Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency for free each weekday:
morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency for free each weekday:
morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Noem is out. Mullin is in. But Trump has an endless supply of figureheads to nominally run DHS, while he and Stephen Miller via Tom Homan pull the strings from the West Wing. The mass deportation operation for which no one is more responsible than Donald Trump grinds on mercilessly and lawlessly.
06.03.2026 17:31 — 👍 21 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0But with the GOP in lock step with a Trump White House that micromanages every department and agency, the identity of which particular reality TV cast member (literally in the case of Sean Duffy at the Transportation Department) occupies which position in the cabinet is without much real meaning.
06.03.2026 17:31 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
In the old days of a less homogenous GOP, a change of cabinet secretary might mark a shift of alliances; or internal party tensions along regional, cultural, or ideological lines; or one coalition gaining power at another's expense; or a policy change.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
@talkingpointsmemo.com is such a great resource. Join. it's worth it!
04.03.2026 22:22 — 👍 54 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 1
UPDATE: Pirro suggests she's still at it ... or at least wants President Trump to think she is.
(I wonder how many "ongoing investigations" will stick around for the duration of Trump II, at which point the charade can end.)
bsky.app/profile/ryan...
TPM's Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency:
morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
~Taking the strident tone of a bully who thinks he’s a victim, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said of the U.S. attack on Iran: “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”
05.03.2026 16:21 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
~The Trump admin proposed a new reg that purports to subordinate state bar investigations of DOJ attorneys to the AG's own investigation.
~The prosecutor, AG, SoS, and a U.S. senator vehemently reacted to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ signal he will commute the sentence of election denier Tina Peters.
In today's edition of Morning Memo:
~Jeanine Pirro tried to mount a prosecution over a MAGA fever dream, but ... “Investigators were never quite clear what crime, if any, had been committed by the Biden administration’s use of the autopen,” the NYT reports.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Pleased to speak with @joshkovensky.bsky.social for @talkingpointsmemo.com about Iran and war powers.
"The ultimate war power is the power of the purse."
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/iran-wa...
What Mr. Chimpanzy says
05.03.2026 11:21 — 👍 45 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0The administration's appeal is no surprise. At the hearing where Boasberg heard arguments before issuing the order the Trump DOJ is now appealing, he said sardonically: “I’m not going to rule today. They may appeal anyway today because that seems to be the MO in this case.”
04.03.2026 20:37 — 👍 12 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The ACLU notified Boasberg on Friday that 19 former detainees "wish to travel independently to a U.S. port of entry or...wish to be flown from a 3rd country to the U.S. for their court proceedings, understanding that...they will be detained upon arrival.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
04.03.2026 20:28 — 👍 15 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0The Trump administration is now appealing Boasberg's Feb. 12 order for it to "facilitate" the return from third countries of former detainees who wish to do so knowing they will be detained (and permitting other detainees to contest their cases from abroad). www.courtlistener.com/docket/69741...
04.03.2026 20:25 — 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0As we approach the anniversary of the Alien Enemies Act removals, the Trump DOJ tromps back to the DC Circuit yet again in the original AEA case. The appeals court has already bottled up Judge Boasberg's contempt of court inquiry for most of the past year. 1/ www.courtlistener.com/docket/69741...
04.03.2026 20:25 — 👍 16 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Morning Memo, your free newsletter chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency:
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This reversal here is so unusual that it’s difficult to find comparable incidents in DOJ history. But it’s of the caliber of unprofessionalism, political interference, and personal embarrassment that you’d expect multiple resignations rather than be involved with such nonsense. So far, crickets.
04.03.2026 16:11 — 👍 18 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0It is truly a shitshow. Those involved, all the way up to and including the Oval Office, care not whether they befool themselves in public and further damage their standing with an increasingly incredulous judicial branch.
04.03.2026 16:11 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0The sheer disorder and chaos that runs through the Trump administration — subject as it is to the whims of one man — makes it nearly impossible to reconstruct what happened in this instance based on past practice, formal hierarchies, and the players involved.
04.03.2026 16:11 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
... the attorney general, the solicitor general, and multiple other senior leaders, in close consultation with the White House Counsel’s Office.
Once made, after a thorough and well-trod process, and then presented to a court, decisions were not willy nilly reversed.
The level of mismanagement, poor communication, bad faith, and ineptitude involved in something like this happening is staggering and hard to even begin to explain. As a threshold matter, this never happens.
Decisions like this were, in the past, made at the highest levels of the DOJ, including...
One day after asking to voluntarily withdraw its appeal in the law firm EO cases, the Trump DOJ humiliatingly reversed course. In an extraordinary glimpse into who really runs DOJ, its No. 3 official sought to withdraw his request to withdraw the appeal. Follow?
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
can you believe this?
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u...
Morning Memo, a free newsletter chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency each weekday:
morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
The administration did not respond by last month’s deadline for evidence in the Good shooting. The deadline for it to respond in the other two shootings is today. Moriarty is considering suing the administration if it does not cooperate.
03.03.2026 15:43 — 👍 20 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0the Trump administration continues to refuse to cooperate the state investigations into the federal shootings Good, Alex Pretti, and Julio Sosa-Celis. Moriarty previously sent formal demand letters to federal agencies for evidence in those three shootings.
03.03.2026 15:43 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Bovino was also present at the high school incident, where chemical irritants were deployed: www.youtube.com/shorts/v17lo...
03.03.2026 15:43 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Bovino’s conduct in Mueller Park is one of 17 incidents that Moriarty says her office is now investigating. The only other incident under investigation that she identified was the immigration enforcement operation conducted at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School on Jan. 7, the same day Renee Good
03.03.2026 15:43 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Specifically, Moriarty is looking into Bovino’s deployment of a chemical irritant in a local park on Jan. 21, which was captured on video:
bsky.app/profile/did:...