Greg Sargent: Trump's First Big Fiasco Triggers Stephen Miller's Rage--Take Note Dems

[Dennis Donovan]

Greg Sargent - (archived: https://archive.ph/0RLFq ) Trump’s First Big Fiasco Triggers Stephen Miller’s Rage—Take Note Dems

January 29, 2025

PAY ATTENTION!
Trump’s First Big Fiasco Triggers Stephen Miller’s Rage—Take Note Dems
The Democrats finally started to find their legs after Trump’s spending freeze. The key lesson? Making sheer political noise about something does make a difference.

Admitting failure is anathema to the authoritarian leader, who is perpetually in danger of being diminished by those who are resentful of his glory—which is why White House adviser Stephen Miller is frantically searching for scapegoats to blame for the unfolding disaster around President Donald Trump’s massive freeze on federal spending. “Welcome to the first dumb media hoax of 2025,” Miller angrily tweeted on Tuesday night. “Leftwing media outright lied, and some people fell for the hoax.”

What Miller is actually angry about is that the media covered this fiasco aggressively and fairly. Miller insists that the press glossed over the funding pause’s supposed exemption for “aid and benefit programs.” But this is rank misdirection: The funding freeze, which is likely illegal, was indeed confusingly drafted and recklessly rolled out. This is in part what prompted the national outcry over the huge swath of programs that it threatened, Medicaid benefits included—and the media coverage that angered Miller.

All of which carries a lesson for Democrats: This is what it looks like when the opposition stirs and uses its power in a unified way to make a lot of what you might call sheer political noise. That can help set the media agenda, throw Trump and his allies on the defensive, and deliver defeats to Trump that deflate his cultish aura of invincibility.

“This has been a red-alert moment for weeks—but now no one can deny it,” Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who has argued for an emergency footing against Trump, told me. “For my colleagues that didn’t want to cry wolf, the wolf is literally chomping at our leg right now.”

/snip

[Scrivener7]

1. Huh.

"Making sheer political noise about something does make a difference."

Who knew?

[OldBaldy1701E]

13. Right? (n/t)

[liberalgunwilltravel]

23. What needs to be emphasized

Is that this fiasco was Stephen Millers’ doing. Make that message loud and clear. Effectively and relentlessly attack the MAGAts one at a time, until they are the ones living in fear. And I think that Russell Vought should be the next target.

[Hugin]

2. Miller is the man behind the Mitchenstein Monster's curtain...

Attending to details the Monster himself could care less about.

Note: Miller was never granted immunity.

[BonnieJW]

9. You mean could NOT care less

[Walleye]

3. Yes, "in a unified way" very important. We like to be individuals, but we need to get together to fight fascism.

[Katcat]

4. I'd love to last longer than this guy

So I could dance on his grave.

[Marthe48]

20. I hope I can do something else

On that creep's grave.

[magicarpet]

51. When you get done,... would you please hand me the Charmin ?

[Katinfl]

27. I feel the same way.

Since trump and I are about the same age, I wonder if I will live long enough to see him gone….. don’t care how, just gone. I don’t plan on checking out any time soon so I just may get my wish. I know I am not alone.

[MissouriDem47]

31. Me Too

[calimary]

40. Take a number!

[gopiscrap]

46. me too

[NoMoreRepugs]

5. Take a lesson from the Repugs - yell constantly and repeat repeat repeat.

[JCMach1]

6. And maybe not flat out lie, but use hyperbole

To your advantage

[KPN]

15. Absolutely!

[calimary]

41. THIS!

This This This!

[Wounded Bear]

7. Repubs have been "making noise" for decades...

mostly about shit that doesn't really matter, thus diverting attention from shit that really needed to get done, but wasn't done because they blocked them in Congress and distracted the public on hate radio/TV.

This current Dem reaction to trump's actions is good trouble personified. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Dems need to get what is really happening out there for people to see.

[Butterflylady]

8. I have been Saying that for months.

Get out there for heavens sake. Get out there every day, yelling if you have to to make people aware of what's going on.

[KPN]

16. Key word: yelling.

[UTUSN]

10. It's not as though we haven't been caterwauling for the past ten years. It's that they are blatant more

and are taking more of whatever rope we've allowed them.

[KPN]

18. That is definitely a big part of it. They are actually openly hurting

their own voting base now — which yhe dumb asses should have seen coming even back to 2015/16. Morons.

[Dem4life1234]

43. Bunch of idiots

Never seen a group of human beings vote against their best interest like these dumbasses. This wouldn't fly in any other developed nation.

I guess that thirst to hurt others makes them stupid.

[Wild blueberry]

11. THIS

"This is what it looks like when the opposition stirs and uses its power in a unified way to make a lot of what you might call sheer political noise. That can help set the media agenda, throw Trump and his allies on the defensive, and deliver defeats to Trump that deflate his cultish aura of invincibility."

Yes! Democratic Party must be the Opposition Party, it's all we've got. Defiantly oppose.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. MaddowBlog-With chaotic freeze gambit, the Trump White House shows its incompetence (again)

Miller is an idiot who is incompetent

On the one hand, Team Trump is launching legally dubious power grabs and wreaking havoc. On the other hand, these guys have no idea what they’re doing.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3lgv4ypo7t22y

Remember eight years ago, when Trump launched an ugly and poorly thought-out Muslim ban, sparking outrage, bureaucratic chaos, family hardships, and messy legal fights?

Eight years to the day later, he did it again with an ugly and poorly thought-out spending freeze.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/chaotic-freeze-gambit-trump-white-house-shows-incompetence-rcna189776

Exactly eight years to the day later, Trump’s budget office ordered a freeze to federal grants, loans and related assistance — money that Congress has already appropriated — effectively trying to transfer the power of the purse away from lawmakers. A massive national freak-out soon followed, with widespread confusion and chaos, even among the administration’s allies, about how to implement the White House’s policy.

With just minutes remaining before the freeze was scheduled to take effect, U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan agreed to halt the process. NBC News reported:

A federal district judge on Tuesday granted an administrative stay in a case challenging the Trump administration’s planned freeze of federal aid, pausing the plan for a week and setting a hearing for further arguments Monday morning. The order applies only to the pause of disbursements in open grants, Judge Loren AliKhan said. And it doesn’t get into the legality of the freeze; instead, it gives her time to hear more fleshed-out arguments from a coalition of nonprofit groups about why she should issue a temporary restraining order that could block the freeze for an additional two weeks.

......It began with a terribly written memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie accurately described as “delusional.” White House officials spent much of the day insisting that it was perfectly clear, and news organizations were to blame for any confusion, but many of those same White House officials struggled badly to answer specific questions about the details of the policy — most notably related to the impact on Medicaid beneficiaries. (“I’ll check back on that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at her first briefing.).....

In case that weren’t quite enough, the White House also spent much of the day defending the freeze by referencing the “Green New Deal,” which is a broad progressive agenda that, in reality, never actually passed — and therefore can’t be defunded.

The resulting image was unsettling. On the one hand, the president, his political operation and his policy team are engaged in ugly and legally dubious power grabs, wreaking havoc as part of a radical scheme to transform the American system.

On the other hand, these guys still don’t know what they’re doing. As The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank summarized in his latest column, “In just eight days on the job, Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the federal government, and he and his aides apparently couldn’t be bothered to give any thought to the damage and chaos that would ensue.”

TFG is a very stupid person. His staff is just as incompetent as the idiots who tried to do a Muslim ban 8 years ago

[NoMoreRepugs]

25. They will end up blaming AI for writing the poor memo.

[Dem4life1234]

44. Combination of stupid and evil

[stollen]

14. Begin an impeachment inquiry

NOW

[onenote]

38. How does a quick loss help us?

[Attilatheblond]

17. Border Czar pissed immigrents know their rights. Miller pissed media reported some truth.

These poor schmucks seem powerfully allergic to truth and facts.

[SunSeeker]

19. Trump's "Shock and Awe" of incompetence and stupidity. nt

[Javaman]

21. "which is why White House adviser Stephen Miller is frantically searching for scapegoats" blame it on emu.

he's supposed to be things all "efficient" and shit, right?

what a bunch of bumbling boobs.

they couldn't find their hands with both hands let alone their asses.

[orangecrush]

22. In a sane society Miller would be in prison

Or a mental institution.

[Dem4life1234]

36. How has he not ended up prison with his evil self?

[lame54]

24. Fight fight fight

[Kid Berwyn]

26. Lesson: Stand Up to Bullies.

A punch to the nose and Stephen Miller goes haywire.

Nice.

[stollen]

28. Miller can fuck himself in the face.

What a creepy guy. RFK Jr. is scary looking, too.

[Dem4life1234]

37. Kennedy sure didn't get the good looking genes of his family did he?

[surfered]

29. Baby Goebbels has a sad 😥

[pfitz59]

30. I expect to see more back-tracking and blame-laying.

As the idealogues continue their charade of competence.

[Dem4life1234]

45. They don't have the capacity of self reflection

A bunch of unlikable set of dolts.

[Rebl2]

32. No idiot mr

miller the media, for once, told the truth, the whole truth. There was NO hoax from the media you effing nazi.

[Karasu]

33. It blows my mind that they still play he "leftwing media" card after 40+ years, and at least half the country STILL

fucking buys it.

[MurrayDelph]

34. I've got an idea: Let's deport Miller, Homan, and Trmp

to the Netherlands. Specifically, The Hague.

[calimary]

42. Works for me!

[stage left]

49. Wish

I could rec this twice.

[Dem4life1234]

35. I despise this creepy man so much, he is the worst of the team members

I cannot stand this racist. He is the worst member of his team. He should know better because if this was 1930s Germany, he would have been stripped of his citizenship for being Jewish. That is what angers me about him. The hypocrisy. Um, his family ran to the United States to escape persecution.

Then he calls us liars?

The ones who had left his first administration actually had humanity and some kind of decency. These ones who remain loyal to him are absolutely batshit crazy and evil.

Words cannot describe this.

[Blue Owl]

39. Fuck Nosferatu

[Initech]

47. What position of power does that POS Miller have? None.

So fuck him and his stupid opinions.

[stage left]

48. I'm on day five

of calling my misrepresentatives and bitching about various aspects of this mess. I reccomend it. For those of you who live in blue states. tell your reps to step up.

[GiqueCee]

50. This is the same shithead...

... that declared early in Trump's first regime that "the President will not be questioned."
Wanna make a bet, asshole?