A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Halfway Down The Slippery Slope
Occasionally, something emerges from the daily litany of Trump II destruction, corruption, and retribution that helps focus the mind and clarify the stakes.
Over the weekend, President Trump responded favorably to the suggestion from the president of El Salvador that he could house U.S. prisoners in his notorious prisons: “I love that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
But it was the casualness and assuredness with which the White House press secretary confirmed from the briefing room podium that the president has both publicly and privately considering transferring U.S. citizens convicted of crimes to El Salvador that set off alarm bells:
Leavitt’s remarks came just one day after Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the Trump administration’s position in the Alien Enemies Act case means even a U.S. citizen would have no legal recourse if secretly swept up and rendered to a foreign prison:
The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise.
It is why two distinguished law professors warned in a NYT op-ed today: “We should all be very, very afraid.”
SCOTUS Still Hasn’t Ruled On Mistaken Deportation
We are still awaiting the Supreme Court’s important decision on whether the Trump administration has to try to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran man it admits it deported to a prison in his home country in error in violation of a immigration judge’s order.
The Trump Justice Department filed a sneering argument with the Supreme Court yesterday, prompting Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to ask for permission to file an additional reply to set the record straight.
Alien Enemies Act Challenges Resume
Advocates for Venezuelan nationals swept up by Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act swiftly went back to court following Monday’s Supreme Court setback. In the most prominent case, two of the original plaintiffs filed a new lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, seeking class action status for all the similarly situated migrants and asylum seekers. In a twist, the two plaintiffs, who had almost been deported on the March 15 flights from Texas, had subsequently been transferred back to New York, which allowed them to file their lawsuit there instead of Texas.
Judge Sets Immediate Deadline In Khalil Case
An immigration judge in Louisiana gave the Trump administration until 5 p.m. today (local time, I believe) to cough up evidence for why Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate, should be deported. DHS can “either can provide sufficient evidence or not,” Judge Jamee Comans said, according to The Guardian. “If he’s not removable, I’m going to terminate this case on Friday.”
Quote Of The Day
“It’s totally silly. There’s no other way to say it, it makes no sense.”–Dani Rodrik, a professor of international political economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, on President Trump’s use of steep tariffs to combat bilateral trade deficits
SCOTUS Gives Trump A Win On Federal Worker Purges
The Supreme Court blocked a lower court order out of San Francisco that required the Trump administrations to rehire some 16,000 purged probationary federal government workers, ruling that the nonprofit organizations who brought the case lacked standing. A separate order in a Maryland case brought by 19 states and DC reinstating the workers remains still in place.
The Soft Purges
Along with the direct removals of federal workers to make room for loyalists, the Trump administration is acting in parallel to make remaining in government so intolerable that people leave on their own, opening up more opportunities to replace them with toadies:
- IRS: Several top IRS officials – including acting Commissioner Melanie Krause – are leaving the agency in response to an unprecedented agreement to share tax data with immigration officials.
- DOJ: At least half of the front-line lawyers in the DOJ’s office of solicitor general are preparing to leave or have already announced their departures, the WaPo reports.
AP Beats White House In Court
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, one of the Trumpiest federal judges in DC, nonetheless ruled that Trump White House officials engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination when they denied access to the Associated Press because it didn’t go along with the use of “Gulf of America” in its news stories.
The Very Worst People
On several occasions, Trump administration officials have refused to answer questions from journalists because their email signatures include their pronouns, the NYT reports.
Dripping With Contempt
When a federal judge in DC issued a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump’s executive order targeting the Jenner & Block law firm, he directed the administration to give internal notice of his order. This is the snotty notice that went out:
AG Pam Bondi and OMB Director Russell Vought used a court-ordered memo in the case blocking Trump’s executive order targeting Jenner & Block to throw shade at the “unelected… local district judge” who they claim “invaded the policy-making and free speech prerogatives of the executive branch.”
— Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” (@ryanjreilly.com) April 8, 2025 at 9:25 PM
New Round Of Trump Attacks On Higher Ed
Here’s the latest:
- Cornell: Trump administration freezes more than $1 billion in federal funding.
- Northwestern: Trump administration freezes $790 million in federal funding.
- Princeton: The Commerce Department announced that it was ending nearly $4 million in funding for climate change research because it”promotes exaggerated and implausible climate threats.”
A Brutal Final Twist Of The Knife
The Trump DOJ is taking the position that the federal government should return the restitution that the pardoned Jan. 6 rioters paid for the damage to the Capitol.
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