Trump Plots Another Coup as His Deportation Agenda Crumbles

Good news for the rule of law, and worrisome news in the Caribbean

Hi, Raw America family. Welcome to the Sunday Wrapup. I’m here with my cup of coffee, watching the country head out to Memorial Day grills, while working hard for you.

First, thank you for being a paying subscriber. This week, you funded my exclusive interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, an update on the GOP majority’s meltdown on Capitol Hill, and the reporting that goes into every newsletter and video we put out. None of that exists without you. I mean that.

Now, let’s get into it.

The Law Held: Trump’s Landmark Deportation Case Called to Heel

On Friday, a federal judge dismissed every charge against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

You might not remember his name, but Abrego Garcia is the Maryland man Trump’s administration deported to a Salvadoran terrorism prison last year in open violation of a court order. He became the face of Stephen Miller’s deportation push.

Trump’s henchmen spent months refusing to bring him back, but eventually were forced to. The second he set foot on American soil, the DOJ hit him with human-smuggling charges built on a four-year-old traffic stop the feds had previously closed.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, called Abrego’s case what it was. He ruled the prosecution was “vindictive” and the underlying investigation was “tainted.” He cited Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s own public statements on Fox News as evidence the case was retaliation for Abrego Garcia having the gall to sue the administration that disappeared him.

“Absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution,” Crenshaw wrote.

This wasn’t the only court ruling calling Trump to heel this week.

Two days earlier in Chicago, a federal judge dismissed every remaining charge against the so-called Broadview Six — activists and local Democratic officials, including a former congressional candidate, who were charged with felony conspiracy for protesting outside an ICE facility.

The U.S. Attorney himself walked into court and admitted his own prosecutors had committed “significant errors” before the grand jury. They included improperly vouching for evidence and removing jurors who disagreed with the charges. The dismissal was with prejudice. The case can never be refiled.

Two cases. Two federal courts. One week. Both were tied to the central engine of the Trump administration’s second-term project: using federal prosecution to punish people who get in the administration’s way. And in both, the judiciary said no.

DHS is still trying to disappear Abrego Garcia to a third country. The fight isn’t over. But this week the line held.

The War You’re Not Hearing About: Cuba

This week, while Americans focused on Iran and groceries, the Trump administration moved into open military posture against Cuba. On Wednesday, the DOJ unsealed a federal murder indictment against 94-year-old Raúl Castro for ordering the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft.

The same day, the Pentagon announced the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group had entered the Caribbean.

This is the same operational sequence Trump ran against Venezuela in January. Manufactured legal pretext, naval buildup, Special Forces abduction of a foreign head of state. Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Giménez told CNN the Castro indictment “gives the United States the legal basis to go and remove” Castro from Cuba. Foreign Policy this week described what’s happening as the U.S. “edging closer to military intervention.”

On Friday, hundreds of thousands of Cubans rallied in Havana outside the U.S. embassy. They said they don’t want a war, and they’ll defend their country if Trump brings one.

Cuba, however, has a run-down military with few functioning military assets.

The Iran war Trump launched without Congress has already cost 13 American service members their lives. Trump heartlessly told Fox News this week he gets a “kick” out of criticism over that number. Now the administration’s laying the same groundwork for a second war while the first one’s still bleeding.

Hopeful Things Happened This Week

You wouldn’t know it, but there were plenty of good things that happened this week.

House Republicans pulled their own War Powers Resolution vote on Thursday night. Not because the resolution would lose, but because it was about to win. Speaker Mike Johnson held open an unrelated bill on a Women’s History Museum for 45 minutes, then yanked the war powers vote entirely. It’ll come back to the floor in June.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are watching their majority “melt down,” in one GOP senator’s own words. Sen. Bill Cassidy flipped to support the Senate War Powers Resolution on his way out the door.

Karl Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal this week that Trump’s approval numbers will cost Republicans the midterms unless they change course on Iran and gas prices. House Republicans stripped $220 million for Trump’s ballroom from their own legislation. They also canceled a vote on $72 billion in additional ICE funding.

The most revealing quote of the week came from a source close to the White House who said, “In many ways I don’t think they fear the president anymore. Many have realized you can outlive Trump, politically speaking.”

I think the fever is breaking. It’s not an even break — Trump’s candidates are still trouncing his opponents, but the Senate’s refusal to take up his slush fund is telling.

We’ll Keep Fighting For You

Every authoritarian movement bets that the public won’t notice the slow decay: the deportations, the indictments, the buildups, the disappearances. This week we noticed. Federal judges noticed. Congress noticed. The Cuban people noticed.

We’re not out of the woods. We may not be for a long time. But this was a week with more daylight in it than the corporate press is letting you see.

Thanks for being here, and thank you for being a paying subscriber funding this work. You matter. I really appreciate you being here with me.

— John Byrne / Founder, Raw America and Raw Story

P.S. If you missed my interview with Sen. Mark Kelly this week, I’ve unlocked it for you to watch below. You can read a news summary of the interview here, as well as the full transcript. Enjoy your Memorial Day!