Newsweek: Trump Administration Accused of Declaring ‘Fake’ Emergency By 15 States

A coalition of attorneys general across 15 states is suing the Trump administration over declaring a “national emergency” on the first day of Donald Trump‘s presidency.

On January 20, President Trump declared a “national energy emergency” via executive order, over what he claimed to be “our Nation’s inadequate energy supply.”

The attorneys general from Washington and California say this is not true, and that US energy production is actually at “an all time high.”

“Washington state filed suit today alongside 14 other states to challenge the president’s fake “energy emergency,” declared to line the pockets of Big Oil by handing out free passes to pollute our environment,” said Washington Attorney General Nick Brown on May 9.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-fake-energy-emergency-15-states-2070864

New York Times: Trump Installs Top Justice Dept. Official at Library of Congress, Prompting a Standoff

The president named Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, as the acting librarian. But staff members refused access to two department officials he chose for key roles at Congress’s main research arm.

President Trump on Monday named the No. 2 official at the Justice Department and his former personal lawyer to serve as the acting librarian of Congress, initiating a shake-up at the main research library of the legislative branch that prompted an instant revolt among the staff.

Mr. Trump named Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who was his lead defense lawyer in his criminal trial in Manhattan last year, to take over from Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress whom the president abruptly fired late last week.

But staff members at the Library of Congress pushed back, insisting that Congress must have input and refusing to give two other top Justice Department officials whom Mr. Blanche chose for senior positions there access to the agency’s headquarters on Capitol Hill, according to two people familiar with the situation.

The lockout led to a brief standoff across from the Capitol and became the latest flashpoint in a battle over where Congress’s authority ends and the White House’s begins.

Esquire: The White House Just Casually Floated a Move That Would Be Traitorous to the Very Idea of America

Despite what Trump advisor Stephen “Goebbels” Miller may believe, habeas corpus is a core legal right—not a revocable privilege.

The Constitution is clear and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus could be suspended in time of invasion,” said Stephen “Goebbels” Miller, White House aide, and now a confirmed traitor to the American idea. “So that’s an option we’re actively looking at.”

Unless every other elected official in this country stands up against even the consideration of this extremist pipe dream, there is no point of being a citizen of this country any more. It would be as empty a title as that of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Despite whatever is rattling around Miller’s febrile cabeza, habeas corpus is not a revocable privilege. It is a right guaranteed to everyone incarcerated. In calling it a “privilege” that “could be suspended” to suit the whims of his boss, “Goebbels” Miller proves himself to be a traitor not only to the American idea but also to the freaking Magna Carta (!), the 39th clause of which states, “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned … except by the lawful judgment of his equals and by the law of the land.” “Goebbels” Miller is proposing to reverse all English-speaking jurisprudence since 1215. I think if you find yourself on the wrong side of human rights from John Lackland, it’s time for us to be quite done with you.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a64745130/stephen-miller-trump-habeas-corpus

NBC News: Trump admin’s threat to suspend core U.S. legal right sparks outcry, alarm

Stephen “Goebbels” Miller said the president is “actively looking at” suspending the right for people to see a judge if detained in the U.S. Legal scholars say that Congress, not Trump, has that power.

Legal experts and Democrats expressed growing alarm over the weekend that Trump administration officials are openly discussing unilaterally suspending habeas corpus — a bedrock American legal right — without the approval of Congress.

The writ of habeas corpus, which dates back centuries, grants anyone detained in the U.S. the right to see a judge, challenge the government’s evidence against them and present a defense.

But White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen “Goebbels” Miller downplayed its significance on Friday and suggesting that the administration could move to suspend it unilaterally. “That’s an option we’re actively looking at,” “Goebbels” Miller told reporters at the White House.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/legal-experts-habeas-corpus-stephen-miller-rcna206130

Associated Press: Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress

The Trump administration has fired the nation’s top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office.

Perlmutter’s office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to “train” their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on.

The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers.

In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the “centrality of human creativity” in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works.

“Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,” Perlmutter said in January. “Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine … would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.”

https://apnews.com/article/copyright-director-firing-government-trump-7ab99992a96131bce7de853b66feec68

Reuters: Judge orders temporary halt to Trump administration’s government overhaul

President Donald Trump’s administration must temporarily halt its sweeping government overhaul because Congress did not authorize it to carry out large-scale staffing cuts and the restructuring of agencies, a federal judge said on Friday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco sided with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments, and blocked large-scale mass layoffs known as “reductions in force” for 14 days.

“As history demonstrates, the President may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress,” said Illston.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judge-orders-temporary-halt-trump-administrations-mass-layoff-plans-2025-05-10

MSNBC: Trump is finally getting his parade — and it’s only going to cost taxpayers tens of millions

President Donald Trump is finally nearing the fulfillment of a dream that he’s had since his first term in office: a lavish military parade that proceeds through the streets of Washington.

NBC News reports the parade will be “to commemorate Flag Day,” and will also mark the Army’s 250th birthday on June 14. As it happens, that’s also the president’s birthday, though Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that the “big, beautiful” parade is “not necessarily” about his birthday. But, he said, “It’s a very important day.”

Regardless of the exact significance of the date, Trump throwing a party for himself with jets and tanks parading down Constitution Avenue will be a wasteful, infrastructure-destroying display of jingoism with authoritarian undertones, as well as a pithy summary of Trump’s presidential vision. That Trump is succeeding in staging this ceremony in his second term instead of his first also seems apropos, given how his second term so far has been defined by more baldly despotic stunts and policies.

In 2018, Trump was bowled over by Bastille Day celebrations during a visit to France. “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” Trump told reporters after the event. “It was two hours on the button, and it was military might.” He also said to French President Emmanuel Macron: “We’re going to have to try to top it.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-is-finally-getting-his-parade-and-it-s-only-going-to-cost-taxpayers-tens-of-millions/ar-AA1EBAai

Alternet: Behind Trump’s Order 14270: A sweeping directive that dismantles a century of protections | Opinion

On April 9, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14270, blandly titled “Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy.” Behind that bureaucratic name is a sweeping directive: Dismantle a century of environmental protections.

Every regulation related to the environment, natural resources, or energy, whether it safeguards air, water, species, or public lands, must be rewritten to serve polluters or vanish by default.

Some will claim this is just about efficiency. But no standard review process sets a mass expiration date for protections, regardless of science, impact, or legal mandate. This is not streamlining. It is a countdown to erasure.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-order-14270

National Security Journal: ‘Walls Closing in on Trump’: Trying to ‘Avoid Suffering Through Dozens of New Investigations’

Politico reported over the weekend that the president is “already obsessed” about the midterm elections.

While he was less concerned about the midterms in the first half of his first term, Trump is now “already hyper-engaged in the fight to keep the GOP’s majorities in Congress.”

The story, citing “five Republicans… including several close Trump confidants,” said that Trump has hopes of hanging onto his majorities, especially to keep committee gavels and the attached subpoena power out of the hands of Democrats starting in 2027.

Alternet: Donald Trump just can’t resist the bribes | Opinion

But one thing almost all Americans are firmly against — even many loyal Trumpers — [i]s bribery. And Trump is taking bigger and bigger bribes.

Yesterday it was reported that he’s accepting a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane worth at least $400 million from the Qatari royal family, for use during his presidency and for his personal use afterward.

Trump just can’t resist. He’s been salivating over the plane for months. It’s bigger and newer than Air Force One — and so opulently configured that it’s known as “a flying palace.” (No report on whether it contains a golden toilet.)

Apparently he’s been talking about the plane for months. In February, he toured it while it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport.

He’s tried to redecorate the White House into a palace but that’s not nearly as satisfying as flying around the world in one, especially once he’s left the White House (assuming he will).

https://www.alternet.org/donald-trump-just-can-t-resist-the-bribes