Josh Marshall
Personalization, The Vastly Bigger Story Behind the Pimpmobile Jet Bribe 
Just before the onset of the pandemic, I’d started researching a longer project about the personalization of global politics which was accelerated by but not started by Trump. In a way, personalization is the inevitable companion of authoritarianism and autocracy. If there’s one guy who runs the show in each country, then the affairs of that state inherently become indistinguishable from that of the autocrat and his personal checkbook. Relationships between states become those of individual people.
Early in Biden’s presidency, I spoke to one of the very high-end hedge funders who are in the class of people who get invited to the dinners and shindigs with Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh. This was around the time that Jared Kushner got that huge $2 billion investment in his new post-White House fund. This source described one of those dinners to me that had occurred not long before that investment. Kushner was seated to MBS’s right or left. I can’t remember which, but same difference. Given how much power MBS wields and his near unilateral control over hundreds of billions of dollars, people would probably literally kill for that level of preferment and proximity. But as it was conveyed to me, everything about that weekend or series of days suggested that Jared was just MBS’s guy. As in, MBS just loved Jared. And remember, Trump was out of power. And in early 2022 or possibly late 2021, it was by no means an obvious bet that he’d be returning to power. The relationship seemed to go far beyond a bet on the Trump family returning to power.
Read MoreThey’re already calling him “BinderKapow” Edwards. But Asheville police have now announced that they will not be filing charges against the North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards over the alleged binder-whack incident at a Rotary Club conference over the weekend in Asheville.
From TPM Reader DB …
My feeling about Qatar gifting Trump a 747 is simply that it is just embarrassing for the United States. The US can afford and can build its own state-of-the-art Air Force One. The US doesn’t need a gift from a little country of a used plane that is out of production and largely used for freight. It’s not becoming of the United States nor the President of the United States. It’s just embarrassing.
A Novel Concept: Will Judges Start Enforcing the Law With DOGE?
Since late in Donald Trump’s first term as President something called “Schedule F” has figured high in his plans to gut and/or make the federal workforce personally loyal to him as opposed to the constitution. The gist of it is that Schedule F would allow Trump to redefine large numbers of civil servants as the equivalent of “policy-making” political appointees who are fireable at will. After he was forced to leave the White House in 2021, Schedule F played a big role in plans for a second term. For a long time I hadn’t looked that close at the specific legal details of Schedule F as opposed to its potential impact. It was usually presented to me as a kind of ingenious bit of lawyering which allowed Trump to undo the Civil Service system from the inside. And I don’t mean Trumpers calling it ingenious I mean either by supporters of non-partisan federal employment and/or journalists who cover these matters.
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Funds-Ghosting At EPA Too
The Post has a good piece up about all the hidden ways the Trump White House is trying to break different parts of the government — through non-payment of grants (different from cancelations), arbitrary limits on purchase authority, etc. They note something very similar to the funds-ghosting I’ve reported on at the National Institutes of Health, only here with the EPA.
Here’s the key passage that TPM Reader SS flagged to my attention …
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Qatari Royals Give Trump a Plane
Fascinating details emerging with the Qatari royal family giving Donald Trump the personal gift of a fully blinged out 747. Yes, they’re giving him a plane.
When I first heard this story a few days ago it at least sounded like Trump had finally lost patience with Boeing because they either couldn’t or wouldn’t or wouldn’t quickly enough produce a decked-out new Air Force One to meet Trump’s wishes. The U.S. has been trying to buy a new AF1 for a number of years and it had gotten caught up between the very different demands of Trump and Biden and maybe also Boeing’s woes. I figured the Qataris were either gifting the plane to the U.S. government or selling it. In either case it would be the U.S. government’s and it’s for the use of future Presidents, too. That’s not what’s happening.
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The NIH Funds-Ghosting, A Follow Up Report
Two days ago, I wrote about a pattern operating largely under the radar in the President’s war against higher education. We know about the general grant freezes on about half a dozen elite universities. Then there are countless other grant terminations across a much larger group of universities. One of the complexities of this story is that there are so many different versions of cancellations and terminations going on, it’s hard to figure out which is which. It’s just as hard deciphering to what extent the differences even matter. There are ones tied to prohibited words and concepts (DEI, transgender); there are ones tied to targeted universities; others are terminated on generic efficiency grounds; others are canceled for no clear reason. Are these categories even meaningful or is that all just more smoke and mirrors and distraction?
Read MoreFrom an anonymous TPM Reader …
Read MoreAs a former OPM appointee, this seems suspect for numerous reasons. Going through the Federal News Network article, the first thing that doesn’t make sense is in the second paragraph. Leading with retirement applications and RIFs is really odd, since the federal retirement process is a government-wide problem that a central OPM system isn’t going to fix alone, and OPM has no real role in RIFs for other agencies. The small price tag you cite is another huge red flag. This must be for OPM systems only (internal, not in a government-wide capacity) and I know from experience working with Workday and companies like them that $300K doesn’t go very far. I think they got rid of too many people at OPM too quickly (a mix of policy expert people and hands on execution people) and this is a desperate effort to fill that gap.
Elon’s OPM Hands Out No Bid Contract to Cloud-Based AI HR Company
After firing much of its staff, the Office of Personal Management, under Elon Musk’s effective control since late January, has handed out a no bid contract to cloud-AI-based HR company Workday to help handle the mountain of terminations, retirements and layoffs built up over the first three months of the Trump administration. OPM stated in justification for the sole-source, no-bid contract that “an urgent confluence of operational failures and binding federal mandates that require immediate action.”
Read MoreI am reading an April 21, 2025 letter from Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Stephen Ferrara which provides guidance for discontinuing treatment of minors with gender dysphoria at military medical treatment facilities. After noting the Pentagon policy banning the initiation or continuation of treatment with puberty blockers or cross-sex hormone therapy, the letter allows clinicians to offer a tapering-off regime which can last between 6 and 12 weeks, during which military doctors can write prescriptions. Anything longer than 12 weeks must get express approval from Ferrara’s office. The letter also notes administrative changes which will require patients to fill tapering prescriptions “at private sector pharmacies at their own expense.”