Even the Military Can’t Resist Trump on Its Own Forever

Many things have happened. Here are some of the things. This is the morning memo of TPM. Register for the e-mail version.

“Interior enemy”

It is rare these days so that the morning service note read as something other than a litany of transvestites, unworthiness and setbacks in American public life. For a while, I thought that today’s edition could offer a respite, with good news to balance the incessant bad news.

But the handful of positive developments fell on President Trump’s day, in his greatest and blatant attempt to politicize the body of military officers, warned an “enemy of the interior”. And that persists in a way that throws a veil on the few light points in the effort to preserve democracy and the rule of law.

So let me start there …

Trump confronts the army as a threat to his own power

By targeting the professionalism and non-partner of the military, Trump laid the foundations for domestic use without law of the army, including illegally in the application of laws. It was a warning sign of a more muscular and oppressive authoritarianism that Trump has not gathered so far.

While I watched the stolen flag officers from all over the world sit uncomfortably for the absurd speeches of the president and his secretary for the defense of Callow, I came to see him because the closest could meet in the mass of the body of officers.

Imagine the other groups of federal workers that Trump has targeted in these seats: government scientists, foreign aid experts, prosecutors and investigators, inspectors and regulators, human resources professionals. They were briefly dismissed, often in violation of the law, but generals and admirals are more untouchable than that. Not completely prohibited, as we have already seen with Pentagon endings, especially officers who are women or people of color. But for a variety of practical and political reasons, a radical purge of generals is not possible.

What is possible is starting to erode military culture. To highlight loyalty to merit. To attribute madness to competence. To punish the truth and reward practical fictions. Trump addressed all these things in a long and disjointed speech that could be confused with inconsistency.

Trump, as commander -in -chief, already had a constitutional power over his captive audience of flag officers. What he had done yesterday, with the help of Hegseth is to affirm the power of his cult personality on them. If it turned your stomach, Hegseth told them, then you should resign.

As a group, this is not what the officers’ body has registered. They are permeated not only of the military tradition, but of the civil control of the armed services, the chain of command, the laws of war, the rules of engagement and the good role of the military in a free society. These are made up each of railing, expectations and values ​​sets which, if not an anathema in Trump, are entirely foreign to him. He is at best indifferent to them, but more probably he is threatened by them because they stand outside of his own power base.

Trump has checked the list of independent political sources that authorities generally target: courts, police, press, universities and civil society organizations, among others. The soldiers remain a key conservation place. But none of these institutions can resist alone, and even together, they cannot resist forever without broad cultural support for them. It will be the real test of our time.

The three light points

I mentioned some light points in the news of the day. They are in an order of approximate importance:

• With a development, a federal judge determined that the Trump administration had illegally targeted by pro-Palestinian international students for withdrawal due to their political convictions.
• In a decision that is parallel to what Alina Habba strikes in New Jersey, a federal judge concluded that Sigal Chattah, Gonzo Trump’s lawyer in Nevada, was invalid.
• Trump withdraws epic from the wrong candidate EJ Antoni to direct the work statistics office.

More on Sigal Chattah

The same day that a judge ruled that the American lawyer for Nevada, Sigal Chattah, had been appointed Invalide, Reuters reported that she had asked the FBI to investigate the allegations of demystified GOP on electoral fraud during the 2020 elections.

Reuters’ Bombshell report is based on a government document he obtained which, allegedly, shows:

(i) Chattah wants to withdraw the “illegal extraterrestrials” from the roles of voters perhaps leading to a “reallowing of the census numbers” which would affect the race of the 4th seat of the Nevada Congress District, currently held by a Democrat.

(ii) Chattah wants to exempt the six Republicans who were prosecuted for the false electoral scheme of Trump in Nevada in 2020, even if she represented one of the accused and has profound conflicts of interest.

(iii) Chattah hopes to demonstrate a continuous conspiracy between Biden’s White House and the State Attorney General.

(iv) Chattah wants a withdrawal from unions and non -profit organizations that exploit the training of voters and an investigation into the financing of these “illegal acts” by the Actblue Democratic Political Action Committee.

This is the kind of politicization that we imagine the most loyal Trump prosecutors who are most loyal to commit, but you do not expect it to be written for an international press agency report.

Stop watch

You can follow the continuous coverage by TPM of the government closure here.

Day quote

Tressie McMillan Cottom:

We can’t just reject the threat. We have to reject the idea that our only, the best power is our racks. It is a desecration of civic, as corrosive as the idea that the debate is the ultimate in civil speech. This goes beyond our actions by degrading what we believe possible. Our power is not to make one of the choices presented to us. Our power is to shape the choices available to us.

Do you like the morning memo? Let us know!