The Morning Cup: Trump Keeps Testing the Limits. Now We Find Out Where They Are

Good morning friends, and welcome to your Morning Cup.

It’s Friday, August 7, and this morning we have a $400 million White House ballroom stopped by a federal appeals court, another Trump attempt to chip away at birthright citizenship, serious new questions about ICE surveillance, and a Justice Department that could soon be permanently led by Trump’s former personal attorney.

Meanwhile, here in Washington state, the primary results are giving us a much clearer picture of the battlefield heading into November.

So! Grab your coffee. Let’s get into it.

A Court Just Stopped Trump’s $400 Million White House Ballroom

This is HAPPENING NOW, so im following this story very close.

A federal appeals court has ordered the Trump administration to halt aboveground construction on Trump’s planned $400 million White House ballroom.

And no, that sentence does not become less ridiculous the second time you read it.

The court’s ruling centers on something very important: Congress.

Trump cannot simply treat the White House and federal property like his personal real-estate portfolio. Major government construction projects involve laws, appropriations and congressional authority. It is time for congress to have a say.

The ruling does not necessarily kill the ballroom permanently. The administration could appeal, and the legal fight is almost certainly not finished.

But for now, construction has been stopped.

And underneath the absurdity of a $400 million ballroom is a much bigger story.

Trump has spent his presidency repeatedly testing the same question:

What can I do without Congress?

The courts just gave him an answer on this one.

Not everything.

Trump Is Taking Another Swing at Birthright Citizenship

Trump also signed two new executive orders Thursday aimed at narrowing birthright citizenship.

This comes after his broader attempt to restrict citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment ran into the Supreme Court.

Instead of abandoning the effort, the administration appears to be changing tactics.

The new orders target narrower categories, including so-called “birth tourism” and children born in the United States under certain circumstances involving foreign nationals.

The administration believes these restrictions can survive because they are narrower than Trump’s previous attempt.

Civil-rights organizations see something very different: a president searching for another way to accomplish something the Constitution does not allow him to do broadly.

And this is where we need to be extremely careful with the language.

Trump has not abolished birthright citizenship.

Expect immediate legal challenges.

But the larger point matters.

When Trump encounters a legal boundary, he increasingly doesn’t treat that boundary as the end of the argument.

He searches for another door.

ICE Is Watching Its Critics

Now we get to the story that might concern me the most this morning.

New reporting says ICE has expanded its use of contractors and digital surveillance tools to monitor social media and identify people criticizing the agency online.

DHS says these efforts are designed to identify threats and doxxing against immigration officers.

Threats should obviously be investigated.

But political criticism is not a threat.

Journalism is not a threat.

Protesting government policy is not a threat.

And according to the reporting, some people whose conduct appeared to involve political criticism rather than criminal threats were still visited by federal agents or subjected to subpoenas without ultimately being charged.

That should make everyone uncomfortable regardless of their immigration politics.

Because constitutional rights do not disappear when the government dislikes what you’re saying.

There is another layer to this.

ICE is simultaneously expanding its use of body cameras, but its policy gives the agency enormous discretion over whether that footage gets released.

Think about the imbalance there.

The government gets increasingly sophisticated tools to watch us.

But when we want to see what the government itself did?

The government gets to decide.

Congress needs to be asking serious questions about exactly what information ICE is collecting, how long that information is retained, what contractors have access to it and what protections exist for journalists, attorneys, activists and ordinary Americans criticizing government policy.

Criticizing ICE is not a crime.

It cannot become one by technological proxy.

Trump’s Former Personal Lawyer Could Soon Run the Justice Department

Todd Blanche is moving closer to becoming the permanent attorney general of the United States.

That sentence deserves some context.

Blanche wasn’t merely someone who happened to work for Trump years ago.

He was Trump’s personal criminal-defense attorney.

Now Trump wants him permanently running the Department of Justice.

Some Republicans are uncomfortable with that.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she will vote against Blanche, while Sen. Bill Cassidy says he will support him, strengthening his path toward confirmation.

The controversy surrounding Blanche has already produced one interesting demonstration of congressional power.

Republican senators threatened his nomination over Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and other concerns.

The administration backed down on major portions of it.

That’s worth remembering.

Congress is not powerless against Trump.

Courts are not powerless against Trump.

Institutions become powerless when the people running them decide not to use the authority they already have.

The final Senate vote on Blanche will tell us quite a bit about whether Republicans actually believe the Justice Department should maintain independence from the president it may someday have to investigate.

LOCAL NEWS: Washington’s November Battlefield Is Taking Shape

Finally, let’s bring this home.

Washington’s primary results continue to come in, and we’re starting to see what November could look like.

And the story is a little more complicated than simply saying progressives won or lost.

Some progressive challenges to Democratic incumbents in Seattle struggled.

In the 43rd Legislative District, Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen holds a commanding lead over progressive challenger Hannah Sabio-Howell. Both are advancing under Washington’s top-two system, meaning they’ll face each other again in November.

But outside Seattle, something potentially much more consequential is happening.

Democrats appear competitive in several Republican-held legislative districts, particularly in southwest Washington.

That creates the possibility that November isn’t merely about defending Democratic power.

It could be about expanding it. In a big way.

And then there is Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.

Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican John Braun are headed toward what could become one of the most important House races in the country.

If control of Congress comes down to a handful of seats, Washington could be right in the middle of the fight.

The primary wasn’t the finish line.

It drew the map.

Now the general election begins.

One More Sip

There is a thread connecting a lot of today’s stories.

Power.

Who has it?

Who checks it?

And what happens when someone decides the normal boundaries don’t apply to them?

A court just told Trump he cannot simply move forward with a $400 million White House construction project without congressional authority.

Trump is looking for another route around constitutional protections for birthright citizenship.

ICE is expanding the government’s ability to monitor people criticizing it.

And the Senate is considering putting Trump’s former personal lawyer permanently in charge of the Justice Department.

None of these stories exist in isolation.

They’re all asking variations of the same question:

Do the guardrails still work?

The answer depends on whether courts enforce their rulings, whether Congress uses its authority, whether journalists keep digging and whether ordinary people continue paying attention.

Because democracy doesn’t usually disappear in one dramatic moment.

It gets tested.

Then tested again.

And eventually someone has to say no.

That’s your Morning Cup for Friday.

Stay informed. Stay engaged. And I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

— Sean Bartley
Cup of Culture

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