Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️
No longer content to simply rip up the federal government, President Trump is now reaching into the past to undo agency regulations by fiat.
“In effectuating repeals of facially unlawful regulations, agency heads shall finalize rules without notice and comment,” read Wednesday’s presidential memo, using a narrow exception in the Administrative Procedure Act to do away with requirements that alert the public to the government’s actions.
“Facially unlawful” seems to mean “anything that doesn’t jibe with the Trumpist vision.”
In legitimizing this silent erasure, Trump cites recent Supreme Court cases including Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which dealt a death blow to agency deference but was explicitly future-oriented and not permitted to be retroactively applied to old regulations.
Because everything Trump does exists on the malicious-to-dumb spectrum, this plan appeared obliquely in, of all places, an executive order about water pressure in showerheads. Trump, who is obsessed with the topic and routinely drifts onto it during unrelated speeches, rescinded the “Energy Conservation Program: Definition of Showerhead” — a great comfort to us all that the Commander-in-Chief is focusing his energies on the greatest perils facing the homeland.
Buried in the order: “Notice and comment is unnecessary because I am ordering the repeal.” Well, okay then!
Even its most ardent soldiers couldn’t have wished for more in the war against the administrative state — DOGE and the Trump administration, with likely coming assists from the Supreme Court, have hobbled executive branch agencies, decimated decades of expertise and slashed critical funding nearly across the board.
Trump has successfully made government jobs unstable and unattractive, guaranteeing that future would-be star feds will look elsewhere (absent major reforms); he’s now trying to eviscerate the work done before his administration’s reign of destruction, seeking to totally blot out agencies and the protections they afford.
— Kate Riga
Here’s what else TPM has on tap this weekend:
- State Democrats are introducing new legislation in North Carolina to try to help guard against future disenfranchisement of the sort that Republican Supreme Court candidate and Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin is trying to get away with as he continues his efforts to steal the election from the Democratic incumbent. Khaya Himmelman has more.
- Nicole Lafond checks in on Marco Rubio’s Christian nationalist agenda at the State Department, as he encourages employees to snitch on colleagues who may have demonstrated some sort of “anti-Christian bias” during the last administration.
- Emine Yücel reports on a risky promise House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) made while begging hardliners to support the Senate’s budget resolution this week: If we don’t make the trillions in cuts you want, you can McCarthy me.
Let’s dig in.
Dems: Griffin Is A ‘Desperate Loser’
State and national Democrats are calling out the ongoing Republican effort to overturn the results of North Carolina’s 2024 Supreme Court Race — the only 2024 race that has not yet been certified.
Last week, in a 2-1 decision, a North Carolina Court of Appeals sided with Republican state Supreme Court candidate and Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin, ruling that close to 65,000 ballots may be invalid due to alleged registration issues. Although the outcome of the race is still being held up in court, in a Friday order, the North Carolina State Supreme Court said that 60,000 of the ballots that Griffin is attempting to invalidate should be counted.
It’s all part of a broader effort from Griffin to try to steal the election from Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, who even after two recounts, remains the winner of the race.
In a Thursday press call, hosted by the Democratic National Committee, DNC Chair Ken Martin described Martin as a “desperate loser” who has “tried to repeatedly change the rules of the election to baselessly contest the results of this race.”
Martin also warned that these efforts to overturn a fair election may have national implications.
“Republicans across the country watch closely for a new green light to cherry pick elections in their favor. What’s happening in North Carolina goes beyond state borders,” he said. “If Republicans are successful in changing the rules post-election and throwing away valid votes, this will have broad implications, serious repercussions, on elections across the country for years to come.”
And in an attempt to protect voters, Democratic North Carolina state Rep. Phil Rubin is sponsoring a bill known as the Voter Protection and Reliance Act that will protect the ballots of voters who relied on the procedures and laws in place to register and vote, at the time the ballot was cast.
“I want to emphasize what the other leaders on this call have emphasized, about how dangerous Jefferson Griffin’s conduct is, and how dangerous it is that the North Carolina Court of Appeals has now encouraged it,” he said on Thursday’s call. “It risks every future election becoming an attack on the voters themselves. And this bill, the Voter Protection and Reliance Act, aims to shut a door that should never have been opened.”
— Khaya Himmelman
The Christian Nationalists Are Salivating
The State Department’s interpretation of a recent Trump executive order on supporting Christians who work in the federal government involves Marco Rubio asking State Department employees to snitch on their coworkers — specifically about supposedly anti-Christian behaviors that occurred under Antony Blinken.
Politico obtained a copy of an internal cable that was sent to embassies around the globe, under Rubio’s name, announcing that the State Department would begin collecting information about any instances of colleagues displaying “anti-Christian bias” and information “involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration.” The information will reportedly be collected via an anonymous tip form.
“Reports should be as detailed as possible, including names, dates, locations (e.g. post or domestic office where the incident occurred,” the cable said.
Per Politico:
Some State Department officials reacted to the cable with shock and alarm, saying that even if well-intentioned, it is based on the flawed premise that the department harbors anti-Christian bias to begin with, and warning it could create a culture of fear as the administration pushes employees to report on one another.
“It’s very ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-esque,” said one State Department official, who was granted anonymity because the individual was not allowed to speak openly about internal department affairs.
Left-leaning Christian activists and religious freedom groups are already warning the directive will almost inevitably lead to discrimination against non-Christian religious groups and the LGBTQ community.
— Nicole Lafond
Johnson Risks Getting Ousted To Flip Hardliners On Budget Resolution
After a mini rebellion that delayed the vote by a day, House GOP hardliners caved to Republican leadership Thursday, helping them pass the Senate-approved budget resolution and unlock the reconciliation process.
More than a dozen hardliners who initially opposed the blueprint came on board after Republican leadership promised that they will find ways to reduce the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reportedly told the conservative holdouts during a private Wednesday meeting that they could oust him from the speakership if he doesn’t follow through on his promise.
Johnson, of course, is referring to the “motion to vacate” vote that a group of GOP members can force if they are unsatisfied with the Speaker’s leadership. Current rules require a minimum of nine members of the speaker’s party to back the effort in order to receive a floor vote.
In 2023, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was forced out by a group of far-right conservatives, led by then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), using that same rule (though at the time the motion to vacate threshold was just one member) for his decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.
Johnson’s surprising rise to speakership was triggered by McCarthy’s historic ousting.
Ironically, now, if he does not follow through on his promises, the same fate might be around the corner.
— Emine Yücel
