After a morning meeting, I sat down to my computer around 11:30 a.m. ET and read two reader emails picked more or less at random out of my inbox. The first was from an American expat. The gist of his email was that American liberals — Blue America, for lack of a better descriptor — are totally unprepared for what’s coming down the pike toward them. The second was from a federal government employee reviewing the executive orders relevant to the federal workforce and explaining to me in so many words, ‘yeah, good luck with that.’ The expat’s email was generally more pessimistic and totalizing than I’m inclined to be. You may differ and you may be right; who knows? But in general the two emails together captured the moment as well or better than any report, essay or interview I might have read — a mix of actions and red flags almost unimaginable by any normal standard (though in virtually every case unsurprising) mixed with an underbrush of the sheer size, inertia and difficulty of whatever changes Trump is trying to make. They’re both true. Both true at once.
Continue reading “Day Two”With Trump Pardons, The Jan. 6 Coup Attempt Is Finally Complete
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
A Dark Day
In one of his first acts of his second term, Donald Trump granted sweeping pardons to nearly all of the convicted Jan. 6 rioters and instigators and commuted the sentences of 14 of those serving the longest sentences, including on the most serious charge: seditious conspiracy.
Trump also ordered the Justice Department to end pending prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants, an extraordinary and unprecedented interference with the department’s independence, and a foreshadowing of DOJ being run from the White House.
Among those freed were former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers honcho Stewart Rhodes. Overnight, Rhodes was seen leaving prison:
The acts of clemency from Trump brought full circle the conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election and hold on to power regardless of the election results. The spasm of violence on Jan. 6, 2021, was a neither a beginning nor an end but rather an inflection point in Trump’s fantastical, long-running Big Lie.
The pardons and commutations reinvigorate a slew of paramilitary right-wing extremist groups and other long-marginalized figures who see Trump as the their de facto leader and inspiration. Proud Boys returned to DC on Inauguration Day and were seen marching in the streets before the pardons were issued.
The Weaponization Begins
Under the guise of “ending the weaponization of the federal government,” President Trump by executive order has created a mechanism for weaponizing the intelligence community and the Justice Department – and it runs through Stephen Miller.
The Destruction Begins
- “The Pentagon on Monday removed a portrait of Gen. Mark A. Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from a corridor of the building filled with paintings of all of his predecessors.”–NYT
- “President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday revoking the security clearance of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter arguing that emails from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden carried ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation’ and that of his former national security adviser John Bolton.”–CNN
- “Trump administration quickly removes top immigration court officials.”–WaPo
Trump’s Executive Order Flex
A reminder that the executive orders are a combination of substantive and basically glorified press releases. Deborah Pearlstein offers a primer on how to tell the difference. Among the notable ones:
- “President Trump on Monday signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the pact among almost all nations to fight climate change.”–NYT
- “President Donald Trump has ordered the federal government to stop all permits for wind energy projects.”–Heatmap
- “President Trump declared on Monday that his government would no longer treat the U.S.-born children of undocumented people as citizens, signaling his intent to essentially ignore the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship in a move that is all but certain to invite a legal challenge.”–NYT
- Adopting some of the most strident anti-immigration language, Trump declares that “an invasion is ongoing at the southern border.”
Trump II Clown Show
- Politico: How Musk helped boot Ramaswamy from DOGE
- Longtime Missouri Republican Ed Martin, an advocate for the Jan. 6 rioters, has been named interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
- A rundown from the Trump White House of the new chairs and acting chairs of various agencies, commissions, and boards.
Oligarch Watch
The images speak for themselves, but a couple of additional notes: The big tech executives had a more prominent position for Trump’s swearing-in than some of his cabinet nominees, and unlike members of Congress they could bring their spouses.
Image Of The Day
The news service caption above leaves a lot to be desired: “gestures.” TPM’s Josh Marshall on Elon Mush going full Sieg Heil.
Senate Starts Moving Trump Nominees
- On a 99-0 vote, the Senate confirmed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as secretary of state.
- On a 14-13 vote, the Senate Armed Service Committee advanced the nomination of Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense.
- On a 13-2 vote, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the nomination of Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) as DHS secretary.
- On a 14-3 vote, the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced the nomination of John Ratcliffe as CIA director.
- On a 8-7 vote, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee cleared the nomination of Russell Vought as OMB director.
Vibe Check: Forced, Insipid, And Credulous
Forced:
Biden to Trump: "Welcome home"
— Nikki McCann Ramírez (@nikkimcr.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 9:59 AM
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Insipid:
It is time to look to the future. The challenges that face America are many and great. The Senate must respond with resolve, bipartisanship, and fidelity to the working and middle class of this country.
— Chuck Schumer (@schumer.senate.gov) January 20, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Credulous:
This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.
— ADL (@ADL) January 20, 2025
It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on…
Kumbaya
The contrast between how liberals see Democratic opposition to Trump as feckless and how MAGA Republicans portray Democrats as all-powerful traitorous conspirators always carries some cognitive dissonance but rarely as much as yesterday:
Marjorie Taylor Greene: "These people would line us up in front of a firing squad & kill us if they could. We know exactly who the Democrats are … Democrats, until you start writing big checks to Republicans & start voting Republican … then we can start talking about unity."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 20, 2025 at 2:11 PM
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Elon Goes Full Sieg Heil In Clarifying Moment
I was at the gym this afternoon when I saw out of the corner of my eye Elon Musk giving an exuberant speech at one of the Trump inauguration’s events. I was listening to something else on my AirPods. Then, only a few moments later, in a moment of exuberant disinhibition he gave what was unmistakably a sieg heil! salute. Then he did it again. He actually appeared to do it three separate times. I took out my AirPods and tried to see if there was going to be any comment on CNN on what we’d just seen. I wondered whether this might somehow have been a weird angle or something. I commented on BlueSky asking, rhetorically, if we’d all just seen what we just saw. It wasn’t a weird angle.
This is one of those cases where it’s helpful to have been to this rodeo one time before.
Continue reading “Elon Goes Full Sieg Heil In Clarifying Moment”Trump Officially Sworn Into Office
The second Donald Trump presidency has officially begun.
In a speech running about 30 minutes long, he promised day one action on immigration, to seize the Panama Canal (while somehow being a peacemaker president) and to instruct his Cabinet to “defeat inflation.”
Catch up on our live coverage below:
Milley Responds
Gen. Mark A. Milley responds to Biden pardon: “My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today. After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights.”
TPM Reader JE flagged the statement to me.
A Moment of Calm
I’m not one to tell people how they should react to or experience things. But for me I’m taking all of this in with a serene impassivity. They won. They’re entitled to their day. The Trump people have been signaling for days that they’re going to hit the ground running with what they describe as an executive “shock and awe.” I don’t see any reason to be shocked or awed. I don’t say this in any grand metaphysical sense. I mean that I’ve seen headstrong winners of close elections high on their own supply before. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, all of this is meant to hit you with so much sensory stimulus that you become overwhelmed. But the images you see wrapped around you in an iMax theater aren’t real. It’s still a movie.
Note this “for the ages” picture, above, of Jeff Bezos with the CEOs of Meta, Google and Apple from left to right, at an inaugural service feting Donald Trump this morning at St. John’s church across the street from the White House. You may not have a billion dollars but your dignity is all yours. No one can take it from you. Compared to some you can already be ahead of the game.
One step at a time. They’re not as big as they look.
Continue reading “A Moment of Calm”Biden Issues Preemptive Pardons Against Trump Retribution
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Not Normal
On his final day in office, President Joe Biden granted preemptive pardons to several high-profile political targets of incoming President Donald Trump.
Biden pardoned:
- retired Army General Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
- Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who led the government’s response to the COVID pandemic;
- the members and staff of the House Jan. 6 committee;
- the police officers who testified before the Jan. 6 committee.
The attempt to protect current and former government officials, including sitting members of Congress, from abusive political retribution and a weaponized Trump II Justice Department was an extraordinary marker of the erosion of the rule of law and democratic norms in the United States.
“[T]hese are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said.
Biden’s pardons were issued just hours before his predecessor was set to be sworn as his successor. Biden had continued to try to observe some of the pomp and circumstance of a presidential transition, keeping traditions like hosting the incoming president at the White House and attending the inauguration, but the pardons and other preemptive efforts to blunt a rogue Trump II administration create a taut public scene on inauguration day.
In issuing the pardons, Biden explicitly noted that they should not signify that the recipients engaged in any wrongdoing. It is not clear whether all of this morning’s recipients will accept the presidential pardons.
LIVE: Trump’s Swearing-In Ceremony
The ironies today abound: Trump being sworn in on the national holiday that honors Martin Luther King, Jr., and in the Capitol Rotunda that a mob of MAGA followers desecrated on Jan. 6, 2021.
TPM will be providing live coverage beginning at 11 a.m. ET.
Transition Tidbits
- President Biden spent his last full day in office in South Carolina, which was key to his securing the Democratic nomination in 2020. Speaking at a Black church, Biden urged Americans to “keep the faith.”
- Trump’s second inaugural address reportedly will be less dark than his notorious 2017 “American Carnage” shitshow.
- TPM’s Josh Kovensky: MAGA, MAHA, And Lots Of Crypto: Which Trump Inaugural Ball Is Right For You?
Day One Of Trump II
I want to caution that many of the expected first day acts of President Trump are going to be more symbolic than substantive. The executive orders in particular are probably best viewed as a combination of real executive orders and press releases gussied up as executive orders. Still, performative hatred towards transgender Americans, people of color, and other vulnerable groups can both be of little legal weight and still carry enormous costs and consequences.
- Conflicting reports on whether the Trump administration will immediately conduct a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago this week.
- An anti-trans executive order is reportedly in the works.
- NYT: Trump Will Strip Protections from Career Civil Servants, Stephen Miller Says
- WaPo: Elon Musk’s DOGE to be sued within minutes of Trump inauguration for allegedly failing to comply with a 1972 law governing executive branch advisory committees
Early Data Points
- Forced resignations at State: “Scores of senior career diplomats are resigning from the State Department effective at noon on Monday after receiving instructions to do so from President-elect Donald Trump’s aides, three U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.”
- Gov’t scientists hunker down: “Agencies and unions have put in place new guardrails designed to limit political interference in government research.”
- Sign of the times: “The New York Times contacted more than two dozen of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken critics and perceived enemies to ask about their level of concern. Despite having spoken out in the past or having participated in proceedings against him, almost all declined to address their worries publicly, saying speaking out now could make them even more conspicuous targets.”
How To Pay Attention
Democracy advocate Ben Raderstorf offers four criteria for prioritizing where to allocate your limited attention for politics in the Trump II chaos:
- Is the action tangible, actionable, and detailed? Or intangible, abstract, and vague?
- Does this thing cause irreparable harm to real people?
- Does this action target the opposition in a way that may cause anticipatory obedience?
- Does this entrench the authoritarian faction in power and make it more difficult to dislodge?
Corruption Watch
- WSJ: With a corporate merger review looming, executives of the owner of CBS are reportedly considering settling a bogus Trump lawsuit over a 60 Minutes‘ interview with Kamala Harris.
- NYT: “President-elect Donald J. Trump and his family on Friday started selling a cryptocurrency token featuring an image of Mr. Trump drawn from the July assassination attempt, a potentially lucrative new business that ethics experts assailed as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.”
- NYT: An Illustrated Guide to Trump’s Conflict of Interest Risks
The Perils Of Economic Concentration
This is a moment. It's a powerful articulation of the problem with #cyberbarons consolidating government and economic power and the potential response — genesis of a populist antitrust, anti-monopoly movement. Could appeal beyond partisan divides. @raskin.house.gov with @chrislhayes.bsky.social
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw.bsky.social) January 17, 2025 at 9:55 PM
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Aileen Cannon’s Closing Scene
Former TPMer Tierney Sneed: “Judge Aileen Cannon suggested Friday she was not inclined to allow the Justice Department to share special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the classified documents case with Congress – at least for now.”
Surreal
Former TPMer Ryan Reilly recorded an unscripted moment Friday that serves as a fitting end to the Biden presidency:
This morning, I was chatting with Mike Fanone as he walked into his sixth Jan. 6 sentencing hearing, and Judge Tanya Chutkan emerged from the courthouse with the security detail she has with her all the time as the result of the threats she received because she oversaw Donald Trump's D.C. case.
— Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” (@ryanjreilly.com) January 17, 2025 at 7:39 PM
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Kacsmaryk Clings To Mifepristone Case That No Longer Has Any Texas Connection
Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is ripping up legal procedure, the better to keep a high-profile abortion case in his hands as the new administration takes over.
Last June, the Supreme Court found that the anti-abortion doctors aiming to make abortion drug mifepristone less accessible lacked standing, and unanimously shot down the case. Experts expected the challenge to live on in the hands of a few red states — Idaho, Kansas and Missouri — who’d try to take over as the primary plaintiffs. One expert even told TPM that she expected Kacsmaryk to go along with a right-wing strategy to drag the zombie case out, even if it was so thin as to later get shot down.
The first part of that prediction has come true. The DOJ and a manufacturer of mifepristone are trying to end the case — the Supreme Court found that the doctors couldn’t keep litigating it, and the red states “intervened” in a case that is no longer live. If we lived in a normal world, the red states would have to start afresh.
But they don’t want to. They’re not going to get a friendlier judge than Kacsmaryk. By staying, they also get the added perk of being in the 5th Circuit’s domain, the most reliably right-wing appellate court. And Kacsmaryk doesn’t want to lose the case either, particularly amid his Supreme Court audition, knowing that the Trump DOJ will flip its position in the case.
“Notwithstanding dismissal of the original action, the three Intervenor States of Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas (“the States”) wish to continue pressing their claims,” the DOJ wrote in a filing last month. “And they insist on doing so before this Court, even though the States’ claims have no plausible connection to the Northern District of Texas. Particularly now that the original Plaintiffs have dismissed their suit, the States’ Complaint must likewise be dismissed (or transferred)…”
Kacsmaryk isn’t letting it happen. He directed the states on Thursday to submit a new complaint, hand-waving that they’ll get to the venue controversy later.
It’s totally lawless. Kamsaryk wants to keep alive the possibility that he can deliver a death blow to medication abortions, and to get on Trump’s radar while he’s doing it.
— Kate Riga
Here’s what else TPM has on tap this weekend:
- Josh Kovensky breaks down the carnival-esque array of balls for MAGA members hoping to cozy up to Trump and his closest allies this weekend.
- Khaya Himmelman spoke to one of the 60,000 voters in North Carolina whose ballots Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin is trying to get tossed out in order to steal the election from incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs, who won the race by just over 700 votes.
- Emine Yücel checks in on Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) who this week threatened one of her Democratic colleagues during a congressional hearing, when she asked Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) if she would “wanna take it outside.”
The New Buckraking
It is really, really easy to cash in on the great bootlicking that’s come with Trump’s return to office. We mostly see it from the other side: tech CEOs cozying up to Trump, companies settling bogus lawsuits he brought, news outlets easing up coverage. What’s less visible are those who see it as a business opportunity.
That is where at least some of the pre-inaugural festivities fit in. It’s partly due to a simple bottlenecking effect. The official Trump inaugural festivities are extremely limited, and sold out in early January. That’s left a lot of unmet demand among people trying to cozy up to the once and future President.
It’s being met by a carnival-esque array of balls, featuring various tiers of Trumpworld officialdom. At the top, you have events that promise access to high-level appointees like FBI pick Kash Patel. Other events cater to specific, often picayune constituencies: take the “Coronation Ball,” which features the hosts of the Red Scare podcast and seems pitched at a mix of so-called nationalists and the most irony-poisoned among us. Then again, how else to deal with the next few years?
This weekend, there’s a ball for everyone. Read my piece on that here.
— Josh Kovensky
One Of 60K Voters Griffin Seeks To Disenfranchise Speaks Out: ‘I Want My Vote To Be Counted”
As North Carolina state appeals court judge and Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin filed a legal brief with the state Supreme Court laying out his argument for why he believes 60,000 November ballots should be tossed out, protesters gathered outside the state Supreme Court building to demonstrate against his election-stealing efforts. The protesters gathered at 6:00 am ET on Tuesday, reading all of the 60,000 names of voters whose ballots are being challenged by Griffin.
Although Louanne Caspar, a Wake County businesswoman with a 10-year voting history in North Carolina, did not attend the protest, she’s on the list and she’s not even sure why. In an interview with TPM she said she was “very surprised” to learn last week that her vote was in danger of being thrown out.
“I take every election cycle very seriously,” she said. “I read up, I’m not a one party person, I am registered as a Democrat, but I vote both ways.”
Caspar noted too that she actually works for the Board of Elections on Election Day because she’s a big “rule follower.”
“I would like to know why I could be disqualified, and then second, do I have an opportunity to cure that,” she added.
Griffin is currently challenging 60,000 ballots because they allegedly contain incomplete voter registration and are missing the last four digits of their social security numbers or drivers license on their voter files. Caspar said that she did give the Board of Elections her social security number when she registered to vote, which is why she remains confused as to why her vote is among those Griffin is using to try to overturn the election in his favor.
This week, Griffin, submitted a brief to the state Supreme Court, asking the court to first invalidate 5,509 overseas ballots, who, he claims, failed to show photo identification when they voted, before the court considers the rest of the 60,000 ballots that he is protesting. Griffin is in no way conceding that the 60,000 ballots should not be contested, but rather, as previously reported for TPM, he is merely attempting to protest ballots in a way that is more “palatable.” But the larger effort remains the same—he is attempting to overturn the results, and steal the lead away from Democrat incumbent Allison Riggs.
“I really want to get some resolution from this,” Caspar said. “I want my vote to be counted.”
— Khaya Himmelman
Words Of Wisdom
“I am no child. Do not call me a child. I am no child. Don’t even start … If you wanna take it outside we can do that.”
That’s Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), the most recent wannabe MTG, seemingly trying to start a fight during a congressional hearing this week with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX).
If it’s bewildering to you to hear that a current United States representative is threatening another congresswoman with a “catch me outside how about that” moment over the word “child” … Well, you’re not alone.
Mace claimed on social media her intention was not to fight but to have a more “constructive conversation” off the floor — I’ll let you be the judge of that.
To make things even more ridiculous, following the comments, committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) ruled that Mace’s remarks were not a call to violence, saying she could have been asking Crockett to go outside to “have a cup of coffee or perhaps a beer.” Right.
— Emine Yücel
What Will CBS Do to Prove to Dems It Can Give Them A Fair Shake?
Fascinating news this afternoon that CBS and its parent company Paramount are considering settling a lawsuit Trump filed against them late last year alleging “election interference” and demanding $10 billion in damages. We know there’s been a lot of this of late. ABC settled an incredibly weak case Trump brought over George Stephanopoulos’ correct use of the word “rape” to describe what a jury in New York concluded Trump had done to E. Jean Carroll. But there’s weak and there’s weak. The suit against CBS isn’t weak. It’s absurd. There’s no tort of editing. But Paramount is considering settling and generally going full Oprah cash & prizes for Donald Trump. This WSJ article, which broke the news, tells us what the issue is: CBS has a merger it’s trying to get approved. And the Trump team, including incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr (who has promised to abuse his power starting on day one), have made it clear that companies have to give Trump cash and prizes if they don’t want trouble.
CBS and Paramount have gotten the message.
Continue reading “What Will CBS Do to Prove to Dems It Can Give Them A Fair Shake?”Greenland Discourse is Starting to Have that Pre-Iraq War Vibe
I’m starting to get a strong Iraq War vibe about Greenland.
By this, I want to be clear, I don’t mean that I expect a catastrophic and ruinous U.S. invasion to take place. I’m referring to something different … but let’s just say: still not great. One of my strongest memories of those dark times 20-plus years ago was a peculiar dynamic that took hold in Washington after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The desire to invade Iraq was already a big thing in elite conservative circles in the late Clinton years. That was the origin of the “Iraq Liberation Act” of 1998. After the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration quickly made clear it wanted to overthrow the Iraqi regime either as retaliation for the attacks or as some sort of preemptive action to forestall future attacks. The ambiguity was of course an important tell about what and why any of this was happening.
Continue reading “Greenland Discourse is Starting to Have that Pre-Iraq War Vibe”