ABC News reports:

Judge from Donald Trump criminal case for money of New York is set to decide on Tuesday whether to throw out Trump’s conviction based on the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. . .

If Judge Juan Merchan upholds the conviction, sentencing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 26, less than two months before Trump’s inauguration.

Happy Tuesday.

by Andrew Egger

Here’s the fundamental question dictating how the first few days of Donald Trump’s second term will play out: Did voters go in clear-eyed about what he promised? Or did they simply vote out the party holding the bag for inflation, pushing a big button with “CHANGE” printed on it, with only a vague idea of ​​what was to come?

It won’t take long to find out.

During the campaign, Trump routinely pledged to begin “the largest mass deportation in history” on his first day in office. His first staff announcements make it clear he intends to be as good as his word.

Stephen Miller, perhaps the most rabid anti-immigration (legal and illegal) in Trump’s first term, will counter Trump’s political agenda as deputy chief of staff. The New York Times rEPORTS that Miller’s portfolio “is expected to be vast and far beyond what the eventual title will convey.”

Miller will be assisted by Tom Homan, Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whom Trump has now called his “border czar.”

During Trump’s first term, Homan was most notable as intellectual father of Trump’s most controversial immigration moves: the “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of migrant parents and children in 2017 and 2018. Tearing apart families, Homan he told him Atlantic in 2022, would help deter other families from making the move: “Most parents don’t want to be separated.”

Today, he sets his sights higher. Last month, a CBS reporter asked Homan if it would be possible to carry out mass deportations without separating families. “Of course there is,” Homan answered. “Families can be deported together.”

The subtext here, of course, is that many illegal immigrants have US-born children who are US citizens under the 14th Amendment. But Trump also promised an executive order on Day One that “ends” the constitutional doctrine of birthright citizenship, daring the courts to stop it.

Last night, Homan appeared on Fox News for an interview with Sean Hannity, who outlined a possible way Trump could at least get his deportations appear more humane: why not encourage illegal immigrants to self-report for deportation in exchange for money to help them rebuild their lives and the possibility of a legal return path in a year or two? Homan didn’t bite. “Those who want to go home alone – have found their way through the world to the greatest nation on earth. They can find their way home.”

Polls have consistently suggested throughout the year that a majority of the public supports mass deportations: a Scripps/Ipsos POLL in September he put the proposal at 54 percent support, 42 percent opposition. But there’s also reason to believe that public support is a mile wide and an inch deep—that people believe uncontrolled immigration is out of control, but lack a concrete sense of what an operation would look like. mass deportation in practice.

A single survey taken by Data for Progress last month presented respondents with a series of hypothetical border crossers, then asked them simply: Should this person be deported? In two of these hypothetical cases—a recent border crosser without legal status and a border crosser with a criminal record for a nonviolent crime—strong majorities favored deportation. But strong majorities opposite deportation for each of the other hypothetical immigrants: an educated person who overstayed a visa, a longtime illegal resident with U.S.-born children, a person currently in the United States under temporary protection status, a person awaiting a asylum decision and a person brought to the United States as a child who has lived here for 20 years.

If 65 percent of Americans oppose deporting noncitizens who have lived here since childhood, with only 19 percent supporting such deportations, how many would cheer much crazier politics of deporting American citizens to countries they’ve never even seen?

Voters’ opinions are always in flux. Joe Biden spent the first six months of his presidency enjoying respectable approval ratings, but they collapsed after his first serious policy embarrassment, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and never recovered. Voters who liked a hypothetical Trump comeback may feel repulsed when they see it in action. We will find out soon.

by William Kristol

You know what can drive you crazy? Looking in the rearview mirror and second guessing every tactical decision made by the Harris campaign.

You know what’s second in incitement to insanity? Trying every day to interpret the tea leaves of Trump’s appointments to his new administration.

Both analytical exercises must be done. But as I wrote yesterday, retrospective micro-analysis of the last campaign can be of limited use. And too much fixation on every announcement of a new Trump machine may also be of limited help going forward.

The following encounters can be exciting:

There’s Stephen Miller in the White House in charge of policy and Tom Homan in the White House as border czar. Terrible! A powerful and terrifying White House team!

What about Mike Waltz as national security adviser? It could be worse. Same with Lil’ Marco as Secretary of State!

And what about Kristi Noem at DHS and Lee Zeldin at EPA? Will these cabinet secretaries really count?

Who knows how all the appointments and power relations and jockeying in the Trump world will shake out? It’s interesting and can be important, and we’ll cover it all The Bastion. The staff is somewhat political, so it matters.

But most of it probably won’t matter too a lot. It’s Trump’s world, and the people who matter most are Trump and JD Vance and Elon Musk. And it’s the MAGA world, so there will be a strange mix of crazies along with opportunists, fanatics and careerists populating the new administration.

Some of them will be awful, and many of them will be just depressing. There may even be some flashes of light. But my advice would be: In general, don’t sweat all the meetings.

Sweat the big, disastrous policies—the mass deportations, the betrayal of Ukraine, and the January 6 pardons.

And pay attention to the attempt to destroy government norms and civil service and the rule of law with Annex F and the related efforts of Project 2025 and the attempt to turn the departments of power — Justice and Defense and the CIA — into personal fiefdoms for Trump. and Trumpism.

So watch out when Mark Paoletta, the attorney for Ginni Thomas, who is reportedly in charge of the Justice Department transition for Trump and who could be the White House counsel or the attorney general, say: “Career employees are bound to implement the president’s plan. . . . If these career DOJ employees will not implement President Trump’s program in good faith, they should go.”

So get ready for the purge attempts. Get ready to defend those the Trumpists will try to purge. And get ready to explain to the public why it is important that in the United States public officials do not take an oath of office to President Trump. They take an oath to “uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and “will well and faithfully perform the duties of the office” they enter upon.

Honoring the Constitution and the office, not Trump and his whims. Administering the rule of law — not fulfilling the dictates of the Leader. Those differences matter. They are worth fighting for.

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PRESIDENT MUSK: Following Trump’s weekend call for the next Senate Majority Leader to clear the way for him to make unconfirmed recess appointments, his MAGA allies spent much of yesterday rallying the troops. Chief among them was Elon Musk: “The new Senate Majority Leader must respond to the will of the people,” he said. he posted on Twitter.

It’s grimly funny to watch the remaining non-MAGA members of Conservative, Inc. trying to stem the tide. “The ‘will of the people’ is not embodied in the president,” wrote Ed Whelan of the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, RESPONDING to Musk. “The people also elected senators and members of the House to do the jobs they are supposed to do. For senators, that includes reviewing and voting on executive branch nominations.”

Whelan is absolutely right. Of course they will pay him zero. Maybe Musk will send a crying face meme to Michael Jordan.

DIPLOMACY LINKS: Trump’s decisive victory last week forced political recalibrations across the globe in a variety of strange directions. But perhaps the most hilarious is South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who, according to his office“recently started golfing again for the first time in eight years in preparation for ‘golf diplomacy’ with President-elect Trump”. This seems like both smart policy and a hilarious new form of excuse to poke some holes. Sorry, dear. You’ll have to watch the kids for a few more hours. I have to play 18 full today. The trilateral summit is coming up and I have to impress Trump with my short game. You understand, right?