Altruistic World Online Library

Trump issues INSANE weekend threat against Americans
by Brian Tyler Cohen
Sep 6, 2025



Transcript

I know that we've become increasingly
normalized to the dangerous, reckless,
and authoritarian statements put forward
by Trump, but this latest one was truly
next level. He took to social writing. I
love the smell of deportations in the
morning. Chicago about to find out why
it's called the Department of War. So,
let's be perfectly clear about what
Trump is suggesting here. That the
Department of Defense or the newly
minted Department of War will now set
its sights on the city of Chicago within
the United States. Trump is suggesting
that he is turning the US military
against American citizens. The governor
of Illinois, JB Pritzker, has been clear
about the extent to which this
escalation is wholly and completely
unwarranted.
Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.
You are neither wanted here nor needed
here. Your remarks about this effort
over the last several weeks have
betrayed a continuing slip in your
mental faculties and are not fit for the
auspicious office that you occupy. Most
alarming,
you seem to lack any appropriate concern
as our commander-in-chief for the
members of the military that you would
so callously deploy as pawns in your
ever more alarming grabs for power. It's
also worth pointing out the fact that
there was a recent ruling handed down in
California with major implications for
Trump's subsequent troop deployments in
other states. Newsome sued Trump after
he had deployed thousands of troops into
this state and a federal judge ruled
against Trump. The White House has not
yet appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals, but it's likely that they
will. But the fact that a trial court
has already blocked this effort offers a
legal framework for other states,
including Illinois, to be able to fight
this unconstitutional deployment. And if
Trump does decide to appeal the
California case to the Ninth Circuit and
he loses the appeals court the same way
he did at the trial court, then this
becomes precedent across the country,
which makes for an even more compelling
argument against these unconstitutional
deployments. But either way, the law is
thus far against Trump as it comes to
being able to wield the US military
against Americans in our own cities. All
of which is to say if and when Trump
tries to deploy US troops into Chicago
to the glee of Trump in his White House,
just remember that there now exists a
framework to be able to fight back. And
every subsequent court and every
subsequent judge who rules against him
bolsters the argument of those states
and cities that have become targets for
this administration. Here's Mark Elias
discussing that point. Mark, how does
the the the recent California victory
over Donald Trump? Gavin Newsome sued
Donald Trump against the deployment of
these troops. Newsome won. We're not
sure yet as of this recording if the
Trump administration is going to appeal,
but how does the fact that he's lost
this case and therefore lost his pretext
to be able to do it. How does that
impact the prospect of Trump then
deploying troops into yet another state?
Again, this is, you know, you'd think
Donald Trump might have learned a lesson
from that, but instead he has just
escalated. He's escalated and escalated,
and that's what he does. And this is the
problem with the with the the way in
which too many politicians in this
country act like Donald Trump should not
be taken seriously. Too many of the
legacy media outlets act like they that
that this is just, you know, a a pro a
minor provocation. They are normalizing
the absolutely bizarre, dangerous
abnormal behavior of a raving lunatic.
Okay? And we have to start holding our
institutions to account to this because
if they are not going to act like this
is the dangerous provocation that it is,
then then what good are they? And so to
answer your question directly, look, it
is obviously helpful precedent to the
extent a district court decision in
California is ever going to be
presidential to a judge in Illinois,
it's better than nothing.
Yeah.
But it this but the fact that on the
heels of that loss, this is what Donald
Trump does,
right? We need to wake up and recognize
the threat that this country is under.
And let's be clear about why Trump is
doing this. There are two reasons, both
nefarious, but one that's truly caused
for alarm. The first reason is pretty
clear on its face. Trump is an autocrat,
and autocrats want centralized power and
control. By putting his boots on the
ground in the cities, he can effectively
co-op power that would otherwise belong
to the states. Anyone on the right who
claims to be a constitutionalist, a
strict originalist, while Donald Trump
tramples on the 10th amendment to the
constitution is showing their entire ass
right now. But then again, I know that
that's not exactly breaking news that
Republicans are hypocrites. He may very
well do what he did in LA, which was to
send the troops in knowing that doing so
would incite violence, and it did incite
violence here. And he used that as a
pretext to be able to retroactively
justify his decision. He's not looking
to quell any violence. He is expressly
looking to exacerbate it. Again, this is
another tool very frequently used by
fascists and autocrats. But the second
reason here is much more worrisome. And
if you follow my content, you know that
this is something that I've been
relentless about calling out. This isn't
only about exercising power right now.
It is about laying the foundation to be
able to do it during the election.
Remember, Trump already tried once to
seize the voting machines in Georgia. He
already tried to block certification of
the election in Congress. He already
incited an insurrection at the US
capital, but he didn't have the tools in
place to be able to succeed. For as
horrific as someone like Bill Bar was,
he called Trump's stolen election claims
And of course, he had uh no
one in the States willing to actually
carry out his plans like seizing those
voting machines. But we're in an
entirely different world right now. Pam
Bondi, his new attorney general, won't
stop Trump from acting on his bogus
stolen election claims. Neither will Dan
Bonino or Cash Patel or Steven Miller.
And now if he's also got boots on the
ground in the way of these troops
because he's deployed them to the states
under false pretenses and he asks them
to do something like seize the voting
machines. What's going to stop them?
That is why I'm so focused on stopping
Donald Trump in his tracks when it comes
to these illegal deployments. Because
this isn't just about deploying the
troops to the states now. It's not just
about flexing his autocratic muscles
now. This is about laying the foundation
to be able to do so when it'll be much
more electorally advantageous to him.
Here's Mark Elias explaining that exact
point. Yet again,
I believe and have been saying for some
time that Donald Trump is a dictator and
that he we are further along the road of
authoritarianism than people want to
admit. You know, if you go back and look
at what people in Hungary said about
their country, they too were very slow
to say that Victor Orbin was a full-out
dictator. Donald Trump is not deploying
the military in these cities because he
cares about the people of those cities.
He's not even really deploying them for
immigration. Now, he has made ICE like
the what would be essentially the fourth
largest military in the world if it was
a military, right? So, he's deploying a
ton of resources around uh uh
deportations. I believe though this
whole thing with the National Guard, the
deployment of the Marines is about uh
the 2026 elections and perhaps even the
2028 elections when he wants to be able
to be in control of the ground uh in
which people are voting particularly in
democratic cities. And so Jim Saxo who's
a reporter uh reporter at democracy
docket uh wrote a piece about this and
less do you think this is just something
that people on the left are worried
about or someone like me who is you know
very prominent in the prodemocracy
community is focused on that article
quotes uh Patrick uh Eddington who is a
senior fellow fellow at the Ko Institute
and the Ko Institute is you know a
pretty right-wing uh libertarian think
tank well respected but definitely
not a not the kind of organization that
usually would agree with my thoughts or
uh would be contributing uh their their
input to a democracy docket article. And
he goes so far as to say that the first
place where they may try this is
Virginia in the midterm, I'm sorry, in
the off-year elections, the 2025
elections this November as a dry rot.
So, I get that the net effect of Trump's
deployments and promises of escalation
are that we become even more normalized
and desensitized to what's happening.
But I want to be clear. There is
absolutely nothing normal about this,
nothing legal about this, and nothing
harmless about this. When an American
president declares war on his own
country, it is beyond clear what's
happening here. We wouldn't hesitate for
a second to call it out for exactly what
it is, if it was happening anywhere else
in the world. Fascism is here, and the
onus is on us to stay engaged, stay
activated, stay involved so that we can
fight back while we still have the
chance. Before
you go, if you enjoyed this content and
you want to see more and support
independent media, please subscribe to
this channel. The subscribe button will
be right here on the screen. But second,
the reality is that we are now in a
political environment where this
administration can lean on any of the
social media platforms to suppress
certain voices if they don't like
critical coverage. That means my
longevity here is in the hands of a few
tech billionaires who are already making
it clear that they are willing to cater
to this administration. To that end,
signing up for my newsletter is a way
for me to reach you directly if that
ever becomes necessary. I'll put the
link right here on the screen as well,
so please sign up. It's free, but
there's also an option to do a paid
subscription if you'd like to support me
and my team. I really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for watching.

UN to move General Assembly out of US to defy Trump’s visa ban on Palestinians? | Janta Ka Reporter?
by Rifat Jawaid
Janta Ka Reporter
Sep 6, 2025

The current Donald Trump administration is increasingly getting isolated globally for its decision to impose a visa ban on the Palestinian delegation ahead of this year’s UN General Assembly session. Experts have urged the UN to move its general assembly sessions to Geneva to send a powerful message to the current US administration. Rifat Jawaid looks at the extraordinary step taken by Trump and its long-term impact on America’s global standing.



Transcript

Israeli proxy Donald Trump regime of the
USA recently announced a ban on the visa
for Palestinian authorities who were
planning to visit New York to attend
this year's United Nations General
Assembly session. This was another
example of thugs like Marco Rubio and
Donald Trump going out of their way to
please their Israeli masters and making
the US a laughing stock globally.
Trump may want to irritate the world
with his daily dose of verbal diarrhea
by projecting the US as the hottest
country in the world. But the reality is
more and more people are now finding it
beneath their dignity to visit this
country for as long as these genocidal
sociopaths are ruling the country on
behalf of terrorists from Tel Aviv. I
mean, how do you justify this crazy
decision? These bloodthirsty maniacs are
prepared to go to any length to serve an
illegal settler colony built on the
stolen land of Palestinians.

Convicted felon Trump and his depraved
colleague Rubio have decided to ban the
entry of Palestinian delegation despite
knowing that this goes against the UN
charter and makes a mockery of a
rule-based international order. Why
would you want to be a part of an
organization that you have zero respect
for? If you want to behave like an
attack dog for a rogue regime of a
settler colony, then you have no right
to remain a part of this organization.
The US and Israel should immediately be
thrown out of the UN if this
international body has any self-respect
left.

Many rights groups and experts are
demanding that the UN shift its annual
general assembly session to Geneva to
send a powerful message to thugs like
Trump and Rubio. Craig Mokhiber is a former
top executive of the United Nations
Office for Human Rights. He resigned in
the aftermath of Israel's genocidal
campaign in Gaza, registering his
protest against the United Nations'
pathetic role in not being able to stop
terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu's genocide
of Palestinians. Mokhiber says that there is precedence of
the UN moving its session to Geneva in
the past in 1988 when the US banned
Yassar Arafat from attending the UNGA
session. it can do the same now. This
is what he told the Democracy Now
channel.

[Amy Goodman] Talk about who the Palestine delegation
is and what it means as Western state
after Western state joining more than
100 others will recognize a Palestinian
state, but the Palestinian officials at
the UN will not be allowed to be there.
Does this threaten the whole notion of
what it means to have a United Nations?

[Craig Mokhiber] Well, Amy, thanks for having me. I
mean, first I have to say that this
trend of the denial of visas for
Palestinians is just the latest step in
what has been an expanding US government
trend of effectively importing the
racist ideology of the Israeli regime
into the laws and policies of the United
States. This particular Trump and Rubio
policy has been rolled out in three
phases. first barring visas for
Palestinians from Gaza, including
children horribly wounded by Israeli
attacks who are seeking medical
treatment in the US. But that already an
incredible act of cruelty. And then of
course it later announced that it was
barring visas essentially for all
Palestinians by denying visas to
Palestinian passholders, passport
holders, whether they're from Gaza or
the West Bank, or any country in the
diaspora. And now, as you say, it is
announced that it will deny visas to the
Palestinian delegation to the United
Nations, including the Palestinian
President Mahmud Abbas and 80
Palestinian delegates who are supposed
to be participating in the General
Assembly in in September.

I have to say first, this is a direct breach of
the legal obligations of the US under a
binding UN headquarters agreement, and
under the convention on the privileges
and immunities of the United Nations.
So, it's indicative not only of the
lawlessness of the Trump administration,
but it's also an indication of the
unprecedented degree to which the US
government has handed the levers of its
foreign policy over to the Israeli
regime. And the result has been
further isolation of the US on the
global stage. And it is not lost to
anyone who follows the United Nations
that the US is barring the Palestinian
delegation from attending the UN General
Assembly precisely during a session that
will have as its centerpiece the
situation in Palestine, the genocide in
Gaza, the recognition of Palestinian
statehood, as you've said, by a number
of new additional delegations, a
conference on the two-state solution,
and very importantly, in advance of
extraordinary action that's expected in
the UN General Assembly when the UN's
one-year deadline for Israeli compliance
with the demands of the International
Court of Justice and the UN General
Assembly expires in September, and at
which point the UN General Assembly is
expected to adopt further measures to
hold the Israeli regime accountable.
It will not work. The US, as you say,
has tried this before in 1988, by barring
Yassar Arafat. The result of that was
for the GA to move to Geneva in an
act of global solidarity that further
isolated the US at that time as well.
It won't work this time as well.

Craig Mokhiber goes a step further. He argues in
favor of the deployment of a UN force in
Gaza by invoking what is known as United
for Peace Resolution. Something it did
in 1956 during the Swiss crisis. also
known as the UN emergency force.
Britain, France and Israel had opposed
the move then, but the UN had gone ahead
to deploy its peacekeeping force in
Sinai region between Egypt and Gaza. The
force remained there till 1967 until
Egypt formally requested the UN to
withdraw it. This is the example critics
of the UN gave to accuse this body of
allowing the Holocaust in Gaza for 23
months. The UN General Assembly could
have done the same to stop sick and
depraved Israeli terrorists from
committing unspeakable savagery in Gaza
for such a long time.

America's latest action to deny visa to
Palestinian officials has provided
another opportunity to the UN General
Assembly to redeem itself. As I speak,
Israeli terrorists have been busy
dropping American bombs on the last
remaining residential buildings and
tents housing hundreds of thousands of
displaced Palestinians in Gaza city. The
extent of Israeli brutality and
barbarism is such that even the BBC,
even the BBC, which has been acting as a
mouthpiece for the brutal Israeli regime
for the last 23 months, even this
disgraceful organization was forced to
tell the truth, albeit by using neutral
terminologies to dilute Israeli crimes.
Watch this clip for yourself.

Last month, Israel announced its plans to
occupy Gaza City in the north of the
Gaza Strip. At BBC Verify, we've been
analyzing satellite images that show how
Israeli forces have leveled several
neighborhoods in Gaza City over the past
four weeks as Israel ramps up its
military offensive. You've analyzed
images like this from the beginning of
August, and you can see that areas
already badly destroyed. But just a
month on, that destruction is more
widespread in areas here as well. And
this matches up with footage of intense
bombing we've geoloccated nearby like
this. And we've also seen on satellite
images rows and rows of tents where
Palestinians once took shelter who've
already been displaced by the Israeli
military campaign.
Those tents have since disappeared. And
here's another satellite image from the
1st of September. And you can see in
these white circles what appear to be
Israeli armored vehicles. Now, only a
day later, we see a number of buildings
destroyed here in these areas
highlighted in yellow.

Now, in a statement to BBC Verify, the IDF said it
was locating and destroying terror
infrastructures embedded, among other
things, inside buildings. Israel
continues to say it won't stop until
Hamas is defeated and all hostages are
released from the 7th of October
Hamas-led attack. But UN aid groups have
warned that Israeli strikes are having
horrific humanitarian consequences for
displaced families sheltering in the
city.

So, not only are Israeli
terrorists bombing residential
buildings, they're also busy bombing
tents that provided shelter to
Palestinians forcibly displaced from
their homes by Israel and his western
backers.

I asked Americans in one of my earlier
videos why there wasn't any uprising
against the Trump administration. And
today there were reports of hundreds of
thousands of people taking to the street
in Washington DC as people chanted free
DC slogans against Trump. Of course it
was in relation to a domestic issue, but
nonetheless anger is mounting, and people
are willing to express it publicly.
Let's see if these protests gain
momentum in days and weeks to come.

What Israelis are doing in Gaza with the
help of the US, the UK and the EU has
gone beyond the definition of barbarism
and war crimes. The world is unlikely to
forget these horrific visuals anytime
soon. No wonder today's youth, who will
likely become tomorrow's prime ministers
and presidents, are disgusted by Israel.
They hate Israel. They loathe the
current regime. And I'm not talking
about the young population from Arab
countries, Africa or Asia. I'm talking
about the youth from the Western world.
And this is what is pissing off the
likes of Trump, Rubio, and their owners
in Tel Aviv. Why wouldn't people hate
these genocidal maniacs when they are
killing the starving population of Gaza
every day? These barbarians massacred
close to 100 more starving Palestinians
today after first luring them with
food. What level of stone cold sociopath
one has to be to showcase such savagery
for 23 months. We're not talking about a
day, a week, a month, 23 months without
any sense of remorse. That is the western world for you.

That's it for me. Thank you very much
for your support of this platform and
our journalism on buy me a coffee.com
and Patreon. If you do think that our
journalism is worth supporting, then you
too should consider becoming part of it.

Stop Acting Like This is Normal
The Ezra Klein Show
Sep 7, 2025

In a few weeks the government’s funding will run out. If Democrats vote for a new spending bill, they will be funding Trump’s autocratic takeover. How can they?



Transcript

In about 3 weeks, the government's
funding will run out. Democrats will
face a choice. Join Republicans to fund
a government that Trump is turning into
a tool of authoritarian takeover and
vengeance or shut the government down.
Democrats faced a version of this choice
6 months ago.
The chainsaw for bureaucracy.
We were in the full muzzle velocity
stage of the presidency. more mass
firings in the US government,
froze federal funding on projects across
the country. He is taking retribution.
The law firms have to behave themselves.
Sweeping tariffs, but why Canada?
And Democrats at that moment seemed
completely overwhelmed and outmatched.
We will win. We will win.
I kept hearing people say they lacked a
message, but that's not what they
lacked. What they lacked was power. They
didn't have power. They didn't have the
House or the Senate. But they did have
one sliver of leverage. In order to fund
the government, Senate Republicans
needed Democratic votes. Not just one or
two votes. They needed at least seven
Democrats to reach that magic 60 vote
threshold in the Senate.
All eyes are on Democrats and what
they'll do.
Shut it down.
House Democrats wanted a shutdown. But
now I can report that the Senate
Democratic leader himself, Chuck
Schumer,
vote no,
has told Democrats that he plans to vote
yes
and encouraged a crucial number of his
colleagues to do the same. The bill
passed.
I appreciate Senator Schumer and I think
he did the right thing.
To many Democrats, this seemed
completely insane. I think it is a huge
slap in the face and I think that
there's a wide sense of betrayal.
This was Democrat's first real
opportunity to fight back against Donald
Trump. And what had they done? They'd
folded immediately.
What were they good for?
I'm afraid that it may be time for the
Senate Democrats to pick new leadership
as we move forward.
During this period, this early schism in
Democratic strategy, I was talking to
people on all sides of it. Hakeem
Jeffrey's argument was that a shutdown
creates a crisis. A crisis creates
attention and attention gives Democrats
the chance to make their case to the
American people. Schumer's argument was
three-fold. First, Trump was being
stopped in the courts. There were dozens
of cases playing out against him and he
was losing again and again and again.
Shut down the government and you might
eventually shut down the courts freeing
him from that constraint. Second, Doge
was trying to gut the executive branch.
When the government falls into a funding
crisis, the executive gets more
authority to decide where the money the
government does have goes. In that
chaos, Doge could go farther and faster.
Third, the market was already quaking at
the threat of Trump's tariffs.
Trump is calling it a period of
transition. Many investors perhaps
seeing something more concerning. If
Democrats triggered a shutdown, at that
exact moment, at the moment Trump was
creating an economic crisis, they would
confuse who is to blame for all the
turbulence. It's the first rule of
politics. When your opponent is
drowning, don't throw them a lifeline.
It was an act of strength, of courage,
and I knew that most people wouldn't
agree with me.
And to these three arguments, I thought
there was a fourth. Democrats had not
prepared for a shutdown. They not
explained to themselves or to the public
why they would be shutting the
government down or what they wanted to
achieve. They had no strategy. They had
no message. They didn't have any clear
demands. The one demand I did hear them
discussing was that the spending bill
needed more bipartisan negotiation.
It was just unbearably lame and offkey.
And so, if you had forced me to choose
at that moment, I thought Schumer was
probably right. It wasn't the time for a
shutdown. in part because Democrats
weren't prepared to win one. But that
bill that passed back in March funding
the government, it runs out at the end
of this month. And so now we're facing
the question again, should Senate
Democrats partner with Senate
Republicans to fund this government?
And I don't see how they can. Not a
single argument Schumer made then is
valid now. First, Trump is not losing in
the courts. Not anymore. This is the
story that no one is talking about and
that's that the Trump administration is
on a major winning streak right now at
the Supreme Court.
On a recent episode, I asked the law
professor Kate Shaw what powers the
recent set a Supreme Court decision seem
to grant Trump that Barack Obama or Joe
Biden just didn't think they had. Here's
her answer.
I mean, I think refuse to spend money
appropriated by Congress. Remove heads
of independent agencies protected by
statute from summary firing. Fire civil
servants without cause. Yeah. Dismantle
federal agencies. Also, just the
practices under the constitution. They
didn't think they had the power to use
the power of the state to reward friends
and punish enemies and engage in
self-deing and enrichment. That is a
preliminary list, but I think it's a
long one.
Those powers Democrats were afraid of
Trump getting, he's got them. Second,
the scale of Doge's assault on the
government has shrunk. Trump and Elon
Musk went through a very messy and very
public breakup. But the real reason it
didn't continue, I think, is that now
it's Trump appointees running these
agencies. They don't want their own
agencies wrecked. And either way, the
Supreme Court has already given Trump
vast power to reshape the federal
workforce in the way he chooses. He
doesn't need a shutdown to do it. Third,
the markets have settled into whatever
this new normal is, at least for now.
Trump's tariffs are unpopular, but what
damage they've done to him politically,
they've already done, or they're only
going to do over time as price increases
squeeze Americans. Democrats cannot
stand back and hope the markets are
going to do their work for them.
But something else has changed, too.
We are no longer in the muzzle velocity
stage of this presidency where Donald
Trump is trying things and seeing what
sticks. We are in the authoritarian
consolidation stage of this presidency.
I want to be very clear about what I'm
saying here. Donald Trump is corrupting
the government. He's using it to hound
his enemies, to line his pockets, and to
entrench his own power. He is corrupting
it the way the mafia would corrupt the
industries it controlled. You could
still under mafia rule get the trash
picked up by cement. But the point of
those industries had become the
preservation and expansion of the
mafia's power and wealth. This is what
Donald Trump is doing to the government.
This is what Democrats cannot fund. This
is what they have to try to stop. Just
in the last few months, we've watched
Trump fire the head of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics because he didn't like
the jobs data. We watched him fire the
head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities
have been completely and totally
obliterated.
After the agency suggested that the
administration's strike on Iran only set
their nuclear program back by a couple
of months, we watched Trump muse about
firing Jerome Powell because he wanted
interest rates lower. Pal of course
being the chair of the Federal Reserve.
And now we're watching him try to fire
Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor
for alleged mortgage fraud. We've
watched Trump sick his government on
Senator Adam Schiff and Attorney General
Tish James of New York. Again,
allegations of mortgage fraud. Going to
note that this is not coming after the
Trump administration conducted an
exhaustive review of the mortgage
documents of every person serving in the
executive branch right now. This is just
what authoritarian governments do. They
have a lot of information. you look hard
enough and everyone has either done
something wrong or even if they haven't,
you can cause them a lot of trouble by
just saying they have. We've watched
Trump suggest the FCC should pull the
broadcast licenses for NBC and ABC
because they are so biased and
untruthful, an actual threat to our
democracy.
We watched the Trump administration
force the resignation of a series of
Republican prosecutors because they
would not drop their case against New
York Mayor Eric Adams. game over.
And the Trump administration seemed to
have decided it'd be more convenient to
have Adams in their pocket than
defending himself in court.
The Trump administration is weighing
potential job offers for Mayor Adams.
John Bolton became a critic of Trump's
after serving in his first
administration.
No, I don't think he's competent to be
president. I think that his political
instincts are all about Donald Trump.
A couple of weeks ago, Trump's FBI
raided his house. Chris Christie, the
former New Jersey governor, criticized
Trump on TV.
Donald Trump sees himself as the person
who gets to decide everything. He
absolutely rejects the idea that there
should be separation between criminal
investigations and the politically
elected leader of the United States.
When I listen to Chris speak his hate, I
say, "Oh, what about the George
Washington Bridge?" You know, he blamed
other people, but he knew all about it.
So, no, I don't know if they want to
look at it. It's not for me. If they
want to look at it, they can. You
Trump has an enemy's list and he's using
the power of the federal government to
punish and harass his foes.
And in my opinion, they're really
corrupt and they're illegal. What they
do is illegal.
We've watched the Trump family invest
heavily in crypto, starting its own
coins and companies, and then use their
political power and fame to hoover in
investment.
We've watched over the past few years as
Assad and the Qataris and the Amiradis
have made huge investments, billions of
dollars in Trump family businesses and
crypto coins. In March, Forbes estimated
that Trump's worth had more than doubled
to more than $5 billion just over the
past year. It pays to be king, Forbes
wrote.
Pays to be king. We've watched Trump
deploy the National Guard to Los
Angeles.
And then to Washington DC with more
cities expected to come under federal
military occupation soon.
Your mind up on Chicago though.
Well, we're going in. I didn't say when.
We're going in.
We've watched masked ICE agents
conducting raids all over the country,
refusing to reveal their faces, badge
numbers, or warrants.
No. No, you can't. We've watched Trump
systematically purge the government of
inspector generals, of JAGs, of military
officers, of federal prosecutors,
anyone who seems like they might stand
in the way of his corruption or his
accumulation or exercise of power. It is
an astonishing fact that the January 6th
riotist have been pardoned and dozens of
the Justice Department lawyers who
prosecuted them have been fired.
You often hear this line. This is how
authoritarianism happens. No, this is
authoritarianism happening.
Look at Donald Trump in his Oval Office
foned with gold, his masked agents
roaming the streets.
Listen to these cabinet meetings where
his appointees compete to lavish him
with a kind of praise that would have
made Fidel Castro blush.
And there's only one thing I wish for.
that that noble committee finally gets
its act together and realizes that you
are the single finest candidate since
the noble piece this Noble award was
ever talked about to receive that
reward.
Mr. President, I invite you to see your
big beautiful face on a banner in front
of the Department of Labor because you
are really the transformational
president of the American worker. Tell
me that is not what authoritarianism
looks and sounds like.
And so the question is what are
Democrats going to do about it? What can
they do about it?
I think the case for a shutdown is this.
A shutdown is an intentional event. It's
an effort to turn the diffuse crisis of
Trump's corrupting the government into
an acute crisis that the media that the
public will pay attention to. Right now,
Democrats have no power. So, no one
cares what they have to say. A shutdown
would make people listen. But then,
Democrats would have to actually win the
argument. They would need to have an
argument. In my head, the argument is
something like this. Donald Trump won
the election. He is the legitimate
president. His government should be
funded so long as it is acting the way
the government is supposed to, serving
the people, being held accountable. But
there are red lines that cannot be
crossed. ICE can conduct legitimate
deportations, but it can't be masked men
roaming the streets refusing to identify
themselves or their authority.
Remember your right to remain silent.
The Trump family cannot be hoovering in
money and investments from the countries
that depend on us and fear our power and
our sanctions.
There have to be inspectors general and
jags and career prosecutors watching to
make sure the government is being run on
behalf of the people rather than on
behalf of the Trump family.
Democrats would have to pick a small set
of policies, policies that represent the
larger set of problems and stick to
them. They'd have to choose those
policies wisely. They would have to hold
the line even when it got tough. And
right now, Democrats have not picked
those policies. They've not settled on
that message. Right now, they are no
more prepared for a shutdown than they
were in March. There's an ongoing debate
inside the party on whether they should
talk about Trump's corruption and
authoritarianism at all. or instead just
say that armed troops in DC are a
distraction from the price of groceries
and healthcare. And look, the reality is
that Democrats best issue is healthcare.
Trump has looted Medicaid to pay for tax
cuts for him and his friends. And
Democrats should never let the voters
forget it. But I don't think it's
impossible to turn these two realities
into one story. Corruption is why you
pay a fortune for prescriptions.
Corruption is why your insurance claim
keeps getting denied. So Trump promised
to attack a broken system. I get it.
Ripe target. But here's the thing. He's
a crook
and a con man.
And he wants to be a king.
Yes, the system really is rigged, but
Trump's not unrigging it. He's rerigging
it for himself.
I think that argument works. But I am to
be clear on the side of this debate that
says Democrats cannot pretend this is a
normal Republican administration and a
normal political moment. They cannot
ignore masked men in the streets, armed
troops in the cities, billions of
dollars of money going in the Trump
family's pockets. An administration that
spins off multiple scandals in a week
that would have consumed other
presidencies for years. If Democrats
cannot make an issue out of all that,
then they're screwed. And so are we. And
you know what? We might be. Even if
Democrats could agree on a message, do
they have the messengers? Have a Keem
Jeff and Chuck Schumer distinguish
themselves this year as able to win an
argument?
Are they going to hold the line as
national parks close down? As federal
employees are furoughed, if checks stop
going out the door, if flights are
delayed because air traffic controllers
aren't getting paid. I don't know that
they will. We all want to pursue a
bipartisan biccameal
uh appropriations process.
It is absolutely the case Democrats
could lose a shutdown. But whatever
they're doing right now, it's not called
winning. According to Gallup, the
Democratic party is pulling at 34%.
Lower than Donald Trump, lower than the
Republican party, the lowest level in
the decades that Gallup has been asking
the question. What's happening here is
that Democrats are so unpopular because
their own side is losing faith in them.
One flashing warning sign is
fundraising. Democrats are just failing
to raise money. Democratic National
Committee under Ken Martin has just been
a disaster. At the end of June, the DNC
had $15 million on hand as compared with
the RNC's 80 million. And it's just been
consumed with infighting. That matters.
Enthusiasm matters. The trust of your
base matters. Democrats don't just need
people to want them to win. They need
people willing to help them win, make
them win.
The political scientist Russell Harden
made an argument I've been thinking
about a lot. Power is a coordination
problem. Everyone in society, every
person, every institution is a node of
coordination. The secret of society is
people do what others do. And so if you
look at Democrats in Congress right now,
the signal they're sending is to not
take any risks. Everything is normal.
Just wait for the election and hope for
the best.
I think both that strategy, but also
sending that signal is a mistake.
The 2026 midterms are 14 months away.
The machinery of the state is being
organized to entrench Republican power
through redistricting, to control
information, to punish and harass
enemies, to create a masked paramilitary
force roaming the streets. Do you just
let that roll forward and hope for the
best? I'm not going to tell you I'm sure
Democrats should shut down the
government. I'm not. At the same time,
joining Republicans to fund this
government is worse than failing at
opposition.
That is complicity.
Democratic leaders have had six months
to come up with a plan. If there is a
better plan than a shutdown, great. But
if the plan is still nothing, act normal
and hope for the best. Then Democrats
need new leaders.
[Music]

Trump STRATEGY Finally BACKFIRES into His DEMISE
The Intersection with Michael Popok
Legal AF
Sep 7, 2025

Turns out attacking immigrants and deporting and removing them at an obscene rate is fatal for the Trump Economy, as the labor pool of workers shrinks, consumers stop spending, manufacturers and agriculture stop making and growing things, and Trump turns what was a world-leading economy inherited from Biden, into the worst performing major economy in the world. Popok takes a close look at all the new survey and index numbers from this week, as the US turns up $100 billion dollars short to pay its bills, and we are 35 million workers short to run the economy in the future without immigrants.



Transcript

It's Sunday morning on Legal AF, so it
must be an economics breakdown. We're
having an economics breakdown. I'm
Michael Popach. You're here on the Legal
AF YouTube channel. Let's talk about
just the new data that's rolling in and
the new analysis that's rolling in. I'm
going to stitch together a bunch of new
developments, new surveys, new
statistics, all showing the same thing.
We went from a Biden economy that was
leading the world to just nine months
later a Trump economy that is in the
wood chipper. And what Americans are
saying regardless of their ethnic
background, regardless of their
demographic background, what they are
saying universally about the Trump
administration's economy is that they
are struggling. That this is a terrible
economy. only 30% of America believes
that the big beautiful bill is helping
them or that they approve it outright.
Maybe it's because most of the spending
cuts, most of the funding cuts went to
red states to help support their health
care, help support their child health
care, help to support their schools,
help to support things that matter to
people who are below the poverty line,
which makes up a fair percentage of red
states. So, we have that. Now, we've got
new reporting that the uh that and I
don't know why this is coming as a shock
to the Trump administration, but chasing
other human beings through the streets
with ICE and Border Patrol agents,
federalizing our uh our National Guard
and our military to chase after human
beings and deport a million people from
the United States is having a
devastating impact on our jobs market.
Employers in many of the sectors that
matter to everyday Americans cannot find
enough help because we are now short 1.2
million workers right now. And I don't
think it's a coincidence that it matches
the 1 million people that have already
been deported by Donald Trump and he
wants to deport 9 million more.
There are entire industries in food
industry, agriculture, forestry,
farming, construction that can't find
any more employees because they they've
either gone underground
because of muddled immigration status or
they've been deported. Not because they
were criminals, not because they were
part of a drug cartel, but because they
couldn't find a way to have a dignified
immigration policy to give them proper
status.
Um, let's look at let me look at the
economy from another perspective. We
just got the beige book released. That's
a report from the 12 different uh
regional banks of that make up the
Federal Reserve talking about what's
happening in the microeconomy of that
particular part of the country and in
seven out of the 12 in the most recent
beige book seven out of the 12 regions
so more than half say that they are not
hiring on the hiring side on the
employer side because of the instability
and their inability to plan because of
the tariff uh scheme of Donald Trump's
And the other part, the consumer side,
the actual people's side say that they
are struggling.
Let's just do a micro dive into one
particular group of people. Hispanics
are Hispanics, which make up a large
percentage, one quarter of America or
so, counts themselves as some his
Hispanic heritage, are not consuming any
longer at the rates that they were.
Hispanic consumption, which helps drive
the economy, is down. And not just by a
little, but by a lot. When Joe Biden was
president, year after year, their
consumption was going up 5%, 10%. You
know what it was during the most recent
U uh Trumpanomics? It went up 1%.
Virtually the same level of consumption
year after year. Why? Because they're
scared. Because they're going through
their own turmoil because of the
immigration policies of Donald Trump in
their own families. They're not they
don't feel like partying and spending.
They don't have the disposable income.
They already have some of the lowest
wages by ethnic group in the country.
And Hispanics are suffering. But it's
not just them. Black consumption is
down. White consumption is down. These
are drivers for the economy. We just had
new reporting that the national deficit
is up 100 to up to a hundred billion
dollars already. the amount we bring in
versus the amount we spend. There's a
gap of a hundred billion. Remember all
that Doge cost cutting and defunding and
cutting off the lifelines to the
American people from the federal
government? How's that working? You
still got a hundred billion dollars
short. Can you imagine? You sit down at
your checkbook uh at the end of the
month to write your bills and you and
you have your big stack of bills and you
got your money in the bank and you're a
hundred billion short. That's America
right now.
U the jobs numbers are terrible. Uh they
just came out. Donald Trump the last
time he saw numbers this bad last month,
he fired the commissioner of the Bureau
of Labor Statistics. He's got no one
left to fire because he his own head
isn't in there and his and his commerce
secretary right before the jobs report
came out said these are going to be more
accurate. Okay. You know what it says in
the jobs report that Donald Trump in the
last three months of his economy has
made an average of 14,000 jobs in total
in a 300 million person economy. By
contrast, the Biden administration made
over every every month of the Biden
administration averaged 168,000 jobs per
month. Do the math. That's over two
million jobs for the year every year
Biden was in. Now we're doing 14,000
onetenth or less the the size. One month
we had negative job growth. In other
words, we shed more jobs and didn't make
any. And that's all from the Bureau of
Labor Statistics. The mass deportations
are having a tremendous deltorious
impact on our economy. Just look at some
of the industries in some of the
sectors. 45%
of the
uh farming, fishing, and forestry
communities, that's part of our
agriculture. That's our nation's bread
basket, if you will, in large part. 45%
is filled by immigrants. I'm not talking
about their status right now. I'm just
saying it's filled by immigrants, right?
We're back to dirty jobs that white
Americans don't want to do and aren't
doing. 30% of construction jobs are
filled with im filled by immigrants and
over 20% of the workforce overall is
your neighbor who happens to be an
immigrant and likely black and brown.
The Social Security Administration
estimates, wait, sit down for this one.
The Social Security Administration
estimates that we are 35 million workers
short for the 2030s and our economy
then. So just 5 years from now, the
start of the 2030s and into that decade,
we're short 35 million employees right
now. If we don't get So what does that
mean? That means there's not enough
nativeborn Americans to fill the jobs
for the size of our economy. Our size of
the goods and services and agricultural
and all the sectors outstrips the
ability of nativeborn Americans or
people here on legal immigration status
that are here right now to generate
enough babies to make up that deficit
because birth rates are down in America
not up. Which means as we always have,
we can't be America first when it comes
to immigration. We have to have long
arms and embrace the exact opposite of
what Donald Trump is doing and embrace
people from other cultures and other
lands to come to America to make a life
for themselves and contribute to our
economy both as consumers and as workers
and as business owners and business
developers. We need the brains. We need
the brun. We need the people. We need
the bodies and we need the brains all at
the same time. So, how are we what's
Donald Trump's plan to increase our
labor pool by 35 million over the next
1015 years? What is it? Encourage bigger
families, pay I mean, we haven't seen
that, you know, uh, you know, give
everybody some sort of stipen to have
three children, four children, five
children. No, he's got to rely on
immigration. In order to rely on
immigration, you have to stop
inhumanely, depravedly chasing people
through the streets
and signaling to the rest of the world
that we are an inhospitable environment
for people to come and live in.
Who in America in their right mind right
now is thinking, I mean, who around the
world in their right mind is thinking,
I think I should move to America. This
seems like the perfect opportunity.
Sure, there's a couple that will try to
exploit this current situation, but most
people are like, "No, I'd rather stay in
my home country." As bad as it is here
for some people. It looks worse on
television with Donald Trump in power.
So, without the 35 million people, in
order to attract them, you need a
dignified immigration policy. Now, I'm
looking at the Democrats and the
Republicans because they have not been
able to get their act together and their
together in the last 50 years to
come up with an immigration pathway that
not only takes the 10 million people
here that are not here on proper status
and find a way, yes, can we just say it
out loud? Get rid of the criminals, but
the other uh, you know, 9.99 million
people, give them a path to citizenship
and legal status and work. put them to
work. They want to work. We want them to
work. They want to do the dirty jobs.
Give them the ability to do it with
dignity. And then let and then have it
have us be the shining the shining light
on the hill, the shining beacon on the
hill to attract more talent, more
people, make it easier for talented
people to come here through H1B. Not
just the golden visa. This they're
they're such idiots. Seriously, I want
to reach through my television, through
my screen, and choke them. They are such
morons. You know, we want to just
attract white rich people. We're going
to make it like a black MX card or or or
a platinum MX card. $5 million of
investment. You get to come in. That's
not going to do it, folks. We're not
going to get 35 million millionaire and
billionaires to come in here and and
make enough businesses. And even if they
make the businesses, who's going to
staff them,
you know? So you got jobs reports that
shows right now, right now already
started there are less jobs than people
looking for it. There are less jobs than
people looking for it. But soon there's
going to be too many people. You know,
we're going to be short people. And
that's the point of when you have a
tariff program that's now been declared
unconstitutional and illegal,
which was the centerpiece of Donald
Trump. Apparently, this was his only
trick. He only had one tariffs. I'm
going to use them to beat up our allies.
I'm going to use them to collect more
money. I'm going to use them as the
centerpiece of my foreign policy, of my
national security policy, of my war
efforts with our new Department of War.
All tariffs, except he didn't have the
power to get tariffs or use tariffs that
way. And he's and they've been struck
down. Now, maybe the Senate and the
House will get around to giving him that
power, but they haven't yet.
I'm just looking at the micro and macro
data about the economy and it is
terrible.
Sometimes economists take a while to
look back on an era and declare if
something was the start of a recession.
We're in the Trump recession right now.
How long it lasts, I don't know. The
Federal Reserve is likely to cut
interest rates because they got no
choice at this point. The bottom has
fallen out of consumer confidence. The
bottom has fallen out of business
confidence. The bottom has fallen out of
hiring. The bottom has fallen out of the
job market and inflation is soaring.
They're going to have to cut rates, but
they can't cut them too greatly.
Otherwise, inflation will go even
higher. Meaning the amount you pay for
goods and services.
It's all your people are already
struggling at the pump around the
kitchen table, at the supermarkets, at
the doctor's offices, you know, clothing
their children. Kids are back in school
now. school supplies and clothing their
children uh and making sure that they
can have some sort of life even if it's
not better than theirs, some sort of
life of dignity in America. So, we're
gonna continue to follow the economy and
Trump because there's there are certain
elements of Trump's ridiculous false
populist campaign where he uses
xenophobia, attacks on foreign people,
attacks on immigrants to try to unite
his base while tearing apart the
country. There are certain elements of
it that we have to focus on from now
till the midterms. That is his his
attack on science, medicine, and healthc
care and the impact on our public
health, on our ability to fight the next
pandemic, the ability to have a vaccine
ready to do that. That's one. The
economy is another leading indicator of
the depravity and failure of the Trump
administration. So, we need to follow
health, including Donald Trump's own
failing health. We have to follow public
health, including RFK Jr. now being on
such such thin ice, I'm not sure he's
going to survive, and then and rightly
so, and on the economy. These are the
things that matter to people and will be
up for grabs at the midterm elections. I
don't want to hear about transgender
sports anymore. It's not that I'm not in
favor of certain aspects of that. It's
just it's just these single issues that
were used as wedge issues by the
Republicans are have become tiresome and
it's not what this country is about and
should not be about.
Okay? Recognize that the Republicans
have used wedge issues forever because
they are a narrow-based party that has
to scare the crap out of people and put
each other at each other's throats in
order to win an election.
So 40 years ago, it was it was gay
marriage. Then it was gays in the
military. And when society embraced gay
and LGBTQ plus community and saw, no,
they're allowed to marry. They should be
able to marry who they want and love who
they want. Maybe because people realize
in their own families
they have gay people, one degree
separated, children. So that changed. So
then they went, "Well, we're not winning
on the gay issue. We better move to
transgender people.
Let's go after this vulnerable
population that represents a very small
percentage in America, but are having
their rights and have had their rights
crushed and civil liberties crushed as a
political pawn to get the Republicans
elected.
And that's where we're at right now. But
we need to hold them accountable and we
will together. Take a moment, hit the
free subscribe button. I got amazing
stuff going on over at the legal AF
Substack. If you know about Substack and
you haven't found us Legal AF, go check
out Legal AF. I think you're going to be
impressed with the quality and volume of
work that we have there, including live
reports. If you don't know about
Substack, it's a great it's a great
environment. Uh it's a great ecosystem.
Go out, check out things, your hobbies,
your lifestyles, your interest.
Somebody's writing and producing
information there on a daily, hourly
basis that you'll find interesting.
Check out Legal AF Substack. If you like
us, hit the subscribe button, take a
receipt, and if you really like us,
become a paid member. So, until my next
report, I'm Michael Popac. I'm Michael
Popac, and I got some big news for our
audience. Most of you know me as the
co-founder of Midas Touches Legal AF and
the Legal AF YouTube channel, or as a
35-year national trial lawyer. Now
building on what we started together on
Legal AF, I've launched a new law firm,
the Popo Firm, dedicated to obtaining
justice through compassionate and
zealous legal representation. At the
Popo Firm, we are focused on obtaining
justice for those who have been injured
or damaged by a lifealtering event by
securing the highest dollar recoveries.
I've been tirelessly fighting for
justice for the last 35 years. So, my
own law firm, organically building on my
legal AF work, just feels right. And
I've handpicked a team of top tier trial
fighters and settlement experts
throughout all 50 states known as Big
Auto injury attorneys who have the
knowhow to beat heartless insurance
companies, corporations, government
entities, and their attorneys. Big Autos
attorneys working with my firm are rock
stars in their respective states and
collectively responsible for billions of
dollars in recoveries. So, if you or a
loved one have been on the wrong side of
a catastrophic auto, motor vehicle, ride
share, or truck accident, suffered a
personal injury, or been the victim of
medical malpractice, employment
harassment, or discrimination, or
suffered a violation of your civil and
constitutional rights, then contact the
Pope Firm today at 1877 pop af or by
visiting my website at
www.thepopfirm.com
and fill out a free case evaluation
form. And if we determine that you have
a case and you sign with us, we don't
get paid unless you do. The Pope firm
fighting for your justice every step of
the

Trump CAUGHT BUYING GIRL From Epstein, Instantly LOSES IT In Post!
by Jack Cocchiarella
2 hours ago



Transcript

Donald Trump has tried and failed to run
from his Jeffrey Epstein scandal, but it
is not going away. Just today, we saw
the Oversight Committee release the
letter that Donald Trump wrote to
Jeffrey Epstein in his birthday book.
And if you thought that was bad, it only
got worse because the Wall Street
Journal, which originally broke that
story, has released new reporting on a
sale of a girl between Trump and
Epstein. You heard that right. They have
the photos and the check. We are going
to get into what has been the craziest
day of this Epstein scandal so far and
the insane posting that not just Trump
but Carolyn Levid are trying to do to
cover it up. We're going to get into it
all. But before we do, if I could
quickly ask you to leave a like on this
video and if you haven't already and you
enjoy our channel to hit that subscribe
button because it goes a long way in
supporting our work. Now, before we can
get into this story, this crazy new Wall
Street Journal story of this check, I
want to start with what Jasmine Crockett
had to say today about the cover-ups
happening right now in the White House.
What? And I also want to point out that
it is so rich that the Republicans
believe in small government and this is
the biggest government that I've ever
seen because they have decided that now
they are going to somehow be the local
police that is going to solve local
crime at the federal level. That is not
what we're supposed to do, especially on
our level. What we do is we write
federal laws. That is our job and that
is the lane that we're going to stay in.
And the only reason we're talking about
January 6 is because the Republicans are
the ones bringing this, not us.
Now more than ever, we are going to see
Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress
use and abuse their power as much as
possible to distract us from these
stories because they do not want us
paying attention, especially this latest
Wall Street Journal piece about the
check that was written. This is
insanity. The sale of a girl as outlined
in this story, it is absolute madness.
But where it all starts, of course, is
the story that Robert Garcia broke
today. how MAGA is reacting. We're gonna
get to that, but I want to start with
Robert Garcia.
Hey, it's Congressman Robert Garcia. Uh,
as you may have heard, Oversight
Democrats just got a hold of the Jeffrey
Epstein birthday book and note that of
course was sent by Donald Trump to
Jeffrey Epstein. This note, Donald Trump
has said does not exist. Well, once
again, he is lying to the American
public and is leading a White House
cover up. I'm going to show you uh the
note that we've now acquired. It's a
little crude, so I I do apologize if you
don't want to see it, but this is the
actual note. You see the president's
signature there.



Um you can read some of
the words that he is sharing with his
friend Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. President,
this is not a hoax. You are lying to the
American public. You are involved in a
cover up. Now, the oversight committee
is going to be reviewing the documents
we received today. And we will not stop
until we get justice for the victims of
Jeffrey Epstein and all those that were
involved. We do not care how powerful
you are, how connected you are, how much
money and wealth you have, or what
political party that you are in. We'll
get justice for these survivors and
we'll get to the truth.
It is clear as day that Donald Trump
wrote this letter, that Donald Trump
sent this letter, and that this letter
is a representation of how Donald Trump
not only views Epstein's habits as it
comes to young girls, but potentially
Trump's. It is disgusting, but it is
also clear as day. Republicans denied
this letter even existed. Donald Trump
uh went forward with a lawsuit to say
that this was defamation. Carolyn Levit
is still trying to spin the story. It's
not working. We're going to check it out
and then get into this latest reporting.
As you can see here, it couldn't be
clear that Donald Trump's signature on
this letter matches other authenticated
signatures of Donald Trump's at the same
time.



But of course, Karolyn Leavitt had
to jump in and write,

"The latest piece
published by the Wall Street Journal
proves this entire birthday card story
is false. As I have said all along,
it's very clear President Trump did not
draw this picture and he did not sign
it. President Trump's legal team will
continue to aggressively pursue
litigation. Furthermore, the reporter
who wrote this hatchet job reached out
for comment at the exact same minute he
published his story, giving us no time
to respond. This is fake news to
perpetuate the Democrat Epstein hoax.
The Democrat Epstein hoax.

You just heard survivors speak outside the
capital, Carolyn. How is this false?
What about it is false? And of course,
that's clearly Donald Trump's signature.
But if you want something even clearer
than that, how about him standing next
to Epstein in this disgusting new
element of the story?



Also in the New
Wall Street Journal story today, the
Pashcow letter included a photo of a
poster-board-sized check for $22,500,
which has been mocked up to appear that
it was sent from Trump to Epstein.



Beneath it, a handwritten caption said,
"Jeffrey showing early talents with
money plus women cells fully
depreciated, redacted to Donald Trump
for $22,500."
The woman's name is redacted in the
image. You can see the image here of the
check being given to Jeffrey Epstein
from Donald Trump with the mention of
selling a woman. They are joking about
Donald Trump having purchased a fully
depreciated woman from Jeffrey Epstein.
Now, what does that mean? There are so
many things that we could take away from
that. Is that saying the girl is now too
old for Epstein? Too used up to invoke
their disgusting language. This is foul
that they were making jokes, but it
proves it all. which is why Donald Trump
tried to respond with his own
distraction after this story broke. He
took to Truth Social to post this. Trump
wrote on Truth Social,

I have seen the
horrific video of a beautiful young
Ukrainian refugee who came to America to
escape the vicious war in Ukraine and
was innocently riding the metro in
Charlotte where she was brutally
ambushed. The perpetrator was a
well-known career criminal who has been
previously arrested and released in
January a total of 14 times. What the
hell was he doing riding the train and
walking the streets? Criminals like this
need to be locked up. The blood of this
innocent woman is on the hands of
Democrats who refuse to put bad people
in jail, including former disgraced
governor and wannabe senator Roy Cooper.
North Carolina and every state needs law
and order, and only Republicans will
deliver it. Additionally, where is the
outrage from the mainstream media on
this horrible tragedy?

So, in an effort
to distract from his Epstein scandal,
Donald Trump is trying to turn what is a
tragedy into a political pawn for
himself, as he has done with Epstein,
only for it, of course, to blow up in
his face, as it has with Jeffrey
Epstein. Donald Trump doesn't care about
keeping people safe. Donald Trump
doesn't care about anything but Donald
Trump. And that's been proven out time
and time again. This Epstein letter is a
disgrace. that check is is abominable. I
don't know how anyone can see any of
this and think anything other than that
Donald Trump now more than ever has
always been completely unqualified not
for the presidency but to exist in
public life. This is a criminal. This is
a disgusting human being. And if you are
willing to bend the knee to this guy, it
means you're not only a coward and
pathetic, it means you are at the same
level of disgust that he is. And you
should think about that, Republicans,
before you give it all away to Donald
Trump even more. And that is exactly
what we heard called out by our friends
at MSNBC, specifically Tim Miller,
responding to this story.
Yeah. Well, I think it's their instinct
to lie for starters. Um, uh, was when
they're presented with inconvenient
information. It's easier for them to
talk about the fake news and say and
blame the fake news than actually engage
on the merits on this one in particular.
Yeah, I mean it is true that it's not
known that Donald Trump was body, but
there is this mythos that that Will
could talk about for sure on the right
and some on the MAGA right and the QAnon
right that Trump was like fighting
against you know the elite pedophile
rings out there and that he was you know
some some warrior on the inside who was
going to expose all these people and now
here he is not only not exposing them
all but writing this note to to Epstein
here that is just extremely familiar
right like be it's one thing is sure it
is true that famous people sometimes
sign birthday cards for people or sign
generic notes for people that is not
what we're seeing here I mean we have
this drawing of what appears to be a
young woman I would say and Donald Trump
talking about how they share certain
things in common about how they how they
have all these wonderful secrets
together I I mean it is it's a letter
from two guys that get in trouble
together and have a bromance I I that's
what this is it's not some generic
letter. And so I think that's why they
probably are more sensitive about it
because it's it's not as if it's just
two famous people take getting their
picture together at another famous
person's party. It's more on that. But I
don't think even if
would it be surprising that Donald Trump
wrote something something like this to
one of his friends? No. Even if that
friend did turn out to be a creep, I'm
not sure it would be surprising. Um I
don't know if that inherently uh means
that Donald Trump himself is bea is also
engaging in the same behavior. He was
interacting with lots of people. I think
making that jump is is easier to do if
the person is being cy about it and
strange and not admitting to just some
obvious things when you're not saying,
"Yeah, I wrote this. I did do this
picture. Um no, it's not me. Somebody
else drew it. it's not my signature when
it looks exactly like your signature.
That starts to raise more questions. But
I want to linger on what Tim said a
moment ago about the the right
canonizing Donald Trump as the figure
who was going to expose all of this.
Speaker Mike Johnson had this very weird
moment on Friday where he suggested that
Donald Trump was actually an FBI
informant against uh Jeffrey Epste. He
was the one that tipped off the FBI back
in the early 2000s. He walked that back
and cleaned it up a bit in a statement
today, but it just was out there for
three or four days out there in the
press. Where where does that come from?
This idea that Donald Trump was the one.
By the way, we had Tom Winter on earlier
today. He's reviewed the documents and
the initial tip came from according to
the government documents uh came from
the family members of some of the the
girls who were victimized.
I don't know if that was for me or
Will, I'm sending that to you. I'm
sorry, Will. Sure. Big wind up. So,
sure. So, so in this case, I mean, look,
conspiracy theorists, QAnon believers,
Trump supporters have had a problem for
a long time, which is how do you square
Donald Trump's friendship with this, you
know, convicted sex or excuse me,
charged sex trafficker and pedophile,
all these things, and yeah, convicted
pedophile. Um, and what they came up
with was, well, maybe Trump was kind of
going in on the inside to expose Jeffrey
Epstein. Maybe he made Alex Aosta, the
prosecutor who gave Epsteina a
sweetheart deal. Maybe he put him in the
cabinet to draw attention to how awful
this deal was. Um, so they kind of exist
in this alternate universe. Um, and
that's only gotten worse since Trump
tried to close the Epstein case along
with Pam Bondi. Um, and so, you know,
again, it's bizarre to me that this has
reached the point where the speaker of
the house is now saying, well, you know,
maybe Trump is an FBI informant. Maybe
he was he was working to take down
Epstein. Um, but really I mean they're
grasping at straws because as you said
Katie, the whole thing is really weird.
The idea that Trump was friends with
this notorious pedophile and all of a
sudden his administration is doing
everything they can to stop this
discussion about it.
Yeah. I I guess if you're innocent, why
do you protest so much about it? Why do
you claim that you're not involved in
any way? Why is nothing why is this not
your signature? We've seen the images.
We've seen them partying together.
Donald Trump has given quotes to
magazines about the kind of guy that
Jeffrey Epste was. It's all been out
there.
This is truly a bombshell. I'm unsure
how Trump comes back from this. I know
the base will always be there for him.
But even if you are a cultist, it is
hard to look past this. And it will be
especially difficult if we continue to
put on the pressure, which what we're
which we are going to be doing on this
show every single day. And if you want
to support that, as always, you can hit
that subscribe button, leave a like on
this video, and if you stuck around to
the end, drop a blue heart in the
comments. And until next time, I'll see
you

If Trump Isn’t Dying, Why Is He Being Treated Like a Make-A-Wish Kid? | The Daily Show
The Daily Show
Sep 8, 2025 #DailyShow #JonStewart #Trump

Rumors have been swirling about the president's potentially failing health, and between his cankles, a tribute video from the White House, and global leaders throwing Nobel Prize nominations at the guy like he's the oldest Make-A-Wish kid in the world, Jon Stewart can't help but wonder: IS Trump dying? #DailyShow #JonStewart #Trump



Transcript

Welcome to The Daily Show.
My name is Jon Stewart.
Man, I gotta tell you, it feels so
nice to be back at work after like,
four to five weeks of doing whatever I wanted to do--
[LAUGHTER]
Whenever I wanted to do it.
I was a little worried.
We took the back end of the summer off there.
And I don't know if you noticed,
we have new owners here at the network.
Didn't know if they would let us back in the building.
[LAUGHTER]
But good news, we have not heard from them.
[LAUGHTER]
But one of the windows was left unlocked, so here we are.
[LAUGHTER]
We do have a tremendous program for you
this evening, Spike Lee.
[APPLAUSE]
We will be right here.
Spike Lee will be here this evening.
He will be discussing his new film
while I hector him about the New York Knickerbockers.
So we'll see how it goes.
Now, now, normally, as many of you
may know who've been on this planet for a few rotations,
August is considered a relatively quiet
month for political doings.
But as we have been told many, many times,
eh, this ain't normal.
So I'm going to try and catch you up since we've been gone.
The economy hit a brick wall, stalling on jobs,
while inflation continued to rise.
So Trump met with Putin in Alaska
to force Ukraine to accept Cracker Barrel's new logo.
[LAUGHTER]
While Labubu released a new Epstein file, and Taylor
got engaged.
It's a blur.
It's all a blur.
But all of it takes a back seat to continuing concerns
over the President's health.
We haven't really seen much of the president
over the last week.
Basically absent from the public eye.
He's clearly hiding something about his health.
# - The #trumpisdead trended on social media.
What the [BLEEP]?
You people.
You reporters have no chill.
Guy can't take a few days for some
R&R and a non-surgical breast reduction without everybody--
[APPLAUSE]
Suddenly pulling out the toe tags on the President.
It does say something about the ubiquity
of Donald Trump in our lives, that we
don't hear from him for 20 minutes and we're like,
he's dead.
[LAUGHTER]
I think he's-- check, can we track him?
How do you know he's dead?
Well, it's been seven minutes since the word "Newscum"
has come up on my feed.
He must be dead.
But of course, Trump didn't die in office,
but I wouldn't put it past him, trying
once again to take credit for something Biden
had already accomplished.
[LAUGHTER]
[SIZZLES]
[APPLAUSE]
But that being said, Trump is alive.
Although, I definitively would not go so far as to
say alive and kicking.
Something is up with his health.
New today, the White House revealing President Trump
has been diagnosed with a condition called
chronic venous insufficiency.
Chronic venous insufficiency a relatively common condition,
something that gets more common as you get older.
[SNORING]
[APPLAUSE]
Oh, I'm sorry.
Did I wander into the wrong classroom at Boring University?
[LAUGHTER]
Can someone please explain his physical condition to me
in a way I'd be interested in the style of perhaps,
a world weary Brit?
BRITISH REPORTER: His ankles, swollen and straining
over his oxfords aren't just unsightly
cankles, they're flashing neon signs of a body under pressure.
[LAUGHTER]
Put that Attenborough right into my veins.
[LAUGHTER]
The aging President struggles to keep up with the herd.
[LAUGHTER]
And as night falls, it's clear, the lions
will eat well tonight.
[APPLAUSE]
On a menu--
[APPLAUSE]
On a menu-- wait, I want to tell you the menu.
[LAUGHTER]
On a menu of cankles au Poivre.
[LAUGHTER]
It might not have been worth the walk,
but I felt I owed it to you.
[LAUGHTER]
By the way, it's not just the cankles he's got going.
The whole meat bag seems to be having
some kind of drainage issue.
REPORTER: These images of the President
have drawn attention in recent days,
showing apparent bruising on his hands
that was covered with makeup.
Jesus, grandpa.
[LAUGHTER]
Put them away.
Holy shit.
[LAUGHTER]
And what's with the makeup?
It's not like you can treat leprosy at Sephora.
God.
[LAUGHTER]
By the way, may I remind you, these are just the parts
poking out that we can see.
[LAUGHTER]
I bet everything on that body not covered by clothes
is all [BLEEP] up right now.
[LAUGHTER]
For all we know, the guy's gone full Grimace.
[LAUGHTER]
Blotchy hands, puffy ankles.
Although, to be fair to Trump, people got a little nitpicky.
We can see that there is of like a lumpy situation
going on on Trump's forehead.
One of his eyes is half-closed.
All right, now you're just being mean.
[LAUGHTER]
I mean, he's got swollen ankles.
He's got a little bit on the thing,
but look at his [BLEEP] eyes.
[LAUGHTER]
They're lumpy.
[LAUGHTER]
See, this is the problem with our
superficial Instagram culture.
We have unrealistic expectations
in this country about the amount of fluid
our bodies should be able to clear subcutaneously.
It sends the wrong message to young people.
These really-- these really are not medical appraisals.
It's just more like insults.
Like, hey, according to the Mayo Clinic, why
are his eyes so [BLEEP] lumpy?
[LAUGHTER]
Insiders have been calling the President Skippy,
because under his skin looks a little extra chunky.
[LAUGHTER]
Hey, the President's neck looks so much
like Betty White's vagina that Milton Berle--
[CROWD REACTING]
Too soon?
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah.
I was going to do the--
[APPLAUSE]
The reason we did the tag to that
was going to be at Milton Berle tried to do [BLEEP] him, but--
[CROWD REACTING]
You clearly rejected the premise.
Why should I?
[LAUGHTER]
I came with the, mm?
[LAUGHTER]
Mm.
Mm, we're full, we're full.
[LAUGHTER]
Now, normally, we might be able to dismiss these symptoms,
but Trump himself seems very focused these days
on securing a prime piece of afterlife real estate.
DONALD TRUMP: I want to try and get to heaven.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sure you do.
[LAUGHTER]
But you know, hey, look, the first step is always
admitting you have a problem.
Maybe you can turn this thing around.
If there's a will, there's a way for you
to get yourself back up that golden escalator
to the heavens.
Just moments ago, Democrats on the panel
posted this image with a caption that reads,
quote, "Here it is.
We got Trump's birthday note to Jeffrey
Epstein that the President said doesn't exist."
[CLEARS THROAT] going down.
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, well.
That's OK.
It's OK.
[APPLAUSE]
But it's not just the physical symptoms
that make you think the President is transitioning
from this mortal coil.
It's that whenever any of his biggest supporters
are with him, it sounds like they're saying goodbye.
Mr. President, um, working for this government, for you,
is the greatest honor of my life.
When history looks back on you,
how would you like to be remembered?
I'll never forget standing in the East Room with you,
surrounded by the coal miners around this country where you
said, hey, big beautiful coal.
[LAUGHTER]
Remember, Mr. President?
And I said, no, these are humans.
The coal is what they dig for.
And then--
[LAUGHTER]
Anyway, we'll miss you.
[LAUGHTER]
And have you ever been to one of those funerals
where there's a video of the recently departed?
Well, six days ago, the White House released one of them.
DONALD TRUMP: Let me share some of the biggest
lessons I've learned from a lifetime spent building dreams.
First, if you think that you're too young to do something
great, let me tell you that you are wrong,
you're not too young.
[LAUGHTER]
There's no such thing as too young.
[CROWD REACTING]
[APPLAUSE]
I'm having trouble getting a read on these people.
[LAUGHTER]
If you're watching this video, I'm already dead.
[LAUGHTER]
But by the way, once you begin to notice this pattern,
you begin to see, really, the whole vibe
around this President is very Make-A-Wish kid.
Everyone who shows up to his office
tries to make one of his dreams come true.
We thought it was only appropriate to present
you with--
Wow.
The Honorary United States Marshal Service badge.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Look how happy they made him.
[LAUGHTER]
Gee whiz, Mr, a real Marshal?
This is even better than when they
let me drive a garbage truck.
[LAUGHTER]
Now, you might be saying to yourself,
and the Make-A-Wish thing is a little much.
A grown man would recognize when
people are condescending to him, treating him like a child,
tiptoeing around his fragile ego,
with the idea that this person is
so easily manipulated that even the cheapest of gestures
could be persuasive.
You would [BLEEP] think that.
[LAUGHTER]
[CROWD REACTING]
Also--
[LAUGHTER]
I have in the bag Thor's hammer.
[LAUGHTER]
But only the bravest boy can pick it up.
[LAUGHTER]
Only the bravest boy can--
oh, my God, you did it.
[LAUGHTER]
You picked it up.
[APPLAUSE]
You're Thor.
[APPLAUSE]
I'm telling you though, man, this
goes way past trophy fondling and cereal box deputy badges.
The people around Trump know that he
is a never-ending, insatiable, black hole of wishes.
It's well past time that President Trump was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
When Operation Warp Speed was started,
it was a massive success for our country.
And I do agree that President Trump should
get the Nobel Prize for that.
I'm thinking that since he's basically
taught the World trade economics,
he might be up for the Nobel on Economics.
Ooh, Donald Trump, the first recipient
of the Nobel Prize variety pack,
ooh, economics, chemistry.
Oh, here's one for monogamy.
It's really entirely made up.
[LAUGHTER]
Sure, why not just fire up the 3D printer and print
all the Nobels for Donny?
Or perhaps, they sell them at Spencer gifts,
which still exists.
It's a real--
[LAUGHTER]
You may have killed our bookstores, Bezos,
but in America, we still shop in person for our lava lamps
and our dildos that suction cup to the wall.
[LAUGHTER]
By the way, word to the wise, the seal is unreliable.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Everything about the treatment of this President
screams Make a Wish kid.
Oh, you'll meet your favorite celebrities
and they'll dress up for you.
Oh, I know why you're President.
You won't be able to sleep at your home,
and it probably feels a little scary
and a little uncomfortable, so [SNAPS FINGER] makeover.
Oh, and did you get an owie?
No, no, it doesn't look weird at all.
In fact, we're all wearing them.
It looks-- it looks so cool.
But if you think there's some government institutions that
are above this kind of insulting obsequiousness,
you would be wrong.
Today, the Supreme Court bent over backwards
to grant Trump even his most unconstitutional wishes,
like, maybe you can arrest people for looking Mexican.
Breaking at this hour, the Supreme Court
again has backed President Trump's approach
towards immigration.
It is now ruled that they are allowing federal agents
to proceed with raids in Southern California
if they target people for deportation
based on their race or language.
Hey, the good news, the Supreme Court
supports affirmative action based on race.
The bad news is that action is ICE deporting you.
What the [BLEEP]?
What kind of a Make-A-Wish kid wants to nullify
the Fourth Amendment?
I'm beginning to think Trump isn't a benign, suffering child
at all.
I'm beginning to think everybody treats Trump
like this not because he's the Make-A-Wish kid,
but because he's that Twilight Zone kid,
that any time somebody made him mad,
he sent them out to the cornfield.
You're a bad man.
You're a very bad man.
And you keep thinking bad thoughts about me.
You think I'm wrong?
Let's play a game.
I'll play you two clips, and I'll
bet you won't be able to tell the difference
between scared townspeople trying
not to be sent to the cornfield and Trump's sycophants.
It's good what you've done to Dan.
You've been doing an amazing job.
That was swell.
It was just swell.
Great job, sir.
OK, the production values give it away.
[LAUGHTER]
But you got to admit, it's [BLEEP] weird,
and it never ends.
Good that you've done that.
Oh, it's real good.
People were applauding you.
You're a good boy, Anthony.
You're not just courageous.
You're actually fearless.
Everybody loves you, Anthony.
They love you, son.
The most consequential President
of the modern era, if not all of American history.
[LAUGHTER]
Only American history?
To the cornfields.
[LAUGHTER]
But this is where we're at, America.
This is where we're at.
[APPLAUSE]
[LAUGHTER]
For your consideration, a nation
held hostage by the fragile ego of a man
baby president, who may or may not be dying of hand syphilis--
[LAUGHTER]
But is puffy.
He's very-- he's certainly--
I don't know if he's dying.
He's weirdly puffy.
[LAUGHTER]
And who we're trapped with for at least three more
years in the Twilight Zone.

Trump Threatens WAR On Chicago
The Young Turks
Sep 8, 2025

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump2d
'I love the smell of deportations in the morning...'

Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR

President Trump berated a reporter for asking about a meme he posted that declared war on the city of Chicago. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.



Transcript

Let's make it clear. The president of
the United States essentially just
declared war on uh a major city in his
own nation. This is not normal.
Margaret, this is not acceptable
behavior.
Fake news when you say that, darling.
That's fake news.
Why do we defend?
Listen, be quiet. Listen. You don't
listen. You never listen. That's why
you're second rate. We're not going to
war. We're going to clean up our city.
We're going to clean them up so they
don't kill five people every weekend.
That's not war. That's common sense.
E. All right. Well, is Donald Trump
declaring war on the city of Chicago?
Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth seems
to think so, but Trump is giving some
mixed signals here. So, here's what
Trump posted on Truth Social after he
signed an executive order to rename the
Department of Defense the Department of
War. He wrote, well, this is what he
posted. It's a meme. So, it's a photo of
him. It's a whatever AI image of him
looking like a weird
the character out of Apocalypse Now.
Oh, okay. I didn't watch that movie, so
I didn't recognize it. Anyway, I love
the smell of deportations in the
morning. Chicago about to find out why
it's called the Department of War.
Okay. So, um
G, I wonder why she asked you if you're
going to war with Chicago.
Yo, shut up.
That's why you're second rate. Shut up.
No, then your meme is second rate,
Like, I know that none of these
reporters can say anything because oh my
god, you're not supposed to get into a
confrontation with I don't know why
you're not supposed to get into a
confrontation. That's actually wrong.
You should be confrontational with
politicians, Republicans and Democrats.
That's old school journalism. This kind
of soft ass stuff doesn't work for me.
Now, nothing wrong with what she asked.
She asked the right question, right? But
I know she's not allowed to respond. And
then they, oh, he's then he tried to
take away funding and your license and
because he's a authoritarian uh clown
and all that. Okay, but brother, you put
out a meme saying that apocalypse and
war is coming to Chicago. She's asking
you, is war coming to Chicago? Cuz you
posted it.
Is there ever a day, like this is what I
want to know about Trump. Is there a day
a day in his second term where he
doesn't make a point to communicate to
the American people that he finds them
to be his enemy?
Yeah,
because that's what he does on a daily
basis. He can't help himself. Whether
it's his own MAGA base,
okay, where he's, you know, basically
chiding them for demanding that he
release the goods on the Epstein files
because it was a campaign promise.
Members of his cabinet were promising to
do it. Oh, no. You guys are a problem. I
don't want your support. I don't want
your support. You're the enemy. Okay.
And when it comes to various cities,
whether it comes to reporters, good
American people constantly get chided as
the enemy by the president of the United
States, we are in super super dark
territory right now. Now, nonetheless,
despite Trump's threats to send in the
National Guard to Chicago, um he hasn't
taken any action yet, according to
Senator Duckworth.
This is not normal, Margaret. This is
not acceptable behavior. No, we don't
have any indications of uh them getting
ready to send troops into Chicago. In
fact, I was out at Great Lakes um uh
base yesterday, naval training base, and
they were able to confirm that the only
assistance they've been requested to
provide is just office space for ICE. Um
but that uh there no barracks, no
detention facilities, none of that is uh
being requested or prepared to in order
to support troops into Chicago. So,
so then is this just, you know, social
media trash talk? When you say he's
declaring war, is this tongue and cheek?
I I I think he's renaming the Department
of Defense, the Department of War. And
did did he not just say that Chicago
will find out what it means to be at
war? I I I don't I take what the
president of the United States says very
seriously. Um uh because that is the
respect you have to give to the office.
And if that's what he's declaring, then
let me make it clear. it it would be an
illegal order to declare war on a major
city, any city within the United States
by the president of the United States.
Well, we've shown or we have seen as a
result of the Trump administration
showing us they don't really care about
the rule of law at all. I mean, they'll
blow up a random boat in the middle of
the ocean and claiming that it's uh
carrying drug cartel members without
naming a single target or providing any
evidence uh for why they believe that
that is a drug cartel boat. Um at the
same time though, uh you also have the
governor of Illinois, JB Pritsker, uh
saying, "No, there has been some action
taken already. Let's hear what he has to
say."
We did get one call finally. This is
after weeks of Donald Trump threatening
and saying he's sending troops in and
not telling us exactly what their plan
is. But we got one call from this fellow
Gregory Bo who's a leader at uh Customs
and Border Patrol and and ICE.
Uh and he's the one who caused a lot of
the mayhem in in Los Angeles. uh he is
apparently leading the effort to come
into Chicago and he called our state
police and let us know let let our state
police director know only that they are
coming and that they um intend to be in
place by the end of this week and that's
it. They didn't tell us how many. They
didn't tell us what actions they're
going to take. They didn't tell us what
neighborhoods.
So he also stated later in the interview
um that there are around 300 federal
agents stationed around Chicago getting
ready to target Chicago communities. And
then when Trump was confronted about the
truth social meme by NBC News uh White
House correspondent, he just labeled the
threat of war as
fake news
even though he's the one who posted it
on his account. He said uh the governor
has pledged to hold the line and both
Chicago officials and residents are
getting ready to push back. Pritsker has
promoted or promised I should say has
promised that legal action would follow
a deployment though he said last Tuesday
that Illinois would only file a lawsuit
against Trump once the president's
justification for deploying the National
Guard in Chicago is known. And over the
weekend, thousands of people gathered
across um Chicago or the Chicagoland
area to protest Trump's threats. Just a
quick video on that.
Protests were all across the Chicago
area yesterday, including at an ICE
processing center out in the suburbs.
And that's actually where they'll take
migrants and temporarily house them at
points while they're in that processing
center. Now, the small crowd screaming
at ICE officers and ICE officers pushing
back, literally. And then over at the
naval base north of Chicago, local
leaders warning that at least 300
federal agents would be using the base
as an immigration enforcement command
center. But it was downtown where
several thousand protesters came to
demand a stop to the president's threats
to flood the city with immigration
agents. Protesters also opposing Trump's
threats to deploy the National Guard to
fight crime. All of this happening at
the same time. The city celebrates
Mexican Independence Day. It's really a
month-long celebration. But a parade in
Pilson on Saturday had parade goers
handing out know your rights cards and
whistles in case there are ice
sightings.
I hate scams, especially the ones that
target seniors. And Medicare's chalk
full of them. Between commission hungry
brokers and thousands of confusing plan
options. Most seniors aren't on the best
plan for them. That's why I partner with
Chapter. They're fully independent and
they work for you, not the insurance
companies. That's really important. They
can review all your options in under 20
minutes. And the average senior they
help saves over $1,100
a year. And the best part of it is it
doesn't cost you a thing. So, if you're
turning 65, call the number on the
screen to connect with a chapter adviser
today.
And earlier this morning, the uh
Department of Homeland Security
announced Operation Midway Blitz. DHS is
launching Operation Midway Blitz in
honor of Katie Abraham who was killed in
a drunk driving hitand-run car wreck
caused by criminal illegal alien Julio
uh Cukul Bull in Illinois. Okay, that's
great. Um, I would also like to know
whether or not we're going to extradite
uh the, you know, Israeli pedophile who
works for the Israeli government who was
able to fly back to Israel and might not
ever have to suffer any consequences for
the fact that he was soliciting a minor
for sex in the United States in Las
Vegas. Like, please don't come at me
about how like, oh, we're so these scary
foreigners, right? Yes, some of the
undocumented people have committed
crimes and they absolutely should be
brought to justice. Absolutely. But I
don't like this double standard where
some foreigners get to come to the
United States, maybe even attempt to
rape children in our country and then
get away with it.
Yeah, I have a lot more to say. Uh so
number one, let's talk about what's
legal or not. I'm going to try to solve
this. It won't get solved obviously, but
it's a solution that could work if
anybody actually wanted it. Uh so first
off, um sending in ICE is actually not
illegal. Uh he won the election and he
can send in ICE as much as he wants. uh
we are free to oppose that as much as we
like. We could have protests and then
ICE should not uh you know kick kick
people's ass for protesting. That's
supposed to be the most American right
there is. Right. But he can send in ICE.
So now sending in the military that
makes no sense at all. He can't do that.
The courts have now clarified that he
can't do that. He has no legal authority
to do that. There's no reason for
martial law in this case. And you
already have an army of FBI, DEA, ATF,
etc. that you could use. You have an
army of uh ICE that you could use. You
have local authorities. You could do all
of these things. And even if local
authorities don't participate, you still
have thousands of thousands of people
you can send in. So the military makes
no sense at all unless you're trying to
get people used to martial law. Okay?
And then number three is uh this war on
Americans.
Why? Just think about it, guys. So I
know what the right-wing says. Uh they
say, "Oh, he's just trolling. He's just
trolling." I know that was, you know,
you could argue that that was fun. I
don't know that I ever thought it was
fun, but you could argue it was fun when
he was running, right? But he's the
president of the United States. Do you
is that a is that a big win for us? Oh,
no, don't worry. The president was
clowning.
No, we got to get past the clowning. And
when you're talking about declaring war
in Chicago, why Chicago? Now, you say
for crime, etc., right? But guys, think
about it. Like I I'm a guy who would
break a lot of the rule unwritten rules
and the etiquette, I don't give a
goddamn about it. Right? So if I'm
involved in any kind of uh you know
government uh in any way that has power
and effect in this country, uh you're
goddamn right I'll push past a lot of
boundaries to get to the right answers
and I'm not going to be worried about
the feelings of the parliamentarian.
Right. But we never break the law. We
never violate the constitution. And and
and if I were going to say we're going
to war against someone, who would I say
we'd go to war against? Maybe the
lobbyists, K Street, right? At least you
get it. That makes sense. Those are the
bad guys. Those are the guys controlling
our government for their own purposes. I
would never say I'm going to war against
Beluxy, Mississippi, or Houston, Texas,
or anything in a red state or blue state
or anything involving real Americans.
Why would I want to go to war against
you? Especially if you're the president
of the United States. Those are your
citizens, your voters, your
constituents. What do you go to war
against them for threatening to if you
don't know that that meme is from the
originally, of course, the the quote
from the movie Apocalypse Snow was, "I
love the smell of Napal in the morning."
And it was Robert Duval's character,
Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore. Uh, and
so it doesn't give you a sense of
stability when your president is like, I
love this reference to loving the smell
of napal in the morning when it comes to
an American city. And so this is
unbalanced stuff, man, and we can't have
it. So lastly, um, so what is the
solution? So look, there's sanctuary
cities and there's good reasons for some
of the things in sanctuary cities like
when people who are victims of crime
work with the government, don't arrest
them.
Yeah. Or
or don't deport them.
Or if they've witnessed a crime and can
be useful in in, you know, sharing their
testimony, they shouldn't feel
uncomfortable coming forward because
they might automatically be deported.
Yeah. That's why picking people up from
court before their trials is
such a dumb terrible, terrible strategy.
So dumb. It's so dumb. discourages
people from showing up to their hearings
than doing things the legal way, right?
So, but if if Trump huffed and puffed
and at the end what he got was a deal
where you get one exemption for the
sanctuary cities, which is ICE is
allowed to come and pick up criminals
who have already been convicted and are
about to be released from prison and are
undocumented.
That exemption makes sense
100%.
We should let the federal government do
its job when we all agree that or almost
all of us agree that criminal
undocumented immigrants should not be
allowed to stay. So that's a reasonable
thing to do. This declaring war on each
other is madness.
I hate it. I really do.
Yeah.
You want a leader who loves the country
and the people in it, not a leader who
sees the people of this country as his
enemies. like it just it it it's really
disgusting and it breaks, you know, the
it just breaks this country down in some
of the most nefarious ways. So,
and I don't want to get used to the
military in our streets that's treading
on us, man. And so, this guy has some
weird authoritarian itch. just
constantly scratching and this meme and
this whole Department of War when you
were supposed to be the anti-war
candidate, this attacking the cities,
this bringing military into the streets.
That is not the American way to do
things. Yeah.
Every time you ring the bell below, an
angel gets his wings. Totally not true.
But it does keep you updated on our live
shows.

Trump DESPERATELY Tries to CENSOR as His MESS UNFOLD
by Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz
Legal AF
7 hours ago...more

Court of History hosts Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz dive deep into President Trump’s plan to overhaul the Smithsonian Institution.

The White House has ordered a sweeping review of exhibitions, wall texts, and educational materials to ensure they align with Trump’s vision of “American exceptionalism.” But critics say this is censorship—a dangerous effort to erase stories of slavery, racism, and systemic injustice from America’s past.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...



Transcript

Welcome to the Court of History. I'm
Sean Wensz from Princeton with my
compadre down in DC, Sydney Blumenthal,
and we're going to be talking today
about Sid's latest column in the
Guardian, which is all about American
history, a subject close to both of our
hearts. Um, and we've been talking, he's
been talk following up on all the stuff
that that Trump's been doing um with the
Smithsonian and so forth. There's a new
name, there's a new name in play now
named Lindsay Halligan. Lindseay
Halligan, who seems to be now um the the
the pseudo archavist of the United
States. Practically, she seems to be in
more of control of determining American
what Americans think about their history
than anybody else on the planet. Um
Sydney, who is Lindsey Hallagan and why
should we care? You know, Lindsay Hagan
is the most unlikely commasar of
culture, you know, that any any country
has ever had. Even the Soviet Union, you
know, made pretenses to having people
who credential.
Oh, they had paid professors, they had
intellectuals, they had people who were
going to do their service. Absolutely.
Yeah. The Nazis, too, I must say.
Absolutely.
You know, and of course, fascist
Italians and so on and so forth. But
Trump's America, uh, the Trump
administration, um, basically what
happened was that Trump said that, um,
the Smithsonian was, uh, out of control
because it was showing, uh, too much how
bad slavery was. And, um, it was filled
with woke captions and so on. And we had
Steven Miller um, you know, raging in
the background. Um and uh so Trump
issued an executive order uh and then he
there was a letter saying there's going
to be a massive up and down review. We
need to say that the Smithsonian is a
completely independent institution under
presidential control. It was established
completely separately um through a
bequest by James Smithson.
James Smithson absolutely nothing to do
with this. Right. I did an episode on
this with um Nina Burley who is a
historian about this. He is an
Englishman. He never came to America but
he wanted to advance um history and
science in the United States. He admired
confusion of useful knowledge and all of
that. Yes.
Yeah. All that. So Trump is trying to
usurp uh all that like everything else.
And so he had he brought to his meeting
with Lonnie Bunch, who's a distinguished
historian and the founding secretary uh
of the uh African American
African-American museum and now the
secretary of the Smithsonian. That's top
post. Um he brought a an aid who is an
assistant uh staff secretary named
Lindseay Hallan. Who is Lindseay
Halligan? Well, you know, there a lot of
uh odd characters and interesting people
in the realm of uh of Trump. Um and we
learn all about them from, you know, um
you know, people who move files around
at Mara Lago on the staff to um you
know, to the Steven Millers of the
world. But who is Lindseay Halligan? Let
me just begin. She was twice a
competitor for Miss Colorado USA and she
finished um a third and as a runner up
in these contests. Uh she became an
insurance lawyer in Florida and that
called her somehow to Trump's attention.
spotted her at the Trump International
Golf Club in West Palm Beach in a crowd.
I don't know how you'd spot a beauty
pageant type in a crowd if you're
Well, I have I have an idea how you
might do that, but go ahead.
And he learned she was a lawyer and so
he made her one of his attorneys in the
Maraago case
dealing with the FBI warrant. And soon
enough she found herself in the White
House
and beyond that she is now for all
intents and purposes the historian in
residence overseeing the Smithsonian in
charge of the view.
Now how much how much of this is is just
what should we say his own search for
inquenchable loyalty from people. He
wants to have people around him who
will, you know, pay him obeisance. But
how much is it actually just contempt
for um for history and his and and the
way historians operate?
Well, it's a good question. You know, is
it a is it that he's the ignoramis and
chief? Uh or is it that he doesn't care?
Or shall we say both? I would I'm going
for the answer I'm going for is C. All
of the above.
Okay. Very good. So anyway, so there she
is. She's the historian and residence of
the White House and um and they're going
to try to clean up um and and and make
the Smithsonian view much closer to
Donald Trump's view of history.
Well, yes, Donald Trump's view of
history and get rid of and they cited
there. They actually um put out a
document saying why Donald Trump is
right about the Smithsonian and they
listed
uh the various things to prove it. And
it was a cherrypicked list of m you know
woke museum captions and you know black
nationalist this and transgender that.
And then you know the kudigra was that
the Smithsonian had a picture of Anthony
Fouchi.
Of course. Yes. Of course. The arch the
arch villain. Uh. Yes.
Satan. Satan himself.
Yes. Satan himself.
Well, you know, but but in your column,
I mean, this is the this is I mean, I've
said that that that the Trump view of
history is that United States is a
providential nation whose entire history
leads to the rise of the divine leader,
Donald Trump. Um, but you suggest in the
column that there might be another way
to go about introducing Trump's view of
history to the American people via the
Smithsonian and your various exhibits in
mind and and an entryway that would be
interesting. Tell us more about how take
us through that exhibition how how it
might look. Uh, I suggest that there
should be an exhibition at the
Smithsonian to illustrate Donald Trump's
vision of history and uh, it would show
things that he really has believed in
and stated. Um, the truth is that Donald
Trump is neoconfederate and he believes
in the lost cause. um he has um
venerated Roberting Lee among all other
American historical figures
and he has um at the same time gone out
of his way to demean and belittle
Abraham Lincoln
and um there seems to be some sort of um
sense to him in doing that.
How has he done that? How has he
belittled Lincoln?
I mean, he has this one thing where he
says that Lincoln Lee was driving
Lincoln crazy, right?
He said Lee was winning all the battles
and driving Lincoln crazy. And then um
he he also says that um um u that
Lincoln that he he had better polls than
Lincoln.
That's right. He has better polls than
Lincoln. That's right.
There were no polls when Lincoln was
president. No. Well, he said he went uh
at one point to his was at a political
rally in Texas and he said um you know
the radical left Democrats um uh you
know they are going to ruin everything.
Why Abraham Lincoln couldn't win Texas
under under those circumstances.
So, you know, first his description of
the radical and left Democrat sounds
very much like what uh people said about
the Republican party of Lincoln at the
time. And um the other thing is that
Lincoln was never on the ballot in Texas
ever
for very good reason. For very good
reason.
In 1860 he was kind of kept off the
ballot in almost all in all southern
states. He's on in some border states,
but he was kept off the ballot. You
couldn't vote for Abraham Lincoln in
Texas. In 1864, of course, Texas had
secceeded, was part of the Confederacy.
They did not allow a ballot uh for
Lincoln in the 1864 election. So,
um so, you know, he's he's
systematically demeaned him. He's
elevated Lee. He's complained about
taking away statues of Lee. Um, you
know, when the controversy arose in
Charlottesville in 2017 about the Lee
statute, he defended it and then
infamously at the after the neo-Nazi
rally in which many people were
physically injured by the Nazis and a w
young woman was murdered by a neo-Nazi.
He said there are very fine people on
both sides. And so, you know, that's
and the renaming and putting the names
on back on the Confederate names back.
So, he came back in and what happened?
So, here's what happened in
2020. Um
uh the Congress by overwhelming
majorities, Democrat and Republican at
that time voted for something called the
National Naming Commission to rename
forts that have been named after
Confederate generals and literally, you
know, more than a thousand sites um
controlled by the federal government
around the country named after
Confederates and rename them. Um and so
the forts were renamed and so on. that
process went on. Uh Trump and one of his
last acts in office in his first term
was to veto that bill and veto was
overridden. So now he's back in and he
renamed the forts, took all the new
names off and put the old names on but
claimed that they were really different
people. So Fort Hood was really not
about, you know, John Bell Hood, the
Confederate. It was about, you know,
Hood the car mechanic,
some other dude like that, you know.
Right. Right. Right.
Uh so uh and then um Hegathth restored
the Confederate memorial that had been
erected at Arlington National Cemetery.
And um which
wasn't there also West Point that they
they they they put the Lee's portrait
back up in West Point.
Yeah. Lee has a complicated history with
West Point as you know. Uh he had been
you know Lee was had attended West Point
been near the top of his class. Yeah. He
had be he was superintendent of West
Point at one point.
Y
and um
uh but the portrait shows him in his
Confederate uniform as I recall.
Confederate is a 20 foot tall portrait
of him in a Confederate uniform and in
the background is a slave tending his
horse traveler, his white horse
traveler. Um, it shows Lee in his full,
you know, Confederate magnificence. Um,
and it's the portrait is a real remnant
of the lost cause. Um, so it's back up.
It's in the library of at West Point.
It's a um it's a real tribute to
treason. So um
uh and they've restored all this sort of
business. That's their vision of
history.
As I recall, his his f chief of staff in
his first administration, John Kelly,
had something to say about um Trump's
knowledge of American history or of any
history at all. Right.
Yeah. So, John Kelly was Donald Trump's
chief of staff in his first term. And
perhaps if we have an exhibit about
Trump at the Smithsonian and his
understanding of history, it would it
would create an archway
engraved with the words of John Kelly
about Trump. He doesn't know any history
at all, even some of the basics of the
United States. And Kelly said that Trump
had confided into him that Hitler had
done a lot of good things. He wished he
had the kind of generals that Hitler
had. Kelly tried to reason with him. And
but he he says, "You don't mean Hitler's
general." He says, "Yeah, yeah, I mean
Hitler's generals." And so um you know
uh Trump of course talks about the only
other president he talks about is um
McKinley and that's to justify tariffs.
He he calls him the tariff king. Maybe
he likes him also because he calls him a
king,
right?
Um but he doesn't know anything really
about McKinley. He certainly doesn't
know that McKinley had second thoughts
near the end of his life before he was
assassinated in 1901. He had no idea. Um
our friend Doug Brinkley uh the
historian had talked with Trump who
confided in him that he's never read a
single book about an American president.
Right.
That's one of his proud claims.
Right. Right. Well, we could have this
exhibit, but you know, the really
difficult thing or the hard thing about
all of this is that it's not simply
about reactionary nostalgia. It's not
even simply about celebrating Roberty
Lee or the lost cause. These are
actually policies that he's undertaken
himself. He's a neoconed not just in
terms of inclination with history. He's
a new confederate in policy as well.
Yeah, this is a cover, a justification,
a rationale for and a distraction from,
but also related to his actual policies,
which are a fullscale assault on the
Civil War amendments and the further
enactment of them through civil rights
legislation in the 60s, specifically the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting
Rights Act of 1965.
and he is in directing what's a a second
redemption as the Confederates called it
after the war overthrowing a
reconstruction to tear down the second
reconstruction which your mentor Can
Woodward the great historian
um called uh the results of the civil
rights movement.
That's right. That's right. This is the
great. So, so he's carried the lost
calls all the way through to
overthrowing the results of the civil
war which was the first reconstruction
and then as reenact or as as empowered
or made made real really by the second
reconstruction. Now we have the second
Yeah. One way to look at Trump is that
this is the sec the second lost cause in
power. Um and he's challenging the
Voting Rights Act in court in a case
before the Supreme Court. He's abandoned
justice department positions on
remedying racial discrimination in
voting. Um he is dismant he has
dismantled the civil rights division of
the justice department.
Gone.
70% of its lawyers are gone. The whole
thing is defunct. Um
he is closing the community relations
service created by the civil rights act
to mediate racial tensions. He's
withdrawn from many Justice Department
lawsuits challenging voter suppression
laws that deal with racial
discrimination. He's issuing executive
order offer order after order to prevent
agencies from enforcing regulations, you
know, that forbid discrimination
uh in grants, contracts, programs. He's
eliminated, you know, many agencies and
departments. He's uh torn down uh the uh
diversity, equity, and initiative
uh programs and eliminated them.
Um and uh he you know, and he and then
he symbolically restored the Confederate
names and the portrait of Robert E. Lee
at West Point and so on, the Confederate
memorial at Arlington. Um, all those are
symbols of this deeper assault on our
history and our law and the rule of law
and the long struggle to uh bring our
country to a more perfect union and in
line with our founding ideals in the
Declaration of Independence.
Right. Right. I remember we had
professor Eiffel on not too long ago who
gave a wonderful lecture kind of like
what the one you just gave actually
about the attack on the civil war civil
war amendments the reconstruction
amendments and what that all means how
we're being brought back really as close
as we can to the nation we have before
the civil war.
Yeah. Anyone interested in pursuing that
should um watch that episode with um
Cherylyn Eiffel who is um professor of
law at Harvard University.
Right.
So
yeah that that that it it it so the
point is the attack on history that we
take as as as you know a cultural
question. The culture war is really a
political war and it goes
political war and it's a war on the rule
of law as well and um it's a war on when
we say justice this is not some abstract
concept that's engraved in stone above a
building. This is our own history that
has been wrought in blood. And um let me
just point out something which is um
that makes this point since they
restored the Confederate memorial at
Arlington National Cemetery.
Mhm.
Uh there's a large house there. It's
called Arlington House. It's where
Robert E. Lean lived before the war.
That's what I call the war. and um was
plantation. Um and
uh when he betrayed the country and
betrayed his oath um he left there and
he went to Richmond and he was made a
general in the Confederate army. Um and
Abraham Lincoln said that uh namingly
among other officers who had taken an
oath of allegiance to the United States
of America that they were now occupying
the very highest places in the Rebel War
Service and they'd all were within the
power of the government since the
rebellion began and were nearly as well
known to be traitors then as now. And
with some regret, he wrote, "I think the
time not unlikely to come when I should
be blamed for not having arrested them
before, but he felt he couldn't because
they hadn't defected yet, although it
was known that they were traitors." And
Lee Lincoln named prominent, preeminent
among them. Now, there is a memorial
at that house where Lee lived. It is
called the Arlington National Cemetery.
It was established by the quartermaster
general of the army,
Montgomery Megs. He'd been a classmate,
close friend of Lee. Uh, and he was the
one who declared those grounds the army
cemetery,
right?
1864. and he made a point of planting
the very first graves of Union soldiers
in the Rose Garden as close to the house
as possible to ensure Lee would never
return.
And that is the true national memorial
for Lee
in the vicinity of our nation's capital.
And it is Trump who was seeking to undo
that sense sensibility and history
through his attacks on the Smithsonian
and American itself.
Well, with that really very profound
reflection on Lee's legacy and Trump's
role in trying to distort it. Um I think
we've we've covered it. Um, so we're
going to say read by all means read u
Cindy's piece in the in the Guardian
about all of this for further detail.
But for now, the Court of History and on
my behalf and on behalf of Sydney
Blumenthal, the Court of History stands
adjourned.
Can't get your fill of legal AF? Me
neither. That's why we formed the Legal
AF Substack. Every time we mention
something in a hot take, whether it's a
court filing or a oral argument, come
over to the Substack. You'll find the
court filing and the oral argument
there, including a daily roundup that I
do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What
else? All the other contributors from
Legal AF are there as well. We got some
new reporting. We got interviews. We got
ad free versions of the podcast and hot
takes where Legal AF on Substack. Come
over now to free subscribe.
[Music]

***********************

Trump wants to rewrite American history. Maybe he should learn it first. The president seeking to overhaul the Smithsonian has a dark vision of the past that he’s using to advance his agenda
by Sidney Blumenthal
The Guardian
Thu 4 Sep 2025 08.00 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... us-history

Of all the presidents, Donald Trump – the man who would remake the Smithsonian and alter its presentation of “how bad slavery was”, as he put it – is surely the most ignorant of American history itself.

What Trump doesn’t know fills the Library of Congress, whose chief librarian he has fired, along with driving out the heads of the National Archives and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as dissolving programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities and defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which as a result has paused the acclaimed American Experience documentary series.

Trump claims he is tearing down the entire federal support for history in order to reveal the true story. In his executive order of 27 March, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, he stated: “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” The “improper ideology” that needs to be extirpated is a “divisive, race-centered ideology”.

The White House issued a memo on 21 August, titled “President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian”, citing a broad swath of scattered incidents ranging from “wokeness” to representations of immigration to a picture of the former leading health official Anthony Fauci, who is anathema to the right.

Trump appointed a review panel to be headed by his vice-president, JD Vance, and the attorney and White House staffer Lindsey Halligan, who is actually the one in charge of the project. Echoing Trump, she explained: “We don’t need to overemphasize the negative to teach people that certain aspects of our nation’s history may have been bad.” She told Fox News, “What I saw when I was going through the museum, personally, was an overemphasis on slavery, and I think there should be more of an overemphasis on how far we’ve come since slavery.”

A Trump White House aide elaborated: “President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable.” The aide had the Trump formula down pat: after the purge comes the retribution. Trump tweeted: “I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made.”

When Trump met on 28 August with Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian and founding director of the Smithsonian’s African American Museum of History, he brought along Halligan as his expert.

Her credentials for this crucial assignment in the culture war – after twice competing in the Miss Colorado USA beauty pageant, then becoming an insurance lawyer in Florida – must have been her work as one of Trump’s attorneys involved in the case over classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Trump initially noticed her at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach in 2021. She is now, in addition to her other duties, the de facto Trump White House historian-in-residence. She told the Washington Post she was interested in the civil war and westward expansion. A former colleague described her as “a fan of history”.

Beyond Halligan’s comments in a letter about packaging the past into a palatable Happy Meal of “ideals” and “Americanism”, the administration did not present its actual alternative history or the policies that flow from it. Trump bellowed that the Smithsonian contained “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future”.

But this gospel of positive-thinking twaddle aside, Trump, proudly ignorant though he is, has for years articulated a vision of American history. That vision does not emphasize the strides the nation has made through tumultuous struggle since the abolition of slavery. Instead, it honors the those who defended slavery, committed treason to preserve it and claim it to be a worthy American “heritage”.

Trump has repeatedly sought to shield the Confederate statues and symbols erected as tribute to the “lost cause” myth. He has expressed and unqualified admiration for Robert E Lee as a quintessential American hero almost always coupled with belittling remarks about Lincoln. His view of history squarely aligns him with neo-Confederates, not least those who carried the Confederate flag at the US Capitol during the insurrection on 6 January 2021 and whom he subsequently pardoned.

Trump’s version of history is not, however, simply reactionary nostalgia, or treacly kitsch for the restoration of “Uncle Herschel”, the “Old-Timer” to the Cracker Barrel logo. His use of the culture war is a key element to advance his policy agenda.

After the civil war, in reaction to Reconstruction, the southern slaveholding oligarchy regrouped to form the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist militias, most under the direction of former Confederate officers, to destroy the possibilities of emancipation and civil rights in the name of what they called “redemption”. Nearly a century later, the civil rights revolution of the 1960s overthrew the southern segregationist regime to restore and expand the enforcement of the original civil war amendments to the US constitution – the 14th amendment securing equal protection under the law and birthright citizenship and the 15th amendment protecting Black voting rights. The great southern historian C Vann Woodward called the civil rights movement the Second Reconstruction.

Trump’s neo-Confederate culture war is the symbolic cover for his full-scale political assault on those civil war amendments and the further enactment of their intent in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He is directing a second redemption to tear down the Second Reconstruction.

The attack on the constitution has been swift, comprehensive and sharply partisan. Trump is seeking to nullify birthright citizenship in the 14th amendment. He is challenging the Voting Rights Act and abandoning previous justice department positions on the constitutionality of remedying racially discriminatory voting maps in support of arguments in the supreme court case Louisiana v Callais.

In fear of losing Republican control of the Congress in the 2026 elections, he has encouraged states to ignore the practice of redistricting congressional districts based on the census and instead to redraw racially discriminatory lines to create new Republican seats.

The Smithsonian would do well to mount a proper exhibit dedicated to Trump’s historical ignorance
He has dismantled the civil rights division of the justice department. Seventy per cent of its attorneys have been fired or driven to resign. His administration has planned to close the Community Relations Service, a unit created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to mediate racial tensions. He has withdrawn from numerous justice department lawsuits challenging voter suppression laws.

He has issued an executive order to prevent federal agencies from enforcing regulations forbidding “disparate impact” discrimination. He has attacked grants, contracts and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), with his justice department creating an Orwellian-named “civil rights fraud initiative” to target what his agents choose to define as illegal DEI practices, and use it to leverage control over universities, law firms and private businesses.

Perhaps no official presidential statement exemplifies Trump’s adherence to the “lost cause” mythology more flagrantly than his veto of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020, which included the creation of the National Naming Commission to remove names honoring the Confederacy from nine federal military forts and thousands of other assets. “I have been clear in my opposition to politically motivated attempts like this to wash away history and to dishonor the immense progress our country has fought for in realizing our founding principles,” Trump stated. The House and the Senate overwhelmingly overrode his veto.

Once Trump reassumed office, he authorized wiping away the new names, some of them of Black soldiers, and reinstated the old last names of Confederate generals at the forts but with the cynical twist of claiming they were really for different people with the same names.

The secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, who called the National Naming Commission “woke lemmings” and its changes “garbage”, said: “Unlike the left, we recognize our history, we don’t erase it.” He announced the return of the Confederate memorial at the Arlington national cemetery, whose frieze depicts a faithful enslaved woman taking care of a Confederate soldier’s child as he marches off to battle. In the West Point library, the Pentagon has rehung the 20ft-tall portrait of Robert E Lee in his gray Confederate uniform with a faithful enslaved person tending his horse, Traveller, in the background.

Trump’s vision of restored “Americanism” might be found in the preserved “lost cause” wing of the Virginia Museum of History in Richmond, an exhibit originally constructed in 1921 by the Confederate Memorial Association, with huge murals of Lee and Stonewall Jackson as gallant cavaliers. The eulogizing of “the Four Seasons of the Confederacy” is now reframed with contemporary texts to explain the post-civil war romanticizing of the slave republic.

The exhibit also features a widely circulated “lost cause” pamphlet published by the United Confederate Veterans in 1919 that urged southern school districts: “Reject a book that says the South fought to hold her slaves … Reject a book that glorifies Abraham Lincoln and vilifies Jefferson Davis.”

For perspective, around the corner from this exhibit, the Virginia Museum of History has stationed the white hood and sheet of a Ku Klux Klansman. In 2020 and 2021, the row of five towering Confederate statues along Richmond’s Monument Avenue of Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, and Matthew Fontaine Maury, erected as “lost cause” icons during the Jim Crow era, were removed.

In the interest of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, the Smithsonian would do well to mount a proper exhibit dedicated to Trump’s historical ignorance and his “divisive race-centered ideology”.

The exhibit could begin with a kind of preface, posting the remarks of Trump’s chief of staff in his first administration, the former marine general John Kelly, who revealed Trump to be the ignoramus-in-chief. “He doesn’t know any history at all, even some of the basics on the US,” Kelly said. Trump reportedly told Kelly that Adolf Hitler “did a lot of good things”. He also reportedly said he needed “the kind of generals that Hitler had”, people “who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders”. (Trump representatives deny he made the remarks.)

Kelly described the conversation to Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic: “‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’” Kelly asked. “‘Do you mean the Kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’” Trump asked Kelly who the “good guys” were in the first world war.

Then the exhibit might move on to President William McKinley, whom Trump lately has invoked as the “tariff king” to justify his own tariffs, largely ruled illegal so far by the courts. Trump seems to care about no other aspect of McKinley or his presidency – say, the Spanish-American War – while he has revived his memory by removing the Native American name of Mount Denali in Alaska and renaming it Mount McKinley. Trump has ignored McKinley’s second thoughts about tariffs, including his final speech before his assassination in 1901, in which he abjured severe tariffs. But how would Trump know that?

Next the exhibit would devote ample space to Trump’s relationship to Abraham Lincoln, the one president Trump has discussed more than any other. In 2018, as Trump’s poll ratings dived, he tweeted: “Wow, highest Poll Numbers in the history of the Republican Party. That includes Honest Abe Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.” Of course, there were no polls in Lincoln’s time.

In 2019, Trump stated: “The radical Democrats want to destroy America as we know it … Abraham Lincoln could not win Texas under those circumstances.” In fact, Lincoln’s name was kept off the ballot in Texas in the 1860 election and, of course, in 1864 when Texas was part of the Confederacy. In 2020, staging an interview with Fox News within the Lincoln Memorial, Trump used Lincoln as a prop to elevate himself as a greater martyr. “They always said, ‘Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln.’ I believe I am treated worse.” He apparently had forgotten Lincoln’s assassination.

On the third anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, in 2024, he appeared to blame Lincoln for the civil war. “So many mistakes were made,” Trump said. “See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died. You know, that was the disaster … Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was.” Of course, Lincoln held out an olive branch in his first inaugural address, appealing to the “mystic chords of memory” and “the better angels of our nature”, which was met a month later with the firing on Fort Sumter. But in Trump’s view he had failed the art of the deal. He was the 19th century’s Zelenskyy.

Then the exhibit would come to Robert E Lee. In the aftermath of the neo-Nazi rally at Charlottesville in 2017 in which 35 people were injured and a young woman was murdered, about which Trump infamously said there were “some very fine people on both sides”, he defended Confederate monuments against a protest to remove a statue of Lee that had been erected as a tribute to the “lost cause”. “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” he tweeted.

“So,” he said at a rally in 2018, “Robert E Lee was a great general and Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia, he couldn’t beat Robert E Lee. He was going crazy … but Robert E Lee was winning battle after battle after battle and Abraham Lincoln came home and he said, ‘I can’t beat Robert E Lee.’”

Lincoln had a clear and firm opinion about Lee. He considered him a traitor. Naming Lee high among officers of the army who had betrayed their oath to the United States, Lincoln wrote on 12 June 1863 that they were “now occupying the very highest places in the rebel war service, were all within the power of the government since the rebellion began, and were nearly as well known to be traitors then as now”. Lincoln wrote: “I think the time not unlikely to come when I shall be blamed” for not having arrested Lee and the others when their treasonous intent was known before they had joined the Confederacy to lead an armed insurrection against the United States.

Of course, there is a memorial on the estate overlooking Washington where Lee lived before the war. Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs, who had been a West Point classmate and friend of Lee, declared those grounds the Arlington national cemetery in 1864, planting the first graves of fallen soldiers in the rose garden as close to the house as possible, to ensure that Lee would never return.

Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist