On a particularly lawless Monday, President Trump defied a Supreme Court order on live TV, barred the Associated Press from that event in defiance of a different court order and prompted a fired agency chair to ask for intensive questioning of officials under oath following the government’s alleged violation of yet another court order.
Since the beginning of Trump’s term, it’s been a matter of when, and not if, the administration would ignore a judge’s unfriendly ruling. Some, including elected officials, have shifted the Overton window to when it’ll defy a Supreme Court order, as if ignoring a lower judge is a lesser catastrophe.
By either metric, the crisis is here. Trump, beaming alongside strongman Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, performed in a little two-man show where both feigned an inability to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an innocent man the administration admitted that it deported to Bukele’s torture prison by accident. Stephen Miller, high on the brutality, chimed in to lie about what the Supreme Court had ordered — a 9-0 ruling that the administration had to “facilitate” Garcia’s return.
Outside the Oval Office meeting, the administration was busy defying another court order — keeping an AP reporter and photographer out of the Trump-Bukele meeting, despite a federal judge’s order returning the outlet to the press pool. The AP exclusion has been ongoing since February, a fit of pique at the outlet’s decision not to use Trump’s favored “Gulf of America” over the “Gulf of Mexico.”
Later the same day, a new filing hit the docket in Brehm v. Marocco, in which lawyers for the fired chair of the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) call for testimony from and cross examination of DOGE members and Pete Marocco, the administration official who unwound USAID and was put into place to do the same at USADF. The plaintiffs write that Marocco lied to the court about having fired additional USADF employees and terminating grants, accusing the government of having “ignored this Court’s instructions.”
After so many years of conservatives stacking the courts and smoothing the pipeline of right-wing legal thought, Trump has found it more efficient to simply ignore the courts altogether. Further proceedings, particularly in the Abrego Garcia case, will reveal the extent of the courts’ appetite to try to punish him for taking a jackhammer to the foundation of our government.
But these are dark days. Only four months into his term, and Trump is molding the American presidency into something ever closer to the grinning dictator seated next to him in the Oval Office Monday.
— Kate Riga
Trump Wants CBS To ‘Pay A Big Price’
It’s for the sin of reporting on the on-the-ground devastation of Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, it seems. After CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired its segment this weekend — it involved correspondent Scott Pelley traveling to Ukraine to interview Volodymyr Zelensky and visit the site of a Russian attack where nine children were killed this month — Trump posted on Truth Social, calling on his FCC chair Brendan Carr to fine and punish the news network. It’s an escalation of his ongoing attacks on CBS News and other news outlets, which include blocking the AP from the Oval Office event Monday, openly defying a court order.
Trump has been engaged in a $20 billion lawsuit against “60 Minutes” for some time, angered by how the network edited an interview with Kamala Harris. The FCC under Carr’s leadership has already launched its own version of an investigation into the interview, which Trump claims made Harris look good.
White House Forcing Its DOGE Will On Congress
As I noted earlier this month, it appears that the White House is going to formally request that Congress turn its lawless DOGE rampage into formal legislative action — creating a backwards, aconstitutional situation where the executive branch is dictating how the legislative branch legislates. It appears these so called “recissions” will specifically target the budget for NPR and the State Department, according to Politico:
The White House will soon ask Congress to cancel $9.3 billion already approved for foreign aid initiatives, public broadcasting and other programs, according to a White House official granted anonymity to speak freely.
Congress is expected to receive that so-called rescissions request when lawmakers return from their two-week recess later this month. To nix the funding, the House and Senate will each have to vote at a simple-majority threshold to approve the formal ask.
Harvard Will Not Bend The Knee
In a message to the university on Monday, the university President Alan Garber announced that Harvard would not give in to demands from the Trump administration — involving gutting diversity programs, cracking down on student protests, cooperating with DHS on campus and letting the government conduct audits — in exchange for keeping its federal funding.
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” he wrote, per the Harvard Crimson student newspaper.
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A Slo-Mo Constitutional Clash Is Already Well Underway
Trump, Bukele Condemn Abrego Garcia to Prison On Live TV
Senate Republicans’ Sneaky Math Gimmicks Foreshadow Plans To Run Roughshod Over The Senate
Beyond Showerheads: Trump’s Attempts to Kill Appliance Regulations Cause Chaos
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Trump Anoints Himself With The Power To Secretly Repeal Regulations
What We Are Reading
The Trump Administration Is Sticking to Its Gulag Plan in Defiance of the Supreme Court
Palestinian Student Leader Was Called In for Citizenship Interview — Then Arrested by ICE
Trump plan would slash State Dept. funding by nearly half, memo says
You’d have thought that the attack on Zelenskyy in the Oval Office was the low point, but the charade with Bukele today was even worse. Now it’s back to the Supreme Court. Let’s see what happens there, and whether Abrego Garcia is still around to be returned upright rather than in a box. My expectation is the latter, and they’ll view that as compliance with the order to “facilitate” his return.
Via ABCnews…
Vice President JD Vance fumbles Ohio State football team’s national championship trophy
Trump hosted the Buckeyes at the White House on Monday.
Snake oil anyone?
“The FCC under Carr’s leadership has already launched its own version of an investigation into the interview, which Trump claims made Harris look good.”
The 60 Minutes interview made Harris look SO good that she won the election.
Wait, what?
It’s so ridiculous.