June 6, 2026

Heather Cox Richardson on FDR & Ike June 5 & 6, 1944. MB: Contrast FDR's praise of allied troops with Trump's complaints about allies not pulling their own weight. Contrast Eisenhower's unsent letter taking responsibility for the invasion if it failed with Trump's many fake excuses -- and blaming others --for his many failures on many fronts. Two out of three of those guys were presidents. One became president*.

Timothy Chu & Drew Endy of the Hoover Institution in a Washington Post op-ed (June 4): “... two days before D-Day, John Trump was standing on an English cliff facing Normandy, fine-tuning a radar that was part of an extraordinary system for guiding the boats and planes that would soon carry Allied soldiers across the water toward the enemy coast.... John, the younger brother of [Donald Trump’s] father, Fred, played a crucial role in the development of radar for D-Day and World War II. Radar was hailed as 'second only to the atomic bomb' in winning the war.... The longtime professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was honored by King George VI and President Harry S. Truman for his war work, and was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan.... By the time D-Day neared in 1944, Trump directed a secret field lab in England, where he listened and worked closely with America’s troops to prepare MIT radar for battle. American bombers using the radar developed at MIT were able to 'see' through clouds and destroy German oil and aircraft factories, helping secure air supremacy by the time Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s invasion force reached the Normandy beaches.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The authors of this hagiographic op-ed are wingers, but in the interest of bipartisanship, I'm going to accept their assertion that John Trump did vital work in support of the D-Day invasion. BTW, just before the anniversary of D-Day 2025, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz got the better of John's nephew Donald. Apparently this is how Donald is honoring the D-Day effort this year: ~~~

     ~~~ Update: See also RAS's commentary at the top of today's thread. 

~~~ Tara Copp of the Washington Post: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to bring six of his children on an official trip to France that began Friday is putting added strain on his personal protective detail amid heightened threats stemming from the Iran war.... Hegseth, whose wife, Jennifer Hegseth, also joined the trip, is in France to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of D-Day and honor the tens of thousands of American troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.... A spokesman for Hegseth said the defense secretary is covering the cost of his family’s travel but did not specify whether that includes the additional security personnel needed to protect his family.... The Hegseths have taken their children on official trips in the past, as well, including one in October that included a stop in Hawaii. At the time, the Pentagon would not say whether the secretary reimbursed the government for the cost of having his family accompany him.”

Donnie Goes on a Boring Field Trip. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “At an event held at a rural farm in Wisconsin on Friday..., [Donald] Trump treated his supporters to a rhetorical lineup very similar to most of his recent Oval Office appearances, and reminded them that he could be doing something else. 'I don’t need this, I got elected, what the hell do I have to be here for?' Mr. Trump said to a crowd of people who had braved a rainy day to hear him speak. 'I’m doing this because I like the farmer,' he said, adding: 'I could be home right now in the beautiful White House, enjoying watching somebody else on television talking.'... Diverting at points on Friday from his usual red-meat fare — including with a long segment featuring visual aides about the changes he is making to fountains and monuments in Washington — Mr. Trump touched on policies meant to help farmers.... At another point, he accepted a gold medal from Jordan Stolz, an Olympian speedskater who was seated near him onstage. 'His leg is like a rock,' Mr. Trump said.”

Dan Diamond & Maura Judkis of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has touted his project to overhaul the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.... 'I’m very proud of it,' Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, adding the pool would soon reopen and insisting that his six-week project had finally solved the pool’s years-long leaking issues. 'I’m very good at building things and constructing things.' His critics see the project as evidence of something else: how Trump has bulldozed through regulations, process and long-held norms to impose his will as he remakes Washington.... Major construction projects in the nation’s capital have long been governed by a web of federal commissions, planning boards and laws requiring public input, creating checks on any president seeking to transform the city. But in his second term, Trump has treated Washington as a canvas, reshaping landmarks and public spaces according to his own vision.... Trump’s approach has triggered a growing backlash from preservationists, members of Congress and voters across the country, who say that he is exceeding his authority by unilaterally remaking public spaces.” ~~~

~~~ Aw, Nothing to Worry About, Folks. If the government decides, very quickly, to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty, nothing can be done? -- Judge Patricia Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Friday

I think that’s right, yes. -- Yaakov Roth, Justice Department attorney, responding ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal appeals court panel expressed skepticism Friday about the Trump administration’s view that courts are powerless to stop the construction of the White House ballroom now that the East Wing had been demolished. Two members of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit repeatedly pressed administration lawyers about its argument that ... Donald Trump’s pet project ... could not be stopped by the courts even if it was found to be illegal, because it was too far along and involved significant national security interests.... [Judge Patricia] Millett was joined in her skepticism by Judge Bradley Garcia, a Biden appointee. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, questioned whether the plaintiff in the lawsuit, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, had a basis to sue in the first place....” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM: “These absurdities are just the degenerate spawn of the corrupt and ahistorical 'unitary executive' theory of presidential power, a whole concept totally alien to the people who created the presidency and one whose main intellectual roots go back to a Nazi ideologue. It’s the guiding theory of the Roberts Court, except of course when the president is a Democrat.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I won't disagree with Marshall, but Roth's argument in my estimation sounds a lot like the popular saying that "possession is nine-tenths of the law." It's similar to "squatter's rights." And that reminds me that Squatter Trump very well may try to remain in the White House after January 20, 2028.  

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump called on Friday for [Bill Pulte --] his choice to temporarily run the Office of the Director of National Intelligence [--] to conduct mass firings of employees who 'shouldn’t be there.'... 'I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,' Mr. Trump told The [Wall Street] Journal.... According to The Journal, the president mentioned people who had worked for the past two Democratic presidents and are still part of federal intelligence agencies as employees who should be fired.... Mr. Pulte, a loyal attack dog on behalf of Mr. Trump, has spent more than a year identifying what he has called crimes committed by people the president views as his political enemies.... That has alarmed several Republican senators, who have said they worry about the office that oversees the intelligence community being used as a weapon.” The AP's story is here. ~~~

      ~~~ Pulte Pick Short-Circuits Surveillance Bill. Joey Cappelletti of the AP: “The Senate blocked an extension early Friday of a key surveillance program used by U.S. intelligence agencies as concerns mounted over ... Donald Trump’s selection of federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte to serve as director of national intelligence. Some Republicans joined Democrats in the 47-52 vote against a procedural motion that would have set up a final vote on the extension next week, complicating efforts to extend the critical program before it expires on June 12. The vote came after an overnight session on separate legislation funding immigration enforcement agencies.... Seven Republican senators joined nearly all Democrats in voting against the bill, with Sen. John Fetterman voting for it.

Trump Pardons Another Corrupt GOP Politician. Francesca Regalado of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has pardoned Stephen E. Buyer, a former Republican representative from Indiana who was convicted of insider trading in 2023.... Mr. Buyer was sentenced in 2023 to 22 months in prison after being convicted on four counts of securities fraud. The authorities had filed civil and criminal charges against him for trading stock on information about two mergers that he had received from clients of the consulting firm he formed after leaving Congress in 2011, according to the complaint.”

Marie: You may recall that when then-Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated the JCPOA with Iran and others, a key member of his negotiating team was Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, who also happened to be a nuclear physicist. Well, lo and behold, after months of being unable to close a new deal with Iran, Dumb (most people don't know there's a "b" in "Dumb") and Dumber may have decided to take a crash course in "nuclear" (most people don't know "nuclear" is an adjective). ~~~  

~~~ Barak Ravid & Colin Demarest of Axios: Donald "Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Thursday for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran.... Some of the country's foremost experts in uranium processing and centrifuge technology are based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex....  The Iran envoys made the trip to meet with members of that team and discuss preparations for the potential implementation of a nuclear deal.... Some of the nuclear experts who participated in the meeting also joined Kushner and Witkoff in Oman for nuclear negotiations with Iran before the war."  

Warren Strobel, et al., of the Washington Post: “The former senior CIA official found with more than $40 million worth of gold bars in his house allegedly created a fake, highly classified intelligence program that he used as a conduit to funnel millions of dollars for his personal use, according to people familiar with the criminal investigation. David J. Rush, who was arrested last month and charged with one count of theft of public money, constructed what is known as a 'special access program,' a sort of black box for the most secret intelligence operations, the people familiar with the investigation said.... The CIA, meanwhile, has put several agency officials on leave as FBI and spy agency investigations continue, two people familiar with the matter said.”

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The Justice Department told federal judges on Friday that it would not move forward with establishing a $1.8 billion fund for people claiming to have been unfairly prosecuted by the government, putting the commitment in writing after Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, had declined to do so days earlier. The assertion, made in two separate cases challenging the fund, was the department’s clearest statement to date that it was pulling back from a plan to use taxpayer money to make payments to people who said they had suffered 'weaponization' at the hands of federal prosecutors.... [But] the Justice Department ... lawyers said that the courts should not stand in judgment over the fund, adding that the two judges handling the cases had no authority to block it.... 

“Mr. Blanche equivocated during his appearance on Capitol Hill [earlier this week], saying there was no reason to put his vow in writing. And Mr. Trump himself appeared to walk back Mr. Blanche’s vow, saying on Wednesday that he still loved the idea of the fund and that he believed it was important. There were more doubts about Republican opposition to the fund when the Senate, after an all-night session on Thursday into Friday morning, rejected efforts to kill it, as lawmakers voted on a bill to finance Mr. Trump’s wide-ranging immigration crackdown. A second part of the agreement settling the suit — one granting Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses broad protections from I.R.S. investigations — remains in place.” MB: I imagine the DOJ maintains that the judges have no authority over the Trump tax-forgiveness bonanza, either. ~~~

     ~~~ Todd's Shell Game. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: “The Justice Department told a federal judge that even though the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund is 'not going forward,' it still opposes the court taking any action to block the initiative on a more permanent basis.... Even without the 'anti-weaponization' fund, the Justice Department has a mechanism to give out taxpayer-funded settlements to Trump allies and potentially to Jan. 6 rioters, hundreds of whom have indicated they want payouts. The Judgment Fund, which long predates the Trump administration, allows the federal government to make payments as part of settlements of lawsuits or claims against the U.S., and several Jan. 6 defendants have already made claims or filed lawsuits.... 'Todd Blanche is pulling a bait and switch, telling lawmakers the anti-weaponization fund is dead while plotting other ways to pay Jan. 6 rioters,' [Justice Connection founder Stacey] Young said in a statement to NBC News.... In response to a request for comment on Young’s statement, a Justice Department spokesperson reconfirmed that the Judgment Fund has always been available to anyone.” MB: So there ya go. ~~~

~~~ Brandi Buchman & Matt Shuham, in the Huffington Post, take a long time to do it, but they give particulars on how the DOJ could use the Judgment Fund to "settle" with claimants even if the claimants hadn't filed a case. MB: In the hands of the Trump/Blanche DOJ, that fund is a corrupt abuse waiting to happen. Again and again and again.

Trump/Blanche DOJ Is Already Meddling in California Election. Lindsey Holden of Politico: “Tensions between the Trump administration and California Democratic leaders escalated as primary ballot-counting continued Friday, after a federal prosecutor said, without evidence, that he’s investigating unspecified allegations of voter fraud. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in an X post that his office 'has multiple election fraud investigations underway' in coordination with the FBI. And Department of Justice spokesperson Kyle Perez confirmed an assistant U.S. attorney was present at a Los Angeles ballot processing center on Friday.... In response, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in an X post on Friday his office 'has a presence on the ground right now, is monitoring the situation closely, and stands ready to protect voters and ensure California’s election laws are followed.' Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Friday criticized Essayli for publicly disclosing his investigation while ballots were still being counted.”

Ken Dilanian & Carol Leonnig of MS NOW: “FBI Director Kash Patel fired a group of bureau intelligence analysts Friday over a rescinded 2023 memo about 'radical traditionalist Catholic ideology' that has long been a focus of Republicans despite an investigation that found no anti-Catholic bias, three people familiar with the matter told MS NOW. The analysts worked in the FBI’s Richmond office, where the memo originated, said the sources.... [The officials' analysis] stemmed in part from a domestic terrorism investigation of a Virginia violent extremist who joined a Catholic sect not recognized by the Vatican, according to public records.” Thanks to RAS for the link. 

Michael Casey of the AP: “A federal judge on Friday sided with 20 Democratic states and halted an effort by the Trump administration to force states to comply with a range of conditions to get billions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP]. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun granted a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit challenging the conditions for getting SNAP funding. Among them are restrictions related to 'gender ideology,' 'immigration,' and 'fair athletic opportunities' for women and girls. The judge said he would issue a memorandum later explaining his decision. In their lawsuit, the states argued the Agriculture Department has 'thrown unconstitutional and unlawful roadblocks between the programs created by Congress and the States that rely on them, threatening critical nutrition support, vital agricultural research, and the safety of our national food chain and communities.'”

Marie: Here's a rather shocking example of life in our authoritarian hellhole. This was not the government censoring scientists; it was scientists censoring scientists. As far as we know, nobody forced or coerced them do it: ~~~

~~~ Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: “Five diabetes researchers, including the editor of a leading journal, were removed from the field’s premier conference in New Orleans on Friday morning, after handing out copies of an editorial criticizing the Trump administration’s 'dismantling' of the biomedical research enterprise. The incident occurred outside a conference hall where a keynote address had originally been scheduled to be given by Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, at a gathering organized by the American Diabetes Association. A group of about 10 researchers, including some of the field’s leaders, were quietly handing out printouts of an editorial published in Diabetes Care, a journal the association publishes, according to three of the participants. Security and police told them to leave at the direction of event organizers and confiscated some of their lanyards and ability to attend the conference.... Louisiana State Police trooper Kyle Wagner said that troopers working a security detail 'were requested by event organizers to assist with removing several individuals from the event. Troopers assisted by escorting the individuals from the private event, no arrests were made, and all individuals left peacefully.'” Here's the MedPage Today story, which broke the news. Update: the New York Times gives a somewhat more detailed account of how the ouster went down; the link appears to be a gift link.

~~~~~~~~~~

California Gubernatorial Race. Lauren Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who was practically an afterthought until the final weeks of the California governor campaign, will advance to the November election after a top-two finish in this week’s primary, The Associated Press determined on Friday. Steve Hilton, a Republican former Fox News host, and Tom Steyer, a Democrat and former hedge fund manager, remain locked in a close race for the second spot as election officials continue counting millions of ballots. In California’s nonpartisan primary, the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the November election. Mr. Becerra’s primary performance caps his extraordinary come-from-behind surge in the tumultuous race and positions him to become California’s first Latino governor in the modern era if he wins in November. In interviews, voters said they appreciated his long career in government, which distinguished him from a sprawling field of less experienced competitors.” The NBC News report is here.

Maine Senate Race. Tim Balk & Katie Glueck of the New York Times: “Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, moved to quell mounting Democratic anxieties about his candidacy on Friday, telling supporters in a defiant speech that his past behavior was being 'weaponized' by his political opponents. A day after The New York Times reported that three women — a conservative and two Democrats — who had been romantically involved with Mr. Platner described volatile and 'toxic' relationships, Mr. Platner addressed a crowd at a theater in Bar Harbor, expressing confidence that Maine voters would stick by him. 'When politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me, Maine, you have my back, Mr. Platner said. The state of Maine raised me, and the state of Maine saved me, and to all of you out there, Maine, I will always have your back.''” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I heard this on MS NOW yesterday, and it supports my view that there's something rotten in the State of Maine:

Here's the chair of the Independent Women’s Forum, the right-wing group where Lyndsey Fifield is a fellow, bragging about helping draft Susan Collins's remarks when she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.

Fifield is NYT's main source, and the only one alleging anything physical. pic.twitter.com/YnFZjA8j85

— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) June 4, 2026

~~~ Bridget Bowman & Natasha Korecki of NBC News: “Some of Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ most ardent supporters are encouraging her to reactivate her suspended Senate campaign as fellow Democrat Graham Platner faces new allegations of 'toxic' behavior toward three ex-girlfriends, which he has denied. But while the latest allegations about Platner’s past have jolted uneasy members of the party, that encouragement hasn’t amounted to an organized effort to promote her in Tuesday’s primary.... One Democrat who had been involved in Mills’ campaign said she would move forward anew only if Platner were to step aside, not to challenge him.”