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    To my newborn son: I am absent not out of apathy, but conviction | Mahmoud Khalil

    Yaba Deen,* it has been two weeks since you were born, and these are my first words to you.In the early hours of 21 April, I waited on the other end of a phone as your mother labored to bring you into this world. I listened to her pained breaths and tried to speak comforting words into her ear over the crackling line. During your first moments, I buried my face in my arms and kept my voice low so that the 70 other men sleeping in this concrete room would not see my cloudy eyes or hear my voice catch. I feel suffocated by my rage and the cruelty of a system that deprived your mother and me of sharing this experience. Why do faceless politicians have the power to strip human beings of their divine moments?Since that morning, I have come to recognize the look in the eyes of every father in this detention center. I sit here contemplating the immensity of your birth and wonder how many more firsts will be sacrificed to the whims of the US government, which denied me even the chance of furlough to attend your birth. How is it that the same politicians who preach “family values” are the ones tearing families apart?Deen, my heart aches that I could not hold you in my arms and hear your first cry, that I could not unfurl your clenched fists or change your first diaper. I am sorry that I was not there to hold your mother’s hand or to recite the adhan, or call to prayer, in your ear. But my absence is not unique. Like other Palestinian fathers, I was separated from you by racist regimes and distant prisons. In Palestine, this pain is part of daily life. Babies are born every day without their fathers – not because their fathers chose to leave, but because they are taken by war, by bombs, by prison cells and by the cold machinery of occupation. The grief your mother and I feel is but one drop in a sea of sorrow that Palestinian families have drowned in for generations.View image in fullscreenDeen, it was not a gap in the law that made me a political prisoner in Louisiana. It was my firm belief that our people deserve to be free, that their lives are worth more than the televised massacre we are witnessing in Gaza, and that the displacement that began in 1948 and culminated in the current genocide must finally end. This mere belief is what made the state scramble to detain me. No matter where I am when you read this – whether I’m in this country or another – I want to impress upon you one lesson:The struggle for Palestinian liberation is not a burden; it is a duty and an honor we carry with pride. So at every turning point in my life, you will find me choosing Palestine. Palestine over ease. Palestine over comfort. Palestine over self. This struggle is sweeter than a life without dignity. The tyrants want us to submit, to obey, to be perfect victims. But we are free, and we will remain free. I hope you feel this as deeply as I do.Deen, as a Palestinian refugee, I inherited a kind of exile that followed me to every border, every airport, every form. Borders mean something to me that they may not mean to you. Each crossing required me to prove my docility, my identity and my very right to exist. You were born an American citizen. You may never feel that weight. You may never have to translate your humanity through paperwork, countless visa applications and interview appointments. I hope you use this not to separate yourself from others, but to uplift those who live under the same circumstances that once constrained me. But I won’t pretend this citizenship protects you. Not completely. Not when you have my name. Not when those in power still see our people as threats.One day, you might ask why people are punished for standing up for Palestine, why truth and compassion feel dangerous to power. These are hard questions, but I hope our story shows you this: the world needs more courage, not less. It needs people who choose justice over convenience.It is nothing but the dehumanization and racist disregard for Palestinians that renders their lives forgettable and that dares describe Palestinian fathers who love their sons as “terrorists”. Perhaps that is why the world so quickly forgot the killing of four-month-old Iman Hijjo in Gaza in 2001. Why did Ahmed Abu Artema’s beloved son Abdullah die hungry for bread? Who recalls the children lost in the Flour Massacre? Where is the justice for the fathers in the West Bank who carefully dress their sons for prison? Why does liberty not visit the bodies of Palestinian children whose limbs are missing, whose ribs are exposed under thin skin and who are born lovingly only to die under an Israeli bomb?On this first Mother’s Day for Noor, I dream of a world where all families are reunited to celebrate the incredible women in their lives. Many years ago, on one of our very first dates, I had asked your mother what she would change in the world if she could. Her simple response was: “I just want people to be nicer to each other.” Deen, you were born to a mother as gentle as she is fierce. I pray that you live in a world shaped by that kindness. I hope, with all my heart, that you will not witness the oppression that I’ve known. I hope that you never need to chant for Palestine, because it has long been free with dignity and prosperity for all. Should that day come, know that it was ushered in through the courage of those who came before you. I am certain that in this new world, you and I will visit Tiberias together, drink from the river and marvel at the sea. There, in a free and just Palestine, you will see the fruits of our struggle.Deen, my love for you is deeper than anything I have ever known. Loving you is not separate from the struggle for liberation. It is liberation itself. I fight for you, and for every Palestinian child whose life deserves safety, tenderness and freedom. I hope one day you will stand tall knowing your father was not absent out of apathy, but out of conviction. And I will spend my life making up for the moments we lost – starting with this one, writing to you with all the love in my heart.*Yaba Deen: “Yaba” (يابا ) is an affectionate term meaning “dad” in Arabic. In Palestinian Arabic, yaba is often used self-referentially to center the father-son bond in the greeting itself. So when a father says “yaba”, he’s using a tender, fatherly voice to address his child, somewhat like saying: “From your dad, Deen” or “My son, from your yaba (dad)”.

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    Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts student held by Ice, vows to continue legal action after jail release

    A Tufts University student from Turkey has returned to Boston, one day after being released from a Louisiana immigration detention center where she was held for more than six weeks after being arrested for her political speech.Rümeysa Öztürk told reporters at Logan Airport on Saturday that she was excited to get back to her studies during what has been a “very difficult” period.“In the last 45 days, I lost both my freedom and also my education during a crucial time for my doctoral studies,” she said. “But I am so grateful for all the support, kindness and care.”A federal judge ordered Öztürk’s release Friday pending a final decision on her claim that she was illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza.She filed a lawsuit challenging her detention now assigned to US district judge William Sessions in Burlington, Vermont. He granted her bail after finding she had raised substantial claims that her rights were violated.Öztürk said she will continue her case in the courts, adding, “I have faith in the American system of justice.”“Today is a tremendous day as we welcome you back, Rumeysa,” Ed Markey, a Democrat senator from Massachusetts said. “You have made millions and millions of people across our country so proud of the way you have fought.”Appearing by video for her bail hearing the previous day, Öztürk, 30, detailed her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate focusing on children and social media.Judge Sessions ruled that she was to be released on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions. She was not a danger to the community or a flight risk, he said, while noting that he might amend the release order to consider any conditions by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Ice, in consultation with her lawyers.Sessions said the government offered no evidence for why Öztürk was arrested other than the op-ed.The US justice department’s executive office for immigration review did not respond to an email message seeking comment.Öztürk was one of four students who wrote the opinion piece last year in campus newspaper The Tufts Daily. It criticized the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.On 25 March immigration officials surrounded Öztürk in Massachusetts and took her into custody. She was then driven to New Hampshire and Vermont and flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana.Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.Öztürk is one of several international students detained by the Trump administration over their pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus.Öztürk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.A state department memo said Öztürk’s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions “‘may undermine US foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus”.A department of homeland security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Öztürk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, which the US has designated as a terrorist group.This week a federal appeals court upheld Sessions’ order to bring Öztürk back to New England for hearings to determine whether her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process, were violated, as her lawyers argue.Immigration proceedings for Öztürk, initiated in Louisiana, are being conducted separately in that state and Öztürk can participate remotely, the court said. More

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    Trump news at a glance: Newark mayor Ras Baraka takes on Trump administration over immigration

    The battle with the Trump administration over illegal immigration continues, with Newark mayor Ras Baraka saying he would fight his arrest in court.The mayor was arrested on Tuesday after joining three members of Congress at a protest and press conference outside a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility in Newark called Delaney Hall. The mayor was released about five hours later and charged with trespassing.Baraka has pushed back against the construction and opening of Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.Here are the key stories at a glance:New Jersey mayor to continue fight against Ice detention center after arrestSpeaking out after his arrest on Tuesday, Ras Baraka said his city would continue its fight in court against the company that runs an immigration detention facility in New Jersey.“I know there are some protests that other people are planning and if I feel obligated to be there, I will,” Newark’s mayor told the Rev Al Sharpton on MSNBC Saturday afternoon. “This doesn’t stop the city’s contention with the Geo Group, and we’re going to continue in court with them.”Read the full storyPentagon orders military to pull books related to DEI and ‘gender ideology’Military leaders and commanders at the Pentagon were ordered on Friday to go through their libraries and review all books that were related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the US military’s latest anti-DEI move.Leaders were ordered to “promptly identify” materials that promote “divisive concepts and gender ideology [that] are incompatible with the department’s core mission”, according to a memo sent to leaders that was seen by the Associated Press. The department gave leaders until 21 May to remove the books.Read the full story‘From all sides’: universities in red states face attacks from DC and at homeDays after the University of Michigan president, Santa Ono, announced he was leaving his post to lead the University of Florida, his name was quietly removed on Wednesday from a letter signed by more than 600 university presidents denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with academic institutions.Read the full storyDaughter of Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard arrested at Columbia University The daughter of actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard was among those arrested at the latest Columbia University protests, marking the latest development in the anti-war demonstrations that also led to the temporary suspension of student journalists.Read the full storyJudge orders White House to temporarily halt sweeping government layoffsDonald Trump’s administration must temporarily halt its sweeping government overhaul because Congress did not authorize it to carry out large-scale staffing cuts and the restructuring of agencies, a federal judge in California said on Friday.US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco sided with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments in blocking large-scale mass layoffs known as “reductions in force” for 14 days.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

    A 4.1-magnitude earthquake in Tennessee woke up families and rattled homes as far away as Atlanta as it spread tremors across portions of the southern US on Saturday morning. No injuries or major damage were immediately reported.

    Google has agreed to pay $1.375bn in a settlement in principle reached with the state of Texas over allegations the company violated users’ data privacy, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said on Friday.

    A recently introduced bill, if it passes, would allow research on cannabis despite its schedule I status, which some experts say could help policymakers “craft effective” legislation in the future.
    Catching up? Here’s what happened on May 9. More

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    New Jersey mayor to continue fight against Ice detention center after arrest

    Speaking out after his arrest on Tuesday, the Newark mayor Ras Baraka said his city would continue its fight in court against the company that runs an immigration detention facility in New Jersey.“I know there are some protests that other people are planning, and if I feel obligated to be there, I will,” Baraka told the Rev Al Sharpton on MSNBC Saturday afternoon. “This doesn’t stop the city’s contention with the Geo Group, and we’re going to continue in court with them.”Baraka was arrested Tuesday morning after joining three members of Congress at a protest and press conference outside a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility located in Newark known as Delaney Hall.He was arrested by homeland security agents and taken into custody at a separate facility in Newark. The mayor was released about five hours later and charged with trespassing.Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN Saturday morning that “there will be more arrests coming” after the protest at the facility, saying that the arrests of the three Democratic members of Congress who were there – Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver – are “on the table”.McLoughlin told CNN that the lawmakers “put law enforcement at risk, this actually put the detainees as well at risk” and said that DHS have “body-camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our Ice enforcement officers”.Newark sued Geo Group after the company won a 15-year $1bn contract with Ice to run Delaney Hall, saying that the company was renovating the facility without proper permits and that city inspectors had been barred from entering the center.Federal officials and representatives from Geo Group denied the allegations and told the New York Times that the company had the proper permits, saying that Baraka’s arrest was a “publicity stunt by the mayor”, who is also running in the state’s gubernatorial race.“The mayor has been informed that he is more than welcome to enter the facility, as long as he follows security protocols like everyone else,” McLoughlin told the Times.At the protest Tuesday, Baraka joined Coleman, Menendez and McIver, who were allowed into the facility as part of an oversight visit.In a video reviewed by the New York Times, a homeland security agent told Baraka he could not enter the facility like the Congress members, or he would be arrested.Baraka, who was in a crowd of people, told Sharpton that he left the entry gates “several times”, and he was ultimately arrested outside the facility gates. Baraka insists that he “didn’t do anything wrong”.Baraka told Sharpton that DHS was “treating us just like a regular case”.“I was put in the cell, I was given a mug shot, fingerprinted, charged with a federal crime of trespassing,” Baraka said, adding that the police were “treating [him] pretty good”.Baraka emphasized that the federal government wasn’t sharing information about who was being kept in the detention facility.“We don’t know what’s going on in there, we don’t know who’s in there. They don’t allow inspectors. They’re not complying with local laws,” Baraka said. “They feel like they don’t have to go to court.” More

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    ‘From all sides’: universities in red states face attacks from DC and at home

    Days after the University of Michigan president, Santa Ono, announced that he was leaving his post to lead the University of Florida, his name was quietly removed on Wednesday from a letter signed by more than 600 university presidents denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with academic institutions.As Ono is set to become the highest-paid public university president in the country, in a state that has often been at the forefront of the rightwing battle against higher education, the reversal, first reported on by Talking Points Memo, underscored the challenges of standing up against the government’s sweeping attacks on education in solidly red states.Many private colleges and universities have begun to push back against Donald Trump’s federal funding cuts, bans on diversity initiatives, and targeting of foreign students, while faculty at more than 30 universities, most of them public, have passed resolutions calling for a “mutual defence compact” – a largely symbolic pledge to support one another in the face of the government’s repressive measures. But in conservative states, where local attacks on higher education were in vogue before the US president took office, faculty trying to fight back find themselves fighting on multiple fronts: against state legislators as well as against Trump.Some have persevered, although for now that resistance has been limited to statements and resolutions calling on the universities themselves to put up a more muscular response. The faculty senate at Indiana University, Bloomington, voted in favor of a defence compact last month, days before Republican legislators passed a sweeping overhaul of the state school’s governance. In Georgia, Kennesaw State University became the first – and so far only – school in the US south to join the call for the solidarity pact, in part to protest the state scrapping a decades-old initiative to increase the college enrollment of Black men, which was pulled as part of the broader Trump-led crackdown on diversity initiatives. This week, faculty at the University of Miami in Ohio and at the University of Arizona – both states with Republican-majority legislatures – also passed resolutions in favor of mutual alliances among universities.The resolutions are nonbinding, as faculty senates play an advisory role at most universities, and so far no administrations have responded to the call. But the idea, those behind it say, is to send a message.“All universities in all states are under threat,” said Jim Sherman, a retired psychology professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, who proposed the resolution passed by faculty there. “If we don’t stand together and talk about what each of us is experiencing, how we’re dealing with it, and what the options are, then we’re standing alone, and that’s much more difficult.”Paul Boxer, a psychology professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, first came up with the plan to organize faculty in the “Big Ten” conference, a group of 18 large, mostly public universities, to put up a united front against the Trump administration. But schools outside the conference showed an interest, and the solidarity effort quickly outgrew the consortium to include other, mostly public colleges and universities across the country. Boxer also praised other collective initiatives that have since emerged, including by a group of “elite” universities quietly strategizing to counter the Trump administration policies, but called on more universities to publicly unite in their resistance.“A lot of the attention has been on Harvard, and the Ivy Leagues, and the universities that Trump has name-dropped, and I’m glad that Harvard did what they did, obviously, but they’re sitting on a $50bn endowment, and they can do things that we can’t in a public university,” Boxer said, referring to the university’s public defiance of Trump’s demands and a lawsuit it filed against the administration.Large state universities – particularly those in blue states with sympathetic legislators – had other advantages, Boxer noted, including strong connections to alumni in local government and the broader community.That is a harder case to make in Republican-controlled states – some of which, like Florida, Texas, Iowa and Utah – had essentially drawn up a blueprint for attacking diversity initiatives and academic freedom in the years leading up to Trump’s election. In Indiana, the recently passed measures, which legislators attached to a budget bill at the last minute, would establish “productivity” quotas for tenured faculty and end alumnis’ ability to vote for the university’s board of trustees, which would fall under the full control of the state’s governor, Mike Braun.“There is a lot of anxiety,” said Sherman. “If Indiana is any indication, red states might even be more under threat from their state legislatures than they are from the federal government.”Taking a public stance in a climate of growing repression is not easy, faculty say. In Florida, where Ono is headed, the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, was an early champion of the battle against diversity initiatives and said this week that he expects the incoming president to abide by the state’s mission to “reject woke indoctrination”.In Georgia, at a statewide faculty leadership meeting this week, scholars from across the state’s universities debated how to defend programmes supporting Black students, help international students facing visa revocations, and prepare to fight proposed state legislation that would impose further restrictions on diversity initiatives and criminalize the distribution of some library materials.“Faculty want to do something, they want to respond, but they also see the inevitability of their university system and their lawmakers doing it. There’s no stopping that train here in Georgia,” said Matthew Boedy, a professor at the University of North Georgia who also leads the state’s American Association of University Professors conference.“There are state-level attacks, there are federal attacks,” he said. “We are taking it from all sides.” More

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    Pentagon orders military to pull books related to DEI and ‘gender ideology’

    Military leaders and commanders at the Pentagon were ordered on Friday to go through their libraries and review all books that were related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), in the US military’s latest anti-DEI move.Leaders were ordered to “promptly identify” materials that promote “divisive concepts and gender ideology [that] are incompatible with the department’s core mission”, according to a memo sent to leaders that was seen by the Associated Press. The department gave leaders until 21 May to remove the books.Also on Friday, the Pentagon sent a separate memo to the military’s training academies that the institutions should have “no consideration of race, ethnicity or sex” in their admission process and should focus “exclusively on merit”, though they can allow for students who show “unique athletic talent”, according to the AP. The department ordered the administrations to certify these standards by mid-June.The memo to leaders on books follows a similar order that was given to the military academies, including the US Naval Academy, that led to the removal of nearly 400 books from its library. Books that were withdrawn from the library included Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, novels by writers of color including the Palestinian American Etaf Rum, and academic books that examine race and gender.The department said that a temporary “academic libraries committee” would convene to help the other colleges and academies remove similar books from their collections. Librarians and staff were ordered to use search terms like “affirmative action”, “anti-racism”, “critical race theory” and “white privilege” when determining which books could be subject for removal.The book bans also affect K-12 school libraries that are on military bases around the world. A list of banned children’s books, including books about LGBTQ+ teens and others dealing with race, has been issued by the Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, which oversees the schools attended by the children of military families abroad.On the list is a New York Times bestseller chronicling the true story of a teenager set on fire by a fellow teenager while riding an Oakland, California, bus, as HuffPost reported. The list also includes a collection of poems and short stories by a New York Times bestselling author documenting the feelings and experiences of teenagers in love.The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has vowed to purge DEI from the Pentagon, saying when he took office earlier this year that “our diversity is our strength” is “the single dumbest phrase in military history”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSince January, the Trump administration has been overseeing a widespread culling of anything the White House considers to be DEI within the federal government. The specific number of DEI roles that have been removed is unclear as the federal government isn’t keeping track or reporting which roles have been eliminated, but estimates say hundreds or possibly thousands of employees have been fired since the start of the year. More

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    Judge orders White House to temporarily halt sweeping government layoffs

    Donald Trump’s administration must temporarily halt its sweeping government overhaul because Congress did not authorize it to carry out large-scale staffing cuts and the restructuring of agencies, a federal judge in California said on Friday.US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco sided with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments in blocking large-scale mass layoffs known as “reductions in force” for 14 days.“As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress,” Illston said.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The ruling is the broadest of its kind against the government overhaul that has been led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person who is also the chief executive officer of electric vehicle maker Tesla.Dozens of lawsuits have challenged the work of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) on various grounds including violating privacy laws and exceeding its authority, with mixed results.Trump directed government agencies in February to work with Doge to identify targets for mass layoffs as part of the administration’s restructuring plans.The president urged agencies to eliminate duplicative roles, unnecessary management layers and non-critical jobs while automating routine tasks, closing regional field offices and reducing the use of outside contractors.“The Trump administration’s unlawful attempt to reorganize the federal government has thrown agencies into chaos, disrupting critical services provided across our nation,” said a statement from the coalition of plaintiffs.“Each of us represents communities deeply invested in the efficiency of the federal government – laying off federal employees and reorganizing government functions haphazardly does not achieve that.”Illston scheduled a hearing for 22 May to consider a longer-lasting preliminary injunction.She said that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on merits of some of their claims in their lawsuit, which was filed on 28 April and alleged Trump exceeded his authority. It also alleged the office of management and budget, Doge and the office of personnel management exceeded their authority and violated administrative law.Illston said plaintiffs are likely to suffer irreparable harm without the temporary restraining order, which she said preserves the status quo.Illston said the plaintiffs submitted more than 1,000 pages of evidence and 62 sworn declarations, and she highlighted some of the material.For example, she said the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and its Pittsburgh office, which researches health hazards facing mineworkers, had 221 of the department’s 222 workers terminated, citing the union. She gave similar examples at local offices of the Farm Service Agency, the Social Security Administration and Head Start, which supports early learning.“The court here is not considering the potential loss of income of one individual employee, but the widespread termination of salaries and benefits for individuals, families and communities,” Illston wrote in her ruling. More

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    Trump’s latest Fox News hire looks even worse than Pete Hegseth | Margaret Sullivan

    The revolving door between the Trump administration and rightwing Fox News took another wild spin this week, as America’s TV-obsessed president tapped Jeanine Pirro for a prominent legal post: top federal prosecutor for Washington DC.Pirro is unqualified, perhaps even more so than was her former Fox colleague Pete Hegseth when he was named Trump’s defense secretary a few months ago. In that crucial position, Hegseth has been a dangerous embarrassment, as his shockingly inappropriate communications have exposed national security secrets to the world.Pirro, although once a county-level district attorney, hasn’t held a government legal position in decades. But she has been opining on Fox for 14 years, mostly recently as a host on The Five, the network’s popular afternoon talkshow.But no matter. She “is in a class by herself”, Trump wrote on social media in announcing his intention to make her the interim (and perhaps permanent) prosecutor.His description may be accurate, but surely not in the way he intends.Pirro’s record at Fox is startlingly checkered, even for that propaganda outfit. She got in trouble with the network’s brass a few years ago for her eager promotion of Trump’s lies about supposed voter fraud in the 2020 election. (The voting-fraud lies became part of a defamation lawsuit against the network by a voting-systems company; Fox paid nearly $800m to settle the case and had to acknowledge that statements made on air were false.)Fox once suspended her for her ugly commentary on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s wearing a hijab, which Pirro suggested was an adherence to “sharia lawm which in itself is antithetical to the United States constitution”. And she advocated for a “cleansing” of the FBI and the justice department because their ranks were full of people who “need to be taken out in handcuffs”.But none of this causes any real concern for the president, apparently, because Pirro has one huge thing going for her. Over the course of a long friendship and many visits to Mar-a-Lago, she has been relentlessly loyal to Trump.In fact, she has gone well beyond loyalty into straight-up sycophancy.On this score, Pirro has what it takes.“Since Trump returned to office, Pirro has kept busy by showering him with praise and lashing out at anyone who stands in his way,” wrote Matt Gertz, senior fellow at the progressive watchdog group Media Matters, noting that she is the 23rd former Fox employee whom Trump has tapped for his administration.Tom Homan, a former Fox contributor, became Trump’s “border czar”, aggressively carrying out the administration’s anti-immigrant policy, and Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and former host of a weekly Fox show, was named ambassador to Israel.Beyond her peerless cheerleading, Pirro would be useful to Trump in practical terms, noted the New York Times in a news story.She supports “Trump’s efforts to exact vengeance on his political enemies, has backed his challenges to federal judges who have questioned the legality of his immigration policies and spent months protesting the legitimacy” of Biden’s 2020 election to the presidency.Although Trump often doesn’t return the favor of loyalty, he has stepped up for Pirro’s family by pardoning her former husband (once Trump’s lawyer), who in 2020 was convicted of conspiracy and tax-evasion charges.All told, this is some serious symbiosis. In stepping away from her high-profile – and high-earning – TV job, Pirro may solve a sticky problem for Trump, whose earlier choice for the DC prosecutor’s position ran into trouble with Senate Republicans.It’s not clear if Pirro’s nomination will succeed, especially in the long term. Although Trump is nominating her on an interim basis, there’s little doubt he’d like it to be permanent. But even the interim appointment may run into a legal fight over just how many acting US attorneys the president can appoint consecutively.You might think that with Hegseth’s rocky and widely criticized start as defense secretary – where he oversees almost three million employees while maintaining a TV star’s firm jawline – the president would hesitate to choose another unqualified TV personality for a key role.But Trump clearly doesn’t see it that way.There’s hardly anything better, it turns out, than Fox News on one’s resume. Even better when it’s paired with a solid record of fealty to the Audience in Chief.

    Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture More