Late last month, Layla A. Jones wrote a piece for us detailing the ways in which Trump’s attack on Jerome Powell had “backfired royally.” It’s only gotten worse since then.
Editors’ Blog
There is a lot that has Republicans divided right now. Is it actually good to demand the pope stay in his lane? JD Vance thinks so. Catholics aren’t so sure. Is it actually good for the president to post a picture of himself as the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Evangelicals aren’t so sure. Is there some irony in a president who campaigned on opposition to forever wars launching attacks that kill the leadership of a powerful country of 93 million? There may be. Are young Republicans and right-wing influencers too antisemitic, or, in fact, not antisemitic enough? Opinions among the increasingly Groyperfied class of up-and-coming GOP staffers vary.
It’s against this backdrop that we have Josh Kovensky’s piece this morning, which finds Republicans in Texas doing a hard pivot to Bush II-type freakouts about “Sharia law” as a way to get the base energized and juice turnout in Texas’ Republican primaries and runoffs — and, they hope, ultimately in the midterms. With so much dividing Republicans, Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, activists throughout the state and beyond have found it prudent to take their bigotry back to the basics and focus on ginned up claims of a fake Islamic threat. Texas’ Muslim residents are the collateral damage.
This piece follows another, related Josh K. dispatch from Texas, looking at conservative influencers’ attempts to stoke panic around a growing Dallas-area Indian community. (To support more of this on-the-ground journalism, become a member!)
I wanted to make sure you had a chance to read this piece TPM’s Hunter Walker published over the weekend about “challenge coins” being distributed at the mass deportation hub in Minneapolis celebrating operating “metro surge,” the ICE invasion that resulted in the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in addition to longer litany of abuse, violence and general predation. As you can see, the visuals are some mix of first person shooter and Aryan Nations rally. As we note in the piece, it’s hard to know at just what level of officialdom these trinkets were produced and signed off on. But they’re artifacts of the violent and degenerate culture that spawned those two murders. If you didn’t get a chance to read it this weekend I hope you will now.
In addition, there are cases like this from ICE offices around the country. So we are looking for more examples. If you’ve been privy to similar instances — maybe you’ve seen similar challenge coins distributed around other ICE or CBP operation — please let us know. You can contact us through our normal tips line or by secure channels, all of which are described here.
It’s not hard to look around America today and see signs of decay, corruption and decline. I thought of this yesterday when I saw this Semafor article on Egypt’s ambitious push to transition its electrical grid to renewables. The gist is that Egypt is trying to move from getting 10% to 45% of it electricity from renewables in two years. That’s a mind-bogglingly ambitious goal. But it’s not based on ideology or high-minded goals about limiting climate change or the situation you have in the U.S. where renewables — wind and solar — are somehow considered “woke.” Egypt doesn’t have that luxury, notwithstanding being geo-politically aligned with the major fossil fuel exporters. Fossil fuels are not only pricey, they make especially developing economies vulnerable to constant price shocks, whether it’s the Ukraine War, Iran War or the inflation spike coming out of COVID. Egypt is focused on wind power. And there’s no way to hit that ambitious two-year schedule without China, building China’s soft power and economic reach at the same time the U.S. seems determined to throw ours away.
The Trump administration is being saved again from its flagrant contempt of court in the original Alien Enemies Act case, this time by two Trump-appointed judges on the DC Circuit.
Facing expulsion vote, Swalwell resigns from Congress.
Quite apart from the gravity of the allegations, I simply cannot remember a more rapid and total campaign and, it would now seem, career implosion. Usually loyalists and especially senior staff hold out a bit longer. Just stunning in every dimension.
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Despite his central role in the Trump administration, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought had not appeared before Congress to answer questions since last June. That changed this week. And members of Congress had a lot of them.
Inside Texas Republicans’ Effort to Make the Midterms About Islamophobia
Some in the GOP eye a Muslim panic as a strategy to win.
PODCASTS
Kate and Josh talk war and midterms from the Lone Star State (with a special bonus segment featuring the Texas Observer’s Justin Miller).
TPM reporter Josh Kovensky and publisher Joe Ragazzo are back to launch The TPM Social Club, a show about what’s interesting.
Kate and Josh talk Pam Bondi’s ouster, Trump’s Iran stemwinder and the birthright citizenship oral arguments.
Kate and Josh talk airports in crisis, Trump’s bewildering political calculus and, believe it or not, an optimistic vision of what a post-Trump world could look like.
RECENT
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Trump Crackdown on ‘Terrorist’ Left Notches a Victory in Texas
Jury finds eight members of a supposed ‘Antifa’ cell guilty of material support for terrorism
