A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

The Most Memorable Moment Of Trump’s Speech

It wasn’t Rep. Al Green (D-TX) being escorted out of the House chamber after his disruptive protest, and it wasn’t the long list of Trump absurdities cobbled together into an endless speech. Nope, it was Trump rubbing Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ face in their mutual corruption:

“Thank you again. Thank you again. Won’t forget it,” Trump says while shaking the hand of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts after the State of the Union.

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— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 12:18 AM

Let’s stipulate that we’re reasonable people who can see this for what it is: a reference to the Supreme Court’s disastrous ahistoric discovery of vast presidential immunity from criminal prosecution that saved Trump from going to jail.

Trump’s mob boss mentality has led to other moments like this, where he extravagantly highlights the moral and ethical compromises that a sycophant has made on his behalf as a way of demonstrating that they really are no better than he is and of lashing them even more firmly to his side. If they resist, he calls them out for being hypocrites, pointing to their compromised behavior and mocking their previous pretensions to ethical behavior.

But this time Trump did it to the sitting Supreme Court chief justice in public on the floor of the House. Whatever high regard John Roberts still held himself in has been directly challenged in the most excruciating and a dignity-robbing way. Trump has a way of doing that to everyone who comes in contact with him. Roberts had it coming. No pity for him.

If you needed a moment that singularly captured the rot that has subsumed the Republican Party, Trump’s otherwise forgettable speech provided it.

Big Decision

Trump’s two-front attack on civil service protections – unlawfully firing civil service workers and unlawfully dismantling the agency that would hear their complaints – is one of the most serious transgressions of the rule of law in his first six weeks in office.

The Trump administration didn’t even try to argue that it had complied with the law and fired Harris for cause. Rather, it considers the law an unconstitutional infringement by Congress on the powers of the unitary executive. Contreras’ decision was the obviously right one under current Supreme Court precedent, but the Trump administration wants the high court to overrule its own precedent, which it seems more favorably disposed to do than ever before.

Not Good

Greg Sargent gets ahold of a new Justice Department memo: “The Trump administration is effectively declaring that the nation’s roughly 700 immigration judges can no longer count on civil service rules that safeguard their independence by protecting them from arbitrary removal, according to a Department of Justice memo that was sent to the judges.”

The Purges

• IRS: The Trump administration is drafting plans to cut the 90,000-person IRS workforce by as much as half.
• OPM: Under court order, the Office of Personnel Management rescinded its previous guidance on terminating probationary federal workers and emphasized that agencies not OPM have ultimate authority in personnel matters.
• CDC: Dozens of purged CDC scientists were reinstated – at least for now.
• Fired government workers with top security clearances were not given the usual exit briefings after being terminated, Reuters reports.

The Destruction

• Federal Buildings: The General Services Administration first posted online a list of federal buildings for sale, including DOJ, DOL, and Census Bureau headquarters before revising the list and then ultimately removing it from the GSA website.
• Universities: Trump threatened to withhold federal funding for universities over  “illegal protests,” an apparent reference to pro-Palestinian campus protests. Columbia University is already in the crosshairs of a joint probe by HHS, DoE, and GSA.
• Clean Air: The Trump administration has effectively shut down a global air quality monitoring program.
• Vaccines: “As a measles outbreak expands in West Texas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, on Tuesday cheered several unconventional treatments, including cod liver oil, but again did not urge Americans to get vaccinated,” the NYT reported.
• NIH: NIH reels with fear and uncertainty about the future of scientific research

The Corruption

• Wired: People are paying millions of dollars to dine with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, with the destination of the proceeds unclear but reportedly going to his future presidential library.
• WSJ: The Justice Department has put on hold the trial of two former corporate executives in an alleged foreign bribery scheme after President Trump’s executive order undermining enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Funny Math Is Going To Be A Trump II Theme

The Trump administration has disbanded two expert committees that advised the Commerce Department on producing accurate economic statistics, the WSJ reports.

Federal Judge Blocks Trump Anti-Trans Executive Orders

U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson of Maryland entered a nationwide injunction keeping the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from hospitals unless the stop providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth.

“The Court cannot fathom discrimination more direct than the plain pronouncement of a policy resting on the premise that the group to which the policy is directed does not exist,” the judge ruled.

Trump DOJ Will Abandon Idaho Abortion Case

The Trump Justice Department is poised to drop the Biden-era challenge to Idaho’s abortion ban as a violation of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, meaning abortions in Idaho will become unavailable in nearly all circumstances.

Ed Martin Runs Out Time On Corrupt Probe Of Schumer

The statute of limitations ran out Tuesday before acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin could consummate his corrupt investigation of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Black Lives No Longer Matter

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is poised to cave to a threat from Hill Republicans to deny the District of Columbia at least $185 million in transportation funding if it doesn’t paint over a Black Lives Matter mural and change the name of Black Lives Matter Plaza to Liberty Plaza.

House GOP Leaders Nix Public Town Halls

House Republicans are running scared from angry constituents.

Trump’s Ukraine Travesty

President Trump’s repugnant withdrawal of American support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion continues apace, even if America can’t bring itself to believe that it’s cutting and running:

• Trump has now cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine, the Financial Times reports.
• Trump’s cessation of U.S. military aid leaves Ukraine vulnerable to Russian air attacks.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought a limited rapprochement with Trump after being ambushed in the Oval Office.
• Vice President JD Vance sparked fury in Britain by calling it a “random country” and mocking its Ukraine peacekeeping plan.
• For the second time in two weeks, Trump nominees to the Pentagon deflected when asking during their Senate confirmation hearings whether Russia had invaded Ukraine.

Thread Of The Day

Trump highlights the danger of two categories of decision-making mistakes. The first is the one made by US partners in being too dependent on the US. AUKUS comes to mind, as it backtracked on a deal that would've diversifyied Aus' security portfolio. Those Scorpenes probably don't seem so bad now.

— Judah Grunstein (@judah-grunstein.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 4:24 AM

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A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

Trump’s Campaign Of Retribution Reaches Colorado

The Trump Justice Department is urging a federal judge to give “prompt and careful consideration” to the long-shot bid by former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to overturn her state conviction for Big Lie-related voting-machine tampering. It is highly unusual for the Justice Department to intervene on the side of a criminal defendant convicted on state charges.

Making matters worse, the Trump DOJ revealed in its new filing that it is reviewing Peters’ case as part of its larger campaign of retribution against those who prosecuted Jan. 6 cases and any other cases deemed anti-Trump – even though the Justice Department was not involved in the Peters prosecution.

“This review will include an evaluation of the State of Colorado’s prosecution of Ms. Peters and, in particular, whether the case was ‘oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives,’” the Justice Department said in a filing by Yaakov M. Roth, the acting assistant attorney general overseeing the Civil Division, quoting Trump’s so-called “Ending the Weaponization” executive order.

While serving as a local election official, Peters was involved in cockamamie scheme to break into a Dominion Voting Systems machine months after the 2020 election in hopes of finding evidence of manipulation that would bolster Trump’s claims that the election was stolen from him. Peters was sentenced last fall to nine years in prison for her role in the scheme.

Top FBI Agent In NYC Forced Out

James Dennehy, the top FBI agent in the NYC field office, was forced to retire, he told colleagues in a farewell email. It’s not clear who is directly responsible for pushing out the senior agent, but it comes after Dennehy urged colleagues in January to “dig in” and resist the DOJ’s purge of FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations.

More absurdly, Dennehy was told to file his retirement papers the day after Attorney General Pam Bondi complained that the FBI’s New York office had not been sufficiently eager to participate in her right-wing PR stunt of releasing the Jeffrey Epstein “file.”

Down The Memory Hole!

The U.S. Mint has removed from its website gold commemorative medals honoring the police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, bronze duplicates of which were previously available for purchase by the public.

Too Far Even For Trump DOJ?

Acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin has reportedly been stymied in his effort to launch a corrupt criminal investigation of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Martin has been agitating to present evidence to a federal grand jury that Schumer’s 2020 remarks about Supreme Court justices amounted to a threat. Higher-ups at the Justice Department have rebuffed Martin, the NYT reports.

IMPORTANT

TPM’s Kate Riga: DOJ Pushes For Immediate Trump Takeover Of Agency Flooded With Fired Worker Appeals

Simply Insane

The Trump administration’s evisceration of NOAA and the National Weather Service is a singular example of the lawless madness of the purges, cuts, and eliminations currently underway:

• The Verge: The US faces ‘devastating’ losses for weather forecasts, federal workers say
• Axios: DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases on key weather buildings

DOGE Watch

• CNBC: Former Social Security administrator warns that DOGE’s attack on systems and processes is going to result in the interruption of benefits within 30-90 days and recommends people start saving now in preparation.
• Politico: DOGE’s elimination of nearly 750 office leases is sowing confusion throughout the federal government.
• NYT: Struggling With Errors, DOGE Deletes Billions More From List of Savings
• WSJ: Treasury Department lawyers temporarily lost access Friday to PACER because the credit card used to pay for it was frozen.
• Kate Shaw: There Is No Musk Exception in the Constitution

RFK Jr’s Spox Quits In Protest

Politico: “The top spokesperson at the Health and Human Services Department has abruptly quit after clashing with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his close aides over their management of the agency amid a growing measles outbreak, two people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.”

Senate Dems Block Anti-Trans Bill

Senate Democrats successfully filibustered a Republican ban on trans women in school sports.

Government Shutdown Watch

House Democrats are stiffening their resistance to rescuing Republicans from the looming government shutdown of their own making.

Trump’s Tonkin Gulf Incident

President Trump is now using his Oval Office ambush of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as a pretext for cutting off military aid to the embattled U.S. ally, a move he had long wanted to make anyway.

Most of the news coverage of Trump’s decision to abandon Ukraine – though he’s styling it as a “pause” – is treating it not as pre-textual but as a result of the public Oval Office breach, playing right into the hands of those seeking to blame Ukraine for both Russia’s invasion and Trump’s pro-Russia tilt.

The reductive news coverage eagerly portrays this as a personality-driven conflict because that’s easier to see and understand than the age-old context of Russia’s grand imperial ambitions in eastern Europe, Ukraine’s tortured history with its more powerful neighbor, and Russia’s post-Cold War clamber to reclaim some vestige of its former superpower status.

The most credulous reporting continues to take at face value Trump’s preposterous claims that he is merely seeking peace and trying to drag Ukraine to the negotiating table with Russia. Ukraine is not fooled.

If the Tonkin Gulf incident was the pretext for greater direct U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the Oval Office ambush looks like a chance to shift the blame and the resulting press coverage from the historic abomination of taking Russia’s side against erstwhile U.S. ally Ukraine and to blame Zelensky for his own fate because he failed to show sufficient fealty to Trump.

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Happy Mardi Gras!

I went looking for the oldest photograph of New Orleans Mari Gras that I could find in our Getty photo archive, and this 1875 shot is what it yielded. Enjoy the day, even if only vicariously.

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