The Dictatorship
Haitian, Somali and Syrian immigrants deserve protection in the U.S.
On Friday, a federal judge blockedthe Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for 1,100 Somali residents, four days before that protection was set to expire. The judge noted that thousands of Somaliscould face severe risks, including “detention and deportation, physical violence if removed to Somalia, and forced separation from family members.” Separately, on Monday the Supreme Court said it would soon decide whether to lift lower-court orders that have so far blocked the administration from ending TPS for more than 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians.
Mohamed is one of tens of thousands of people who may be torn away from their families, friends, schools, workplaces: in short, the lives they’ve spent building in the United States.
I work as senior policy counsel at Muslim Advocates, one of the organizations representing Somali and Syrian plaintiffs in these cases, and I’ve witnessed the devastating impact this uncertainty is having on our clients. Take Mohamed Doe, who has lived in the U.S. for years as a TPS holder from Somalia. His Temporary Protected Status is his sole basis for a work permit and driver’s license, both of which he needs to take care of himself and his pregnant wife. Mohamed works as an educator and a coach for two sports teams, serving as a critical source of career and educational guidance and counseling for his students. Now he and his family are in limbo as they await a final court decision.
Mohamed is one of tens of thousands of people who may be torn from their families, friends, schools, workplaces: in short, the lives they’ve spent years building in the United States. In addition to representing Somalis and Syrians, we are working with partner organizations to sue the administration for its procedurally flawed terminations of TPS for Ethiopianand South Sudaneseimmigrants, who would also face dangerous conditions in their countries of origin. Since assuming power, the Trump administration has sought to end TPS for 13 non-European countries, affecting almost 1 millionBlack, brown and Muslim people. He has also openlywished for more immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. That is racial discrimination dressed up as immigration policy.
Some courts have seen through the administration’s justifications. A U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that it’s “substantially likely” that the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of TPS for Haitians is due to “hostility to nonwhite immigrants,”shredding outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claim that her focus was “national security.” Yet another U.S. district judge, in Northern California, found that Noem perpetuated xenophobic stereotypesand racist conspiracy theories in her drive to suspend TPS for Nicaraguan, Honduran and Nepali immigrants. While Noem is on the way out at DHS, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., the president’s fiercely loyal nominee to replace her, is unlikelyto hold a different point of view on TPS.
As the Trump administration attacks Black, Muslim and Latino immigrants who are here, it has also sought to block such immigrants from entering the country. Trump’s sweeping travel bantargets 39 countriesmostly Muslim-majority and African. A massive visa freeze on nationals from mostly African and Muslim-majority countries was based on racist public chargestereotypes. At Muslim Advocates, we’re also challenginga web of policies that have shut down other lawful pathways for thousands of people in the U.S., including TPS holders. The administration has even decimated the U.S.’ long-standing refugee program, setting the cap to just 7,500 people, the lowest it’s ever been, and has prioritized4,500 of those slots for Afrikaners from South Africa.
Trump’s sweeping travel ban targets 39 countries, mostly Muslim-majority and African.
These discriminatory policies are rooted in decades of successive U.S. administrations wielding national security policy as cover for racist, undemocratic power grabs. President George W. Bush createdDHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement after 9/11, drastically expanded the government’s immigration enforcement powers and ushered in an era of surveillance, detention and deportation that disproportionately targeted Muslims, Arabs and South Asians. These policies have torn families and communities apart, eroded civil liberties and created an atmosphere of fear and distrust that still exists today.
We must not allow politicians to use sham national security justifications to target and exclude our neighbors. Immigrants, faith leaders, civil rights groups and other community members are organizing, protesting and going to court to challenge the Trump administration’s policies. The lawsuit filed by Somali TPS holders is part of a broader effort to ensure that the government doesn’t arbitrarily strip people of protections they have relied on for years, or use discrimination to do so.
The grassroots efforts and ongoing litigation are necessary, but Congress must also take action to prohibit discrimination and create pathways to lawful status for immigrants who have built their lives here. The NO BAN Actlegislation that would prevent future presidents from enacting discriminatory entry bans, and the Secure Actwhich would provide TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure recipients with a pathway to permanent residency, were both reintroduced in Congress last year and are worthy of attention and support. The devastation of the past year can serve as fertile ground to work toward such comprehensive solutions.
The United States has long provided safe haven for people fleeing crises and seeking to rebuild their lives, and Americans have wholeheartedlyrejectedthis administration’s cruel, lawless and racist rampagesby taking to the streets in protest, speaking out and organizing. Their efforts have forcedleadership and policy shifts at the top, but the struggle is far from over. As families wait in agony for favorable final outcomes in the TPS cases, we must continue to demand policies that make this country a welcoming and safe place for new Americans.
Sumayyah Waheed is senior policy counsel for Muslim Advocates.
The Dictatorship
Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In South Carolina’s gubernatorial raceDonald Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette last month. Last week, however, ahead of this week’s primary runoff election in the race, the president published an online item telling voters that “you can’t go wrong” with either Evette or state Attorney General Alan Wilson.
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because Trump has done this before. Around this time two years ago, for example, he endorsed both Republicans running in a congressional primary in Arizona. And two years before that, he endorsed two leading contenders in a Senate primary in Missouri.
Only the president can say for sure why he ended up endorsing Evette and Wilson in the South Carolina race, though it’s worth emphasizing for context that GOP primary voters have already ignored his direction into two gubernatorial primaries this month, and it stands to reason that he hoped to avoid a third.
* We’re one day away from a variety of notable racesincluding but not limited to South Carolina’s gubernatorial race. There are also some congressional primaries in a handful of statesincluding Maryland, New York and Utah.
* In took a while, but the ballots have been tallied under Maine’s ranked-choice systemand we now know that Democrat Hannah Pingree, the former state House speaker, will face off against Republican Bobby Charles, who worked at the State Department during the Bush-Cheney era.
* As for Maine’s closely watched congressional racestate Auditor Matt Dunlap won the Democratic nomination in the battleground 2nd District, defeating state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who enjoyed the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Dunlap will run in the fall against a familiar figure: former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who had moved to Florida a few years ago, but who returned to run for Congress.
* In California’s congressional special electiontwo Democratic candidates — state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director — have advanced to an Aug. 18 special general election. The winner will fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April.
* In a new commercial shared first with MS NOWDemocrat James Talarico has launched his campaign’s first multimillion-dollar ad buy in Texas’ gubernatorial race. In the 30-second spot, Talarico focuses on affordability and the cost of living. The state lawmaker will face scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the fall.
* And in New Jersey, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.who has been missing from Capitol Hill since early March, will reportedly return to work on June 30according to a statement from his spokesperson. Neither Kean nor his office have offered any public information about why he has been away.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
The Dictatorship
Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls
After President Donald Trump’s pick for governor in Iowa lost in the Republican primary earlier this month, the president argued that he “would have endorsed the other person” if he had “the proper information.”
Trump is taking no chances in the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. Over the weekend he rescinded his exclusive endorsement of Pamela Evette, the lieutenant governor, announcing instead that he would support both Evette and her runoff opponent, Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.
The move put Evette’s political future in jeopardy: Even before Trump’s dual endorsement, she trailed in limited public polling and was seen by political observers in South Carolina as a weak candidate with little to show besides the president’s coveted endorsement.
“Her chief distinction from Alan Wilson was that Trump endorsed her,” said Dr. Dubose Kapeluck, a professor of political science at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina.
Trump’s dual endorsement “was a kiss of death,” he told MS NOW.
Evette, who moved to South Carolina from Ohio to found a successful payroll and HR company in 2000, has been lieutenant governor since 2019, serving under Gov. Henry McMaster, who is term-limited.
In office, she has pursued meaningful but little-celebrated policies, like a key tort reform bill, according to Gil Gatch, a Republican member of the South Carolina state House and an Evette supporter.
But voters could be forgiven for knowing little about Evette besides the fact that Trump endorsed her, which he did just days before the June 9 primary. Visitors to her campaign website are greeted with a full-screen message labeling Evette as “Trump-endorsed.” The first line in her X bio states the same. Pro-Evette television ads are quick to tout the endorsement.
An accomplishment like tort reform, while noted on Evette’s website, “maybe could have been something that was highlighted more heavily,” Gatch told MS NOW.
The political makeup of South Carolina nearly guarantees the next governor will be whoever emerges on Tuesday between Evette and Wilson. They survived a crowded primary field on June 9, and nearly every challenger who fell short of the runoff publicly endorsed the attorney general.
“She’s just not a good candidate,” Josh Kimbrell, a state senator who failed to make the runoff and has since said he’d back Wilson, said of Evette.
“She kind of assumed this was a coronation, and that was never going to go over that well,” he added.
Even some pro-Trump voters were confused by the president’s initial endorsement of Evette, whom he called “a good friend, fighter, and WINNER” in a social media post in May.
“I have no clue why Trump would endorse Pamela Evette,” Leland Lemmons, a 30-year-old Trump supporter told MS NOW as he exited a polling site in the Greenville suburb of Easley on June 9.
“She’s served, you know, a decent time. I just haven’t seen much fruition of what she’s done in office,” he added.
In a post on Truth Social Friday announcing his dual endorsement, Trump wrote, “I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!”
In a subsequent statement on X, Evette said, “I was proud to come in first as [Trump’s] endorsed candidate for Governor on June 9th. Looking forward to doing it again on June 23rd.”
After The Washington Post foreshadowed the dual endorsement last Tuesday, allies of Evette were quick to denounce the possibility.
“I would guess that’s fake news,” Suzanne Pucci, a member of Evette’s finance committee, told MS NOW of the chance Trump would also endorse Wilson. “She’s probably not real worried about it.”
Another close ally and supporter told MS NOW at the time the report was “a total, fabricated lie.”
“[Trump] is invested in Pamela Evette because she invested in him. He’s a loyal guy. That kind of stuff is important to him,” added the supporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“With or without Trump, I think she is going to win,” they said.
On Thursday, a senior campaign aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, brushed off the idea of a dual endorsement, telling MS NOW in a statement, “Pamela Evette has earned the complete and total endorsement of President Trump. She is the only Trump-endorsed candidate in this race and we look forward to delivering a big win for the president on Tuesday.”
Roughly 24 hours later, Trump retracted the exclusive endorsement.
Will McDuffie is a reporter for MS NOW.
As last week’s G7 summit in France got underway, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether his purported deal with Iran was final. “No, it’s not final,” the president replied. Later that day — during a visit to Versaillesof all places — he signed the framework anyway.
But moments after signing his name to the memorandum of understanding, Trump offered an unsubtle hint about what he was thinking at the time. Amid applause from those around him, the American president pointed down and then up while saying“Oil down, stocks up.”
In other words, Trump’s focus had nothing to do with natural security and everything to do with the economy. What’s more, the four-word phrase was part of a larger and underappreciated pattern. The Washington Post reported:
In the more than 100 days since President Donald Trump launched a war with Iran, he has offered a shifting list of reasons for why he started the conflict. But in explaining his push for peace, he named a priority much closer to home: protecting the stock market.
“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Alpine spa town of Évian-les-Bains, France, after the Group of Seven summit.
As the summit wrapped up, the Republican similarly said“I’ve studied presidents, some good, some bad, some great. Not too many are great and some really bad. … And the one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover. I didn’t want that and who knows what would have happened.”
He pushed the same point in an interview with Axios, which was released over the weekend.
“If I went further, the stock market would be much lower,” the president said. “Now think of this: I have one primary wish as president, in terms of people: I never want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover.”
The comments came days after Trump similarly argued“The alternative to this deal was a global recession. There are stupid people who want to see a global recession. They are just stupid people.”
Whether the president fully appreciates the implications of his own rhetoric, this string of comments doesn’t just shed light on his motivations for accepting a defeat, it also suggests he saw his failed policy in Iran as pushing the global economy toward a dangerous cliff.
In other words, based on Trump’s own comments, the war he started was poised to create an “economic catastrophe,” which he was desperate to avoid — and which led him to accept a framework that empowered Iran to get what it wanted in exchange for effectively no concessions at all.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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