First Draft: Noem Knifes Miller
The Oval Office becomes a circular firing squad, Trump goes after the 2nd Amendment, and a man attacks Ilhan Omar.
On this day in 2003, George W. Bush did something surprisingly… great? In his State of the Union address, the president announced PEPFAR, a massive global AIDS relief program that would go on to save roughly 26 million lives. Fast forward to last year, when Elon Musk and his DOGE tweens wandered into the government and promptly gutted it, perhaps costing untold millions of lives in the coming years.
Good morning! Peter here, back in your inboxes with some good news amid all the horrid headlines. Because this edition of ‘First Draft’ is sponsored by Incogni, there is no paywall! Huzzah!
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the White House civil war gets nasty, Donald Trump takes an axe to the 2nd Amendment, Ilhan Omar is assaulted at a town hall, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to side with ICE.
Every day, data brokers profit from your sensitive info – phone number, DOB, SSN – selling it to the highest bidder. What happens then? Best case: companies target you with ads. Worst case: scammers and identity thieves breach those brokers, leaving your data vulnerable or on the dark web. It’s time you check out Incogni. It scrubs your personal data from the web, confronting the world’s data brokers on your behalf. And unlike other services, Incogni helps remove your sensitive information from all broker types, including those tricky People Search Sites.
Help protect yourself from identity theft, spam calls, and health insurers raising your rates. Plus, just for Zeteo readers: Get 55% off Incogni annual plans using code ZETEO.
(This portion of the post was sponsored content.)
Kristi’s Days Are Noembered?
So the blame games begin…
Mere days after former Boy Scout and ICU nurse Alex Pretti was slaughtered in the street and smeared as a “domestic terrorist” and wannabe “assassin,” Donald Trump’s toadies are all but trading public blows over who should take the fall for perhaps the administration’s most sociopathic screwup to date.
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a person who relayed said comments to Axios’s veteran political reporter Marc Caputo.
Recall, only hours after the professional caregiver was gunned down by the president’s glorified paramilitary, Noem inaccurately stated he “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage… wishing to inflict harm on these officers.”
Noem has Pretti Good reason to be worried.
By yesterday evening, not only had House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threatened to launch impeachment proceedings against the DHS secretary if she was not immediately removed from her position, but two Republican senators joined in on the chorus calling for her ouster.
“The secretary has an opportunity, in fact, she has an obligation to control these situations that are under her jurisdiction,” Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski told a reporter late yesterday, “and she has not done so… I voted for her… I would not support her again, and I think it’s probably time for her to step down.”
Murkowski followed her North Carolina counterpart, Senator Thom Tillis, who arguably went further: “I think what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying. She should be out of a job,” Tillis said straight to camera. “It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad.”
To be clear, Noem isn’t the only Trump administration official in the hot seat. She’s knifing Stephen Miller – and understandably.
Returning to Caputo’s reporting, the so-called ‘Santa Monica fascist’ deputy White House chief of staff attempted to defend himself Tuesday evening by claiming that any and all information he shared with Noem about Pretti’s murder was based on what Customs and Border Patrol told the administration at the time.
What’s more, he claimed (ostensibly for the first time) that Customs and Border Patrol agents had not followed proper crowd-control procedures in the lead-up to Pretti’s killing.
Just to review, Noem is blaming the man who is more or less her boss. Meanwhile, Miller is blaming the foot soldiers of the very goon squad he’s long fantasized about making reality.
Both are utterly pathetic. For what it’s worth, though, I’m more or less inclined to buy Noem’s story.
However, with Miller, we must consider the fact that this is a man who once said about his focus on immigration, following a tense meeting during the first Trump term, “I didn’t mean to come across as harsh… it’s just that this is all I care about. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anything else. This is my life.”
In short, do pay close attention to this power struggle, to this circular firing squad in the Oval Office. All of these characters are villains. Remember, however, that it’s quite unlikely that Donald Trump would’ve pursued such a ruthless series of deportation operations without Miller whispering in his ear.
Kristi Noem is a cruel, dishonest, literal puppy-killer. But she just cast a spotlight on the Nazi-tier racist and bully effectively acting as our shadow president. And so to crib language from Clickhole: “the worst person you know just made a great point.”
🗞️ What You Need to Know
Omar assaulted: Frequent Trump target Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was sprayed with a currently unknown substance at a town hall late yesterday. A man jumped from his seat and charged Omar after she called on Secretary Kristi Noem to resign. Horrifying. But is it unexpected? Trump has put a target on Omar’s back and, when asked by ABC about the attack, he responded: “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” A sick, sick man.
Strike suit: The families of two Trinidadian men killed in one of Trump’s illegal boat strikes in the Caribbean filed a lawsuit against the US, claiming wrongful deaths and extrajudicial killings, the first such lawsuit of its kind.
Border Patrol shoots another American: A Border Patrol officer shot and injured a 34-year-old US citizen in Arizona on Tuesday morning. The FBI claims the man, identified as Patrick Gary Schlegel, had an outstanding federal arrest warrant for “escape” related to a conviction for smuggling undocumented immigrants.
Redistricting war in VA court: Virginia Democrats face a new hurdle in passing new congressional maps after a Republican judge ruled that the proposed constitutional amendment to allow them to redraw districts was illegal. He justified the ruling by saying Democrats began the referendum process during a special session, and the process did not follow state law.
Meta mutes anti-ICE crowd: Meta users have been restricted on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads from sharing links to the ‘ICE List,’ a website compiling names of DHS employees in an effort to hold them accountable. Last year, ICE ran at least $2.8 million worth of ads on Facebook and Instagram.
🧠 Pop Quiz!
How many emails did Stephen Miller send to right-wing “news” site Breitbart in the run-up to the 2016 election?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
🔫 Goodbye Guns?
“People have to protect themselves,” Donald Trump asserted to a scrum of reporters in the Oval Office just last year. “I’m a 2nd Amendment person. Very simply, people have to be able to protect themselves… I’m a 2nd Amendment person all the way.”
The times, dear reader, they are a changin’.
Yesterday, while walking across the White House lawn on his way to Marine One, the commander in chief informed the press that his feelings on guns had changed.
Asked about the murder of Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE goons at a Minneapolis protest, the president stated: “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t. You can’t walk in with guns. You can’t do that.”
Mr. Trump, Kyle Rittenhouse, the Tea Party, and the gaggle of Pillsbury Dough fascists you pardoned for their actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol Insurrection would like a word.
We truly live in the upside-down.
So when a MAGA maniac touts a rifle in public, that’s merely ‘MURICA being the land of the free and the home of the brave? But if a liberal dares carry a legally-registered concealed firearm – that he never even attempts to ‘brandish’ – that makes him a terrorist?
Only Donald Trump and his nefarious band of nincompoops could make me want to defend a right to bear arms.
🌏 Anywhere But America
🇵🇸 Don’t forget Gaza: Israel pounded Gaza with air strikes and artillery fire today, in yet another clear violation of the so-called ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported, as an Israeli official warned that if Hamas doesn’t disarm, it could lead Israel back to war in the enclave. With more than 1,300 “ceasefire” violations, which have killed nearly 500 Palestinians, when has Israel ever stopped its war?
🇮🇱🇱🇧 Another…ceasefire violation: Israel killed a presenter who worked for Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV station in the southern city of Tyre on Monday. Lebanese Information Minister Paul Porcos condemned the attack, urging the international community to “take urgent action” against Israel’s repeated ceasefire violations. As usual, Israel will likely face no repercussions.
🇰🇷 Bribed with Chanel: Former South Korean first lady Kim Keon Hee was sentenced to 20 months in jail today after a court found her guilty of accepting Chanel bags and diamond jewelry from the Unification Church in exchange for promises of political favors. Kim is the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office over his declaration of martial law in December 2024. Power-couple no more.
🇸🇩 RSF loses ground: Sudan’s military said it broke a nearly two-year-long siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary on the town of Dilling in South Kordofan. The military said it opened a road leading into the town, and that the operation resulted in “heavy losses on the enemy, both personnel and equipment.”
🇷🇸 Sweeping protests in Belgrade: Thousands of people gathered in Belgrade on National Education Day to protest against the government’s crackdown on universities, including the firing of professors who have taken part in anti-government demonstrations. Looks like the US and Serbia have a lot more in common than you’d think.
💬 Quote Unquote
“These fucking assholes are not going to get away with this.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s immediate response to being attacked at a town hall, before resuming her public remarks.
Chart of the Day
We got some bad news for Dems going into the 2030s.
🧠 Trivia answer: Over 900 – and the majority of them were about extremist anti-immigrant ideology.
ICYMI From Zeteo
Zeteo’s Melanie Riehl, Akshay Gokul, and Minnah Arshad contributed to this newsletter.
Still want to get Zeteo content, but not this newsletter? You can unsubscribe directly from ‘First Draft’ by going to ‘manage subscription’ in Substack, scrolling down, and toggling the button for ‘First Draft’ off.
Thank-you, Peter. As always, you have not only clear-eyed reporting but a delightful way with words.
Takes a bit of the edge off of the nasty subject matter without compromising the content.
Look forward to further contributions!
TY for sharing this article. I love the phrase including Pretti and Goods name in it. 🙏💙