Talking Points Memo (TPM) is an independent news organization that publishes reporting and analysis about American politics, public policy and political culture. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/
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The move represents an escalation of the Trump White House’s power grab over Congress’ authority to appropriate federal spending because the Trump administration now claims the power to cut the spending whether Congress approves it or not. More here:
The other GOPer who sometimes counters President Trump — and then still votes for things that advance his agenda, like the sweeping Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill this summer — is slamming the White House for lawlessly withholding federal spending that’s been authorized by Congress.
The Trump admin has ironically continued to defend workers' rights in Mexico via a labor provision in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, all while gutting collective bargaining for nearly 400k U.S. civil servants, more than 2.6% of American unionized workers talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-tru...
Kristi Noem is in charge of America's domestic cybersecurity agency. On a poorly hidden Facebook page, she seemed baffled by how a video of "dogs in leotards" ended up on her feed. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-sec...
Come for Kristi Noem probably posting "dogs in leotards" with a Facebook alias. Stay for her ending up in merch ads for a South Dakota escape room. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-sec...
The secret Facebook page that seems to belong to Kristi Noem used a thinly veiled alias. It shared Christian content, typos, and a copypasta hoax. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-sec...
Experts who spoke to TPM described the situation as “inadvisable” and “sloppy” for one of the top security officials in the country. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-sec...
@joshtpm.bsky.social thinks through the lengths Trump could go to retain control of Congress, urging lawmakers to game these scenarios out and act now to cut off any routes to retain power illegally. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/gamin...
Morning Memo, your weekday chronicle of the depredations of the Trump II presidency: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of Washington, D.C., put in a yeoman’s effort over the weekend to block the removals and to do so in a way that gave the administration no benefit of the doubt and little to no wiggle room.
In a replay of the March weekend when the Trump admin secretly launched the Alien Enemies Act deportations, it was busted over the Labor Day weekend trying to whisk unaccompanied Guatemalan children out of the country. This time it complied with court orders. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
In a replay of the March weekend when the Trump admin secretly launched the Alien Enemies Act deportations, it was busted over the Labor Day weekend trying to whisk unaccompanied Guatemalan children out of the country. This time it complied w/ court orders. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
An appeals court ruled most of Trump's tariffs are illegal, opening the door for the possibility that the U.S. govt will have to pay back the money its collected so far. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trumps-...
“I think that’s wholly appropriate and certainly comports with my understanding of the law,” said C. Fred Bergsten, who helped negotiate IEEPA in the 1970s, “and hopefully it will excise lots of the damage that his tariffs have done.”
Our story on the chaos Trump's and Vought's "pocket rescissions" gambit has now inspired. From @kateriga.bsky.social.
Democrats say Trump is courting a government shutdown after he attempted a gambit that would strip Congress of its greatest power. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/democra...
The shift away from mass immunization for COVID by making healthy people under 65 ineligible for it without a scientific basis for doing so and outside the normal process has adverse health implications for millions of Americans. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
President Trump will reportedly have another big boy military parade later this year.
But first, I unpack the requisite Trump White House clown show: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/cdc-massac...
The CDC debacle appears to be a direct result of RFK Jr's announcement that access to the COVID vax will be limited, bypassing the normal process for vax approvals, disregarding established science, and overriding the opposition of the public health community. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
The CDC debacle appears to be a direct result of RFK Jr’s announcement that access to the COVID vax will be limited, bypassing the normal process for vax approvals, disregarding established science, and overriding the opposition of the public health community. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
The pressure campaign in Texas made more sense. Republicans there, after some substantial protest from their Democratic counterparts, were able to pass redrawn maps that will likely flip five seats in the U.S. House for Republicans. Not two. More here:
In Indiana specifically, that would mean forcing Republicans to redraw district lines in their state so that one of the two seats that are currently held by Democrats in the U.S. House will instead flip to Republicans.
The Trump White House has been focused for weeks on forcing Indiana to engage in mid-cycle gerrymandering to help ensure that Republicans are able to keep the House next year — the prospects of which, according to some polls, are pretty up in the air, absent his egregious redistricting campaign.
@kateriga.bsky.social and @joshtpm.bsky.social discuss Trump’s “firing” of a Fed governor, his eyeing of Chicago as ripe for takeover and Kate and Josh Kovensky’s scoop on the DOJ’s efforts to eradicate gender-affirming care nationwide. Head to TPM to listen! talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/liste...
New from me + @emineirmakyucel.bsky.social about the damage Trump/allies did to DC before flooding it with armed federal law enforcement under pretext that its own government can't handle the fabricated crime spike talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
while Republicans howl about DC being a den of iniquity, worth remembering that House GOP still refuses to let the district use $1B of its own taxpayers' money. That plus the economic hobbling from the DOGE layoffs have left the district in a much more damaged state than it was pre-January 20th
By stopping D.C. from spending its own money and decimating its economic prospects with mass federal layoffs, Republicans helped create ginned-up pretext for the takeover. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
Morning Memo, bringing you each weekday the latest on the abuses of power, threats to the rule of law, and sheer absurdity of the Trump II presidency: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Failing to secure a indictment is a relatively rare occurrence because prosecutors control the entire process in front of a grand jury. With few exceptions, prosecutors are not in the business of bringing loser cases to grand juries.
The incident outside a Subway location (it was reportedly a salami sandwich) came to represent both the intense local opposition to being targeted by Trump on the bogus pretext of out-of-control crime and the overall absurdity of the situation.
No-Bill for Assault With a Deli Weapon->A D.C. grand jury declined to indict the fired DOJ paralegal Sean Dunn who hurled a sandwich at a federal officer during protests against President Trump’s hyper-federalization of the nation’s capital, the NYT reports. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
No-Bill for Assault With a Deli Weapon->A D.C. grand jury reportedly declined to indict the fired DOJ paralegal Sean Dunn who hurled a sandwich at a federal officer during protests against President Trump’s hyper-federalization of the nation’s capital. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
The case challenging the first-ever presidential firing of a Fed governor will almost certainly make it to the Supreme Court — where the extremity of conservatives’ mission to drive the independent agency into extinction will be tested.
Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II depredations (plus the defiance and resistance thereto) each weekday: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
They’re relatively small and by themselves, they’re not enough. But two examples in particular stand out: (1) Three different federal grand juries in D.C. refused to indict a woman on felony charges that she assaulted an FBI agent during an immigration protest in July.
Examples of capitulation/surrender to Trump’s authoritarianism continue to outpace those of defiance/resistance. But in recents days in DC–which Trump is pretending to occupy–we’ve seen instances of holding the line against the worst of his transgressions. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Over the last few days in D.C., which Trump is pretending to occupy, we’ve seen a few instances of holding the line against the worst of his transgressions. They’re relatively small and by themselves, they’re not enough. Two examples in particular stand out: talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
SCOOP: Trump's BLS pick E.J. Antoni -- who many economists have flagged as unqualified -- will face a hearing before the Senate HELP committee. Over 30+ years, only 1 of the last 6 BLS chiefs had a committee hearing talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-e...
He then signed an executive order that will, in theory, make his vision of occupying more and more blue cities even easier. More here:
After Trump first floated the possibility of sending guardsmen into Chicago next, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker described the political stunt in similar terms: as “an authoritarian power grab of major cities.” Trump responded by calling Pritzker “corrupt” and “a slob.”
As my colleague @joshtpm.bsky.social noted today, it’s an action that allows him to “deprive those states and localities of their liberty and right to self-government. Because he wants that power for himself.”
It’s become an opportunity for Trump to flex power despite the objections of elected-Democrats and a vehicle he can use to carry out his retribution.
As has been obvious since the moment he sent National Guard troops into D.C. to do things like patrol tourists on the National Mall, Trump is using decades-old right-wing propaganda — fear mongering about supposedly lawless urban hellscapes — to justify bringing the military in to Dem run cities.
Scoop, w/ @kateriga.bsky.social : University of Michigan Health ends its healthcare programs for transgender minors after a subpoena from the Trump DOJ talkingpointsmemo.com/news/univers...
This is a really big deal, as UMich is one of two trans health care providers in the whole state, the group TransGender Michigan told us. Similar subpoenas reported in PA and IL. Further evidence that being in a blue state/under blue state gov does not guarantee protection from this administration
UMich received the subpoena July 14, per an internal university memo we obtained. Source tells us DOJ indicated it is investigating the doctors on suspicion of abusing their authority to prescribe medication, among other things. Adds that hospitals feared legal fees, docs feared losing licenses
Scoop from me & @joshkovensky.bsky.social: After receiving a subpoena and being threatened with criminal/civil investigations by Trump's DOJ, the University of Michigan's statewide hospital system will stop providing gender-affirming care to patients under 19 talkingpointsmemo.com/news/univers...
The University of Michigan’s statewide hospital system will stop providing gender-affirming care for patients under 19 after receiving a subpoena and being threatened with investigation by Trump’s Justice Department, TPM reports exclusively.
EXCLUSIVE: In response to threats of criminal prosecution from the Department of Justice for performing gender-affirming care, the University of Michigan hospital system will tomorrow announce they are ending gender-affirming care in the UM hospital system. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/univers...
Great new reporting this afternoon from @talkingpointsmemo.com's @laylaayanna.bsky.social: Trump’s problematic pick to lead the Bureau of Labor and Statistics is expected to face a hearing before the Senate HELP Committee, according to two people familiar with committee proceedings. More here:
Democrats on the Senate HELP Committee and BLS advocates have been pushing for a close examination of Antoni’s record since his appointment was announced due, in part, to his lack of experience and MAGA bona fides. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-e...
Abrego Garcia’s dark journey through the lawless Trump immigration system took another grievous turn Monday morning when he was detained by ICE in Baltimore only three days after being freed from criminal custody in Nashville. His next stop could be...Uganda. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
'hey, why the f is this case still in Texas, when no Texans are involved?' (of course, the anti-abortion litigants want to keep it in Texas because they want to keep it in Matthew Kacsmaryk's court). If (when) he grants Texas' request to intervene, this case becomes a live ball again
The state of Texas (+ Florida) now asking to intervene in the case that attempted to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone, which scotus turned back b/c the anti-abortion doctors lacked standing. Missouri, Kansas + Idaho tried to pick up the mantle, prompting the defendants to say, in so many words:
A new poll from UMass Amherst found that 47% of 2024 Trump voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Epstein controversy. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/some-tr...
Morning Memo, calling out Trump's retribution for what it is each weekday morning: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
That led to an extended legal battle and a criminal investigation by the Trump I DOJ. Bolton claimed at the time, with compelling evidence, that he was being singled out and retaliated against by the Trump White House for his Trump criticism.
Bolton, whose D.C. office was also reportedly searched this morning, became a strident critic of Trump after leaving the White House in 2019. The first big clash with Trump occurred over allegedly classified information Bolton used in his 2020 memoir.
The FBI searched the home and office of former Trump I national security adviser John Bolton on Friday morning in what is yet another example of President Trump abusing the powers of his office to target his critics … and Bolton in particular. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
You can draw a straight line between the current frantic gerrymandering arms race and a mind-bendingly stupid decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/john-ro...
The FBI searched the home and office of former Trump I national security adviser John Bolton on Friday morning in what is yet another example of President Trump abusing the powers of his office to target his critics … and Bolton in particular. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/retribu...
Now that Trump is being so explicit, Democrats have no reason not to abandon the higher ground, point toward the folly of unilateral disarmament, and join the no-holds-barred fight to stop Republicans’ ratfuckery.
Republicans and red state officials tend to try to keep explicit mentions of their true intentions when screwing around with maps and election rules out of public commentary.
The whole “100 more seats” thing is perhaps a hyperbolic troll — unlike anything anyone’s ever seen, etc. But it’s nonetheless significant.
"Trump has been especially focused on targeting Black women in public life." so refreshing to work at a publication that can state this obvious truth plainly talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
With one half of them beaming in from occupied D.C., @kateriga.bsky.social and @joshtpm.bsky.social are back on the regular schedule to talk the capital takeover, budding Democratic resistance and Trump’s candid election rigging. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/liste...
Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II retribution, destruction, and corruption each weekday for smart, no-nonsense readers: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
The official in question is Bill Pulte 37, a MAGA influencer with 3M followers on X. And the way he trumpeted the Cook allegations yesterday tells you all you need to know about the bad faith origins of the allegations in all three cases.
The origins of the bogus mortgage fraud allegations against Letitia James, Adam Schiff and now Fed member Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee and the 1st Black woman on the Fed, have a patina of legitimacy, coming from the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, but don’t be fooled by that origin.
President Trump’s attack on yet another Black woman in public office gives away the game – if you were still harboring any doubt – about his corrupt use of mortgage fraud allegations to target Democrats. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Much like the effects of Trump’s deep cuts to Medicaid funding on rural hospitals, defunding CPB is expected to disproportionately impact the very people the president purports to represent. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-p...
President Trump’s attack on yet another Black woman in public office gives away the game – if you were still harboring any doubt – about his corrupt use of mortgage fraud allegations to target Democrats. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Even on the precipice of a massive victory for the Trump administration, Texas Republicans are still conjuring up creative news ways to threaten and intimidate their Democratic colleagues — for simply using the tools at their disposal to protest the GOP’s egregious power grab.
When we're looking at how specifically states can stand up to Trump, their first response should simply be to say "no" and go from there, @joshtpm.bsky.social says. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/what-...
“People are becoming more loyal to their political party than to the office that they hold,” Georgetown Law professor David Super said of congressional Republicans’ willingness to cede their authority to the executive branch. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trumps-...
Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency each weekday to help keep you well-informed but not overwhelmed. morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
The mass deportation agenda is just one part of a larger agenda in which white Americans are fronted as the real America and everyone else is second-class, unless they individually demonstrate in lavish ways a high enough degree of fealty to Donald Trump. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
The mass deportation agenda is just one part of a larger agenda in which white Americans are fronted as the real America and everyone else is second-class, unless they individually demonstrate in lavish ways a high enough degree of fealty to Donald Trump. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
But since then, some state lawmakers have come out openly against it. And for that, Trump’s allies are threatening to primary them. More here:
In the wake of Vance's meeting with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, he and other Republican members of the state legislature were tight-lipped about whether they’d agreed to redraw their state maps, and potentially flip the only two seats that Dems hold in the U.S. House.
President Trump revealed Monday that he intends to “lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS” before the 2026 midterms, adding explicitly that he thinks ending the practice will benefit Republicans. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-m...
More on the renewed right-wing executive/legal/state-level attacks on vote-by-mail here: talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-m...
Still think it's underrated the degree to which Trump's willingness to just say a scandal out loud instead of in secret makes it seem Less Bad. In this case, he said explicitly that he wants to end mail-in voting because he thinks it'll help Republicans in the midterms
@joshtpm.bsky.social explains why the states are so crucial in how the U.S. is going to survive the next three and a half years under Trump and begin the process of battling back. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-...
Morning Memo, only the day's essential political news, in an accessible format: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
DOJ originally sued to block the merger earlier this year, which set off a scramble by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “HPE hired Trump political allies such as Mike Davis and Arthur Schwartz to fight back and help it reach a settlement that would allow the $14 billion deal to close,” the WSJ reported.
“Chad Mizelle accepts party meetings and makes key decisions depending on whether the request or info comes from a MAGA friend,” Alford said. “Aware of this injustice, companies are hiring lawyers and influence peddlers to bolster their MAGA credentials and pervert traditional law enforcement.”
The two officials – chief of staff Chad Mizelle and Stanley Woodward, the nominee for the No. 3 slot at DOJ – were heavily involved in the proposed settlement of a lawsuit over the merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks, Alford alleged.
An top antitrust lawyer fired by the Trump DOJ is not going quietly. In a speech yesterday in Colorado, Roger Alford accused two senior aides to Attorney General Pam Bondi of corrupting DOJ’s usual process for dealing with antitrust lawsuits, the WSJ reports. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
A top antitrust lawyer fired by the Trump DOJ is not going quietly. In a speech yesterday in Colorado, Roger Alford accused two senior aides to Attorney General Pam Bondi of corrupting DOJ’s usual process for dealing with antitrust lawsuits, the WSJ reports.
Johnson's statement today, of course, completely ignores that logic. Read more (and pls subscribe if you can!) here:
Texas and many other red states don’t have those kinds of rules (though some have laws in place against race-based gerrymandering) because they’re totally fine with partisan map drawing if it favors Republicans.
States like California and New York have adopted these protocols — where an independent, non-partisan panel is tasked with drawing congressional maps, based on census data, for state legislatures to vote on — in order to ensure fair representation in Washington.
Many blue states have measures in place, like the indy commissions, to prevent against the exact kind of partisan gerrymandering that Republicans in Texas are trying to pull off mid-cycle.
He and Democratic officials in New York and other states have been publicly considering how they might beat Republicans at their own gerrymandering game by redrawing maps to offset the impact of what’s going on in Texas.
Obviously, to those paying attention, the reason that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to work around his state’s independent redistricting commission is because of the gravity of the moment.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a critic of the vaccine court, calling it “biased” against compensating people, slow and unfair. He has said that he wants to “revolutionize” or “fix” this system. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/rfk-jr-...
Ed Martin admitted he’s using the pretext of clearly bogus mortgage fraud investigations to conduct an open-ended witch hunt into Adam Schiff and Letitia James. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...