Trump is attempting to assert control over Congress by taking over its library. By firing the librarian of Congress and installing his former defense lawyer in her place, Trump may be asserting that the Library of Congress is part of the executive branch, the consequences of which would be immense.
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President Donald Trump is attempting to assert control over Congress by taking over its library. By firing the librarian of Congress and installing his former defense lawyer in her place, Trump may be asserting that the Library of Congress is part of the executive branch, the consequences of which would be immense.
Also in this edition: As Trump and his allies continue to attack the courts, judges are beginning to face harassment or threats of violence after ruling against his extreme policies; and a way to find out what the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) knows about you.
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– Jacob Knutson, reporter
Catch up quickly
Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and a chief architect of Project 2025, will soon take over DOGE from billionaire Elon Musk. Vought has publicly supported impoundment and has said he wants to put federal workers “in trauma.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he is placing a hold on all Justice Department nominees until he gets more answers on Trump's intention to accept a luxury jet from Qatar to be used as Air Force One. Schumer called the plan “naked corruption.”
A Trump-appointed judge in Pennsylvania became the first to uphold Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, though the judge said the amount of notice the Trump administration is giving to the people targeted by the AEA is “constitutionally deficient.” The ACLU plans to appeal the ruling.
Trump trying to control Congress by taking over its library
Since the start of his second term, Trump has been trying to stamp out independence in the executive branch by either taking over, paralyzing or dismantling federal agencies that were designed to operate without direct control from the White House.
Over the past few days, Trump escalated this campaign beyond the executive branch by firing the head of the Library of Congress (LOC) — which is part of the legislative branch — and the top official at the U.S. Copyright Office, which is part of the LOC.
Trump’s firing of Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, marked the first time in U.S. history that a librarian of Congress was dismissed. Trump selected Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, one of his personal attorneys during his 2024 hush money trial, as acting librarian of Congress, but it’s unclear if he had the authority to do so...
Threats are rising against judges who rule against Trump
As Trump continues to rail against the judiciary, several federal judges have faced harassment or threats of violence after ruling against his extreme policies, according to a Reuters investigation. Some of the judges’ family members have been threatened as well.
Those threatened include Judge James Boasberg, who is presiding over one of the lawsuits against Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to transfer people in the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador.
After Boasberg temporarily halted the Trump administration from carrying out AEA removals, he and his daughter began receiving threats online... Upgrade to read the rest of this story.
How to find out what DOGE knows about you
Elon Musk’s DOGE is going from federal agency to federal agency attempting to collect and centralize vast amounts of personal information on millions of people in the U.S., including social security numbers, medical and banking records and more.
DOGE taking personal data from federal agencies has been challenged in dozens of lawsuits as a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, which regulates how federal agencies can use, and how they must handle, individually identifiable information.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments at 10 a.m. ET this morning in three cases challenging Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship via executive order...
Along with the news you need and exclusive analysis is a to-do list, featuring opportunities for you to get involved and become a part of the opposition.
This week’s quote comes from George Saunders, author of “Lincoln in the Bardo” and “Tenth of December.” In a recent New York Times op-ed, Saunders denounced Trump for firing Librarian of Congress Hayden, saying it gave him “a visceral feeling for just how diseased this administration really is.”
“So let me just say it: Shame on the White House. Shame on those who should be stopping this slide into autocracy and aren’t. (I’m looking at you, John Thune, Mike Johnson and Marco Rubio.) Shame on all of us if we let these ignorant purveyors of cruelty reduce this beautiful thing we’ve built over these hundreds of years to a hollow, braying, anti-version of itself.”
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