Git! If only Trump could git. As we still wait for the final results in a few key races.
Cartoons via Cagle:
Stay safe, and take it easy. This is an open thread.
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“I guess there could be worse things than two years of HGTV. John Buss, @repeat1968 Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Today there are a lot of new headlines about the Great Trump Grifters. Since that’s what essentially set the Blue Tsunami in motion, I thought it would be a good idea to see what the folks in investigative reporting were up to. It is, of course, mostly the independent media, not the legacy media, that are telling us where our taxes have gone over the last two years. To quote Warren Zevon, “It just ain’t pretty at all.” What we’re seeing now is how many people got around to taking the money and are now trying to run before investigations and hearings heat up.
Here’s one to think about from ProPublica, which should give a lot of the Congress Critters something to move on. “Firm Linked to Trump’s Sons Got Nearly $40 Million in Federal Contracts to Screen for Ebola and Other Diseases. XpresTest has years of experience conducting disease screening in U.S. airports but has never worked with Ebola or provided biosecurity services abroad. It’s “a new thing for us,” the company’s CEO said.” Sharon Lerner, Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Robert Faturechi share the lede.
The Trump administration awarded a small biosecurity company nearly $40 million to screen for Ebola and other infectious diseases just months after a firm linked to President Donald Trump’s elder sons invested in its parent company, according to records and interviews.
The contracts, one to screen for Ebola in several U.S. airports and the other to respond to disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are seven times the total value of government contracts the company had directly received before.
The company, XpresTest, has years of experience monitoring for COVID-19 and other diseases for the government at U.S. airports. That makes its parent, XWELL, an unusual hybrid, selling both spa treatments and biosecurity services. Last year, it made most of its money from waxing salons and airport spas that offer manicures, massages and “chakra beds.”
The contracts are the latest example of the president’s family benefiting financially from his administration’s actions. And the stakes for these deals are particularly high. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an Ebola outbreak has killed more than 5,000 people this year, and the federal government is trying to stop the pathogen from coming to the U.S.
XpresTest has never worked with Ebola or provided biosecurity services abroad, let alone in the kind of volatile locales it’s now expected to work in. The CEO of its parent company, Ezra Ernst, said XpresTest won both contracts in a competitive bidding process and pointed to its years of experience doing screening for COVID-19 and other pathogens at American airports. But even he acknowledged that working internationally is “a new thing for us” and expressed uncertainty about being able to complete the work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“This is a risky contract. I’m not sure we can do it,” Ernst said in an interview.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who helped oversee the U.S. government’s response to a 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said there are some parallels between monitoring for COVID-19 and Ebola at airports, but he said it’s concerning that the government would award such a lucrative contract to a company that has no experience in Africa.
“There are countless organizations in the world that have decades of experience doing this work,” Konyndyk said. “I have to wonder why the hell they’re not going with someone who has actually done this before.”
Under previous administrations, the U.S. government addressed international disease outbreaks in partnership with the World Health Organization. But Trump withdrew from the group last year, dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which handled much of this work, and dramatically scaled back the global presence of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gee that all sounds pretty convenient and strange doesn’t it? Here’s the punchline, but do go read this very informative article at the link. Of course, the CDC said nothing but the team of investigative reporters did the work digging out the facts anyway. There is a lot more at the link.A spokesperson for the president’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump said that they are “merely passive, minority investors in a fund that invested in this company,” and that they had no “involvement in or knowledge regarding the negotiation or procurement of any of its contracts, including any government contracts.”
“Both are private citizens who hold no government positions, broken no laws and who have every right to pursue lawful business and investment opportunities,” the spokesperson said.
The Trump sons’ connection to XWELL was established in February, when a fund called American Ventures invested in the company. The fund was launched by Dominari Holdings, a small financial firm with offices inside Trump Tower in New York. The leaders of Dominari hired the Trump sons as advisers after their father was elected to a second term and granted them a stake of more than 10% in Dominari.
Ben Berkowitz, writing for AXIOS, has some of the down low on Trump’s relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. This is getting to be terrifically juicy story. “Trump backs Nvidia’s Huang amid affair, spy investigation.”
President Trump defended Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Sunday night, even as the company’s board launched an investigation into his affair with a suspected Chinese spy.
Why it matters: The blowback to Huang’s relationship is only getting more intense by the hour, with multiple members of Congress calling for probes and investors saying the news could put a cloud over the entire AI trade.
What they’re saying: Trump was asked Sunday night if he’s taking Huang with him on an Asia trip next week.- “I don’t know, but I’d certainly take him,” the president told reporters.
- “I haven’t heard that he’s done anything wrong,” Trump added. “He dealt with somebody but, you know, so does everybody else.”
The intrigue: The New York Times reported in late October that Trump was briefed earlier this year about Huang’s relationship with the potential spy but chose not to act.
- Huang has been one of Trump’s favorite corporate executives since his return to office, with Huang frequently appearing at White House events.
- He also traveled with Trump to China earlier this year, even after the reported memo warning the president of Huang’s relationship.
What’s next: A group of House Republican committee chairs have asked Huang to agree by Nov. 11 to a date for a briefing on his relationship and Nvidia’s national security controls.
Here’s some information from that New York Times article from late October. There was a large team of reporters on this. The link is gifted. “Nvidia Chief Seen as Target of Chinese Spy Plot. A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with Jensen Huang was found to be passing intelligence to Beijing. President Trump was briefed and took no action.” The oldest trick in the bookAmerican spy agencies had gathered striking intelligence.
A top executive at a Singapore-based data center company was under scrutiny for possibly steering advanced Nvidia A.I. chips to China. And now American officials had concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset, funneling information to Beijing.
But what came next was even more alarming. Surveillance of the executive, Alice Huang or Huang Le, a Chinese citizen, revealed that she had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive.
For years, Washington has worked to deny China the technology needed to match or surpass the United States in the intense global competition for superiority in artificial intelligence. The discovery that Beijing was getting reports from someone with direct access to Mr. Huang, one of the most powerful figures in the A.I. revolution as well as an influential ally of President Trump’s, set off alarms at the White House.
Roughly a year ago, Mr. Trump was briefed about the intelligence findings, which have not been previously reported, and chose not to do anything with the information. Mr. Trump has been wary of disrupting Nvidia’s chip sales, which are helping to drive the economy and the stock market, and of further complicating the trading relationship with China.
This account is based on interviews with people briefed on the surveillance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the findings are drawn from classified intelligence, as well as other officials and industry executives and analysts.
You have to wonder what was in it for Trump to ignore the entire thing or if it was just his usual lack of interest in anything that’s not related to turning the White House into Liberace’s Dressing Room. However, this follow-up today by The New York Times, suggests there’s more intrigue we’ll discover soon. “Commerce Dept. Chip Inquiry Was Halted After Nvidia Intervention. An investigation into Megaspeed, a Singapore company that was buying advanced Nvidia A.I. chips, was transferred to the Justice Department after a top Nvidia executive reached out to Commerce Department officials.” Don’t you just love it when life mimics a John le Carré novel?Investigators at the Commerce Department were deep into a monthslong investigation of a Singaporean company that they suspected of smuggling Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips into China when their work came to a sudden halt late last year.
The investigation centered on Megaspeed, a data center company led by an executive who U.S. officials now believe to be a Chinese spy who had a relationship with Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang.
But the case was abruptly transferred to the Justice Department last year. The shift came after Commerce Department investigators working on the case received an email from Nvidia’s general counsel seeking information about the inquiry into Megaspeed.
It is not necessarily unusual for Commerce Department agents working on a case to speak with a company’s representatives about issues involving their firm. But what was unusual was the content of the message. Tim Teter, Nvidia’s general counsel, said that Jeff Kessler, a top official at the department, had given Nvidia permission to reach out about the case.
The agents were alarmed that Nvidia had invoked the name of Mr. Kessler, their superior, who was nominated to his role by President Trump. Some viewed Mr. Kessler’s interaction with Nvidia as violating government procedure and potentially tainting the case, according to current and former government officials and others familiar with the incident.
It is not clear what led to Mr. Teter’s outreach to the department, but the recent revelations about Mr. Huang’s acknowledged affair with a Megaspeed executive have only intensified scrutiny of Nvidia’s role in influencing policy on chip sales to China. The New York Times reported last month that the U.S. government had concluded that Huang Le, or Alice Huang, a top executive at the firm, was a spy working on behalf of the Chinese government.
On Sunday, Nvidia said it was opening an investigation into Mr. Huang, after he acknowledged to the company’s board that he had been intimate with Ms. Huang. The pair, who are not related, had been photographed together on multiple occasions, including at a bar and a restaurant in Taiwan alongside other tech executives.
So, I like the sounds of this interview, however, I just will believe it all when I see it. This is from CBS NEWS. “Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats are committed to “holding the crooks accountable” in new Congress.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who’s poised to become House Speaker in the new Congress following his party’s widespread gains in the midterm elections, said Monday that Democrats will focus “relentlessly” on addressing affordability in their majorities, while also setting their sights on combatting corruption.
“We’re committed to accountability and to holding the crooks accountable if you’ve been stealing from the American people, screwing over the American people or shortchanging the American people,” Jeffries said on “CBS Mornings.”
As the high cost of living became a key driver in the midterm elections, corruption has also invigorated voters at the ballot box. Roughly nine in 10 voters nationally said government corruption was a major factor in their vote, according to CBS News exit polling. And Democrats put the issue front and center in their final pitch to voters, who turned out overwhelmingly for the party, resulting in the House and Senate flipping control.
Now, as Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, they’re working to align priorities, amid concerns that investigations and possible impeachment efforts against the administration could detract from their ability to address affordability for voters.
Asked whether Democrats can address both cost-of-living and corruption concerns, Jeffries said, “Yes, and we have to.”
Jeffries said Democrats will “focus aggressively and relentlessly on dealing with the affordability crisis,” while also pursuing accountability. He said, “We’re going to follow the facts, apply the law, be guided by the Constitution, and then let the chips fall where they may.”
The New York Democrat linked the affordability issue to corruption concerns, just as a number of Democratic candidates did on the campaign trail, saying, as Americans have struggled with high prices, “we’ve seen unprecedented corruption unleashed on the American people.”
Additionally, Jeffries said this about Pete Hegseth as reported by The Guardian. “Hakeem Jeffries supports impeachment of Pete Hegseth: ‘He has got to go’. House Democrat is a ‘hard yes’ on impeachment resolution against defense secretary who ‘has abused his power’.”House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, poised to become majority leader, said on Sunday that he strongly supports impeaching defense secretary Pete Hegseth as a Republican lawmaker prepares to force a House vote.
The top Democrat made his position clear during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, declaring himself a “hard yes” on the impeachment resolution targeting Hegseth.
“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe,” Jeffries said. “Pete Hegseth has got to go.”
The announcement comes as Kentucky Republican representative Thomas Massie, an outgoing congressman and frequent critic of Donald Trump, moves to revive his impeachment effort against Hegseth.
Massie said he plans to reintroduce an impeachment resolution as soon as Monday, potentially setting up a House showdown within days. The measure includes eight articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of multiple offenses, including violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Asked whether he expects the entire Democratic caucus to support the resolution, Jeffries said members will “have that conversation” Tuesday morning when lawmakers return to Washington for the first time since the midterm elections.
“But I believe there will be incredibly strong support for that resolution,” Jeffries said.
The mounting pressure on Hegseth follows Republican losses in the midterm elections, with both Trump and voters identifying the Iran war as a major factor in the party’s defeat.
More information at the link. I really hate to give time to Russ Douthat as well as Trump but the doozy of an explanation by Trump of the outrageous level of wealth increase by him during the past two years was actually righteously asked Trump about his corruption and net worth. This is from The New Republic. “Trump Crumbles Trying to Defend How Much Money He’s Made as President. Donald Trump couldn’t explain why he hadn’t divested of his businesses, among other things.” The Link has been gifted.President Donald Trump had a tough time on CBS’s 60 Minutes trying to defend the massive increase in his wealth since the start of his second term.In an interview that aired Sunday, interviewer Ross Douthat pointed out to the president that his net worth has gone up by $3 billion since January 2025, to which the president tried to argue that it was all because of his children. Trump then claimed that everyone’s wealth went up, prompting Douthat to note that he himself didn’t make $3 billion. Trump retorted, “You should have owned stock.”
“I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don’t care. I make, I have a lotta money, and far more than I ever thought I’d have. And I guess it’s gone up. I don’t even know. I have a son who’s a very straight, good guy. He watches over money. I don’t even talk to him about it. He watches. He gives, they gave my money, I have a lotta cash, have, had a lotta cash long before I came in here. I don’t take a salary, you know?” Trump said, trying to explain his newfound wealth.
Douthat also pointed out the apparent corruption from Trump’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, and how it took money from the United Arab Emirates. He pointed out that if President Joe Biden had done something similar, Trump would have called it corrupt. Trump tried to pin it all on his sons.
“I have, but you have sons where they go around and they build buildings. That’s what they do. That’s what I did long before I became president. I did it better than anybody. I was very good at real estate. I made a lotta money. But—but I have a company. My sons run the company. It’s hard to say to them, ‘Don’t do anything any more for four years because I’m president,’” Trump said.
In response to Douthat asking about outside forces who use Trump’s cryptocurrency for influence peddling, Trump tried to claim that every president has had a similar problem, “going back to George Washington.”
My goodness — Douthat landed knockout punches on Trump over his corruption
I don’t know how much of this well actually happen. We should see hearings but with the DOJ still under Trumps command, I’m not so sure they will be prosecuted withing whatever time limits exist. At least the information is out there for all to see! Anyway this was a story about Trump and Cronies.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
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Now that cartoon by Robert Leighton is spot on…especially when you consider the absolutely crazy ass shit Trump has done since the enormous pounding he received on Tuesday.
That is some samples of the crazy to start you off with…
And then this happened:
Thank you to BB for giving me a good laugh last night:
That’s entertainment!
Well…
…that’s how it goes.
And now the cartoons via Cagle.
A BlueSky post from der spiegel 
Take it easy, this is an open thread.
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Good Afternoon!!
Tiger-and Magpie Hojakdo, a traditional style of Korean folk painting, from the Joseon-period. Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller to Chief of Staff is dominating the news today. When I woke up this morning, it was almost the only story highlighted on Memeorandum.com. It certainly is a horrifying development, but I had assumed that Miller was already extremely influential in the White House. Perhaps Susie Wiles was more of a moderating force than I realized. In any case, Wiles is gone now and Miller has the top White House job. He also appears to be on friendly terms with First Lady Natalie Harp. He was seen hobnobbing with her as they made their way to Marine One on the way to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. Here’s the latest on Miller elevation.
, , , , and at CNN: Stephen Miller replacing Susie Wiles as chief of staff as Trump grows furious with midterm results, sources say.
Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, is departing her role days after catastrophic Republican midterm losses in a seismic staff shakeup at the White House. She will be replaced by Stephen Miller, a longtime aide to President Donald Trump who orchestrated his hardline immigration agenda.
The move is the first major personnel shuffling after the midterms, and came after Trump voiced fury at the strategy that led to Republicans decisively losing majorities in the House and Senate, people familiar with the matter said. And the president signaled Friday it will not be the last, telling CBS News “I do” when asked if he intended to fire people.
“I love my Cabinet. I think they’re good. But I’ll be doing maybe a few changes. I don’t want to mention who,” Trump said.
Yet the decision to elevate Miller — one of the most powerful and controversial engineers of Trump’s second term — to the top staff position in the West Wing is a sign the president does not intend to fundamentally change his governing approach.
Trump said Wiles would move to his political operation, adding that she “has done an outstanding job.” And as he departed the White House for an event in Florida Friday, he praised Miller.
“Stephen’s been great, and sometimes in life, you gotta make moves,” Trump told reporters shortly after announcing the staffing shakeup.
“Stephen’s been with me from beginning. He gets it, very good politically, and he’s a very good man,” he added.
I guess so, if you like Nazis who look like Nosferatu. More from the CNN story:
Trump, who initially appeared unfazed by the results of the Tuesday night midterms, has become angrier as he’s watched coverage of the historic losses, according to the people familiar with his response. That sour mood has spread throughout the West Wing, which has become increasingly factionalized in recent days. Aides have described a workplace filled with tension and infighting, likening it to the “knives out” days of Trump’s first term, and Wiles’ departure will likely accelerate the shift in the balance of power in his inner circle….
By Japanese artist Kanako Oguma As it became clear the president was unhappy with her, Wiles decided to resign, believing he should be able to tap someone to lead his White House that had his confidence, according to a person familiar with her thinking. Wiles had always said she’d remain at the White House until the end of Trump’s second term. But the person familiar noted that Wiles had a tough year personally, given her cancer diagnosis and treatment, saying: “It wasn’t worth her staying in a job Trump was making clear he didn’t want her in.” [….]
I guess we’ll have to see how much more influential Miller becomes in the new job. Wiles reportedly didn’t get deeply involved in political issues. Miller will obviously push for more cruel immigration policies.
Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Tyler Pager at The New York Times (gift link): In Elevating Stephen Miller, Trump Doubles Down on Hard-Line Agenda.
On Friday, the president ousted his onetime close adviser, Susie Wiles, from the role of White House chief of staff, replacing her with Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff. More than any other top adviser, Mr. Miller encouraged an aggressive flexing of executive power when Mr. Trump returned to office.
Mr. Miller has been the driver of the president’s most muscular actions, including the use of increasingly hostile tactics to capture immigrants across the country and the bombing of small boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean that he and Mr. Trump declared constituted a foreign invasion.
The president’s choice sent a clear signal about the posture he intends to strike in his final two years in office and how little he intends to alter his approach in response to the most decisive political rout in half a century. He also put on center stage a figure who had already been a galvanizing target for Democrats intent on using their new powers in Congress to check the administration.
Adult mackerel tabby cat arching its back and hissing alongside a small kitten, created by Korean artist Hyejin In a social media post, Mr. Miller praised Mr. Trump as “the most transformative political leader” in U.S. history, saying that he had “single-handedly saved America from those who would destroy it.”
“The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our president and defend this magnificent Republic,” he added.
People close to Mr. Miller said he had shown no interest in compromising with congressional Democrats and was ready for a fight over subpoenas and investigations that are expected to emanate from the Hill. His top priority, they said, is rebuilding the fractured MAGA coalition and pursuing policies that will energize the voters who elected Mr. Trump in 2024.
“Stephen is and always has been the eternal flame of the MAGA movement — putting the president’s words and policy into action,” Hunter Morgen, who worked as a deputy to Mr. Miller during the president’s first term and is now a lobbyist at Ballard Partners, wrote in a text message….
While Ms. Wiles made clear she did not consider her job to be protecting the country from the president, as some of his first-term senior aides did, Mr. Miller is far more willing than she ever was to push legal boundaries.
Adam Gabbatt at The Guardian: Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, pledges ‘total devotion’ to the president.
Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s most controversial aide and the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown, has lavished praise on the president after his appointment as White House chief of staff.
In his first public remarks since the move was announced, Miller – who begins the role on Monday – pledged “total devotion” to Trump amid concern the administration is now poised to double down on its far-right, nativist immigration agenda.
“If it wasn’t for President Trump the United States of America would not exist right now,” Miller, standing alongside his boss, declared at an event on Friday evening. “This man saved America. He saved our military from collapse. He saved our economy from destruction. He saved our border from annihilation. He saved our country from threats at home and abroad which would have been the end of the American dream for ever.”
Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889) Cat with mouse His appointment was unveiled after Americans punished Trump’s Republican party in this week’s US midterm elections, unleashing a blue wave that swept through parts of the country where Democrats have not won in decades.
As of Saturday morning, Republicans have lost seven seats in the Senate, and Democrats hold narrow leads in the two races – Alaska and Mississippi – that have yet to be called. Republicans have also lost 42 seats in the House of Representatives, and five governor races.
Despite this extraordinary array of losses nationwide – which senior Republicans including JD Vance have blamed on the Iran war and tariffs, key pillars of Trump’s agenda – Miller praised the president on Friday for having “saved the Republican party from the ash heap of history and has made it stronger, more popular and more resilient than ever before”.
Miller added: “It is the honor of my life to be President Trump’s chief of staff, and I swear to you, and I pledge to you, Mr President, my absolute loyalty, my unwavering commitment, and my total devotion to your success and the success of this country.” [….]
Miller’s appointment has been met with dismay by Democrats and some Republicans, with Marlin Stutzman, the Republican congressman from Indiana, describing the move as a “horrible decision” in comments to Politico.
Don Bacon, the outgoing Republican congressman from Nebraska, predicted that Miller will “have an antagonistic relationship with many”, telling CNN: “He cost us seats in Texas and Arizona by alienating many Hispanic voters who voted for Trump in 2024.”
Jonathan Lemire, Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Sarah Fitzpatrick, and Vivian Salama at The Atlantic (gift link): A Chief of Staff Who ‘Will Crack Skulls’.
In the days before MAGA’s midterm disaster, President Trump began complaining about his presidency. He felt stuck. The war in Iran wouldn’t end. Inflation wouldn’t subside. Little was going his way. But in the president’s mind, there was one exception: “Stephen is the only one who gets stuff done,” Trump repeatedly griped, a person close to the White House told us. “I need more people who get stuff done.”
Stephen Miller, one of the president’s hardest-charging and longest-serving aides, had managed to maintain Trump’s trust, even though he is the architect of the administration’s sweeping mass-deportation campaign that many in the GOP blame, in part, for the Republicans’ historic wipeout this week. Today, Trump announced that Miller would replace Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, completing his decade-long journey from congressional staffer to the most powerful aide in Washington.
Where Wiles served as something of a guardrail—making sure Trump was fully briefed and that he understood the risks and pitfalls of any decision—Miller has played the role of an accelerant for a president who already has rash tendencies. One issue on which Wiles and Miller seem to diverge: how to force journalists to reveal their sources in the government. Trump has pushed the Department of Justice to pursue criminal-leak investigations on national-security grounds, and there have been discussions in the White House and at DOJ about various tactics they could use—including arrests—as part of those efforts, according to three people familiar with the matter. Two of those people said that Wiles had pushed back. Miller, though, was in favor and insisted that it wouldn’t take long for journalists to give up their sources, they told us. A DOJ spokesperson told us via text that “this is absolutely false” but declined to elaborate. A White House spokesperson told us in a statement that unauthorized leaks will “NEVER be tolerated” and those responsible “must be held accountable.”
One person familiar with Trump’s decision to elevate Miller told us that the president wants somebody who “will crack skulls,” adding that Trump “doesn’t want to be reined in.” Another described Miller as someone with significant Capitol Hill experience who could manage the coming clashes with Democrats. White House officials have held high-level conversations in recent days, including with Miller, about areas where they can work with Democrats. But another person familiar with Trump’s thinking said there was no need for a chief of staff who could work the Hill to pass legislation, because nothing was going to get done. “The next two years are going to be nonstop political warfare,” this person told us—and Miller can be the face of that fight.
Cat and Yellow butterfly, Xu Beihong, Chinese artist This is a very interesting article. I hope you’ll use the gift link to read the whole thing. Here’s just a bit more on Miller:
Miller has been with Trump from the beginning. He was an aide to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who became the first senator to endorse Trump’s 2016 campaign. Before long, Miller was designing policy proposals—particularly those that reflected his hard-line immigration views—and sometimes appearing as a fiery warm-up act at Trump’s rallies. He co-authored the first term’s so-called Muslim ban, became known for his high-volume and belligerent TV interviews defending Trump, and was one of the few staffers to navigate the often-competing power centers in the dysfunctional West Wing. (In both terms, he has remained well liked by colleagues, who appreciate his straightforwardness and dry sense of humor.) Miller oversaw the writing of the speech that Trump delivered from the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol insurrection, and his influence only grew during Trump’s four years out of power. Miller used that time to help write Project 2025, a playbook for Trump’s return to the White House that included a broad expansion of executive power.
At the core of Miller’s agenda was a sweeping deportation program. Masked ICE agents detained people in quiet neighborhoods and Home Depot parking lots, while Miller demanded that dramatic deportation quotas be met. Americans, polling showed, began to view the tactics as extreme, particularly after the killing of two Americans in Minneapolis early this year. Trump’s political team has privately blamed Miller’s aggressive immigration policy in part for the defeat on Tuesday, because violent ICE clashes and ethnic profiling on the streets have alienated both Latino voters and moderate independents.
Miller has already been operating as a de facto chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security and the president’s mass-deportation campaign. He hosts conference calls six days a week with top officials from agencies across the government who are enlisted to help ICE with the crackdown. Officials who participate in the calls say that Miller often berates staff who disappoint him or lack the information he wants. The White House press office promised in a statement tonight that Miller “will continue to deliver historic successes for the American people.”
And there’s this:
Recently, Trump had begun telling people close to him that he was considering changing his immigration emphasis, recognizing that although voters supported his tough border-security stance, ICE’s brutal approach to rounding up undocumented immigrants, including those who are not criminals, was provoking a backlash. Trump had begun to hear from business owners about their employees being deported, along with the nannies and tutors of friends, and he was open to pivoting. Miller, as his chief of staff, will now directly oversee the policy debate, a shift from his role as the resident immigration hawk in the White House.
Immigration policy definitely won’t get kinder and gentler with Miller in charge.
Lauren Kaori Gurley at The Washington Post (gift link): Stephen Miller’s promotion angers industries reeling from immigration enforcement.
Industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor decried President Donald Trump’s promotion of his chief architect of deportations on Friday, just days after millions of Americans signaled anger about such policies.
There’s quite a bit more commentary on the Miller appointment from business people at the link, and none of it is positive.
And check this out from Fox News’s Elizabeth Elkind: House GOP erupts at Stephen Miller as Trump elevates him after midterm massacre: ‘Megalomaniac’.
Several Republican lawmakers are fuming over President Donald Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller to be his chief of staff.
“Horrible decision,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital on Friday after Trump announced his decision.
A Republican lawmaker who was granted anonymity to speak candidly said they were in “utter disbelief.”
Tensions were rising against Miller in the wake of Republicans’ terrible performance in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Multiple House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital just moments before his promotion said Miller, who spearheads Trump’s immigration policy, should be fired.
When later asked about his promotion, one House Republican who said Miller should be fired replied simply with a facepalm emoji….
The second GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital that Miller ignored multiple warnings from House Republicans in the past, arguing that Trump’s immigration crackdown is what voters asked for.
Another Hojakdo Tiger and Magpie painting “I’ve been in several group meetings where a lot of us have told him, ‘Your immigration enforcement policies are backfiring back home, our people are mad, our businesses are mad — even in deep red districts — and it is impacting not just the voters, but the donors, and everybody top to bottom,” that GOP lawmaker said. “But it looked to me like Stephen Miller was only after numbers … he would not listen to us.”
Other Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital also criticized Miller but did not go as far as to say he should be fired.
“I think he’s greatly hurt the administration and cost us many seats on Tuesday,” retiring Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital before news of Miller’s promotion broke. “He took an immigration policy that favored the president 2:1 in the public, over-reached and made it 2:1 unfavorable.”
“Many Republicans don’t like him,” Bacon added when asked about his promotion.
One more story on Miller’s elevation from Dasha Burns and Will Steakin at Politico: How Katie Miller lobbied for her husband’s promotion.
President Donald Trump’s decision to make Stephen Miller the White House chief of staff followed a weeks-long lobbying effort from Katie Miller, his wife.
Katie Miller told people to call the president on her husband’s behalf if they believed that he was better than other potential successors to Susie Wiles, according to two people with direct knowledge of her role, who, like others in this story, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some of the names Trump discussed privately over the last month were Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Randy Levine, the president of the New York Yankees. Lee Zeldin and Sergio Gor were also floated, according to two people close to the White House.
One White House adviser, granted anonymity to speak about sensitive matters, said the prospect of Pulte in charge had alarmed many inside the administration…
Katie Miller’s persuasion campaign unfolded even as the White House furiously denied that Trump was considering replacing Susie Wiles….
Katie Miller’s advocacy in support of her husband intensified after the election. She made half a dozen calls to people close to Trump, including Scott Bessent and multiple people close to Vice President JD Vance, according to two people familiar with the calls.
Sorry to hit you with such a repulsive subject on the weekend. But we do need to know what we’re dealing with. Obviously, Trump is getting more delusional if he thinks listening to Stephen Miller will help him. I just hope he doesn’t put Miller in charge and focus full time on his decorating obsessions.
Take care everyone! At least we know we’ll have a Democratic Congress pretty soon.
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“The short-lived resurrection resulted in massive damage, but we are a resilient nation.” John Buss, @repeat1968 Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It looks like the chickens are either coming home to roost or scattering elsewhere. I really hope we can learn from this and move forward. It looks like we’re finally filling our governments, both federal and local, with the voices of We the People instead of a few inbred throwbacks to the Gilded Age.
The real first business of the House should be to get rid of Dark Money and the funding of politicians — and their appointments —that benefit from the corruption it causes. And in case you’re wondering, all the Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who voted for change shared one top motivating reason. It was the overwhelming Government Corruption that exists at all levels. The Trump Family Crime Syndicate was just so obvious it couldn’t be ignored by the vast majority of Americans.
The Trump Regime has many targets we must take down. You can smell the scent of Congressional hearings in the air. The first on the list is one that even Trump recognizes is a big liability for him and an opportunity to shift blame. The self-anointed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, sees the chickens coming for him. Between forcing Evangelical White Patriarchal Christianity on our military and getting rid of anyone who doesn’t match that wet dream, and mishandling the entire Iran War started by Israel debacle, he should spend the rest of his days sucking his thumb in a padded cell.This analysis of Hegseth and the Democratically held House’s plan for him is from Greg Sargent, writing for The New Republic. “Transcript: Trump Shivs Hegseth in Weird Aside as GOP Knives Come Out. With Pete Hegseth on thin ice, Rep. Adam Smith, the next Armed Services Committee chair, explains in an interview how Democrats will work to end Trump’s illegal war—and defund it if necessary.” This is a very good start.
Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
Donald Trump’s war on Iran played a major role in the GOP’s massive electoral drubbing this week, and as a result, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in serious trouble. Donald Trump just defended him, but then in a strange aside seemed to suggest he’s vulnerable. Meanwhile, Republicans and Trump allies really have their knives out for Hegseth, and the campaign to remove him appears serious. He even faces an impeachment vote next week.
But we want to get into what the Democratic Congress can really do about Hegseth’s disastrous reign. So we’re talking to Congressman Adam Smith of Washington State, the incoming chair of the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for coming on.
Adam Smith: Well, thanks for having me, Greg. It’s always a pleasure.
Sargent: So, on Hegseth’s tenuous position, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl spoke to the president and reported Thursday that Trump said, “I have every intention to keep him.”
But Trump said people unhappy with Hegseth aren’t contacting him, saying, “I get these calls about him. I don’t understand why.”
And Trump even admitted it would be easier to confirm a new defense secretary before Dems control the Senate next year.
Congressman, this is how Trump turns on people, with talk like this. You’ve been around the Pentagon a long time. How do you read it?
Smith: I think it’s 50-50 that Trump does get rid of Hegseth for the reasons you stated. And also because the Iran war has been a complete disaster. Trump needs a fall guy. And we all know Trump’s not going to take personal responsibility for it.
So Hegseth would be convenient, and deservedly so. Hegseth was a cheerleader for this and a lot of the disastrous decisions that have been made going into it, Hegseth has been right in the middle of. So I think that’s a distinct possibility.
The other thing to weigh here is that on Wednesday the motion by Congressman Massie is ripe for a vote. And by every estimation, it will pass and he will be impeached. And off that goes to the Senate. Then the Senate is legally required to spend all of their time dealing with that until it’s done with.
Sargent: That’s going to be quite a scene. And MS NOW reports that Trump has been asking allies what they think about Hegseth, and some of them are pushing for a replacement. One official says, “There’s a lot of people who want his scalp, and they smell blood in the water.”
This looks real to me, Congressman. What are you hearing from inside the Pentagon? Is there consternation?
Smith: Yeah, well, we don’t hear a lot from inside the Pentagon. I can tell you, from inside the military more broadly, yes. There are people who have been concerned with the way Pete Hegseth has been running the department. And it comes down to politicization of it, first of all.
And second of all, it’s become so much about personality. Look, there is a professionalism within the military. And that’s not that there aren’t people who serve in the military who don’t have strong political views one way or the other. There certainly are. But they’ve always put those aside in favor of the job, the mission, and working together.
Pete Hegseth has not done that. I mean, he’s had those two, you know, ridiculous forums where he brought every flag officer together to give a pep rally of sorts, in which he seems to be obsessed with physical appearance more than with actual results.
We’ve had the firings that, from what we’ve heard, in many instances people have no idea why they happened. Hegseth is the first secretary of defense ever to directly involve himself in mid-level promotion decisions, you know, to go in and cross off names.
So all of that, I think, has had a very negative effect on morale within the Pentagon. And look, none of this is to say that there aren’t some people, I’m sure, in the military who love Hegseth and love what he does. But dissatisfaction within the Pentagon about his leadership is high, from what we have heard, or what we’ve been told.
Sargent: I’m sure it is. I’m sure there would be a lot of people who’d like to see him go.
The Iran war has cost $47 billion so far. Trump is still talking about a major attack. Have you been briefed on what the attack is? Senator Murphy says it’s “insane.” Is he right?
Smith: Yeah, I mean, look, they haven’t briefed us consistently on this from the very start. They have been doing attacks in the last few days, last few weeks.
What isn’t widely understood is, for months now, we have been engaged in a major military operation to secure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Now, yeah, we’re up close to, like, 80 percent of traffic of what was there before the war. But it’s costing us an enormous amount of money to protect those ships coming through, and to bomb potential missile launchers and missiles that Iran’s trying to build. So it’s become very, very expensive.
As usual, there is more at the link. Some of the best news is the number of corrupt and political prosecutors who are leaving the building. This is from Matt Cohen writing for Democracy Docket. “Prosecutor leading Trump’s ‘grand conspiracy’ investigation into Democrats resigns.”Jason Reding Quiñones, the top prosecutor investigating an alleged “grand conspiracy” by Democrats against President Donald Trump, has resigned.
As United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Quiñones was tasked with a wide-ranging probe into top Democrats and high-profile Trump foes who the president alleged conspired to sabotage his first term. The investigation also targeted officials who led the criminal investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Quiñones’ departure likely signals the end of the politically motivated investigation.
Another important resignation happened yesterday. This is from The Independent. “Trump’s ally and DOJ civil rights chief resigns after embarrassing midterm losses
Harmeet Dhillon resigns from Justice Department’s storied civil rights division after embarrassing GOP losses.” Alex Woodward has the story.Donald Trump’s chief of the storied Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice has resigned, marking the first top administration official to leave the administration after Republicans suffered brutal losses in midterm elections this week.
Harmeet Dhillon — who steered the agency away from critical missions like protecting voting rights, police oversight and combating racial discrimination during her 18 months at the Justice Department — submitted her resignation Thursday.
“She has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor,” Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Thursday.
“The Department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavors,” he added.
Dhillon, an attorney who supported the president’s efforts to reverse his election loss in 2020 and joined his “election integrity” team in 2024, had refocused the Civil Rights Division to investigate what she called “woke ideology,” including transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports, “anti-Christian bias,” and institutions with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, among other culture war issues that departed from the department’s core mission to combat discrimination and protect the rights of historically marginalized groups.
In her resignation letter to the president, Dhillon said she told White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in October that she was planning to leave the administration. “I resigned three weeks ago, and Susie asked me to please wait until after the midterms,” she told Fox News.
Further analysis of this horrible appointment can be found at Mother Jones. “The DOJ Official Who Spent 19 Months Terrorizing Colleges Is Resigning. Harmeet Dhillon turned the Civil Rights Division into a weapon against DEI, and she’s leaving after the GOP’s midterm rout.” This story is reported by Sonel Cutler.Misery loves company, and for the past 19 months, American colleges have had plenty of both, largely thanks to Harmeet K. Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, who has spent her entire tenure treating campuses like crime scenes.
Dhillon undid years of diversity, equity, and inclusion work at more than 300 colleges by launching aggressive investigations, lawsuits, and pressure campaigns. Now she’s leaving because she didn’t get a promotion.
Dhillon had become increasingly frustrated that she had not been promoted to a higher post, MS NOW reported. She told the administration before the midterms that she planned to step down after the election.
“Serving my country as AAG for Civil Rights has been the honor of a lifetime,” Dhillon wrote Thursday on X. “We ushered in the downfall of illegal DEI, we fought to protect women and girls’ sports, and so much more.”
She’s being modest. Under Dhillon, the Justice Department stopped investigating accusations of systemic racism or sexism and declined to investigate ICE officers’ fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year. Tasked with protecting the rights of people with disabilities, Dhillon has also used the r-word in casual social media posts.
Dhillon also turned the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department—created to repair the injustices of Jim Crow—into a relentless legal sledgehammer aimed at universities with programs that uplifted marginalized groups.
Since starting the job in April 2025, Dhillon has bragged about opening more than 100 investigations into university admissions practices, accusing colleges of discrimination for maintaining race-conscious programs and of antisemitism for allowing pro-Palestinian activism on campus.
In a way, she was wildly successful. Since 2024, more than 300 campuses have eliminated DEI requirements, closed DEI offices, removed diversity statements from hiring processes, and changed or removed their DEI policies.
“She has corrupted [the Civil Rights Division’s] mission,” Vanita Gupta, a former head of the DOJ civil rights division under President Joe Biden, told the New York Times in August.
There will be more news undoubtedly, on what’s going on with Toddy Blanche’s massive political operation as AG. Kathryn Wilkens of MEDIAITE has this development concerning Blanche and possible impeachment motions. “Two House Democrats Advocate Impeaching AG Todd Blanche — And One Sees a Possible Path to Conviction in New Senate.”Two House Democrats are already discussing impeaching Attorney General Todd Blanche following their party’s sweeping midterm victories Tuesday, with one suggesting there could even be enough votes in the Senate to convict him.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) told Mediaite founder Dan Abrams on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s The Dan Abrams Show that Blanche should be removed from office over his handling of the Justice Department.
The conversation followed Democrats’ crushing defeat of Republicans on Tuesday, which gave them control of both the House and Senate.
Abrams asked Johnson what the newly-empowered Congress could do to rein in the DOJ’s political retribution campaign.
“I personally believe that the offenses of Todd Blanche demand that he be impeached and convicted and removed from office,” Johnson said. “That’s my personal opinion. I think his efforts to undermine the rule of law can’t go unaddressed.”
Abrams then brought on Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) and asked whether she agreed.
“100%,” Ross replied. “But I think we should start with Hegseth.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces a potential impeachment vote as soon as next week, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) spearheading the effort.
“I can’t imagine we won’t have one,” she said, though, of a Blanche impeachment resolution.
Ross suggested the Democrats’ expanded Senate majority could change the calculus for convictions, noting that previous Trump impeachments failed to secure enough Senate votes.
And of course, Orange Caligula does what Orange Caligula likes best, besides checking out men’s butts. “Trump focuses on White House decor for second straight day in post-midterm remarks. The president signed a proclamation that he said would prevent major changes to the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room by future presidents without congressional approval.” This story is from NBC NEWS. Such an important task at hand that! Kyla Guilfoil has the lede.
President Donald Trump is using his postelection public appearances to talk about the lasting physical changes he hopes to leave behind at the White House.
In the two days since Republicans suffered massive losses in the midterm elections, Trump has spoken twice in public. Both times he focused on rooms and renovations at the White House.
On Thursday, Trump signed a proclamation that designates the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as a national monument in an effort to block any significant changes to them by future presidents.
“We’re going to be declaring it a national monument, and we’re going to send it over to Congress to have it ratified,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It won’t be able to be taken down, destroyed, touched or anything else.”
Trump, who later took questions from reporters about other topics, said any “major modifications” to the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room would have to be approved by Congress, adding that he hopes “the people in Congress will be smart enough not to let that happen.”
The White House has officially been a U.S. National Historic Landmark since 1960. Trump wrote in the proclamation that “the Oval Office merits specific recognition and protective management as a discrete historic structure of national significance.”
The signing ceremony came a day after Trump spoke to reporters at the construction site for the new White House ballroom he’s building. Even though it was his first time addressing the media publicly after the Democrats swept several seats in deep red states to secure control of Congress, he focused his comments on the ballroom.
“I’m doing it because the White House is the ultimate symbol of America and it’s got to be pristine — it’s got to be perfect,” Trump said, adding that he felt “it would be appropriate to have the media here.”
Wow, that really tops the nation’s problems and priorities, doesn’t it? So, what do we do with a problem like Elon? MS NOW reports that some Democratic Congress Critters have some ideas. “Democrats’ new idea for fighting Elon Musk’s influence is a good one. Closing the “Elon Musk loophole” is a smart way to advance the cause of cracking down on corruption.”
Zeeshan Aleem has the story.Now that Democrats will have control of Congress, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., are reportedly looking to close what they call the “Elon Musk loophole.” It’s an idea that is worth serious consideration.
The lawmakers’ idea is to block titans of industry from trying to sway elections while benefiting from contracts with the federal government. Such a law wouldn’t end ultrawealthy donors’ ability to buy politicians, but it would at least block one of the most baldly unethical forms of political influence.
“If you ask the normal person on the street whether it reeks of corruption for a CEO or big corporate shareholder to spend boatloads of money to elect members of Congress who will then ratify billion-dollar federal contracts, I think almost every person would say that stinks,” Van Hollen told The Washington Sun last week.
It’s already illegal for federal contracting companies to donate to federal political campaigns, but the law doesn’t block donations from individuals linked to and profiting from those companies. As Government Executive reports, the new bill, called the Close the Campaign Cash-for-Contracts Loophole Act, “would also bar donations from officers of contracting corporations and their affiliates as well as anyone with at least 5% interest or share in the company.”
Elon Musk runs multiple companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, that have made billions of dollars from federal contracts. Those companies have helped make him the world’s richest person. But since he’s considered a separate entity from his company, he’s not constrained from making donations. And he’s made plenty of use of that freedom. In this election cycle alone, he spent close to half a billion dollars. According to The New York Times, Musk “has given more money during the midterm elections than any donor has ever spent in a single election cycle, apart from wealthy candidates who have funded their own runs for office.”
Again, I think getting rid of this kind of money floating around elections is a high priority. One more from Mother Jones. “America Finally Has the Votes to End the Electoral College, After more than 200 years, the midterm results could change how we pick presidents.” Pema Levy and Ari Berman share the lede.Tuesday’s wave election swept Democrats into power in Congress. But the most seismic result for American politics and democracy may come out of the battleground states where Democrats just won trifecta control by taking both state houses and the governor’s mansion: Come January, Democratic legislators will have the votes to elect the next president by the popular vote.
State lawmakers could circumvent the Electoral College by enacting what’s known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Under the current system, each state gets a set number of electors, and the candidate who wins enough states to accumulate at least 270 electoral votes becomes president. This system allows the winner of the popular vote to lose, as Al Gore did in 2000 and Hillary Clinton again in 2016. But the NPVIC would bypass the Electoral College, with each state that enacts the compact awarding its electors to the winner of the national popular vote. The compact would only take effect once states representing a majority of electoral votes sign on, ensuring that the winner of the national popular vote becomes president.
In April, Virginia became the 18th state to join the compact, bringing the total number of electoral votes pledged under the proposal to 222. On Tuesday, Democrats took trifecta control of state governments in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada. That’s 61 electoral votes. Add in Alaska, where late-arriving votes are still being counted, and that’s 64. With Virginia on board, only 48 more votes are needed for the compact to reach 270 votes and take effect. The emerging math means there is a real chance that the next president is selected based on the national popular vote.
That would represent a sea change in American politics. The current Electoral College system violates the basic principle of one person, one vote. Instead of candidates being forced to campaign for every vote, millions of presidential votes in uncompetitive states are effectively wasted in a winner-take-all system. Politicians and donors pour billions of dollars into a handful of battlegrounds, while the votes—and concerns—of most of the country are ignored. “Under the current system, four out of five American voters are on the sidelines,” says Patrick Rosenstiel, a Republican strategist who is advocating for the compact. “Every voter should be politically relevant. Under the current system, they are not.”
So, elections have all kinds of ramifications. If we could really, truly rid the country of all the kinds of things that restrict our votes and democracy, I would be thrilled. Just call me a cockeyed optimist.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
