Amazing: Trump grew angry over a Biden-era program with the word "equity" in its name, so he ended it. But a key part of the program was sending money to red states to expand internet access in rural/MAGA country. Now they might not get it.
New from me: newrepublic.com/article/195097…
Trump saw the word "equity" in the name of this Biden-era program, so naturally he decided it must be serving undeserving minorities, giving him an opening to demagogue about it.
The dumbest thing about Trump's desire to manufacture dolls in the US is that many of the jobs would be bad ones: Connecting plastic body parts to torsos, attaching nylon hair, etc.
I talked to toy industry people who laid this all out. Striking stuff: newrepublic.com/article/194938…
Everybody is talking about Trump's doll lunacy from the consumer side of the equation. But we should also talk about it from the labor side. Are doll manufacturing jobs something we want at massive scale? No, not really. Here's what this would look like:
Now that Trump has openly admitted he could bring back Abrego Garcia whenever he wants, his lawyer tells me he will use discovery to determine which officials are advising Trump to defy the Supreme Court.
“[Trump] has now said...he could easily bring Abrego Garcia back...but he’s been told not to...we’re going to...find out exactly which government officials gave him that instruction."
Trump is trying to bludgeon us into accepting the tactics and imagery of fascism: Forced disappearances, renditions to foreign gulags, the ritual humiliation of hated enemies within.
That's why it's so crucial that the middle is rejecting it.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/194424…
Anyone watching Stephen Miller on TV for 5 seconds can see that he and Trump are trying to acclimate voters into accepting rampant lawlessness as a fundamental feature of American life. That's why it's so good to see independents/moderates rebelling:
Remarkable WaPo poll: Trump sinking fast on immigration among independents.
56% disapprove of handling of issue
62% oppose removing foreign students
52% oppose renditions to El Salvador
Only 21% want Abrego Garcia left there
Engage, Dems.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/194424…
What's crucial here is that Trump is bleeding independents on immigration *both* in terms of generalized disapproval *and* on the lawless specifics. Look at these numbers:
JD Vance's arguments on Abrego Garcia are imploding. His latest absurdity reveals that he knows the admin has the option of returning him and retrying him for removal in a lawful way. So why not do that? He won't say.
New piece responding to Vance here: newrepublic.com/article/194169…
It's just so galling. The admin always has the option of bringing Abrego Garcia back and challenging his "witholding of removal" order. In his latest tweet, Vance unwittingly shows that *he knows* they have this option. Yet they simply refuse to take it.
.@jdvance’s call for a functional end to due process for migrants is riddled with deceptions, bad faith, and embarrassingly awful logic. Here’s a response, including answering his “question.” First, his 20 million: I challenge you to substantiate this, JD. 1/
Vance again claims as fact that Kilmar Abrego Garcia (KAG) is a member of MS-13. This is based on the Gang Field Interview Sheet (GFIS) filed by a Maryland cop, which ICE used in the 2019 effort to deport him. It's an extremely weak case. Here's why. 2/
Apr 10 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Absurd: Trump's aides are telling him working class voters love his tariffs. But recent polls actually show majorities of non-college voters say tariffs raise prices, and disapprove of his handling of them. I looked at the data. It's striking.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/193791…
Notable: There's a clear racial divide among working class voters on tariffs in latest Marquette poll. Noncollege white men like tariffs (yet it's only 44-40!) but *huge* majorities of noncollege *nonwhites* are skeptical of them.
A note on JD Vance's repulsive response to the deportation of a Salvadoran in "error": The whole point of his stunt is to show that Trump feels free to remove people even when the law *doesn't* justify it.
I spoke to the man's lawyer. Hair raising stuff: newrepublic.com/article/193442…
“If nobody can do anything to bring him back once he’s been deported, then the order preventing his deportation in the first place is meaningless,” the lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported in "error," tells me.
Time to focus on Marco Rubio's role as a chief Trump enabler. Rubio is helping execute some of Trump's worst designs: Terminating program for Ukrainian kids, deporting people to foreign gulags, wrecking USAID, arrests with zero due process.
My new piece: newrepublic.com/article/193064…
First up: Marco Rubio's State Department terminated the program tracking Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
Rubio has the power to ensure that the underlying data and evidence is transferred to Europol. Why won't he allow this? He won't say.
Horrifying: After the contract tracking Ukrainian children abducted by Russia was terminated, the underlying evidence of these potential war crimes seems to be missing, a bipartisan group of Reps just charged in letter to Rubio. Two GOPers signed. Details: newrepublic.com/article/192924…
Two *GOPers,* Don Bacon and Brian Fitzpatrick, joined this letter, which says underlying info/evidence collected on abducted Ukrainian children has vanished.
They're calling on Rubio to say what happened to this data. State Dept still saying nothing.
Horrific: One of the USAID programs Trump just terminated was set to deliver lifesaving treatment to hundreds of thousands of starving kids abroad. Much of it is now in a Georgia warehouse.
Rubio's promise to preserve urgent assistance was a lie.
New: newrepublic.com/article/192193…
This is one of hundreds of terminated USAID contracts. The full list is appalling: There's tons of the "lifesaving humanitarian assistance" that Rubio promised to protect.
Former USAID official Atul Gawande tells me we'll see a "a massive loss of life."
Awful news --> Delivery of therapeutic food assistance to nearly 400,000 severely malnourished kids is suddenly in doubt due to Trump-Musk firings at USAID, two manufacturers of the product tell me.
"Starving children are waiting," one says.
New from me: newrepublic.com/article/191935…
The product is called Ready to Use Therapeutic Food. It's a paste made mostly of peanuts, milk, and sugar, designed for children to ingest if they're on the edge of starving to death.
It's made in two US factories, one in Georgia, the other in RI.
Remarkable: Trump's own pollster just found that in swing House districts, Dems lead by 5 points and voters want tax policy to prioritize working people, per Politico.
Yet GOP is about to slash the safety net and give the rich huge tax cuts!
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/191841…
Trump's pollster found that in 18 swing House districts, 68% are unhappy about their financial situation. Majorities want ACA's expanded subsidies to continue and oppose corporate tax cuts.
Swing voters want the opposite of what Trump/Rs are set to do.
Scoop --> Trump-Musk cuts just resulted in the firing of numerous top researchers at NIH's center for combating Alzheimer's, sources tell me. They predict big setbacks to fighting dementias.
This cause was once championed by *Republicans.*
Details here: newrepublic.com/article/191702…
These firings just hit the Roy Blunt Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias. Yes, you read that right. It's named after a GOP Senator.
Yesterday afternoon employees were informed of layoffs, including its highly-regarded incoming director. Details:
Awful: Internal USAID memo instructs employees to refrain from talking to the media about cuts in aid to the most vulnerable or they may get fired, WaPo reports.
Trumpworld knows this is a big political problem for them. Keep the focus on it.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/191578…
Given this memo ordering USAID employees not to talk to the press, also recall that Trump fired USAID's IG for revealing that the freezes put $500 million in food aid at risk of spoiling.
Dem strategists warning against talking about this are wrong.
In December, NYT revealed that Elon Musk and SpaceX were failing to meet govt reporting protocol designed to protect state secrets while they haul in billions in Pentagon contracts.
This triggered three reviews, per NYT. One was from the Defense Department inspector general. 1/
It's time to ask: What's going on with those reviews into Musk/SpaceX's failure to meet basic reporting protocol linked to their billions in Pentagon contracts?
Dems tell me they fear these investigations might get killed under Trump. 2/
It gets worse: Trump's Treasury Dept has a new letter spinning Musk's access to payment data as a mere "audit" that expands on work done during Biden admin. It's a sham. The letter simply ignores the biggest Qs about this scandal.
New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/191191…
For instance, if Musk's access expands on a review started under Biden, why did Treasury Sec Bessent allow a member of DOGE to oversee it, rather than a career official?
Plus, Sen Wyden tells me former officials are unaware of any previous audit:
The awful news that Elon Musk clashed w/top Treasury official in an effort to access govt payment systems raises a crucial question: Did Trump authorize this, or not?
I talked to former officials who explain why this is a key Q, and why it's so alarming: newrepublic.com/article/191014…
I spoke to former Treasury and OMB officials, and they said Elon Musk accessing government payment systems could give him the power to selectively turn off payments. They described what this really means in very clarifying terms. See below:
The ugly celebration of mass deportations by Trump, the WH, and Karoline Leavitt is vile on its own. But it also has a purpose: It's a pretext for Trump to vastly expand his powers. That's what the "invasion" imagery is really about.
New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/190696…
WH is pumping out imagery of migrants being marched on to military planes while claiming deportations "have begun." But crossings are down, and as @ReichlinMelnick notes, removals by plane go back years. The point is to portray a state of permanent war.
Good piece by @AdamSerwer identifying a key through line of Trumpism: Creating subordinate, inferior classes that are more easily subjected to persecution and abuse 1/ theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Adding to @AdamSerwer, another one of Trump's executive orders also does this: It effectively declares that by pronouncing us under "invasion," Trump is now unbound by Congress or statute in determining what to do w/the "invaders," as I reported. 2/
