention of Justice’s No. 2 official or leads to a televised briefing for reporters at DOJ headquarters.
Damon Seei, who has no criminal history, told investigators he tossed a big pile of mail — which contained the ballots — not to tamper with votes but to “lighten his workload” on a busy day. In a written statement summarized in court papers, Seei said he had no political agenda but rather felt “overwhelmed” and decided to “get rid of advertisement mail.” …
Seei bluntly summed up his motive this way: “Laziness.”
Despite the more nuanced backstory, McCotter declared at the press conference: “Remember folks, voting fraud is real.”
The AI-‘Fraud’ Detection Complex
Charles Gaba takes a first stab at unpacking the Trump administration’s much-ballyhooed targeting yesterday of alleged Affordable Care Act fraud. Pay particular attention to the administration’s use of AI “in recognizing patterns that are likely to be fraud.”
Hearing Today on Trump’s Media Ban
An emergency hearing is set for 3:30 p.m. ET in front of U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly in D.C. on the request by news outlets CNN, Politico, and MS NOW for a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump’s ban on them from entering the White House.
Denmark Outflanks Trump on Greenland
The English-language version of the new agreement among Denmark, Greenland, and the United States has been released (by the Danes), and the emerging consensus is that Trump got little of what he sought but was allowed to save face by declaring victory and walking away:
- “Reading it, one wonders why so much fuss for so little, when this could have been done from the start,” Grégoire Roos, program director for Europe at the Chatham House think tank in London, told Politico. “I also think it’s well played from Denmark — clean and diplomatic. Some might call it the European touch.”
- “Whether Mr. Trump has permanently dropped his insistence on owning Greenland is anyone’s guess, the diplomats concede. But their hope was to give him enough to boast about, even if many of the provisions were implicit in the 1951 agreement and its successors,” the New York Times reports.
Quote of the Day
“I am the code.”—Donald Trump, clashing with his original ballroom architect over design features that violated building safety codes
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FRIST!
Stupid and Dangerous
This was negligent homicide
The Peoples House
Trump administration calls banned journalists’ White House access ‘a privilege, not a right,’ brands coverage a security risk
In a new legal filing in the case over a trio of new outlets barred entry to the White House, Trump administration lawyers repeatedly defended the president’s ban by saying journalists were not entitled to access to the building.
“Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” the filing stated.
The filing went on to assert that the three outlets – by publishing sensitive or classified information obtained through its reporting – constituted a national security threat, giving the president the right to ax their credentials.
Trump banned the three outlets – CNN, MS Now, and Politico – last Friday in a snap decision announced via social media. He branded the three outlets “fake news” and threatened future bans against other outlets could follow.