Josh Marshall

New York

Editor and Publisher at Talking Points Memo

Founder & reigning monarch at TPM. Lapsed historian. Hand tool woodworker. ✡️ (Sign up for The Backchannel https://t.co/GpsQ8cC6vk)

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Articles

The NIH Funds-Ghosting, A Follow Up Report

6 days ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

Send comments and tips to talk at talkingpointsmemo dot com. To share confidential information by secure channels contact me on Signal at joshtpm dot 99 or via encrypted mail at joshtpm (at) protonmail dot com. Two days ago I wrote about a pattern operating largely under the radar in the President’s war against higher education. We know about the general grant freezes on about half a dozen elite universities.
Very Interesting Follow Up About that OPM Contract

6 days ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

The listed services that the contract will cover raises more questions and red flags. Anyone who has ever implemented a major IT system change will reject the concept of what is described. In effect, it sounds like they are implementing every module for every HR activity all at once. They reference July 15, which is the end of the hiring freeze period, as a key day, and they say that they hope to have the contract awarded by then.
Elon’s OPM Hands Out No Bid Contract to Cloud-Based AI HR Company

6 days ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

After firing much of its staff, the Office of Personal Management, under Elon Musk’s effective control since late January, has handed out a no bid contract to cloud-AI-based HR company Workday to help handle the mountain of terminations, retirements and layoffs built up over the first three months of the Trump administration.
Sic Transit, DeTransitioning Edition

1 week ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

Send comments and tips to talk at talkingpointsmemo dot com. To share confidential information by secure channels contact me on Signal at joshtpm dot 99 or via encrypted mail at joshtpm (at) protonmail dot com. I am reading an April 21, 2025 letter from Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Stephen Ferrara which provides guidance for discontinuing treatment of minors with gender dysphoria at military medical treatment facilities.
Outgoing UMich Prez Santa Ono Pulls His Name from Academic Freedom Letter

1 week ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

Over the weekend University of Michigan President Santa Ono announced that he was leaving his post to take up the leadership of the University of Florida. It was an interesting choice. It’s been reported that Ono had been warier of resisting or challenging the dictates of the Trump administration than the majority of the University’s Board of Regents, the members of which are elected in statewide elections.
Let’s Remember Why There’s a System of Federal Research Grants to Universities

1 week ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

This is largely preaching to the choir, but it’s absent enough from the news coverage that is worth stating clearly. Most right-thinking people are aghast at Trump’s onslaught on higher education. The range of reasons is endlessly discussed and doesn’t need to be enumerated here. But through those discussions is the subtext that higher education is dependent on federal subsidies. There is some truth to this when it comes to Pell grants and backstopping student loans.
Why Do They Have It In For Biomedical Research?

1 week ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

Here is a brief follow up on the question TPM Reader MA addresses below: why does the Trump administration have it in for biomedical/disease research? It’s a really good question and one I have not seen a really adequate explanation for. But having been reporting on this for a few months now I think I do get the outlines of it. First, let me address a related point. There is a fascinating dynamic at play at the heart of this. The fascination is depleted somewhat by the stakes.
Conspiracy of Silence: How Trump is Covertly Strangling Billions in Disease Cure Research

1 week ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

The following is very important news about the Trump White House’s unfolding war against biomedical/disease-cure research in the United States. But the set up is a bit complicated. So I want to flag both the complexity and the importance in advance. Because I want to really encourage you to read the set up and the details. It’s important stuff and most of it remains unknown to the public, though a few threads of the story have been published.
So This Happened

1 week ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

Send comments and tips to talk at talkingpointsmemo dot com. To share confidential information by secure channels contact me on Signal at joshtpm dot 99 or via encrypted mail at joshtpm (at) protonmail dot com. Donald Trump’s Truth Social recently started a streaming service for MAGAs and “pro-family” Christians called Truth+. Hunter Walker was surprised to find that among the top ten most watched movies featured for viewers was a “documentary” about how alien lizard people secretly rule the earth.
Very Interesting

1 week ago | talkingpointsmemo.com | Josh Marshall

Send comments and tips to talk at talkingpointsmemo dot com. To share confidential information by secure channels contact me on Signal at joshtpm dot 99 or via encrypted mail at joshtpm (at) protonmail dot com. Politico Nightly has a very interesting observation tied to Trump’s latest fever-dream about a tariff on movies produced outside the United States. Studios are spooked about it and the idea even pushed down entertainment stocks.