As part of ongoing efforts to escape the growing scandal around leaked war plans
, Donald Trump’s White House has now resorted to attacking the spouse of Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who broke the story.
During her daily press briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt opened a new front in the White House effort.
“If this story proves anything, it proves that Democrats and their propagandists in the mainstream media know how to fabricate, orchestrate, and disseminate a misinformation campaign quite well,” Leavitt said. “There’s arguably no one in the media who loves manufacturing and pushing hoaxes more than Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg is an anti-Trump hater. He is a registered Democrat. Goldberg’s wife is also a registered Democrat and a big Democrat donor who used to work under who? Hillary Clinton.”
Leavitt did not offer any evidence that Goldberg makes up stories. In fact, a past Goldberg article that Trump has complained about for years—that Trump called dead veterans “suckers” and “losers”
—was later verified
by Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly.
Goldberg is married to Pamela Ress Reeves
, a policy strategist. Her big sin, according to Leavitt, appeared to be her work
as director of the State Department’s International Fund for Women and Girls, under the department’s secretary at the time, Hillary Clinton.
The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency have cut funding
for vulnerable women and children around the world.
Leavitt joined the Trump team
after praising a Jan. 6 insurrectionist as a “hero” and promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.
In her new position, Leavitt has repeatedly lied
on Trump’s behalf. Despite bipartisan uproar about Trump’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 convicts, including many convicted of violent crimes, Leavitt said it didn’t cause much controversy
. She followed that up by pushing the falsehood that the Biden administration spent $50 million on condoms for the Gaza Strip, and by awarding
a right-wing hoaxer with a pass to the briefing.
The administration is clearly aware the scandal is a problem.
The party has gone after
the issue with gusto, alongside their allies at conservative media outlets like Fox News and Newsmax. But instead of coming clean about what was disclosed, firing involved parties, and working to provide
a full accounting, the Trump team would rather smear reporters and their closest relatives.
Amid a wave of federal program cuts affecting millions of Americans, President Donald Trump announced that his administration is considering compensating the MAGA loyalists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In an interview with the conservative outlet Newsmax
, host Greg Kelly asked Trump whether there was any discussion of a so-called “compensation fund” for the rioters—many of whom were rearrested
for other crimes after getting pardons—because they lost “income” and “opportunity” during their incarceration. In response, Trump confirmed, “there’s a lot of talk about that.”
“People in government really liked that group of people,” he continued. “They were patriots as far as I was concerned. I talk about them a lot. They were treated very unfairly.”
While Trump notably did not provide further details, he appeared to be floating what some might call reparations for the Jan. 6 felons—an initiative that, if pursued, would likely be funded by taxpayers.
During the interview, Trump also pledged to “look into” whether the federal government should reach a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbit, the “big MAGA fan” who was fatally shot by a police officer during the riot. Last January, Babbitt’s family filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit
against the U.S. government.
“Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan, and she was innocently standing there—they even say, trying to sort of hold back the crowd,” Trump said. “And a man did something unthinkable to her when he shot her, and I think it’s a disgrace. ”
Even if Trump is right in saying that the diehard MAGA loyalists in his administration sympathize with the rioters, the public sure doesn’t. In December, a Civiqs poll for Daily Kos
found that a bare majority of registered voters (51%) opposed Trump’s plan to pardon those who took part in the insurrection.
That, however, didn’t stop Trump from issuing a sweeping grant of clemency
to the more than 1,500 individuals charged in connection with the Capitol attack when he was reelected to the White House in January. He also commuted the sentences of 14 imprisoned insurrectionists, allowing them to roam the streets freely.
Though many of the people let off the hook by the president were among some of the worst people on the planet
, the president has routinely referred to them as “hostages
” and baselessly claimed that they were victims of an unjust criminal justice system.
But let’s be clear: The individuals Trump pardoned were neither “patriots” nor were they victims. One such individual, Andrew Taake, who originally received a six-year sentence
for his actions on Jan. 6, was later arrested again on an outstanding child sex crimes charge. Another convicted rioter, Edward Kelley, was separately charged
with making a “kill list” and conspiring to murder the law enforcement agents who investigated him.
What’s worse, their attack on the Capitol caused at least $1.5 million worth of damage, according to the Washington Post
.
It’s particularly egregious that Trump would even consider using federal funds to compensate those indicted for the attack, especially as his administration slashes essential programs that millions of Americans rely on. For instance, Trump gutted the Department of Education
, and with help from his billionaire ally Elon Musk, he’s overseen the firing of thousands of federal workers or pressured them
into accepting buyouts which has broken everything from the IRS
to Social Security
.
If Americans weren’t onboard with Trump’s plan to pardon these criminals, they’re even less likely to support footing the bill for their so-called “compensation.”
Children as young as 14 could soon be allowed to work overnight shifts in Florida as part of a push by the Republican-led legislature to relieve labor shortages they attribute to the deportation of undocumented immigrants.
According to CNN
and other outlets, the effort to ease labor laws in Florida specifically comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis advocates for “dirt cheap
” labor to replace the work once done by the very immigrants Republicans were so eager to boot from the country
.
“Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be able to do this stuff,” DeSantis said
last week.
The Sunshine State has been gradually loosening its child labor laws for years. CNN reports that the legislature passed a law in 2024 allowing homeschooled 16- and 17-year-olds to work “any hour of the day.”
But Florida isn’t alone
in this push. In recent years, GOP lawmakers in other red states like Arkansas
, Indiana
, and Iowa
have passed laws making it easier for teenagers to work longer hours and take on more jobs—seemingly to fill poorly paid and undesirable positions that employers once relied on undocumented workers to fill.
“The consequences are potentially disastrous,” Reid Maki, the director of the Child Labor Coalition, which advocates against exploitative labor policies, told PBS News
. “You can’t balance a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teen workers.”
But the desire to put kids to work only seems to be ramping up. One report
found that since 2021, 28 states introduced bills to weaken child labor laws, and 12 states actually enacted such laws. By comparison, 14 states introduced new child labor-related bills in 2024 alone.
What’s worse, some unscrupulous businesses aren’t even waiting for states to pass laws that allow children to work. In May 2023, several McDonald’s franchises in Kentucky were accused
of hiring a combined 300 children, some of them reportedly younger than 10.
Republicans may argue they’re filing and passing these bills for practical reasons, such as addressing labor shortages
in a competitive market. But the more likely explanation for the surge of new child labor bills is that Republicans want to reduce regulations on businesses
—using child labor as a tool to directly attack longstanding federal safety rules.
It’s already legal for teenagers to take on certain jobs or paid internships, and children from middle- or upper-class families have been able to take advantage
of these opportunities for years. But the Republican lawmakers pushing for looser labor laws aren’t focused on making it easier for teens to babysit or work the drive-thru at a fast food chain. Instead, they’re aiming to allow 16-year-olds to cover night shifts.
And, conveniently for them, they have allies in the White House who seem perfectly okay with this.
A report from the Center for American Progress
revealed that Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for Donald Trump’s second presidential administration, advocated for rolling back child labor laws because … kids like danger?
“Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs,” Project 2025 claims
. “With parental consent and proper training, certain young adults should be allowed to learn and work in more dangerous occupations.”
Members of Trump’s Cabinet have also turned a blind eye to child labor. Earlier this month, newly appointed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer bragged
about cutting $33 million from her department’s budget, including a program that helped regulate and prevent child labor abroad.
What’s also working in the Republicans’ favor is the fact that enforcement of child labor laws has been lax. Beyond the Kentucky incident, a November report
by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families revealed a staggering 266% increase in state-level child labor law violations between the fiscal years 2020 and 2023.
With enforcement already weak, it’s no surprise that some businesses and legislators are taking advantage of the situation to push the boundaries further—without much pushback.
The bill being considered by the Florida Legislature would remove employment time restrictions for 14- and 15-year-olds if they are homeschooled or attend virtual school. Under current law, these children are currently prohibited from working earlier than 6:30 AM or later than 11 PM.
If passed, this could have disastrous consequences. A report from the Florida Policy Institute
warned that these types of bills could “reverse decades of child labor protections in Florida” and noted that child labor violations in Florida had already risen from 95 in 2019 to 281 in 2022.
Beyond the legal ramifications of passing such a measure, it’s maddening that Republicans are relying on children to fix the labor shortage created by their own xenophobic policies. After all, it was Republicans who took a harsh stance on immigration
and pushed for more deportations—policies that economists have long warned would lead to labor shortages
and inflation
.
Yet, as red states continue to weaken child labor laws in an ill-fated attempt to fix the problem they created, the message from some lawmakers seems clear: Employers deserve more flexibility—even if it’s at the expense of protecting the most vulnerable workers.
On Tuesday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow took on the Trump administration’s disastrous leak
of secret war plans in an unsecured group chat that accidentally included a reporter. The scandal
, which involves many top Trump administration officials, revealed highly sensitive information of an imminent attack in a foreign nation.
“I mean, we probably should have seen it coming with Trump in his first term, taking all the classified documents from his first term and stashing them in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago,” Maddow remarked
, referring to the trove of classified documents Trump refused to return after he left the White House in 2021, leading to multiple indictments, in a case that was ultimately derailed by a handpicked federal judge, the Supreme Court, and his new Department of Justice
.
Maddow chronicled Trump’s history of reckless disclosures and questionable national security actions, including how the current Trump administration is allowing Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to access essentially every American’s
private data.
“I mean, this stuff is criminal,” Maddow explained. It’s not keeping nuclear secrets in the ‘Mar-a-Lago bathroom’ level of crime, but it’s a crime.”
The Trump administration is now scrambling to spin its dangerous incompetence
, hoping to obscure the magnitude of its national security failure. But as more information comes out, the details of the Trump administration gets worse and worse
.
Vice President JD Vance announced late Tuesday that he’s crashing his wife and the U.S. delegation’s trip to Greenland later this week, following fierce pushback
over the second lady’s planned travel to the Arctic island.
While Vance framed his participation as a matter of national security, the timing is convenient. His trip takes him far from the U.S. just as he and other members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are dealing with the fallout
from accidentally discussing the merits of bombing Yemen via Signal chat—with a known journalist present.
Notably, it also places Vance far away from Trump, whom he reportedly implied was unable to grasp the gravity of the wartime plans. Excerpts from the Signal text chain suggest that Vance, or someone appearing to be him, proposed delaying bombing for a month. Now, according to The New York Times
, Vance is apparently scrambling to make amends.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance said, according to the leaked texts
. “There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices,” he said.
Vance continued, writing, “I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
While it’s unclear if Vance’s last-minute trip to Greenland is directly tied to the leaked Signal chats, it conveniently places him far from the political firestorm. Meanwhile, his Republican colleagues back home face mounting scrutiny over why they shared sensitive strike target information through an app that, despite its encryption, is far from foolproof
.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” Vance said in a video
posted to social media on Tuesday. “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protect the security of the entire world.”
Beyond distancing himself from the controversy surrounding the Signal group chat, Vance’s visit to Greenland will be notably lower profile than what was originally planned for U.S. officials.
Boys play on a frozen beach in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 11, 2025.
According to NBC News
, the Vances will now visit a U.S. Space Force base on the island’s northwest coast to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues. This itinerary keeps them away from any major Greenlandic settlements and reduces the likelihood of encountering residents still angered by the Trump administration’s past threat to annex the island and who opposed the visit.
Danish officials welcomed this revised itinerary. The Associated Press
reported that Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen viewed the adjustment as a “de-escalation,” even as Trump’s Cabinet and Vance continue to frame the trip as a national security mission.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede had initially criticized Usha Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s trip to the island as “highly aggressive
.” Originally, the second lady was set to travel to Greenland with one of her children to attend the territory’s national dogsled race. She had also intended to visit the capital, Nuuk, and Greenlandic heritage sites, NBC reports.
Egede, for his part, made it clear that his government had no intention of meeting
with the U.S. officials. He emphasized that officials had not “extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.” Egede was particularly critical of Waltz’s presence.
“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede said to a Greenlandic newspaper
on Sunday. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission—and the pressure will increase.”
It’s a fair question. And doesn’t Waltz, like Vance, have more pressing matters
to handle stateside? (Yes, he’s still going, along with Vance.)
Perhaps with Vance and Waltz away for a few days, members of Trump’s Cabinet hope they can shift blame for the Signal chat fiasco to the other major player in the debacle: Pete Hegseth
.
The Atlantic on Wednesday released new evidence on the text thread
that the most senior Trump administration officials used to plan an attack on a terrorist group in Yemen, and it proves that President Donald Trump, his top officials, and his press team have been flagrantly lying
about what went down.
After Trump
, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
, and other Trump administration officials on the chain used the excuse
that none of the information on the Signal text thread was classified, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg—the journalist who was mistakenly included in the chat—released more texts
from the chain showing that classified information was indeed shared.
“Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
said in a defensive interview on Tuesday in which he sought to downplay the seriousness of his errors and blame everyone but himself for the mistakes.
But The Atlantic released a screenshot of text
in which Hegseth discussed the exact times bombs would fall and the exact weapons systems the military would use in the attack on the Houthi rebel group
.
As for whether information like that would be classified, the answer is yes.
According to the director of national intelligence’s own guidelines
, “information providing indication or advance warning that the U.S. or its allies are preparing an attack”—which is what Hegseth shared—is top secret
.
“It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this,” a U.S. Department of Defense official told
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand. “We don’t provide that level of information on unclassified systems, in order to protect the lives and safety of the servicemembers carrying out these strikes. If we did, it would be wholly irresponsible. My most junior analysts know not to do this.”
The release of that text also shows that current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was in severe cover-her-ass mode at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, when she said
she didn’t remember
if those details were shared. Her memory lapse was not believable then, and it’s really not believable now that we know those details were shared in the text chain, which Gabbard was included on.
What’s more, the new texts
also make it plainly clear that national security adviser Mike Waltz added Goldberg
to the thread—making the crazy excuses he made in a Tuesday night appearance on Fox News look even more unhinged.
When asked how an Atlantic reporter got on the thread, Waltz replied, “I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but of all the people out there, somehow this guy who has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia hoax, gone to just all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president of the United States, and he’s the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contacts and then gets sucked into this group.”
If Waltz had just looked back at the text thread, he’d get the answer that he was the one who added Goldberg.
Another text The Atlantic released shows that the text chain is not the only one being used by the administration. The chain was called the “Houthi PC Small Group
,” and in a newly released text
, Waltz wrote, “As we stated in the in the [sic] first PC …”—which strongly suggests that other PC chats exist. And this raises questions about what other classified material has been illegally shared in an unsecured messaging app.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, center, is flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on March 25, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
“I had no access to my personal devices until I returned from my trip. That is the responsible way for me to make these trips and that is how I always conduct myself,” Witkoff wrote
in a post on X in which he claimed he was being responsible by not bringing his personal device to Russia. However, his statement ended up confirming that he used his personal device for the text chain in which classified information was being shared.
As Republicans make ridiculous excuses to explain away the danger the Trump administration put American troops in by discussing war plans in an unsecured text chain, Democrats are ratcheting up the heat
, launching investigations
, and calling for heads to roll
.
“As a member of Oversight, I’m sending letters to the identifiable officials in the Hegseth Disaster Signal Chat demanding that they retain all messages for any pending litigation and Congressional investigations,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida, wrote
in a Bluesky post on Tuesday. “Any deletion of the chat is a willful destruction of evidence.”
And in a letter to Trump on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Hegseth “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history” and demanded his immediate dismissal.
“The so-called Secretary of Defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans—including the timing of a pending attack, possible strike targets, and the weapons to be used—during an unclassified national security group chat that inexplicably included a reporter. His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives, and likely violated the law,” Jeffries wrote
. “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should be fired immediately.”
Democrats on Tuesday lodged a massive upset in a Republican-held state Senate district
in Pennsylvania, flipping
a seat that Donald Trump carried by 15 points and sending a massive warning sign to Republicans that the 2026 midterms could be brutal for their party.
Democratic nominee James Andrew Malone, mayor of East Petersburg, defeated Republican Josh Parsons, 50-49
, to become the first Democrat to ever win this seat in Lancaster County, according
to the Downballot.
Malone told
Lancaster Online in the days before the election that his campaign was hearing “concerns from thousands of voters over Musk’s work with the Trump administration to reshape the federal government.”
“Josh Parsons might be OK with that but I’m not,” Malone told the outlet. “On Tuesday, you’ll get to make the choice between more Musk, or Lancaster values.”
Before the election, right-wing activist Scott Presler—who helped Trump’s campaign in the state in 2024—was sounding alarm bells about the race.
“Pennsylvania, we are currently losing this special election. The democrats could potentially flip this State Senate seat from [Red to Blue],” Presler wrote
in a post on X on March 20. “I’m very disappointed that Republicans aren’t taking special elections seriously. I can’t do everything.”
And after the GOP officially lost the race on Tuesday, he tweeted
: “I asked for help in Pennsylvania & no one helped us. 482 votes,” referring to the margin of the Democratic win in the contest.
The GOP loss could be a canary in the coal mine for Republicans in critical upcoming elections in Florida, where two special elections will be held to fill the vacant seats of former Reps. Matt Gaetz, who resigned Congress in disgrace
, and Mike Waltz, who resigned to become CIA director.
CIA Director Mike Waltz’s vacant seat is coming up for a special election in Florida.
Republicans were already worried
about the race to replace the now beleaguered Waltz, as the Republican nominee is being badly outraised and early turnout looks strong for Democrats.
And Republicans were expressing those fears before the 16-point shift in the Pennsylvania state Senate race.
Like Malone, the Democratic nominee in that Florida race, Josh Weil, is making Musk a key topic
.
“Elon Musk wants you to believe Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Maybe that’s what happens when you spend too much time around real ones,” Weil wrote
in a post on X. “It’s only a Ponzi scheme if they take away all of the money you invested in it.”
Ultimately, special elections have been going well
for Democrats after Trump’s unfortunate win in 2024.
Democrats overperformed in two state legislative races
in Virginia in January, before Trump even took office. And later in January, after Trump took office, Democrats flipped
a state Senate seat in a deep red district in Iowa.
Donald Trump, senior members of his administration, and his congressional Republican allies are struggling to contain the political fallout from the leaked war plan chat scandal
.
In multiple media appearances on friendly right-wing media outlets, they offered multiple excuses to spin what happened and promoted an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory for how Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was able to get access to the chat.
Appearing on Newsmax Tuesday, Trump inaccurately referred
to the text chain as a “call” and professed ignorance as to how the leak occurred.
“What it was, we believe, is somebody that was on the line with permission, somebody that worked with Mike Waltz at a lower level, had Goldberg’s number or call through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call,” he told host Greg Kelly.
“I can only go by what I’ve been told—I wasn’t involved in it,” Trump added.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance tried to dismiss the scandal altogether, claiming
on social media it was “very clear Goldberg oversold what he had.”
Fox News devoted the opening segment of all three of its prime-time shows on Tuesday night—“Hannity,” “The Ingraham Angle,” and “Jesse Watters Primetime”—to hosting Republican officials to spin the story.
Speaking to Laura Ingraham, national security adviser Mike Waltz, who invited The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to the chat, saw a sinister motive behind Goldberg’s reporting.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” he said, “but of all the people out there, somehow this guy who has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia hoax, gone to just all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president of the United States, and he’s the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contacts and then gets sucked into this group.”
Trump has attacked Goldberg over many years for reporting that Trump called deceased military veterans “suckers” and “losers,” but Trump’s own former chief of staff John Kelly from his first administration verified that story
.
Waltz also claimed to Ingraham that he has enlisted multibillionaire Trump financier Elon Musk to investigate the leak.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, led on by host Jesse Watters, echoed Waltz’s conspiracy theory that Goldberg had done something “mischievous” to end up in the secret text chain to which he was invited by Waltz.
She also compared Democratic anger about the leak to the Russia “hoax”—which was not a hoax and led to Trump’s first impeachment.
“The Democrats, there’s nothing that they’re better at than spinning a sensationalist story out of a basic set of facts,” Leavitt said.
Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Trump ally, led off the opening segment of “Hannity” by praising chat participants for speaking “just like they do to the American people.” Mullin then argued that Democrats were raising the issue to distract from “disastrous decisions that the Democrat (sic) Party is having.”
The Trump administration’s argument—that Goldberg or some other outside actor had done something devious to access the chat—wasn’t far off from pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who argued on his Infowars site
that the leak to Goldberg was a “CIA Vault 7 style operation.” Vault 7 was a leak
of classified CIA documents to the WikiLeaks site in 2018.
The full-throated defense and attempt to spread disinformation surrounding the story across multiple outlets raises doubts about the administration’s claim that the leak was not a big deal. In fact, the high-level spin raises more questions
about the chat and what the administration may be hiding as it refuses to be more forthcoming about what occurred.
President Donald Trump escalated his assault on democracy Tuesday, signing
a sweeping—and, according to experts, unconstitutional—executive order
that would block millions of U.S. citizens from voting.
The order
, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” threatens to withhold federal grant money to force states to comply with voter suppression tactics
that are already in effect in many red states.
The order comes one day after interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin was planning to investigate
nonexistent voter fraud.
The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, condemned Trump’s executive order, which it compared to the GOP’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act
.
“This executive order would block tens of millions of American citizens from voting. Presidents have no authority to do this,” the Brennan Center wrote on Bluesky
.
During the signing of the order, Trump boasted about winning the 2024 election “in a landslide.”
“Perhaps some people think I shouldn’t be complaining, because we won in a landslide, but we’ve got to straighten out our election,” Trump told reporters, despite having received less than half of the popular vote
in the 2024 election.
Rick Hasen
, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law, characterized
Trump’s executive order as “dangerous,” calling it a clear power grab by the executive branch.
Hasen highlighted how the order would disenfranchise millions of voters by enforcing extreme identification requirements and hampering mail-in voting by directing the DOJ to sue states that accept paper ballots received after Election Day—even if they were mailed before.
Further, it would cause a dramatic shift in the executive branch’s power over federal elections by allowing Trump to compel the independent, bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission
to do his bidding.
“If a President can control the EAC, it could direct the agency to do all kinds of things that could benefit the President’s party,” Hasen wrote.
The order would also grant Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency
—along with the Department of Homeland Security—access to voting records, allowing them to run roughshod through them.
And the order directs billionaire attack dog
and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to target marginalized communities under the threat of unconstitutional
deportation sweeps.
Like many of the GOP’s previous undemocratic election tactics, Trump’s executive order lacks any credible evidence to support its claims, such as the Republican lie
that millions of undocumented immigrants are voting
illegally in U.S. elections.
Danielle Lang, a voting rights lawyer at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center told The Guardian
that there is nothing constitutional about Trump’s order.
“The short answer is that this executive order,” she said, “like all too many that we’ve seen before, is lawless and asserts all sorts of executive authority that he most assuredly does not have.”
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