The Conversation -- March 29, 2025

Trump and his mob had their day in court Friday. For the most part, it did not go well.

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Federal judges dealt twin blows to ... [Donald] Trump’s retaliation campaign on Friday by issuing temporary restraining orders blocking much of his executive orders targeting two major law firms that participated in investigations of him, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. The rulings barred the administration from carrying out punishments described in the executive orders, like banning their lawyers from government buildings, meetings, or jobs. Mr. Trump went after Jenner & Block because the firm once employed a lawyer [MB: -- Andrew Weissmann --] who became part of the special counsel team that investigated Mr. Trump in his first term. But Judge John Bates of Federal District Court in the District of Columbia took issue with Mr. Trump’s order because it also punished the firm for its pro bono work.... Judge Bates said he found that action 'disturbing' and 'troubling.'... Another judge in the same courthouse, Richard Leon, issued a similar temporary restraining order against a Trump executive order targeting a different firm, WilmerHale, where Robert S. Mueller III worked before and after he served as special counsel in the Trump-Russia investigation. The judges let stand the parts of the president’s orders stripping security clearances from lawyers at the firms.” CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Donald Trump's retribution campaign against his perceived enemies is not entirely about retribution. David Enrich explains: ~~~

     ~~~ David Enrich of the New York Times: “... the barrage of at least 150 lawsuits against the second Trump administration, challenging many of its policies and personnel decisions, is perhaps unmatched in U.S. history. And in dozens of cases, judges have ordered the administration to pause or reverse actions at the heart of ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda. Mr. Trump and his administration’s lawyers are fighting in court, but they are also pursuing a much more ambitious and consequential goal: deterring lawyers from suing his administration in the first place.... Mr. Trump’s moves have the potential — and perhaps the goal — to undermine people’s ability to challenge their government.... There are parallels between Mr. Trump’s attacks on the legal industry and his campaign to constrain or weaken other pillars of civic society. Mr. Trump and his aides are suing or investigating media outlets that have produced critical coverage. And his administration is threatening to withhold huge sums of federal money from universities that don’t hew to his demands.”

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “A federal judge in Boston [-- Brian E. Murphy --] issued a temporary emergency order blocking the Trump administration from sending anyone with a final deportation order to a country where they are not a citizen without first giving them a 'meaningful opportunity' to seek humanitarian protection in the United States.... The decision ... follows threats from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem this week that anyone in the United States illegally could be swept away to El Salvador and imprisoned in one of the nation’s sprawling prisons. In a two-page decision following a hearing, Murphy wrote that officials may not deport someone to a so-called third country 'unless and until' they provide the deportee and their lawyer written notice of the country to which they are being sent. Then..., officials must let them apply in immigration court for protection to stay in the U.S. under the Convention Against Torture, which ... prohibit[s] the government from sending immigrants to a country where they might be tortured. After that..., the agency must await a final decision from an immigration judge before sending someone to another country.... Murphy’s decision does not affect alleged gang members deported this month under the Alien Enemies Act without a hearing, but it could protect other immigrants who are at risk of being removed to El Salvador....”

Mattathias Schwartz & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s efforts to deport migrants to places other than their country of origin hit a new roadblock on Friday, when a federal judge issued a temporary order requiring the administration to give migrants an opportunity to contest their removal on the grounds that they might be at risk of persecution or torture. U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy, who sits in Boston, ordered the government to give migrants a chance to contest their removal to a so-called third country under a federal law that limits deportations to places where the deportees’ 'life or freedom would be threatened.' He also cited a United Nations treaty against torture. The Trump administration has struck deals with Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador as part of its efforts to remove people who are difficult to deport to their home countries. Hundreds of migrants from countries in Africa and Asia, for instance, have been deported to Panama, a country those migrants had no ties to.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Savador Rizzo & Teo Armus of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of a Venezuelan couple who were detained by immigration authorities this month despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States, calling their apprehensions baseless and unlawful. At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema granted a petition for release filed by the couple, who received temporary protected status after crossing the border illegally in October 2022. Brinkema rebuked government officials for claiming in court that the couple posed a public threat and ordered both of them released straight from the courthouse.... Addressing a government lawyer, Brinkema said, 'If this was a criminal case … I’d throw you out of my chambers.'... Another judge in the District of Columbia previously ordered [the couple's] release after they were first arrested March 10 as they arrived home from their jobs as hotel custodians, with their young children watching.... The Trump administration as soon as next week is terminating all grants of temporary protected status for the approximately 348,000 Venezuelans who have received it. Brinkema said as she issued her ruling Friday that 'this may be a very temporary release.'”

Michael Sisak of the AP: “A federal judge on Friday halted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the [Voice of America, the] eight-decade-old U.S. government-funded international news service, calling the move a 'classic case of arbitrary and capricious decision making.' Judge James Paul Oetken blocked the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which runs Voice of America, from firing more than 1,200 journalists, engineers and other staff that it sidelined two weeks ago in the wake of ... Donald Trump ordering its funding slashed. Oetken issued a temporary restraining order barring the agency from 'any further attempt to terminate, reduce-in-force, place on leave, or furlough' employees or contractors, and from closing any offices or requiring overseas employees to return to the U.S. The order also bars the Agency for Global Media from terminating grant funding for its other broadcast outlets, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Afghanistan. The agency said Thursday it was restoring Radio Free Europe’s funding after a judge in Washington, D.C. ordered it to do so.”

Michael Kunzelman of the AP: “A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that was targeted for mass firings before the court’s intervention. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to issue a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the agency. The judge said the court 'can and must act' to save the agency from being shuttered. Jackson ruled that, without a court order..., Donald Trump’s administration would move quickly to shut down the agency that Congress created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

BUT -- and this is quite bad news -- it appears the administration is doing better when it gets to the appellate courts: ~~~

Hassan Kanu & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to resume their efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower-court judge’s injunction that had temporarily blocked Musk and DOGE from playing any role in dismantling USAID. The decision comes just as the Trump administration is making a final push to effectively dissolve the agency....” Related NYT story by Karoun Demirjian linked below.

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal appeals court has cleared the way for ... Donald Trump to fire members of executive branch boards that oversee federal employee grievances and labor disputes across the nation. The ruling Friday is a victory for Trump’s effort to exert control over regulatory agencies that Congress intended to operate with some degree of independence from the president. Federal laws limit the president’s ability to remove the board members who oversee those agencies, but the Trump administration has argued those limits are unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to allow Trump to remove members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. The two board members in the case — Gwynne Wilcox of the NLRB and Cathy Harris of the MSPB — were appointed by President Joe Biden. Lower-court judges had issued injunctions preventing Trump from firing the two board members, but Friday’s appeals court ruling lifts those injunctions for now while the litigation proceeds.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to use a rarely invoked wartime law to continue to deport Venezuelans with little to no due process. The emergency application arrived at the court after a federal appeals court kept in place a temporary block on the deportations. In its application to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the administration argued that the matter was too urgent to wait for the case to wind its way through the lower courts.” (Also linked yesterday.)

This Is Horrifying. Ella Lee of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Friday announced a deal with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services [on issues Trump supports, according to Devlin Barrett's report, linked above] 'during the Trump administration and beyond.' The agreement comes as Trump has signed executive orders targeting Big Law firms tied to his critics and perceived political enemies, restricting the work they can do with the federal government.... Under the deal, Trump said Skadden won’t deny representation to clients from 'politically disenfranchised groups, who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms.' The firm’s assistance will include a focus on assisting veterans and other public servants, the president said, including 'members of the military, law enforcement and on and on.'” MB: If lawyers won't stand up for the Constitution & the rule of law, who will? (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Maddow said last night that she thinks Skadden Arps, as well as Paul, Weiss -- another firm that caved to Trump -- just put themselves out of business. I hope she's right.

David Bauder of the AP: “A lawyer for The Associated Press asked a federal judge Thursday to reinstate the agency’s access to the White House press pool and other official events, saying the Trump administration’s ban is a fundamental attack on freedom of speech and should be overturned. The government insisted there was no evidence that AP had been harmed irreparably.... The White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following ... Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.... The notion of banning a news agency for what it says — and for not using the words that a government demands — is extraordinarily unusual in a country whose Constitution guarantees free speech without official interference.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you need to be reminded of how awful the White House reporters are (make [decisions], announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home), then think about this: The White House Correspondents Associationis ready-made to stick together, back the AP and boycott the White House. It has done nothing, leaving the AP to stand alone.

Nobody Loves Us, Everybody Hates Us ...

Jeffrey Gettleman & Maya Tekeli of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance landed in Greenland on Friday afternoon as part of a contentious trip pushed by the Trump administration and angrily opposed by Greenlanders. His group, which includes his wife, Usha, and the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, was set to tour the Pituffik Space Base, an American missile defense station and one of the most remote military installations in the world.... The White House’s original plan was for Ms. Vance ... to attend a famous dog sled race this weekend and see other cultural sites, in an effort to bring the United States and Greenland closer. But the plan backfired. Protesters were gearing up to line the road from the airport into town. The island’s government blasted the visit as unwanted and 'highly aggressive.' Even the organizers of the dog sled race released a pointed statement saying they had never asked Ms. Vance to attend in the first place.... On Friday, during an overcast day in Nuuk, ordinary Greenlanders said they were not happy about Mr. Vance coming.... Foreign policy analysts said the revised trip was a watered-down version of what the White House wanted. 'It’s a tactical retreat — a repositioning to strike harder later,' said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst based in Copenhagen.... This January, Mr. Trump resurrected the idea [of acquiring Greenland] for 'national security purposes' and refused to rule out using force to take Greenland from Denmark. Just this week, Mr. Trump said again: 'We need it. We have to have it.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has been less than subtle in his insistence that the United States will 'get' Greenland one way or another, reiterating on Friday that the United States cannot “live without it.' By the time he uttered those words in the Oval Office, the highest-level American political expeditionary force ever to step foot on the vast territory had already landed to inspect the real estate prospects. But they were confined inside the fence of a remote, frozen American air base, the only place protesters could not show up.... The trip was simultaneously a reconnaissance mission and a passive-aggressive reminder of Mr. Trump’s determination to fulfill his territorial ambitions, no matter what the obstacles. As if to drive home the point, Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday: 'We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of “Do you think we can do without it.” We can’t.'... Not since the days of William McKinley, who engaged in the Spanish-American War in the late 19th century and ended up with U.S. control of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, has an American president-elect so blatantly threatened the use of force to expand the country’s territorial boundaries. And the visit on Friday appeared designed to make that clear, without quite repeating the threat.” (Also linked yesterday.) A CBS News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: “'The president said we have to have Greenland, and I think we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland,' [JD Vance] he said during visit to Pituffik Space Base.... 'We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.'... His remarks on Friday were notable for his harsh condemnations of Denmark’s management of the mineral rich and strategically important territory — and his declaration that 'Denmark hasn’t done a good job at keeping Greenland safe.'... But he also tempered some of the rhetoric about a takeover.... Vance downplayed any notion that the United States would attempt to use military action or otherwise forcefully acquire Greenland, outlining instead a sequence of events in which it would voluntarily become independent from Denmark and forge a new alliance. 'If the people of Greenland were willing to partner with the United States, and I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States, we could make them much more secure,' he said.” A Guardian story is here. ~~~

~~~ Seb Starcevic of Politico: “Denmark’s foreign minister dressed down the United States for its disrespect, hours after Vice President JD Vance visited an American military base in Greenland. Speaking in a two-minute video message on Friday night, in which he addressed Americans directly, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen appealed for an end to the hostile messaging from Washington.... 'We all acted on the assumption that the Arctic was and should be a low-tension area. But that time is over.'” ~~~

~~~ In the segment below, listen to the Instagram video of former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford (appointed by Barack Obama) react to JayDee's ignorant, arrogant assertion that Denmark is not a good ally of the U.S.:

Max Saltman of CNN: “Canada will have to 'dramatically reduce' its reliance on the United States as the two countries’ relationship darkens, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned on Thursday, adding that the old bilateral relationship was 'over.' After holding a cabinet meeting to discuss Canada’s response to ... Donald Trump’s tariffs threats, Carney told reporters in Ottawa that he foresaw the coming of a 'fundamentally different relationship' between the two countries. 'The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,' he said. 'It’s clear the US is no longer a reliable partner. It is possible that with comprehensive negotiations, we could reestablish an element of confidence but there will be no going backwards,' the Canadian leader said, adding that future governments would have to grapple with the same changed dynamic. 'There’s even more to do, and that’s why I chose to go to France and the United Kingdom, two long-standing and reliable partners, friends and allies of Canada,' Carney said, referring to his first international trip as prime minister.” (Also linked yesterday.)

A Trumpy Bait-and-Switch Stunt Against Ukraine. Siobhán O'Grady & Lizzie Johnson of the Washington Post: “A new U.S. proposal for a minerals deal with Ukraine dramatically changes the last terms Kyiv proposed to Washington and does not provide security guarantees, according to Ukrainian officials and a draft of the document, setting the stage for potential further tension between the two countries as the White House pushes for access to Ukraine’s natural resources. President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Thursday that lawyers were studying the new proposal, which was different from the previous framework that had been agreed on.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: Trump keeps claiming he is taking aggressive actions against (former) allies in the interest of U.S. national security, but the fact is that nothing could be more dangerous to our national security than Trump's and his Cabinet members' bellicose language and threats and actions against our friends (and their arrogance and incompetence). A few have tried, but no one has done so much in so little time to turn the U.S. into an international pariah.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “We have seen entirely too much cowering and capitulation in the face of Trump’s threats: by the Paul Weiss law firm and Columbia University, by Meta and much of Silicon Valley, by Big Pharma and other industries, by mostly supine congressional Republicans, by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (in the eyes of many on the left), and by media outlets. But in a crisis, courage can be found in unexpected places. This is why it’s heartening to see some on the right (beyond the usual never-Trumpers) beginning to speak out about Trump’s overreach. We might be seeing the first cracks in MAGA unity, which Trump has maintained by threats and fear.” Milbank recites the crux of numerous (right-wing, Murdoch-owned) Wall Street Journal editorials knocking Trump's policies. And Milbank gets in a few of his own jabs at the Trump crew. This is a gift link as there's lots of useful content in this opinion column. (Also linked yesterday.)

Warren Strobel, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Yemen attack timeline that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted to a Signal chat group would have been so highly classified, under Pentagon guidelines, that the details should have been restricted to a special, compartmented channel with its own code word and with access tightly limited, according to former Defense Department officials. Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials have denied that the data they shared in a Signal group ... was classified.... Current and former U.S. defense and intelligence officials described the lack of operational security ... as a potentially grievous espionage vulnerability.”

All in the Family. Wherein Drunk Pete Shows Off to His Wife & Brother How He Takes Top-secret Meetings. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "... a new report said [Pete Hegseth] brought his wife, former Fox News producer, to a pair of meetings with foreign military counterparts in which sensitive information was discussed. Jennifer Hegseth attended two such meetings with foreign officials, the Wall Street Journal reported. One occurred at the Pentagon on March 6 between Pete Hegseth and U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey a day after the United States announced it would no longer share military intelligence with Ukraine.... In that meeting, officials ... discussed future military plans between the two nations.... Jennifer Hegseth also attended a meeting in February at NATO's headquarters in Brussels in which defense officials talked about their support for Ukraine.... Additionally, Pete Hegseth’s brother Philip Hegseth has also tagged along on official visits, the report said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was able to read the whole WSJ article using this link, which looks like a freebie. It's worth reading.

Rachel Bade & Dasha Burns of Politico: “On Wednesday evening — following a brutal day of headlines surrounding the now-infamous Signal chat — Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles and top personnel official Sergio Gor ... [suggested to] Donald Trump ... [that he fire National Security Advisor Mike Waltz].... The president agreed that Waltz had messed up, according to [two] people, but Trump ultimately decided not to fire him for one reason — for now: Like hell he’d give the liberal media and pearl-clutching Democrats a win. 'They don’t want to give the press a scalp,' said one of the people, a White House ally close with the team.... One of them offered this prediction: 'They’ll stick by him for now, but he’ll be gone in a couple of weeks.'”

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Friday detailed its plans to put the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government’s main agency for distributing foreign aid, fully under the State Department and reduce its staff to some 15 positions. An email to U.S.A.I.D. employees informing them of the impending layoffs, titled 'U.S.A.I.D.’s Final Mission' and sent just after noon, detailed an elimination in all but name that the administration had long signaled was coming. It arrived over protests from lawmakers who argued that efforts to downsize the agency were illegal, and from staff members and unions who sued to stop them.”

Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: “[Elon] Musk ... has returned to the tactic [he used during the presidential election cycle] as he tries to elect a conservative judge, Brad Schimel, in a major race for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The billionaire has offered a chance to earn $1 million to signers of a petition opposing 'activist judges.' Early Friday, Mr. Musk ... told his 219 million followers on X that when he visited Wisconsin on Sunday, he would hand out two $1 million checks to people who had already voted in the election 'in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.' The offer was open only to those who had already voted, he said. But later on Friday, Mr. Musk quietly deleted his post on X. About 12 hours after that initial post, he said he had to 'clarify a previous post.' He wrote that 'entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges,' adding, 'I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition.'... The state’s Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, on Friday sued to block Mr. Musk’s payments. (In a curious twist of fate, the case was randomly assigned to Susan Crawford, the liberal judge whom Mr. Musk is trying to defeat. She quickly recused herself.)” (Also linked yesterday.)

Christina Jewitt, et al., of the New York Times: “The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, resigned under pressure Friday and said that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s aggressive stance on vaccines was irresponsible and posed a danger to the public. 'It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,' Dr. Marks wrote to Sara Brenner, the agency’s acting commissioner. He reiterated the sentiments in an interview, saying: 'This man doesn’t care about the truth. He cares about what is making him followers.' Dr. Marks resigned after he was summoned to the Department of Health and Human Services Friday afternoon and told that he could either quit or be fired, according to a person familiar with the matter.... [Dr. Marks'] continued oversight of the F.D.A.’s vaccine program clearly put him at odds with the new health secretary.... 'Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines that have met the high standards for quality, safety and effectiveness that have been in place for decades at F.D.A. is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security,' Dr. Marks wrote.” ~~~

     ~~~ David Lim, et al., of Politico: “Marks was pushed out under pressure from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said two people familiar with the matter granted anonymity to discuss the resignation — a development that sent shockwaves across the nation’s capital and prompted concern among some pharmaceutical companies”

Patricia Callahan of ProPublica: “Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica. In an aborted plan to roll out the news, the agency would have emphasized the importance of vaccinating people against the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that has spread to 19 states, the records show. A CDC spokesperson told ProPublica in a written statement that the agency decided against releasing the assessment 'because it does not say anything that the public doesn’t already know.' She added that the CDC continues to recommend vaccines as 'the best way to protect against measles.'... 'The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,' [her] statement said, echoing a line from a column Kennedy wrote for the Fox News website. 'People should consult with their healthcare provider to understand their options to get a vaccine and should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The spokeswoman's statement could not be more self-contradictory. She may think she & RFKJ are walking a fine line, but in fact that are telling Americans that they should decide whether or not their children are vaccinated against one of the most contagious diseases on earth. Withholding the CDC assessment was unconscionable. And here's what's happening in real life as a result of their B.S. ~~~

~~~ Devi Shastri of the AP: “At least five states have active measles outbreaks as of Friday, and Texas’ is the largest with 400 cases. Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. Other states with outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. Since February, two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes. The new outbreaks confirm health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said this week cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Alexander Tin of CBS News: "The entire staff of the federal government's Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off.... The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.... Much of the government's efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates nationwide have been run through OIDP.... Other initiatives overseen by OIDP include the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. program, which was launched by ... [Donald] Trump during his first term. The Office of Minority Health has also been informed that it should expect to be dissolved, sources said."

Emily Wax Thibodeaux & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “A 30-year-old Harvard researcher from Russia has been held for more than a month at a private detention center in Louisiana.... Kseniia Petrova ... was pulled aside as she returned from Paris after failing to tell customs agents at Boston’s Logan International Airport that she was bringing back frog embryos for scientific work her mentor is pursuing. Should she lose her fight to retain her visa and stay in this country, her mentor, friends and lawyer worry that she would be deported back to Russia. Given her past involvement in protests against that country’s invasion of Ukraine, they fear she could be imprisoned for years.... Petrova arrived at Harvard in 2023 by way of Europe, where she had fled after Russian authorities arrested her for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and criticizing President Vladimir Putin online.” The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suspect Trump is deporting Petrova as a favor to Putin, so Putin's "legal" system can try her, convict her and send her to Siberia. That is, ICE is doing not only Trump's dirty work but Putin's too.

Alan Blinder, et al., of the New York Times: “The interim president of Columbia University abruptly left her post Friday evening as the school confronted the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and the Trump administration’s mounting skepticism about its leadership. The move came one week after Columbia bowed to a series of demands from the federal government, which had canceled approximately $400 million in essential federal funding, and it made way for Columbia’s third leader since August. Claire Shipman, who had been the co-chair of the university’s board of trustees, was named the acting president and replaced Dr. Katrina Armstrong.” Perhaps contributing to her ouster/resignation, Armstrong led a faculty meeting last weekend in which she “seemed to downplay the effects of the university’s agreement with the government.” The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If Shipman's name rings a bell, that's because she was formerly a top ABC News reporter and is married to Jay Carney, President Obama's press secretary. Anyhow, so long, Dr. Armstrong. Any number of people could have told you that any association with Donald Trump would not end well. One cannot be obsequious enough to Trump to appease his need for flattery.

Vimal Patel of the New York Times: “Two of the leaders of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the director and associate director, will be leaving their positions.... The department had been under criticism from alumni that it had an anti-Israel bias, and the university more broadly has been under intense pressure from the federal government to address accusations of antisemitism on campus. The director, Cemal Kafadar, a professor of Turkish studies, and the associate director, Rosie Bsheer, a historian of the Middle East, did not respond to messages seeking comment on Friday. The news was first reported by The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.... Faculty members who have spoken with both professors say each believe they were forced out of their posts.”

Ernesto Londoño & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a graduate student attending the University of Minnesota earlier this week, the school said Friday in a statement that called the situation 'deeply concerning.' The student was taken into custody on Thursday at an off-campus residence, the school’s president, Rebecca Cunningham, said in the statement. 'The university had no prior knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities before it occurred,' the statement said.”

Marie: Here is a HUGE story I missed, and I learned about it from -- OMG -- Tommy Tuberville, one of the most ignorant people in the Senate. I will never live it down. (Admittedly, that was an extremely busy news day. But still, but still...): ~~~

     ~~~ Peter Eavis & Maureen Farrell of the New York Times (March 4): “An investment group led by BlackRock, a giant American asset manager, said it had agreed to buy two ports in Panama owned by a Hong Kong company that had become the focus of the tensions between Panama and Mr. Trump. BlackRock will buy the ports, which sit at either end of the canal, and over 40 others from the Hong Kong conglomerate, CK Hutchison, for about $19 billion. Though Mr. Trump has other complaints about the canal — it charges too much, he contends — the deal greatly relieves pressure on Panama, political analysts said.... The deal is also an indication of the spoils available to American companies as the Trump administration pursues its America First foreign policy. And for some historians, it brings up memories of the outsize power that Wall Street banks have had in Latin America. 'Where are the Panamanian voices here?' said Peter James Hudson..., of the University of British Columbia.... 'They are completely lost in this larger story of Trump’s efforts.'”

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Conversation -- March 28, 2025

Mattathias Schwartz & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s efforts to deport migrants to places other than their country of origin hit a new roadblock on Friday, when a federal judge issued a temporary order requiring the administration to give migrants an opportunity to contest their removal on the grounds that they might be at risk of persecution or torture. U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy, who sits in Boston, ordered the government to give migrants a chance to contest their removal to a so-called third country under a federal law that limits deportations to places where the deportees’ 'life or freedom would be threatened.' He also cited a United Nations treaty against torture. The Trump administration has struck deals with Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador as part of its efforts to remove people who are difficult to deport to their home countries. Hundreds of migrants from countries in Africa and Asia, for instance, have been deported to Panama, a country those migrants had no ties to.”

Michael Kunzelman of the AP: “A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that was targeted for mass firings before the court’s intervention. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to issue a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the agency. The judge said the court 'can and must act' to save the agency from being shuttered. Jackson ruled that, without a court order..., Donald Trump’s administration would move quickly to shut down the agency that Congress created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.”

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal appeals court has cleared the way for ... Donald Trump to fire members of executive branch boards that oversee federal employee grievances and labor disputes across the nation. The ruling Friday is a victory for Trump’s effort to exert control over regulatory agencies that Congress intended to operate with some degree of independence from the president. Federal laws limit the president’s ability to remove the board members who oversee those agencies, but the Trump administration has argued those limits are unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to allow Trump to remove members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. The two board members in the case — Gwynne Wilcox of the NLRB and Cathy Harris of the MSPB — were appointed by President Joe Biden. Lower-court judges had issued injunctions preventing Trump from firing the two board members, but Friday’s appeals court ruling lifts those injunctions for now while the litigation proceeds.”

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Friday detailed its plans to put the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government’s main agency for distributing foreign aid, fully under the State Department and reduce its staff to some 15 positions. An email to U.S.A.I.D. employees informing them of the impending layoffs, titled 'U.S.A.I.D.’s Final Mission' and sent just after noon, detailed an elimination in all but name that the administration had long signaled was coming. It arrived over protests from lawmakers who argued that efforts to downsize the agency were illegal, and from staff members and unions who sued to stop them.”

Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: “[Elon] Musk ... has returned to the tactic [he used during the presidential election cycle] as he tries to elect a conservative judge, Brad Schimel, in a major race for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The billionaire has offered a chance to earn $1 million to signers of a petition opposing 'activist judges.' Early Friday, Mr. Musk ... told his 219 million followers on X that when he visited Wisconsin on Sunday, he would hand out two $1 million checks to people who had already voted in the election 'in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.' The offer was open only to those who had already voted, he said. But later on Friday, Mr. Musk quietly deleted his post on X. About 12 hours after that initial post, he said he had to 'clarify a previous post.' He wrote that 'entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges,' adding, 'I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition.'... The state’s Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, on Friday sued to block Mr. Musk’s payments. (In a curious twist of fate, the case was randomly assigned to Susan Crawford, the liberal judge whom Mr. Musk is trying to defeat. She quickly recused herself.)”

Devi Shastri of the AP: “At least five states have active measles outbreaks as of Friday, and Texas’ is the largest with 400 cases. Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. Other states with outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. Since February, two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes. The new outbreaks confirm health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said this week cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.”

Nobody Loves Us, Everybody Hates Us ...

Jeffrey Gettleman & Maya Tekeli of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance landed in Greenland on Friday afternoon as part of a contentious trip pushed by the Trump administration and angrily opposed by Greenlanders. His group, which includes his wife, Usha, and the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, was set to tour the Pituffik Space Base, an American missile defense station and one of the most remote military installations in the world.... The White House’s original plan was for Ms. Vance ... to attend a famous dog sled race this weekend and see other cultural sites, in an effort to bring the United States and Greenland closer. But the plan backfired. Protesters were gearing up to line the road from the airport into town. The island’s government blasted the visit as unwanted and 'highly aggressive.' Even the organizers of the dog sled race released a pointed statement saying they had never asked Ms. Vance to attend in the first place.... On Friday, during an overcast day in Nuuk, ordinary Greenlanders said they were not happy about Mr. Vance coming.... Foreign policy analysts said the revised trip was a watered-down version of what the White House wanted. 'It’s a tactical retreat — a repositioning to strike harder later,' said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst based in Copenhagen.... This January, Mr. Trump resurrected the idea [of acquiring Greenland] for 'national security purposes' and refused to rule out using force to take Greenland from Denmark.Just this week, Mr. Trump said again: 'We need it. We have to have it.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Update. David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has been less than subtle in his insistence that the United States will 'get' Greenland one way or another, reiterating on Friday that the United States cannot “live without it.' By the time he uttered those words in the Oval Office, the highest-level American political expeditionary force ever to step foot on the vast territory had already landed to inspect the real estate prospects. But they were confined inside the fence of a remote, frozen American air base, the only place protesters could not show up.... The trip was simultaneously a reconnaissance mission and a passive-aggressive reminder of Mr. Trump’s determination to fulfill his territorial ambitions, no matter what the obstacles. As if to drive home the point, Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday: 'We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of “Do you think we can do without it.” We can’t.'... Not since the days of William McKinley, who engaged in the Spanish-American War in the late 19th century and ended up with U.S. control of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, has an American president-elect so blatantly threatened the use of force to expand the country’s territorial boundaries. And the visit on Friday appeared designed to make that clear, without quite repeating the threat.”

Max Saltman of CNN: “Canada will have to 'dramatically reduce' its reliance on the United States as the two countries’ relationship darkens, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned on Thursday, adding that the old bilateral relationship was 'over.' After holding a cabinet meeting to discuss Canada’s response to ... Donald Trump’s tariffs threats, Carney told reporters in Ottawa that he foresaw the coming of a 'fundamentally different relationship' between the two countries. 'The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,' he said. 'It’s clear the US is no longer a reliable partner. It is possible that with comprehensive negotiations, we could reestablish an element of confidence but there will be no going backwards,' the Canadian leader said, adding that future governments would have to grapple with the same changed dynamic. 'There’s even more to do, and that’s why I chose to go to France and the United Kingdom, two long-standing and reliable partners, friends and allies of Canada,' Carney said, referring to his first international trip as prime minister.”

A Trumpy Bait-and-Switch Stunt Against Ukraine. Siobhán O'Grady & Lizzie Johnson of the Washington Post: “A new U.S. proposal for a minerals deal with Ukraine dramatically changes the last terms Kyiv proposed to Washington and does not provide security guarantees, according to Ukrainian officials and a draft of the document, setting the stage for potential further tension between the two countries as the White House pushes for access to Ukraine’s natural resources. President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Thursday that lawyers were studying the new proposal, which was different from the previous framework that had been agreed on.”

Marie: Trump keeps claiming he is taking aggressive actions against (former) allies in the interest of U.S. national security, but the fact is that nothing could be more dangerous to our national security than Trump's and his Cabinet members' bellicose language and threats and actions against our friends (and their arrogance and incompetence). A few have tried, but no one has done so much in so little time to turn the U.S. into an international pariah.

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to use a rarely invoked wartime law to continue to deport Venezuelans with little to no due process. The emergency application arrived at the court after a federal appeals court kept in place a temporary block on the deportations. In its application to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the administration argued that the matter was too urgent to wait for the case to wind its way through the lower courts.”

This Is Horrifying. Ella Lee of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Friday announced a deal with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services 'during the Trump administration and beyond.' The agreement comes as Trump has signed executive orders targeting Big Law firms tied to his critics and perceived political enemies, restricting the work they can do with the federal government.... Under the deal, Trump said Skadden won’t deny representation to clients from 'politically disenfranchised groups, who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms.' The firm’s assistance will include a focus on assisting veterans and other public servants, the president said, including 'members of the military, law enforcement and on and on.'” MB: If lawyers won't stand up for the Constitution & the rule of law, who will?

David Bauder of the AP: “A lawyer for The Associated Press asked a federal judge Thursday to reinstate the agency’s access to the White House press pool and other official events, saying the Trump administration’s ban is a fundamental attack on freedom of speech and should be overturned. The government insisted there was no evidence that AP had been harmed irreparably.... The White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following ... Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.... The notion of banning a news agency for what it says — and for not using the words that a government demands — is extraordinarily unusual in a country whose Constitution guarantees free speech without official interference.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you need to be reminded of how awful the White House reporters are (make [decisions], announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home), then think about this: The White House Correspondents Associationis ready-made to stick together, back the AP and boycott the White House. It has done nothing, leaving the AP to stand alone.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “We have seen entirely too much cowering and capitulation in the face of Trump’s threats: by the Paul Weiss law firm and Columbia University, by Meta and much of Silicon Valley, by Big Pharma and other industries, by mostly supine congressional Republicans, by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (in the eyes of many on the left), and by media outlets. But in a crisis, courage can be found in unexpected places. This is why it’s heartening to see some on the right (beyond the usual never-Trumpers) beginning to speak out about Trump’s overreach. We might be seeing the first cracks in MAGA unity, which Trump has maintained by threats and fear.” Milbank recites the crux of numerous (right-wing, Murdoch-owned) Wall Street Journal editorials knocking Trump's policies. And Milbank gets in a few of his own jabs at the Trump crew. This is a gift link as there's lots of useful content in this opinion column.

Emily Wax Thibodeaux & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “A 30-year-old Harvard researcher from Russia has been held for more than a month at a private detention center in Louisiana.... Kseniia Petrova ... was pulled aside as she returned from Paris after failing to tell customs agents at Boston’s Logan International Airport that she was bringing back frog embryos for scientific work her mentor is pursuing. Should she lose her fight to retain her visa and stay in this country, her mentor, friends and lawyer worry that she would be deported back to Russia. Given her past involvement in protests against that country’s invasion of Ukraine, they fear she could be imprisoned for years.... Petrova arrived at Harvard in 2023 by way of Europe, where she had fled after Russian authorities arrested her for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and criticizing President Vladimir Putin online.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suspect Trump is deporting Petrova as a favor to Putin, so Putin's "legal" system can try her, convict her and send her to Siberia.

Marie: Here is a HUGE story I missed, and I learned about it from -- OMG -- Tommy Tuberville, one of the most ignorant people in the Senate. I will never live it down. (Admittedly, that was an extremely busy news day. But still, but still...): ~~~

     ~~~ Peter Eavis & Maureen Farrell of the New York Times (March 4): “An investment group led by BlackRock, a giant American asset manager, said it had agreed to buy two ports in Panama owned by a Hong Kong company that had become the focus of the tensions between Panama and Mr. Trump. BlackRock will buy the ports, which sit at either end of the canal, and over 40 others from the Hong Kong conglomerate, CK Hutchison, for about $19 billion. Though Mr. Trump has other complaints about the canal — it charges too much, he contends — the deal greatly relieves pressure on Panama, political analysts said.... The deal is also an indication of the spoils available to American companies as the Trump administration pursues its America First foreign policy. And for some historians, it brings up memories of the outsize power that Wall Street banks have had in Latin America. 'Where are the Panamanian voices here?' said Peter James Hudson..., of the University of British Columbia.... 'They are completely lost in this larger story of Trump’s efforts.'”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: I am a watcher. I sit quietly at my desk and chronicle the fall of the country in which I have lived for 80 years. One of these days, federal thugs or their compliant deputies may come and take away my computer, so that I can no longer share my chronicles. Perhaps the thugs will arrest me and jail me. I did not anticipate that this was the way my life would end.

The casualness with which [Trump] dealt with information has clearly become the culture of this new team.... I think it bespeaks a breathtaking lack of understanding of the reality of the risks posed by very capable adversaries and competitors.... -- Sue Gordon, top intel official in Trump 1.0 ~~~

~~~ Julian Barnes of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has long had, at best, a cavalier attitude about the handling of classified material.... By Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump conceded that he 'didn’t know' if the information disclosed [in a Signal group chat in which top officials discussed impending military strikes] was classified or not. Still, he seemed far more concerned about how the editor [of the Atlantic] had been added to the chat than about whether Americans had been put at risk. And that, former officials say, goes to a disrespect of government, its rules and safeguards, that has trickled down from the president to his key aides.... Mr. Trump has chosen people for his new administration who do not have decades of experience in government, or knowledge of its rules and why they exist.... And, one former official said, inexperienced people, even if they are smart, make mistakes.”

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington on Thursday ordered several Trump administration officials who participated in a Signal group chat ... to preserve all of the messages they exchanged on the app in the days leading up to strikes. The decision by the judge, James E. Boasberg, came in response to a lawsuit filed this week by a nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight, which has accused ... [Donald] Trump’s national security team of violating federal records laws by using Signal — an encrypted commercial platform — to chat about the highly sensitive attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. The order by Judge Boasberg ... applied to top administration officials, including Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and Vice President JD Vance.... The judge’s order was an early sign that at least some of the usual channels of accountability are still operating after the most senior administration officials engaged in an extraordinary breach of operational security and Mr. Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, signaled that the Justice Department is not likely to investigate the matter. Ms. Bondi, appearing ... on Fox News on Thursday night..., said that Judge Boasberg needed to be removed from the Signal case and other Trump administration matters, along with other jurists.” Politico's report is here.

What Happens When Drunk Pete Has to Manage a Crisis? Jack Detsch, et al., of Politico: “Even for a Pentagon chief who has copied Trump’s pugilistic style...[, Pete] Hegseth’s growing pile of mistakes are getting noticed, according to four officials and two people in touch with the administration. 'The problem is this is another example of inexperience,' said a person close to the White House.... 'What happens when Hegseth needs to manage a real crisis?'... The [Signal] episode ... follows other prominent stumbles, including a walk back of his February remarks about Ukraine war negotiations in Brussels and an ill-fated effort to send thousands of detained migrants to Guantanamo Bay. Now dozens of Democratic lawmakers are calling for Hegseth’s resignation. Grassroots campaigns have sprouted up on progressive websites to investigate the Pentagon boss. And Senate Armed Services Committee leaders have launched a bipartisan probe into the episode. 'Intentionally putting classified info on an unclassified application is the real crime,' Rep. Dan Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and retired Air Force brigadier general, wrote in an X post.” ~~~

~~~ Robert Farley in LG&$ republishes part of a CNN story along the same lines as Politico's. Farley also republishes some of his own opinions about Drunk Pete.

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: “... a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee ... told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a [conservative] journalist in late January.... But unlike [Michael] Waltz and [Pete] Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has largely rallied around Waltz and Hegseth, with Trump on Wednesday calling it 'all a witch hunt.'”

Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic on why Trump & the Screw-ups are so busy inventing implausible reasons for Jeff Goldberg's inclusion in the Signal chat group: “Discussing a secret military strike on an unsecure channel, and mistakenly inviting a journalist into the chat, is a shocking breach of operations security. But in the world of Trump, the far more shocking breach is that the person invited into the chat was the reporter who first revealed that Trump had referred to dead American soldiers as suckers and losers.... The independent press must be treated as completely illegitimate. As Will Chamberlain, a conservative lawyer, posted, 'Under no circumstances should the Trump administration fire anyone based on anything published in the pages of The Atlantic.'” Thanks to laura h. for this gift link.

Noah Shachtman in a New York Times op-ed: “It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple?... In its first two months, the Trump administration has made move after move that exposes the government to penetration by foreign intelligence services. It’s not just the group chat about forthcoming military strikes.... The administration short-circuited the process for conducting background checks on top officials, turned tens of thousands of people with access to government secrets into disgruntled ex-employees and announced it was lowering its guard against covert foreign influence operations. It installed one of Elon Musk’s satellite internet terminals on the roof of the White House, seemingly to bypass security controls, and gave access to some of the government’s more sensitive systems to a teenager with a history of aiding a cybercrime ring, who goes by the nickname Big Balls.... Around 1,000 F.B.I. agents have been diverted from their regular duties to scrub the case files of Jeffrey Epstein.... The Justice Department stopped its investigations into the possible compromise of New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams by foreign governments. A seven-agency effort to counter Russian sabotage and cyberattacks has been put on hold. Personnel from the bureau’s counterterrorism division have been newly asked to pursue those who vandalize Teslas....” ~~~

Hillary Clinton in a New York Times op-ed: “Mr. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (of group chat fame) are apparently more focused on performative fights over wokeness than preparing for real fights with America’s adversaries. Does anyone really think deleting tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen makes us more safe?... Instead of working with Congress to modernize the military’s budget to reflect changing threats, the president is firing top generals without credible justification.... I am particularly alarmed by the administration’s plan to close embassies and consulates, fire diplomats and destroy the U.S. Agency for International Development.... Diplomacy is cost-effective, especially compared with military action.... And I haven’t even gotten to the damage Mr. Trump is doing by cozying up to dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, blowing up our alliances — force multipliers that extend our reach and share our burdens — and trashing our moral influence by undermining the rule of law at home.”

Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Donald “Trump instructed a broad swath of government agencies on Thursday to end collective bargaining with federal unions, a major escalation in his effort to assert more control over the federal work force. Mr. Trump framed the order as critical to protect national security. But it targets agencies across the government, including the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, State, Treasury and Energy, most of the Justice Department, and parts of the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union, estimated that the order would strip labor protections from hundreds of thousands of civil servants, and said it was preparing legal action.... The American Federation of Government Employees said Mr. Trump’s order was illegal. After Mr. Trump signed the order, the affected agencies filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Texas against the unions representing federal employees, seeking to rescind their collective bargaining agreements.” ~~~

     ~~~ In today's Comments, RAS points to a rather glaring contradiction: "Wouldn't declaring all the different government departments' employees vital to national security undermine Fat Hitler's moves to fire the thousands of people at those very agencies? But that is using logic which doesn't work on this administration."

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump moved on Thursday to punish the law firm WilmerHale, where Robert S. Mueller III worked before and after he served as special counsel in the Trump-Russia investigation, expanding his widespread campaign of retribution. In an executive order, Mr. Trump hit the elite firm with many of the same penalties that he had applied to its competitors who had taken on cases or causes he did not like. He directed the cancellation of all government contracts with WilmerHale, and the suspension of any security clearances of its employees. The order also barred WilmerHale employees from federal buildings, banned them from communicating with government employees and prevented them from being hired at government agencies.... The order said Mr. Trump was in part punishing WilmerHale for the firm’s connections to Mr. Mueller, who led an inquiry that the order described as 'one of the most partisan investigations in American history.' In fact, Mr. Mueller was appointed as special counsel by Mr. Trump’s own deputy attorney general amid concerns about Mr. Trump’s desire to shut down the F.B.I. investigation of his campaign after he took office.” ~~~

~~~ Another White-shoe Law Firm Steps in It. Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “The elite law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has had discussions with ... [Donald] Trump’s advisers about a deal to avert the type of executive order that the White House has been imposing on many of its competitors.... The talks represent an extraordinary turn in Mr. Trump’s campaign against law firms and the legal system more broadly, marking what appears to be the first time that a major firm has tried to cut a deal with the president before he could issue an executive order.... The Skadden discussions are also the latest example of how large law firms, afraid of a protracted battle with Mr. Trump, are eager to strike deals.” ~~~

~~~ BUT. Kyle Cheney & Daniel Barnes of Politico: “A law firm targeted by ... Donald Trump sued Friday to bar enforcement of his executive order that seeks to shut them out of government business and strip key lawyers of their security clearances. Jenner & Block’s lawsuit contends Trump’s order is an unconstitutional threat to the firm and the legal system itself, seeking to 'punish citizens and lawyers based on the clients they represent, the positions they advocate, the opinions they voice, and the people with whom they associate.'... Trump targeted Jenner & Block in an executive order earlier this week, focusing on the role that a former member of the firm — Andrew Weissmann — played in the investigation of Trump’s links to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.”

Poor Elise. Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Thursday said he had asked Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, to stay in Congress rather than serve as ambassador to the United Nations, amid concern about the minuscule voting margin that Republicans hold in the House. 'There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations,' Mr. Trump wrote on his website, Truth Social, where he said it was critical for Republicans to hold onto every House seat they have. 'Therefore, Elise will stay in Congress, rejoin the House Leadership Team, and continue to fight for our amazing American People.'... It underscored the precarious position that House Republicans are in with such a narrow majority that they can afford few defections.... It also highlighted concerns among Mr. Trump and leading members of his party about their ability to win what should be safe Republican seats in districts like Ms. Stefanik’s solidly red region of upstate New York. Ms. Stefanik ... has spent the past week on Instagram posting a nostalgic retrospective of her time in Congress as she prepared for her tenure there to end. And she participated in a farewell tour across her district.” Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Hans Nichols of Axios: "... [Donald] Trump's dramatic rug pull of Rep. Elise Stefanik's (R-N.Y.) UN ambassador nomination has given House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) a new series of headaches.... Johnson has to reassure GOP lawmakers after their president said he's nervous about a Trump +20 district. He also must reintegrate Stefanik ... into a leadership lineup that's full. Stefanik was crushed and scrambled to reverse Trump's decision before he announced it on Truth Social, according to people familiar with the matter. But for Trump, the margins were too close for comfort.... In explaining his decision, Trump undercut the NRCC line that there was no risk of the GOP losing any special elections this year.... Stefanik's congressional staff has mostly resigned. She surrendered her slot on the House Intelligence Committee and had one foot out of Washington." ~~~

     ~~~ MB: I for one feel so-o-o-o sorry for Poor Elise, who, as Chris Hayes pointed out last night, thought she was moving on up to the East Side, to a dee-luxe apartment in the sky. ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM on "The Sorrows of Young Elise": "It’s a good reminder that though we should never take joy from the suffering of others, there are some occasions when it’s okay." MB: Oh, crap; the post is firewalled, so I can't read any more. Still, it's good to know that Josh shares my concern für Elise.

Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday evening promising to eliminate 'divisive narratives' from the Smithsonian Institution’s museums and restore 'monuments, memorials, statues, markers' that have been removed over the past five years. The 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' order directs Vice President JD Vance to eliminate what he finds 'improper' from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo. The White House fact sheet describing the order said it will focus on removing 'anti-American ideology.' The institution, the official keeper of the American story, has operated independently as a public-private partnership created by an act of Congress in 1846.... Federal money makes up 62 percent of the institution’s annual budget.... The order is an unprecedented act to edit an institution that has been expanding over many decades to include a wider, richer and more diverse telling of the nation’s history.... And it takes specific aim at one of the newest editions to the Smithsonian’s portfolio of 21 museums — the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016 under the leadership of historian Lonnie G. Bunch III, who the became the Smithsonian’s 14th and first African American secretary in 2019.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I must admit, I cannot think of a job for which JayDee is more qualified than rooting DEI out of the zoo. Cheryl Rofer in LG&$ already has found one project for him: gay penguins!

Emily Czachor of CBS News: "A student at the University of Alabama has been detained by immigration authorities, in the latest example of ... [Donald] Trump's crackdown on noncitizens in college communities. Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student originally from Iran who studies mechanical engineering, was taken into custody early Tuesday and detained, according to the university and its student newspaper, The Crimson White. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Doroudi at around 5 a.m. that morning at his home, the paper reported. A search of the online detention log on ICE's website Thursday confirmed an Iranian national with Doroudi's name was in the agency's custody. The log did not provide the location of the detention facility holding him. Why Doroudi was detained is not clear." ~~~

~~~ Zack Beauchamp of Vox: Federal agents grabbed, arrested and jailed Tufts University grad student Rumeysa Ozturk Tuesday. “The Trump administration claims she has engaged in 'pro-Hamas' activity, but they have provided no evidence of material support for Palestinian militants (or any other terrorist group). The closest thing anyone has found is a 2024 op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper, in which Ozturk and her coauthors criticize Israel’s war in Gaza but do not express anything that even approximates support for Hamas.... That Ozturk was punished purely for her political speech ... received more support during a Thursday afternoon press conference, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that his agency revoked Ozturk’s visa because she was part of a pro-Palestinian movement that caused 'a ruckus' on campus.... This is a clarifying moment for American democracy. Unmarked and unidentified law enforcement abduct[ed] a lawful migrant, seemingly in retaliation for First Amendment-protected speech....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Little Marco has made an awesomely rapid transformation from ordinary GOP jerk to dangerous, sadistic thug. And it's amazing how little reward there is for his metamorphosis: I'll admit that Secretary of State is a fancier title than Senator, but secretary of state to Trump is a very temporary job. Given Florida's politics, Marco probably could have kept his senatorial post for a long time.

Marie: Yesterday I linked a Washington Post story on Kristi Noem's field trip to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison, where Noem's Department (HHS) had secretly flown people under cover of darkness and likely in violation of a judge's order. The Post reporters cover Noem's performance at CECOT, but Jonathan Last of the Bulwark does a better job. I urge you to read Last's essay. Here's a bit of it:

"Liberal regimes have standards for the treatment of prisoners. These standards are codified under the Geneva Conventions, which the United States has signed and ratified. Among the standards dictated by the Geneva Conventions is this: Prisoners may not be publicly exploited for purposes of propaganda. Another standard of liberal governments is that people who present themselves through legal pathways as refugees fleeing oppression are vetted and provided due process, not disappeared into foreign gulags. And yet here we are. A high-ranking American official visits a prison on foreign soil which we are using to warehouse enemies of her regime. She appears in a fitted long-sleeve tee and active-wear slacks. There is a ballcap on her head and a pound of makeup smeared across her plasticized face. A gold Rolex Daytona — worth more than some of these men will make in their entire lives — sits proudly on her dainty wrist. Every piece of this visual is carefully engineered.... [Behind her, prisoners] have clearly been posed by the jailers, forced to hold position so that they can be useful props for the American woman so that she can manufacture propaganda for her regime.... We are now the bad guys." Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ “Real Housewives of Gitmo.” Monica Hesse of the Washington Post: “... you cannot help but wonder what was rattling around in Kristi Noem’s head on Wednesday’s visit to a prison in El Salvador, as she considered her sartorial options and landed on Real Housewives of Guantánamo. Her visit was encapsulated in a video produced and published on Noem’s own X feed. Meticulous blowout? Check. Impeccable makeup and jewelry, including a watch that online sleuths have speculated is a $60,000 Rolex? Check. Formfitting T-shirt, skinny drawstring pants, combat boots and a baseball hat with an ICE logo — yaaas, Madam Homeland Security.... Noem wanted it known that the 'tools in our tool kit' include a hellhole that might terrify every immigrant, but should definitely shame every American.” ~~~

~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: “The Trump administration commenced orchestrating the removals long before Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, and did so in a way that seems to have been designed to evade judicial oversight.... Not only did the government deprive those removed of their right to a hearing before an impartial judge, TPM’s reporting shows that federal officials went to extraordinary lengths to conceal weeks of preparations for the removals.... The judge who ordered a halt to the removals remarked on the issue at a hearing last week, observing that ICE had to have had 'advance notice of this proclamation because it’s impossible that this could have happened in a few hours.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.)

Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: “The Department of Justice said on Thursday that it would investigate whether several California universities were complying with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning the consideration of race in admissions. The checks, which the Justice Department described as 'compliance review investigations,' would target Stanford University and three schools in the University of California system — Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Irvine — according to an announcement released by Attorney General Pam Bondi.” ~~~

~~~ Another Case of Anticipatory Obedience. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: “The University of Michigan will eliminate its central diversity, equity and inclusion program, the school announced on Thursday, seeking to overhaul an ambitious and expensive initiative that it had long cast as a model for American higher education. Michigan — one of the most prestigious public universities in the country — had for years steadily expanded its D.E.I. efforts even as conservative lawmakers and activists in other states successfully campaigned to defund or ban such programs. But on Thursday, amid intensifying pressure on colleges from the Trump administration, Michigan said it would discontinue its diversity 'strategic plan,' known as D.E.I. 2.0, and effectively dismantle the large administrative bureaucracy constructed to drive it through the university’s colleges and professional schools.” MB: Hey, kids, PROTEST! ~~~

~~~ And Another. Ellen Barry of the New York Times: “The American Psychological Association, which sets standards for professional training in mental health, has voted to suspend its requirement that postgraduate programs show a commitment to diversity in recruitment and hiring. The decision comes as accrediting bodies throughout higher education scramble to respond to the executive order signed by ... [Donald] Trump attacking diversity, equity and inclusion policies. It pauses a drive to broaden the profession of psychology, which is disproportionately white and female, at a time of rising distress among young Americans. The A.P.A. is the chief accrediting body for professional training in psychology, and the only one recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.” MB: That's okay, because only White men are smart enough to be doctors and figure out what's wrong in the heads of women and ethnic minorities. ~~~

~~~ Columbia Locks the Gates. Anna Kodé of the New York Times: “Columbia’s gates are at the center of a heated conflict over public versus private space. To enter [the university campus], students have to show security guards university-issued ID cards, cutting off public access to a portion of 116th Street known as College Walk. What was once a widely enjoyed pedestrian haven is now a hulking barricade.... Some Columbia students and nearby residents are suing the school, arguing that a 1953 agreement between the university and the city makes College Walk a public, not private, space. Neighbors, many of whom are seniors, say that the closure has limited their activities in their own community, and students are concerned that their education is now occurring in a vacuum.” ~~~

~~~ Brain Drain. Ryan Quinn of Inside Higher Ed: “Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale and author of multiple books — including How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them — said he finally accepted Toronto’s long-standing offer for a position on Friday after seeing Columbia University 'completely collapse and give in to an authoritarian regime.'... 'What I worry about is that Yale and other Ivy League institutions do not understand what they face,' Stanley said.... Also leaving Yale for [U. Toronto's] Munk School is Timothy Snyder, author of books including The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, and Marci Shore, author of The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution and other works. Snyder and Shore are married.” Via Paul Campos.

Trump Threatened U.S. Automakers. Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "Trump held a call with CEOs from some of America's top vehicle companies earlier this month and 'issued a warning,' the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday: 'They better not raise car prices because of tariffs.'... The tariffs will apply to imported cars, SUVs, minivans, cargo vans, and light trucks, as well as key automobile parts such as engines, transmissions, powertrain parts, and electrical components." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: About those imported "key automobile parts": obviously, the parts go into vehicles manufactured in the U.S. And now those "key parts" will cost U.S. automakers &  U.S.-based assemby plants 25% more. Automakers and assemblers will pass the higher costs on to consumers; i.e., they will raise their prices.

Emily Davies & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “Federal officials are preparing for agencies to cut between 8 and 50 percent of their employees as part of a Trump administration push to shrink the federal government.... The details are compiled from plans that ... Donald Trump ordered agencies to submit.... It indicates that broad staff cuts are likely to have a significant impact on the scope of the government’s work. For example, the document lists the Department of Housing and Urban Development as cutting half of its roughly 8,300-person staff, while the Interior Department would shed nearly 1 in 4 of the workers it had when Trump took office and the IRS would cut nearly 1 in 3. A White House official said the document wasn’t up-to-date.”

Cut HHS Staff → Bigger Tax Breaks for Rich Americans. Lauren Weber, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Department of Health and Human Services is cutting nearly a quarter of its workforce and consolidating several of its departments, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday, a sweeping reduction of the agency that protects Americans’ health, oversees Medicare and Medicaid and ensures the safety of the nation’s food and drugs. The moves will save the department about $1.8 billion annually, the agency said in a news release, by reducing staff from 82,000 to 62,000. Half of those 20,000 employees took buyouts and early retirement, while 10,000 will lose their jobs.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

The Worst, Most Dishonorable Chickens of All. Maya Miller of the New York Times: “Republicans who control Congress have made little official effort to challenge or scrutinize the actions of President Trump and Elon Musk as they move forward with a swift and aggressive bid to slash government, trampling on the legislative branch’s spending authority in the process. But when it comes to cuts that affect their districts and states, some have stepped up their attempts to push back privately, even as they publicly cheer the broader drive to overhaul what they call a 'bloated' bureaucracy.... Because Republican lawmakers have largely ceded their power to the executive branch, effectively giving up their institutional ability to rein in the president, they are instead relying on individual relationships to insulate themselves and their constituents from the adverse impact of his actions. That, in turn, has exposed a partisan imbalance. Republicans — who have been invited to meet privately with Mr. Musk, have received his cellphone number and maintain close relationships within the administration — can more easily influence which government employees and programs are spared from Mr. Trump’s ax.” MB: Kind of a reverse earmarks system, I guess. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A reminder that, sure, the entire Trump/Musk administration is a horrifying oppressive organization, but those guys could not get away with it for long without the cooperation of their Congressional co-conspirators.

The Conversation -- March 27, 2025

Marie: Earlier today, I linked a Washington Post story on Kristi Noem's field trip to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison, where Noem's Department (HHS) had secretly flown people under cover of darkness and likely in violation of a judge's order. The Post reporters cover Noem's performance at CECOT, but Jonathan Last of the Bulwark does a better job. I urge you to read Last's essay. Here's a bit of it:

"Liberal regimes have standards for the treatment of prisoners. These standards are codified under the Geneva Conventions, which the United States has signed and ratified. Among the standards dictated by the Geneva Conventions is this: Prisoners may not be publicly exploited for purposes of propaganda. Another standard of liberal governments is that people who present themselves through legal pathways as refugees fleeing oppression are vetted and provided due process, not disappeared into foreign gulags. And yet here we are. A high-ranking American official visits a prison on foreign soil which we are using to warehouse enemies of her regime. She appears in a fitted long-sleeve tee and active-wear slacks. There is a ballcap on her head and a pound of makeup smeared across her plasticized face. A gold Rolex Daytona — worth more than some of these men will make in their entire lives — sits proudly on her dainty wrist. Every piece of this visual is carefully engineered.... [Behind her, prisoners] have clearly been posed by the jailers, forced to hold position so that they can be useful props for the American woman so that she can manufacture propaganda for her regime.... We are now the bad guys." Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~

~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: “The Trump administration commenced orchestrating the removals long before Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, and did so in a way that seems to have been designed to evade judicial oversight.... Not only did the government deprive those removed of their right to a hearing before an impartial judge, TPM’s reporting shows that federal officials went to extraordinary lengths to conceal weeks of preparations for the removals.... The judge who ordered a halt to the removals remarked on the issue at a hearing last week, observing that ICE had to have had 'advance notice of this proclamation because it’s impossible that this could have happened in a few hours.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Cut HHS Staff → Bigger Tax Breaks for Rich Americans. Lauren Weber, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Department of Health and Human Services is cutting nearly a quarter of its workforce and consolidating several of its departments, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday, a sweeping reduction of the agency that protects Americans’ health, oversees Medicare and Medicaid and ensures the safety of the nation’s food and drugs. The moves will save the department about $1.8 billion annually, the agency said in a news release, by reducing staff from 82,000 to 62,000. Half of those 20,000 employees took buyouts and early retirement, while 10,000 will lose their jobs.”

     ~~~ Three cheers for that American reporter who put MTG in her place. Way to ask a follow-up question. Finally!

~~~~~~~~~~

Houthis and the Blowhards

Jeff Goldberg & Shane Harris of the Atlantic Hit Send: “... statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump — combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts — have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions. There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared.... A CIA spokesperson asked us to withhold the name of John Ratcliffe’s chief of staff, which Ratcliffe had shared in the Signal chain, because CIA intelligence officers are traditionally not publicly identified. Ratcliffe had testified earlier yesterday that the officer is not undercover and said it was 'completely appropriate' to share their name in the Signal conversation. We will continue to withhold the name of the officer. Otherwise, the messages are unredacted.” Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It doesn't take a national security expert to look at Drunk Pete's "What, When, Where, Who and How" message and realize that had this message been read in real time by, say, Iran, that U.S. military personnel and equipment would have been severely compromised and that the "Target Terrorist" would have moved out of harm's way. It seems ludicrous to claim that running this thread over a non-secure commercial app is no big deal.

Marie: Take a look at this photo. You probably remember it. ~~~

Now think about how this compares to the Signal chat Drunk Pete and the gang had re: the March 15 attack on Houthi targets during which, according to local reports, killed 53 people, including women & children. Two things in particular strike me: (1) The group met in a secure facility. According to Pete Souza, the White House photographer who took the now-famous photo, the top security brass were gathered in a tiny conference room within the Situations Room complex during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Turkey. (2) The POTUS was in the room.

If you read Jeff Goldberg's first story (gift link) on the Houthi attack, then you know that the participants did NOT include the POTUS* in the chat group, even though they were, on the 15th, having a real-time discussion of the attack. Further, you also know that the chat participants were not even certain of what Trump wanted the DOD to do. They read in Stephen Miller -- perhaps he's the Trump Interpreter -- and he wrote, “As I heard it, the president was clear: green light....” That is, none of them dared even go to Trump to ask him to clarify his order, much less to discuss the ramifications with him. This is not the way you expect Cabinet members to interact (or not) with a normal POTUS. Bottom line: instead of being in a secure facility with the POTUS to discuss and follow the attack, these bozos were guessing what to do on a publicly-available app that malign actors might have been listening in on, too. ~~~

~~~ Patrick Beuth, et al., of Der Spiegel (English translation): "Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. Der Spiegel reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials. To do so, the reporters used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web. Those affected by the leaks include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Most of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn.... There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases.

"As such, the reporting has revealed an additional grave, previously unknown security breach at the highest levels in Washington. Hostile intelligence services could use this publicly available data to hack the communications of those affected by installing spyware on their devices. It is thus conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group in which Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth discussed a military strike." Thanks to RAS for the link. That's right. It doesn't take someone with the expertise of, say, Elon's "awesome" cyberstalker friend & DOGE software guy BigBalls, to secretly join Waltz's chat thread. ~~~

~~~ And This. Mike Bedigan of the Independent: “Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Waltz ... left sensitive information public on his personal Venmo account, according to a report. Waltz — along with other high-ranking officials including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — opened his account to the public with a list of 'friends' and other details that could potentially be exploited by foreign intelligence services, Wired reported. The Venmo account was clearly listed under the name 'Michael Waltz' and bore a photo of Waltz with a list of the names of people known to be associated with him.... Last July Wired also reported that Vance had left his Venmo account public, revealing a contacts list including members of the infamous right-wing Project 2025, government officials, former Yale contemporaries, and far-right media figures.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One would assume that the Trump administration (well, any administration) would vet the digital presence -- devices, social media, apps, email contacts, etc. -- of at least top officials and staff who handle sensitive material. Obviously not. So there are certainly many staff whose digital footprints are vulnerable to security breaches.

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: “In the days since the editor in chief of The Atlantic revealed he had been inadvertently included in a group chat of top U.S. officials planning a military strike on Houthi militants in Yemen, senior members of the Trump administration have offered a series of shifting, sometimes contradictory and often implausible explanations for how the episode occurred — and why, they say, it just wasn’t that big a deal. Taken together, the statements for the most part sidestep or seek to divert attention from the fundamental fact of what happened: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used Signal, an unclassified commercial app, to share sensitive details about an imminent attack in an extraordinary breach of national security.... 

[Here's Donald Trump's take:] “[Mr.] Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the fervor over the Atlantic’s article was 'all a witch hunt.'... 'I think Signal could be defective, to be honest with you,' he said, after complaining that 'Joe Biden should have done this attack on Yemen.'... [Mr. Biden's] administration led allied nations in several attacks on Houthi sites in Yemen in 2024. Mr. Trump has insisted that no classified information was shared among the members of the group, including the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg — and that it wasn’t uncommon for members of the government to use Signal for official business. But he has also spent a lot more energy disparaging Mr. Goldberg and The Atlantic than defending his national security officials. 'I happen to know the guy is a total sleazebag,' Mr. Trump said of Mr. Goldberg on Tuesday, speaking to reporters from the Cabinet Room.... 'The Atlantic is a failed magazine, does very, very poorly. Nobody gives a damn about it.'...

The White House has insisted that the information shared on Signal was not a 'war plan,' as the headline on the initial story called it, but an 'attack plan.' National security experts say this is very likely a distinction without a difference.” This is a fair summary of the semantic contortions the chatroom participants have executed in lieu of owning up to their dangerous, incompetent culpability. The link, therefore, is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Ben Blanchet of the Huffington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday downplayed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in sharing highly sensitive matters of national security to a group chat that included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. 'Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, despite screenshots showing the defense secretary sharing plans for U.S. strikes in Yemen with the Signal chat earlier this month. Trump continued, 'Hegseth? How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it. Look, look — it’s all a witch hunt.'” Here's Politico's story: "I always thought it was Mike."

     ~~~ Marie: I suppose for the most part Trump's denials and deflections are standard operating prevarication from a world-class liar who cares less about national security secrets than any U.S. president in history (see Trump, Stolen Classified Documents Criminal Case). But if you've caught any clips of his making excuses for the Signalgate 18, it also appears that he does not know what's going on -- that chat threads and encrypted apps and government-approved methods, etc. are just too much for him. So it's all Joe Biden's fault.

Here's JayDee at Quantico yesterday, suited up for an encounter with reporters wanting to know about that group chat. (He did not respond when a reporter shouted a question at him.) ~~~

Julian Barnes & Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “Members of ... [Donald] Trump’s cabinet insisted at a House committee hearing on Wednesday that there was nothing wrong with using a consumer messaging app to discuss U.S. military plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen.... Democrats ... appeared in lock step as they confronted one of the most notable blunders Trump administration officials have made since taking office. In question after question, the members of the Democratic caucus hammered away at the issue of the chat group.... The hearing became contentious at many moments. An exchange between Representative Jimmy Gomez, Democrat of California, and [CIA Director John] Ratcliffe briefly devolved into a shouting match as Mr. Gomez asked witnesses whether 'Pete Hegseth had been drinking before he leaked classified information.'... Some of the most effective questioning came from Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat who is a combat veteran.... With an aide holding up posters behind him, Mr. Crow described the Houthis’ advanced air-defense systems and then said it was outrageous that the administration was not accepting responsibility for the leak. 'It is a leadership failure, and that’s why Secretary Hegseth, who undoubtedly transmitted classified sensitive operational information via this chain, must resign immediately,' he said.”

Disclosure would compromise the operation and put lives at risk. Next to nuclear and covert operations, this information is the most protected. -- Mick Mulroy, Pentagon official in the first Trump administration, on Hegseth's posting of launch times "likely taken from a document outlining the real time battle sequence"

There was no classified information as I understand it. -- Donald Trump, Tuesday

That’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know. I’m not sure, you have to ask the various people involved. -- Donald Trump, Wednesday when asked if classified material was discussed in the chat ~~~

~~~ Marie: Devlin Barrett of the New York Times backs up what I wrote in the Comments yesterday when I speculated about how Team Signalgate was skirting responsibility for discussing classified information on an unsecure chat app: “To many of the people who worked in the classified world of military and intelligence operations, you don’t need a fancy red folder or special government markings to know the plans for an upcoming attack are highly classified. Senior administration officials, however, are staking their reputations on the often bureaucratic nature of classified information.... Administration officials have noted that it is up to the Defense Department to decide which details of its own work are classified. And since the head of that department, Mr. Hegseth, has declared the information not classified, it therefore is not, they have contended. Going back to at least the Reagan administration, however, the government has considered information about 'military plans, weapons or operations' to be classified.” ~~~

Here's Chris Hayes overview of the story as of last night: ~~~

~~~ Hayes goes over how screwed-up the "colossal failure" was: ~~~

Garrett Graff breaks down the revelations from the debacle into five scandals: "1) A massive leak of sensitive information.... 2) Perjury to Congress.... 3) A clear (and clearly criminal) violation of the Federal Records Act.... 4) A government IT scandal.... 5) Some light war crimes." Graff's explanations of each scandal he's defined are interesting. For instance, "This IT and cybersecurity scandal, by the way, is consistent with an administration that’s playing too fast and too loose with serious IT questions and secure communications systems: Just last week came word that Elon Musk has installed Starlink across the White House complex, which for anyone who understands the security of networks in a place like the White House, is just insanity." Graff goes on to observe that the Goldberg story revealed that "Donald Trump isn’t that engaged in the policy of his administration, JD Vance is weak and powerless, and the only one that matters is Stephen Miller.... Miller — who, mind you, is not a national security official who would be normally involved in a military strike overseas — is the one who shuts down the debate over whether the action moves ahead: Miller, in fact, is only added to the group after people aren’t sure of the president’s wishes.... JD Vance is powerless."

Jose Olivares of the Guardian & Agencies: “... top Republican senators are calling for an investigation into the Signal leak scandal and demanding answers from the Trump administration, as they raise concerns it will become a 'significant political problem' if not addressed properly. 'This is what happens when you don’t really have your act together,' the Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski told the Hill.... The Mississippi senator Roger Wicker, who chairs the armed services committee, told the Hill he would be asking the defense department’s inspector general to investigate the scandal.”

Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Wednesday that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on cars and car parts that were imported into the United States, a move that is likely to raise prices for American consumers and throw supply chains into disarray as the president seeks to bolster U.S. manufacturing. The tariffs will go into effect on April 3 and apply both to finished cars and trucks that are shipped into the United States and to imported parts that are assembled into cars at American auto plants. Those tariffs will hit foreign brands as well as American ones, like Ford Motor and General Motors, which build some of their vehicles in Canada or Mexico. Nearly half of all vehicles sold in the United States are imported, as well as nearly 60 percent of the parts in vehicles assembled in the United States. That means the tariffs could push up car prices significantly when inflation has already made cars and trucks more expensive for American consumers.

“During remarks at the White House, Mr. Trump said the tariffs would encourage auto companies and their suppliers to set up shop in the United States.... But the auto industry is global and has been built up around trade agreements that allow factories in different countries to specialize in certain parts or types of cars, with the expectation that they would face little to no tariffs. That has been particularly true for North America, where national auto sectors have been stitched together by trade agreements since the 1960s.” The CBS News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Joe Stanley-Smith & Francesca Micheletti of Politico: “European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen responded quickly to a decision by ... Donald Trump to slap a 25 percent tariff on auto imports. The tariffs, which Trump said will take effect April 3, are a heavy blow for the European car industry and represent the largest escalation yet in Trump’s multi-fronted trade war, which is expected to have severe global economic consequences. 'I deeply regret the US decision to impose tariffs on European automotive exports,' von der Leyen said in a statement released late Wednesday evening. 'Tariffs are taxes — bad for businesses [and] worse for consumers equally in the US and the European Union.'... While von der Leyen's language was guarded, she left little doubt that the EU is prepared to retaliate.... 'As a major trading power and a strong community of 27 Member States, we will jointly protect our workers, businesses and consumers across our European Union.'”

⭐Cut Health Research Funding → Bigger Tax Breaks for Rich Americans. Carl Zimmer & Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has canceled funding for dozens of studies seeking new vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 and other pathogens that may cause future pandemics. The government’s rationale is that the Covid pandemic has ended, which 'provides cause to terminate Covid-related grant funds,' according to an internal N.I.H. document viewed by The New York Times. But the research was not just about Covid. Nine of the terminated awards funded centers conducting research on antiviral drugs to combat so-called priority pathogens that could give rise to entirely new pandemics.... Describing all the research as Covid-related is 'a complete inaccuracy and simply a way to defund infectious disease research,' the official said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has said that the N.I.H. is too focused on infectious diseases, the official noted. The funding halts were first reported by Science and Nature. The cancellations stunned scientists who had depended on the government’s support.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know why we need all that research stuff with the white lab coats and the fancy microscopes and all when we can just ask RFKJ for his remedies for every present and future pathogen.

⭐Cut Healthcare Funding → Bigger Tax Breaks for Rich Americans. Apoorva Mandavilli, et al., of the New York Times: “The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues. The cuts are likely to further hamstring state health departments, which are already underfunded and struggling with competing demands from chronic diseases, resurgent infections like syphilis and emerging threats like bird flu.... For some, the effect was immediate. In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there.... On Tuesday, some state health departments were preparing to lay off dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists.” The NBC News story is here.

⭐Let a Million Children Die → Bigger Tax Breaks for Rich Americans. Adam Taylor & Emmanuel Martinez of the Washington Post: “The United States is planning to terminate more than $1 billion in funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an international organization that offers lifesaving vaccinations for millions of people each year in some of the world’s poorest countries, according to information in a document the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sent to Congress this week. The surprise cuts to Gavi 'would have a disastrous impact on global health security, potentially resulting in the deaths of more than 1 million children over five years and endangering lives everywhere from dangerous disease outbreaks,' said Sania Nishtar, a Pakistani doctor and chief executive of the organization. The halt in funding was set out in a lengthy spreadsheet detailing cuts to USAID. Gavi said it was not given any warning about the termination of its U.S. funding, which it said came as the organization was negotiating with the White House and Congress.... As of last year, the U.S. was the third-largest funder of Gavi, behind Britain and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to calculations by KFF.”

David French of the New York Times: “The MAGA movement is attacking the American judiciary. The evidence is everywhere.... The second Trump term is substantially different from Trump’s first term in a key respect — the people around him have developed actual legal theories and policy ideas to buttress, direct and channel Trump’s impulses.... These ... make Trump’s second term far more dangerous to the Constitution than his first.... As [Stephen] Miller put it in a press briefing last month, 'The whole will of democracy is imbued into the elected president.' He is the only elected official who represents the whole of the American people, and he embodies the people’s general will.... As a result, Miller argued, he is the best expression of American popular will, and Article II of the Constitution ... gives the president the power to hire staff to 'impose that democratic will onto the government.'... According to this reasoning, the executive branch is the most democratic branch of government and the most powerful.... The Trumpist argument is dangerous precisely because it is partly right. Like many Trumpist critiques of the status quo, there are grounds for complaint, but their proposed cure is worse than the disease.... Trumpists are hoping to replace a flawed system with a broken system.”

Richard Hasen, in an NBC News opinion piece: "By design, presidents have no power over the conduct of federal elections.... Donald Trump’s recent executive order on election administration aims to flip that, trying to take power from both an independent bipartisan federal agency and from the states, in an affront to principles of federalism. This dangerous power grab signals further democratic backsliding"

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: “Under ... [Donald] Trump, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has dropped nearly a dozen enforcement cases brought during the Biden administration, ending lawsuits against banks and lenders for a variety of financial practices that the watchdog agency no longer considers illegal. But on Wednesday, the bureau went a step further: It is seeking to give back $105,000 that a mortgage lender paid to settle racial discrimination claims last fall. In an especially strange twist, the case — against Townstone Financial, a small Chicago-based lender — was brought during Mr. Trump’s first term by Kathleen Kraninger, the director he appointed to run the consumer bureau. Russell Vought, who became the agency’s acting director last month, said it had'used radical “equity” arguments to tag Townstone as racist with zero evidence, and spent years persecuting and extorting them.'”

Brianna Sacks, et al., of the Washington Post: “Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and other Trump administration officials expressed support in meetings this week for dramatically diminishing the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the aim of all but eliminating the embattled agency’s role in disaster recovery by Oct. 1.... The closed-door push to abolish or substantially cut FEMA’s authorities ... comes barely two months ahead of the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.... FEMA’s existence and functions are written into laws, so it’s unclear how the administration could halt them without congressional approval, said [Rep. Jared] Moskowitz [D-Florida], formerly Florida’s emergency management director.... Moskowitz and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Florida) this week introduced a bill to establish FEMA as an independent, Cabinet-level agency that is no longer part of DHS. The goal, Moskowitz said, is to free the agency from a sprawling bureaucracy and help it move with more agility.”

Mary Beth Sheridan & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “Kristi L. Noem, the U.S. homeland security secretary, threatened Wednesday to send more immigrants from the United States to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador that has become a black hole for Venezuelans spirited out of the United States with no judicial hearing.... Noem [visited El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, and] met Wednesday evening with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele 'to strengthen bilateral cooperation on security and migration,' according to a post on X from the U.S. Embassy there. She also signed an agreement to improve information-sharing on fugitives.”

The footage of Rumeysa Ozturk’s arrest — a student here legally — is disturbing. Based on what we now know, it is alarming that the federal administration chose to ambush and detain her, apparently targeting a law-abiding individual because of her political views. This isn’t public safety, it’s intimidation that will, and should, be closely scrutinized in court. -- Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell ~~~

~~~ Jenna Russell, et al., of the New York Times: “An international student in a graduate program at Tufts University was taken into federal custody on Tuesday outside an off-campus apartment building.... The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen, had a valid student visa as a doctoral student at Tufts, according to a statement from her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai. Ms. Ozturk, who is Muslim..., was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security near her apartment in Somerville, Mass., Ms. Khanbabai said. 'We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her,' the lawyer said. 'No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of.'... Records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed that a person with Ms. Ozturk’s name was being held in a Louisiana detention center on Wednesday.

“Late on Tuesday, Judge Indira Talwani of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts had ordered the government not to move Ms. Ozturk out of the state without advance written notice to the court. It was not immediately clear on Wednesday whether the government had provided written notice.... Ms. Ozturk was listed as one of several authors of an opinion essay published last March in the Tufts student newspaper. The essay criticized university leaders for their response to demands that Tufts 'acknowledge the Palestinian genocide' and divest itself from companies with ties to Israel.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The CBS News story is here. The NYT article includes a one-minute video of masked ICE agents grabbing a frightened Ozturk as she was walking along a sidewalk. The CBS News story includes a WBZ Boston report that contains in-color footage of Ozturk's arrest as well as a report and video footage of the demonstration for Ozturk that took place Wednesday. ~~~

     ~~~ Molly Farrar of Boston.com: “Thousands rallied in Somerville[, Massachusetts,] Wednesday after a Tufts University graduate student, native to Turkey and outspoken about Palestinian rights, was arrested by federal immigration agents Tuesday night. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Fulbright Scholar pursuing her PhD at the university’s Child Study and Human Development department, was detained by ICE agents outside an off-campus apartment building in Somerville. Her lawyer said she was 'maintaining valid F-1 status' while at Tufts.”

Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “A federal appeals court in Washington on Wednesday kept in place, for now, a block on the Trump administration’s use of a rarely invoked wartime statute to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants accused of being members of a violent street gang. By a 2-to-1 vote, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Venezuelan migrants were likely to succeed in their claims that the government cannot use the wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to summarily transfer them to a prison in El Salvador without a hearing. 'The government’s removal scheme denies plaintiffs even a gossamer thread of due process, even though the government acknowledges their right to judicial review of their removability,' Judge Patricia A. Millett wrote.” The linked decision is via the court, so not firewalled. Politico's report is here.

Lisa Rein & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “The Social Security Administration on Wednesday abruptly backed off planned cuts to phone services for disabled and some elderly Americans applying for benefits amid an uproar from advocates. The originally proposed changes — scheduled to take effect Monday but now delayed to April 14 — would have directed all people filing claims to first verify their identity online or in person, removing a phone option in place for years. Advocates said the shift would make it impossible for many disabled and elderly people with limited mobility or computer skills to apply. Now, those applying for Medicare, disability benefits and supplemental income help can continue to file claims and authenticate their identity by phone, according to a news release the agency issued late Wednesday. However, others filing for retirement or survivor benefits — or requesting direct deposit for their checks — will still be bound by rules announced by the agency earlier this month: These transactions require online or in-person identity verification except in rare situations, such as when someone is terminally ill.”

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: “The Education Department on Wednesday reopened applications for some of its most affordable student loan repayment plans but offered no timeline for processing them, a move that could create a massive backlog. The department had shut down an application for all income-driven repayment plans in February after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit expanded an injunction blocking President Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education program, commonly known as Save.... The Trump administration said shutting down the application was necessary to comply with the court order.... The order, however, did not direct the department to bar borrowers from accessing the two plans or Income-Based Repayment (IBR), which Congress created under a separate statute.”

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld federal restrictions aimed at curtailing access to kits that can be easily assembled into homemade, nearly untraceable firearms. In a 7-to-2 decision, written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, one of the court’s conservatives, the justices left in place requirements enacted during the Biden administration as part of a broader effort to combat gun violence by placing restrictions on so-called ghost guns. The ruling in favor of gun regulations is a departure for the court, which has shown itself to be skeptical both of administrative agency power and of gun regulations. Two conservative justices — Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas — each filed dissents. The Biden administration enacted rules in 2022 tightening access to the weapons kits, after law enforcement agencies reported that ghost guns were exploding in popularity and being used to commit serious crimes.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

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Pennsylvania. Marie: Yesterday, I linked a story about a Pennsylvania special election for a state senate seat, which Democratic James Malone won, even though the district has been thoroughly Republican for decades. Maybe one of the reasons Malone won was that Republicans in the district have annoyed voters by making it quite difficult to vote. Contributor Jeanne votes in the district and she wrote yesterday that Republicans "took out our only drop box for ballots [and moved them] down at the governmental center.... When we go in, there are five or six cops in attendance and a security doorway, wands, and a treadmill for our purses and belts. So, so 'insecure' said the professional liars. Other elections, we have had to park and go in, paying for parking, but this time there were temporary signs saying four spots were for ballot drop-off. Naturally, only my ballot can be in my hand, and husband's must be in his hand."