President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to U.S. cities that are led by elected Democrats, under the guise of a crackdown on crime and immigration, has been nothing short of an extremely transparent effort to flex power over his political enemies — both to get revenge on the local Democratic leaders who oppose him and the residents who didn’t vote for him.
On the global stage, while speaking to U.S. troops in Japan Tuesday, Trump suggested that he may soon escalate his ongoing retributive assault on American cities, suggesting he was prepared to send “more than the National Guard” in to cities to execute his mass deportation agenda. He’s publicly weaved his visions of deploying the military domestically and training its might on civilians before, but Tuesday’s remarks put that aspiration in starker terms.
“We have cities that are troubled, we can’t have cities that are troubled,” Trump said, while delivering a campaign rally-style speech to service members at the Yokosuka Naval Base. “And we’re sending in our National Guard, and if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard, because we’re going to have safe cities.”
“We’re not going to have people killed in our cities,” he continued. “And whether people like that or not, that’s what we’re doing.”
It is obviously unclear what any of this means. Trump has sent the National Guard into cities including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland to do little other than escalate tensions between protesters and federal officers conducting mass immigration raids. In Washington, D.C. there was so little crime to crack down on that some of the deployed National Guard members ended up helping clean up trash in D.C. parks.
The threat to go even further in deploying the military domestically could involve sending in more National Guard troops, or something more sinister.
— Nicole LaFond
Trump Finally Finds Someone to Go After Windmills for Him
One of the enduring truths of the second Trump administration is the fact that, in addition to the many destructive and harmful administration’s actions, there are also a lot of really stupid things happening.
For instance, it appears Trump finally found someone to take seriously his years-long fury toward windmills. He’s been fixated on them, his least favorite source of clean energy, since his first term if not longer. Trump’s objections range from not liking how they look to not liking that sometimes birds die when they run into them. He sprinkles some light climate change denialism and concerns about sound pollution into his list of grievances from time to time as well.
It appears as though HHS Secretary RFK Jr. has taken it upon himself to look into this very serious threat, for the president. Kennedy recently directed CDC staff to look into potential harms of offshore wind farms. More from Bloomberg News:
In late summer, HHS instructed CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to prepare research about wind farms’ impact on fishing businesses, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Kennedy has personally met with NIOSH director John Howard about the issue and listed particular experts for Howard’s team to contact. The office of the US surgeon general has also been involved in the initiative, which HHS leadership — prior to the ongoing government shutdown — had aimed to have completed within a couple months.
— Nicole LaFond
Dems Sue As Trump Admin Prepares to Let Poor Families Go Hungry
A couple dozen Democratic states sued Tuesday, as the Trump administration plans to abruptly end Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on November 1, despite the availability of funds to cover the appropriations lapse.
“USDA’s claim that the SNAP contingency funds cannot be used to fund SNAP benefits during an appropriations lapse is also a dramatic change in USDA’s policy,” the lawsuit said. “Less than a month ago, USDA’s stated policy, in its Lapse of Funding Plan, was that the contingency funds are ‘available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”’
It pointed to the banner on the Agriculture Department’s website, which laments that “the well has run dry” because “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program.” The political message on a government website has already drawn a formal Hatch Act violation complaint.
— Kate Riga
GOP Angst Grows Toward Speaker’s Strategy
The list of Republicans questioning House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) decision to keep his caucus out of town and the House out of session is growing.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) questioned whether House Republicans should still be home in their districts and how the House could make up for the lost days on a private GOP call on Tuesday, per Axios.
The lower chamber has been out of session since House Republicans passed the GOP CR on Sept. 19. Earlier this month, other House Republicans also voiced their frustration with Johnson’s decision.
“If it were up to me, we’d come back right away,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Chairman for the House Appropriations Committee, said last week. Cole added that he respects the Speaker’s decision.
“I think everyone’s frustrated,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) chimed in, adding, “everybody wants to work, and we can’t work.”
Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) and Stephanie Bice (R-OK) also expressed concern over the prolonged absence during a separate private House GOP call.
— Emine Yücel
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Morning Memo: The Administration’s Ghastly Game Plan For Savaging Abrego Garcia
Today’s installment in the TPM 25th Anniversary essay series on 25 years of digital media: The Cabinet in My Apartment That Explains How Journalism Broke During COVID
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
What To Make of those Anti-Mamdani Rabbis
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The DOJ’s “election monitoring” is really voter suppression
‘Washington Post’ editorials omit a key disclosure: Bezos’ financial ties
Trump indefinitely barred from firing federal workers during shutdown
What am I most pissed off about today? Hard to know, and that’s the regime strategy at work.
God damn it. Now Kennedy is looking into fish health? In addition to the fact that HHS doesn’t seem to cover fish, it’s just stupid. When the amount of mental degradation in this administration comes out later it is going to be stunning (to some at least).
It does in two ways. One is the zebrafish model, which is used to study genetic conditions, environmental effects, and interactions between the two. The second is to study the effects of environmental pollutants on fish in the wild. The killifish is one such model.
I have no idea what Kennedy is proposing, but will check.
“research about wind farms’ impact on fishing businesses”
ok, I got there. This makes no sense.