The Week Ahead

February 23, 2025

In a follow-on from last night’s piece about firings in the military, we have this Sunday morning show commentary from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who apparently missed a lot of his training while in the military.

This is the quiet part, said out loud. Let’s get the law out of the way so we can kick some *ss. I hope that during the week ahead, we’ll hear, loudly and in the public square, from people who are or who have served in the military, condemning this and, more importantly, explaining how it should be.

Of course, it’s not just the military. Trump is trying to simultaneously corrupt all of our democratic institutions at once. Nowhere is it more apparent than at the Justice Department, where there is an attempt on to dismiss the public corruption indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in order to secure Adams’ cooperation with Trump’s mass deportation plans.

Before we get into the details, it’s worth noting that you probably haven’t heard a lot about those big mass deportations he promised starting on day one. And that’s because the Biden Administration was already doing a good job of policing the border, and the system was at or close to capacity. What’s more, it turns out there’s a big distinction between arresting and removing people who are here without legal status and who are committing crimes and those who are here and have been for some time, establishing lives, working hard, and contributing to American society. It looks like that latter group is who the Trump administration is hoping the NYC mayor will help them with so they can pump up their numbers and claim victory. It is a rank politicization of our system of justice and the stuff of banana republics: dismissing a prosecution as a reward for political support.

The government still needs the judge’s consent to dismiss the indictment. Normally, it’s assumed they will get it. In this case, Judge Dale Ho, a Biden appointee whose last job before coming to the bench was running the ACLU’s voting rights project, has continued the trial date, previously set for April 21, sine dine. That means canceling it without setting or anticipating setting a new one. But, it’s not quite ballgame for the government because Judge Ho also appointed Paul Clement, George W. Bush’s Solicitor General and a conservative icon, to argue the other side, noting that there is no adversarial process before him, with only the government’s motion to dismiss and Adams’ agreement to it.

Briefs are due on March 7, and Judge Ho said he would hold a hearing on the 14th if necessary before deciding if a dismissal is in the public interest. Among the issues we’ll be looking for: Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who, in a very unusual move for a DAG was the lawyer representing the government in court, told the Judge he couldn’t consider former acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon’s resignation letter in deciding the matter, or anything other than what was in the government’s motion. The Judge asked Clement to brief that and other issues. Sassoon’s letter lays out the details surrounding the plea deal, which led to her refusal to dismiss the indictment.

But not all is doom and gloom. The slumbering giant that is American public opinion seems to be waking up. Is the Trump fever dream finally about to break?

Yosemite National Park employees put out an upside-down American flag, a symbol of distress, on El Capitan.

Trump and Musk’s budget cuts will damage the National Parks nationwide. There is some reporting from the LA Times that public pressure has already forced them to roll back some of the cuts to seasonal workers that make vacation trips to the parks a major destination for both Americans and foreign tourists. The Times reports that “the national parks generate about 50 BILLION in economic output for the local towns and cities … Hurting them doesn’t just hurt the parks and their employees, it hurts the local economies.” It’s another example of Trump/Musk eliminating programs that don’t matter to them, claiming they are wasteful, when in fact, money spent on them benefits the American people and terminating the programs will hurt in a big way.

This, by the way, is at least the third time DOGE has had to backtrack after firing government employees. It happened with employees responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons, who were fired and then, in an embarrassing scramble, had to be found so they could be rehired. Still no word on how that situation has resolved and whether we are at risk because of DOGE foolishness and Trump’s failures. It also happened with scientists working on bird flu who were fired and then at least partially rehired, all as that virus shows signs of becoming increasingly dangerous.

In other words, the people hired to identify government waste and fraud are not very good at it, making things worse, not better. Perhaps Trump should have just left the nation’s Inspector Generals, the professionals charged with doing that work, in place instead of firing many of them. DOGE is not a sophisticated strike force but rather a lazy, incompetent revenge ploy.

At least one judge is ready to pull the plug on DOGE. Judge Jeanette Vargas in the Southern District of New York granted a limited preliminary injunction in a case brought by 19 state attorneys general. Her order enjoins Treasury from giving anyone associated with DOGE access to payment records and systems and other data at Treasury that includes personal identifying information. It also excludes DOGE from accessing individual’s confidential financial information. After writing that “a real possibility exists that sensitive information has already been shared outside of the Treasury Department, in potential violation of federal law,” Judge Vargas ordered the government to file a report by March 24 that details;

• Vetting and security clearance processes for DOGE Team members,

• The legal authority that permits DOGE to send its people to Treasury, and

• The org chart for DOGE, with an explanation of the chain of command

Among the most important court proceedings we’ll be following this week is the Associated Press (AP’s) lawsuit alleging the Trump administration is violating the First and Fifth Amendments by excluding it from White House press pool activities, including the Oval Office and Air Force One, because they refuse to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. This should be a stone-cold loser for the Trump administration in court. You can read the complaint here. The AP has asked the Judge to stay the White House from enforcing its decision while the litigation is underway, and we should see further proceedings this week. “The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit.

Voters seem to be waking up all across the country, even in red states. It means that efforts like ours, contacting your senators and demanding meetings, writing and emailing elected officials, have really had an impact, just like I promised you they would if we persisted!

Seven Republican representatives in Wisconsin no-showed an event hosted by the Wisconsin Farmers Union. Four Democratic representatives showed up. “All four of us want you to know that there are people in elected office who want to fight for you,” Rep. Christian Phelps told the crowd. And in West Bend, Wisconsin, GOP Rep. Scott Fitzgerald was confronted by constituents at a town hall holding protest signs. One sign, held by Michael Wittig, read, “Presidents are not kings.” “Are you going to subpoena him at some point? Are you willing to use your subpoena power to tell Musk to stand in front of Congress and answer some hard questions?” Wittig asked, according to a report from WTMJ, the NBC News affiliate in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin GOP Rep. Glenn S. Grothman was loudly booed by the crowd at a townhall after claiming “across the board he [Trump] has done some very good things.” He specified Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship. A woman in the crowd could be heard shouting out “illegal as hell.”

NBC reported on other similar events at town halls:

• In Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern, a congressional leader, was told that “he wasn’t doing his job standing up to the executive branch. ‘We’re seeing the administration undermining Congress,’ a mother with a baby in her lap told Hern.’” Another person present asked Hern, “Will you call Elon Musk in to testify under oath to explain what he’s doing?”

• At an Oregon town hall, GOP Rep. Cliff Bentz defended Elon Musk, to laughter from the crowd, after a man who said he was a military veteran asked, “Would you like all of your private records revealed and pulled up by a bunch of people that weren’t elected, they’re just randomly appointed, a bunch of 20-year-olds?”

• Rep. Rich McCormick in conservative Georgia drew an angry crowd where “many constituents lashed out at the Republican lawmaker over his support for massive federal layoffs and budget cuts by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency.” One attendee asked, “Why is the supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?”

Democrats are demanding more from their representatives. In Albany, New York, a man told Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko that he appreciated his protest over cuts at federal agencies, but wanted Tonko to do more. NBC reported that he continued, “‘We have to take it to them … I was so proud that my representative was on the front line. But I thought about Jimmy Carter and I thought about John Lewis, and I know what John Lewis would have done. He would have gotten arrested that day. Make them outlaw you,’ he continued as the applause grew louder. ‘We will stand behind you, we will be there with you. I will get arrested with you.’”

Thousands of people in the Midwest have been showing up for Rep. Bernie Sanders’ “National Tour to Fight Oligarchy.” He told folks in Iowa City, Iowa, “Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the D.C. Beltway…"It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong grassroots movement and say no to oligarchy, no to authoritarianism.” Amen.

It’s a very encouraging start to protesting this administration’s anti-democratic moves. Both the courts and public outcry are having an impact, and there is more to come as we head into the week. Let’s keep it up, folks!

Are you attending a meeting with your elected official or trying to get them to schedule one? Let’s talk about it in the comments and get our stories circulating! Are you a federal employee? Make sure we know about your work and what you do to help other Americans. Courage is contagious and we need as much of it as possible right now.

We’re in this together,

Joyce