The Conversation -- May 31, 2025

Wait. Who's Vicious? Ty Roush of Forbes: “... Donald Trump on Friday said not to 'feel so sorry' for former President Joe Biden, who announced a cancer diagnosis earlier this month, and criticized Biden as 'vicious' — just over a week after Trump and other Republicans suggested Biden may have hidden his illness from the public. Trump, who spoke in the Oval Office on Friday..., [said,] '[Biden’s] been a sort of moderate person over his lifetime.... Not a smart person, but a somewhat vicious person, I will say. If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry, because he's vicious. What he did with his political opponent and all of the people that he hurt — he hurt a lot of people, Biden, so I really don't feel sorry for him.'” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary below.

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This is a gangster state.... This is not basically a legitimate government that is sometimes doing corrupt things. This is an essentially corrupt enterprise.... Every day they get up and try to figure out how to plunder and pillage the people.... The criminals at this point are basically in charge of every department and agency. -- Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Friday

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “... Trump’s mass deportations haven’t happened, and his administration has accumulated an astonishing record of losses in federal courts as judges appointed by presidents from both parties reject his attempt at governing by fiat. What remains is the wreckage: a loss of faith in U.S. credit, reflected in what the Brits are calling a 'moron premium' that the markets are imposing on Trump, which is pushing up bond yields and interest rates; a generation of talent departing the federal government; a loss of goodwill among foreign partners that would take years to rebuild, if it can be rebuilt at all; and the devastation of the scientific research at American universities that has long powered the American economy.... Likewise, the Russian government is now mocking Trump.... During the Biden years, Trump liked to say that 'the world is laughing at us.' Now it really is.... He continues to diminish his office in ways large and small.... The good news is more and more Americans are summoning the courage to fight back.” This is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)  

Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said Friday that he planned to double tariffs on steel imports into the U.S. from 25 percent to 50 percent. Speaking at a rally at U.S. Steel in Pennsylvania, Trump said the raised tariff rate would 'even further secure the steel industry in the United States.' Trump traveled to speak to steelworkers after announcing a 'partnership' last week between the storied U.S. company and Japanese rival Nippon Steel. The increased tariff rate will take effect Wednesday, Trump said in a Truth Social post Friday evening after the event. The president’s actions are designed to promote greater domestic steel industry production and employment. But they also increase costs for manufacturers that use the industrial metals to produce goods such as automobiles and appliances, as well as other sectors including housing and construction.” The AP report is here.

Are You Feeling His Pain? David Bauder of the AP: “... Donald Trump suffered 'mental anguish' from CBS News’ editing of a '60 Minutes' interview with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris last fall, his lawyers are arguing in court papers. Trump’s status as a 'content creator' was also damaged by attention given to the interview, lawyers said. It was part of their argument opposing CBS parent Paramount Global’s effort to dismiss the president’s $20 billion lawsuit against the company, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas. Trump has claimed the editing was done to advantage Harris, which CBS rejects. Even with the effort to dismiss the case, Paramount is engaged in settlement discussions with Trump. The prospect of a settlement has so rattled CBS News that two of its top executives have resigned in protest.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ As Sam Stein & William Saletan of the Bulwark discussed here, the anguished Trump has filed what is less a lawsuit and more of a shakedown. Trump expects a kickback before he allows Paramount to complete its planned merger with Skydance. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Max Tani of Semafor: "The California State Senate has invited two former top CBS figures [-- former 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens and former CBS News president Wendy McMahon --] to testify in a new inquiry into whether the network’s parent company has violated state laws against bribery and unfair competition. Paramount offered ... Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign $15 million to settle a lawsuit filed against CBS over a lightly edited interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris in October, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. Trump refused the settlement, threatening to file an additional suit against the company, seeking federal approval for its merger with entertainment company Skydance. The settlement talks have infuriated many staff members at CBS as well as many national Democrats who believe that Paramount is caving to pressure from Trump to settle a frivolous lawsuit."

Evan Hurst of Wonkette republishes in full Trump's bonkers complaint about judges and Leonard Leo & the Federalist society, blah blah. Trump ends the long rant with a standard business-letter closing, which is just comically out of place here: "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Hurst calls Trump "the weakest dictator ever." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~ 

~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: Donald “Trump appears to be declaring independence from outside constraints on how he nominates judges, signaling that he is looking for loyalists who will uphold his agenda and denouncing the conservative legal network that helped him remake the federal judiciary in his first term. Late Thursday, after a ruling struck down his tariffs on most imported goods, Mr. Trump attacked the Federalist Society, leaders of which heavily influenced his selection of judges during his first presidency.... Hours earlier Thursday, the Justice Department severely undercut the traditional role of the American Bar Association in vetting judicial nominees. A day before, Mr. Trump picked a loyalist [-- his former defense lawyer Emil Bove --] who has no deep ties to the conservative legal movement for a life-tenured appeals court seat, explaining that his pick could be counted on to rule in ways aligned with his agenda.... [Mr. Bove] has shown a willingness to aggressively use power in ways that Mr. Trump likes, including carrying out politically charged purges.”

Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Donald “Trump gave Elon Musk a formal send-off on Friday after one of the most tumultuous experiments in modern American governance, in which the world’s richest man had free rein to slash the federal work force. After roughly four months leading the Department of Government Efficiency, Mr. Musk ended up with a bruised reputation and a literal black eye.... 'Elon’s service to America has been without comparison in modern history,' Mr. Trump said, giving him a golden key emblazoned with the White House insignia.... And while DOGE has not come close to delivering the $1 trillion in savings that Mr. Musk promised, he has racked up significant personal benefit in recent months — including having his allies chosen to run NASA and the Air Force, two key customers for his SpaceX company. In the Oval Office on Friday, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Musk as 'one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,'  and said Mr. Musk would continue to advise the administration on cutting costs.... Mr. Musk has faced increasing scrutiny over his personal life, particularly over his drug use and his tumultuous relationships with the mothers of his many children.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't think it's a “formal send-off” if the honoree shows up wearing a billed cap (inappropriate in most indoor settings) and T-shirt (inappropriate in the Oval Office where Republicans were horrified that President Obama took his jacket off when working at the Resolute desk), both emblazoned with slogans, even if Musk did stop to praise the “majesty” of the Rococo ormolu-slathered plaster geegaws & appliques posted and pasted all over a room that is supposed to reflect a refined Federal style based on ancient Greek & Roman ideal proportions. ~~~

     ~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “It was like metaphor turned reality. After 130 days spent fighting the federal government, Elon Musk turned up with a black eye at the White House on Friday for his last day as a 'special government employee.'... His right eye socket was puffy and empurpled. No doubt about it, that was a big, fat shiner. His project in Washington more or less finished, he never came close to cutting the $1 trillion from the federal government he had promised. His businesses and his public image got somewhat battered, and now, apparently, so had his face. Did somebody beat him up? The list of possible suspects seemed long. An abridged lineup of people and constituencies currently unhappy with Mr. Musk includes: at least two of the many women with whom he has fathered children; pretty much the entire federal bureaucracy; his neighbors in a suburb of Austin, Texas; Tesla shareholders; old friends of his; Republicans on Capitol Hill; his 20-year-old daughter; all those people who have lit Teslas on fire; and even some Trump voters.” Musk claimed his son X had punched him when they were “horsing around.” The Independent's story is here.  MB: Musk's explanation is as believable as “I ran into a door.” If you think the kid did it, then you don't believe a word of this NYT story about Musk's drug abuse/habit. ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Cox Richardson has some thoughts on Musk's tenure, which she backs up with some analysis by others. (Richardson does not exactly link her sources, though she provides sorta-footnotes [unnumbered with no mechanism to coordinate them with her text], and most of those include links. But my experience is that the notes at the bottom of her posts don't include links to all of her references in the body of her post. Since everybody else who writes on Substack knows how to link their citations, Richardson, who is a scholar, should be able to figure it out, too.) 

Janay Kingsberry & Maura Judkis of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump announced Friday that he has fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, whom he called 'highly partisan.'... 'Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,' Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. 'She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly.' It is unclear if the president has authority to dismiss Sajet. The Smithsonian’s programming is not under the purview of the executive branch, and personnel decisions for senior-level Smithsonian museum positions are made by Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III.... As director, Sajet has focused on diversifying the gallery’s collection and programming by acquiring works that reflected a broader range of artists and subjects and integrating Spanish into the museum’s communications strategy.” (Also linked yesterday.) The Raw Story's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Fight for your job, Ms. Sajet. Everybody's doing it.

~~~ Tierney Sneed of CNN: “... Donald Trump’s directives for mass firings at multiple agencies will remain on hold, a federal appeals court ruled Friday evening. The Trump administration had asked the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to freeze a lower court’s order that halted the terminations at more than a dozen agencies. The new order is a major setback for Trump in his efforts to drastically shrink the federal government. His plans for the sweeping layoffs – known as reductions in force, or RIFs – have been on hold since May 9, after US District Judge Susan Illston ruled that Trump could not do such a dramatic overhaul of federal agencies without congressional authorization. In its 2-1 opinion, the 9th Circuit panel said the Trump executive order at issue in the case 'far exceeds the President’s supervisory powers under the Constitution.' The majority concluded that the challengers were likely to succeed on the merits of their arguments that the mass layoffs were unlawful and said the administration failed to meet the other factors that would have justified the emergency appellate intervention. Trump already once asked the Supreme Court to get involved in the case – a request that initially went nowhere – and it is likely the dispute will eventually reach the high court again.”

Marie: I meant to check on the Trump-Powell meeting, but I forgot: ~~~

    ~~~ Who's the “Major Loser” Now, Donald? Erkki Forster of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News (May 29): “Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell threw cold water on ... Donald Trump’s attempt to sway the Fed into cutting interest rates during a rare face-to-face meeting Thursday. Trump invited the Fed chair to the White House for their first meeting of his second term to ramp up the pressure on Powell to slash rates. But Powell — whom Trump has called a 'major loser' for refusing to bend to his will — rebuffed him. According to a Fed statement, Powell told Trump that he will make monetary policy decisions 'based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis.'... The Supreme Court noted last week that Trump cannot legally remove Powell, whose term ends in 2026, leaving the president to vent on his Truth Social account....”

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “The top attorney for the White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday sharply rebuked a congressional watchdog, escalating an ongoing battle over the administration’s expansion of unilateral spending powers. The Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog that’s part of the legislative branch, said this month that the administration broke federal law in canceling spending for a $5 billion electric vehicle program without congressional approval. Gene L. Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general and head of the GAO, has also said during congressional testimony that his office had opened nearly 40 separate investigations into the administration, apparently focused on spending cuts.... The U.S. DOGE Service, led up until Friday by billionaire Elon Musk, has claimed more than $100 billion in spending cuts, much of it done without congressional approval, triggering probes by the GAO.... In a new letter Friday, however, Mark Paoletta, general counsel for the White House budget office, said that the administration would reduce its level of cooperation with the watchdog’s investigations and that its actions on spending have been in 'full compliance' with federal budget law. The GAO’s requests are 'costly to the taxpayer' and divert  'significant agency resources' from the budget office, Paoletta wrote.”

Sophia Cai & Megan Messerly of Politico: “The Trump administration is escalating its campaign against Harvard University — and looking for new ways to bring the storied institution to heel.  The White House convened officials from nearly a dozen agencies on Wednesday to brainstorm additional punitive measures.... The administration official said that forthcoming actions are expected from the State, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Justice departments, among others, and could happen as early as next month. The push comes as the White House regroups after a federal judge blocked its move to bar Harvard from enrolling international students, and underscores how ... Dona[l]d Trump has grown increasingly invested in the battle. Even as some in the administration privately grouse that the aggressive posture is allowing Harvard to win public sympathy, Trump has kept up the attacks, threatening in a post last week to revoke its tax exempt status and chastising Harvard again Wednesday during an unrelated press conference.”

As Donald Trump models himself after a feudal king, there are a number of aspects to his regency that would take us back to medieval times. For instance ... ~~~

~~~ James Glanz of the New York Times: “As the Trump administration moves with abandon to deny visas, expel foreign students and slash spending on research, scientists in the United States are becoming increasingly alarmed. The global supremacy that the United States has long enjoyed in health, biology, the physical sciences and other fields, they warn, may be coming to an end.... Research cuts and moves to curtail the presence of foreign students by the Trump administration have happened at a dizzying pace.... Dirk Brockmann, a biology and physics professor in Germany, warned that there were much broader implications. The acceptance of risk and seemingly crazy leaps of inspiration woven into American attitudes, he said, help produce a research environment that nowhere else can quite match. The result has been decades of innovation, economic growth and military advances.... Many foreign governments, from France to Australia, have also started openly courting American scientists. But because the United States has led the field for so long, there is deep concern that research globally will suffer.” 

Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars. -- Kristi Noem, in a false claim against a man named Ramon Morales Reyes ~~~

~~~ Mike Balsamo, et al., of the AP: “A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of ... Donald Trump has begun to unravel [quickly]. Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump’s allies. But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would get arrested and be deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.... Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared.... Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts.... It’s not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a [press] release [claiming Morales Reyes had threatened Trump after determining the claim was false]. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporting is a bit unclear, but it suggests that the threatening letter was written in English. Not only does Morales Reyes not speak English, he also cannot write in Spanish. AND a handwriting sample obtained from Morales Reyes did not match the handwriting in the letter. I don't know, maybe Kristi donned a fetching serape and a sombrero, sat down at a desk and wrote the letter herself. 

Another Suspicious “Administrative Error.” Mattathias Schwartz & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The Trump administration deported a 31-year-old Salvadoran man minutes after a federal appeals court barred his removal while his case proceeded, the government admitted in a court filing this week. In its filing, the government denied that it had violated the order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, instead blaming 'a confluence of administrative errors.' The filing argues that because the process of deporting the man, Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, had already started before the court issued its formal order, at 9:52 a.m. May 7, that meant the order had not been violated. The plane carrying Mr. Melgar-Salmeron to El Salvador did not take off from Alexandria, La., until 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, according to the government’s timeline. The government had also previously given the court what the judges called 'express assurance' that it would not schedule a deportation for him until the next day.... In at least three other deportation cases, federal judges have determined that Trump officials expelled people from the country in violation of standing court orders.” Politico's report, by Kyle Cheney, is here. 

Hamed Aleaziz, et al., of the New York Times: “... an aggressive new initiative by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants at immigration courts [is] the latest escalation by the Trump administration in its all-out effort to ramp up deportations. Agents have begun arresting migrants immediately after their hearings if they have been ordered deported or their cases have been dismissed, a move that enables their swift removal, according to immigration lawyers and internal documents obtained by The New York Times. The operations, which have taken place across the country in the past week, have required a high level of coordination between the government lawyers in the courtrooms and the ICE officers waiting to make the arrests, according to the documents. The tactic is a significant break from past practice, when immigration officials largely steered clear of courthouse arrests out of concern that they would deter people from complying with orders. Critics, including some former homeland security officials, say the practice is deceptive and could backfire. 'Arresting people there subverts the legal process and will make others too scared to show up in the future, ultimately pushing people further into the shadows and out of legal status,' said Deborah Fleischaker, a senior ICE official during the Biden administration.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Again, bear in mind that those being arrested are not The “rapists,” “savages,” “monsters” and “the worst of the worst” people Trump claims he is deporting to keep the rest of us safe. Rather, they are generally the sort of law-abiding individuals whom you would expect to show up for court dates. ~~~

~~~ Arya Sundaram of the Gothamist: “In a dramatic incident captured on video, U.S. Department of Homeland Security police Wednesday handcuffed one of Rep. Jerry Nadler [D-NY] aides in the congressmember's Manhattan office, which is in the same federal office building as an immigration courthouse.... In the video..., DHS officers entered Nadler’s district office and accused staff members of 'harboring rioters.' A Nadler staffer is seen crying and being handcuffed. Another officer is at a door trying to enter a private area of the office while a staffer asks for a warrant. DHS later said in a statement that 'one individual' — the woman seen being handcuffed — had blocked police from performing a security check they intended to do based on information there were protesters in the lawmaker’s office.... The staff member was not arrested and not charged with any crime.... Two people who were at the courthouse to monitor ICE activity said the confrontation came after ICE officers threatened to arrest them and other advocates, and a Nadler staffer invited the advocates inside.”

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Some [counterintelligence experts] see the State Department’s plan to revoke visas of some Chinese college students as heavy-handed and counterproductive.... In announcing the move late Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave few specifics, offering only that the U.S. government would 'aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' How that vaguely defined standard will be enforced is not yet clear, but the directive is part of a broad campaign by the Trump administration to force major changes in American higher education.... Some 277,000 students from China attended school in the United States last year, second only to the number of students from India.”

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “A divided Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way, for now, for the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 530,000 migrants from four countries who have been allowed to live and work in the United States while their immigration cases play out. The ruling is the second time in recent weeks the high court has given Trump officials permission to terminate programs that protect immigrants fleeing countries wracked by war or economic turmoil. Earlier this month, the court allowed the administration to revoke temporary protections that have allowed nearly 350,000 Venezuelans to live and work in the United States. Legal challenges to each of the Trump administration’s action will continue in lower courts, and could eventually reach the Supreme Court for a full hearing on the merits. For now, the justices are allowing two of the president’s most aggressive moves to deport large numbers of migrants who during the Biden administration had been given permission to live and work in this country after fleeing harsh conditions at home.”  At 10:40 am ET Friday, this was a developing story. According to MSNBC, the vote was 7-2, with Elena Kagan voting with the right-wing justices. (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News report is here.

Sean O'Kane of TechCrunch: “The chief executive of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) says Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency left the nonprofit’s Washington, D.C., headquarters in disarray, full of water damage, rats, and roaches, according to a new sworn statement.... The statement from the executive, George Moose, comes just a few days after a federal judge ruled that DOGE’s takeover of the nonprofit was illegal.... DOGE started its takeover of USIP in mid-March after a standoff that saw the nonprofit call the police on Musk’s government workers. Moose said at the time that DOGE staff had 'broken into' the USIP headquarters in Washington, despite the fact that the nonprofit is not part of the executive branch and isn’t subject to the White House’s whims.”

CDC Contradicts RFKJ. Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: “Coronavirus vaccines are still recommended for healthy children if their doctors approve, according to updated immunization schedules published late Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contradicting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement earlier this week. The revisions, which also say the vaccines are no longer advised during pregnancy, add to the confusion surrounding the Trump administration’s move to bypass the traditional system for immunization advice through expert review and CDC guidance. The CDC did not remove the coronavirus vaccines from the childhood schedule, as Kennedy said it would, when it updated its website late Thursday. Instead, the agency recommends the shots based on 'shared clinical decision-making,' meaning children can get vaccinated if their parents and doctors agree.” (Also linked yesterday.) The UPI story is here.  

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has dealt a sharp blow to work on H.I.V. vaccines, terminating a $258 million program whose work was instrumental to the search for a vaccine. Officials from the H.I.V. division of the National Institutes of Health delivered the news on Friday to the program’s two leaders, at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute. Both teams were collaborating with numerous other research partners. The work was broadly applicable to a wide range of treatments for other illnesses, from Covid drugs to snake antivenom and therapies for autoimmune diseases. 'The consortia for H.I.V./AIDS vaccine development and immunology was reviewed by N.I.H. leadership, which does not support it moving forward,' said a senior official at the agency.... The program’s elimination is the latest in a series of cuts to H.I.V.-related initiatives, and to prevention of the disease in particular. Separately, the N.I.H. also paused funding for a clinical trial of an H.I.V. vaccine made by Moderna.... The number of new H.I.V. infections had been declining steadily since 2010. Still, in 2023, the World Health Organization reported 1.3 million new cases, including about 120,000 children.” The CBS News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If this was the only thing you had ever heard about Trump and his administration, you would be justified in condemning the whole bigoted, stupid lot of them. 

Brad Plumer of the New York Times: “The Energy Department announced on Friday that it was terminating $3.7 billion in Biden-era awards to companies trying to demonstrate technologies that might one day help tackle global warming. Some of the 24 canceled awards would have gone to industrial companies that were aiming to reduce emissions from cement, iron, glass and chemicals production. Others had been awarded to fossil fuel and cement companies attempting to trap and bury carbon dioxide from their smokestacks before the gas escapes into the atmosphere and heats the planet.... Congress had approved tens of billions of dollars for trials of novel energy technologies as part of the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.... The Biden administration had worked to award most of those funds before President Trump came into office, including $6 billion for technologies to cut industrial emissions. Many of the awards were legally binding, but they often had conditions attached to them and most of the money has yet to be spent.”

Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: “A spike in threats against federal judges since ... Donald Trump took office is prompting calls for new funding and security measures, with current and former jurists, lawmakers, and law enforcement officials saying existing protections are not enough. The U.S. Marshals Service investigated 373 separate threats to judges in the first five months of 2025, compared with 509 probes all of last year.... [One] solution, several former judges said, would be for Trump administration officials to cool their rhetoric, which they believe fuels threats from extremists and fanatical supporters. While the White House has denounced violence against judges..., Donald Trump and some of his most powerful allies have continued to use inflammatory language to lambaste those who rule against administration policies. In social media posts Wednesday and Thursday, top Trump adviser Stephen Miller called a federal trade court’s ruling against the president’s tariffs a 'judicial coup' and reposted photos of the three-judge panel, saying, 'we are living under a judicial tyranny.'”

Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “PBS sued the Trump administration Friday, nearly one month after the president issued an executive order targeting its federal funding. In a complaint filed in federal district court in Washington, the public broadcaster alleged that the government violated its First Amendment rights. PBS also said the order unlawfully interfered with the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit entity that oversees federal funding to PBS and NPR.... PBS was joined in its suit by Northern Minnesota Public Television, a PBS member station.” (Also linked yesterday.) The ABC News story is here.

About That Big, Bad Bill. Andrew Ackerman & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “Wall Street bankers and executives are privately warning the Trump administration that the tax bill moving through Congress could stoke investor anxiety about rising deficits, push up U.S. borrowing costs and damage the broader economy, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. House Republicans this month approved a measure projected to add $2.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, primarily by extending tax cuts from 2017 — and it would add more than $5 trillion in debt including interest costs and likely future extensions, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That legislation, which would also beef up immigration enforcement and defense spending, is ... Donald Trump’s top legislative priority. The Senate is due to take it up soon. But recently, a growing number of figures from the financial world have expressed private concerns that such an expensive bill could rattle the U.S. bond market, a cornerstone of the global financial system and the national economy.”

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Ernst Gets Philosophical about Deep Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: “Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) pushed back against constituents who shouted out at a recent town hall meeting that cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would cause people to die by responding, 'Well, we’re all going to die.'” MB: The GOP has completely washed its hands of any responsibility to assist with the health and welfare of the people they supposedly serve. So much for their oath to a Constitution that lays out the bedrock principles of the government, among them to “promote the general Welfare.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report, by Annie Karni, is here. 

Adeel Hassan of the New York Times: “Former President Biden said on Friday afternoon that he was feeling good after beginning treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer. 'The prognosis is good,' he said.... Mr. Biden spoke to reporters after an event honoring veterans in New Castle, Del., making his first public remarks since May 18, when his office announced his illness and said the cancer had metastasized to the bone. Mr. Biden attended the event, which fell on the 10th anniversary of the death of his son Beau, with Beau’s son, Robert Biden II, who graduated from high school this week. Mr. Biden said that his treatment was 'all a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill.... The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,' he said.”

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The Conversation -- May 30, 2025

Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “PBS sued the Trump administration Friday, nearly one month after the president issued an executive order targeting its federal funding. In a complaint filed in federal district court in Washington, the public broadcaster alleged that the government violated its First Amendment rights. PBS also said the order unlawfully interfered with the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit entity that oversees federal funding to PBS and NPR.... PBS was joined in its suit by Northern Minnesota Public Television, a PBS member station.”

Janay Kingsberry & Maura Judkis of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump announced Friday that he has fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, whom he called 'highly partisan.'... 'Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,' Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. 'She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly.' It is unclear if the president has authority to dismiss Sajet. The Smithsonian’s programming is not under the purview of the executive branch, and personnel decisions for senior-level Smithsonian museum positions are made by Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III.... As director, Sajet has focused on diversifying the gallery’s collection and programming by acquiring works that reflected a broader range of artists and subjects and integrating Spanish into the museum’s communications strategy.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Fight for your job, Ms. Sajet. Everybody's doing it. ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “... Trump’s mass deportations haven’t happened, and his administration has accumulated an astonishing record of losses in federal courts as judges appointed by presidents from both parties reject his attempt at governing by fiat. What remains is the wreckage: a loss of faith in U.S. credit, reflected in what the Brits are calling a 'moron premium' that the markets are imposing on Trump, which is pushing up bond yields and interest rates; a generation of talent departing the federal government; a loss of goodwill among foreign partners that would take years to rebuild, if it can be rebuilt at all; and the devastation of the scientific research at American universities that has long powered the American economy.... Likewise, the Russian government is now mocking Trump.... During the Biden years, Trump liked to say that 'the world is laughing at us.' Now it really is.... He continues to diminish his office in ways large and small.... The good news is more and more Americans are summoning the courage to fight back.” This is a gift link.

CDC Contradicts RFKJ. Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: “Coronavirus vaccines are still recommended for healthy children if their doctors approve, according to updated immunization schedules published late Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contradicting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement earlier this week. The revisions, which also say the vaccines are no longer advised during pregnancy, add to the confusion surrounding the Trump administration’s move to bypass the traditional system for immunization advice through expert review and CDC guidance. The CDC did not remove the coronavirus vaccines from the childhood schedule, as Kennedy said it would, when it updated its website late Thursday. Instead, the agency recommends the shots based on 'shared clinical decision-making,' meaning children can get vaccinated if their parents and doctors agree.”

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “A divided Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way, for now, for the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 530,000 migrants from four countries who have been allowed to live and work in the United States while their immigration cases play out. The ruling is the second time in recent weeks the high court has given Trump officials permission to terminate programs that protect immigrants fleeing countries wracked by war or economic turmoil. Earlier this month, the court allowed the administration to revoke temporary protections that have allowed nearly 350,000 Venezuelans to live and work in the United States. Legal challenges to each of the Trump administration’s action will continue in lower courts, and could eventually reach the Supreme Court for a full hearing on the merits. For now, the justices are allowing two of the president’s most aggressive moves to deport large numbers of migrants who during the Biden administration had been given permission to live and work in this country after fleeing harsh conditions at home.”  At 10:40 am ET, this is a developing story. According to MSNBC, the vote was 7-2, with Elena Kagan voting with the right-wing justices.

Are You Feeling His Pain? David Bauder of the AP: “... Donald Trump suffered 'mental anguish' from CBS News’ editing of a '60 Minutes' interview with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris last fall, his lawyers are arguing in court papers. Trump’s status as a 'content creator' was also damaged by attention given to the interview, lawyers said. It was part of their argument opposing CBS parent Paramount Global’s effort to dismiss the president’s $20 billion lawsuit against the company, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas. Trump has claimed the editing was done to advantage Harris, which CBS rejects. Even with the effort to dismiss the case, Paramount is engaged in settlement discussions with Trump. The prospect of a settlement has so rattled CBS News that two of its top executives have resigned in protest.” ~~~

     ~~~ As Sam Stein & William Saletan of the Bulwark discussed here, the anguished Trump has filed what is less a lawsuit and more of a shakedown. Trump expects a kickback before he allows Paramount to complete its planned merger with Skydance. 

Evan Hurst of Wonkette republishes in full Trump's bonkers complaint about judges and Leonard Leo & the Federalist society, blah blah. And he ends the long rant with a standard business-letter closing, which is just comically out of place here: "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Hurst calls Trump "he’s the weakest dictator ever."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Ernst Gets Philosophical about Deep Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: “Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) pushed back against constituents who shouted out at a recent town hall meeting that cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would cause people to die by responding, 'Well, we’re all going to die.'” 

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump Tariffs v. Law Throws Economy into Disarray. Sam Sutton, et al., of Politico: “With ... Donald Trump’s tariffs entangled in the courts, industry leaders are warning that continued confusion over his trade agenda could drag down an economy that was already in danger of slumping. They are urging Trump to abandon an aggressive policy that has been marked by chaos and reversals, and instead focus on delivering tangible, lasting deals that will allow businesses to plan ahead. A federal court on Wednesday froze the tariffs, but an appeals court on Thursday reinstated them for now, only fueling the sense of disarray.... Confidence among top CEOs cratered during the second quarter at its fastest pace in almost 50 years. The government said the economy contracted during the first quarter as businesses rushed to get ahead of higher import costs and consumer spending slowed. And corporate profits fell.” 

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “Even by the judge-bashing standards of the Trump administration, the White House’s sharp reactions this week to court decisions curtailing its agenda appeared to intensify a strategic effort to undermine confidence in the judiciary....  About 180 judicial rulings have at least temporarily paused some of the administration’s initiatives.... After the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration wrongly used a 1977 law to impose tariffs..., Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, called the decision a 'judicial coup' on social media. 'We are living under a judicial tyranny,' Mr. Miller added on Thursday, reposting photos of the three trade court judges. Two of the judges were Republican appointees, one named to the bench by Mr. Trump.... Threats against federal judges have risen drastically since ... [Donald] Trump took office, according to internal data compiled by the U.S. Marshals Service and obtained by The New York Times.” ~~~

~~~ AND the TACO King Goes on a Tirade. Gregory Svirnovskiy & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “... Donald Trump leveled unusually pointed criticism of a prominent conservative legal activist and organization Thursday as he railed against a ruling that struck down his sweeping tariffs. The president, in a post on his social media platform, slammed Leonard Leo, the former chair of the Federalist Society, calling him a 'sleazebag' who 'probably hates America.' It was a striking characterization of Leo, who played a key role in working with Trump to shape the conservative Supreme Court. 'He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court — I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is!,'  Trump wrote. Trump’s attack came after the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down his tariffs, a massive blow to the primary pillar of the administration’s economic agenda. The ruling was temporarily stayed by an appellate court on Thursday. One of the judges on the three-person panel that blocked the tariffs is Timothy Reif, who was appointed by Trump in his first term. The blame, Trump said, lay with the Federalist Society. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations,' he wrote. 'This is something that cannot be forgotten.'”

⭐Bad News. Ben Berkowitz of Axios: "A federal appellate court on Thursday temporarily stayed a ruling that effectively wiped out most of ... [Donald] Trump's tariffs.... The intervention will deepen the chaos around the Court of International Trade's Wednesday order, which threatens to upend global commerce.... The trade court ruled that Trump did not have the authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs. The administration immediately appealed." The Washington Post's report is here. The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Doug Palmer & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A second federal court has ruled against ... Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs on imports from around the world, dealing another blow to his trade agenda and efforts to strike new deals with dozens of countries. 'The International Economic Emergency Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose the tariffs set forth' in four executive orders Trump issued earlier this year, D.C. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras said in a decision ordering a preliminary injunction on the collection of the duties on the two plaintiffs who brought the case.” Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: I think this order also is paused by the Appeals Court's decision. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "... it’s good to see at least some judges upholding the prerogatives of Congress, since a Republican-controlled Congress sure won’t do it."

Paul Krugman is downright gleeful that the trade court did its job and invalidated most of Trump's big, beautiful tariffs. "Presumably the Trumpists will try to undo this judgment, one way or another — exploiting other loopholes in the law, maybe trying to bully the Court into submission, maybe just defying the Court altogether. But this is a huge political defeat, and Trump has nobody to blame except his own overreach. You can bet that trade negotiators around the world are snickering, and maybe celebrating with TACOs for lunch." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Jed Graham of Investor's Daily: "The trade court's ruling that struck down the IEEPA tariffs also required the U.S. to refund the tariffs already paid, noted Nomura economist David Self. If the ruling survives, Nomura estimates that the Trump administration would have to refund between $40 billion and $60 billion in collected tariff revenue...." MB: Of course the trade court's rulling is on hold now, but if Trump loses the whole enchilada (or TACO?), then American importers will get their tariff dollars back.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: Donald “Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs — using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatize political opponents by labeling them criminals. In the past few days, Mr. Trump has offered pardons or clemency to more than two dozen people embraced by his obstreperous right-wing base, or favored by people in his orbit. Most are political allies, some are former officeholders accused of abusing power for personal gain, and almost all were convicted of white-collar crimes like fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance violations — not far removed from accusations Mr. Trump himself has faced.... Mr. Trump has used his pardon power, like nearly every other executive tool in his kit, to assert personal dominance over processes generally, if not always, governed by established ethical and institutional guardrails.”  

Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Thursday that ... Donald Trump would be breaking a promise if he went through with pardoning the two men who were convicted of plotting to kidnap her, claiming that he pledged not to do so during a conversation last month.... On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he would 'take a look at' pardoning the men, adding, 'I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job.' Responding to Trump’s comments, Whitmer told Michigan Public Radio, 'I talked to the president about a month ago and he asked me how I’d feel about this, and I said, “I think it would be the wrong decision.”... And he said, “Okay, I’ll drop it.”’... Whitmer, who pointed out that she was one of the first politicians to condemn the assassination attempt Trump faced at a 2024 rally in Pennsylvania, said she would make her thoughts on the issue known to the White House over the weekend.” ~~~

     ~~~ Rick Pluta's interview of Gov. Whitmer for Michigan Public Radio is here. 

All the Worst People. Brianna Tucker & Frances Vinall  of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Thursday said he would nominate Paul Ingrassia, a 30-year-old lawyer and former right-wing podcast host, to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an independent watchdog agency that oversees federal personnel issues and plays a crucial role in protecting whistleblowers within the government.... Ingrassia, the current White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, has publicly advocated for white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes, publishing a Substack titled 'Free Nick Fuentes' and writing on X that 'dissident voices' such as Fuentes should have a place in conservative politics. He was also part of a legal team representing self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking and forming an organized-crime group in Romania, as well as rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, Ingrassia likened Tate to 'the embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence.'... A post on social media from [Ingrassia's] podcast ... account in December 2020 called for Trump to 'declare martial law and secure his re-election,' while promoting the debunked conspiracy theory that Trump won that year’s presidential election.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you were a whistleblower, would you count on Ingrassia to protect you? 

Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: “A federal judge Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to bar international students from enrolling at Harvard. Judge Allison D. Burroughs said a temporary restraining order she issued last week must remain in place until a preliminary injunction is issued. The ruling grants Harvard a win in one of the most high-stakes battles in its ongoing war with the administration. 'Today’s court decision allows the University to continue enrolling international students and scholars while the case moves forward,' a spokesperson for the school said in an emailed statement.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jenna Russell of the New York Times: “As Harvard graduates gathered on Thursday to embrace commencement rituals in Harvard Yard, they were surrounded by both beaming parents and visible reminders that the university is embroiled in an existential fight with the Trump administration.... Throughout the morning, small groups of alumni stood at each gate to campus, handing out stickers that read  'Crimson Courage,' the name of a new alumni group created to galvanize support for the university. Mark Dyen, who graduated from Harvard in 1970, said that he has never been prouder to be an alumnus. 'Harvard stood up for itself, for us, for higher education and democracy,' he said as he passed out stickers. 'And by doing so, it created space for people who are more vulnerable.'” (Also linked yesterday.)  

Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders are leaving their roles, the agency announced on Thursday, in the third major change among its leadership in recent months.... The Trump administration has struggled to meet ... [Donald] Trump’s campaign promises of mass deportations, grappling with a lack of extensive resources despite efforts to bring in personnel from other parts of the federal law enforcement system.... The announcement comes a day after Stephen Miller, a senior White House official, told Fox News that the White House was looking for ICE to arrest 3,000 people a day, a major increase in enforcement. The agency had arrested more than 66,000 people in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, an average of about 660 arrests a day.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I don't know why we're concerned about HHS turnover when we have just survived the real crisis: Trump sent HHS Secretary Kristi Noem off to the Middle East last weekend in such a rush assignment that many people feared she would not have the right outfits to wear for the occasions that might arise. But she did! Lookie here: she's a veritable Barbie of Arabia. In one photo with some king she appears to be just completing her costume change. 

Marco Organizes Anti-Human Rights Department. Robbie Gramer of Politico: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to gut the State Department’s human rights bureau as part of a sweeping reorganization of the country’s diplomatic service, according to internal department documents and people familiar with the plans. The State Department sent a document to Congress on Thursday notifying lawmakers of the changes that call for the elimination of most offices in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.... That would lead to funding freezes or cuts on programs ranging from internet freedom initiatives in autocratic countries to support for pro-democracy civil society groups facing repression in sub-Saharan Africa.... The reorganization also calls for the creation of new positions that reflect the Trump administration’s cultural lurch to the right in foreign policy, including emphasizing so-called civilizational allies and debates over digital censorship.... According to the notification to Congress, the reorganization would cut the State Department’s domestic workforce by up to 3,448 personnel....” ~~~

     ~~~ Russell Contreras & Marc Caputo of Axios: "The State Department plans to create an 'Office of Remigration' in a sweeping reorganization drive tied to the Trump administration's efforts to deport millions of immigrants, a department official told Axios Thursday.... The proposed new office would signal the State Department's shift from helping refugees to removing immigrants, even as it employs the term 'remigration' — a concept that critics say has a troubled history in Europe, where it's used by far-right groups."

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday informed the American Bar Association that she is cutting off its access to nonpublic information about ... Donald Trump’s judicial nominees because she thinks the nonpartisan organization is an 'activist group.' 'Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees’ qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic administrations,' Bondi said in a letter to ABA president William Bay.” Bendery reprises some of the reasons the ABA determined that Trump's nominees were not qualified. MB: It is not because the ABA is an activist group that his nominees received bad ratings; it is because they were lousy candidates.

Marie: Donald Trump may be erratic but his administration is consistent -- consistently incompetent: ~~~

This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point. It cannot be used for any policymaking. It cannot even be used for any serious discussion, because you can’t believe what’s in it. -- Georges C. Benjamin of the American Public Health Association ~~~

~~~ Emily Kennard & Margaret Manto of NOTUS: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his 'Make America Healthy Again' Commission report harnesses 'gold-standard' science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all. Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents.... 'The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,' Keyes told NOTUS.... 'We’ve certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.'.... The citation ... [has] a nonfunctional link to the study’s digital object identifier. [The JAMA issue number] the citation claims ... didn’t include [such] a study.... Spread across the footnotes of the 73-page [MAHA] document, those missing papers are listed alongside dozens of citations with more mundane errors like broken links, missing or incorrect authors and wrong issue numbers. NOTUS also found serious issues with how the report interpreted some of the existing studies it cites.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Blaise Malley of Salon: "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed the reported inaccuracies on Thursday, attributing them to 'formatting issues' and saying that the report would be updated." ~~~

     ~~~ Dani Blum & Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “By midafternoon on Thursday, the White House had uploaded a new copy of the report with corrections.... Dr. Ivan Oransky — who teaches medical journalism at New York University and is a co-founder of Retraction Watch, a website that tracks retractions of scientific research — said the errors in the report were characteristic of the use of generative artificial intelligence, which has led to similar issues in legal filings and more.”

     ~~~ Marie: This is dog-ate-my-homework territory. Bobby Virus apparently assigned someone to produce the MAHA report, and the person or persons didn't get it done, so they just made up stuff. Kennedy's HHS isn't just embarrassing. It's dangerous to people's health & well-being. And medicos around the world will learn quickly not to trust a damned thing the department produces. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Oransky backs up an hypothesis RAS proposed yesterday: that Grok did their homework. "A1 is supposed to be a tool to help one along, but these morons seem to ask it to do the all the work and then do little or no checking to make sure what they were putting out was true," RAS wrote in yesterday's Comments. Washington Post reporters Lauren Weber & Caitlin Gilbert elaborate.

More from the Trump Corruption Watch. Zach Everson of Forbes: “The Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit against Binance on Thursday, days after the crypto exchange began listing a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial, one of ... Donald Trump’s blockchain ventures.... Binance admitted in a November 2023 plea deal to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, agreeing to pay $4 billion; founder Changpeng 'CZ. Zhao also pleaded guilty, paid a $50 million fine and was sentenced to four months in prison. In late April..., Zhao applied for a pardon from Trump’s Justice Department, he said on a recent podcast.... On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against Binance that accused it of failing to restrict high-net-worth individuals from the platform, misleading investors about trading controls and commingling funds that it routed to a third party....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When a kleptocracy is working properly, underlings don't have to be told what to do. That appears to be what's happened here. 

They Remember Musk. Vivian Ho, et al., of the Washington Post look back at some of the lowlights of Elon's disastrous stint as a special federal temp. Fortunately, illustrative photos are available. ~~~

Kirsten Grind & Megan Twohey of the New York Times: “As Elon Musk became one of Donald J. Trump’s closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $275 million to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities. Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it. It is unclear whether Mr. Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behavior, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview. At the same time, Mr. Musk’s family life has grown increasingly tumultuous as he has negotiated overlapping romantic relationships and private legal battles involving his growing brood of children, according to documents and interviews....

“As a large government contractor, his aerospace firm, SpaceX, must maintain a drug-free work force and administers random drug tests to its employees. But Mr. Musk has received advance warning of the tests, according to people close to the process.” The article goes into some of Musk's sexual entanglements and his practice of simultaneously fathering children with a number of women. The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

“Elon Musk's Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death.” Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: “Musk’s absurd scheme to save the government a trillion dollars by slashing 'waste, fraud and abuse' has been a failure. DOGE claims it’s saved $175 billion, but experts believe the real number is significantly lower. Meanwhile, according to the Partnership for Public Service, which studies the federal work force, DOGE’s attacks on government personnel — its firings, re-hirings, use of paid administrative leave and all the associated lack of productivity — could cost the government upward of $135 billion this fiscal year, even before the price of defending DOGE’s actions in court. Musk’s rampage through the bureaucracy may not have created any savings at all, and if it did, they were negligible.... Brooke Nichols ... of Boston University has estimated that [Musk's] cuts [to USAID] have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.” This appears to be a gift link. Goldberg's column is worth reading in its entirety.

~~~ Gustaf Kilander of the Independent: “Top officials at the Department of Government Efficiency are set to leave their roles following the departure of DOGE head Elon Musk. Three officials – adviser Steve Davis, adviser and spokesperson Katie Miller [-- she's married to Stephen Miller! --], and attorney James Burnham – are leaving the administration, a White House official told The Hill.... Engineer and tech startup founder Sahil Lavingia wrote in a personal blog post that he 'got the boot' from DOGE the day after Fast Company published an interview with him.... He was assigned as the senior adviser to the chief of staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs.... Fast Company ... noted that Lavingia noticed that there were plenty of mission-driven people working in the government. 'But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins,' he said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's really something that a Lavingia got fired for saying that VA employees were dedicated to their work and did it well. The idea of removing "waste, fraud and abuse" is not to hope you find it. Musk was not on a mission to improve the bureaucracy; he was dedicated to trashing it. And that's all. The waste, fraud and abuse he exposed was his own: he abused public servants, his "mission" was a complete fraud and a terrible waste of helpful, usually vital, government services.  

Marie: Despite all the personnel cutbacks Elon and Trump Cabinet members are making, it seems there are still job openings within the federal government. Here's a tip on what to expect if you apply for one of those positions: ~~~ 

~~~ Erich Wagner of Government Executive: “Federal job applicants will soon be quizzed on their favorite Trump administration policy as part of the hiring process, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s new 'merit hiring plan.' 'How would you help advance the president’s executive orders and policy priorities in this role?' asks one of four essay questions that job seekers must answer if they are seeking any federal position GS-5 or above. 'Identify one or two relevant executive orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.'... The plan calls on agencies to end any use of 'racial quotas and preferences' in the federal hiring process, including usage of demographic statistics in hiring, recruiting, retention and promotion decisions. And it requires agencies to cease collecting and disseminating statistics 'regarding the composition of the agency’s workforce based on race, sex, color, religion or national origin.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: “Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last surviving grandson of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, who was born just after George Washington became president 236 years ago and who served in the White House from 1841 to 1845, died on Sunday at his home in Richmond, Va. He was 96.... In a remarkable instance of successive longevities and late-in-life paternities, the Tyler family produced a genealogical marvel, if not a singularity: three generations that spanned nearly the entire history of the American experience.”

Sam Roberts of the New York Times: “Bernard B. Kerik, the New York City police commissioner who was hailed as a hero for overseeing the department’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, only to fall from grace after he pleaded guilty to an ethics violation and felony tax fraud, died on Thursday. He was 69.” MB P.S.: Despite my unwillingness to immediately speak ill of the dead, if you would like to do so in this case, do feel free. (Also linked yesterday.)  

[-25]

The Conversation -- May 29, 2025

Sam Roberts of the New York Times: “Bernard B. Kerik, the New York City police commissioner who was hailed as a hero for overseeing the department’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, only to fall from grace after he pleaded guilty to an ethics violation and felony tax fraud, died on Thursday. He was 69.” At 10:15 pm ET, this is a breaking story. MB P.S.: Despite my unwillingness to immediately speak ill of the dead, if you would like to do so, do feel free.

⭐Bad News. Ben Berkowitz of Axios: "A federal appellate court on Thursday temporarily stayed a ruling that effectively wiped out most of ... [Donald] Trump's tariffs.... The intervention will deepen the chaos around the Court of International Trade's Wednesday order, which threatens to upend global commerce.... The trade court ruled that Trump did not have the authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs. The administration immediately appealed." The Washington Post's report is here. Both the Axios & WashPo reports are breaking news stories at 4:00 pm ET. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story is here. This is a full story, by Tony Romm, which appears to be an update of an earlier story. “The new order, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, granted the pause on an administrative basis.”

Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: “A federal judge Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to bar international students from enrolling at Harvard. Judge Allison D. Burroughs said a temporary restraining order she issued last week must remain in place until a preliminary injunction is issued. The ruling grants Harvard a win in one of the most high-stakes battles in its ongoing war with the administration. 'Today’s court decision allows the University to continue enrolling international students and scholars while the case moves forward,' a spokesperson for the school said in an emailed statement.” ~~~

~~~ Jenna Russell of the New York Times: “As Harvard graduates gathered on Thursday to embrace commencement rituals in Harvard Yard, they were surrounded by both beaming parents and visible reminders that the university is embroiled in an existential fight with the Trump administration.... Throughout the morning, small groups of alumni stood at each gate to campus, handing out stickers that read  'Crimson Courage,' the name of a new alumni group created to galvanize support for the university. Mark Dyen, who graduated from Harvard in 1970, said that he has never been prouder to be an alumnus. 'Harvard stood up for itself, for us, for higher education and democracy,' he said as he passed out stickers. 'And by doing so, it created space for people who are more vulnerable.'”

Doug Palmer & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A second federal court has ruled against ... Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs on imports from around the world, dealing another blow to his trade agenda and efforts to strike new deals with dozens of countries. 'The International Economic Emergency Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose the tariffs set forth' in four executive orders Trump issued earlier this year, D.C. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras said in a decision ordering a preliminary injunction on the collection of the duties on the two plaintiffs who brought the case.” Thanks to RAS for the link.

Marie: Donald Trump may be erratic but his administration is consistent -- consistently incompetent: ~~~

~~~ Emily Kennard & Margaret Manto of NOTUS: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his 'Make America Healthy Again' Commission report harnesses 'gold-standard' science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all. Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents.... 'The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,' Keyes told NOTUS.... 'We’ve certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.'.... The citation ... [has] a nonfunctional link to the study’s digital object identifier. [The JAMA issue number] the citation claims ... didn’t include [such] a study.... Spread across the footnotes of the 73-page [MAHA] document, those missing papers are listed alongside dozens of citations with more mundane errors like broken links, missing or incorrect authors and wrong issue numbers. NOTUS also found serious issues with how the report interpreted some of the existing studies it cites.” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is dog-ate-my-homework territory. Bobby Virus apparently assigned someone to produce the MAHA report, and the person or persons didn't get it done, so they just made up stuff. Kennedy's HHS isn't just embarrassing. It's dangerous to people's health & well-being. And medicos around the world will learn quickly not to trust a damned thing the department produces.

Paul Krugman is downright gleeful that the trade court did its job and invalidated most of Trump's big, beautiful tariffs. "Presumably the Trumpists will try to undo this judgment, one way or another — exploiting other loopholes in the law, maybe trying to bully the Court into submission, maybe just defying the Court altogether. But this is a huge political defeat, and Trump has nobody to blame except his own overreach. You can bet that trade negotiators around the world are snickering, and maybe celebrating with TACOs for lunch."

~~~~~~~~~~

“Everything Everywhere All at Once.” M. Gessen of the New York Times on the normalization of the Trumpocracy: “The United States in the last four months has felt like an unremitting series of shocks: executive orders gutting civil rights and constitutional protections; a man with a chain saw trying to gut the federal government; deliberately brutal deportations; people snatched off the streets and disappeared in unmarked cars; legal attacks on universities and law firms. Unlike the Russian autocratic breakthrough (or, for that matter, the Hungarian one, which has apparently provided some of Donald Trump’s playbook), the transformation of American government and society hasn’t been spread out over decades or even years. It’s been everything everywhere all at once. And now that has become familiar.... Fewer and fewer things can surprise us.”

POTUS* Abuses Pardon Power, Commutes Dozens of Sentences of Fellow Criminals

“No MAGA Left Behind.” Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump issued a flurry of clemency actions on Wednesday, according to a White House official familiar with the matter, wiping the convictions or cutting sentences for more than two dozen people including political allies, a rapper and the co-founder of a Chicago gang who was serving multiple life sentences for violent crimes. A blitz of pardons and commutations this week benefited a hodgepodge of recipients, including Larry Hoover, the former leader of the highly organized gang, the Gangster Disciples, which had nearly 30,000 members in Chicago alone and raked in $100 million a year trafficking drugs across the country. It also included those who have expressed political support or echoed the president in claiming they had been unfairly targeted because of their political affiliation.... On Monday, Ed Martin, a Trump adviser helping lead efforts that include the pardon process, wrote on social media, 'No MAGA left behind.'... Here is a list of recipients of Mr. Trump’s latest acts of clemency.” ~~~

~~~ Mitch Smith & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “When an Illinois judge sentenced Larry Hoover to up to 200 years in prison for murder in the 1970s, it was the sort of punishment that seemed destined to end his career as a Chicago gang leader. But in the decades that followed, prosecutors said, Mr. Hoover’s power only grew as he directed one of Chicago’s most powerful gangs, the Gangster Disciples, from behind prison walls. Young members would pledge allegiance to Mr. Hoover, whom they called their 'king,' and those who broke Gangster Disciple rules, prosecutors said, would face bloody retribution 'up to and including murder.' His influence continued to grow into the 1990s, when he was convicted of more crimes in federal court and shipped off to a supermax prison with a life sentence. On Wednesday, after years of lobbying from Mr. Hoover’s supporters, including celebrities [like Kanye West/Ye]..., [Donald] Trump fully commuted the federal sentence of Mr. Hoover.... [Mr. Hoover's] state prison sentence remains in effect, with a projected parole date of 2062, when Mr. Hoover would be 111. But the president’s decision showed his willingness to extend leniency to some prisoners, despite his frequent rhetoric about the danger of violent criminal gangs.” [Mr. Hoover's commutation seems to have been facilitated by] “Alice Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison in a drug conspiracy case and whose sentence was later commuted by Mr. Trump, was appointed a 'pardon czar.'” ~~~

~~~ Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “... Donald Trump issued pardons Wednesday to a former New York congressman and a three-term Connecticut governor — part of a recent clemency spree that has also included reality TV stars and a Virginia sheriff. Trump used his presidential discretion to grant clemency to former New York Rep. Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, and former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, a once rising star in Republican politics brought down in a corruption scandal. Grimm served in Congress from 2011 to 2015, where he developed a reputation for his brash treatment of the media. The Republican’s political career came to a halt when he pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return and concealing more than $900,000 in gross income.... Rowland, the governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004, was convicted in two separate federal criminal cases.” (Also linked yesterday.)  ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Grimm, in the U.S. Capitol building in 2014, threatening to do grievous bodily harm to a reporter, Michael Scotto of NY1. In fact, had Grimm carried out his threat, Scotto most likely would have died a violent death as Grimm proposed to throw the reporter off a balcony onto a marble floor far below. No doubt the incident made Grimm Trump's kinda guy. ~~~ 

     ~~~ Update. Liam Stack & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “On Wednesday, a White House spokesman compared Mr. Grimm’s prosecution to the president’s own legal troubles, which Mr. Trump has long derided as a witch hunt.... Reporting by The New York Times indicated that Mr. Grimm also engaged in a range of other potential crimes [besides the one felony count for which he pleaded guilty], including campaign finance and other possible fraud. He was not charged in connection with any of that activity. In recent years, he has worked as an on-air personality at the right-wing television network Newsmax, and has been an enthusiastic public supporter of Mr. Trump’s. But he has been off the air since a horseback riding accident at a polo tournament last September that left him paralyzed.” ~~~

~~~ Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Wednesday commuted the sentence of a California venture capitalist and major political donor who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for violating lobbying, campaign finance and tax laws, and obstructing an investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. The donor, Imaad Zuberi, 54, had been a major supporter of Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, before shifting his support to Mr. Trump after his 2016 victory. In the three months after the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Zuberi donated more than $1.1 million to committees associated with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party.... In 2020, Mr. Zuberi pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into the source of a $900,000 donation he made through his company to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee in late December 2016. In 2019, Mr. Zuberi pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign donations during the Obama administration, including some funded by foreign sources, as part of a scheme to gain access to American politicians for foreign clients. He also pleaded guilty to falsifying records filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to conceal his lobbying work on behalf of Sri Lanka.... And he pleaded guilty to failing to report and pay taxes on $5.65 million he was paid for the Sri Lankan lobbying campaign, much of which, prosecutors say, he diverted for personal use.” ~~~

~~~ Amanda Friedman of Politico: “... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is considering pardons for the people involved in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. Trump insinuated that the trial had not been handled correctly by the legal system while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, describing it as potentially being a 'railroad job.' 'I will look at it — take a look at it,' he said when asked if he is considering pardons. 'It’s been brought to my attention, I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job, I’ll be honest with you. It looked to me like some people said some stupid things.'... The leaders, Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox, were convicted in 2022 of conspiring to abduct the Democratic governor from her vacation home.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's claim that he “did watch the trial” is almost certainly bogus. The trial in which the men were convicted was held in federal court, and federal trials are not videotaped or televised. The trial was held when Trump was out of office, so there's no chance the trial was specially recorded for his viewing.

~~~ Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: “The president has focused on rewarding allies and supporters who make arguments that echo his own claims that he was prosecuted by a Justice Department that was weaponized for political ends by the administration of his predecessor, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Trump has largely forsaken a more formal Justice Department process intended to identify and vet deserving clemency applicants who have served their time and expressed remorse. His approach has created an incentive for pardon seekers, or their allies, to demonstrate their fealty to him and to accuse the Biden Justice Department of singling them out because of that support. And it has created a cottage industry of clemency lobbyists and lawyers offering to help shape such appeals.” 

Trump Picks His Lawyer/Loyalist Hatchet Man for Appeal Court. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has nominated to the federal bench a top Justice Department official who steered the effort to drop criminal charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams and has been pivotal in executing the agency’s immigration policies and personnel upheaval. Trump said on social media on Wednesday that he is nominating Emil Bove — the Justice Department’s principal associate deputy attorney general — to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which covers Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Bove served on the president’s personal defense team during the Biden administration, representing Trump as he fought multiple state and federal criminal indictments. Inside the Justice Department, Bove is known as a combative Trump loyalist, defending the president’s agenda and demanding that political and career staffers align with the administration.... In the first weeks of the administration, Bove ordered the firing of at least eight senior FBI officials and a sweeping examination of the work of thousands of other bureau employees, including all those who worked on investigations tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: "... In a DOJ now led by former personal attorneys to the President and increasingly staffed by a mixture of ideologues and careerists devoted to exploring new and creative ways to please the White House, Bove has distinguished himself. That’s in part a feature of his brazenness: he’s been at the forefront of the new administration’s push to break down the barrier that long existed between federal criminal law enforcement and political decision-making in the White House. Bove, during his tenure as acting Deputy Attorney General and then principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, acted as if that barrier was never there.... In the administration’s first days, Bove told prosecutors to investigate and consider prosecuting state and local officials who oppose the Trump administration’s wanton approach to immigration policy.” Federal Judge Dale Ho said that Bove's move to dismiss charges against Eric Adams appeared to violate 'the basic promise of equal justice under law.” So right there you know Bove is unqualified to be an Appeals Court judge. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, Bove has a history of abusive behavior. This February 2025 Politico article by Erica Orden is instructive. 

More on $Trump Grifto-Currency. Eric Lipton & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: “They came from faraway spots, including Estonia and China, and closer locations, such as San Francisco and even Maryland, but one thing almost all of them had in common was some tie to the cryptocurrency industry. That is the common thread that emerges among the two dozen additional guests The New York Times has added to its list of those invited to ... [Donald] Trump’s dinner last Thursday at his golf club in Virginia.... The Times has now added another two dozen individuals invited to the dinner and in some cases also for a White House tour.” ~~~

     ~~~ The Times' original story, dated May 23, was updated yesterday with the newly-found names. ~~~

~~~ Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “A top House Democrat on Wednesday night opened a probe into the private dinner that ... Donald Trump hosted for top investors in his meme coin, seeking to highlight the ethical and legal concerns raised by the president’s willingness to profit while in office. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, demanded Trump turn over the names of the guests who attended last week’s gala after pouring millions of dollars into the president’s crypto venture. The Maryland congressman also pressed the president to disclose what steps he used to determine the source of the funds used to purchase the meme coin, citing concerns that some of the money could have come from foreign governments seeking to influence the White House.”

Trumplethinskin, the TACO King, Threatens Reporter. Josh Boak of the AP: “... Donald Trump wants the world to know he’s no 'chicken' just because he’s repeatedly backed off high tariff threats. The U.S. Republican president’s tendency to levy extremely high import taxes and then retreat has created what’s known as the 'TACO' trade, an acronym coined by The Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong that stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out.' Markets generally sell off when Trump makes his tariff threats and then recover after he backs down. Trump was visibly offended when asked about the phrase Wednesday and rejected the idea that he’s 'chickening out,' saying that the reporter’s inquiry was 'nasty.'... 'Don’t ever say what you said,' Trump said with regard to the notion of him chickening out. 'To me, that’s the nastiest question.'... He said [his roller-coaster] approach has led to $14 trillion in new investment in the U.S., a figure that appears to be artificially high and has not been fully verified by economic data.” (See yesterday's Conversation for links to related TACO posts.) ~~~

     ~~~ According to Deadline reporter Ted Johnson, the White House reporter Trump threatened was Megan Casella of CNBC. Casella can apparently roll with the punches: Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: “CNBC Washington Correspondent Megan Cassella said ... Donald Trump 'did not like' her question about a mocking Wall Street acronym, and called it a 'badge of honor' that he labeled it a 'nasty question.'” AND Evan Hurst of Wonkette urges reporters to keep on asking questions like this. Also Hurst provides a transcript of Trump's complete answer/gibberish meltdown. ~~~

~~~ HOWEVER, Trump's gleeful joyride in his stretch-Tariffmobile may be mostly over, thanks to a significant court ruling ~~~

~~~ ⭐Lindsay Whitehurst of the AP: “A federal trade court on Wednesday blocked ... Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. The ruling from a three-judge panel at the New York-based Court of International Trade came after several lawsuits arguing Trump has exceeded his authority, left U.S. trade policy dependent on his whims and unleashed economic chaos. The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Trump administration is expected to appeal. At least seven lawsuits are challenging the levies, the centerpiece of Trump’s trade policy.” MB: Should this ruling eventually be upheld by Johnnie & the Supremes, it would be one of the biggest “Never Minds” in recent U.S. history, the biggest still being, IMO, Dobbs. And it would be a well-deserved rebuke not only of the Crazy Man in the White House, but also his lily-livered enablers in Congress, who could and should have put a stop to it all. (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here. 

Michael Bender of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Wednesday said Harvard should have a cap on the number of international students it admits to create more spots for Americans, undercutting his administration’s argument that merit alone should guide admissions practices as it escalates its fight with the elite university.... Mr. Trump expressed outrage that about one-fourth of Harvard’s student body is made up of international students, up from about one-fifth in 2010, according to university data. (Mr. Trump said the figure was 31 percent this year, which appeared to be incorrect.) 'Why would a number so big? I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 percent,' he said. 'We have people want to go to Harvard and other schools, they can’t get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country.' The White House declined to comment on whether Mr. Trump’s remarks represented a new policy.” MB: Of course they “declined to comment.” They have no idea if this is another soon-to-be-forgotten brain fart or a royal edict.

Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump has rejected a settlement offer of $15 million from Paramount after he sued the company over a 60 Minutes interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.... Legal experts have widely mocked the suit as meritless, but Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount and its subsidiary CBS News, is looking to sell the company to Skydance Media.... That massive transaction would have to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, which is run by Trump loyalists.”

⭐Zach Montague & Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from pulling legal protections from hundreds of thousands of people who entered the United States through Biden-era programs, ordering the government to restart processing applications for migrants who are renewing their status. In a sweeping order that extended to Ukrainians and Afghans, as well as military members and their relatives, the judge, Indira Talwani of Federal District Court in Massachusetts, wrote that the Trump administration’s categorical termination of legal pathways for those groups was probably unlawful and had the potential to sow discord across the country. The decision is a major victory for civil and immigrant rights groups that had sued to stop the administration amid a wider campaign by ... [Donald] Trump to strip legal status from a variety of groups living, working and studying in the country on a temporary basis.” The AP story is here.

Edward Wong of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday evening that the Trump administration would work to 'aggressively revoke' visas of Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in 'critical fields.' He added that the State Department was revising visa criteria to 'enhance scrutiny' of all future applications from China, including Hong Kong. The move was certain to send ripples of anxiety across university campuses in the United States and was likely to lead to reprisal from China, the country of origin for the second-largest group of international students in the United States.” Politico's story is here.

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has suspended some sales to China of critical U.S. technologies, including those related to jet engines, semiconductors and certain chemicals and machinery. The move is a response to China’s recent restrictions on exports of critical minerals to the United States, a decision by Beijing that has threatened to cripple U.S. company supply chains.... The new limits are pushing the world’s largest economies a step closer toward supply chain warfare.... A growing standoff over critical supply chains could have significant implications for companies that depend on foreign technologies, including makers of airplanes, robots, cars and semiconductors. It could also complicate efforts to negotiate an end to a trade fight over the administration’s tariff policies.”

Mattathias Schwartz & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Justice Department lawyers said on Wednesday that the government was taking steps to comply with a court order to facilitate the return of a man who had been deported to Mexico and was then sent to Guatemala. The Guatemalan man, known by the initials O.C.G., had been deported this year despite having told U.S. authorities that he had experienced violence in Mexico and was afraid to go back. Immigration authorities made contact with O.C.G.’s legal team over the weekend and were working to bring him back to the United States on a charter flight, according to the two-page filing in the case before Judge Brian E. Murphy of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts. Late last week, Judge Murphy ordered the government to 'facilitate' O.C.G.’s return to the United States, finding that he was likely to 'succeed in showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process.'”

Ellen Barry of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Wednesday said she would grant bail to Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed by Harvard University, in an immigration case stemming from Ms. Petrova’s failure to declare scientific samples she was carrying into the country. 'There does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis for the immigration officer’s actions' in stripping Ms. Petrova of her visa on Feb. 16, Christina Reiss, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Vermont, said in a court hearing. The judge said the available evidence suggested that the samples Ms. Petrova carried into the country were 'wholly non-hazardous, non-toxic, non-living, and posed a threat to no one.' She also said that 'Ms. Petrova’s life and well-being are in peril if she is deported to Russia,' as the government has said it intends to do.... However, it is unclear when the government will allow Ms. Petrova’s release on bail, or whether it will pursue its plan to deport her to Russia.... The Trump administration ... took an unusual step earlier this month, after Judge Reiss indicated she planned to release Ms. Petrova. Hours after that hearing, the Department of Justice unsealed felony smuggling charges against Ms. Petrova based on her failure to declare the scientific samples, and Ms. Petrova was arrested and transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in Louisiana, where she remains.”

Santul Nerkar & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Two weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident and pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University, was detained and set for deportation, the government quietly added new allegations to its case. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had first invoked a rarely cited law, saying Mr. Khalil’s presence in the United States facilitated the spread of antisemitism. The new allegations were more mundane: that Mr. Khalil had failed to disclose his membership in several organizations, including a United Nations agency that provides relief to Palestinian refugees, when he applied for permanent residency. On Wednesday, the government’s strategy appeared to have worked. Judge Michael E. Farbiarz of Federal District Court in New Jersey declined to release Mr. Khalil from an immigration facility in Louisiana, even though he found that the use of the foreign policy law in Mr. Khalil’s detention was most likely unconstitutional.... In his 101-page ruling, Judge Farbiarz wrote that Mr. Khalil was 'likely to succeed' on the argument that the federal statute being used was 'unconstitutionally vague.'... But he stopped short of freeing Mr. Khalil, writing that Mr. Khalil had yet to put forth evidence about 'the various other things he must prove.'”

David Noriega of NBC News: The Trump administration is asking courts to dismiss their cases opposing asylum for immigrants, thus effectively ending their asylum applications and allowing the applicants to be deported quickly and without due process under special wartime powers Donald Trump has claimed. The most significant of such cases is that of Andry Hernandez Romero. "Hernandez, 32, is the lead plaintiff in a high-profile lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the hundreds of Venezuelans deported to a Salvadoran megaprison under the Alien Enemies Act. That case has been the centerpiece of a legal saga surrounding the deportations — one that some legal analysts say has brought the U.S. to the brink of a constitutional crisis. Hernandez, a gay man who worked as a makeup artist for a state TV station in Venezuela, told his lawyers that he had suffered persecution for his sexual orientation and opposition to the government. That alleged persecution formed the basis of his asylum claim, which Hernandez pursued for months from inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego."

Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “An F.B.I. intelligence memo unsealed on Wednesday offers new details on why the bureau concluded that some Venezuelan government officials were likely to have had some responsibility for a criminal gang’s actions in the United States, pitting it against other intelligence agencies in a heated dispute over ... [Donald] Trump’s use of a wartime law. The memo, whose conclusions the remaining intelligence agencies have rejected, was submitted by the administration to a federal judge in Texas before a hearing on Thursday.... 'The F.B.I. assesses some Venezuelan government officials likely facilitate the migration of TdA members from Venezuela to the United States to advance the Maduro regime’s objective of undermining public safety in the United States,' the memo said.... It added that the bureau also thinks some officials in the administration of Venezeula’s president, Nicolas Maduro, 'likely use TdA members as proxies.'... Despite the F.B.I.’s assessment, the majority of the nation’s intelligence agencies, including the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency, believe Mr. Trump’s claim is inaccurate.”

Toddler Without a Country. Terrence McCoy & Marina Dias of the Washington Post: “As the Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown — moving to deport 1 million undocumented immigrants by year’s end — American citizens are being caught in the dragnet. Their removal has raised alarm among judges and legal scholars, who accuse the government of violating due process rights, and it illustrates how many U.S. families have mixed immigration statuses. A 2020 study by the Migration Policy Institute found that 4.4 million American children had at least one undocumented parent.... [Two-year-old] Manu is American. She was born Emanuelly Borges Santos in a Fort Lauderdale hospital in September 2022. But in February, she was taken into custody in Florida alongside her mother and father, both of whom were undocumented, and placed on a deportation flight to Brazil, where the family has been plunged into a bureaucratic morass. Manu, who is not a citizen or resident of Brazil, was forced to enter the country as a tourist.... The girl has been left all but stateless — removed from her country of birth and not yet adopted by her parents’ ancestral home. She has no right to routine pediatric checkups in Brazil’s public health-care system. She cannot easily enroll in a Brazilian school or day care. And she’s living on a temporary tourism visa that’s set to expire in weeks.”

A Government Of White Men, By White Men & For White Men. Julian Mark of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration moved Wednesday to dismantle one of the federal government’s largest and longest-standing affirmative action programs, siding with two White-owned contracting businesses that challenged its constitutionality. In a motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Justice Department said that a Transportation Department program that has carved out an estimated $37 billion for minority- and women-owned businesses violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. If a judge approves the proposed settlement, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE) will be prohibited from awarding contracts based on race and sex, effectively ending its founding mission.” (Also linked yesterday.)  

Here are two instances where it appears that Bobby Virus is pretending not to push crazy anti-vax policies while killing and/or curtailing vaccine development and usage. ~~~

(1) Rachel Roubein & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: “The Department of Health and Human Services is pulling millions of dollars it had committed to give Moderna to aid the effort to develop a vaccine to combat the bird flu, the company announced Wednesday. Under President Joe Biden, HHS had announced its intent last summer to award $176 million and then a subsequent $590 million in January to Moderna amid an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cattle. The virus has infected 70 people since last year, and federal health officials had previously described the effort as critical to strengthening the country’s pandemic preparedness. The company was developing vaccines using messenger RNA — the same technology used in the most commonly administered coronavirus vaccines hailed as a major medical achievement during the first Trump administration. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of mRNA vaccines.... On Wednesday, Moderna announced it had received positive interim data about immune response and safety from an early-stage clinical trial of roughly 300 healthy adults aged 18 years and older.”

(2) Confused? So Is Everybody at HHS. Lena Sun of the Washington Post: “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s surprise announcement Tuesday ending coronavirus vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women blindsided the agency that offers that advice, according to current and former federal health officials. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scrambling to understand Kennedy’s decision, announced in a 58-second video on X on Tuesday morning.... Five hours later, CDC officials received a one-page 'secretarial directive,' dated May 19 and signed by Kennedy, that contradicts some of what he said in his video, according to two current and one former health officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. In his tweet and video, Kennedy said he had unilaterally decided to override the current recommendation that everyone 6 months and older receive an annual coronavirus vaccination — including healthy pregnant women.... In his video, Kennedy also said federal health officials had removed the previous recommendations from the agency website. But top CDC officials did not know of the decision at the time, according to one official, and as of Wednesday that removal still had not happened....

“Last week, top officials from the Food and Drug Administration outlined a new coronavirus vaccine policy in a New England Journal of Medicine article, approving shots only for those 65 and older and people with medical conditions [including pregnancy] that put them at high risk for severe illness.... HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the directive provides that the vaccine should not be recommended for healthy children under 18 and should not be recommended for pregnant women. He did not address questions about the apparent contradictions between the directive, Kennedy’s video and the New England Journal of Medicine article.” Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) 

[I] got a beautiful big magnificent free airplane for the United States Air Force. Very proud of that. -- Donald Trump, in the Oval Office, Wednesday ~~~

~~~ Qatar Insists Trump Solicited Jet Bribe. John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: “Despite claims by the Defense Department to the contrary, legal teams representing the U.S. and Qatari governments have not finalized an agreement for transferring the luxury Boeing 747-8 jetliner that President Donald Trump wants for Air Force One amid outstanding requests by Qatar for Washington to clarify the transaction’s terms, said officials.... Qatar is insisting that a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Doha specify that the aircraft’s transfer was initiated by the Trump administration and that Qatar is not responsible for any future transfers of the plane’s ownership, these people said. The delay reflects lingering concerns about legal liability stemming from the White House maneuver to transform what was originally a sale between two countries into a 'gift' that Trump continues to tout as a major deliverable from his recent trip to the Middle East.” ~~~

     ~~~ Size Matters! Lucy Campbell & Joanna Walters of the Guardian: “Donald Trump’s big, beautiful new plane from the government of Qatar has arrived – but the US president says it’s too big to be his personal perk. The problem for the US president is not the smack of impropriety that comes with accepting a luxury 747 jumbo jet from the Gulf state and intended as a replacement Air Force One – Trump has already brushed off any criticism on that front. Now that it’s arrived in the US, Trump says it’s too big to be his plane. The Qataris have given the president a Boeing 747-8, a stretch model of the jumbo that is more than 18ft longer than the much older 747-200B that flies as the current Air Force One.... In the Oval Office at the White House on Wednesday afternoon..., [Trump] tried to explain why he regarded it as a gift to the nation rather than a perk for him as an individual. He called the new jet a 'beautiful, big, magnificent, free airplane for the United States air force'. Trump continued: 'They tried to say: “Oh, it’s Trump’s airplane.' Oh, yeah, sure. It’s too big, frankly, it’s much too big'.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary below. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry for the sanewashing here. I think Trump's "proof" that the jet is not a personal gift to him is this: the plane is "much too big" for an individual to own. Okay then. I'm convinced.

Musk Says the Co-Presidency Is So Over. Tyler Pager, et al., of the New York Times: “Elon Musk took a swipe at ... [Donald] Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation, saying it would add to the national deficit. He complained to administration officials about a lucrative deal that went to a rival company to build an artificial-intelligence data center in the Middle East. And he has yet to make good on a $100 million pledge to Trump’s political operation. Mr. Musk, who once called himself the president’s 'first buddy,' is now operating with some distance from Mr. Trump as he says he is ending his government work to spend more time on his companies. Mr. Musk remains on good terms with Mr. Trump, according to White House officials. But he has also made it clear that he is disillusioned with Washington and frustrated with the obstacles he encountered as he upended the federal bureaucracy, raising questions about the strength of the alliance between the president and the world’s richest man.” ~~~

~~~ Niha Masih & Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post: “Musk wrote on his social media platform, X, that his 'scheduled time' as a special government employee had come to an end. That designation, which exempts him from financial disclosure and conflict-of-interest rules that apply to full-time government workers, also means he is not permitted to work more than 130 days in a 365-day period. In the post, Musk thanked Trump for the 'opportunity to reduce wasteful spending' and said DOGE’s 'mission will only strengthen over time.' A White House official ... confirmed Musk’s departure and said his offboarding will begin Wednesday night.” Here's an AP story. ~~~

~~~ Marie: When I think of Elon, I think of his affinity for Germany's Nazi-adjacent political party AfD. ~~~

Only the AfD can save Germany. -- Elon Musk, on X, December 2024 ~~~

~~~ Henry Gomez of NBC News: “... Donald Trump’s administration has emerged as a staunch defender of Alternative for Germany, a political party with Nazi echoes that has risen in popularity — and that German intelligence officials recently classified as a 'proven right-wing extremist organization.' The party is known by its German initialism, AfD, and it has included leaders who have embraced old Nazi slogans and minimized the atrocities of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have criticized the German government’s efforts to isolate and investigate AfD, arguing that such actions amount to undemocratic persecution of a rival political group.”

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