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."
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“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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18 Comments
Reader Comments (18)
TACOs here!
Come hit your very own TACO.
Heh-heh.
Fat Hitler is having second thoughts about this “free” plane that he begged Qatar for as a bribe, oops, I mean that the Qataris gifted him out if the goodness of their hearts?
He’s concerned that such a bribe is blatantly unconstitutional?
He’s worried that it might be loaded with bugs?
Such a bribe just LOOKS terrible?
No!
It’s too big.
Moan, moan, moan…there’s always a problem.
Polio Bob sez No more publishing in medical journals like the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA, cuz they is all “corrupt”!
Right.
Also, these highly respected, longstanding publications require evidence based, peer reviewed articles, not internet based, whack job, dangerous conspiracy theories, ie, where he gets his info from.
Big surprise.
Thanks as always, Marie, for the news rundown-- I can barely stand to read it. Not only is it too complex to keep in my head, it so celebrates the nutcase in the White House that it is hard to not continually want to hit my laptop's innocent face. There is so much crap being flung around, I marvel that Marie can keep it paragraphed. The plane is now "too large?" I thought nothing could be "too" anything for the plague ship that is the presiduncy.
One of the "biggest" is that he is commuting sentences and pardoning people that have been massively illegal and corrupt. Birds of a feather, I guess? I guess if you are a criminal, but a MAGA monster, it's fine. You're forgiven. Reminds me of the evangelical/Southern Baptist wing of Christianity...oh, you murdered several people "accidentally" and you beat your wife and ignore your children and steal from every possible source in your life? Just confess your sorrow and great allegiance to Jesus, and heaven is open to you! You don't have to DO a thing to convince us you are a fabulous Christian! Go out and convert people and you get more checks in the boxes...
That is the way these people are. Ask the POS who is now the pardon czar, and regardless of your rotteness, your misdeeds, etc., you too can be pardoned as long as you send them money for the king! Just declaring your dying wish is to be buried in a stupid red hat (made in China) will put you in the queue.
It's not just that they are destroying the good things about this country, but that the good things are being replaced with rubble and poison and people who should be rotting in jail. No wonder no one wants to come here. We are Indonesia-- any minute now we could be arrested for chewing gum.
The Nasty Question video
"Trump just learned Wall Street is calling his tariffs “TACO trade”"
TACO
We Did What?
"REPORTER: When could the administration resume interviews for foreign students visa?
TRUMP: On what?
REPORTER: Foreign student visas
TRUMP: For the French?
REPORTER: All the foreign students
TRUMP: What are you referring-- foreign visas for what?"
Five generations of Trump, zero military service.
FEMA
"FEMA at 'high risk' of disrupting 'life-saving' disaster relief, per internal memo
The agency in charge of mitigating disasters is in the midst of its own."
I didn't realize that Donald's daddy's full name was Fred Christ Trump Sr. His older brother was Fred Christ Trump Jr. So Donald is the anti-Christ of the Trump family.
Gotta hand it to him.
While tearing many things apart (like the economy, morality and the law), the Pretender has also put some things back together.
Like Canada, Australia and Harvard. And it only took him a few short months.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/29/us/harvard-trump
@RAS: Oh. I didn't know about Fred Christ Trump, but I did think the "J" in Donald J. Trump stood for "Jesus." Or "Jesus!"
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. When NOTUS reached out to her this week, she was surprised to hear of the citation. She does study mental health and substance use, she said. But she didn’t write the paper listed. “The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” Keyes told NOTUS via email."
New White House Signage
So much winning
“The court’s ruling also means that the government may have to pay back duties it has already collected. “Anybody that has had to pay tariffs so far will be able to get them refunded,” said Ilya Somin”
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c2dekzjg6gzt
Oh, what will the Supremes do this time?
I wonder because I'd heard nothing the president does is illegal...
TACO - Taking Actual Corrupt Offers [from anyone]
Instead of "the dog ate my paper" it looks like these lazy idiots probably had Grok do their homework. It is the same thing that happened with the tariff rollout on the penguins and polar bears and our own troops. 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. But this is gold standard for Fat Hitler's administration. Though all their gold is fake and meant to be fool to the rubes.
ProPublica
"Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking: Fallout From U.S. Aid Withdrawal Hits the World’s Most Fragile Locations
Exclusive State Department records show: As the Trump administration abandons its humanitarian commitments, diplomats are reporting that the cuts have led to violence and instability while undermining anti-terrorism initiatives."