Losing My Perspicacity, November 18, 2025

Guess what historical building Trump wants to ruin next?

Author

Julie DiCaro
November 18, 2025

Good morning and Happy Tuesday! Thanks for being here today.

Let’s start with this absolutely disgusting display from the President of the United States on Friday. (What else is new?)

At around the 48-second mark, you can see Trump point his finger in a female reporter’s face and say, “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.” Her question: “Is there anything incriminating in the Epstein Files?”

Aside from Trump’s ongoing verbal abuse of women, the thing that upsets me about this video is that none of this woman’s colleagues stood up for her or pressured Trump to answer her question. Instead, they all just pivoted to asking about other topics. A childish display from a man who has never been told “no,” and abject cowardice by the press corps that’s supposed to be holding him accountable. I’m glad Helen Thomas isn’t alive to see this, and what I wouldn’t give to see her and Mike Wallace come walking through the door to the Oval Office one of these days.

Luckily, though legacy media outlets are letting us down mightily, the federal district courts appear to be holding. We got a rash of new pleadings and filings around the country today, so let’s go through them.

First, several groups are suing the Trump administration in federal court in Washington, D.C., over his plans to ruin yet another important historical building — The Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

You know, this one:

Completed in stages between 1871 and 1888, the EEOB is one of the nation’s finest examples of the French Second Empire style, originally constructed to house the Departments of State, War, and the Navy."

***

On or about November 10, 2025, during an interview with Laura Ingraham for “‘Seen and Unseen’: Inside President Trump’s White House renovations” on Fox News, President Trump stated that he planned to paint the EEOB white and showed images depicting the building covered entirely in pale white paint. In responding to the images, President Trump said, “Look at that, how beautiful that is.” 

During that exchange, President Trump appeared surprised that Ms. Ingraham was aware of the plan, remarking, “You did you hear that? That’s amazing.”

So, to sum up, Trump doesn’t like that the EEOB is gray. He wants it, like everything else he touches, to be gaucher and tackier, which probably means that combo of white and gold that is going to haunt us all to the end of our days. To that end, Trump has decided to paint over the original gray granite, despite the fact that paint can ruin granite. I found it interesting to learn about the different materials used in the construction of the EEOB, and learn about how badly Trump wants to fuck them up.

The EEOB’s exterior walls are constructed of granite from the Green quarry in central Virginia and the Vinalhaven and Hurricane Island quarries in Maine. The EEOB’s interior walls are constructed of brick masonry and Seneca stone rubble, and the walls sit on a foundation made of American natural hydraulic cement, as described in contemporary accounts. The window sashes on the building are made of wood. 

Painting the EEOB’s exterior stone—whether white or another modern paint scheme—would constitute a permanent alteration of historic fabric and irreversibly damage the building’s architectural integrity. Once applied, paint cannot be removed from the EEOB’s stone exterior without extensive and potentially destructive treatment, resulting in loss of original material. Removal of paint from historic buildings is challenging and cannot always be accomplished without significant damage to underlying materials.

(emphasis added)

The judge has given the plaintiffs until November 21 to file a motion for emergency relief, but, if they’re smart, they’ll do it much sooner than that. Now that the word is out, watch Trump try to get this done before anyone can stop him. Something that the plaintiffs noted in their complaint:

Without court intervention, Defendants are likely to proceed rapidly, without lawful compliance with NEPA and NHPA, repeating the pattern of misdirection and secretive action previously used in connection with the demolition of the East Wing...

In other legal action yesterday, we got a class certification for all past and future detainees at the ICE Broadview facility in IL, which is a requirement for filing a class action against the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, Judge Paula Xinis ordered DHS to produce an official who claimed Costa Rica is no longer willing to accept the transfer of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in open court for questioning. Basically, she told the DOJ to “prove it.”

Elsewhere: Letitia James goes scorched earth on Bill Pulte and Ed Martin: The DOJ gets blasted by a federal judge in James Comey’s case; Sean Combs may be in more legal trouble; and The High Note.

Let’s go.

Letitia James comes out swingin’ (again)

New York Attorney General Letitia James is currently fighting criminal fraud charges that pretty much everyone who isn’t beholden to Donald Trump agrees are entirely bogus. She’s already filed Motions to Dismiss the charges against her for vindictive prosecution and for the improper appointment of US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who at all times is channeling the cast of Falcon Crest in her personal style.

Yesterday, James filed a motion to dismiss the charges for “outrageous government conduct,” and it’s juicy as all get-out. I did an in-depth thread on it here, but let’s hit the highlights. Spoiler alert: This thing hits both Bill Pulte and Ed Martin delightfully hard.

The pleadings go on to say of Pulte’s roles in Fannie and Freddie Mac: “This deeply troubling consolidation of power violates federal law and the FHFA’s own regulations. Federal law prohibits the FHFA Director from holding any office, position, or employment in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

James also alleges that Pulte’s evidence comes from a “single fringe blogger.”

There’s also a header in the Motion that reads “Lindsey Halligan, Whose Only Credential is Loyalty, is Installed as U.S. Attorney,” and BRA-VA, Letitia. I always loved being able to slip some snark into my legal pleadings, and it’s a quality I greatly admire in others.

US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin — who is so extreme, he couldn’t get the Senate to confirm him as US Attorney for the District of Columbia — also doesn’t escape unscathed.

Insinuating that a public official won’t be charged if they step down from their position — particularly when that position allows them to prosecute the speaker’s boss — is probably a disbarrable offense for lawyers.

There’s a lot more in the motion, and it’s worth taking a peek if you’re interested.

Throughout both Comey and James’s cases, there’s so much evidence of how improperly everything was done, I’d be shocked if the charges don’t get tossed out before the New Year. If you’re not pulling through pleadings every day, you might not notice it, but there is some terrible lawyering going on at the DOJ. Judges are smacking them down for stupid mistakes and bad faith arguments left and right. I can’t imagine this case will be any different.

Meanwhile, in James Comey’s case…

The James Comey and Letitia James criminal cases are sort of running concurrently, as both have filed almost identical motions to dismiss for vindictive prosecution and due to Halligan’s bogus appointment — though Comey is charged with lying to Congress and James with mortgage fraud.

Yesterday, a federal judge let the DOJ have it for the previously mentioned bad lawyering in Comey’s case (which also applies to James’s case, as they both sought the same records in discovery):

Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick ruled on Monday that the justice department engaged in a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” on its way to indicting Comey. The federal judge directed prosecutors to produce to defense lawyers all grand jury materials from the case.

Fitzpatrick wrote that problems include “fundamental misstatements of the law” by a prosecutor to a grand jury that indicted Comey in September, the use of potentially privileged communications in the investigation and unexplained irregularities in the transcript of the grand jury proceedings.

“The Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted,” Fitzpatrick wrote, adding: “However, the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.”

Lindsey Halligan had zero prosecutorial experience before she took over as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and the court painstakingly walks us through the missteps she made while presenting the case to the grand jury, including one statement the court called “a fundamental and highly prejudicial misstatement of the law.” YIKES.

The entire process was about getting the federal government to turn over all materials related to the grand jury proceedings to Comey’s team, which they’ve refused to do. Now, they’re under a court order to do so. They’ll also have to turn documents over to James’ legal team.

But honest-to-God, if a judge ever lit me up this badly, I’d walk out of the courthouse and into the sea. What a mess.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from everyone’s favorite music-producer-turned-abusive-sex-trafficker, but it looks like we have not reached the end of sexual assault allegations against Combs.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says it's looking into new allegations of sexual assault against Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Investigators say they received a report on Friday from a police department in Florida, where the alleged victim lives. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department Special Victims Bureau will be investigating the allegations.

A spokesperson for the Largo, Florida, police department told ABC News that the department assisted the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Office with an investigation into Combs but that it is not investigating any alleged crimes independently. 

Largo police took a report in September from a man who claims Combs sexually assaulted him in 2020. The victim's name is redacted on the report, but music producer Jonathan Hay identified himself as the complainant in social media posts that have since been removed. Hay also identified himself as one of the John Does who filed a civil lawsuit against Combs in July.

According to the police report, Combs pleasured himself in front of Hay and asked Hay to "finish him off" in February 2020. Hay said he did not respond because he was in shock and that Combs then tossed a semen-stained shirt at him.

GYAH. Every allegation against this guy is worse than the last. Combs, as you’ll recall, is currently serving a 50-month sentence after being convicted on prostitution-related federal charges. Keep in mind, if California prosecutes Combs and gets a conviction, Trump won’t have the power to pardon him.

It’s challenging to get a sexual assault case prosecuted at all, much less a five-year-old case where the victim is a man, so I don’t have a lot of hope that this goes anywhere, but I’ll keep an eye on it.

I’ll just leave this here

I can’t stand one more second of reading about Olivia Nuzzi, her affair with RFK Jr, or her wildly inappropriate breach of journalistic ethics. On the other hand, Nuzzi has a new book out, a convertible, and a high-profile job, while I have a newsletter, so maybe I’m going about this all wrong.

Anyway, social media had a great time lighting Nuzzi up yesterday, so I thought I’d leave this here for your perusal.

“Baby, don’t worry,” he said. “It’s not a worm.” www.vanityfair.com/news/story/o...

— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social)2025-11-17T13:56:07.639Z

There’s also something really off-putting about Nuzzi’s outlet, Vanity Fair, publishing an excerpt from her book about all the breaches of the ethical code she made while pursuing a dude who sounds like a rusty lawnmower. The whole thing is just…ick.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

I realize, due to the social media every man on earth, that I missed the 50th anniversary of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald over the weekend. I will never understand the fascination men have with this thing, and I was also shocked to learn this happened in 1975?!?! I thought we were talking about the early 20th century or something.

Anyway, while I find other disasters at sea more interesting (The Eastland Disaster, for one), I recognize that this is, for some reason, important to some of you. And I do love Punch Brothers, who did my favorite cover of all time here.

Anyway, enjoy!

Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Follow Julie on Bluesky and Instagram so she can get another book contract.

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