Yesterday the Bulwark posted a very interesting article which showed that while basically every Republican is bowing down to the High Lord Elon in Washington, they’re singing at least a slightly different tune in letters to constituents in their states and districts. The Bulwark rightly notes that this suggests a nascent discomfort with the headlines Musk’s operation is creating, enough that even some pretty stalwart Republicans are reacting to it. The Bulwark received letters which readers had sent in from twelve different members of Congress and published four of them — from Sen. John R. Curtis of Utah, Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida, Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska, and Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska. The members are certainly not turning on Musk. But it’s not the standard DC “sucks to be you” discourse we’re seeing in Washington. The letters say they’re monitoring the situation closely to make sure there are no conflicts of interest. They’re particularly sensitive to reports of people’s private information being compromised. A number of them say clearly that Musk is only making recommendations and that Congress will have the final say about spending.
Continue reading “Need Your Help With Something”Cowed Republican Senators Now Worried About Primary Challenges Backed By Trump OR Musk
There is new reporting in The Hill today that suggests that the threat of primary challengers against Senate and House Republicans who don’t keep their heads down amid Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s assault on the federal government is very much alive and well — and that the threat is acutely felt by the senators themselves.
Continue reading “Cowed Republican Senators Now Worried About Primary Challenges Backed By Trump OR Musk”Judge Finds Admin Not Complying With Court Order After Musk, Vance Rail Against Judiciary
It’s quite a split screen: The president, vice president, White House deputy chief of staff and unelected co-president publicly goad each other on to ignore a judge’s order, which would usher in a full-blown constitutional crisis.
Meanwhile, the Trump Justice Department on Sunday took up nearly a whole page in a short filing to assure a federal judge that it’s in full compliance with that same order, despite vehemently disagreeing with it.
Continue reading “Judge Finds Admin Not Complying With Court Order After Musk, Vance Rail Against Judiciary”How Interpret Schumer’s ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter
I’ve written clearly a few times that Democrats have one key leverage point with a plausible shot of ending the spree of criminal and unconstitutional conduct Trump has unleashed through the federal government. That comes with the expiration of the current “continuing resolution” which funds the government along with the need to again raise the debt ceiling. I’ve argued that Democrats’ position needs to be this: no discussions, no negotiations until the law breaking stops. After that, if there is an after that, they can negotiate on actual budgetary issues, but not before.
Today Sen. Schumer sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter to his caucus setting forth Senate Democrats’ position. Congressional leaders put these out as a combination of advice and guidance to members as well as public messaging. Politico and I assume others are interpreting the letter as taking that budgetary cudgel off the table. They have good reason to interpret it that way. Schumer makes no mention of the condition I note above. He says: “Democrats stand ready to support legislation that will prevent a government shutdown. Congressional Republicans, despite their bluster, know full well that governing requires bipartisan negotiation and cooperation.”
Continue reading “How Interpret Schumer’s ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter”Blue State Law, Red State Law
Here’s an interesting little detail behind the headlines. The medical news website StatNews has a whole package of pieces out today about the new NIH policy restricting so-called “indirects” (see this post) to 15%. One of their pieces is about 22 states going to court today to block that new directive. Unsurprisingly, the 22 states are all either blue states or ones that currently have Democratic governors or AGs. Again, no surprise. But as I discussed over the weekend, those grants are very important, for example, not just to the University of Alabama but the State of Alabama generally. The state’s junior senator Katie Britt talked to local media over the weekend saying, albeit in the politest terms to President Trump, that it’s super important to keep these funds flowing and that she looks “forward to working with incoming HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to accomplish this vital mission.”
Continue reading “Blue State Law, Red State Law”Stephen Miller Is The White House Point On Investigating The Investigators
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Don’t Sleep On This
I want to center Stephen Miller’s little-noticed role in overseeing the investigation of the investigators because it is by itself a serious erosion in Justice Department independence from the White House that in any other era would be a howling scandal.
President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” directs the attorney general to review federal law enforcement activity over the past four years for any “weaponization” – code for investigating the investigators. (As we all know now, this as a license to weaponize the Justice Department while purporting to stamp out weaponization.)
The EO orders the attorney general to prepare a report “with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions” for the President and to submit it through the deputy chief of staff for policy and the White House counsel. The deputy chief of staff for policy is … Stephen Miller.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has since taken the EO and started running with it, immediately setting up a “Weaponization Working Group” within DOJ that will do the work Trump assigned to her in the EO. Her memo creating the working group closely mirrors some of the key language in the EO.
In a move that experts told TPM’s Khaya Himmelman is a crossing the Rubicon moment for DOJ independence, Bondi ordered the working group to “provide quarterly reports to the White House regarding the progress of the review.” Along the news that the White House is enabling itself to exert more influence over the Justice Department in specific cases, there go 50 years of post-Watergate reforms to shield DOJ from the White House. Just like that. Poof.
To reiterate, the EO directs the attorney general to report on her work to Stephen Miller. The attorney general in turn has ordered regular updates for White House. So it looks like the guiding hand on the retribution campaign against prosecutors and investigators will be Trump’s most notorious political aide.
Stephen Miller is not a lawyer, even though he spent time between Trump presidencies as founder and president of the bullying legal advocacy group America First Legal Foundation. He has a poli sci BA from Duke and was a Hill aide before latching on to the Trump ’16 campaign. He’s a purely political creature.
The position of White House deputy chief of staff for policy that Stephen Miller holds is the same one Karl Rove held under President George W. Bush. Imagine Rove meddling with federal prosecutors and seeking retribution against them. Yes, as TPM readers well know, we already had that scandal.
A final note: Miller is credited with having “personally drafted or coordinated most of” the EOs that Trump signed on Day 1. The “weaponization” EO was in that batch. It’s not clear if Miller drafted it, too, thus making himself the point person for retribution.
Latest Developments At DOJ/FBI
- NBC News: Trump pledges to ‘fire some’ FBI agents who investigated Jan. 6
- Politico: Trump administration agrees not to publicly identify FBI agents on Jan. 6 cases without advance warning
- WSJ: Emil Bove Revived His Career Defending Trump. Now He’s Upending the Justice Department.
- NYT: At Justice Dept., Trump’s Former Criminal Defender Emil Bove Emerges as His Enforcer
- Mother Jones: Kash Patel Took $25,000 From Russia-Linked Firm to Appear on an Anti-FBI TV Series
- Wired: Trump’s FBI Pick Kash Patel Took Up to $5M in Stock From Chinese Ecommerce Giant Shein
Not Normal For A Federal Prosecutor
Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney in DC, continues to outdo himself, sending yet another love letter to Elon Musk and posting it to social media:
Follow up.
— Ed Martin (@EagleEdMartin) February 7, 2025
Sent only via X: to @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/FVO7pDFf3Q
The Treasury-DOGE Fiasco
The top developments in the incursion by DOGE into the Treasury Departments payment systems:
- WSJ: Federal Judge Blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE From Treasury System
- Politico: Trump administration seeks urgent end of ‘impermissible’ court order blocking access to Treasury systems
- NYT: Musk Team’s Treasury Access Raises Security Fears, Despite Judge’s Ordered Halt
- Wired: A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as ‘Insider Threat’
- WaPo: Booz Allen “removed” the subcontractor who warned of “insider threat risk” DOGE posed at Treasury
- ProPublica: Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Expected to Examine Another Treasury System Next Week
This Is Where We’re At
Another DOGE staffer has “boosted white supremacists and misogynists online,” Reuters reports. Meanwhile, the president and vice president want to see the return of another DOGE staffer who quit before his racists posts online were reported publicly:
Trump says he agrees with Vance that a DOGE staffer fired after being outed for making extremely racist posts should be brought back
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM
[image or embed]
And a third DOGE staffer is a teenager who was fired by a cybersecurity firm for leaking company secrets to a competitor, Bloomberg reports.
Judge Halts USAID Purge
Among the many developments in President Trump’s lawless dismantling of USAID:
- Politico: Judge blocks Trump administration from putting 2,200 USAID workers on leave
- WaPo: How an ex-State Department official fueled Elon Musk’s attack on USAID
CFPB Is Squarely In the Trump II Crosshairs
On Friday night, OMB Director Russell Vought added a second brief to his portfolio: acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By Saturday night, he had cut off new funding to CFPB. By Sunday he had shuttered its offices for the week. This comes after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had halted all CFPB activities while he was briefly the acting head of CFPB. Meanwhile, DOGE has arrived at CFPB, and Elon Musk posted “CFPB RIP.”
Ominous
We seem destined for an inevitable refusal by President Trump to abide by federal court orders. While we’re not there yet, Vice President JD Vance is eager to get there and teed up the issue in a social media post:
If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 9, 2025
If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal.
Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.
Trump Revokes Joe Biden’s Security Clearance
President Trump retaliated against former President Joe Biden, members of his administration, and others by revoking their security clearances. Among those targeted:
- former Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken
- former national security adviser Jake Sullivan
- former deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco
- former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann
- New York Attorney General Letitia James
- Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
- national security attorney Mark Zaid
- attorney Norm Eisen
Biden of course revoked Trump’s security clearance in the midst of the revelations that Trump swiped highly classified documents as he left the White House and kept them in comically insecure circumstances at Mar-a-Lago. In another retaliatory move related to the Mar-a-Lago case, Trump fired Colleen Shogan, who oversees the National Archives.
Loyalty Test
Candidates for top national security positions in the new administration are being asked whether they subscribe to Trump conspiratorial fever dreams, the WaPo reports, citing unnamed sources:
These people said that two individuals, both former officials who were being considered for positions within the intelligence community, were asked to give “yes” or “no” responses to the questions: Was Jan. 6 “an inside job?” And was the 2020 presidential election “stolen?”
Both individuals did not answer “yes” and did get not the jobs.
Quote Of The Day
“Trump’s tornado has changed the world in just a couple of weeks. Yesterday we were the heretics. Now we are the mainstream.”–Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, at a Madrid gathering of far-right leaders whose slogan was “Make Europe Great Again.”
How We Rationalize Anticipatory Obedience
M. Gessen has a thoughtful essay that starts from this premise: Yale historian Timothy Snyder makes “anticipatory obedience” sound irrational but it is not. “In my experience, most of the time, when people or institutions cede power voluntarily, they are acting not so much out of fear but rather on a set of apparently reasonable arguments,” Gessen argues before laying out five categories of rationalizations.
A Reagan Appointee Holds Firm
In case you missed it last week, U.S. Direct Judge John Coughenour of Seattle used unsparing language to defend the rule of law against President Trump’s attack. It came as the judge blocked the Trump executive order on birthright citizenship:
It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain. Nevertheless, in this courtroom, and under my watch, the rule of law is a bright beacon which I intend to follow.
You can listen to Coughenour, an 83-year-old Reagan appointee, here and here.
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Trump Says Some Treasury Notes May Not Be Real
I suspect this will just end up being something Old Man Trump said on a plane and we won’t hear about it again. But after recents, who are we kidding? Anything is possible. On Air Force One today en route to the Super Bowl, Trump told reporters that DOGE analysts (whatever that means) had found “irregularities” in U.S. treasuries and that the U.S. may not be obligated to pay some of them. “Maybe we have less debt than we thought,” he said.
Needless to say, this is quite literally violating the express language of the 14th Amendment which says: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
If financial markets actually thought Trump was serious about this, that he would follow through on this, they’d probably go completely haywire. As I said, I think — unless and until we hear more — they will think this is just the old man ranting.
Continue reading “Trump Says Some Treasury Notes May Not Be Real”‘Bama Senator Howls Like Stuck Pig After She Sees NIH Cuts’ Impact in State
Yesterday I made the point that while research universities and academic medical centers may be coded blue in many ways, they’re far from limited to blue states. Indeed, overall they tend to be more crucial to regional economies in red states and districts than in blue ones. And sure enough, Alabama’s junior senator Katie Britt (R), who inherited the seat from one-time boss Dick Shelby, has chimed in to support my argument. She ran to the local paper to promise to she’s going to work super hard with RFK Jr. to make sure her state doesn’t lose all its funding. “While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama,” she told AL.com
Continue reading “‘Bama Senator Howls Like Stuck Pig After She Sees NIH Cuts’ Impact in State”More on Trump’s Effort to End Basic Medical Research in the United States
Last night I noted news which has spread like wildfire through the American scientific and medical research communities. The NIH released a seemingly down-in-the-weeds new directive which has the effect of drastically reducing the federal funds that go to institutions doing basic medical research. Put as briefly as possible, NIH medical research grants are divided into funds for this specific study (“direct”) and funds that go to the institution which houses the lab conducting the study and the infrastructure that makes it possible (“indirect”). That latter category is a major funding source for research universities and academic medical centers. Last night’s directive reduces that stream of funding somewhere between 50% and 75%. The precise breakdown ranges from institution to institution. But that’s a good measure of the level of funding cuts we’re talking about.
Continue reading “More on Trump’s Effort to End Basic Medical Research in the United States”The Huge NIH Funding Cuts
Let us say that TPM Readers are almost unimaginably over-represented in the country’s colleges and universities, and perhaps even more so in the research arms, which are of course primarily in the sciences and medical research fields. So we’re getting quite a lot of you writing in with various details and context for this new NIH directive that went into effect overnight which drastically reduces federal support for university research arms and academic medical centers. I’m going to be publishing more of them but I wanted to start with this one from TPM Reader RM …
Continue reading “The Huge NIH Funding Cuts”