DL Open Thread: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
I’ve (largely) avoided MSNBC and (completely) avoided polling since the election. However, as Trump hits the 100-day-in-office mark, I compromise on my principles, if only just this once:
This only matters if, you know, elections still take place. Which is ‘to be determined’.
Problem is, he’s done so much bad stuff that it won’t simply be erased by a snap of the fingers of his successor. He’s destroyed entire governmental institutions. We can only hope that, in so doing, he has destroyed the Rethuglican Party and aroused the ire of those who are sick of the ‘simpering timidity’ of the centrists who control the Democratic Party.
Musk (and Trump) Created A Surveillance State:
Elon Musk may be stepping back from running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, but his legacy there is already secured. DOGE is assembling a sprawling domestic surveillance system for the Trump administration — the likes of which we have never seen in the United States.
President Trump could soon have the tools to satisfy his many grievances by swiftly locating compromising information about his political opponents or anyone who simply annoys him. The administration has already declared that it plans to comb through tax records to find the addresses of immigrants it is investigating — a plan so morally and legally challenged it prompted several top I.R.S. officials to quit in protest. Some federal workers have also been told that DOGE is using A.I. to sift through their communications to identify people who harbor anti-Musk or -Trump sentiment (and presumably punish or fire them).
What this amounts to is a stunningly fast reversal of our long history of siloing government data to prevent its misuse. In their first 100 days, Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump have knocked down the barriers that were intended to prevent them from creating dossiers on every U.S. resident. Now, they seem to be building a defining feature of many authoritarian regimes: comprehensive files on everyone so they can punish those who protest.
Hey, just yesterday, we found out that the Post Office is now part of the Storm Troopers:
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a little-known police and investigative force for the mail agency, recently joined a Department of Homeland Security task force geared toward finding, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisals.
And let’s not spare recognition for our local constabularies:
Since Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, his administration has signed over 370 memorandums with over 300 agencies, at an average of four per day, according to an analysis of DHS data. This explosion has more than tripled the number of agreements since Trump was sworn into office and has brought the number of 287(g) agreements to over 500 across the country.
An examination by the Guardian reveals that previous oversight requirements have been overridden as the administration has resurrected an aggressive partnership model that was shelved more than a decade ago amid alarms about civil rights abuses. With the new surge of 287(g) agreements, civil rights advocates and former Homeland Security officials are expressing concerns about a potential cascade of administrative and civil rights violations involving law enforcement agencies across the US.
The Columbus county sheriff’s office is one of five departments identified by the Guardian that have previously applied to take part in 287(g) but were denied by DHS – only to have a new application approved within weeks of Trump returning to the White House.
These are agreements enabling police to form local ‘immigration task forces’. No good will come of this.
Josh Marshall Takes The Contrarian Perspective. I like him, think he is one of our most astute observers. I hope he is right:
There are a number of you who simply don’t agree with me about the role of public opinion in the battle against Trumpism, which I sketched out in yesterday’s Backchannel and in other posts over recent months. And that’s great. Because, among other reasons, you keep me on my toes. And TPM isn’t a community that has any one point of view, in any case. But I note this because I have to again whack this same hornets nest today. So apologies in advance, probably mostly to myself. But this time it’s not with an argument, not some proposition I want to convince you of. It’s more a personal interpretation, my perception of events.
Quite simply, I think Trump’s already lost.
Am I jinxing everything? Should I take it back? It doesn’t matter. What I am definitely not saying is that things are about to get better. I think they will get worse. On some fronts they’ll get much worse. Indeed, one of the basic dynamics of Trump’s (second) first hundred days in office is the way in which Trump and DOGE have taken numerous actions, not easily reversible, which take some time to take effect…
But I see the signs all around. He’s doubling down on things people don’t like. He’s fomenting a growing political backlash. The more signs we see of the limits of Trump’s power, the more people show signs of bucking that power. All power is unitary. We see signs of it everywhere. You simply cannot impose an autocracy if a clear majority of the country opposes what you are trying to do at the outset, when you are trying to do it.
Read and react, please. I think Talking Points Memo is a daily must-read.
UD Students Win As Trump Backs Down:
Eight University of Delaware sponsored visa holders facing uncertainty when the Department of Homeland Security terminated their visas are out of limbo.
There were three current students and five former students on post-graduation Optional Practical Training work authorization that were affected.
In a statement, UD confirms that all of their previously terminated Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records have been restored.
UD adds the affected individuals are being assisted on the next steps, and the university will closely monitor the SEVIS records for any further updates to student records.
ACLU of Delaware executive director Mike Brickner says the combination of winning legally in court and public pressure got the Trump Administration to back off on these visas.
“That combination really got them – the federal government – to come into court and to say we’re just going to step away from this process. For now, they restored everyone’s visas across the country, and now we’re sort of in a wait and see period in case they come back and try and do it again under some new process.”
We’ve never needed the ACLU more, and they’ve really come through. Here’s a link to the Delaware Chapter, just in case you’re inclined to help out.
What do you want to talk about?
Trump doesn’t actually need public opinion to keep moving his agenda.
Congress could block some of his agenda, and they are more susceptible to public opinion, but they don’t seem to have the inclination. That could change as midterms become more urgent.
Dems might retake the House, but that doesn’t buy much resistance unless the Senate flips as well. House Dems can hold investigations and issue subpoenas which will be ignored, but that’s about it.
If you believe Trump is in the service of more powerful oligarchs or other actors, after tax cuts are passed those forces will have no more use for Trump. Putin is already tiring of Trump.
Still expecting a Reichstag fire moment and martial law.
The point isn’t public opinion based on polls. It’s more about how those polls reflect levels of public support for the agenda.
Marshall’s point is that resistance to an autocrat by a majority weakens the autocrat. When judges started standing against, more judges were emboldened to stand against. When Harvard decided to stand against, more universities stood against. Et cetera.
Most autocrats are smart enough to back up the happy-talk propaganda with actual populist moves, particularly at first. This administration skipped that chapter in Autocracy for Dummies.
The NCC Democratic Convention this weekend just might be worth attending after all.
We received notice that Italo Carrieri-Russo is running for chair and Aja Ajavon (I love her) is running with him for Vice-Chair.
The County Party has been typically parsimonious when it comes to parsing out any details about the convention, so I’m inclined to support anybody who will deign to share information with the district committees.
No, I don’t know whether Kat Caudle is running for reelection. Do you?
Kat is running for re-election.
I personally would argue that if you want to be NCC chair, you should probably support your local Democratic candidate, not your local Republican. 🧐