The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe: Friday edition
This is the May 29, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
“It is parallel. It is exactly the same.”
That’s what Joni Kimoto — who was 4 years old when the U.S. government threw her into a Japanese internment camp — said about what is happening in America today.
Let’s call the detention centers what they are: internment camps.
Savage, industrial-scale internment camps that may be a more extreme version than even those used against Japanese Americans.
Camp East Montana sits on the same ground in El Paso, Texas, where the U.S. government interned Japanese Americans in World War II. A crude tent camp, built behind the walls of a military base, away from public view.
A February inspection of the camp found 49 deficiencies: undocumented force used, tuberculosis cases not isolated, medical emergencies not treated.
Three detainees have died there; one ruled a homicide.
And despite that neglect, the facility still passed an ICE inspection.
The Department of Homeland Security has called comparisons to Japanese internment “deranged and lazy.” But their brutal acts say something different.
Now DHS is threatening to pull agents from Newark and other airports in Democratic-run cities, disrupting global commerce and making air travel less safe.
All to prop up this abusive system.
Think again about Rose Chiaromonte.
Taken 300 miles from home.
The mother of a U.S. Marine awarded two Purple Hearts.
The wife of a Gulf War hero, a disabled vet for whom she is the primary caregiver.
That’s who DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is fighting to persecute.
And that’s why Donald Trump’s approval ratings keep falling.
In 1942, Earl Warren championed the internment of Japanese Americans as California’s attorney general. He went on to become chief justice of the United States.
He never forgave himself.
Warren wrote that he had “since deeply regretted the removal order,” because it “was not in keeping with our American concept of freedom and the rights of citizens.”
In a 1972 oral history, tears rolled down his face when he described the children separated from their parents. The interview had to be stopped.
But history will not be so gentle to Donald Trump and Republicans who refuse to end this nightmare.
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The judgment against them will be withering.
May they regret it for the rest of their lives.
Now, let’s check some mail.
LETTERS FROM OUR READERS
Thank you again to all our readers who wrote in this week. As always, you’re welcome to write to us any time.
Given that Trump clearly doesn’t care about the polls, the opinions of Republicans in Congress or the decisions of the courts, why can’t we recognize the obvious? That Trump will not allow the House or the Senate to be flipped this November. He has ICE, his praetorian guard with a budget larger than the U.S. Marine Corps, and he has his J6 soon-to-millionaires mob who will do anything he orders. It’s clear now that he will declare some “emergency” and those undisciplined thugs will — at his behest — raid polling sites, seize voting machines and ballots, and announce that the election was rigged. Can you name any authority that would stop him? His every utterance lately has shown that he does not recognize any authority but his own.
—Paul P., Columbus, Ga.
Setting aside Trump’s involvement in the primaries, with Rep. Thomas Massie’s primary loss, I can’t help being deeply concerned that the Republican voters are not interested in getting justice for the Epstein victims. I pray that other Republicans in Congress pick up the mantle of the work by Rep. Massie for the Epstein victims.
—Arlene S., Enola, Penn.
During the ’24 campaign, Trump repeatedly said, “You can’t love the country if you hate its people.” I agree. Can anyone hate the American people more than him? The latest proof is his shipping Americans that were exposed to Ebola to Kenya. He cares not if they get proper treatment, live or die. That’s a pretty high level of hate.
—Anonymous
With this White House spending so much on immigration, defense, international wars, legal retaliation cases, and vanity projects with the White House, why isn’t our government addressing the overwhelming concerns that AI will bring to labor? Government is always slow to respond to labor disruptions, but this one may be of epic proportions. We have no mainstream federal policies. Our tax dollars should be funding a full national workforce transition strategy to anticipate the labor changes AI will bring.
—Melinda H., Sparks Glencoe, Md.
Am I the only one who is seeing signs of history repeating itself? I specifically refer to Germany in the 1930s and the establishment of the Kim dynasty in North Korea. I don’t think Trump has any plans to go quietly at the end of his current term.
—Glen M., North Little Rock, Ark.
ONE MORE SHOT
Coco Gauff of the United States returns a shot in the Women’s Singles Second Round match against Mayar Sherif of Egypt during Day 5 of the 2026 French Open at Roland Garros on May 28, 2026, in Paris.
FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF
Bestselling author and bookstore owner Ryan Holiday joined “Morning Joe” to give us his latest recommendations — and answered a question from Tea reader Kym H.!
“At 72 I decided to read again three books I read as a teenager or a young adult. I would like to know what books Mr. Holiday read at that age he would re-read today.”
Get his picks:
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
