Former Trump defense attorney Lindsey Halligan was reportedly sworn in as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Monday after the president forced out her predecessor for failing to turn up wrongdoing with which to charge New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and other public figures he considers his enemies.
Erik Siebert, the previous acting U.S. attorney, resigned Friday after Trump told reporters he wanted him gone.
Halligan has no prosecutorial experience. Most recently, she worked in the White House staff secretary’s office, reportedly tasked with censoring the Smithsonian museums. Previously, per ABC, she handled insurance claims related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
Trump announced that he’d be appointing her Friday via social media. That post came shortly after one that was styled as (and possibly intended to be) a direct message to AG Pam Bondi, where Trump reamed her out for not pursuing his political enemies (including James) aggressively enough.
— Kate Riga
Schumer, Jeffries Drag Out The Will They, Won’t They Mamdani News Cycle
Another weekend has passed, and with it the latest chance for Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to put to bed the endless speculation about why they haven’t endorsed Democratic candidate for New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, and whether they will.
“I’ll have more to say about the Mayor’s race sometime soon,” Jeffries said on MSNBC — perhaps a nod to a potential coming endorsement, per the New York Post.
Schumer’s dodge on CNN reads as less of a tease: “All I can tell you is, I’m going to continue talking to him.”
The political triangulation here is too cute by half. If the fear is Fox News et al making Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party — particularly if he struggles as mayor — do Schumer and Jeffries really think foot-dragging an inevitable endorsement will give them any cover? As if the right-wing media structure hesitates to assign random social media users as spokespeople for the Democratic Party.
They’ll either endorse Mamdani or not endorse at all — and doing either decisively when Mamdani won the primary would have been less of an albatross around the party leaders’ necks than these endless iterations of fence sitting, a particularly bad look as the Democratic base clamors for brashness and vitality over hesitancy and poll-tested limpness.
Mamdani aims to be seen as doing the former. On Monday, he announced that he’d cancel a planned ABC town hall in response to the network’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
“ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air after the FCC sought to pressure them,” Mamdani said at a press conference Monday. “The message that it sends to each and every American across this country is a message the First Amendment is no longer a right that can be counted on, but rather that it is government which will determine what should and should not be discussed, what can and cannot be spoken. And we cannot normalize these kinds of acts nor offenses. These must be the basis upon which we act.”
— Kate Riga
MAGA Comes to South American Allies’ Aid
Javier Milei, Argentina’s embattled, libertarian TV-commentator-turned president received some welcome news today from his friends in the U.S. government: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is prepared to intervene as the country’s currency plunged amid a run on the peso.
“All options for stabilization are on the table,” Bessent tweeted this morning.
Argentine markets shot up.
With Jair Bolsonaro out of power in Brazil (and recently convicted of a coup attempt), Milei has become MAGA’s loudest South American ally. A friend of Elon Musk, his government did a DOGE-like thing, slashing huge numbers of government jobs during his first weeks in office, helping to inspire Musk’s own haphazard attempt to do the same here. Milei famously gave Musk that chainsaw, a prop that Milei had become known for hauling out on Argentine TV.
The display of full support from the Trump administration is a demonstration of the favors available to its ideological allies abroad (even if that overlap is more a question of social media style than actual ideology: Milei campaigned against decades of government involvement in Argentina’s economy and meddling in its economic statistics, while Trump appears eager to take a page from Milei’s Peronist foes in his own second term). MAGA diplomacy, of course, cuts both ways; the Trump administration on Monday sanctioned the wife of a justice on Brazil’s Supreme Court who oversaw Bolsonaro’s prosecution, and revoked the visas of other government officials.
— John Light
In Case You Missed It
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Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Trump Administration Loses Plot During ‘Free Speech’ Struggle Session
What We Are Reading
Trump Appointees Roll Back Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws — New York Times
A lot of powerful people just don’t realize how unpopular Trump is — Strength In Numbers
The Marine veteran behind this viral photo at the Chicago ICE protest — Task and Purpose
