The Catalist report is in, the big “what happened” packet interpreting the 2024 election through voting results and voter files, census data and modeling from the Democratic firm that election-studiers anticipate every cycle as soon as the last vote is cast.
This year’s headline: Men, especially young men, swung hard to the right.
Continue reading “2024 Election Autopsy Is In: The Men Are Not Alright (But They Are All Right) “DHS is violating a court order to remove a group of detainees to South Sudan, lawyers told a federal judge on Tuesday.
Continue reading “DHS Sent Detainees To South Sudan On Tuesday In Blatant Defiance Of Judge, Attorneys Allege”President Donald Trump attended the closed-door House Republican conference meeting Tuesday morning in an attempt to convince two obstinate factions to get on board with the party’s reconciliation package. One group of members has been calling for steeper spending cuts; another group of largely blue-state Republicans has been unhappy with leadership’s state and local tax offer as well as provisions of the bill that would slash Medicaid.
While Trump may have been successful in bullying many members into submission, not all lawmakers who spoke to TPM and the other reporters outside the meeting room projected as much confidence as leadership.
House Republican leadership is, of course, hoping to bring the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to a floor vote this week to meet their self-imposed deadline of passing it out of the lower chamber by Memorial Day.
A handful of members came out of the meeting indicating they think the President made significant progress with holdouts on both sides of the spectrum.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), the chair of the Main Street Caucus, told reporters Trump made a “convincing case” behind closed doors.
“I think with the holdouts, he did move them,” Johnson said, later adding that the President’s speech “moved that room.”
“I would say the President’s message, fundamentally, is quit monkeying around … we have got to deliver this for the American people,” Johnson told reporters, adding that “there were a lot of nodding heads in that room.”
Despite that note of positivity, the South Dakota Republican did acknowledge that not everything is “hunky dory” and there is still some work to be done to get everyone on board.
“I don’t know that we are there yet, but that was a hugely impactful meeting,” Johnson told reporters in the House basement.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), who was one of the holdouts that tanked the first House Budget Committee vote last Friday, also told reporters, “eventually I believe it will pass.”
Norman, another right-winger calling for steeper cuts, wouldn’t directly tell reporters if the President was successful in changing his mind following the closed-door session.
“He did a great job,” Norman said, adding that the President’s “off the cuff” speech was “one of the greatest speeches” he’s ever heard.
“He said the right things,” Norman added.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) signaled he is still undecided.
“It’s like an NBA ball game, boys,” Burchett told reporters. “Wait till the last two minutes and watch it. And we’re about at two minutes and 30 seconds.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), part of the group of blue-state members who have been pushing for a higher cap on the state-and-local-tax deduction that they view as crucial to their reelection prospects, said he remained unmoved, despite Trump calling him out by name inside the room.
“While I respect the president, I’m not going to budge,” Lawler told reporters, according to Politico.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) confirmed that the President did mention Lawler by name during the meeting.
“[Trump] encouraged him that he won his race by a lot. He’s going to win again,” Boebert said, adding that the President tried to push the idea that “this isn’t political. This is about doing what’s right by the American people.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) also told reporters he was still a “no” following the meeting. However, Massie said he thinks Trump “probably closed the deal in there.”
“If his job was to go in there and convince the Freedom Caucus and the blue-state Republicans, I think he did a good job,” Massie told reporters in the House basement. “And he made a decent effort at convincing me, directly.”
Massie said that Trump called him out individually, but wouldn’t get into the specifics of what he said. Others in the room indicated that Trump reportedly called Massie a “grandstander.” The Kentucky Republican said he was unbothered by the rhetoric as well as Trump’s previous calls for Republican candidates to wage primary challenges against him.
“I’m not worried,” Massie told reporters. “I’m not worried about losing. I’m not worried if I did.”
When questioned about why he thinks other House Republicans are unable to say “no” to Trump, Massie acknowledged it is mostly about their political futures.
“Because some of them want to run for governor, and they need his endorsement,” Massie said. “And some of them are freshmen who are here because of his endorsement and probably haven’t established themselves to get reelected without his endorsement. I don’t know. Some of them have never even voted against a post office naming. How are they going to vote against this bill?”
As cuts to Medicaid remain one of the biggest contention points between the holdouts, Trump did specifically address the social safety net program during the meeting, according to lawmakers who attended it.
“Don’t fuck around with Medicaid,” Trump reportedly told House Republicans, but he, per multiple reports, quickly undercut that point by saying the bill should deal with “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the program.
Boebert told reporters that Trump said to “leave it alone unless there is waste, fraud and abuse,” as she walked out of the meeting.
Trump, in a public press conference, later echoed that line: “There’s tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse,” he claimed.
That has become the go-to phrase for Republicans who want to justify their cuts to the largely popular program, despite the fact that rooting out supposed “waste, fraud and abuse” roughly translates to work requirements and other significant cuts to the program — policies that would lead to millions losing their health care coverage.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Let’s quickly run through the many telling and odd aspects of the still-unseen criminal case against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) for an alleged incident that took place while conducting her constitutional oversight duties:
Criminally charging opposition political leaders at the same time you are dismantling the infrastructure for pursuing public corruption cases is an authoritarian one-two punch. So is this bit of gaslighting from Blanche: “[A]ssaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated. This Administration will always protect those who work tirelessly to keep America safe.” Contrast that with this next item.
The Trump DOJ’s tentative settlement of the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she was storming the Capitol, reportedly calls for a $5 million payment to Babbitt’s family.
Reacting to the news, outgoing Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said: “This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours.”
A sampling of some of the worst and most bizarre transgressions of the past 24 hours:
The controversial Emil Bove III, who was a criminal defense attorney for President Trump before being named a top Justice Department official, is on the short list for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Paramount’s determination to bend the knee to President Trump by settling his bogus lawsuit against 60 Minutes has cost CBS News President Wendy McMahon her job.
Of course a president openly filling his pockets with direct (albeit thinly veiled) payoffs from people with business before the government is an attack on the republic. Of course the president pardoning political allies for crimes is an attack on the republic. Of course disappearing people off the streets and sending them to foreign prison camps is an attack on the republic. Of course violating basic constitutional rules about spending government money; defying court orders; denying habeas rights; intimidating media outlets and universities and law firms; and on and on are all attacks on the republic.
In an important Alien Enemies Act case, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay a lower court order that the Trump administration “facilitate” the return of a Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador in violation of an existing court-approved settlement agreement, TPM first reported.
In a new order, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison of Houston gave the Trump administration 24 hours to (i) confirm the location and condition of a Venezuelan man believed to have been removed to El Salvador on March 15; and (ii) to explain the “legal basis for his continued detention.”
Anticipating resistance from the Trump administration, Ellison also imposed several other important conditions on the government if it claims “an inability to facilitate communication due to lack of control over El Salvadoran facilities.”
A few late notes on SCOTUS’s AARP II ruling. Beyond extending for now the bar against removing aliens from NDTexas under the Alien Enemies Act, it does 3 key things. The biggest, below, is declaring ICE’s current ~24-hr notice policy unconstitutional. … 1/12
— Roger Parloff (@rparloff.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 10:37 AM
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With Speaker Mike Johnson gunning to vote this week on President Trump’s centerpiece legislation, the WSJ unpacks in an accessible way what’s in it.
WaPo: White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.
In one of the few clear examples we’ve had so far of a court stopping President Trump’s effort to dismantle a government agency, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of D.C. has largely reversed the White House’s attack on the U.S. Institute of Peace.
President Trump made another remarkable and devastating capitulation to Vladimir Putin that leaves Ukraine twisting in the wind after it spent months trying to accommodate a hostile American president.
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Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Acting Chair Andrea Lucas has directed agency officials to compile a list of cases in line with her own personal priorities for the agency, two sources familiar with the matter tell Talking Points Memo. Those priorities include “defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights” and “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination,” according to a document reviewed by TPM.
Continue reading “Trump-Appointed Leader Of Worker Protection Agency Directs Focus On DEI, ‘Binary Reality of Sex’”With no further road to kick the can down, we’ve been on the lookout this week for how exactly President Trump will get involved with badgering the House Republican conference into line behind the ridiculously named piece of legislation that will kickstart his fiscal agenda. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has set an almost comically aggressive timeline for getting the bill passed in his chamber — Memorial Day — and, so, it’s been a question of when, not if, Trump surfaces in Congress.
Continue reading “Trump Hasn’t Yet Been Whipping Votes, And The House Can’t Function Without Him”For the second time in as many months, a federal appeals court declined to pause a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of a foreign national wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
Continue reading “Trump Admin Must Facilitate Return Of Another Wrongfully Deported Man, Appeals Court Rules”Here’s an example of the kind of compromise included in the Senate’s updated crypto bill. After bipartisan negotiations this month, the GENIUS Act will now ban stablecoins from using “United States,” “United States Government,” or “USG” in their name.
In some ways, it’s important: stablecoins, typically used to purchase other, more volatile forms of cryptocurrency, are pegged to the dollar.
But, alas, they are not dollars.
Continue reading “GOP—With Some Key Dem Support—Poised To Give Trump The Green Light On Crypto Schemes”A judge turned the U.S. Institute of Peace back over to its unlawfully fired board members Monday, scolding the administration for using “brute force and threats of criminal process” to commandeer an organization that does not fall within President Trump’s removal powers.
Continue reading “Federal Judge Boots DOGE Out Of Institute Of Peace After Armed Takeover”Following a small rebellion last week by far-right members of the House Budget Committee — who were calling for steeper spending cuts — Republicans on the panel managed to move their reconciliation package out of the committee late Sunday night. Yet the most perilous moments for Johnson’s fraught push to pass Trump’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink bill may well lie ahead.
Continue reading “GOP Leadership Keeps Insisting Its Going To Jam The Medicaid-Cutting ‘Beautiful’ Bill Through This Week”
