Emboldened by Donald Trump’s blatantly anti-trans, Islamophobic and racist campaign to successfully secure a second term in the White House and a Republican trifecta, GOPers have been using their time ahead of the 119th Congress to launch new and unprecedented attacks against their will-be colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
Continue reading “Trump Has Emboldened Republicans To Be More Hateful Than Ever To Dem Colleagues”How Trump’s Failed 2020 COVID Policy Birthed His 2024 Public Health Nominees
It’s not enough to say that Donald Trump is installing a gaggle of opportunists, gadflies and, in some cases, quacks to run public health.
Continue reading “How Trump’s Failed 2020 COVID Policy Birthed His 2024 Public Health Nominees”As Trump Touts Plans For Immigrant Roundup, Militias Are Standing Back, But Standing By
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
President-elect Donald Trump has reaffirmed that once he takes office he plans to declare a national emergency and use the military on American streets to accomplish his promises to round up and deport millions of undocumented migrants.
Many experts’ concerns about this program have included the facts that immigrants contribute enormous value to the U.S. economy and mass deportation would hurt food production, housing construction and other crucial industries. Other scholars have analyzed how deportation traumatizes families.
I have an additional concern about a renewed focus on deportation as someone who has studied U.S. domestic militias for more than 15 years: Some militia units may see it as their duty to assist with such efforts. In fact, local police may even deputize certain militias to help them deport immigrants.
Anti-government, but supporting national defense
Militias are generally wary of the government. They’ve even been known to use violence against politicians and other government representatives, including police. I have found in my research that the militias’ disdain for the federal government is especially strong because they believe it is too big and corrupt and takes too much of their income through taxation.
But militia members’ negative beliefs about immigration and self-declared mission to protect the country could lead them to join a national mass-deportation effort.
My research finds that militia members generally believe the falsehoods that undocumented migrants are a threat to public safety.
For some, my research finds, this perception is rooted in xenophobia and racism. Other militia members misunderstand what is required to obtain U.S. citizenship: They believe that anyone who enters the country illegally is, by definition, a criminal and has therefore already proven their intention to not follow the laws and generally be a good American. This is not true, because migrants may seek asylum regardless of their immigration status for up to a year after entering the country.
Members with both sets of motives believe that undocumented migrants are taking jobs away from more deserving citizens and are generally receiving unearned benefits from being in the country. Trump’s promises to crack down on immigration appeal to militia members of both types.
Militia members also believe that one of the few legitimate functions of the federal government as outlined by the Constitution is national defense. In that sense, those who believe migrants are an urgent threat could see the military’s involvement in a mass-deportation operation as consistent with a duty to defend the nation.
Most scholars agree that even if it were technically legal, domestic deployment of the military would be an alarming threat to democracy.
Active participation
Some militia units in border states have been engaged in deportation efforts for a long time. They typically patrol the border, sometimes detain migrants and regularly call the U.S. Border Patrol to report their findings.
Border Patrol agents have historically expressed skepticism and concerns about militia involvement with border monitoring due to the unverifiable skills and motives of civilian support.
Some state, county and local police also do immigration enforcement, and in recent years they have seemed to become more open to civilian assistance.
Some local police agencies, particularly sheriffs, are already asking for civilian assistance managing perceived problems with migrants. Others have hosted anti-immigration events with militias who patrol the border under an effective, if not formal, deputization of their actions.
Militias may also be called on directly. In the past, Trump has directly addressed militias. The most cited example is his instruction in a Sept. 29, 2020, presidential debate, directing the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” People had similar interpretations of his comments in advance of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
But I have long believed these appeals started much earlier. In 2018 Trump pardoned the men who inspired the Bundy family occupation and standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. I believe that was an early attempt to garner support from people in militia circles.
A volatile combination
The military has already been getting involved in immigration enforcement in unprecedented ways. In early 2024, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed the U.S. Border Patrol was not protecting his state from an “invasion” from would-be immigrants. He deployed his state’s National Guard to an area of the border, blocking the Border Patrol from working in that section. That blockade continues.
In a second term, Trump has little incentive to restrain his rhetoric or his actions. The Supreme Court has ruled that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken while in office. Even if he does not directly appeal to private citizens to control the border or detain people whom they believe to be undocumented migrants, his official presence and hard-line stance on immigration may be enough to provide legitimacy to vigilante action.
In November 2024, two militia members were convicted of a variety of federal offenses, including conspiracy to murder federal agents, for a plot to kill Border Patrol agents whom the men believed were failing to adequately protect the border from crossing migrants.
Not all militia members support mass deportation, especially if it involves unconstitutionally deploying military forces on U.S. soil. That’s clear from my research.
“The military is the military, and law enforcement is law enforcement,” one militia member replied when I asked some of my long-term contacts for their perspectives on Trump’s declaration to use the military. “They are separate for a reason.”
This man believes undocumented migrants pose dangers – but thinks shifting the military’s role would be even more harmful. Not all militia members are so circumspect.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Happy Thanksgiving
I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the TPM community. I hope you get to relax, spend more than a few moments with people you love.
The New White House Bro Briefing
As he was yukking it up with Daily Wire commentator and vehement anti-LGBTQ provocateur Michael Knowles on his podcast, “Triggered With Donald Trump Jr.,” this week, the president-elect’s eldest son made something of an announcement about his and his father’s latest scheme to go after mainstream news sources during Trump II.
Continue reading “The New White House Bro Briefing”Rudy Giuliani Melts Down In Court: ‘I Have No Cash’
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
The Only Real Accountability We Got
I hope it goes down as more than a footnote to history that the most substantive accountability any higher-up in Trump World received for their roles in trying to subvert the 2020 election was imposed by two Black women, the election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whose $148 million defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani offers the only genuine taste of schadenfreude from the coup attempt.
Giuliani was back in federal court yesterday, where, as the NYT put it, he lost his lawyers and his temper. In addition to getting smacked around by a federal judge for his courtroom outburst, Giuliani was taken to task once again for his dilatory efforts to surrender assets to Freeman and Moss to satisfy their enormous judgment against him for lying about them trying to commit election fraud during the 2020 vote count.
With his original lawyers allowed to withdraw from the case, having cited an unspecified dispute over “professional ethics,” it was left to Giuliani’s new lawyer to shut his client up in front of the judge, to no avail. The judge warned that Giuliani, himself now disbarred in New York and D.C., would face sanction for any further outbursts.
The judge refused to delay a trial set for January over the disposition of some of Giuliani’s assets, a delay Giuliani has sought so he could attend Donald Trump’s second inauguration. The irony of course is that Giuliani got himself in this mess while representing Trump, who failed to pay him. Giuliani’s claims against the Trump campaign for unpaid bills is one of the assets he’s having to surrender.
Giuliani’s outburst in court was mostly about how cash-strapped he now is, thanks to Freeman and Moss, a pity party he replayed outside of court:
Rudy Giuliani: The reality is I have no cash…
— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 4:52 PM
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Painful
While Special Counsel Jack Smith has dismissed his cases against Trump and is expected to leave his position before Inauguration Day, Special Counsel David Weiss – a Trump administration holdover who is still the U.S. attorney for Delaware – looks set to continue his work into Trump II, having filed new tax charges against a former FBI informant separately charged with lying about bribery allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden.
IMPORTANT
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) has put a hold on the promotion of the Lt. Gen. Chris Donahue, who was the last American soldier on the ground in Afghanistan, a move that has “reinforced fears among officers that they could face retaliation for carrying out orders by the Biden administration,” the WSJ reports.
Trump Is Already Breaking The Presidential Transition
A few new developments on Trump acting out his transgressive impulses via the presidential transition:
- Trump Team Signs Long-Delayed Agreement: “The Trump transition has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Biden White House. … The Trump team’s unprecedented delay in signing these agreements, weeks after being declared the winner of the election, had alarmed former officials and ethics experts who warned it could lead to conflicts of interest and leave the new government unprepared to govern on Day One.”–Politico
- Still Dragging Feet: “But the Trump team is still refusing to accept several typical trappings of the presidential transition process, including federal funding, equipment and office space — as well as official government background and security checks for his transition staff. The agreement does not include an ethics pledge for the president-elect, required by the Presidential Transition Act, stating that Trump will avoid conflicts of interest while in office.”–WaPo
- Security Clearance Free-For-All: “Donald Trump’s transition team is planning for all political appointees to receive sweeping security clearances on the first day and only face FBI background checks after the incoming administration takes over the bureau and its own officials are installed in key positions, according to people familiar with the matter.”–The Guardian
Don’t Sleep On Russ Vought
We’ve been telling you for months about Russ Vought, the presumptive nominee for another run as Trump’s OMB director. If you’re late to the party, TPM’s Josh Kovensky has a refresher: “Across public speeches, little-noticed interviews, and secretly made recordings, the Trump functionary-turned-MAGA policy influencer has spent several years enunciating his belief: America was founded as a Christian nation, and is intended to be governed that way.”
Trump II Clown Show
- Anti-lockdown Stanford Dr. Jay Bhattacharya: director of the National Institutes of Health
- Robert Lighthizer protegé Jamieson Greer: U.S. trade representative
- Former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett: director of the White House’s National Economic Council
- Peter Thiel associate Jim O’Neill: deputy secretary of Health and Human Services
Trump Transition Miscellany
- Loyalty Over All Else: “Trump’s Cabinet is almost complete just three weeks after his reelection, offering an unusually quick window into his plans and priorities for a second administration. After years of complaining about first-term staff members who resisted his ideas and ultimately denounced him, Trump has prioritized loyalty over traditional expertise in some positions and has elevated some supporters with little direct or managerial experience in the areas they are set to lead.”–WaPo
- So Long, Student Loan Debt Forgiveness: “President-elect Donald Trump is poised to pull the plug on President Joe Biden’s yearslong push to cancel student debt for tens of millions of people as Republicans sweep into power in the coming months.”–Politico
House GOP Will Have A 1-Vote Margin Deep Into 2025
It’s looking like once all the counting is complete, the House GOP will hold a 220-215 majority – but with resignations and appointments to the new Trump administration, that margin will shrink to 217-215 for the early months of 2025, as narrow a margin as it gets.
Cooper Vetoes GOP Power Grab In North Carolina
The GOP supermajority in the North Carolina legislature is expected to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of their effort to take power away from statewide offices won by Democrats in the recent election.
What Capitulation Looks Like
“Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups.”–AP
A Tough Read
Sarah Wildman, who lost a daughter to pediatric cancer, summons the strength to try to nudge us away from our deep cultural aversion to the reality of death and dying so that we might be more humane with each other and with ourselves: “Medical teams may fear death, but so does society, in a cycle of suppression and evasion that ultimately fails us all. It is why so many of us feel so alone when death and grief come.”
Thank You
As we head into the holiday weekend, I want to offer my thanks to Morning Memo readers for your support, consistency, and feedback this year. I know for many of you it’s been difficult to stay engaged with politics, whether you do so as an active participant or as on outside observer. Some editions of Morning Memo, like yesterday’s, have been hard to write. But I’ve been able to trust that you expect me to give you the news you need to know rather than pander to what you might like to hear.
The number of Morning Memo subscribers – it’s free, but many of you opt to receive Morning Memo via email – has grown by 70 percent since this time last year. Welcome, to the newer folks! It’s good to have you here.
My main regret this year has been letting the tone of Morning Memo become too grim at times. TPM has always brought a sense of the absurd to our coverage of American politics, but it’s been a challenge lately to frame the absurdity in the breezy, ironic, and occasionally humorous way that you’ve become accustomed to.
I did make a conscious decision in the late summer to steer Morning Memo in a more earnest direction. I wanted to be able to look back in 10 or 20 years on the Morning Memos written during the stretch run of the 2024 election and not regret having missed the mark by failing to warn adequately of the stakes, by getting tangled up in trivialities, or by losing perspective on the big picture.
The result at times was a tone that veered toward dour. In the aftermath of the election, I’m still working on shifting that tone back to one that takes the work seriously but not myself. Thanks for your patience as Morning Memo reboots for Trump II.
Morning Memo will be back on Monday.
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
Clarity
I mentioned earlier this week that a big part of Trump’s MO is firing off ten flares, letting everyone react to everything and then hanging back to decide on his own timetable which of those flares he’s actually going to follow through on. It’s critical to take back that initiative. When Trump and Republicans have a trifecta there’s little direct impact Democrats can have on any legislative decision. Lots of things are important, damaging. Go after things that are clearly unpopular. Political power is unitary. Landing a punch on one policy front reduces the White House’s ability to act everywhere else.
One thing that we are absolutely sure is going to happen is an extension of the 2017 tax cuts. This is a dead certainty. There are already rumblings that the Trump White House will cut the Affordable Care Act proper to get the money. But they are openly saying they will cut Medicaid to do it. (In the Trumpite taxonomy, defense, Medicare and Social Security are supposedly off limits.) But here’s the thing. With Medicaid expansion, Medicaid is functionally part of the ACA. Maybe some policy wonk will tell you they’re separate things. That’s silly. They’re not. Don’t listen to that silly person. Cutting Medicaid — through whatever means you choose to do that — is cutting the ACA. That’s a big reason why there are currently a historically low number of people uninsured. Donald Trump is going to hand out tax cuts and pay for it by cutting the ACA. Simple.
Army Veteran Senator Details The Many Ways In Which Hegseth Is ‘Unqualified’ For Defense Gig
For many reasons, including a previously undisclosed allegation of sexual assault against him, Democrats have been sounding the alarm on veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s extreme lack of fitness to be the secretary of the Department of Defense.
Continue reading “Army Veteran Senator Details The Many Ways In Which Hegseth Is ‘Unqualified’ For Defense Gig”A Funny Thing Happened on The Way To Your Phone: Thinking About Bluesky
Ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter two years ago, those who despise his evolving mix of predatory trolling, stunted emotional development and right-wing extremism have been hoping for an alternative. There was “Post”; Meta got into the act with “Threads”; another entity of at first uncertain origins actually got its start with one of Twitter’s former CEOs, Jack Dorsey. That was Bluesky. There was also Mastodon, a sort of Linux of social media networks. Part of the problem there was that you may not be familiar enough with Linux to understand the analogy. And if you do, you’re part of a potential community not nearly big enough to sustain a mass adoption social media platform. Each in succession thoroughly failed to dislodge or even make much of a dent in Twitter’s disordered and Frankensteinian dominance. It’s the power of network effects. Everyone can want to leave (or at least a big chunk of users can want that) and yet everyone is simultaneously trapped. It’s a collective action problem.
Continue reading “A Funny Thing Happened on The Way To Your Phone: Thinking About Bluesky”The ‘Christian Nation-ist’ Set To Take Control Of The Federal Government
Russ Vought wants to make America Christian again. And he has put quite a bit of thought into what that might look like.
Continue reading “The ‘Christian Nation-ist’ Set To Take Control Of The Federal Government”