Trumpism part six

 


 

Trumpism

 

PART VI

 


 

“The First Hundred Days” by Barry Blitt

 

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THE POLITICAL SCENE

 

IS IT HAPPENING HERE?

 

 Other countries have watched their democracies 

slip away gradually, without tanks in the streets.

That may be where we’re headed—or where we already are.

  

By Andrew Marantz

April 28, 2025

 


 

Senator Elizabeth Warren

April 29, 2025

 

On 100th Day of Trump Admin, Senator Warren Reads 

100 Acts of Trump Corruption Into Congressional Record

 


 

Congressman Dan Goldman

April 29, 2025

 

Goldman Blasts GOP for Using $300M in 

FEMA Money to Bankroll Trump’s Golf Trips

 


 

Letters from an American

 

April 29, 2025

 

Heather Cox Richardson

 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt popularized the idea that the first 100 days of a presidency established an administration’s direction. As soon as he took office on March 4, 1933, he called Congress into special session to meet on March 9 to address the emergency of the Great Depression. Congress responded to the crisis by quickly passing 15 major bills and 77 other measures first to stabilize the economy and then to rebuild it. On July 24, 1933, FDR looked back at “the crowding events of the hundred days which had been devoted to the starting of the wheels of the New Deal.”

 

In a Fireside Chat broadcast over the radio, FDR explained that his administration had stabilized the nation’s banks and raised taxes to pay for millions in borrowing. That federal money was feeding starving people, as well as employing 300,000 young men to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps planting trees to prevent soil erosion, building levees and dams for flood control, and maintaining forest roads and trails. It was also funding a public works program for highways and inland navigation, as well as state-based municipal improvements. The government had also raised farm income and wages by regulating agriculture and abolishing child labor.

 

FDR was speaking on July 24 to urge Americans to get behind a program of shorter hours and higher wages to create purchasing power that would restart the economy. “It goes back to the basic idea of society and of the Nation itself that people acting in a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could even hope to bring about,” he said. “If I am asked whether the American people will pull themselves out of this depression, I answer, ‘They will if they want to.’”

 

Today is the 100th day of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. He marked it by delivering what amounted to a rally outside Detroit, Michigan, in which he claimed his had been “the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country, and that’s according to many, many people…. This is the best, they say, 100-day start of any president in history, and everyone is saying it. We’ve just gotten started. You haven’t even seen anything yet.”

 

In fact, Trump has signed just five measures into law: the Laken Riley Act, which Congress passed before he took office; a stopgap funding measure; and three resolutions overturning rules set by the Biden administration.

 

But Trump’s administration does parallel FDR’s in an odd way. Trump set out in his first hundred days to undo the government FDR established in his first hundred days. Trump has turned the nation away from 92 years of a government that sought to serve ordinary Americans by regulating business, providing a basic social safety net, promoting infrastructure, protecting civil rights, and stabilizing global security and trade. Instead, he is trying to recreate the nation of more than 100 years ago, in which the role of government was to protect the wealthy and enable them to make money from the country’s resources and its people.

 

Trump set out to destroy the modern American state, gutting the civil service and illegally shuttering federal agencies, as well as slashing through government programs. His team has withdrawn the U.S. from its global leadership and rejected democratic allies in favor of autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin. At home he has imitated those autocrats, ignoring the rule of law and rendering migrants to prison in El Salvador without due process, and using the power of the state to threaten those he perceives as his enemies.

 

As is typical with autocratic governments, corruption appears to be running deep in this White House. The president and his family are openly profiting from his office. And it would be hard to find a better example of a government letting cronies profit off public resources than Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s relinquishing of control over the department to a DOGE operative, or of a government permitting businesses to profit from ordinary Americans than billionaire Elon Musk’s apparent creation of a master database of Americans’ information.

 

Trump’s dismantling of the modern American state has been a disaster. Trump spoke tonight in Michigan to tout his hope that his new tariffs will center auto manufacturing back in the U.S., but the economic chaos his tariff policies have unleashed has turned what was a booming economy 100 days ago sharply downward. That economic slump, along with Trump’s illegal renditions of men to El Salvador and the gutting of services Americans depend on, has given Trump the lowest job approval rating after 100 days of any president in 80 years.

 

And that suggests another way to look at the first 100 days of a presidential term. For all that the 100-days trope focuses on presidents, the first 100 days of Trump’s second term have shown Americans, sometimes encouraged by their allies abroad, pushing back against Trump to restore American democracy.

 


 

60 Minutes Australia

April 29, 2025

 

Mastermind or madman? 

Inside Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office

 


 

ABC News

April 30, 2025

 

PRESIDENT TRUMP

THE FIRST 100 DAYS 

 

President Donald Trump discussed his first 100 days in office during an exclusive interview with ABC News anchor and senior national correspondent, Terry Moran, in the White House Oval Office. 

 


 

The Dworkin Report

April 30, 2025

 

Some Great News For Us 

After Trump’s 100 Days Of Absolute Failure

 

Featuring the lowest 100-day approval in modern times, impeachment, Joe Biden, Jasmine Crockett, Eric Swalwell, and more

 

By Scott Dworkin

 


 

Amanpour & Co.

April 30, 2025

 

Presidential Historian: Trump Has Tried to 

Introduce Fear in First 100 Days

 

President Trump, taking a victory lap to mark the first 100 days of his second term, said his success surpasses any in U.S. history, “according to many, many people.” Presidential historian Timothy Naftali places the Trump presidency in context for Walter Isaacson.

 


 

The Parnas Perspective

April 30, 2025

 

BREAKING: Donald Trump Threatens To Sue 

The New York Times

 

By Aaron Parnas

 

The threat to journalism in America has just risen — dramatically.

 

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump intensified his long-standing war on the media, directly targeting The New York Times with accusations of “likely unlawful behavior” over its coverage of his lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount. In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed the paper could be held liable for “tortious interference,” alleging that its reporting — which included sources calling the suit baseless — was part of a broader effort to sabotage the 2024 election.

 

“They just have a non-curable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” the president wrote, warning that his legal team is “intently studying” the Times’ role in what he suggested was an organized campaign of electoral interference.

 


 

Channel 4 News

April 30, 2025

 

Trump is creating ‘very dangerous

super-presidency’ – Fareed Zakaria

 

Donald Trump has been delivering in spades on his inauguration pledge to produce the ‘most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history’, and, from Canada, to Russia and Ukraine, to Israel and Gaza, it’s fair to say it has been a consequential start to his second term as president.

 

So where does Fareed Zakaria place the first 100 and where does he see the next 100 going? He’s a journalist, political commentator and author who Henry Kissinger said ‘likes to say things that run against conventional wisdom.’

 

He joined Matt Frie in the latest episode of The Fourcast.

 


 

THE CONTRARIAN

May 1, 2025

 

The Trump Regime’s War on Working People

 

How Unions are Resisting Authoritarian Attacks on Workers’ Rights—and Why It Matters for Everyone

 

By Michael Podhorzer

 

Over the first hundred days of Donald Trump’s regime, observers and analysts rightly highlighted his administration’s alarming attacks on fundamental democratic institutions—the judiciary, law firms, universities, philanthropies, non-profit groups, and the media. These assaults were not only dangerous individually but crucially significant as components of authoritarian consolidation.

 

Yet, amid these well-documented threats, a similarly profound yet largely overlooked attack unfolded: Trump’s systematic assault on unions and working people. This assault, executed alongside allies like Elon Musk, demonstrates once again the fundamental truth articulated decades ago by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis:

 

“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”

 


 

RELIGION DISPATCHES

 

EXPERTS AGREE: WHAT TRUMP IS DOING IS FASCISM

 

By

 


 

Marianne Williamson

May 3, 2025

 

Has Trump read the Declaration of Independence?

 


 

NBC News

May 4, 2025

 

Full interview with President Trump

 

President Donald Trump joins Meet the Press for an exclusive and wide-ranging interview reflecting on the first 100 days of his second term and laying out his vision for the rest of his presidency – and the future of his political movement.

 


 

60 Minutes

May 4, 2024

 

How law firms targeted by Trump are 

responding to White House pressure

 

In recent weeks, President Trump has signed orders targeting several law firms. Some lawyers warn that the president’s assault on the legal profession threatens the rule of law itself.

 


 

60 Minutes Australia

May 4, 2025

 

John Bolton, whom Trump described as 

“a very dumb guy,” is worried about Taiwan

 

Donald Trump’s longest serving National Security adviser John Bolton shares his thoughts on the current White House, including the tariffs war, the Russia-China axis and the first 100 days of Trump’s second coming.

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

May 5, 2025

 

Wisconsin Gov. Evers Pushes Back After 

Trump’s Border Czar Threatens to Arrest Him

 

We go to Wisconsin as the state’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers pushes back after Trump border czar Tom Homan says Wisconsin officials could be arrested over local policies that defy Trump’s mass deportation agenda. This comes after FBI agents arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan. 

 

“I think what we’re seeing, in a broader sense, is just an absolute degradation of the rule of law,” says Lisa Graves, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, now the director of the policy research group True North Research and co-host of the podcast “Legal AF.” Her forthcoming book is Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights.

 


 

FRONTLINE PBS

May 6, 2025

 

Antidote (full documentary)

 

FRONTLINE presents the stories of an investigative journalist and a political activist putting their lives on the line to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the grave consequences they face for doing so.

 

“Antidote” chronicles the lives of Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian investigative journalist whose reporting has exposed Russian spies, assassins, and those involved in the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny; and Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent political activist who was poisoned twice and sentenced to 25 years in a Russian prison. 

 

The documentary lays bare the grave consequences that come with speaking out against the Putin regime, revealing the threats Grozev, Kara-Murza and their families face as they seek to expose the actions of the Kremlin to the world. The film offers a stunning and immersive look at the cost of opposing Putin.

 


 

The 92nd Street Y, New York

May 6, 2025

 

Michael Wolff with Alec Baldwin 

on Donald Trump: All or Nothing

 

Published at breakneck speed, Michael Wolff’s insider account of the 2024 Trump campaign — undoubtedly the wildest, most unpredictable campaign in US history with its multiple criminal trials, assassination attempts and sudden switch of opponents — made waves before it was even published.

 

Through personal access to Trump’s inner circle, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America takes readers on a journey accompanying Donald Trump on his return to power as only Michael Wolff can do it.

 

In this fly-on-the-wall account, the stakes could not be clearer: either the establishment destroys Trump, or he destroys the establishment. Painting an astonishing portrait of a man who has made one of the most remarkable comebacks in American political history — through what appeared to be an inescapable legal quagmire — this is not just a story about politics: It is a vivid expose of the demons, discord, and anarchy — the fire, fury, and future — of American life under Trump. 

 

Join Wolff to hear first-hand stories and insider revelations as he discusses the book with — who better? — the man whose SNL portrayal of Trump remains indelible: Alec Baldwin. 

 

Recorded March 14, 2025 at 92nd Street Y, New York.

 


 

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

May 7, 2025

 

Americans Are Protesting Against Trump 

In All 50 States – Rachel Maddow

 

Emmy-winner and bestselling author Rachel Maddow joins Stephen to talk about the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term and the demonstrations against his actions that are popping up in all 50 states on a daily basis. 

 

Stick around for two more segments with Rachel Maddow and grab her number-one bestselling book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, available now in paperback.

 

2How Trump Is Consolidating Power At The Expense Of The Other Branches Of Government

 

3We’re Not Going To Be The Generation That Loses American Democracy 

 


 

MSNBC

May 9, 2025

 

‘Serious threat’: Trump admin pushes extreme 

deportation powers amid constitutional crisis warnings

 

Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller said the administration is “looking at” ways to end due process protections for unauthorized immigrants who are in the country. 

 

MSNBC’s Antonia Hylton is joined by Jelani Cobb, Dean of Graduate School of Journalism for Columbia University, and Julian Zelizer, history professor at Princeton. Plus, the panel discusses the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during a congressional visit to a New Jersey ICE facility.

 

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MSNBC

May 9, 2025

 

‘Never seen anything like it in my life’

 

New Jersey Congressman Robert Menendez, who was on the ground when the Mayor of Newark Ras Baraka was arrested, details what happened for Nicolle Wallace.

 

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MSNBC

May 9, 2025

 

‘This is un-American’

 

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who was present when Baraka was arrested, joins The Weeknight to share her eyewitness account. 

 


 

CNN

May 9, 2025

 

Newark mayor reacts to critics who 

say his arrest was a publicity stunt

 

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joins CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to discuss his arrest at a federal immigration detention center and responds to claims made by acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba.

 


 

Lights On with Jessica Denson

May 10, 2025

 

Congressman to FORCE Trump Impeachment Vote

 

Congressman Shri Thanedar, who last week filed the first new articles of impeachment against Trump, breaks the news on Lights On that he will force an impeachment vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in the coming days.

 


 

60 Minutes Australia

May 11, 2025

 

‘Very, very dangerous’: China’s stark warning 

over Trump’s tariffs

 

How Donald Trump’s world tariff turmoil is already causing grief for Aussies.

 


 

Forbes Breaking News

May 13, 2025

 

Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) Read Articles Of 

Impeachment Against President Donald Trump 

On The House Floor

 


 

Sen. Adam Schiff

May 14, 2025

 

Schiff Takes To Senate Floor to Lay Out 

Trump’s 10 Most Corrupt Acts So Far

 


 

The Seneca Project

May 14, 2025

 

Bruce Springsteen’s Message to America: 

A Protest. A Prayer. A Wake-Up Call.

 

Bruce Springsteen opened his new tour tonight not with fanfare—but with a warning. From a stage in Manchester, he sent a message home. Not of glory days—but of grief, resilience, and reckoning. Three songs. Three statements. A country in crisis. This is what it looks like when an artist holds a mirror to America.

 


 

Washington Post

May 15, 2025

 

How Trump has made billions as president

 

On this episode, The Washington Post’s Libby Casey, Rhonda Colvin, James Hohmann and JM Rieger break down how President Trump is trying to remake Washington in a MAGA image – from hanging huge photos of himself from federal buildings to taking over cultural institutions and firing people, in some cases, seemingly for their gender or skin color. 

 

Then, the crew breaks down Trump’s long history of financial conflicts of interest with the presidency, how he has ignored norms, how past presidents have divested from those conflicts of interest – and the vast amounts of money Trump has made in the early months of his second presidency. 

 

Plus, the crew reveals the weirdest gifts in presidential history – and whether or not presidents got to keep them.

 


 

PBS NewsHour

May 16, 2025

 

Trump business deals revive questions 

about his family profiting off the presidency

 

This week, President Trump visited three Middle Eastern nations where his family has deep business ties. Over the past month, billions of dollars have poured into Trump-owned companies. It has revived longstanding questions about whether the financial windfalls are influencing policy. White House correspondent Laura BarrĂłn-LĂłpez reports.

 


 

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

May 16, 2025

 

Not Moral Behavior – Sen. Sanders On The GOP’s 

Plan For Funding Trump’s Billionaire Tax Cuts

 

Senator Bernie Sanders calls out the greed of America’s billionaire class and expresses his disgust with Republicans who plan to cut life-saving assistance for the needy in order to fund tax cuts for those billionaires. Stick around for three more segments with Senator Sanders.

 

2Fear Of Retribution From AIPAC Keeps Many Democrats From Speaking Up About Gaza

 

3“If You Sit Back And Do Nothing, They Will Take It All.” – Sen. Sanders On America’s Oligarchy

 

4Why Sen. Sanders Urged Paramount Not To Settle With President Trump

 


 

Sen. Adam Schiff

May 16, 2025

 

We Need to Talk About Jeanine Pirro…

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sen. Adam Schiff

May 23, 2025

 

We Need to Talk About Kristi Noem

 


 

MSNBC

REPORTS

May 17, 2025

 

Kristi Noem more interested in ICE ‘cosplaying’ 

than doing her job: Rep. Garcia tells DHS Secy. to resign

 

The Trump administration claims some parents who have been deported chose to bring their young U.S. citizen children with them, something the families dispute as they struggle to overcome hurdles to get their kids home. 

 

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) joins Alex Witt to discuss the Trump administration’s immigration policies and a contentious hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week.

 


 

60 Minutes

May 17, 2025

 

Interviews with Ukrainian President and his wife

 

From 2025, 2023 and 2022, Scott Pelley’s interviews with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the war with Russia. And from 2022, Pelley’s interview with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska.

 


 

FIVE MINUTE NEWS

May 18, 2025

 

Clinical Psychologist John Gartner makes 

LIVE DIAGNOSIS of Trump’s Mental Illness

 

As Donald Trump’s mental acuity continues to decline, Dr John Gartner joins Anthony Davis on The Weekend Show to discuss the senile dementia, mental health and personality issues that the President clearly presents, and how his verbal gibberish is ignored by the corporate media who refuse to acknowledge the danger of his decision making.

 


 

The New York Times

May 18, 2025

 

We’re Experts in Fascism. We’re Leaving the U.S. 

 

Legal residents of the United States sent to foreign prisons without due process. Students detained after voicing their opinions. Federal judges threatened with impeachment for ruling against the administration’s priorities.

 

In this Opinion video, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley, all professors at Yale and experts in authoritarianism, explain why America is especially vulnerable to a democratic backsliding — and why they are leaving the United States to take up positions at the University of Toronto.

 

Professor Stanley is leaving the United States as an act of protest against the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties. “I want Americans to realize that this is a democratic emergency,” he said. 

 

Professor Shore, who has spent two decades writing about the history of authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe, is leaving because of what she sees as the sharp regression of American democracy. “We’re like people on the Titanic saying our ship can’t sink,” she said. “And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.” 

 

She borrows from political and apolitical Slavic motifs and expressions, arguing that the English language does not fully capture the democratic regression in this American moment.

 

Professor Snyder’s reasons are more complicated. Primarily, he’s leaving to support his wife, Professor Shore, and their children, and to teach at a large public university in Toronto, a place he says can host conversations about freedom. At the same time, he shares the concerns expressed by his colleagues and worries that those kinds of conversations will become ever harder to have in the United States.

 

“I did not leave Yale because of Donald Trump or because of Columbia or because of threats to Yale — but that would be a reasonable thing to do, and that is a decision that people will make,” he wrote in a Yale Daily News article explaining his decision to leave. 

 

Their motives differ but their analysis is the same: ignoring or downplaying attacks on the rule of law, the courts and universities spells trouble for our democracy.

 


 

MSNBC

DEADLINE | WHITE HOUSE

May 19, 2025

 

‘It’s not my first rodeo’: James Comey speaks out 

after controversial social media post

 

Former FBI Director James Comey joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House for the first time since controversy erupted due to a social media post by James Comey, where he posted a photo of the numbers “8647” spelled out with shells on the beach. Comey has expressed regret for the post, spoken out against any and all political violence.

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

May 20, 2025

 

Top U.S. & World Headlines

 


 

Forbes Breaking News

May 20, 2025

 

Jamie Raskin fires back at GOP lawmakers 

during a House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Tues.

 


 

Brian Tyler Cohen

May 20, 2025

 

Brian interviews Hakeem Jeffries about 

Trump’s budget lies

 


 

“Soft Landing” by Barry Blitt

 


 

CNN

May 20, 2025

 

Sources contradict Trump narrative 

about Qatar offering plane as ‘gift’

 

The Trump administration first approached Qatar to inquire about acquiring a Boeing 747 that could be used as Air Force One by President Donald Trump, four sources familiar with the discussions told CNN. That’s contrary to the narrative from the president that Qatar reached out and offered the jet as a “gift” to him.

 


 

FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul

May 20, 2025

 

Gov. Walz says ICE is ‘Trump’s modern-day Gestapo’

 

Gov. Walz is facing pushback from the Department of Homeland Security after he compared ICE to the Nazi police force the Gestapo while speaking at a University of Minnesota Law School graduation over the weekend.

 


 

THE NEW REPUBLIC

 

Breaking News

from Washington and beyond

 

 

Hafiz Rashid / May 20, 2025

 

Trump Spirals at Kennedy Center Dinner: “I’ll Shove It Up Their Ass”

 

The President of the United States, everyone

 

Donald Trump speaks at the Kennedy Center while standing behind a lectern with a gold eagle.

 

Donald Trump ranted and raved during a speech to Kennedy Center trustees Monday night, complaining about the 2020 election.

 

At the White House event, Trump bragged about bringing the upcoming Olympics and World Cup to the United States before segueing into the 2020 election.

 

“We got the Olympics, and then we got, through [FIFA head Gianni Infantino], he’s the boss, he’s a friend of mine, we got the World Cup,” Trump said. “I got them both, and I said, ‘Man, I won’t be president and they’re gonna forget that I got them. Nobody’s gonna mention it.’”

 

Then he went into his pet subject how the 2020 election was stolen from him.

 

“And then they rigged the election, and then I said, ‘You know what I’ll do? I’ll run again and I’ll shove it up their ass,’” Trump told the audience.

 


 

MEIDAS+

May 21, 2025

 

14 Exclusive Interviews on the GOP Tax Scam

 

By Ben Meiselas

 

Earlier, I told you that the MeidasTouch Network was assembling a team to go line-by-line through the GOP tax bill and that I had a dozen interviews lined up with Members of Congress to break it all down. Well… I underestimated. I ended up doing fourteen interviews today.

 


 

The Global Lens

May 21, 2025

 

10 U.S. States Considering a Move to Canada — 

Is Secession Inevitable?

 

What if some U.S. states, disillusioned with federal politics or drawn to Canada’s stability, decided to break away and join the Great White North? It may sound like a wild idea, but the ties between certain U.S. states and Canada are stronger than ever—and secession might not be as far-fetched as you think. 

 

In this thought-provoking documentary by The Global Lens, we explore 10 U.S. States Considering a Move to Canada – Is Secession Inevitable? From Michigan’s deep economic and cultural connections to Canada, to Vermont’s long-standing independence movement, and even Alaska’s strategic Arctic ties—discover why these states are rethinking their place in the Union. 

 

Why is this happening? From political polarization and economic instability to ideological alignment and environmental concerns, we analyze the reasons behind this quiet shift. Could a major crisis in the U.S. push these states toward independence—or toward Canada?

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

May 21, 2025

 

Trump’s Brain Drain: Scientists Look to Move 

Abroad as DOGE Slashes Research Funding in U.S.

 

Cuts by the Trump administration are beginning to “chase” U.S.-based scientists at federal agencies and research institutions out of the country. “We’re draining our scientific talent,” says environmental journalist Robert Hunziker, who explains how China and European countries are offering positions for scientists laid off, fired or pushed out by Trump and DOGE’s mass culling of federal workers and funding. 

 

The massive U.S. “brain drain” is a “brain gain” for other countries, adds Hunziker, and comes as the Trump administration also cracks down on university curriculums and targets international students for its mass deportation initiative.

 


 

MSNBC

The BEAT

May 22, 2025

 

Ari Melber reports on one of the 

largest grifts in White House history

 

President Trump is raking in money and gifts for himself, while demanding sacrifice from most Americans paying higher prices for his trade war.

 


 

CNA

May 22, 2025

 

What does the Trump administration 

want from Harvard University?

 

The United States government has halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students and ordered existing international students at the university to transfer or lose their legal status. Alex Usher, president of education consultancy Higher Education Strategy Associates, shares his insights with CNA’s Asia First on the implications of the Trump administration’s move.

 


 

CNN

May 22, 2025

 

WH to Harvard: Enrolling international 

students ‘a privilege, not a right’

 

“Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” the US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. 

 

Kristi Noem ordered her department to terminate Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, citing the university’s refusal to turn over the conduct records of foreign students requested by the DHS last month.

 


 

PBS NewsHour

May 22, 2025

 

Georgetown scholar says he was 

‘chained, shackled’ in ICE detention

 

In their first broadcast interview since his release from ICE detention, Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, spoke to PBS News’ Laura BarrĂłn-LĂłpez about Khan Suri’s recent release after nearly two months in a detention facility in Texas. The Trump administration accused Suri of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”– an accusation he denies. 

 

“One should, at this time, show courage, because courage is also contagious. We need to break the cycle of chilling effect,” Suri said when asked about why he’s speaking out now about his case. 

 

“This country promised me the right of free speech,” Saleh said when addressing why she speaks out about what is happening in Palestine — where she was raised. “If today it’s Palestine, then who’s next?”

 


 

Hawaii News Now

May 23, 2025

 

A U.S. military wife from Australia is sharing her story after she was detained by border officials at the Honolulu airport.

 


 

The Telegraph

May 23, 2025

 

Mary Trump on Donald Trump

Exclusive Interview with The Daily T 

 

In Part 2 of The Daily T’s exclusive deep-dive into the controversial legacy of Donald J. Trump, host Kamal sits down with Dr. Mary L. Trump — psychologist, best-selling author, and outspoken critic of her uncle, the 47th President of the United States. 

 

Mary Trump, daughter of Fred Trump Jr. (Donald Trump’s older brother), offers a rare, insider perspective on the deeply dysfunctional Trump family dynamic. She describes a toxic, misogynistic household where, as she puts it, “cruelty was currency.” Her insights shed light on the psychological forces that have shaped Donald Trump’s personality, leadership style, and political strategy. Labelling her uncle a “narcissist” and “the world’s most dangerous man,” Mary Trump delves into the lasting impact of generational trauma, emotional neglect, and the ruthless ambition that defines the Trump family legacy.

 

This powerful conversation also shifts to current political fallout, including Vice President Kamala Harris’s stunning loss in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Mary Trump weighs in on President Joe Biden’s declining health, the disastrous debate performance that rocked the Democratic Party, and the path forward for Democrats hoping to reclaim the White House in 2028. 

 

Whether you’re a political analyst, psychology enthusiast, or just trying to make sense of America’s tumultuous political landscape, this episode provides a compelling look at one of the most polarising figures in modern history—from the family member who knows him best.

 


 

The Invisible Hand

May 23, 2025

 

Is This the Fall of the American Empire?

 


 

Al Jazeera English

May 23, 2025

 

“A new kind of coup”: Authoritarianism Historian 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat unpacks Trump’s playbook

 

US President Trump’s relentless attacks on institutions, the rule of law and the press have left many fearing for the future of American democracy. So is the United States sliding into authoritarianism?

 

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to one of the pre-eminent historians of fascism, Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

 


 

Forbes Breaking News

May 24, 2025

 

Merkley tells Rubio his actions led to 

‘the death of hundreds of thousands of children’

 

At Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

 


 

LBC

May 24, 2024

 

Harvard professor hits back at Trump administration

 

David Armitage, a History professor at Harvard University, has hit back at the Trump administration as it tries to remove the University’s ability to enrol foreign students. 

 

Speaking to Matt Frei on LBC, Armitage said the Trump administration has a ‘fear of critical thought, fear of a civil society that does not knuckle down to MAGA ideology’. 

 

Harvard has announced legal action against the US government over a ban on allowing foreign students. The legal action comes after the federal government revoked Harvard’s certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) and stripped the University of its authority to sponsor F- and J- visas for international students.

 

In a statement, Harvard’s President Alan M. Garber said: “The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body.” 

 

The statement condemned the “unlawful and unwarranted action”, and added: “We have just filed a complaint, and a motion for a temporary restraining order will follow. As we pursue legal remedies, we will do everything in our power to support our students and scholars.”

 

Harvard enrols almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.

 


 

Forbes Breaking News

May 26, 2025

 

Cory Booker: These Are The Three Most Concerning 

Trump DOJ Moves That Demand Investigations

 

At Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) spoke about the threat of antisemitism and the continued flights of migrants to foreign nations.

 


 

THE NEW YORKER

 

THE POLITICAL SCENE

 

DONALD TRUMP’S

POLITICS OF

 PLUNDER 

 

The greed of the new Administration has

galvanized America’s aspiring oligarchs—and

their opponents.

 

May 26, 2025

 


 

MSNBC

DEADLINE | WHITEHOUSE

May 27, 2025

 

‘Utter and shameless transaction’: How Trump 

has normalized profiting off of the White House

 

Staff writer for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos, joins Nicolle Wallace to discuss Donald Trump’s pay-to-play attitude when it comes to the Oval Office.

 


 

Heather Cox Richardson

 

Politics Chat, May 27, 2025

 

In which I try to answer your questions about modern politics…

 


 

Firstpost News with Palki Sharma

May 28, 2025

 

LIVE: Former Russian President Threatens Trump 

with World War III Over Putin Comments | N18G

 

Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev has warned Donald Trump of World War III amid the US president’s public spat with Putin. On Tuesday, Trump had doubled down on his criticism against Putin, saying he was “playing with fire”. Is the Trump-Putin bromance over? How did Trump’s push for peace descend into warnings of a world war? 

 

#russia  #vladimirputin  #worldwar3

 


 

Jimmy Kimmel Live

May 28, 2025

 

Cory Booker on Trump Attacking Springsteen and 

Republicans Needing to Stand Up for What’s Right

 

Senator Cory Booker talks about the importance of artists and comedy, Trump insulting Bruce Springsteen, the issues going on at Newark Airport, Trump grifting over and over again, Republicans fearing him, the need to stand up for what’s right, and the dangers of Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill.

 


 

MSNBC

The BEAT

May 28, 2025

 

Comic roasts Trump, Obama, McConnell & gets LOLs

from Obama to hosts at MSNBC and Fox

 

Comic Matt Friend brings the laughs with spot-on impressions of President Trump, JD Vance, Hakeem Jeffries, Barack Obama, and more in this special comedy interview on “The Beat.” Friend also talks about the importance of comedy in politics.

 


 

Caglecast

Feb. 22, 2025

 

TRUMP WANTS CANADA as the 51st STATE!

 

See 51 witty political cartoons by the best Canadian cartoonists about Donald Trump wanting to make Canada the 51st state! Canada is angry and the cartoonists are hilarious! Funny, sharp witted, brilliant Canucks take Trump down!

 


 

John D. Cundle

April 20, 2025

 

A Satirical Folk Ballad of Trump’s Fall

 

This satirical folk ballad chronicles the dramatic downfall of Donald Trump — from golden toilets to courtroom subpoenas. 

 

With haunting verses, dark humour, and biting historical irony, “The Night They Drove Old Donnie Down” is a protest anthem for the ages. From Mar-a-Lago delusions to Truth Social delusions, this song takes aim at the circus, the grift, and the fall of an American reality show turned real-life indictment tour.

 


 

Gravel Road Grooves

May 8, 2025

 

“You Can’t Fix Stupid” – Funny Country Song

 

From creek-jumping Fords to zoo-feeding daredevils, this hilarious country anthem celebrates life’s unfixable moments. “You Can’t Fix Stupid” is the ultimate ode to human… let’s call it character, with a toe-tapping beat that’ll have you laughing (and maybe crying) at the stubbornness of the world.

 


 

Truth Grooves

March 13, 2025

 

“Putin’s Puppet” (Country Music version)

 

A satirical music video looking at the relationship and admiration that Comrade Donald Trump has with Vladimir Putin. Russian asset Donald Trump seems to do Putin’s bidding to destabilize the west. Have you ever noticed that Donald Trump seems to admire Russia and Putin more than his allies and closest friends? Is it a bromance or something else? 

 

There weren’t any additional or retaliatory tariffs placed on Russia, so one has to wonder.

 

Truth Grooves is a music video parody, social commentary and satire channel. Truth Grooves is an Anti-Trump radio station playing Anti-Trump music videos and Trump protest songs. All Anti-Donald Trump music lyrics are written by humans. All Anti-Trump music is produced using AI. All Anti-Donald Trump videos and images are AI-generated.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Truth Grooves

May 15, 2025

 

“The 11th Province” – Pro-Canadian,

Anti-Trump Pop Song

 


 

Knotheadusc

May 27, 2025

 

“If Not You…” (Dr. Hook Parody)

 

I heard the old Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show song, “If Not You”, the other night. It inspired me to write a parody about our POTUS. I used AI comicbook images, actual headlines, and memes to make the video…

 


 

Mr. Newberger’s AI Funnies

May 28, 2025

 

NEW HIT SINGLE – “Taco, Taco, Taco”

 

Featuring street parades, hip-hop dancers, a giant inflatable chicken, Mexican celebrities, and a funky Latin-pop beat that slaps harder than a NAFTA renegotiation.

 


 

MEIDAS+

 

13 Best TACO Trump Memes

‘Trump Always Chickens Out’

 

Ron Filipkowski 

May 29, 2025

 

These were my favorite memes from social media on Trump’s new name.

 

If you missed my Bulletin on everything that happened in politics today, you can find it here.

 


 

WASHINGTON WEEK with The Atlantic

May 30, 2025

 

Full Episode – Power & Profit

 

Most presidents wait until they leave the White House to cash in, but President Trump takes a different approach. If there’s a way to make money off the presidency, he’s on it. Join moderator Jeffrey Goldberg, Peter Baker of The New York Times, Leigh Ann Caldwell of Puck, and Stephen Hayes of The Dispatch, to discuss this and more.

 


 

HUFFPOST

June 2, 2025

 

‘Out Of His Mind’: Critics Aghast At Trump’s 

‘Detached From Reality’ New Message

 

The president shared a bizarre conspiracy theory about Joe Biden.

 

By 

 

President Donald Trump shares a lot of outlandish messages on his social media pages, but critics say a single repost over the weekend might be his most “unhinged” yet.

 

Trump on Saturday night reposted a message on Truth Social claiming that former President Joe Biden had been executed in 2020 and replaced by “clones doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities.”

 


 

TYT Network

June 2, 2025

 

This Fascist Move by Trump’s DOJ

Should Terrify You

 

In a move that shocked legal experts and civil rights advocates alike, Trump’s Department of Justice deployed armed U.S. Marshals to the home of former pardon attorney Liz Oyer — just days before her scheduled congressional testimony. Her crime? Refusing to restore gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a known Trump supporter, and speaking out about political interference within the DOJ. Jayar Jackson breaks it down.

 


 

BBC Newsnight

June 3, 2025

 

Trump “hell-bent” on “revenge against me and

my family” | White House whistleblower Miles Taylor

 

Miles Taylor, a Trump White House whistleblower, who worked under the President during his first term in office, tells Victoria Derbyshire about the impact of being put under an investigation order and being accused of “treason” by President Trump.

 


 

Stephen Woodford

June 5, 2025

 

Jon Stewart exposes ABC, CBS, Amazon 

ALL paying Trump “protection money”

 

Jon Stewart just exposed the most shocking political scandal of 2025 – America’s biggest corporations are paying Trump BILLIONS in protection money! I break down how ABC paid $15 million, Amazon dropped $40 million on a Melania documentary nobody wants, and CBS is being extorted for $25 million plus a public apology. 

 

This isn’t campaign donations – this is straight-up mob boss extortion while he’s President. Stewart revealed how these corporate cowards are funding democracy’s destruction one protection payment at a time. Law firms pledged nearly $1 BILLION in free services to Trump. Even Stewart himself might lose his show because Paramount would rather pay up than protect free speech. 

 

This is how democracies die – not in coups, but in conference rooms where executives decide conscience is too expensive.

 


 

The Daily Beast

June 5, 2025

 

Why Elon Threw The Epstein Bomb at Trump

 

Joanna Coles calls an emergency podcast for the biggest fall-out in political history: Donald Trump and Elon Musk. And it’s the perfect guest to explain EVERYTHING: Michael Wolff, the Trump biographer—who already predicted what would happen. He unpacks a “nuclear” break-up and why Musk has used the weapon Trump fears most: Jeffrey Epstein.

 

Wolff reveals his own extraordinary moment of interviewing Trump and what happened when he raised the pedophile financier. He talks about the predator and the president’s long friendship. And he explains why Musk is now Trump’s perfect enemy—bigger than Harvard and of course the Democrats.

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

June 6, 2025

 

Musk vs. Trump? Quinn Slobodian

on the risks of Billionaire Rule

 

Is the Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance finally over? President Trump is threatening to cut off billions of dollars in federal contracts with Musk after the two billionaires engaged in a dramatic online feud just days after Musk called Trump’s budget bill a “disgusting abomination.” 

 

Musk appeared to back the impeachment of Trump and claimed the president is named in the Jeffrey Epstein files. “They are people who always have their eye on the bottom line, but they also are, obviously, titanically sized egos,” says author Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University, who is working on a new book about Elon Musk. “This is just a sign of how dangerous it is to put … the whole future of the American economy and the political scene in the hands of two sole human beings.”

 


 

MSNBC

ALL IN with Chris Hayes

June 6, 2025

 

‘Big bomb’: Trump’s Epstein ties 

thrust back into spotlight by Musk

 

Chris Hayes: The MAGA right has clung to the Epstein files as an anti-liberal Holy Grail. But Trump has been at the center of the scandal the whole time.

 


 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics

June 6, 2025

 

Trump is the most corrupt president in history.

Here’s why.

 

President Trump is poised to be even more corrupt than he was in his first term. 

 

America’s founders were deeply concerned about presidential corruption—so much so that they put two provisions in the Constitution to guard against it. They would have been outraged about the ways Trump has funneled taxpayer money to his own businesses and made money from foreign governments. 

 

CREW Executive Director Donald Sherman breaks down Trump’s conflicts of interests, why they’re so dangerous and why they’re only getting worse.

 


 

moneycontrol

 

LIVE: Anti-Trump, anti-billionaire protest

disrupts Manhattan gala

 

Started streaming on June 6, 2025

 


 

Heather Cox Richardson

June 7, 2025

 

Who on Earth Is Curtis Yarvin?

 

From American Conversations, June 6, 2025 featuring Gil Duran. 

 

Duran was early in recognizing that the technology elite had a dystopian vision for human society. We’ll get to hear from him about dystopian blogger Curtis Yarvin, the idea of a “network state,” and what tech bros imagine for our future.

 


 

CNN

June 7, 2025

 

Scott Pelley: ‘You cannot have democracy

without journalism’

 

CNN’s Anderson Cooper speaks with “60 Minutes” anchor Scott Pelley about the importance of journalism and the First Amendment.

 


 

TIMES RADIO

June 8, 2025

 

Trump’s biographer reveals the real reason Musk 

fell out with the US president | David Cay Johnston

 

Superpowers: The future of global security

 


 

The Military Show

June 8, 2025

 

Still think Russia is winning?

 

Russia thought Ukraine would fall in 72 hours. Three years later, it’s lost nearly a million troops, crippled its econonmy, and still holds just 20% of Ukraine.

 


 

CNN

June 8, 2025

 

What does Ukraine’s drone attack on 

Russia say about the future of warfare?

 

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria talks with former NATO Supreme Allied Commander retired Adm. James Stavridis and military strategist Christopher Kirchhoff about the future of war.

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

June 9, 2025

 

L.A. Under Siege: Trump Sends in National Guard

as Protests Continue over Militarized ICE Raids

 

In Los Angeles, mass street protests have broken out in response to immigration raids. Local police and Border Patrol are cracking down on protesters, while the Trump administration has called in the California National Guard. 

 

“They shot thousands of rounds of tear gas, of flashbang grenades, of all kinds of repressive instruments,” says Ron Gochez, community organizer with Union del Barrio who helped organize some of the protests. 

 

He notes many of the protests have also been successful at turning back immigration agents, preventing ICE arrests and detention. “If we organize ourselves, if we resist, we can defend our communities from ICE terror, from the Border Patrol or from any federal agency that wishes to separate our families.”

 


 

THE HILL

June 10, 2025

 

Trump says he will ‘liberate’ Los Angeles in speech

to mark the 250th anniversary of the Army

 

By Chris Megerian and Michelle L. Price, Associated Press

 

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump called protesters in Los Angeles “animals” and “a foreign enemy” in a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday as he defended deploying the military on demonstrators opposed to his immigration enforcement raids and as he vowed to “liberate” the West Coast city.

 

Trump, in his most aggressive language yet regarding the protests, used a speech ostensibly supposed to be used to recognize the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army to denounce the protesters while repeating his false statements about the 2020 election being rigged and attacking the previous commander in chief, former President Joe Biden.

 

The Republican president, who sees the military as a critical tool for domestic goals, has used the recent protests in Los Angeles as an opportunity to deploy the National Guard and U.S. Marines over the objections of California’s Democratic governor. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend in Los Angeles, but the demonstrations in the city of 4 million people have largely been centered in several blocks of downtown.

 

“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are,” Trump said Tuesday.

 

Trump’s heated rhetoric came as he has left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, one of the most extreme emergency powers available to the president. It authorizes him to deploy military forces inside the U.S. to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.

 

Trump received plenty of cheers from the crowd, which laughed at the president’s jokes and delighted in his dancing to his campaign anthem of “ YMCA.” However, some members of the audience were uneasy with certain aspects of his remarks.

 


 

Senator Bernie Sanders

June 10, 2025

 

My thoughts on what’s going on in Los Angeles

 

Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in California is not about the protests. It is about expanding his never-ending grasp for more power. It is about moving this country toward authoritarianism. 

 

All Americans must stand together against this gross abuse of power.

 


 

TIMES RADIO

June 10, 2025

 

Trump deployed troops in LA to break America 

and become a dictator | Joe Walsh

 

“Trump is trying to break this country…burn the country down so that it can be remade in his image.” 

 

“President Trump is lying about the scale of unrest in Los Angeles to purposely incite violence and efforts to take authoritarian control of America,” says former Republican congressman Joe Walsh.

 


 

The Chris Hedges Report

June 10, 2025

 

American Concentration Camps

 

Once a regime starts to send people to concentration camps — including those in El Salvador — it creates a system of detention that eschews due process and disappears citizens into black holes.

 

Read the article here: chrishedges.substack.com/p/american-concentration-camps

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

June 10, 2025

 
Chaos & Cruelty: Trump Deploys Thousands 

of Soldiers to Put Down Anti-ICE Protests in L.A.

 

President Trump has inflamed tensions over immigration raids in Los Angeles, which his top adviser Stephen Miller described as an insurrection. 

 

“They want protesters to react violently to distract from what is really happening, which is that families are being separated, our communities are being devastated, and the people of Los Angeles are standing up to say, ‘We will not stand for this,'” says Jean Guerrero, New York Times contributing opinion writer and author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda.

 


 

John D. Cundle

June 10, 2025

 

A 9-Year-Old’s Letter to the President

“You Call This Great?” | Heartbreaking Protest Song

 


 

Charlie Angus

THE RESISTANCE

June 11, 2025

 

Indictment of Donald Trump

 

On Trump using the army against unarmed citizens and his plans to visit Canada as part of the G7 meetings. We need to be very clear about the threat posed to democracy, the rule of law and Canadian sovereignty.

 


 

The Atlantic

June 11, 2025

 

STEPHEN MILLER

TRIGGERS LOS ANGELES

 

The protesters gathered in downtown L.A. are a microcosm

of the Democratic coalition that has dominated the city for 

decades.

 

By Nick Miroff

Photographs by Robert LeBlanc

 

Two people hold hands in front of a police officer

 

During a lull in the chanting outside the federal building targeted by protesters in downtown Los Angeles this week, I walked up behind a hooded young man wearing a mask and carrying a can of spray paint. He began to deface the marble facade in big black letters. WHEN TYRANNY BECOMES LAW, REBELLION BECOMES DUTY—THOMAS JEFFERSON, he wrote, adding his tag, SMO, in smaller font.

 


 

MSNBC

DEADLINE | WHITE HOUSE

June 12, 2025

 

Nicolle Wallace calls out Kristi Noem’s lie over 

Sen. Alex Padilla’s handcuffing and forced removal

 

Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to the incident involving California Senator Alex Padilla where he was forcibly removed from a press conference held by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and the lies being spewed about the incident by Noem and her department.

 


 

Forbes Breaking News

June 12, 2025

 

Trump Addresses Members Of Congress

At White House Congressional Picnic

 


 

MSNBC

The BEAT

June 12, 2025

 

‘Goons’: See top Dem erupt at Trump DHS

going ‘Putin’ in cuffing Senator

 

Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed and handcuffed after speaking up at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference. MSNBC’s Ari Melber and former California Senator Barbara Boxer discuss.

 


 

Forbes Breaking News

June 12, 2025

 

‘This Is What Dictatorships Look Like’: Van Hollen 

Decries The Removal Of Padilla From DHS Hearing

 

During remarks on the Senate floor on Thursday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about Sen. Alex Padilla’s (D-CA) removal from a DHS press briefing.

 


 

MSNBC

June 12, 2025

 

‘It’s all BS coming from Trump’: Sen. Padilla gets 

emotional after forcible removal from DHS presser

 

Watch the full interview Sen. Alex Padilla gave FIRST ON MSNBC where he talks about getting forcibly removed and hand-cuffed from a Department of Homeland Security press conference. Padilla breaks down the video of the incident and also reveals a meeting he had with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem after it. Padilla gets emotional talking about the treatment of immigrants from the Trump administration.

 


 

New York Times Podcasts

June 12, 2025

 

Gavin Newsom on the LA Protests, 

Trump’s Response and Why It’s a 

Defining Moment for Democracy

 

California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, says that President Trump’s decision to send federal troops into Los Angeles is a “brazen abuse of power” and a defining moment for both the democratic party and American democracy. 

 

The Daily’s host, Michael Barbaro, sits down with the governor for a conversation about Trump, illegal immigration, the protests, and how he thinks that the standoff in LA has come to an end.

 


 

MSNBC

The LAST WORD

June 12, 2025

 

Leader Jeffries: Trump exposed for 

‘fraudulent’ ICE raids in Los Angeles

 

House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries joins MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to react to a federal judge granting a temporary restraining order halting Donald Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles.

 


 

ABC7 News Bay Area

June 12, 2025

 

Trump can keep National Guard in LA 

for now after appeals court blocks order

 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order that directed President Donald Trump to return control of National Guard troops to California after he deployed them there following protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids.

 


 

CBS News

The TAKEOUT with Major Garrett

June 12, 2025

 

California mayor describes psychological 

impact of ICE raids on his community

 

The threat of ICE agents targeting workplaces is spreading fear across the U.S., according to the mayor of Montebello, California. Mayor Salvador Melendez joins “The Takeout” to discuss his community’s fears over the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.

 


 

TYT Investigates

June 12, 2025

 

19-Year-Old Shares Her Harrowing

ICE Detention Experience

 


 

Noam Chomsky Motivation

June 12, 2025

 

What’s Really Behind the LA ICE Protests

 

What’s fueling the protests in Los Angeles? In this compelling analysis, Noam Chomsky dives deep into the truth behind the LA ICE protests, exploring how immigration raids, media manipulation, and systemic control are shaping public reaction. As thousands take to the streets, Chomsky reveals how government actions and media silence work together to manufacture consent and suppress dissent. 

 

Are we seeing the consequences of unchecked power in a so-called democracy? Discover how militarized responses, economic anxiety, and disinformation are eroding civil liberties and fueling unrest in 2025. This video breaks down the hidden political and philosophical dynamics behind the chaos. A must-watch for anyone seeking truth in turbulent times.

 

Keywords: This video explores topics like LA ICE protests, immigration raids in Los Angeles, Noam Chomsky on media control, manufactured consent, protests in LA 2025, ICE operations, National Guard deployment, civil unrest, political philosophy, government surveillance, freedom of speech, social movements in America, media bias, and the militarization of public space.

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

June 12, 2025

 

Ex-U.S. Diplomat: Biden Spokesperson 

Matthew Miller Has “Blood on His Hands”

 

Hala Rharrit was the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department before she resigned in 2024 to protest the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. She accuses her former colleague Matthew Miller of “careerism” after he recently admitted on a podcast that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, even though he regularly denied that while serving as a spokesperson for the State Department under Biden.

 


 

The Humanist Report

June 13, 2025

 

Trump Now Ushering in the Next Phase 

of Authoritarianism: Violent Repression

 

Donald Trump is ramping up repressive tactics against protesters and political opponents, and things could get even worse if he invokes The Insurrection Act. 

 

Progressive journalist Thom Hartmann warns that the emergency powers granted by The Insurrection Act could give him an excuse to “postpone” elections and officially solidify his status as a dictator. In this video we’ll talk about this new phase of Trump’s attempt to consolidate power and what it means going forward.

 


 

MSNBC

The LAST WORD

June 13, 2025

 

Protests demonstrate why, despite Trump’s actions, 

America is still a democracy

 

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi details how Donald Trump’s attempts to squash protest and dissent by deploying the military to Los Angeles — along with things like the handcuffing of a U.S. senator — are mobilizing protests against his agenda. M. Gessen joins to discuss the importance of not normalizing Trump’s unlawful actions in order to keep America a democracy.

 


 

John D. Cundle

June 13, 2025

 

“Stand for the Light” – Uplifting People-Powered 

Patriotic Protest Anthem

 


 

ABC News In-depth

June 13, 2025

 

Why Elon’s DOGE mission was doomed 

from the beginning | If You’re Listening

 

In news that basically everyone saw coming, the big beautiful bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has finally come to an end.

 

Over the last week, there’s been a dramatic shift in Trump’s presidency – he’s publicly fighting with his former First buddy, judges are overruling his executive orders and there are protests in the streets of LA. 

 

So for the next two episodes, we’re going to take a look at what led to this sudden shift – Trump’s summer of discontent. How it started and what it means for the future of the administration.

 


 

Mary Trump Media

June 13, 2025

 

DONALD’S VANITY PARADE FACES

MOUNTING RESISTANCE

 

Resistance is mounting against Donald Trump’s $45 million military parade. No Kings rallies will take place during the event, and everyone from an unlikely billionaire, to the Pope, to his own allies are turning against him.

 


 

Amanpour & Co.

June 13, 2025

 

Gen. McCrystal on Trump’s Military Parade 

and the Need for National Character

 

President Trump is gearing up for a military parade this weekend to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army. Trump was inspired by the pomp of a Bastille Day celebration he attended in France to stage something similar in the United States. But many — including Republicans — are skeptical about the event’s optics and cost. 

 

Retired four-star general Stanley McChrystal, who has a deep understanding of U.S. military culture, has written a new book, On Character: Choices That Define a Life. He spoke with Walter Isaacson before Israel’s strikes on Iran began.

 


 

MSNBC

The 11th Hour

June 13, 2025

 

‘A sign of life’: Will 2,000 anti-Trump

protests have an impact?

 

Saturday is set to be an extraordinary day for our country as Americans take to the streets in all 50 states to protest the Trump administration. At the same time, Trump will be hosting an extravagant military parade that happens to fall on his birthday. Colonel Jack Jacobs, Anthony Fisher, Steve Liesman and Pablo Torre join Stephanie Ruhle for The 11th Hour Nightcap.

 


 

DEMOCRACY NOW!

June 13, 2025

 

Rep. Ilhan Omar on Trump’s Authoritarianism

 

Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joins Democracy Now! to discuss the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration, including its crackdown on anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, targeting of pro-Palestine students on college campuses and plans for a massive military parade coinciding with Trump’s birthday on June 14. 

 

“We are in the midst of the creation of a police state,” says Omar. “It will be a dark day if we do not stand up for ourselves, for our Constitution and for our republic.”

 


 

PBS NewsHour

June 14, 2025

 

WATCH LIVE: Trump’s military parade honoring Army’s 250th birthday rolls through Washington, D.C.

 

President Donald Trump’s military parade to mark the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday on Saturday will bring thousands of soldiers and dozens of massive military vehicles and aircraft to the National Mall. 

 

Military parades of this scale are uncommon in the U.S. The last was in 1991, to mark the end of the first Gulf War. 

 

Trump has heralded the celebration as a chance to celebrate the country and the “service and sacrifice” of soldiers. The president has also gotten political blowback over the parade, which will shut down roads and bridges around the city for days. Democrats have criticized the cost — up to $45 million — and accused Trump of making the day about himself. Veterans are divided over the event and a majority of Americans don’t feel like it’s a good use of money, according to an AP-NORC poll.

 


 

NO KINGS

 

IN AMERICA,

WE DON’T

DO KINGS

 

They’ve defied our courts, deported

Americans, disappeared people off the

streets, attacked our civil rights, and

slashed our services. The corruption has

gone too far. No thrones, No crowns,

No kings.

 


 

The Guardian

June 16, 2025

 

Trump administration

 

‘This is the looting of America’: Trump and Co’s extraordinary conflicts of interest in his second term 

  

Bitcoin, internet, EVs, private dinners for hire — the list of pay-for-play and quid quo pro goes on, and on … and on.

 

a man in a suit speaks into a microphone

Donald Trump speaks at a Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tennessee.

 


 

MSNBC

REPORTS

June 18, 2025

 

‘These are Gestapo tactics’: NYC Comptroller 

Brad Lander on being arrested by ICE agents

 

New York City Comptroller and Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander joins Ana Cabrera to detail being detained by ICE agents while serving as an advocate for defendants in immigration court, saying all he wanted to do was “to make sure there was due process.”

 


 

TYT Sports

June 18, 2025

 

Teacher Fights Through Tears as

ICE Cruelty Reaches a New Low

 

The silence from major Los Angeles sports franchises like the Dodgers, Lakers, Kings, and others in the wake of massive anti-ICE protests, and the violence, brutality, and cruelty the protesters have been met with from law enforcement, one team, Angel City FC of the NWSL, has put the rest to shame with their powerful stance supporting the immigrant community while calling out the inhumanity of Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. Rick Strom breaks it down.

 


 

MSNBC

The Briefing

June 18, 2025

 

Bad actors mimic masked ICE agents; Community 

outraged over snatchings by unidentified agents

 

Jen Psaki looks at the problems of federal immigration agents hiding their identities with masks and refusing to identify themselves as they conduct raids and carry people away in unmarked cars. NBC News correspondent David Noriega reports live from a protest in Pasadena, California where locals are upset that friends and neighbors are being disappeared without notification or information.

 


 

ABC7

June 19, 2025

 

2 car wash employees detained in 

another LA ICE raid, witnesses say

 

A car wash in Glendale was the latest business in Los Angeles County to be raided by ICE agents, according to several witnesses and an immigration attorney who were at the scene.

 

It happened Thursday morning at the Glendale Classic Car Wash on Colorado Street. AIR7 was above the scene and captured at least one person, seen wearing a red shirt, in handcuffs being placed into a silver SUV. 

 

Witnesses who spoke with Eyewitness News said the agents were in unmarked vehicles wearing masks and did not identify themselves. READ MORE: abc7.com/post/2-employees-detained-during-ice-raid-glendale-car-wash…

 


 

MSNBC

REPORTS

June 19, 2025

 

‘Really disturbing’: ICE detains man who

helped U.S. military in Afghanistan

 

Sayed Naser served as a civilian interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan for three years. However, last week Naser was detained by ICE after a mandatory immigration parole hearing. Naser’s attorney Brian McGoldrick joins Katy Tur to share more about the case.

 


 

ABC News In-depth

June 20, 2025

 

How ICE protests WRECKED Trump’s 

deportation plans | If You’re Listening

 

For the past week, we’ve seen violence on the streets of America as anti-ICE protesters push back hard against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

 

In the early months of the Trump presidency it seemed like everything was going his way, but now that’s changing, and fast, as his executive orders are challenged in the courts.

 

When it comes to stopping mass deportations, Americans are learning that protests can actually work. 

 

These protestors aren’t backing down, but neither is Trump. So, what does that mean for undocumented immigrants across the country and the future of the Trump administration’s deportation plans?

 


 

Forbes Breaking News

June 20, 2025

 

‘Trump Does Not Own Our Country’: Greg Casar 

Speaks At Bernie Sanders Rally In McAllen, Texas

 


 

Psychology Today

July 31, 2019

Updated May 21, 2024

 

Pathocracy

 

When people with personality disorders gain power.

 

Steve Taylor Ph.D.

Out of the Darkness

 

justincase/flickr

 

The Polish psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski spent his early life suffering under the Nazi occupation of Poland, closely followed by the brutality of Soviet occupation after the war. His experience of these horrors led Lobaczewski to develop the concept of “pathocracy.” This is when individuals with personality disorders (particularly psychopathy) occupy positions of power. (1)

 

Lobaczewski devoted his life to studying human evil, a field which he called “ponerology.” He wanted to understand why ‘evil’ people seem to prosper, while so many good and moral people struggle to succeed. He wanted to understand why people with psychological disorders so easily rise to positions of power and take over the governments of countries. Since he was living under a “pathocratic” regime himself, he took great risks studying this topic. He was arrested and tortured by the Polish authorities, and was unable to publish his life’s work, the book Political Ponerology, until he escaped to the United States during the 1980s.

 

Pathocracy is arguably one of the biggest problems in the history of the human race. History has been a saga of constant conflict and brutality, with groups of people fighting against one another over territory and power and possessions, and conquering and killing one another. Surveying the course of human history from ancient times to the 20th century, the historian Arnold Toynbee spoke about the “horrifying sense of sin manifest in human affairs.”

 

But there is an argument that this is not because all human beings are inherently brutal and cruel, but because a small number of people—that is, those with personality disorders—are brutal and cruel, intensely self-centered, and lacking in empathy. This small minority has always held power and managed to order or influence the majority to commit atrocities on their behalf.

 

Power and Pathology

 

A small minority of humans suffer from personality disorders such as narcissism and psychopathy. People with these disorders feel an insatiable lust for power. People with narcissistic personality disorder desire constant attention and affirmation. They feel that they are superior to others and have the right to dominate them. They also lack empathy, which means that they are able to ruthlessly exploit and abuse others in their lust for power. Psychopaths feel a similar sense of superiority and lack of empathy, but the main difference between them and narcissists is that they don’t feel the same impulse for attention and adoration. To an extent, the impulse to be adored acts as a check on the behavior of narcissists. They are reluctant to do anything that might make them too unpopular. But psychopaths have no such qualms.

 

At the other end of the scale, people with a high level of empathy and compassion usually aren’t interested in power. They prefer to be “on the ground,” interacting and connecting with others. They may even refuse the offer of a high-status position because they’re aware that higher status will disconnect them (although for a non-empathic person, that is part of its appeal). So this leaves positions of power open for people with psychological disorders (or at least with a high level of ambition and ruthlessness, even if not a fully fledged psychological disorder).

 

Throughout history, these pathological individuals have always risen to the top. In some ways, pre-industrial feudal societies restricted them, since power was often bequeathed by birth rather than attained by individual efforts. The demise of the feudal system was certainly a positive step towards greater equality and democracy, but a negative side effect was that it gave psychopaths and narcissists greater opportunity to attain positions of power.

 

As Ian Hughes points out in his important book Disordered Minds, the whole point of democracy is to try to protect the mass of people from this pathological minority. This was the central idea of the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Democratic principles and institutions were established to limit the power of pathological individuals.

 

This is why, as Hughes also points out, pathological leaders hate democracy. (2)  Once they attain power, they do their utmost to dismantle or discredit democratic institutions, including the freedom and legitimacy of the press. (This is the first thing which Hitler did when he became German chancellor, and it is what autocrats like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban of Hungary and President Erdoğan of Turkey have done. It is also what President Trump has been attempting to do.)

 

Moreover, pathological leaders are completely unable to comprehend the principles of democracy, since they regard themselves as superior, and see life as a competitive struggle in which the most ruthless deserve to dominate others.

 

Collective Pathocracy

 

But pathocracy isn’t just about individuals. As Lobaczewski pointed out, pathological leaders always attract other people with personality disorders, who seize the opportunity to gain influence. At the same time, individuals who are moral, empathic and fair-minded gradually fall away. They are either ostracized or step aside voluntarily, appalled by the growing pathology around them. As a result, over time pathocracies tend to become entrenched and extreme.

 

This isn’t to say that everyone who becomes part of a pathocratic government suffers from a personality disorder. Some people may simply have a high level of ambition and a lack of empathy without actually having a diagnosable condition, while others may simply ride the coattails of a pathological leader whose goals happen to coincide with theirs.

 

A significant part of the problem is the attraction that many people feel to charismatic demagogues. You can see this in the appeal of President Trump, despite the obvious flaws – his extreme narcissism, lack of empathy and his distorted, delusory view of reality – of his personality disorder. Psychologically, this is very similar to the attraction of spiritual gurus, who often attract the blind devotion of disciples, despite unethical and exploitative behavior. The attraction of gurus and demagogues is a deep-rooted impulse to return to the childhood state of worshipping parents who seem omnipotent and infallible and could take complete responsibility for our lives, and magically solve our problems. At the same time, the paranoia of pathological leaders leads them to demonize other groups and creates an intoxicating sense of group identity with a common purpose. 

 

Protection Against Pathocracy

 

Is the United States in danger of being taken over by a pathocracy? Unfortunately, I believe it has already happened. Despite a convention that psychologists shouldn’t unofficially diagnose public figures, many American psychologists and psychiatrists have publicly stated that Donald Trump displays all the 
signs of narcissistic personality disorder. This would certainly explain his grandiosity, his lack of empathy and moral principles, his excessive need for admiration and his sensitivity to criticism (all of which are traits of narcissistic personality disorder). Similar cases have been made by psychologists for other ‘strongman’ politicians around the world, such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. Trump has certainly attracted politicians and advisors with a similar lack of empathy and conscience to his inner circle, while principled and responsible individuals have either been ejected or have removed themselves, so that the pathocracy has become more entrenched.

 

But we should remember that pathocracy only flourishes because we don’t take sufficient measures to protect ourselves from pathological leaders. We need to preserve and strengthen our democratic institutions and processes to ensure that the great mass of people is protected from the minority of psychopaths and narcissists with an insatiable lust for power. We need to make sure that our democracy does not transmute into a pathocracy.

 

In the long term, as I have argued in a previous post, we need stringent measures to restrict the attainment of power. Put simply, the kind of people who desire power the most—the most ruthless and non-empathic—should not be allowed to attain positions of authority. All potential leaders (or members of a government) should be rigorously assessed by psychologists to determine their levels of empathy, narcissism or psychopathy—and hence determine their suitability for power.

 

References

 

Łobaczewski, A. (2006). Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes. Grande Prairie: Red Pill Press.

 

Hughes, I. (2018). Disordered Minds: How Dangerous Personalities Are Destroying Democracy. Winchester, UK: Zero Books.

 

 

Steve Taylor, Ph.D., is senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK and a member of the British Psychological Society. He is the author of many best-selling books, including The Leap and Spiritual Science.

 


 

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

 

A Science on the Nature of Evil

Adjusted for Political Purposes

 

 


 

PART  I   II   III   IV  V   VI