Trump Moves to Settle the Fascism Debate

Plus: A supposedly fun thing Chuck Schumer will never do again.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump took another step in an openly fascist direction over the weekend when he skirted a federal court order to cancel or turn back deportation flights carrying alleged gang members who had not received any due process to El Salvador, where they were imprisoned at a high-security facility designed to house terrorists.

The administration says the planes were already in international airspace by the time the judge’s written order to turn them around was issued (the verbal order came earlier). And they argued that the deportations were legally permissible under the president’s Article II powers. But legal scholars were flabbergasted and the judge seemed unimpressed.

As for lawmakers, the move was met with two reactions on Capitol Hill: sycophantic clapping on one side, and evasive shrugs on the other. As I’ve noted before, each time Trump crosses a red line, Republican lawmakers draw a new line farther away. And to make everything feel even worse, the White House is fully leaning into the abuse of power as the president’s normal prerogative instead of trying to justify it in other terms or explain it away.

Tom Homan, the White House “border czar,” said in a Fox News interview that the flights will continue, and any judge’s contrariwise order is inconsequential to him.

“We are not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think,” he said. “I don’t care what the Left thinks. We’re coming.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added in a statement that the court order has “no lawful basis.”

DOJ lawyers weren’t as defiant, telling the judge the flights would stop if being done under the Aliens Enemies Act. But in a following court hearing, Abhishek Kambli, a Justice Department lawyer, refused to answer questions about the deportation flights. According to the New York Times:

The tense back-and-forth in court between the judge, James E. Boasberg, and the Justice Department lawyer, Abhishek Kambli, left open the possibility of further conflict down the road. Judge Boasberg directed Mr. Kambli to certify in writing by noon on Tuesday—under seal if needed—that no immigrants were removed after his written order went into effect, a piece of information that will be crucial as the judge seeks to determine whether the Trump administration flouted his authority.

Among elected Republicans, many celebrated the White House’s defiance.¹

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) spent the day attacking the judge for being married to a Democratic donor, writing, “The same Judge forcing illegal alien rapists onto your streets is married to a woman who has donated over ten thousand dollars to Democrat victory funds. No recusal in sight.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) reposted the opinion of right-wing shock-jock Mike Davis, who claimed the judiciary is “drunk on . . . stolen power” for daring to block the Trump administration.

Freshman Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) pledged to introduce articles of impeachment later this week against the judge who issued the order. And early Tuesday morning, Trump endorsed the idea of impeaching the judge.

By Tuesday at midday, Chief Justice John Roberts had made a rare public statement in direct response to these calls for impeachment: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Republican operatives resorted to literal whataboutism in their defenses of the administration’s actions, which are bringing a constitutional crisis closer every day.

The End of the Tour

(Composite / Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer abruptly postponed his book tour for Antisemitism in America: A Warning, which is out today. He previously had scheduled stops up and down both coasts to promote it, but by Monday morning, every event had been put on hiatus.

The first book tour cancellations came from New York and D.C. Baltimore then followed suit. By mid-morning, the entire book tour was—well, off the books.

Schumer cited safety reasons for the cancellation. There were widespread expectations of protests at his promotional appearances because of both the content of the book and his longstanding, unapologetic support of Israel amid its brutal war in Gaza. But the inciting event that led to the cancellation was Schumer’s decision last week to back the Republican spending plan to avert a government shutdown without securing any meaningful concessions or guarantees from Republicans.

Schumer is now facing backlash from party activists and tactical silence from previously loyal footsoldiers in Congress. In a way, he has briefly unified the Democrats by angering people across the party’s ideological spectrum, from the far left—which has opposed Schumer for some time—to normie centrists who had wanted to take the funding fight as an opportunity to meaningfully oppose the Trump administration’s flagrant undercutting of Congress.

This was a critical mistake from the minority leader. From the outset, exhausted Democrats have cast about for someone willing to fight back against Trump’s increasingly authoritarian administration. Given the Republican trifecta, Democratic lawmakers were never going to have many chances to wage that fight. This was just such a chance—until the party’s highest-ranking elected official decided to throw in the towel. Schumer has weathered political storms before, but the one he’s facing now is whipping up into quite a fury.

Who Needs Veteran Epidemiologists Anyways?

by Sam Stein

More than 600 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have chosen to participate in the voluntary early retirement programs being offered to them as part of the DOGE-initiated efforts to downsize the federal bureaucracy. That number, detailed in internal CDC communications obtained by The Bulwark, was considered fairly high by one official—and alarming, too. The Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment (VSIP) programs are, per requirement, restricted to CDC staff with 20-plus years of experience. So, in other words, the agency chiefly responsible for helping America fight diseases just lost a massive chunk of its most knowledgeable personnel.

The CDC has already been hit hard by DOGE. In mid February, 1,300 of the center’s staff (about 10 percent) were let go as a result of a purge of “probationary” employees. Less than a month later, DOGE scrambled to hire back 180 of them. Recent court decisions have required the administration to rehire those probationary employees, but some (including those at the National Institutes of Health, per a separate communication provided to The Bulwark) are being put on paid administrative leave rather than given their jobs back.

The brain drain is real. As for those who remain, the situation is trending towards bleak. In the same communications we obtained, it was noted that “all awards” for CDC workers—including performance, departmental, and external ones—were now paused, even though many were earned before Trump took over. Staff were also told not to decorate their office space because leadership was still figuring out how to accommodate the back-to-work flow and didn’t have a final plan for divvying up those spaces.

The CDC did not return a request for comment.

All about Elon

For this morning’s homepage, I wrote about a smart, aggressive ad campaign that an elbow-throwing PAC is starting up to target five vulnerable Republican lawmakers:

As progressives start working in earnest on their midterm elections playbook, it appears that Elon Musk, not Donald Trump, will be the primary target.

VoteVets, a progressive political action committee, is launching a new ad campaign zeroing in on several vulnerable Republican members of Congress with a six-figure ad buy in their home districts.

The ads all feature the same roundtable of veterans sharing their struggles after losing employment because of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. Notably, the spot does not include a single mention of Trump. But it features Musk throughout, including the now infamous scene of him wielding a chainsaw on stage at CPAC.

“It feels like veterans are being personally attacked by Elon Musk,” said one veteran in the ad. “I did not put my life on the line for some tech bro billionaire from South Africa to come in here and try to destroy our country,” said another.

At the end of the spots, viewers are encouraged to call their representatives to voice concerns and stop the mass firings.

VoteVets says that the ads will span streaming networks and local broadcast news, targeting the following five lawmakers:

• John James (R-Mich.)

• Don Bacon (R-Neb.)

• Scott Perry (R-Pa.)

• Zach Nunn (R-Iowa)

• Jen Kiggans (R-Va.)

Read the rest.

1. However, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) spent the day speculating about the CIA’s role in the JFK assassination.