Trump wields FCC merger approval to silence Jimmy Kimmel
“When a network drops a high-profile talent hours after the FCC chairman makes a barely veiled threat, then it’s no longer just a business decision,” the Free Press wrote in an editorial. “It’s government coercion. Is it now Trump administration policy to punish broadcasters for comedy that doesn’t conform to its politics?”
USCIS Bars Voter Registration After Naturalization Ceremony
By shutting out the League and other civic partners, USCIS is making it harder for new citizens to register to vote, which is yet another intimidation tactic and attack on the immigrant community. Our democracy is stronger with the voices of new citizens.
Discourse Magazine Closes
The Neo-Classical Liberal
This reflects a dilemma faced by Mercatus more broadly. In recent years, they have put a lot of effort (from which I benefitted) into a “pluralism” agenda, which was supposed to encourage people to find common ground and have productive conversations across the usual partisan divides. It’s not a bad idea, but at a Mercatus pluralism event about this time last year, the looming unreality of it began to sink in. Much of the discussion seemed useful and appropriate—in a world where Donald Trump had no chance of being elected again. And if Kamala Harris were president right now, it would still seem that way. But in a world where the political divide is between democracy and authoritarianism, between freedom and dictatorship, finding “common ground” with authoritarians just becomes a form of surrender.
Gabbard Kills Foreign Malign Influence Center
Just Security
One would think the Trump administration would have an interest in preserving government functions that monitor nefarious foreign government activity targeting the president of the United States. Instead, in her Aug. 20 announcement of the broader ODNI reorganization and the dismantlement of FMIC, with its remaining work spread across other units, Gabbard claimed the office had politicized intelligence (a charge she also leveled at the intelligence community when the administration recently declassified materials purporting to support its claim that Russia did not interfere on behalf of Trump’s 2016 campaign).
DOJ Attempts Coercion With Uganda Threat
NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s defense team says that the government is attempting to coerce him to plead guilty to his criminal charges. Per filing, the government promised to deport him to Costa Rica if he pleads guilty — and is now threatening to remove him to Uganda if he doesn’t accept the deal.
Trump Fires BLS Chief After Terrible Jobs Report
"I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on Truth Social. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Trump later posted: “In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad."
The charge that the data was faked is an explosive one that threatens to undercut the political legitimacy of the U.S. government’s economic data, which has long been seen as the “gold standard” of economic measurement globally.
Independent Agencies Not Independent
In her dissent, Kagan decried what she characterized as the court’s repeated use of the emergency docket “to destroy the independence of an independent agency, as established by Congress.” She suggested that the court had “all but overturned Humphrey’s Executor,” and she stated that these actions have occurred “with the scantiest of explanations.” “By means of such actions,” she concluded, “this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another.”
FBI Director Chris Wray Resigns
When Donald Trump said over Thanksgiving that he was nominating Kash Patel to be FBI director, the announcement sent shudders through official Washington — Patel, besides being simply unqualified for such a big role, has explicitly laid out a retaliatory agenda that would weaponize the FBI against Trump’s foes. But there was one important wrinkle in Trump’s move: The simplest argument against Patel taking over the FBI was that there was no vacancy atop the FBI.
Jeff Bezos Kills Endorsement
The Bulwark
And that’s what this story is about: It’s about the most consequential American entrepreneur of his generation signaling his submission to Trump—and the message that sends to every other corporation and business leader in the country. In the world. Killing this editorial says, If Jeff Bezos has to be nice to Trump, then so do you. Keep your nose clean, bub.
SCOTUS Grants Sweeping Immunity
Sotomayor contended that the majority’s decision might sweep more broadly than her colleagues acknowledged. First, she argued that the line that Roberts drew between official and unofficial conduct “narrows the conduct considered ‘unofficial’ almost to a nullity. It says that whenever the President acts in a way that is not manifestly or palpably beyond his authority, he is taking official action.” And the majority takes an “expansive view” of the core powers of the presidency, she continued, that “will effectively insulate all sorts of noncore conduct from criminal prosecution.” “In every use of official power,” she concluded, “the President is now a king above the law.”
Mitch McConnell's Original Sin
The Bulwark
McConnell hates Trump. McConnell was never MAGA. McConnell is not in favor of authoritarianism. But none of that mattered because Trump was able to align McConnell’s primary goals with his own. And so in the end, McConnell became Trump’s tool just as surely as if he’d been a toadying true-believer.