Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️
Trump ordered the military to fight Latin American drug cartels that it labeled as terrorist organizations in a secret directive, multiple news organizations reported on Friday.
Let’s take a moment here to reflect on how far this marks the erosion of congressional power. In theory, presidents can only use military force after Congress declares war; failing that, Congress can issue an Authorization for the Use of Military Force – an AUMF. The 2001 AUMF following 9/11 was incredibly broad, empowering the president to use the military against anyone responsible for the attacks.
That breadth set the stage for the War on Terror, the seemingly endless series of military actions that defined and drained the following decades. We still don’t have a full list of what conflicts and engagements were authorized under the 2001 AUMF. It’s definitional, though, of the expansion of executive power that has allowed the president to use the military overseas with very thin Congressional approval.
Before the election last year, I reported on how the War on Terror fractured the country, helping set the stage for President Trump to apply some of the same methods used during that period, at home. In some ways, the years after 9/11 were a classically authoritarian moment: those who opposed federal policy faced often extreme backlash; only one representative opposed the 2001 AUMF, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA).
One person I spoke with last year was Karen Greenberg, an attorney who directed Fordham Law’s National Security Center. Greenberg had written a book called “Subtle Tools,” in which she argued that the War on Terror’s extralegal methods had crippled American democracy and paved the way for Trump’s assault on the rule of law. One example she held up was the vagueness of the 2001 AUMF: “It was like, no, we’re just going to say there’s a threat. We have the powers, we can do what we want. That was unheard of,” Greenberg told me.
The 2001 AUMF was dangerously vague, but it at least paid minimal service to the idea that the president should be accountable to Congress when using military force. As reported, the cartel declaration appears to ignore that, while also continuing on the administration’s tack of using the military for law enforcement purposes.
On the latter point, some reporting suggests that this will be relatively limited: using Navy ships to intercept drug-smuggling boats, for example. On the former, it’s striking how little grounds the administration has to do this. There is a national self-defense claim Trump can make to avoid Congress; the New York Times suggested that they may rely on fentanyl overdoses to make that claim.
The lack of meaningful congressional oversight isn’t only a box to check, Greenberg told me last year. It can help prevent other abuses, or stop military operations from dragging on indefinitely. As Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and current senior adviser at International Crisis Group, suggested on Bluesky, what this portends is another War on Terror, this time against the cartels.
— Josh Kovensky
Here’s what else TPM has on tap this weekend:
- While Democrats try to decide what exactly their role will be in the upcoming appropriations process and the looming government shutdown, they’re not receiving much good will from Republican leadership.
- A bit more on the shoddiness of the NIH program that RFK Jr. is trying to use to carry out his signature autism research plan.
- A look at why Vice President JD Vance is facing allegations of corrupt canoeing practices.
Let’s dig in.
GOP Leadership Stalls on Dem Meeting Request to Avoid Shutdown
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sent a letter to Republican leaders on Monday demanding a meeting with their counterparts.
The Democratic leaders told Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that they have “the responsibility to govern for all Americans and work on a bipartisan basis to avert a painful, unnecessary shutdown at the end of September.”
“Yet it is clear that the Trump Administration and many within your party are preparing to ‘go it alone’ and continue to legislate on a solely Republican basis,” they added.
During an interview with ABC News on Thursday, Jeffries said he has not heard back from Republicans since sending the letter.
Government funding is set to expire after Sept. 30. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will only have a few weeks to work something out when they come back from the lengthy August recess. Democrats also have some choices to make about how they intend to work with Republicans — if at all. It’s a phenomenon that I unpack here.
Meanwhile the vice chair of House Appropriations Committee Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) told Politico that despite the GOP’s track record he’s confident that all 12 spending bills will get floor votes. But he added, negotiations in both chambers will come down to congressional leaders and the White House.
“That’s really not in the hands of the appropriators,” Díaz-Balart said of shutdown talks. “That’s above our pay grade.”
— Emine Yücel
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The Weekender community is one of my favorite spaces here at TPM. Many of you have been reading since I (Nicole) first took over writing and editing this weekend newsletter. That was during COVID lockdown, a very different era, but one not unlike our current complex and ominous political moment.
It’s really nice to work at an independent news outlet like TPM, which offers me and everyone else on staff ample opportunities to write about how our personal experiences interact with the work we do. We’re political news junkies, just like you, trying to keep up and process what’s happening around us as we do our jobs. That’s the kind of outlet that I hope The Weekender is, both for TPM staff and for loyal readers like you: a unique space to take a breath at the end of a long, heavy news week and digest what’s transpired, as humans. We try to keep it light, too.
If The Weekender has been a helpful service for you over the years, we’d love if you’d consider contributing to our TPM Journalism Fund drive. No pressure, you can finish your coffee first.
— Nicole Lafond
You Had One Job
I wrote this week about RFK Jr.’s signature autism research plan, as executed by the National Institutes of Health. In theory, this is his big chance to prove the medical establishment wrong. For years, he’s claimed, researchers have refused to acknowledge a link between autism and vaccines, as well as other environmental factors. Now, having made it to what was only a few years ago an unimaginable perch within the federal government, he has unbelievable resources to find out the “truth.”
Looking at the track record of Trump officials like RFK Jr., it can be hard to take them at their word. But allow me to be naive here for a moment. This should be Kennedy’s big break: he can finally redirect federal medical research towards what, let’s say, is neither a pet cause nor a great storytelling device, but rather something that he sincerely believes has caused untold harm across the country.
So, what’s actually happening?
Per my reporting, RFK Jr.’s marquee autism research initiative focuses on collecting huge amounts of data on Americans from various sources — wearable device companies, medical records firms, insurers, other federal agencies — and collating them to provide a complete picture of where autism is occurring. Researchers in the area will say that this is a deeply flawed approach, but let’s set that aside for a moment. It’s an ambitious project.
The problem? The Senate is already upset about it, largely because it seems to be a copy of an Alzheimer’s research initiative that was shelved last year after Congress complained that it lacked basic budget constraints and did little to account for privacy issues. One NIH source told me that the autism study seemed to be a copy of the Alzheimer’s one, with a different focus.
What’s revealing to me here is partly the disregard for federal spending, but mostly it’s the shoddiness. Even on the issue that is supposedly at the core of the MAHA agenda, there’s a stunning lack of interest in pursuing what they’ve said was the point of this all along. Read the story here.
— Josh Kovensky
DELIVERVANCE: The Vice President’s Questionable River Ride
Vice President JD Vance is facing allegations of corrupt canoeing practices.
The accusations come from a report published in The Guardian on August 6 that alleged Vance’s team had the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers divert the flow of an Ohio lake to create “ideal kayaking conditions” as he paddled through the area to celebrate his birthday.
In a statement to the newspaper, the USACE confirmed the Secret Service requested to change the outflow of the lake. However, the agency said that request was made to accommodate Vance’s security detail and not to make it easier for him to go with the flow. The newspaper attributed the allegation — that Vance’s team had officials change levels in the lake for his boating needs — to a “source with knowledge of the matter who communicated with the Guardian anonymously” while also noting they “could not independently confirm this specific claim.”
Vance was spotted canoeing on the Little Miami River, which is fed by Caesar Creek Lake, on August 2, his 41st birthday. The Guardian also claimed U.S. Geological Survey data showed a drop in the lake level and corresponding surge on the river during the time Vance was vacationing in the area.
The vice president did not respond to the paper’s request for comment about the kayak kerfuffle. Perhaps, he is hoping the silence can help him float on past this scandal.
— Hunter Walker
