I struggled to find a unifying theme for the latest parade of depredations from late last week through the weekend. But when a Gilded Age name like Mellon is dominating the news, it’s hard to resist framing the current moment as runaway billionaire-ism.
A billionaire president freed from the restraints of the law by a Supreme Court stacked by billionaires and, in the case of at least two justices, personally rewarded by a billionaire benefactor. Billionaire tech executives circling the federal government like vultures for the opportunity to further expand and consolidate their considerable power.
The U.S. military now has its own billionaire benefactor stepping up with a line-crossing contribution to pay the troops that signals the military itself is a billionaire’s plaything.
Perhaps it is why the demolition of the the White House East Wing resonates beyond politics. It is being replaced by a stylized Gilded Age ballroom paid for by private interests where a royal court of billionaires and wannabes can gather and engage in the kind of transactional governance that is all Trump knows. Everything and everyone has a price.
The Corruption: Mellon Edition
The entire U.S. military is at risk of becoming a private military contractor after President Trump happily and extralegally accepted a $130 million donation from billionaire Timothy Mellon — yes, those Mellons — to partially pay troops during the government shutdown.
Vainglory
President Trump is likely to name the ballroom he’s constructing on the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House after himself, ABC News reported, citing, among other things, a list of those donors it was provided by the White House that referred to it as “the President Donald J. Trump Ballroom.” Trump later called this detail “fake news.”
Quote of the Day
“I’m the speaker and the president.”–President Trump, reportedly chortling privately about his domination of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and the GOP conference
Trigger Warning
A couple of new books offer painful new nuggets about the worst of Donald Trump’s criming:
- Jan. 6: On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence scrawled handwritten notes in his day planner from his fateful phone call with President Trump. “You’ll go down as a wimp,” according to Pence’s note, obtained by ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl for his new book.
- Mar-a-Lago documents: Special Counsel Jack Smith’s decision to prosecute the classified documents case in Florida instead of D.C. is revisited in a new book by WaPo reporters Aaron Davis and Carol Leonnig. It also reveals that Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar refused to allow Smith to ask an appeals court to disqualify U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon from the case.
I want to be clear that these were difficult decisions but not necessarily the wrong decisions on the facts and the law. It’s easy to criticize decisions that resulted in bad outcomes but that doesn’t mean the decision was wrong or that a different decision would have yielded a different or better outcome.
Some Counter-Trolling in Action?
Two judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals during oral arguments in a terrorism case on Friday wondered aloud if the standard the government was using for aiding and abetting a crime would have swept up President Trump’s remarks in his infamous Ellipse speech on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Politico reports:
“What if a large group of people, angry at Congress, gathered on the Washington Mall, some of whom have firearms, and are known to have firearms, and a leader stood in front of them, here, right in front of them, not in another country, and said, ‘Go down the street and fight like hell. I’ll be there with you,’” said Judge Stephanie Thacker, an Obama appointee on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“To me, it sounds the same. So, if what you’re advocating is a crime, then what I just said is a crime — may be a crime,” Thacker said.
Federal Judge Summons Bovino to Court
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis has ordered Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino to appear in court Tuesday to answer for his apparent deployment of tear gas against crowd in alleged violation of her order.
Sami Hamdi Detained by ICE
The Trump administration revoked the visa of Sami Hamdi, a pro-Palestinian British commentator who was on a speaking tour of the United States, and detained him at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday morning.
On its face this looks like another example of using visa revocations to engage in viewpoint discrimination, something the Trump administration has already been blasted by judges for doing in other cases.
Abrego Garcia’s Torment Continues …
The Trump administration on Friday notified the judge in one of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s civil cases that it is now planning to deport him to Liberia before the end of the month. He has no ties to Liberia, and the government continues to refuse to remove him to Costa Rica, which he and his lawyers have said he would not fight. The judge in the case summoned the lawyers for a virtual conference this afternoon.
The timing of the proposed removal would presumably moot the criminal case against Abrego Garcia and avoid the government having to defend his vindictive prosecution claim, where he has subpoenaed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to testify.
Venezuela Watch: U.S. Buildup Continues
Among the new developments:
- Some junior U.S. officers have asked military lawyers, an increasingly marginalized group, for a “written sign-off” before taking part in the lawless strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats but were apparently not given any such assurances, the WaPo reports.
- The Trump Pentagon is redeploying the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, where it is expected to arrive in a few days.
- The U.S. carried out its tenth lawless strike on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the region, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday.
Trump DOJ Dispatches Election Monitors
The Justice Department has long used election monitors to help protect voting rights, particularly in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination, but the announcement by the Trump DOJ on Friday of where and why monitors are being dispatched for the 2025 elections left election experts alarmed that there’s no legal basis for the move.
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