Hello, today is the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️
The Missouri anti-gerrymandering activist group People Not Politicians is facing a barrage of threats from state Attorney General Kathryn Hanaway. Hanaway recently launched an investigation into the group after an unsubstantiated claim that they were collecting signatures for a referendum against gerrymandering from “illegal aliens.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
“When it turns out that the attorney general is completely wrong and has done nothing about it, it doesn’t matter, she will succeed in her intention of confusing and manipulating.”
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
“The truth doesn’t matter,” he said. “This is part of a pattern we've increasingly seen over the years where MAGA-affiliated elected officials are driven by press releases and tweets without actually trying to get to the truth about anything important.”
“When it turns out that the attorney general is completely wrong and has done nothing about it, it doesn’t matter, she will succeed in her intention of confusing and manipulating.”
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
In an interview with TPM, People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn called the allegations against the group “absurd.”
“The truth doesn’t matter,” he said. “This is part of a pattern we've increasingly seen over the years where MAGA-affiliated elected officials are driven by press releases and tweets without actually trying to get to the truth about anything important.”
“When it turns out that the attorney general is completely wrong and has done nothing about it, it doesn’t matter, she will succeed in her intention of confusing and manipulating.”
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
A few days later in a separate mailHanaway announced that the “case” had been turned over to ICE.
In an interview with TPM, People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn called the allegations against the group “absurd.”
“The truth doesn’t matter,” he said. “This is part of a pattern we've increasingly seen over the years where MAGA-affiliated elected officials are driven by press releases and tweets without actually trying to get to the truth about anything important.”
“When it turns out that the attorney general is completely wrong and has done nothing about it, it doesn’t matter, she will succeed in her intention of confusing and manipulating.”
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
The state Attorney General's Office also did not provide any evidence to support its allegations.
A few days later in a separate mailHanaway announced that the “case” had been turned over to ICE.
In an interview with TPM, People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn called the allegations against the group “absurd.”
“The truth doesn’t matter,” he said. “This is part of a pattern we've increasingly seen over the years where MAGA-affiliated elected officials are driven by press releases and tweets without actually trying to get to the truth about anything important.”
“When it turns out that the attorney general is completely wrong and has done nothing about it, it doesn’t matter, she will succeed in her intention of confusing and manipulating.”
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
“Out-of-state signature gatherers are reportedly hiring illegal aliens in their efforts to subvert the will of the people's elected representatives,” Hanaway wrote in a post on X last week. “We have begun an investigation into Advanced Micro Targeting. Advanced Micro Targeting is collecting signatures from People Not Politicians, a dark money group seeking to hijack Missouri's constitutional order.”
The state Attorney General's Office also did not provide any evidence to support its allegations.
A few days later in a separate mailHanaway announced that the “case” had been turned over to ICE.
In an interview with TPM, People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn called the allegations against the group “absurd.”
“The truth doesn’t matter,” he said. “This is part of a pattern we've increasingly seen over the years where MAGA-affiliated elected officials are driven by press releases and tweets without actually trying to get to the truth about anything important.”
“When it turns out that the attorney general is completely wrong and has done nothing about it, it doesn’t matter, she will succeed in her intention of confusing and manipulating.”
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
— John Light
“Out-of-state signature gatherers are reportedly hiring illegal aliens in their efforts to subvert the will of the people's elected representatives,” Hanaway wrote in a post on X last week. “We have begun an investigation into Advanced Micro Targeting. Advanced Micro Targeting is collecting signatures from People Not Politicians, a dark money group seeking to hijack Missouri's constitutional order.”
The state Attorney General's Office also did not provide any evidence to support its allegations.
A few days later in a separate mailHanaway announced that the “case” had been turned over to ICE.
In an interview with TPM, People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn called the allegations against the group “absurd.”
“The truth doesn’t matter,” he said. “This is part of a pattern we've increasingly seen over the years where MAGA-affiliated elected officials are driven by press releases and tweets without actually trying to get to the truth about anything important.”
“When it turns out that the attorney general is completely wrong and has done nothing about it, it doesn’t matter, she will succeed in her intention of confusing and manipulating.”
At this time, as von Glahn noted to TPM, ICE has not contacted the group.
However, he emphasized that given the recent “vigilantism” we've seen from ICE, Hanaway's mere threat to involve ICE creates an atmosphere of intimidation, which, in this case, may have been Hanaway's intention all along.
— Chaya Himmelman
Muriel leaves
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced she will not run for re-election on Tuesday. The decision had been rumored since the summer, when she missed a self-imposed deadline to announce her intentions.
Recognizing that she may be known as the “mayor of crisis management” in interview As the Washington Post reported before her public announcement, the end of her tenure was marked by attacks from the Trump administration, including DOGE layoffs that hit the core of the District's federal workforce and a months-long National Guard invasion.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall in how she dealt with President Trump's intense — if classically ephemeral — passion for meddling in county affairs. With both a personal grudge against and unusual power over one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Trump has occasionally taken an interest in the internecine affairs of the District of Columbia, starting with the renaming Washington commanders To RFK Stadium deal To “decoration” of public places.
Bowser, despite fierce and vocal criticism, opted for treaty leniency, willingly bombing a Black Lives Matter plaza and applauding the assistance of federal law enforcement, sparking protests across the city.
She pointed to D.C.'s unique vulnerabilities as an explanation, publicly fearing that a hostile Trump would target the city's home rule. And her approval ratingalthough sparsely surveyed, during testing in May of this year it again found itself in the positive zone.
Bowser's approach ran counter to the aggressive tactics of blue-state governors Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, both of whom Trump is targeting but who are known to be eyeing the top job and eager to show the electorate some fight.
As she left, Bowser pointed to one unfinished goal of her tenure: statehood for the District of Columbia. The fight to represent the district's 700,000 residents will be handed over to her successor.
— Kate Riga
MAGA International faces some liability
Brazil's Supreme Court this week ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost.
I've been interested in this story for years, partly because of the obvious similarities between it and the US's recent brush with the auto coup, and partly because of how it's different.
First, Bolsonaro's conspirators went further than Trump's Stop the Steal movement, planning to assassinate the president-elect and vice president-elect, as well as a Supreme Court justice, and openly asking the military for support. Then there is the fact that Brazil's young democracy, restored less than 50 years ago after a turbulent history of coups d'état, held strong and saw justice prevail. Ours, much older, was much less nimble when it came time to deal with the first non-peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, the similarities between the events of January 6, 2021 and the Bolsonaro plot that culminated on January 8, 2023 can be overstated. But the tonal match—a deeply serious attack on democracy that was also somewhat funny—is hard to ignore. There was a general aura of clowning around Bolsonaro's efforts that will, by now, be familiar to most TPM readers from our reporting on extremists in the US.
The clowning continued this month: after a period of house arrest, Bolsonaro was taken into custody last weekend for vandalizing an ankle monitor and attacking him with a soldering iron. Former President declared that his medication, which included drugs to treat unexpected bouts of vomiting caused by a stabbing in 2018, made him paranoid that his ankle monitor was listening in on him, prompting his attack on the device. He stated that he had not planned to escape. But Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (the judge prosecuted for murder by Bolsonaro's supporters) found this less than convincing, given the former president's penchant for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, including hiding at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia, apparently hoping his ally Viktor Orbán would grant him asylum.
— John Light
GOP Fights Itself Over Selling AI to Billionaires
Someone in the Trump coalition desperately wants to prevent states from regulating AI, legal practicality of such a policy be damned.
Other loud voices in Trump's coalition view the effort as a power grab by tech moguls.
For several months now, these two groups have been engaged in a tug-of-war.
The latest chapter unfolded this month as news began to circulate that an executive order was being drafted that would end efforts to regulate AI at the government level. Among other things, it would “direct the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to a DOJ statement. Washington Postwho published one early report on the project. Rumor autopsy conducted Edge called the project the work (and massive power grab) of South African-born venture capitalist David Sachs, Trump's special adviser on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) reported punch bowl that lawmakers are considering including priority for government AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Trump's populist constituency scared (like many democrats). During podcast discussionLegal MAGA bomber Mike Davis and Steve Bannon abandoned the effort, denouncing the “tech bros” behind it. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon once said. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”
The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when congressional Republicans included a similar preemption provision in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill in June and then almost unanimously abandoned it, with Republicans joining with Democrats to remove it.
Now the draft decree as reportedon hold. But the tension between the power-hungry Trump, Technology Sponsors Taking Curtis Yarvin's Pills and its right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
