After a hearing yesterday about Trump’s Friday ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House campus, very early this morning—I was still awake writing yesterday’s letter—U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted the request of the media outlets to stop Trump’s order banning members of their organizations from the White House complex.
asserted
Kelly → write → complex
Kelly, whom Trump appointed to the bench in 2017, challenged the argument of the White House that it had banned the journalists because they had endangered national security, noting that the stories to which administration lawyers claimed to object were “routine.”
asserted
lawyers → appoint → which
In fact, one of the stories the White House claimed endangered national security was based on a press call from the White House itself.
asserted
House → claim → House
According to Oliver Darcy, who writes the media newsletter Status, the anonymous “senior administration official” who provided the quotations on the call was none other than Vice President J.D. Vance.
uncertain
who → accord → Vance
Kelly ordered the credentials of 78 journalists restored immediately.
asserted
credentials → order → journalists
This morning, the White House continued to deny reporters from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW access to the White House campus.
asserted
House → continue → campus
Their lawyers asked for an emergency hearing because the administration had “already repeatedly violated the Court’s Order,” and soon after the judge ordered the administration to respond, the reporters were once again allowed into the area.
asserted
reporters → ask → area
And then tonight, at least CNN and MS NOW were blocked from access to the White House state dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
asserted
CNN → block → Jinping
After Trump posted on social media that CNN and MS NOW (he called it MSDNC) were refusing to cover Xi’s visit “because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP,’” the White House told CNN it could send only an audio producer and a cameraman to the event, not a reporter or producer.
uncertain
it → post → event
Senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes said: “They again said that we were specifically denied access and that they were not letting in the CNN editorial presence.
asserted
they → say → presence
”
This morning, Trump complained on social media that “[t]he Media is trying to cover up how well things are going before the Midterms, just to help Democrats.”
asserted
things → complain → Democrats
And that’s the gist of Trump’s attacks on media outlets: MAGA is falling apart, and he either lives in a fantasy world or hopes to stem that collapse by issuing propaganda that will convince voters he is actually winning.
asserted
he → ’ → voters
The fantasy world thesis has supporting evidence in an image posted on Trump’s social media account this morning, showing Trump and Xi standing together on a red carpet in front of an airplane apparently labeled Air China.
asserted
Trump → have → airplane
Behind Trump, to his right, is a young woman who looks like Trump’s loyal aide Natalie Harp standing with her hand over her heart.
asserted
who → look → heart
Journalist Aaron Rupar of Public Notice noted that the image was a digitally altered photo in which the image of the chief officer of protocol of the United States, Monica Crowley, had been replaced by an image that appears to be Harp.
asserted
that → note → image
Convincing voters he is winning is an even harder sell.
asserted
he → convince → voters
The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is its signature policy, and last week a federal appeals court stopped the Trump administration from sending migrants to third countries, finding that the short timeline for those renditions stripped deportees of their right to due process.
asserted
timeline → stop → process
The administration appears to have continued the renditions, arguing that the court had not officially notified a lower court of its decision and thus it was not yet in effect, prompting an appeals court to clarify that the flights must stop.
asserted
flights → appear → court
Today Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to step in to permit those renditions to third countries.
asserted
Sauer → ask → countries
He said that disruption of the administration’s “plans…imposes massive costs on the government and invariably requires new rounds of diplomatic engagement with countries who may be all the more skeptical of our removal efforts given the disruption.”
uncertain
who → say → disruption
Also today, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for ignoring his previous orders and continuing to hold people in “inhumane and unconstitutional” conditions at Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza, depriving detainees of “sleep, sanitary living conditions, basic personal hygiene needs, sufficient food and water, and adequate medical care.”
asserted
Kaplan → criticize → sleep
Although, as Josephine Walker of Axios points out, the administration likely sees the appalling conditions of its prisons as a way to induce migrants to leave, the judge required ICE to provide adequate space and humane conditions for detainees.
asserted
judge → point → detainees
Meanwhile, as Ryan J. Foley of the Associated Press reported today, a report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that ICE had no strategic plan for spending the unprecedented $45 billion Congress gave it in Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, and has wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on slapdash plans for mass detention.
asserted
Congress → report → detention
It spent nearly $3 million for tents at Guantanamo Bay that were never used, $20 million for maintaining warehouses that were never used to house detainees and are now being sold, and excessive rates to lock people up.
asserted
that → spend → people
Foley reports that the Department of Homeland Security told the GAO that it would have a plan for spending its windfall by August 31, 2027, nearly a year from now.
asserted
it → report → August
After Trump announced the U.S. would accept meat from other countries in order to lower food prices, on September 22 the Department of Agriculture announced the recall of more than 167,000 pounds (75,750 kg) of raw pork, beef, and goat.
asserted
Department → announce → pork
The items were produced without federal inspection but carried false marks claiming they had been inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
asserted
they → produce → Agriculture
The agency said the food “should be considered misbranded and unsafe to eat.”
asserted
food → say → ?
Trump’s insistence that the country suffers from voter fraud isn’t going well, either.
asserted
country → suffer → fraud
In California, Republican sheriff Chad Bianco and the Riverside County sheriff’s department confiscated more than 650,000 ballots after California voters agreed to redistrict the state to offset the Republican mid-decade redistricting of Texas.
asserted
voters → confiscate → Texas
The state’s Democratic attorney general immediately ordered him to return the ballots, saying he had no authority to confiscate them and that the seizure was intended to make people distrust elections.
asserted
people → order → elections
As Uwa Ede-Osifo of the Guardian reported, the California Supreme Court today ordered Blanco to return the ballots, saying that it was Blanco, rather than voters, who was endangering elections: “Allowing law enforcement unfettered access to ballots, or the ability to handle and count them in secret, based on unregulated protocols, itself creates a substantial risk to election integrity,” it said.
asserted
it → report → integrity
On Saturday, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that makes it a felony to seize ballots from a county elections office.
asserted
it → sign → office
Trump’s own claims of voter fraud also took a hit this week.
uncertain
claims → take → hit
As Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times reported today, in July, Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin claimed they had found more than 270,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
asserted
they → report → California
Mullin stated that there were as many as 15,903 noncitizens on the voter rolls in Nevada.
asserted
Mullin → state → Nevada
But when officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) met with Nevada election officials in August, they admitted Mullin’s number was inflated.
asserted
number → meet → August
After the meeting, one wrote to say that the department had confirmed just 185 people on the voter rolls were not citizens.
asserted
people → write → rolls
They sent Nevada officials a list of those 185 names.
asserted
They → send → names
On Tuesday, Nevada told the federal government that the 185 people on the government’s list are all citizens.
asserted
people → tell → list
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
