curated news excerpts & citations
Robert Reich: The Mad King’s Television
When over the weekend federal Judge Karin Immergut (a Trump appointee) blocked Trump from deploying Oregon’s National Guard to Portland, Trump said she “should be ashamed of herself” because “Portland is burning to the ground.”
Trump promptly ordered the California National Guard to Portland.
Apart from the obvious question of how Trump can so blatantly defy a federal judge, there’s a deeper puzzle here. Where did he get the idea Portland is burning to the ground?
Nine days ago, when Trump first threatened to send troops to Portland, Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, told him there was no reason. “He thinks there are elements here creating an insurrection,” Kotek said after her call with Trump. “I told him there is no insurrection here and that we have this under control.”
Trump responded to Kotek this way:
“I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? … They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place … it looks like terrible.”
Why the factual discrepancy between what Governor Kotek told Trump about Portland and what he believed was happening there?
In the suit seeking an injunction to stop Trump from sending troops to Portland, which Judge Immergut granted, the state of Oregon alleged that Trump relied on videoclips from Portland protests over the murder of George Floyd that took place in 2020.
(Robert Reich more…)
Joyce Vance: Portland and beyond
Jennifer Rubin: We Found the ‘Enemy from Within’
He’s in the White House
Jennifer Rubin: ‘Armed Conflict’? Trump declares war on all of us
Borowitz: String of Correctly Spelled Texts from Trump Fuels Speculation That he is Dead
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – October 6, 2025
If White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is at the head of the administration’s deployment of federal agents against undocumented immigrants, it appears that Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Russell Vought is running the administration’s approach to the government shutdown.
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In 2022, Vought argued that the United States is in a “post constitutional moment” that “pays only lip service to the old Constitution.” He attributes that crisis to “the Left,” which he says “quietly adopted a strategy of institutional change,” by which he appears to mean the growth of the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans. He attributes that change to the presidency of President Woodrow Wilson beginning in 1913. Vought advocates what he calls “radical constitutionalism” to destroy the power of the modern administrative state and instead elevate the president to supreme authority.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Newsweek: Judge Diane Goodstein’s Home Burns To Ground After Ruling Against Trump
Dean Blundell: After Refusing To Hand Over Voter Registration Data To The Trump Regime, A South Carolina Judge’s Home “Exploded”
Daily Beast: Stephen Miller Melts Down as MAGA Is Blamed for Fire at Judge’s House
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emptywheel: Governor Pritzker Argues Trump Is Invading Illinois Out of Animus
Very broadly speaking, the state three challenges to Trump’s invasions adopt different theories.
- The 22-page California challenge … contested whether the scale of the protest merited nationalization of the Guard and invasion by the Marines
- The 41-page Oregon challenge basically showed that … claims about Portland don’t match the reality on the ground …
- The 69-page Illinois challenge argues that the invasion arises out of animus
Of those 69 pages in the Illinois suit, 21 are dedicated to describing Trump’s animus, which it dates as starting in 2013, continued though his first presidential term, and even came out during the interregnum.
44. The supposed current emergency is belied by the fact that Trump’s Chicago troop deployment threats began more than ten years ago. In a social media post from 2013 Trump writes “we need our troops on the streets of Chicago, not in Syria.”
(emptywheel more…)LAWdork: Pair of lawsuits challenging Trump’s targeting of Chicago get first hearings
The lawsuits challenge the Trump administration’s military deployment efforts and harsh treatment of protesters and journalists. More hearings are set for later this week.
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Maxwell from Home of the Brave: I got a bonus and a raise. Then DOGE fired me for ‘performance.’
Trump and Musk are lying to get rid of people like me.
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Bulwark: When in Doubt, Blame the Immigrants
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NY Times: Judge Poised to Free Abrego Garcia if Officials Can’t Supply Deportation Plans
The judge expressed exasperation at government lawyers’ failure to answer “basic questions” or produce evidence during what she called a “topsy-turvy, inside-out day.”
(NY Times more…)
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Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez: This Judicial Complaint Could Have Been An Email
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It’s clear that the DOJ intended to fire off this supposed ethics complaint, win a news cycle, and move on. After publicly braying for Judge Boasberg’s impeachment, it couldn’t even be bothered to answer Judge Srinivasan’s follow up questions. And now it denies the hype AG Bondi herself fomented, claiming that this supposed threat to the integrity of the judiciary is a matter of no public interest.
(Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez more…)
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404 Media: Police Said They Surveilled Woman Who Had an Abortion for Her ‘Safety.’ Court Records Show They Considered Charging Her With a Crime
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404 Media: Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Trump and Hegseth Rant about Beardos and Invading American Cities & Why an AI “Actor” Is Rattling Hollywood
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Terrence Goggin: The Military Officer Corps defied Trump on September 30th; it will not abandon the American people to a dictatorship; it will oppose it with their lives and sacred honor
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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