Category: Talking Points Memo

The White House creates AI slop of weeping immigrants being deported, President Trump performs a mocking imitation of a trans weightlifter, the Pentagon wipes government webpages of the military achievements of nonwhite men — this is an administration that luxuriates in Fox News’ A block.

Donald Trump’s Truth Social recently started a streaming service for MAGAs and “pro-family” Christians called Truth+. Hunter Walker was surprised to find that among the top ten most watched movies featured for viewers was a “documentary” about how alien lizard people secretly rule the earth. And that was only the beginning of the fun.

Less than two minutes into the movie, the narrator makes a shocking claim.  “The evidence we are about to present to you has the potential to rewrite thousands of years of human history. It will present evidence that suggests ancient serpent or lizard-like aliens came to earth thousands of years ago,” the narrator says. “We’ll […]

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. Last Undecided Race Of 2024 Nears End Six months after Election Day, a federal judge ordered the North Carolina Board of Elections to certify Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs as the winner of the fiercely contested […]

Politico Nightly has a very interesting observation tied to Trump’s latest fever-dream about a tariff on movies produced outside the United States. Studios are spooked about it and the idea even pushed down entertainment stocks. (As I’ve noted a few times, the current hiatus on the law mattering has a lot of people jumpy.) I’m […]

While most Trump administration officials have avoided weighing in on specifics while House Republicans grapple with how exactly they will try to discreetly slash funding for Medicaid, the Trump admin guy tasked with running the very office overseeing Medicaid and Medicare services offered his opinion on Monday.

About a week ago, both Matt Yglesias and Jonathan Last at The Bulwark had pieces up arguing different electoral strategies for the Democratic Party. Yglesias argued that while the current Democratic Party is at least competitive in national majority votes (good enough for bragging rights and probably the House) they are at a decisive disadvantage […]

Brian Kemp just formally announced he’s not going to run for Senate next year against Senator Jon Ossoff. It’s difficult to convey how big a coup this is for Democrats and how big a setback it is for Republicans for the 2026 midterms. Candidate choice is always important but seldom decisive. This is an exception. […]

Morning Memo comes to you today from Pittsburgh, where my son – whose harrowing path through his college years I’ve previously shared with you – graduated yesterday. Not Normal Three career prosecutors resigned from the Justice Department over a highly unusual post-verdict plea agreement struck by the Trump-appointed acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. The […]

Then-candidate Donald Trump and his Republican congressional allies fixated on the great “threat” of noncitizen voting in the 2024 campaigns. Despite copious research showing that this type of voter fraud is extremely rare, it was the election conspiracy theory du jour — out with bamboo fibers, magical voting machines and ballots in dumpsters, in with […]

This is something I’m still trying to get my head around – both the technical legislative details as well as how all this plays in political terms. The details are still fuzzy to me but I want to get the outlines in front of you. At the end of the summer we’ll be coming to […]

Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️ President Trump wants to send to Congress a chunk of the DOGE federal funding cuts that Congress, in a properly functioning democracy, should have voted on in the first place. Its called a rescissions package, and it is a mechanism for Congress to vote to approve […]

I had not seen that David Horowitz died. I have said many very harsh things about Horowitz over the years, going back to one of my earliest pieces in The American Prospect in the late 90s. I even had a few personal run-ins with him. I stand by all of that but it’s not the […]

Close allies of President Trump are asking a judge to give the White House control over much of the federal court system.

At least for the moment this hasn’t gotten much attention. So let me point your attention to a new part of the White House Signal chat story which is actually a pretty big deal. You likely saw that yesterday Reuters published a photo of a Trump cabinet meeting in which Mike Waltz could be seen […]

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. Never Seen This Before In an important new story, the NYT reveals for the first time that senior Trump DOJ official Emil Bove directed the Civil Rights Division to investigate pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University. […]

President Trump’s nominee for D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin appears to be facing skepticism from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican members of which met this week to discuss the seemingly endless baggage and politically motivated acts that Martin has and will likely continue to mix into his work if officially confirmed to the position. Republicans […]

When I got word this morning that Mike Waltz was making his final swirl around the National Security Advising bowl I set myself to thinking: what’s the stupidest way this could play out. I tried, readers, and I failed as we’ve now learned that Marco Rubio will be taking over as interim National Security Advisor. […]

In a win for Republicans, a North Carolina Appeals court panel ruled on Wednesday that a piece of legislation designed to strip power from state level elected Democrats and give Republicans control of the state election board in an overt power grab, can take effect. 

Yesterday I excoriated Politico for a deeply ingenuous report on GOP Medicaid cuts, now presenting the matter as something congressional Republicans are trying to foist on a skeptical Trump. I also said that they were making up the idea that Trump has repeatedly pledged never to touch Medicaid as he has repeatedly promised not to […]