A congressional watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), published a post Wednesday morning reaffirming that “pocket rescissions” — a supposed loophole that the Trump White House thinks it can use to seize Congress’ power of the purse — are illegal.
Continue reading “Congressional Watchdog Publishes Aptly Timed Reminder That WH Budget-Slashing Scheme is Illegal”We Need to Talk About Why Trump Judicial Nominees Won’t Talk About Obergefell
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
This Could Be Roe all Over Again
Some of Trump’s judicial nominees have refused in confirmation hearings to acknowledge that the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, striking down state bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, was correctly decided. According to an analysis by JP Collins at the legal website Balls and Strikes, Eric Tung, who Trump nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, said only, “the Supreme Court granted such a right.” William Mercer, a nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, said Obergefell is “binding precedent,” but declined to “grade the Supreme Court.”
As Collins points out, these verbal gymnastics to avoid saying the case was correctly decided mirror those of Trump’s first term Supreme Court nominees who said Roe v. Wade was precedent but would not say it was correctly decided — and then voted to overturn it.
One might say marriage equality is different from abortion. Obergefell is just 10 years old, and Roe was decades old. But the most important feature that both decisions share is the enmity of the Christian right, and its determination to overturn them, no matter how many years or decades it takes.
Even before the court decided Obergefell in 2015, the Christian right was already planning to treat it just like Roe. The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision, they argued, was not the end of the abortion issue but rather the beginning. They used money, media, political might, religion, and relentless organizing to use abortion to drive politics and shape the judiciary. Their plans for Obergefell and LGBTQ rights are no different.
The New Big Law
In this New York Times story about the Washington Litigation Group, one of several new law firms formed to challenge hundreds of lawless Trump administration actions and policies, we learn that one of the members of the firm’s steering committee, Peter Keisler, was a founder of the Federalist Society and a former George W. Bush DOJ official. “We’ve just never before seen this kind of systematic effort by a government to use all possible levers of government power against perceived opponents,” Keisler told the Times about the need for the new firm.
Keisler’s background — and his trajectory from Federalist Society founder to Trump critic — is actually even more interesting than the story reveals. Bush had nominated Keisler to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2006, but he was never confirmed (the filibuster was still in place for judicial nominations, and then Democrats retook the Senate). Democrats resisted putting Keisler on D.C. appellate court, often a steppingstone to the Supreme Court, in part because the Bush administration reportedly saw Keisler, a former clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy and Judge Robert Bork, as potential high court material. Some very intriguing alternative history right there.
Whitehouse Keeps Attention on D.C. Circuit Stay of Boasberg Contempt Proceedings
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has written to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, raising questions about why a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit has maintained an administrative stay on contempt proceedings initiated by the district court’s chief judge, James Boasberg, in the case challenging the administration’s disappearance of Venezuelan detainees to the CECOT prison in El Salvador. The stay remained in place as Senate Republicans confirmed top Justice Department official Emil Bove, who had, according to a whistleblower report, urged line attorneys to say “fuck you” to district court orders. “If a court of the United States was used to stall contempt proceedings, in order to create a window for Senate confirmation of an individual central to those contempt proceedings…it would be a significant blow to the independence and integrity of the Judicial Branch,” Whitehouse wrote.
Trump Administration Takes Its Transphobia Global
At the United Nations, U.S. delegates have repeatedly condemned “gender ideology” or “reinforced the administration’s support for language that ‘recognizes women are biologically female and men are biologically male’” since Trump took office in January, ProPublica reports. It is part of a broader pattern of Trump officials attacking transgender rights internationally, even to the point of objecting to the use of the word “gender.”
ICE to Target Gen Z With Employment Recruitment Blitz
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to contract with an advertising firm to help it “dominate” social media with a recruitment blitz aimed at Gen Z, with a goal of hiring more than 14,000 people to work for the agency, according to 404 Media.
One LLC Gets $231 Million in Federal Funds to Run Secretive ICE Facility in Texas
The El Paso Times has aerial photographs of the non-public construction of a new 5,000-bed ICE immigrant detention facility under construction at Fort Bliss in Texas. Acquisition Logistics LLC, a Virginia company, was awarded a $231,878,229 firm-fixed-price contract “to establish and operate” the facility, the newspaper reports. In other (lack of) transparency news, in Florida, TPM’s Hunter Walker finds that contract and other public documents relating to the Alligator Alcatraz prison have vanished, possibly illegally. And in other grotesque ICE prison camp news, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday announced an Alligator Alcatraz look-alike in Indiana — the “Speedway Slammer.”
RFK, Jr. Axes Government Support for Medical Marvel
The Health and Human Services Secretary has taken direct aim at health and humans by cancelling $500 million in federal contracts to develop vaccines using mRNA technology — like the vaccines against COVID-19 and vaccines in development to combat bird flu and other respiratory viruses.
Maxwell Transfer to Club Fed a ‘Travesty of Justice,’ Says Former Prison Official
Former Bureau of Prisons officials are angry about the transfer of convicted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum security camp in Texas. “To relocate a sex offender serving 20 years to a country club setting is offensive to victims and others serving similar crimes,” Robert Hood, a former Bureau of Prisons chief of internal affairs, told NBC News.
Comer Subpoenas Clintons
As expected, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) has issued subpoenas in the Epstein saga, notably to Hillary and Bill Clinton, and former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller — part of the MAGA effort to deflect attention from Trump’s connections to Epstein and to blame Democrats for, well, everything. Notably, Axios notes, Alex Acosta, the former federal prosecutor who negotiated the 2008 “sweetheart” plea deal for Epstein in Florida and later became Labor Secretary in Trump’s first administration, is not on the subpoena list. He is, however, on Newsmax’s board of directors.
TACOs for Meteorologists
The Office of Personnel Management has authorized the rehiring of 450 meteorologists, hydrologists, and radar technicians who were axed from the National Weather Service by the Department of Government Efficiency.
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The Sydney Sweeney News Cycle Proves That Democrats Simply Can’t Win
If you’re lucky enough to have missed it, here’s the skinny on the Sydney Sweeney news cycle from hell: American Eagle put out an ad starring the actress that features a jeans/genes double entendre (“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring,” she says in the ad. “My jeans are blue.”). Cue an online freakout from people arguing that the ad is a Nazi/white supremacist/eugenicist dogwhistle.
Continue reading “The Sydney Sweeney News Cycle Proves That Democrats Simply Can’t Win”To Feed Gaza, the UN and the NGOs Have to Be Allowed Back in
The White House has been making noises about President Trump being concerned or unhappy about starvation in Gaza. After his comments over the weekend, Axios reported today that the U.S. is mulling a “take over” of aid provision in Gaza because Israel isn’t up to the task. But there are no specifics and no timeline. VP JD Vance also made some generic comments that Israel should increase the pace of aid. But the issue really has nothing to do with increasing the pace of aid or getting more money from donor countries in the region. The issue is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit created back in the February to take over food aid from the United Nations and the various NGOs that work with the UN. It wasn’t in addition. The UN and the existing NGOs were booted out and the GHF took over. It’s executive chairman is Johnnie Moore, a U.S. evangelical leader and businessman who started his career as the campus minister and senior VP at Liberty University.
Continue reading “To Feed Gaza, the UN and the NGOs Have to Be Allowed Back in”There Is an Information Blackout at Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Detention Camp
Public records related to Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention camp have essentially disappeared into what one expert called a “black hole.” Over 90 pages of contracts reviewed by TPM were removed from an online transparency database operated by the state; in other cases, public records requests have been met with what an academic called “ghosting” and outright denials. Multiple experts told TPM the handling of documents related to the project is “disturbing” and may be a violation of state law.
Continue reading “There Is an Information Blackout at Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Detention Camp “How Anti-Abortion and Anti-Trans Bills Are Impacted by Texas Democrats Fleeing the State
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The 19th.
Texas Democrats fled the state over the weekend to stop a Republican proposal redrawing the state’s congressional maps. But their exit has also temporarily halted other conservative priorities for the special session — including new abortion restrictions and a “bathroom bill” that would ban transgender people from using public restrooms that match their gender.
When Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives left the state this weekend, it denied lawmakers the two-thirds quorum needed to proceed with legislative work. That move came after a House committee voted to approve the new congressional maps, a plan — crafted on President Donald Trump’s request — that would likely flip five Democratic seats to favor Republicans. The redistricting effort has set off a national arms race as Democratic governors, including in New York and California, discuss changing their states’ congressional maps heading into the 2026 midterms.
Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened state Democrats with removal from office if they don’t return to Austin. But it’s not clear if or how he could enforce that threat. Breaking quorum is not a crime, and whether those lawmakers could be forced out of their seats is a question likely to be settled in the courts.
Although the redistricting effort has taken center stage in the ongoing special legislative session, Abbott tasked lawmakers with a host of other priorities. Time may be running out: The special session began July 21, and ends after no more than 30 days. Already, some are considering the possibility of lawmakers returning to the capital for a second special session to tackle now derailed items like further abortion restrictions and the anti-trans bill.
Continue reading “How Anti-Abortion and Anti-Trans Bills Are Impacted by Texas Democrats Fleeing the State”A Big, Upcoming Fight Could See Dems Demand Congress Take Back Its Power
When Congress returns from its lengthy August recess, lawmakers on Capitol Hill will only have a few weeks to work something out before the government runs out of funding at midnight on Sept. 30.
And Senate Democrats will quickly have to make a decision.
Continue reading “A Big, Upcoming Fight Could See Dems Demand Congress Take Back Its Power”Need Your Help With This
I’ve been trying to hang back on the asks. I know they can be tiresome. But we’re about to enter the fourth week of this year’s annual TPM Journalism Fund drive, and it’s time for the final push. We’re at $395,000, and we need to get to our goal of $500,000. Can you help us? The fund is a critical part of what keeps TPM going. We ask because it is that important. It keeps our operation vital and (incrementally) expanding. If you’ve been thinking about contributing this year, please make it today. It literally just takes a minute or two and it is extremely important for us — extremely appreciated. Just click right here.
‘Successful Businessman’ Trump Mobilizes Business Economists Against Him
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Tired of Winning Yet?
President Trump’s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has notched a new accomplishment for the bumbling autocrat: drawing the ire of economists that businesses rely on to forecast the broader economic environment and plan their operations.
On Friday, the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), which describes itself as the “premier professional association for business economists and others who use economics in the workplace,” denounced Trump’s move, calling Erika McEntarfer’s removal “baseless” and Trump’s accusation of her manipulation of jobs data “unfounded.” The organization defended McEntarfer’s credentials and BLS’s professionalism. “This unprecedented attack on the U.S. statistical system threatens the long-standing credibility of our economic data infrastructure,” its statement read.
Friends of the BLS, a partnership of the American Statistical Association, the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, and the NABE, similarly warned the McEntarfer firing “undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers.” One of the Friends of BLS co-chairs, William Beach, McEntarfer’s predecessor who Trump had nominated for the post in 2017, took these warnings to national television.
Yesterday, Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at the real estate company Redfin, posted a video on social media explaining why “economists are freaked out right now” because “trustworthy data is crucial for business decisions.”
“In my entire career, I’ve never seen economists this upset,” she said.
It is hard to imagine another presidential action that would trigger otherwise obscure professional associations of data economists to alert the public of an “unprecedented attack” on the “gold standard” of official government statistics, or to the ability of American companies to conduct business.
But the McEntarfer firing was a third rail for the business community, a constituency that Trump absolutely cannot afford to cross. Americans already worried about the state of the economy are not going to want to hear that economists, including those analyzing the real estate market, are “freaked out.” Trump can hardly use his standard line of attack — that his critics are “radical left lunatics” — when the business community says he is sending American companies into turmoil.
While many Republicans were characteristically compliant and fell into lockstep with Trump’s latest meltdown, Democrats are out front making the case that prices are up, and Trump’s tantrum tariffs, recklessness, and stupid policies are to blame.
The MAGA Evangelical Running Human Resources at the State Department
It’s almost hard to be shocked anymore by the characters Trump has tapped for top positions in federal agencies, but at Puck News, this Julia Ioffe profile of Lew Olowski, who is running human resources for the State Department, is a stunning cascade of bizarre revelations.
Once a member of the legal team for convicted Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadžić, Olowski had been a first-tour foreign service officer since 2017 when Marco Rubio summoned him to Washington from an overseas assignment in January. He alarmed department veterans by giving weird speeches about God, prayer, the Bible, and dolphins.
“He quickly made a name for himself at Foggy Bottom by marching into the office of the ombuds and telling everyone that they were being put on administrative leave, and that their office was being dissolved,” Ioffe writes. “The office’s employees later discovered that they had been transferred to the Office of Civil Rights, whose chief counsel was Heather Olowski, Lew’s wife, and the minister of a church that the couple runs.” From there, Olowski set about rooting out all supposed DEI “by changing the way the State Department recruits and promotes people, including by introducing the concept of ‘fidelity’ as an attribute that diplomats should be graded on.” Fidelity to Trump, that is.
DHS Promptly Reverses Threat to States’ FEMA Funds Over Possible Israel Boycotts
On Friday, the Trump administration threatened states’ FEMA funds should they adopt any policy supporting Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The reason, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to Reuters, was that the BDS movement is antisemitic, and the department is very committed to enforcing “all anti-discrimination laws and policies.” By Monday afternoon, though, the department had reversed course, with a spokesperson issuing a statement that “FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests.”
The Art of Blowing Up the Deal
This weekend, Trump sabotaged bipartisan negotiations for the Senate to vote on Trump nominees in exchange for restoring billions of dollars in federal funding. With the Senate then recessing for the summer, Trump ended up with “nothing,” Igor Bobic reports at HuffPost.
Bondi Directs DOJ to Convene Grand Jury, Apparently to Go After Obama
Attorney General Pam Bondi has reportedly ordered Justice Department prosecutors to convene a grand jury to present evidence of supposed wrongdoing in the 2016 “origins” of the Russia investigation. This dangerous development in the retribution campaign against Democrats appears to be based on Trump’s chaotic effort to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal; Trump is baselessly accusing former President Obama of treason and unsuccessfully trying to tie Hillary Clinton to the probe against him.
Warning Signs Are Flashing Bright Bright Red on Texas Redistricting Gambit
Former U.S. Attorney General under Barack Obama Eric Holder tells Mother Jones’ Ari Berman that Trump’s “authoritarian move” to direct the Texas legislature to redraw its congressional maps to favor Republicans “needs to be opposed by any means necessary.” It also has some swing district Republicans worried.
Musk Is the Gift that Keeps on Giving…to Trump
New lobbying and campaign finance disclosure filings reveal that Elon Musk’s X gave a $1 million in-kind contribution to Trump’s inaugural committee, Anna Massoglia reports at Influence Brief. What’s more, Musk continued to donate to Trump-aligned political action committees, even after their supposed falling-out this spring.
Republican Attorneys General Take Aim at Interstate Sale of Abortion Pills
The Republican attorney general of Arkansas, Tim Griffin, is threatening to sue websites that provide information about medication abortion, part of a broader GOP effort to threaten the accessibility of abortion pills across state lines, Susan Rinkunas reports at Autonomy News.
Make Everyone Hate America Again
The State Department is proposing a requirement that foreign travelers seeking business or tourist visas be required to post up to a $15,000 bond.
Two Storied Institutions Deconstructed in the Trump Era
At the Columbia Journalism Review, Jon Allsop takes stock of the slow-motion demise of the Washington Post since the takeover by owner Jeff Bezos and publisher Will Lewis. In New York magazine, Noah Shachtman tells the inside story of how the Anti-Defamation League, founded to fight antisemitism and discrimination, began aligning with Trump, and made equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism central to its mission.
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Texas AG Paxton Has To Water Down Abbott’s Threats to Jail State Dems
As soon as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vowed to oust, arrest and replace Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to slow down Republican lawmakers’ efforts to redraw state congressional maps in their political favor, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made a big show of backing Abbott’s attempted display of strength.
Continue reading “Texas AG Paxton Has To Water Down Abbott’s Threats to Jail State Dems”