As DOGE continues it’s federal government wilding spree, purportedly searching for examples of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, we seem to have had another case of keyword search gone awry. One of the leases DOGE decided to cancel is the lease for Skeen-Whitlock Building in Carlsbad, New Mexico, a 90,000 square foot facility which manages the nation’s only storage area for DOD-created nuclear waste and the only operating deep geologic nuclear waste storage facility in the world.
Continue reading “DOGE D’oh: Nuclear Waste Facility Edition”Podcast Schedule Change
Alas, due to scheduling conflicts, The Josh Marshall Podcast will be out tomorrow, Thursday, March 6, instead of our usual Wednesday drop.
In the meantime, the team is hitting the road, and we want to hear from you! Want us to visit your neck of the woods? Vote now.
Emergency Economic Measures
It’s not the people who directly compile the economic statistics at the Commerce Department precisely. It’s an expert panel which advises those people on how to do it correctly. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick fired them at the end of last month.
Trump Loses On USAID Spending Freeze At Supreme Court
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the liberals Wednesday in reining in some of the Trump administration’s effort to block foreign aid that had been appropriated by Congress.
The justices left in place a lower court order that required the Trump administration to lift its freeze on paying about $2 billion in foreign aid to contractors for work that had already been completed.
Continue reading “Trump Loses On USAID Spending Freeze At Supreme Court “Donald Trump Personally Thanks John Roberts For Keeping Him Out Of Jail: ‘I Won’t Forget It’
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.
— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 12:18 AM
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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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Looting Watch
In case you didn’t hear the GSA today announced it’s going to sell off many if not all of the central buildings making up the headquarters of the American republic. Those buildings include FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, the buildings which are the headquarters of the DOJ, HHS, DOL and more – more than 400 buildings across the country. Here’s the listing and here’s a Politico piece which gives an overview.
Late Update: A rather bizarre coda to this story. Or, perhaps not a coda, just an update. Several hours after GSA posted this and after the first round of press they removed all the DC buildings from the list. Given how unexplained and arbitrary the decision-making seems to be it seems entirely possible they’ll be back on the list soon. But at least for now we’re not selling the Department of Justice, at least in the sense of the literal building.
Even Later Update: And now the entire list is gone.
Republicans Can Dodge Town Halls, But We’ve Seen This Playbook Before
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, reportedly told House Republicans behind closed doors Tuesday to stop holding in-person town halls as viral clips of clashes with angry protesters have caught fire online.
Continue reading “Republicans Can Dodge Town Halls, But We’ve Seen This Playbook Before”Judge Permanently Reinstates Civil Service Board Member Unlawfully Fired By Trump
A federal judge permanently reinstated Cathy Harris to her position on the Merit Systems Protection Board on Tuesday, finding that President Donald Trump had unlawfully fired her.
Continue reading “Judge Permanently Reinstates Civil Service Board Member Unlawfully Fired By Trump”Toward a Theory of Civic Sede Vacantism
For almost a year I’ve been thinking through an idea that now seems especially timely and relevant in the last six weeks. I think of it as a form of civic sede vacantism. The reference is, ironically, to a strain of hyper-traditionalist Catholic thought which held (still holds) that none of Vatican II canons or the successive Popes counted because they were heretical and heretics. A bit more complicated than that. But details of that really aren’t relevant for us. I just found the defining metaphor or concept helpful. The key is their idea that the papal throne was empty. That’s the meaning of the Latin phrase, sede vacante. My interest and concern with this grew out of my belief that civic democrats in the US have far too great an essentialism about the law and constitutional jurisprudence, especially under the corrupted federal judiciary as it now exists. It breeds a kind of fatalism and passivity which casts a pall over thought and political action.
I know I’ve thrown around a lot of big and perhaps obscure ideas. So let me get down to concrete specifics. In Trump v. United States last year the Supreme Court claimed that Presidents have wide immunity from criminal law after they leave the presidency. For many people this was an ‘everything changed’ moment. It did in effect end Trump’s prosecution. But now that’s the law, as so many people I know put it. Only it’s not. This isn’t a decision I disagree with. It’s simply wrong. I’m not going to rehearse all the arguments. To me, among all the other areas of flawed and disingenuous reasoning, we have the simple fact that the authors of the constitution knew precisely how to confer immunity on public officials. They did it with Congress. But again, I’m not trying to rehearse the specific arguments. Others have already made them on the particulars better than I can. I’m saying that we must disengage from the idea that this is what the law is. It’s not. These are fraudulent decisions.
Continue reading “Toward a Theory of Civic Sede Vacantism”New York FBI Chief Forced Out By Trump DOJ Applauded Agents ‘Who Will Always Remain Independent’
The head of the FBI’s New York field office was forced to retire on Monday, after resisting the Department of Justice’s efforts to go after agents involved in the January 6 investigations, according to multiple reports.
It’s one of many recent shakeups and retaliatory purges within the bureau as the Trump administration continues its effort to erode the Justice Department’s independence from the White House and President Trump’s political retribution agenda.
Continue reading “New York FBI Chief Forced Out By Trump DOJ Applauded Agents ‘Who Will Always Remain Independent’”