GOP calls for Mamdani's deportation

The news, in brief…

• Supreme Court lets red states defund Planned Parenthood

  SCOTUS paved the way for red states to starve abortion providers of necessary funding on Thursday. The court ruled 6-3 that citizens of those states do not have standing to sue over state-level decisions to bar clinics from receiving Medicaid funding. Read more.

• GOP rages as Senate parliamentarian nixes Medicaid cuts

  The Senate parliamentarian (‘memba them?) squashed provisions that would have cut billions from Medicaid as part of the Trump-backed “big, beautiful” bill. Read more.

• Trump blames Dems for Iran intel leaked to CNN

  The president called for Democrats to be “prosecuted” over leaks to CNN about U.S. airstrikes on Iran. “The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran,” he wrote on Truth Social. Read more.

• RFK Jr.’s CDC vaccine panel alarms experts

  Health experts couldn’t believe the panel’s recommendation against certain flu shots. HHS head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stocked the panel with fellow vaccine skeptics as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” push. Read more.

Standing Room Only …

From trolling the media to gaslighting the public, it's no surprise Donald Trump chose 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt as his new press secretary. In this episode, Amanda Marcotte unpacks her combative style with reporters, looks into her curious rise from White House intern to MAGA mouthpiece and examines why her tactics may backfire.

That’s your answer to everything

If you’re reading this, chances are you weren’t of national politics magazine-purchasing age during William F. Buckley’s heyday.

I sure wasn’t. The publication date of “God and Man at Yale” currently lies further away from my birthdate than I do. It’s not recommended that anyone with access to a body of water and a charcoal grill waste their summer this way, but a quick overview of Buckley’s decade-plus of high-profile debates — and the idea of a “public intellectual,” more generally — will lead you to a bleak realization. At some point between Buckley and Baldwin going toe-to-toe and Joe Rogan pushing horse medicine, the relationship between conservative culture and conservative politics has been completely upended.

Where conservative culture used to be downstream of conservative politics, the last decade of podcast prominences and conservative news media dominance has flipped the equation like a Chicago engineer circa 1900. The MAGA caucus can now largely be expected to pull their policy positions from the same Babylon Bee articles and Matt Walsh videos that entertain their loyal, jug-hooting base.

Conservative comics and publications of the post-Trump era have exactly one joke, and it’s not even a good one. So, it stands to reason that Republican representatives would have their worldviews sufficiently narrowed to the point that they can only see one policy prescription for everything. As President Donald Trump continues to push a mass deportation agenda, Republicans are starting to see forced removals as the answer to all their problems.

In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s stunning primary win in New York City, several Republicans have started calling for the deportation of the Democratic candidate for mayor.

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles has requested an investigation into Mamdani from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Republican headline-chaser called the naturalized citizen “little Muhammad” in a post to social media before requesting the man who has lived 90% of his life in New York City be deported. He was joined in his gleeful suggestion by Rep. Nancy Mace, an equally craven backbencher who has grown tired of imagining what the only trans member of Congress gets up to when nature calls.

It should be a familiar refrain by now. Republicans have attempted deportations for taking part in campus protests, signing on to an op-ed and being a U.S. citizen in downtown Los Angeles. Conservative commentators have pitched deportations as a solution for everything from the housing crisis to grocery prices. It doesn’t make hearing it any less shocking.

The late actor David Huddleston gave us one of the best depictions of a warped old conservative this side of Pottersville when he reamed Jeff Bridges’ Dude for being too single-minded and idealistic. Nearly 30 years on, we can take some solace in the fact that, if recent court cases and Mamdani’s favorability ratings are any indication, the bums might actually lose.

What do you think? Is this just a days worth of grandstanding or is the GOP far gone enough to actually pursue a case against Mamdani? If the courts do get Trump’s deportation scheme under control, what’s Republicans’ next hammer? Sound off in the comments.

Support our bold journalism: Become a Salon member today.

Before you go …

Nobody puts “Daddy” in a corner

Even at NATO, Trump still can't get no respect. Read more.