Trump Is Now Framing His Blue State Retribution Campaign as Some Sort Of Deliverance
“Don’t be afraid”
The Trump administration continues its escalation in Minnesota.
He has mobilized thousands of ICE agents to carry out his occupation of Minneapolis, and is sending even more this week. ICE officer fatally shot mother of three there last week, and the Trump administration called her a “domestic terrorist.” The administration today triggered a series of high-profile resignations from career federal prosecutors over its decision to remove Minnesota authorities from DOJ investigations into the shooting and by pushing to investigate the woman’s widow. He also used legitimate state fraud investigations to justify freezing $10 billion in federal funding approved by Congress for child welfare programs in Minnesota and four other blue states, a directive that a federal judge quickly blocked.
The manner in which the Trump administration is implementing its immigration enforcement agenda – attempts to shock, awe and provoke aimed at protesters and people of color – demonstrates how closely this agenda is tied to another major goal of the president’s second term: revenge. Specifically, he is looking for ways to exert control over the blue pockets of America that he believes are populated by his political enemies. Governors and mayors in blue states have always fallen into this category, whether or not they have personal differences with the Democratic elected official. It’s something we’ve been discussing since Trump began federalizing the National Guard early last year to quell the protests and unrest he created with his ICE operations in blue cities like Los Angeles and Chicago last year.
In an article published Tuesday by Truth Social, Trump made explicit his goal of “retribution” and presented his administration’s plans to suppress First Amendment rights and its withholding of federal funding as a kind of deliverance for the “GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA” from their duly elected leaders.
“Minnesota Democrats love trouble caused by anarchists and professional agitators because it distracts from the $19 billion that was stolen by truly evil and deranged people,” he wrote, inflating that figure by an order of magnitude. “Fear not, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF ACCOUNTING AND PAYMENT IS COMING!” »
Hours later, he hinted at other potential attempts to freeze federal funding to municipalities or states that have sanctuary policies in place to provide services to undocumented immigrants.
“RETRIBUTION” is upon us, all right.
—Nicole LaFond
The irony of Minnesota prosecutor Joseph Thompson’s resignation
The federal prosecutor behind Minnesota’s major social services fraud investigations resigned Tuesday, apparently due to pressure from the Trump administration to investigate the widow of Renee Good, the woman killed in Minnesota by ICE agents last week, according to the New York Times.
Joseph Thompson is a career prosecutor appointed by Trump to help lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota following Thompson’s prosecution of Minnesota fraud during the Biden administration, including investigating the Feeding Our Future group at the heart of Minnesota’s ongoing fraud scandal. At least five other attorneys resigned Tuesday along with Thompson.
Thompson’s resignation appears to be an irony on the part of the Trump administration that has latched onto Thompson’s legitimate legal investigations to advance its own anti-immigrant policy goals. At a time when one would think the Trump administration would want to salute his work, just weeks after announcing an investigation into the theft of more than $9 billion in federal dollars, Thompson chose to resign rather than implement the Trump administration’s directives to weaponize the rule of law. The Times reports:
Mr. Thompson’s resignation came after top Justice Department officials called for a criminal investigation into the actions of the widow of Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman killed Wednesday by an ICE agent.
Mr. Thompson, 47, a career prosecutor, opposed that approach, as well as the Justice Department’s refusal to include state officials in the investigation into whether the shooting itself was legal, the people familiar with his decision said.
In doing so, the administration has now lost its flagship resource for achieving its supposed primary goal: “to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.”
A quote from Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara to the Minnesota Star Tribune sums up the contradiction between Thompson’s actual work in Minnesota, versus the administration’s cartoonish takeover and violent immigration enforcement that followed.
“When you lose the leader responsible for building the fraud cases, that tells you this [immigration enforcement] it’s not really about going after the fraudsters,” O’Hara said.
-Layla A. Jones
Bipartisan Senate group opposes release of plan to fix expired Obamacare subsidies
The bipartisan group of senators who negotiated a health care plan to revive expired Affordable Care Act subsidies will delay the release of their legislation until the last week of January — after the Senate’s next, previously scheduled recess.
“We need to make sure we get it right,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) said Tuesday morning, per Politico.
The group previously said it would release a plan this week.
The move comes less than a week after the House passed a Democratic-led bill that would restore expired Obamacare subsidies for three years. Seventeen House Republicans, who find themselves largely in a vulnerable position in the upcoming midterm elections, rebelled against President Donald Trump and House Republican leaders and joined all House Democrats to pass the bill, apparently in an effort to save face with voters.
The Senate is unlikely to pass the bill with a simple three-year extension. That’s why a bipartisan Senate group has been negotiating on the issue for months. Although negotiations continue, the urgency around this issue — which Democrats relied on during and before the recent historic shutdown — has lessened significantly, especially after the subsidies expire at the end of 2025.
Moreno told reporters that the bipartisan group would continue its meetings to refine the details of the proposal, adding that the senators who negotiated need to “make sure that everyone is ready with all the elements of the framework, see if there are still areas of anxiety that we still need to resolve.”
One sticking point in the negotiations would be how to deal with the amendment that federal funding cannot cover abortions.
-Emine Yucel
In case you missed it
Josh Kovensky: How a grainy video of Renée Good’s anguished wife convinced right-wing media to blame the widow
Kate Riga’s coverage of today’s SCOTUS oral arguments in Little versus Hecox And West Virginia v. BPJ: Right-wing judges are enthusiastic that the trans minority is too small to challenge sports bans
Alito and Kavanaugh give Fox News recitation of anti-trans talking points
Morning memo: Career DOJs resign over handling of deadly ice shooting
NEW this morning from Khaya Himmelman and Emine Yücel: How redistricting and the fate of the Voting Rights Act might (not) impact the midterm elections
Yesterday’s most read story
Five Points on Trump’s DOJ Attack on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell
What we read
U.S. national parks staff say new $100 fee for non-residents risks ‘alienating visitors for decades’
Outbound travel to the United States collapses for 8th straight month
Trump blasted federal prosecutors at White House event, calling them weak
