This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

President Trump has completed his first successful shakedown of a major law firm.

The organization, Paul Weiss, has agreed to a quote-unquote deal with Trump in which it gives the president major concessions in exchange for Trump agreeing to drop his corrupt use of state power against the firm.

Speaking about this to reporters, Trump essentially said straight out that firms like these

have the option to make similar deals with him if they want to avoid getting targeted.

We think this kind of thing gives Democrats an opening to continue galvanizing the grassroots against

Trump. And in fact, the White House's top political advisor is quietly warning that Democratic

anger could be a major problem in the midterms. Today we're chatting about all this with Michael Tamasky, the editor of the New Republic,

who's been arguing that we're actually in the middle of multiple constitutional crises right now,

and that Democrats really need to find their footing in this moment.

Great to finally have you on, Mike.

I guess you ran out of other guests. Happy to be with you.

So Trump has reached the deal with the law firm Paul Weiss in which Trump drops his executive order about the firm,

and in exchange gets a range of concessions, including a contribution of $40 million in legal services for things Trump

has championed pro bono services. The White House claims that Paul Weiss is acknowledging wrongdoing

by a former partner who worked as a Manhattan prosecutor against Trump. I don't know if that's

been confirmed yet, but either way, this is straight up extortion.

Mike, is there any other way to look at it?

None whatsoever.

Complete extortion. And shocking behavior by Trump, but what else is new, but incredible behavior by Paul Weiss.

You know, a long time, large, I know, I guess respected, well, I wrote about this Friday,

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