Trump Blusters But Faces Setbacks at Home

Hello, this is Michael Moss.

Heather Cox Richardson is unable to read the letter today, so I will be reading it in

her place.

March 5th, 2026.

President Donald J. Trump is behaving more and more erratically these days, seeming to

think he can dictate to other countries.

This morning, Trump told Barack Reveed and Zachary Basu of Axios that he needs to be

involved personally in choosing the next leader of Iran.

Speaking of Iranian politicians who are preparing to announce a new leader, Trump told the reporters,

they are wasting their time.

Comedy's son is a lightweight.

I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delce Rodriguez in Venezuela.

Foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova of ONST or Honest reported that in a call

with Israel's Channel 12 this morning, Trump called Israel's President Isaac Herzog

a disgrace and demanded Herzog pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today because Trump

doesn't want Netanyahu distracted from the war with Iran.

Trump said Herzog had promised him five times to pardon the Prime Minister and he appeared

to threaten Herzog when he added, tell him I'm exposing him.

In a statement, Herzog noted that Israel is a sovereign state governed by the rule of

law and said the pardon is being dealt with by the Justice Ministry as the law requires.

After its ruling, Herzog's office said, he will examine the issue according to the law

and without any influence from external or internal pressures of any kind.

In a conversation today with Dasha Burns of Politico, Trump insisted that people are loving

what's happening instead, Cuba is going to fall too.

The most astonishing example of Trump's international aggression came from White House Press Secretary

Carolyn Levitt.

Although Trump initially said he attacked Iran to keep it from acquiring nuclear weapons,

Levitt yesterday explained that Trump joined Israel in a military attack on Iran because

Trump had a feeling, based on fact, that Iran was going to attack the United States.

Trump's assertion of power globally contrasts with increasing setbacks at home.

Since the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs Trump imposed under the International Emergency

Economic Powers Act, or IEPA, as unconstitutional, the administration has tried to slow-walk

repaying the $130 billion the government collected under those tariffs.

But yesterday, Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that

companies that paid the tariffs are entitled to a refund.

After the Supreme Court's decision, Trump immediately imposed new tariffs of 15 percent

on all global trade, using his justification Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.

As Lindsey Whitehurst and Paul Weisman of the Associated Press noted, this is awkward

because the Department of Justice under Trump argued in court last year that Trump had to use

the IEPA because Section 122 did not have any obvious application in fighting trade deficits.

Today, the Democratic Attorney's General of more than 20 states filed a lawsuit

to stop the new tariffs imposed under Section 122.

Once again, President Trump is ignoring the law and the Constitution

to effectively raise taxes on consumers and small businesses.

New York Attorney General Leticia James said in a statement Thursday.

The Department of Justice has also quietly backed away from Trump's demand

that it investigate whether former President Joe Biden broke the law

by using an auto pen to sign presidential documents.

Yesterday, Michael S. Schmidt, Devlin Barrett, and Alan Fure reported in the New York Times

that prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, DC, were never quite clear what crime,

if any, had been committed by the Biden administration's use of the auto pen.

They concluded there was no credible case to make against Biden.

The journalist noted that the failed inquiry has only added to the sense among many federal

investigators that Mr. Trump has become increasingly erratic in his desire to use the criminal

justice system to punish his political adversaries for behavior that comes nowhere close to being

criminal. Trump had been so invested in his attacks on Biden over his quite ordinary use of an

auto pen that he replaced a White House picture of Biden with one of an auto pen.

So the prosecutor's shelving of that investigation has to sting.

Likely even more painful, though, is today's news that Trump's hand-picked National Planning

Commission has put off a vote to approve the ballroom Trump is proposing to replace the East

Wing of the White House that he suddenly tore down last October. At a Medal of Honor ceremony

on Monday, Trump called attention to his ballroom and boasted,

I built many a ballroom. I believe it's going to be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the

world. But the American people do not share Trump's vision. The Chair of the Commission said

significant public input has caused him to delay the vote until April 2nd.

Jonathan Edwards and Dan Diamond of the Washington Post say that of the more than 35,000

comments the Commission received, more than 97% were opposed to Trump's plans for the ballroom.

But perhaps the biggest setback for the Trump administration showed in the testimony of now

former Secretary of Homeland Security, Christie Knome, before Congress this week.

There, days after Trump launched a major military operation in the Middle East without consulting

Congress, angry lawmakers of both parties exposed the lawlessness and corruption,

taking place in the department under Knome's direction. But their stance is about more than

Knome. Her lawlessness and corruption represented the larger lawlessness and corruption of the Trump

administration. Knome testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and the House

Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. In both chambers, Democrats jump right to a central feature

of the way in which Knome and the administration are setting up the idea that anyone who opposes

the actions of the Trump administration is participating in domestic terrorism.

They tried to get Knome to walk back her statements that Renee Good and Alex Prety both shot and

killed by federal agents acting under her authority in Minnesota were domestic terrorists.

Knome refused to do so. She has not actually called them domestic terrorists, but has said they

were engaged in domestic terrorism, a distinction that reveals the administration's attempt to

criminalize political opposition. Rachel Levinson Waldman of the Brennan Center explained that

to actually be called a domestic terrorist, an individual must commit one or more of 51 underlying

federal crimes of terrorism, which involved nuclear or chemical weapons, plastic explosives,

air piracy, and so on. Good and Prety and the many others administrations have accused

do not fit that description. But on September 25, 2025, Trump's NSPM 7 memo claimed that those

opposing administration policies are part of criminal and terroristic conspiracies and that those

who participate in them are engaging in domestic terrorism. Knome refused to back away from the idea

that Trump's opponents are engaging in criminal and terroristic conspiracies by, for example,

opposing the behavior of federal agents from immigration and customs enforcement or ICE

and border patrol. Leaving that definition behind would undermine the administration's entire

domestic stance. Democrats slam Knome for her handling of detentions and deportations,

ignoring court orders, and detaining U.S. citizens. In the House, Jamie Raskin of Maryland,

the top Democrat on the committee, said she turned our government against our people and turned

our people against our government. Republicans also called Knome out. Knome's poor handling of the

federal emergency management agency, or FEMA, has left North Carolina still suffering after terrible

storms in 2024 and Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, went after her. He highlighted

a letter from the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, who said the

Department's leaders have systematically obstructed the work of him and his staff. He identified 11

instances in which the Department had refused to provide records and information. In a criminal

investigation with national security implications, the Department would permit him to access a database

only if he revealed details of the investigation of individuals who might be related to the investigation.

Tillis said, does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the Office of Inspector General

in this agency to come out and do this publicly? That is stonewalling. That's a failure of leadership,

and that is why I've called for your resignation.

Lawmakers also focused on the corruption in DHS, which now commands more than $150 billion.

Thanks to the Republicans, one big beautiful bill act.

Lawmakers referred to a November 2025 Pro-Publica story, in which reporters traced a $220 million

dollar contract for an ad campaign featuring Nome. The contract went first to a brand new small

company, organized by a Republican operative just days before winning the contract, and then to a

subcontractor, strategy group, owned by Nome's former spokesperson's husband, and closely

associated with Nome's advisor and reputed a fair partner, Corey Lewandowski. Nome insisted

she had nothing to do with the contract award and claimed Trump had signed off on the ad campaign.

About the contract, Representative Joe Nagus, a Democrat of Colorado, commented in a

parent disbelief, you want the American people to believe that this is all above board,

that $143 million of taxpayer money just happened to go to this one company that doesn't have

ahead quarters, doesn't have a website, has never done work for the federal government before,

and is registered apparently or attached to a residence from a political operative,

and of course one of the subcontractors of that contract, as you know, is a political firm

that's tied to, to you, back when you were governor of South Dakota. Since Nome's testimony,

the strategy group released a statement saying it received only $226,137.17 for its work on the ad campaign.

Also, under scrutiny, was Nome's purchase of a private plane with a luxurious bedroom in it,

which brought up questions about whether, as is widely reported, she is having a sexual

relationship with a subordinate. She refused to answer, and insisted Lewandowski had no role in

approving contracts. Joshua Kaplan and Justin Elliott, a pro-publica, promptly fact-checked her,

in fact Lewandowski has signed off on a number of contracts.

Lawmakers indictment of Nome for her extreme partisanship, disregard of the law, corruption,

and lying, condemned similar behavior from the administration in general. Today Trump told Steve

Holland and Ted Heson of Reuters that he never knew anything about, Nome's $220 million ad campaign,

suggesting she lied to Congress under oath. This afternoon, just before she went on stage to speak,

Trump announced by social media posts that he was replacing Nome with Senator Mark Wayne Mullen

of Oklahoma. This is an assertion of power the president does not have. He can nominate Mullen,

but the Senate must confirm or reject his appointment.

Apparently unaware she was fired, Nome proceeded to give a speech in which she recited a false

quotation from George Orwell, the writer who devoted much of his work to the importance of

manipulating language to facilitate authoritarianism, a fitting end to Nome's career in the Trump

administration. But Nome is not likely to disappear from the news. Illinois Governor JB Prisker recorded

video saying, hey, Christie Nome, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Here's your legacy,

corruption and chaos, parents and children tear gas, moms and nurses, US citizens getting shot

in the face. Now that you're gone, don't think you get to just walk away. I guarantee you,

you will still be held accountable. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, was more direct.

Turns out lawlessness is not a winning strategy, he posted. See you at Nuremberg 2.0.

Letters from an American was written by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at

Soundscape Productions, Deather Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.