Our Executive Editor John Light discussed these hires already. But I wanted to share with you what we’re doing and how you fit into it. I don’t have to tell you that we are in the midst of a protracted national crisis. By some measures we’ve been in one for a decade. But I’m talking about the one that kicked off on January 20th and has continued, unabated and even accelerating, in various forms ever since. From the start of this we’ve been committed to upping and expanding our game, even within our limited resources, because the moment requires it. You’ve made that possible through your memberships and through your contributions to The TPM Journalism Fund. This week we added two new positions to our roster and two new members of our team. Allegra Kirkland, a TPM alum, has returned to TPM as a deputy editor. Layla A. Jones has joined us a reporter.
Continue reading “Expansion at TPM, Thanks to You”Trump Has Never Been Anti-War; He’s Not Even Anti-War inside the USA
The idea that Trump or MAGA is in any sense “anti-war” is something between an absurdity and a misunderstanding. Kate and I had a good discussion of it in this week’s podcast. At one level it’s a simple fraud. Trump claimed he’d always been against the Iraq War at a time when the U.S. had been bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan for years. It was a helpful attack line and it was completely false. Trump wasn’t in politics in 2002 or 2003 and to the extent he said anything, like a lot of people, he was for it when it was popular and against it when it wasn’t.
During his presidency he signed off on the assassination/targeted attack that killed Qasem Soleimani; he heavily involved the U.S. in the Saudi war in Yemen; he maintained or expanded the U.S. fight against ISIS in Iraq/Syria. Those are at least a continuity with the Obama years and in key respects an expansion of it. The one arguable exception is the deal Trump made with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan — a bad deal which Joe Biden was saddled with and followed through on and was endlessly criticized for, by Trump more than anyone else. Afghanistan captures Trump perfectly — his one notionally “anti-war” position was continuity by definition. And he turned against it as soon as he was unpopular. Trump has gotten “anti-war” mileage out of his opposition to Ukraine aid. But that’s pro-Russia rather than anti-war.
Continue reading “Trump Has Never Been Anti-War; He’s Not Even Anti-War inside the USA”It’s Clearer Than Ever That Jan. 6 Wasn’t The End But The Beginning
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
A Quick Refresher On How We Got Here
In the aftermath of the Minnesota assassination spree, Garrett Graff crisply traces the arc of violent right-wing extremism from the 1980s to the present day. For those of us who have covered it and lived it, it’s drearily familiar. But I was struck anew by how what seemed like a winning fight for so long went sideways so quickly.
Across most of that time, the fight against right-wing extremism seemed like a manageable, containable, and winnable problem. It often felt like stamping out a final rear-guard action by the retreating forces of intolerance and racism. In fact, in retrospect, the war was far from over.
The “good people on both sides” in Charlottesville marked the beginning of a new era of state-sanctioned violent extremism that historically had been seen only in the South. From there through “Stand back and stand by” and up until the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, you might have been able to argue that it wasn’t state-sanctioned so much as it was merely endorsed by the head of state, a thin reed of a difference, but a plausible distinction.
After Jan. 6, the state was still functioning on a rule of law basis. But as we noted then, Jan. 6 was the beginning of a new battle, not a culmination. While clear and deeply worrying cracks like the Supreme Court’s corrupt immunity decision were emerging, there was still a chance to avoid going over the cliff’s edge into lawlessness. Trump’s re-election foreclosed that last chance. It cleared the way for him to the empower the apparatus of the state with his brand of right-wing authoritarianism.
But it was the Jan. 6 pardons specifically that brought it all full circle. As Graff notes, “The January 6th pardons — and a host of other abuses of the presidential pardons — have made clear a chilling message to Trump’s most extreme supporters: Violence in support of the regime will be not only tolerated but excused.”
Combined with the Trump White House’s takeover of the Justice Department, the Jan. 6 pardons and the retaliation against investigators and prosecutors marked the end of a functioning rule-of-law-based state apparatus. In its place is violence and retribution. The law is used as a shield for his supporters and a sword to his foes. That’s where we are now and the way out of this wilderness remains alarmingly unclear.
Alex Jones Allegedly Hiding Assets
The U.S. bankruptcy trustee has filed multiple lawsuits to recover assets that Alex Jones allegedly transferred fraudulently to avoid paying the $1.3 billion he owes Sandy Hook families.
A Dark Day At The Supreme Court
It was a convoluted series of opinions, but it boiled down to a 6-3 majority, along conservative-liberal lines, to sanction government discrimination against transgender youth and their families.
“It was a stark decision from Roberts using circular reasoning that will serve to empower those seeking to discriminate against transgender people — although the decision does leave some narrow routes open to challenging certain anti-trans laws and policies going forward,” Chris Geidner writes in an exhaustive unpacking of the multiple opinions by the justices.
The Cruelty Remains The Point
On the same day at the Supreme Court ruled against gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the Trump administration said it was ending specialized support for LGBTQ callers to the national suicide prevention hotline.
A New System Of Political Censorship
As it restarts the system for issuing student visas, the Trump administration is imposing a new system of censorship on international students. Among the new requirements, according to cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio:
- Visa applicants must have all social media profiles set to “public” so that U.S. consular officials can review their “online presence.”
- Failure to set social media accounts to “public” will be seen by the State Department as an effort to evade or hide certain activity.
- Consular officials are required to “identify applicants who bear hostile attitudes toward our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles; who advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security; or who perpetrate unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence.”
The new requirements take effect in five business days.
Sign Of The Times: Juneteenth Edition
WSJ:
Plano, Ill., made national news in 2021 when it designated Juneteenth a holiday before the state or federal government. But this year, Plano’s fifth annual celebration is canceled.
Organizer Jamal Williams said he called off the event after local business sponsors in the 13,000-person town declined to commit, saying they feared losing customers. A downsized version is being planned at a church in the town next door.
Quote Of The Day
“I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”–Donald Trump, on potential U.S. military strike on Iran, which he has reportedly approved plans for but hasn’t given the final order to launch
No Silver Linings
A brutal new assessment out today on how quickly we are speeding toward irreversible catastrophic climate change:
A Eulogy To The Student Essay
Brian Klaas: “The death of the student essay is not merely an academic concern. It is not just a problem for young people hoping to get good grades, nor is it only relegated to the realm of my fellow elbow-patched nerds. Instead, the rapidly improving ability to impressively mimic human language poses an existential threat to traditional methods of crafting smarter minds—which thereby challenges the future of human cognition.”
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Minnesota Shooter Allegedly Targeted Abortion Clinics At Time Of Threats, Lax Protections
Minnesota shooting suspect Vance Boelter allegedly targeted abortion providers for future violence, a jarring detail in the evidence as the Trump administration systematically rolls back protections passed when anti-abortion violence was at a fever pitch.
Continue reading “Minnesota Shooter Allegedly Targeted Abortion Clinics At Time Of Threats, Lax Protections”Thoughts on the Counterpoints
The Reality TV reveal version of war-planning and everything that is going on right now in the White House is so crazy I don’t know what to say about it. I’m reduced to trying to piece together what the various parties to the conflict and those adjacent to it may want or be trying to accomplish. I think TPM Reader JS is on to something in the email I just published a few moments ago. To the extent Trump may look to the Saudis and Emiratis as to what to do they may want him to finish this. When I responded to JS I told him that I agreed but with a major caveat. Even in the Move Fast and Break Things MBS era I think being a Gulf royal means being scared. Luck and geology made them fabulously wealthy and in part because of that wealth able to sustain deeply archaic political systems in which they have close to absolute power. That status is precarious. It’s one thing to build an anti-Iran coalition or an anti-Iran alliance with Israel. Blowing up the Iranian state is a very different and profoundly dangerous and unpredictable proposition.
Continue reading “Thoughts on the Counterpoints”Counterpoint #3
From TPM Reader JS …
Continue reading “Counterpoint #3”I agree with your reader that MBS and the Emiratis will be an important influence in Trump. And of course they are saying in public what they’re saying, but the entire basis of the normalization with the UAE and the aborted one with Saudi was this. They wanted a bloc against Iran and its nuclear program.
Trump Wants To Drop A Key Tenet Of MAGA. His Biggest Fans Are Pushing Back
In a Truth Social post over the weekend, President Trump suggested he was haphazardly undercutting a core element of his mythos: that he is anti-war. That assertion, as questionable as it might be on its face, has been embraced by some of his most outspoken supporters.
Continue reading “Trump Wants To Drop A Key Tenet Of MAGA. His Biggest Fans Are Pushing Back”Counterpoint #2
TPM Reader MO shares his thoughts after PT’s …
Continue reading “Counterpoint #2”I want to present a third view on the question of what will determine Trump’s decision on Iran. I suggest that the key factor will be what MbS and the other Middle Eastern leaders tell him they want. Ultimately Trump’s interest is in what will enrich him most and here Saudi Arabia and the others have by far the most to offer. For Trump, there is no money to be made in Israel or in regime change in Iran. Corruption overrides everything for him.
Grok’s ‘White Genocide’ Responses Show How Generative AI Can Be Weaponized
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk, the founder of its parent company, xAI.
Continue reading “Grok’s ‘White Genocide’ Responses Show How Generative AI Can Be Weaponized”Supreme Court Lets Red States Deny Care For Trans Youth
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Wednesday that Tennessee’s ban on gender affirming care in cases of gender dysphoria does not trigger heightened legal protections. At the same time, it permitted the same exact care for minors going through other conditions like precocious puberty.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Lets Red States Deny Care For Trans Youth”