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

A Little Too Eager For Riots, Perhaps?

Heading into a weekend of planned nationwide protests against the authoritarianism of President Donald Trump, right-wing figures in politics and law enforcement seem almost giddy at the prospect of protests turning into riots that they can crack down on ruthlessly.

When they’re not conflating all protests with rioting, some right-wing officials have been using the tableau of street demonstrations to preen as tough guys ready to crack heads. The posturing is almost certainly fueled by the overblown right-wing coverage of the sporadic rioting in Los Angeles that depicts a metro area of 18 million people as under siege.

Taking President Trump’s lead, the GOP governors in Texas and Missouri have activated their national guards ahead of the expected protests this weekend.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) hasn’t activated the Florida National Guard, but he tried to embody the snarling “Make my day” ethos of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, telling a conservative podcast host:

If you’re driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety. And so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you.

Elsewhere in Florida, Brevard County officials held a press conference with the tagline: “Florida: The Anti-Riot State.” After acknowledging the right to protest, the local sheriff launched into tough guy mode with a threatening rundown of the things his deputies would do to protestors who engage in violence:

From yesterday, Wayne Ivey, Brevard County sheriff speaking on what police will do to those they deem violent at protests: "We will kill you graveyard dead"

— Brandi Buchman (@brandibuchman.bsky.social) 2025-06-13T10:36:22.051Z

Earlier in the week, the sheriff in Mobile County, Alabama promised it would be a busy weekend for local “orthopedic hand surgeons” if protestors break the perimeter his deputies set. The controversy over his remarks prompted him to issue a somewhat conciliatory statement, noting that he had been asked about the rioting in Los Angeles coming to Mobile:

It is important to clarify that I do not anticipate any such events taking place here. Our past experiences with protests in Mobile have shown them to be peaceful and organized, and I have no reason to believe this weekend’s rally will be any different.

The right-wing reactivity comes after years of overheated rhetoric, disinformation, and demonization directed toward the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, some of which did including rioting, vandalism, and persistent civil unrest. In the ensuing years, the BLM protests became shorthand on the right for left-wing and Antifa violence and morphed into a rationale and excuse for the Jan. 6 attack.

In addition to the ideological edge, there’s a provincial element to some of this. Law enforcement in bigger cities where large crowds more frequently gather have more experience with keeping temperatures down and deescalating things before they get out of hand. Smaller communities and more rural areas have less experience with crowd control, but there’s also the frisson of a big national event touching close to home in some way, however tenuous. You might remember local police being inundated in the summer of 2020 with complaints and tips fueled by crazy rumors and online misinformation circulating on social media about Antifa invaders.

Stay cool this weekend.

Appeals Court Pauses California National Guard Case

In a rapid series of events late yesterday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer held a hearing on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit challenging President Trump’s takeover of the state National Guard, issued a temporary restraining order blocking the move, at which point the Trump administration appealed the order to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which quickly issued an administrative stay last night.

For now, the National Guard deployment will continue through the weekend, with an appeals court hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Hegseth Won’t Commit To Abiding By Federal Court Orders

Testifying to the House Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cast doubt on whether the administration would comply with lower courts order reining in President Trump’s use of the National Guard but said he would abide by a Supreme Court decision. Hegseth’s comments came before the flurry of court actions later in the day in the California National Guard case.

A Lot More Going On Than Mass Deportations

Kristi Noem: "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city."Sen. Alex Padilla is then forcibly removed!

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) 2025-06-12T18:06:08.896Z

The Padilla Incident Speaks For Itself

Harvard’s Petrova Released After Four Months

I haven’t focused on the case of Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova because it doesn’t have the same First Amendment implications of the student protestor deportations or the structural constitutional implication of the Alien Enemies Act and adjacent “facilitate” cases. It just stands for the Trump administration being really shitty.

Petrova’s visa was revoked when she allegedly tried to bring undeclared frog embryos through customs at Boston’s Logan Airport. The Trump administration wants to deport her to Russia, where she fears reprisals for her earlier political activism. When she challenged the immigration proceedings, the Trump administration drummed up smuggling charges against her for the frog embryo incident.

Yesterday, after four months in detention, Petrova was released by agreement of the parties while the criminal and immigrations cases proceed.

Quote Of The Day

“He’s a sadist, but not in any fun way …”–Brian Beutler on Stephen Miller

Officers Sue Over GOP Refusal To Install Jan. 6 Plaque

Two officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 have sued to try to enforce a law calling for the installation on the West Front of a plaque honoring law enforcement’s efforts that day. The House GOP has no apparent plans to put it up.

House GOP Votes To Approve DOGE Cuts

On a 214-212 vote, House Republicans passed a $9.4 billion rescissions bill that enshrines President Trump’s unlawful impoundment of federal spending, including cuts to foreign aid and PBS/NPR – but only after two GOP holdout were cajoled into supporting the measure.

OMB Director Russell Vought has another funding freeze-rescission scheme in the works, covering some $30 billion in funding for EPA, NOAA, HHS, and other agencies, Politico reports.

Chart Of The Day

A new CBO analysis shows how deeply regressive the Trump centerpiece legislation is, an unprecedented one-two punch of tax cuts for high earners and spending cuts for lower income Americans:

“I’ve never seen anything that simultaneously really goes after poor people and then really helps rich people."www.nytimes.com/interactive/…

— The Upshot (@upshot.nytimes.com) 2025-06-13T00:13:33.320Z

Have A Great Weekend

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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.

What Will Judge Xinis Do Now?

The slo-mo constitutional clash in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia inched forward with a new filing overnight in which his attorneys are now seeking sanctions against the Trump administration – including individual officials – for stonewalling and defying court-ordered discovery into his wrongful deportation to prison in El Salvador.

Among the wide-ranging sanctions Abrego Garcia is seeking is a possible court order for Attorney General Pam Bondi and other key officials to turn over their personal devices for U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland to review privately in her chambers.

The move to impose sanctions comes after what was supposed to be an expedited two-week discovery sprint ordered by Xinis on April 15 turned into a nearly two-month discovery marathon. Xinis ordered the discovery in part to determine if the Trump administration should be held in contempt of court for refusing to abide by her Supreme Court-backed order to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia. In court the day she ordered the discovery, Xinis was adamant that she would brook no more delays or foot-dragging and ordered lawyers to cancel vacations and drop everything else.

“Nearly sixty days, ten orders, three depositions, three discovery disputes, three motions for stay, two hearings, a week-long stay, and a failed appeal later, the Plaintiffs still have seen no evidence to suggest that the Defendants took any steps, much less ‘all available steps,’ to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States ‘as soon as possible’ so that his case could be handled as it would have been had he not been unlawfully deported,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argue in the latest filing.

The sanctions Abrego Garcia seeks asks the judge:

1. to make factual determinations that are adverse to the administration, such as formally finding that it did not communicate with El Salvador to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release prior to his May 21 indictment;
2. order the administration over its objections to produce the documents it has withheld in discovery thus far, deeming some its privileges waived by its misconduct;
3. or appoint a special master to investigate the administration’s “willful noncompliance” and identify which officials by name “willfully evaded” the court-ordered discovery, including possibly ordering the personal devices of key officials like Bondi turned over for the judge’s review;
4. impose accumulating fines on officials for each day the discovery defiance continues; and
5. hold the administration in civil contempt of court.

Notably Abrego Garcia, who was secretly indicted while this discovery dispute raged and subsequently returned to the United States to face charges of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants, is not yet seeking sanctions for the weeks-long delay in complying with the court’s order to facilitate his return. Instead, he is focused on the administration’s alleged misconduct in defying the court’s discovery order by failing to produce the required materials and witness and raising frivolous objections and privileges.

That seems to be a strategic decision to avoid the harder questions of whether the courts can order the president to engage in negotiations with a foreign country, to demand the release from a foreign prison of someone wrongfully deported to their home country, and other stickier elements of this case about which the Supreme Court has already expressed reservations.

Meanwhile, in his criminal case, Abrego Garcia asked the judge to release him pending trial.

Trump Admin Admits To ‘Perfect Storm Of Errors’

In another wrongful deportation case, the Trump administration claimed a “perfect storm of errors” led it to deport Jordin Melgar-Salmeron to El Salvador on May 7 despite an order from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals barring his removal. In the new filing this week, the administration also changed what it had previously told the appeals court about how the wrongful deportation happened.

Khalil Wins Initial Round

It took long enough, but U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz of New Jersey ruled that the Trump administration cannot detain or deport Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. But Khalil won’t be released immediately, as the judge stayed his order until tomorrow to give the administration time to appeal his ruling.

The Purges: DOJ Edition

The Trump DOJ fired two more people who worked on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Mar-a-Lago classified documents, including a non-lawyer member of the support staff, Reuters reports.

Tina Peters Revenge?

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, has made an unprecedented demand for a huge volume of 2020 and 2024 election data from the state of Colorado, NPR reports. While the data demand is not explicitly connected to the criminal conviction of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, the Trump DOJ has already taken the unprecedented step of intervening in her federal appeal.

Trump’s Disturbing Ft. Bragg Speech Was Staged

New reporting from Military.com on the highly politicized speech President Trump gave this week at Ft. Bragg:

Internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reviewed by Military.com reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump’s recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance.

One unit-level message bluntly saying: “No fat soldiers.”

“If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don’t want to be in the audience then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out,” another note to troops said.

Wasn’t Hard To See This Coming

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced eight new appointees to the CDC vaccine advisory committee he sacked – and at least a couple of them are real doozies, he NYT reports.

Fulbright Board Resigns Over Political Interference

The entire board of the Fulbright program resigned over what it said was political interference from the Trump administration in its selection of this year’s Fulbright scholars.

The NYT reported:

The board approved those scholars over the winter after a yearlong selection process, and the State Department was supposed to send acceptance letters by April, the people said. But instead, the board learned that the office of public diplomacy at the agency had begun sending rejection letters to the scholars based mainly on their research topics, they said.

The board posted its resignation statement here.

Quote Of The Day

“It angers me when I see these rioters trying to pull barricades out of the hands of police officers and shoving police officers to try and grab the barricades and break the perimeter … I can tell you that if they try to do that in Mobile, Alabama, the orthopedic hand surgeons will have one hell of a weekend fixing hands. That barricade can become a weapon.”–Mobile County, Alabama Sheriff Paul Burch, commenting on this weekend’s planned “No Kings” rally

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