This is a follow up to Friday’s piece on how to save American biomedical research. A lot of what follows assumes you’ve read that earlier piece. I realized based on responses I received that there is one point I didn’t make explicit enough. As I wrote, there are “disease communities” around every major disease that affects Americans — cancers, diseases of age and dementia, heart disease, degenerative disorders. These communities exist in relationship with various advocacy organizations. But they are not the same and there’s a reason I focused specifically on these communities rather than the organizations.
Continue reading “A Follow Up on Saving American Biomedical Research”Just How Unbounded Will Trump’s Power Be? Courts Get Closer To Weighing In
Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️
As President Trump pushes the bounds of executive power, a few major court rulings that will decide how successful he is in the endeavor are inching closer to their finales.
Continue reading “Just How Unbounded Will Trump’s Power Be? Courts Get Closer To Weighing In”DOGE Attempts Takeover of GAO
On Tuesday DOGE representatives contacted the Government Accountability Office and demanded its standard level of access to analyze and “reform” the agency. Today the GAO contacted its employees via email and explained that they had told DOGE that GAO is a legislative branch agency and not subject to executive orders or the executive branch. They say they also contacted the relevant congressional committees to notify them of the attempted DOGE takeover.
Ed.Note: The original version of this post incorrectly reported that DOGE contacted GAO on Friday 16th rather than Tuesday 13th.
A Path Forward to Save American Bio-Medical Research
Over the past four months, I’ve spoken to dozens of biomedical researchers either at NIH, other government grant-making agencies or at the various American research institutions which receive U.S. government grants. Over that time, I’ve developed at least a very rudimentary understanding of the nitty-gritty mechanics of the grant-making relationship between agencies and research institutions. What I’ve learned is a fascinating and critically important dynamic operating just beneath the surface of theWhite House’s whole war on biomedical research specifically and universities generally. The world of biomedical research actually has immense latent political power, albeit largely untapped. Researchers have a much stronger hand politically and the White House’s position, in terms of public opinion, is comparatively weak.
The problem is that the world of biomedical research has close to no experience operating in a political context and especially in the context of mass politics. Much of the world of biomedical research operates through channels of review and funding connecting a few government grant-making institutions to the nationwide archipelago of research institutions and universities. Operating within those channels is so basic to the mores and experience of the research and university world that researchers have in many cases kept trying to operate within them (rebooting them, checking them for unknown clogs) long after the White House has broken them and moved on. The White House has relied on researchers’ unfamiliarity with political fights, using their sole reliance on bureaucratic channels of funding and review — which the universities and the federal government set up together going on a century ago — against them. The only other pathways through which researchers tend to assert themselves are professional organizations, very non-mass politics entities which, in ordinary times, would speak to the relevant members of Congress.
Continue reading “A Path Forward to Save American Bio-Medical Research”Fed Takeover, Judge Firings, Erosion Of Guards Against Autocracy: Judge Lays Out Stakes Of Trump Agency Takeover
While the conservative judges on Friday tried to find a way to overturn Supreme Court precedent before the Court itself gets a chance to do it, the sole liberal on a three-judge appeals court panel used the hearing to lay bare the ramifications of President Trump’s attempt to take over independent agencies.
Continue reading “Fed Takeover, Judge Firings, Erosion Of Guards Against Autocracy: Judge Lays Out Stakes Of Trump Agency Takeover”Trump Team Pretends To Be Horrified As Pretext To Target Comey
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Everyone In Trump World Got The Same Memo
The Trump administration quickly got in line Thursday to denounce, threaten, and investigate former FBI Director James Comey, whose firing by President Trump in his first term triggered the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. The rest, as they say, is history.
Here’s what happened.
Comey became a target of opportunity after he posted on social media an image of shells arrayed on sand to read “86 47.” I associate “86” with restaurant kitchens from my days waiting tables: items missing from the menu or the pantry. Also used as a verb, meaning “to strike,” as in “86 the chateaubriand.”
Trump is the 47th president. So it’s shorthand for getting rid of the guy. But “getting rid of” in the mob sense? That’s the high dudgeon Trump administration officials from the White House on down immediately mustered yesterday to try turn Comey’s post into a right-wing firestorm.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich posted that it “can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States.” Current FBI Director Kash Patel weighed in. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees the Secret Service, which typically is responsible for investigating real threats against the president, announced that DHS and the Secret Service are investigating Comey’s “threat.”
But no Trump official would outdo Tulsi Gabbard, who called for Comey to be jailed:
Jesse Watters: Do you believe Comey should be in jail? Tulsi Gabbard: I do. […] I'm very concerned for the president's life. We've already seen assassination attempts. I'm very concerned for his life, and James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this.
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) May 15, 2025 at 10:55 PM
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Comey eventually took down his post, not that it mattered much.
Covering this kind of right-wing indignation eruption in a “straight” way misses wide of the mark. The NYT headline – “Ex-F.B.I. Chief Being Investigated Over Social Media Post About Trump” – is literally true, but it misses all of the levels of intimidation, cultish displays of loyalty, and pure absurdism. And straight reporting has to pretend to believe that Trump world is truly horrified, which no one in their right mind really thinks is true.
In Trump DOJ News …
- If You Don’t Look For Public Corruption, You Won’t Find It: The FBI has dismantled an elite public corruption unit run out of its Washington Field Office. NBC News was first to report the move.
- Sword Faller: Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney in Manhattan who resigned when the Trump DOJ corruptly abandoned the prosecution of NYC Mayor Eric Adams, made a muted first public appearance this week.
- Ed Martin lolz: When Trump DOJ official Ed Martin oddly used a farewell email to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in DC to reveal that he was under an ethics investigation, he complained loudly that the DC ethics investigator had sent notice of the probe to his home and office in order to embarrass him. Now the WaPo reports that sources say the kind of notification Martin received typically happens after a lawyer had failed to respond to an ethics complaint as required.
The Destruction: Truth-Tellers Edition
- VOA purge: The Trump Administration fired hundreds of Voice of America employees – and put the VOA building up for sale – despite a court order blocking the dismantling of the government broadcaster.
- Misinformation: “The Trump administration has sharply expanded its campaign against experts who track misinformation and other harmful content online, abruptly canceling scores of scientific research grants at universities across the country,” the NYT reports.
- Quote Of The Day: “Firing the leadership of the National Intelligence Council because its analysis does not support policy is a serious error in judgment. The message to the workforce is one of intimidation. In the future, the president will not get the quality of intelligence every president deserves.”–former NIC chairman Christopher Kojm, on DNI Tulsi Gabbard firing top intel officials over an assessment that contradicted President Trump’s rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act
Wisconsin Judge Dugan Pleads Not Guilty
A quick update on the criminal prosecution of Wisconsin state Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant briefly evade capture by federal agents:
- Dugan entered a plea of not guilty during a brief appearance Thursday in federal court in Milwaukee.
- The judge set a trial date of July 21.
- Dugan has already filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against her, arguing among other things that judicial immunity bars her prosecution.
The Women On SCOTUS Seem To Get It
The conservative majority on the Roberts Court showed few qualms about seizing on President Trump’s blatantly unconstitutional executive order on birthright citizenship to advance its own pre-existing agenda on limiting nationwide injunctions.
The only question remaining after oral arguments was what kind of new rules the majority would fashion for injunctions. The one leveling influence among the conservative majority seemed to be Justice Amy Coney Barrett, but they have a decisive five votes without her.
TPM’s coverage:
- Live Blog: SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments In
Birthright CitizenshipNationwide Injunction Case - Kate Riga: Birthright Citizenship Is Safe For Now. Nationwide Injunctions Are Not.
- Josh Kovensky: Trump Administration Admits It Could Game Court System Without Nationwide Injunctions
Sharp analysis:
- Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern: “[T]he growing gender divide emerged once again: The four women seemed concerned that the president is trying to undo the final restraints on his exercise of unconstitutional power, and doing so in ways that include breaking norms and defying courts. The five men, in contrast, sounded irked at allegedly monarchical district court judges who dare issue broad orders blocking the White House’s policies, even when they’re blatantly unconstitutional.”
- Chris Geidner: “[T]he court seemed more aligned on the unconstitutionality of Trump’s order — and in agreement with all of the lower courts to consider the question — than on any solution about how to deal with nationwide injunctions.”
IMPORTANT
For the second time, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has held that minority voters do not have the authority to sue to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Rick Hasen explains “why this latest ruling is not just a devastating blow to the law, but also an entirely ahistorical judicial power grab.”
The Corruption: Elon Musk’s Starlink Edition
Since Trump’s inauguration, the State Department has intervened on behalf of Starlink in Gambia and at least four other developing nations, previously unreported records and interviews show.
As the Trump administration has gutted foreign aid, U.S. diplomats have pressed governments to fast-track licenses for Starlink and arranged conversations between company employees and foreign leaders. In cables, U.S. officials have said that for their foreign counterparts, helping Starlink is a chance to prove their commitment to good relations with the U.S.
“This Isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’ For Immigrants”
Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security is considering being part of a television show in which immigrants would compete for potential U.S. citizenship, the WSJ confirms.
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Trump Decides Now Is Not The Time To Make Republicans Rubber Stamp His DOGE Power Grab—Maybe Later
First it was reported that the Trump White House was considering sending a rescissions package to Congress, a way of letting the legislature rubber stamp some of the spending cuts DOGE has already implemented. Then it was reported that Trump might delay that package, at least a few weeks, while House and Senate Republicans focus on slashing Medicaid and passing the rest of Trump’s fiscal priorities in the massive reconciliation bill.
Continue reading “Trump Decides Now Is Not The Time To Make Republicans Rubber Stamp His DOGE Power Grab—Maybe Later”The Constitution Shouldn’t Have to Wait
You’ve seen our liveblog, which provides a detailed and technical look at today’s birthright citizenship oral arguments before the Supreme Court. I want to focus on a broad and critical issue. The Trump administration brought this to the Supreme Court. While the underlying or substantive issue is birthright citizenship, they were not seeking to have that issue resolved. They wanted the Court to address whether federal trial courts can issue national injunctions binding the hands of the incumbent administration.
Continue reading “The Constitution Shouldn’t Have to Wait”Trump Admin Admits It Could Game Court System Without Nationwide Injunctions
Here’s an interesting hypothetical: the White House wins its nationwide injunction case before the Supreme Court. Judges can no longer issue these national holds on various forms of federal government action, or face an exceedingly high bar to do so.
At the same time, the high court has not ruled on the core issue of birthright citizenship. The result: lone people affected by President Trump’s executive order have to sue — each individually — to say that the order is illegal. One of them, a New Yorker, makes it up to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and wins.
Continue reading “Trump Admin Admits It Could Game Court System Without Nationwide Injunctions”Birthright Citizenship Is Safe For Now. Nationwide Injunctions Are Not.
The right-wing justices on Thursday were amenable to the Trump administration’s bid to pare back universal injunctions, a type of relief where lower-court judges block government policies for the whole country and not just the parties who brought the case.
Continue reading “Birthright Citizenship Is Safe For Now. Nationwide Injunctions Are Not.”