TRUMP REGIME

Trump Will Take Unilateral Presidential Powers to a New Level

New Republic - In the coming days, Trump is expected to announce the appointment of Stephen Miller to serve as White House deputy chief of staff for policy, reported CNN.Miller previously served as the senior adviser for policy and White House director of speechwriting under Trump’s first term, and his appointment comes as little surprise: The 39-year-old was expected—since at least the beginning of the year—to reenter the West Wing as the leading expert on “America First” immigration policy.

The far-right politico has made a name for himself for his vicious anti-immigrant policies, which include proposals to build mass deportation camps and deploy the military and the national guard to seal the border, promising a forthcoming reality of “large-scale raids” and “throughput facilities.”

He’s long been seen as one of the most apparent and rigid ties between Trump and the white nationalist agenda. Miller, a mentee of Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, has had a profound impact on the president-elect’s language and policy on immigration, despite entering Trumpworld with little policy or legal expertise. He was the architect of Trump’s first Muslim travel ban and has been a vocal proponent of family separation at the U.S. border, as well as limiting citizenship for legal immigrants. During his time in Trump’s first term, leaked emails revealed that he promoted white nationalist articles and books, especially on the idea that non-white people are replacing white people.

New Republic -   Lawyers at the Justice Department just got a sinister warning about a second term under President Donald Trump. Mark Paoletta, a former Trump administration member and conservative think-tank fellow working on Trump’s transition, spelled out the upcoming agenda in a lengthy X post on Monday. He named mass deportations, pardoning January 6 insurrectionists, and declaring war on transgender children as the top priorities. And he made sure to tell any DOJ lawyers who may have qualms about that to fall in line.

NY Daily News -  President-elect Trump on Monday tapped ex-Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, one of two New York Republicans named for the incoming cabinet. Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman who mounted an unexpectedly strong 2022 challenge to Gov. Hochul, will presumably preside over rolling back regulations that Trump says hamstring the oil and gas industry and other businesses ...  

Daily Beast - The former congressman does have some experience with environmental issues, having served in several related caucuses and fought against dumping waste in Long Island Sound. But Zeldin has a dismal rating with the League of Conservation Voters, which gave him a 14% lifetime score on environmental matters.  

Free Press - A new report by Columbia professors and alumni warns the university could lose up to $3.5 billion a year— 55 percent of the school’s annual operating budget—under the incoming Trump administration. That’s because the president-elect is likely to accuse elite universities like Columbia of violating Title VI, the section of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination of “race, color, or national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance,” which would allow the administration to withhold federal funding.

At present, Columbia has at least three active Title VI investigations into antisemitism and anti-Muslim sentiment on campus. Since October 7, 2023, Columbia’s campus has been embroiled in chaotic demonstrations against the State of Israel, prompting the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to conclude the university was “the site of some of the most disturbing and extreme antisemitic conduct violations in the country.”