It’s bad news for Trump, but it’s a huge win for democracy. Hungarians delivered a landslide win for the opposition with a staggering 78% voter turnout. The undeniable outcome forced Orbán to do what Trump never could: concede.

And it serves as proof of concept for how to defeat far-right nationalist populism: when enough people vote, these strongmen go down.

Who is This Man

Orbán was sort of the OG of this latest wave of authoritarian leaders. If Putin wrote the original playbook, Orbán adapted it and spread it. He became a template for far-right leaders across Europe, and then Republicans here at home. They all run in the same circles, share tips, rely on each other. Remove him, and it’s like the mean girls no longer have a queen bee to look up to.

Trump has been running the Viktor Orbán playbook, especially in his second term:

Consolidate and control the media: check. (Someone call Bari Weiss over at CBS, and see if she needs a Gatorade working overtime to turn the network into state news.) Stack the courts with sycophantic judges: check. Overhaul election rules: he’s trying.

It’s textbook far-right nationalist populism.

This kind of movement is a cancer that can survive culture wars and ad hominem attacks. But “affordability,” or the lack thereof works like chemo.

When inflation rises (check), living standards drop (housing, healthcare, education, I could go on), and the diehards start to waver (Tucker Carlson, MTG, I could go on), far-right nationalist populism stops looking so enticing.

These movements tend to hit their limits after about a decade. But what happens next depends on whether institutions hold and whether voters show up.

Throw out the Playbook

The Republican Party’s transition towards autocracy and far-right politics in the U.S. is a direct descendant of Orbán’s politics. They share media strategies, consultants, and a common ecosystem. So the fact that JD Vance goes over, jumps on the scale for Orbán as a show of strength, and then flops is significant.

What a week for JD Vance. He flies to Hungary and gets humiliated, flies to Pakistan and tanks Iran peace talks. This guy has the literal kiss of death. Recall, Vance flew in to visit Pope Francis last year and the Pope was dead within 24 hours.

Someone grab the garlic and the wooden stake.

Trump and JD Vance have become liabilities rather than assets. Far-right European leaders have put daylight between them and Trump on the Iran War. We’re seeing it with Giorgia Meloni in Italy, AfD in Germany, and Marine le Pen’s Front National in France.

And look at what happened in Canada. Trump-aligned conservatives were on track to take the election there, until Trump’s tariffs poisoned the well. That swept Prime Minister Mark Carney into office, who came out swinging as the face of a post-Trump world order at Davos.

He showed up like Steve Jobs revealing the new iPhone, only it was an economy that doesn’t need the US and making deals with Qatar and China.

Systems Breakdown

Orbán’s loss shows that these systems are not unbeatable. They’re also not unbreakable, but that part takes work and the votes.

Orbán did major damage, using a supermajority to do a gut job on Hungary’s constitution. When he gained that level of control in 2010, he transformed the courts, electoral system, and institutions.

Sound familiar?

Without a two-thirds majority, it becomes much harder for the new party to unwind those changes in Hungary. We have to overcome the same hurdle here.

Otherwise, it’ll look a lot like how it did after Biden’s election: Democrats technically in power but working against gerrymandered districts and a Trump-friendly Supreme Court.

And look, the new guy, Magyar, he’s no progressive. He’s a center-right figure who used to be part of Orbán’s party. But he’s pro-liberal democracy, he’s anti-Russia, and he’s built a broad coalition that includes progressives. That coalition is key. It shows that defeating authoritarianism requires a big-tent approach.

Buckle Up

If Democrats regain power, they’re looking at a massive cleanup effort. I’m talking BP Oil Spill-meets-Three Mile Island. They’d better be stocking up on Dawn dish soap now.

In the same way Orbán wrote the far-right nationalist populism playbook for Trump, Hungary’s new leaders could provide the instruction manual for the Democrats.

But, frankly, they should not need a semester of study abroad to figure out that we need accountability, now.

Those chickens are roosting abroad. Jair Bolsonaro’s in prison in Brazil for “conspiring against democracy.” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to resign in 2023 after lying to Parliament.

It’s not necessarily the beginning of the end, but it could be the end of the beginning. But success at toppling autocracy is conditional.

People have to vote.

That’s why I can’t stress enough, and I will shout from the rooftops until the midterms and straight through 2028: We need to organize, mobilize, coalition build, and get a massive voter turnout that delivers an undeniable defeat.

But he didn’t get there alone. Congressional Republicans let him do it.

This was a decision he made unilaterally, sure. He sent us to war without congressional approval, which is - to be clear - illegal. But in the many, many weeks since he started this, Congress hasn't lifted a finger to stop him. By laying down and letting Trump walk all over them, Congress enabled this situation. And I’d put money on the fact that it’ll only empower him to do it again.

I wrote this book months ago expecting it to be analysis, but instead, it reads like a prediction.

Trump wants you to believe everything he does is chaotic, and that this “unpredictability” is a strength. Believe me, it isn’t. Trump is nothing if not predictable - you can count on him being self-serving, erratic, and - in the end - cowardly. Case in point, this week’s flaccid ceasefire with Iran that left the US worse off than it was before the war.

When I sat down to write this book, The Day After, I was trying to make sense of the last decade so we could understand what comes after Trump. What I didn’t expect is that we’d still be living through it in real time.

If you’ve been trying to make sense of how we got to this place, here’s an excerpt from my book that breaks it down.

Don’t get it twisted. Donald Trump could not dismantle democracy on his own; he needs the obedience of an almost entirely spineless Congress to rip up the Constitution. And its members have happily obliged, no matter how much humiliation he heaps upon them.

The founders of our democratic republic made it crystal clear where power should reside. They did not start the Constitution with the presidency. Article I, Section 1, is about Congress, stating specifically and clearly that “all legislative Powers” rest in the Senate and House.

Section 8 defines those powers more clearly: “To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations . . . To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts . . . to define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas . . . To declare War.”

You get the picture: the power to set the federal budget; the power to impose tariffs; the power to decide who should be a citizen; the power to abolish organizations supporting science and the arts; the power to blow up ships off the coast of Venezuela; the power to bomb Iran.

None of these powers rests with the presidency or Donald Trump, unless Congress has decided to contract every ounce of its autonomy to another coequal branch of government.

That was not a scenario the founders imagined, as they strongly believed that human nature would never willingly surrender power.

I guess they weren’t quite capable of grasping the servility of Mike Johnson.

This is essentially the origin story of this war, if you set aside the scene where Trump gets mercilessly bullied by Netanyahu into doing it. He jumped into something everyone knew was a bad idea, launched into action in the middle of the night one Saturday at the end of February, and let Congress wake up in the morning and find out about it on Truth Social like the rest of us.

And on that “everyone knew it was a bad idea” point - they all knew, but no one had the spine to tell him. They may have hinted at it, they may have presented him with overwhelming evidence this would be a disaster, but not one single person had the integrity to step up and tell him outright, “don’t do this.” Not one of these sycophants is capable of putting the good of the country over their blind deference to the Godking.

Trump may have claimed victory with a decidedly pathetic ceasefire in a war that no one wanted, but make no mistake, this is decidedly not a win.

Trump’s achievements after six weeks of war include: upending the world economy, killing thousands of civilians, empowering the Iranian regime, freezing 20% of the global oil supply, spiking gas prices at home, decimating entire swaths of the Middle East, and completely destroying our credibility on the world stage.

Oh, and going on record threatening a nuclear holocaust.

And even after that, even after casually threatening war crimes on social media, Republicans and the sycophants in Trumps inner circle have so fully ceded power to him that they can’t even bring themselves to act against him when he threatens outright genocide.

That’s just how completely neutered this Congress has become. In just over a year, they’ve contracted every ounce of their power over to the presidency with one cowardly vote after another and destroyed their ability to serve as a check on his corruption. They’ve turned themselves into the vestigial tail hanging off the back of the U.S. government.

And now Trump knows they won’t stop him.

The full book goes much deeper into how we got here and what comes next.

It’s out July 14. Please consider pre-ordering your here:

Preorder Now

Trump threatened nuclear genocide on an entire civilization with no material congressional response.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi has no plans to respond to a subpoena to testify about her, frankly criminal handling of the Epstein files. And the jury’s out on any consequences there.

The real divide in the Democratic Party right now isn’t ideological it’s tactical:

Do you confront Trump in a way that risks escalating polarization?
Or do you avoid that escalation and risk looking passive?

I spoke with Rep. Ro Khanna about that question and what Democrats are actually doing about it.

3 Takeaways

1. Rep. Khanna urges Democrats to act on extreme measures they’ve been reluctant to use
Democrats should pursue both impeachment and the 25th Amendment. Republicans aggressively pursued the 25th Amendment for President Biden, who never threatened to annihilate a single civilization. Democrats need to step up and meet the moment.

2. Even Democrats admit their responses have been weak
Some of the most forceful statements are coming from people like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Green, and not Democratic leadership. The democratic base is frustrated that their representatives can’t muster the same fight.

3. He’s already focused on prosecutions after Trump
Including potential criminal consequences for officials tied to the Epstein investigation who refuse to comply with subpoenas.

On Inaction On Trump

What stood out to me here was that Rep. Khanna is moving beyond rhetoric and toward action. Trump’s behavior isn’t just fodder for messaging. It requires a material institutional response. That’s a real shift. So often, Trump will do or say something outrageous or unacceptable, and the best we get out of Democrats are a flurry of “let me be clear-” social media posts. And then nothing happens.

There are signs of life - Rep. John Larson of Connecticut filed articles of impeachment against Trump on Tuesday.

This is not without risk.

If Democrats pursue impeachment or the 25th Amendment, they risk giving Trump exactly what he wants: a polarizing fight that consolidates Republican support and lets him cast himself as the victim.

Rep. Khanna’s view is that the political landscape has changed. This isn’t 2020 anymore. That even parts of the Republican base are showing cracks, and that failing to act carries its own risk.

That’s the bet.

Pam Bondi’s Accountability Gap

Certainly, that’s not coming from this Department of Justice, which will absolutely not touch Pam Bondi. But her failure to cooperate with a congressional subpoena and appear for her deposition would be considered criminal contempt. Rep. Khanna said that when Democrats secure a majority in the House, they will vote for that. There’s trouble on the horizon for Pam Bondi and anyone else who’s been cowering under the umbrella of Donald Trump’s protection.

Life is much longer than Donald Trump.

Rep. Khanna argued that the next president should appoint a special counsel to prosecute the Epstein class, which is one of the few issues where the public outrage cuts across party lines.

The Bottom Line

Importantly, Rep. Khanna emphasized that accountability doesn’t just apply to Trump or Pam Bondi, or the entire Epstein class. He’s holding Democrats to account, as well, saying that just because they’re pursuing the 25th Amendment or getting Pam Bondi in to testify, they’re not forgetting about the rest of the agenda: taking care of Americans. That means healthcare, education, tackling the affordability crisis, housing - making your life better.

The real question isn’t whether Democrats know what to do.

It’s whether they’re willing to step up and do it, despite the short term risks. Because if they don’t, the longterm fallout will be catastrophic.

Glenn Kirschner and I discuss former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s legal exposure now that she’s been relieved of her position by Trump, and what might happen to her when Democrats regain the majority.

A lot. And if it’s making you feel insane, that’s the point. But cutting through the noise, here’s the big story, why it matters, and what comes next.

Today, it’s Trump’s pet project: ending birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders. The Supreme Court heard arguments today challenging the executive order Trump used to enact it on day one of his second term.

The case centers on the interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which was passed in the wake of the Civil war to grant the children of slaves and former slaves all the rights of citizenship.

This whole thing is extraordinary for a few reasons, not least of all that birthright citizenship is a cornerstone of our democracy. More on that in a second. In a somewhat stunning turn of events, Trump himself attended the hearing - the first time in history a sitting president has done it. Maybe they’ve avoided it until now because of the appearance of literally walking all over the separation of powers.

Unsurprisingly, Trump - who can barely make it through one of his own press conferences without falling asleep - left as soon as arguments against his position began. This guy’s skin is so thin you could read the Constitution through it, if you still believed in it. Which, TBD for him.

The 14th Amendment enshrined this concept of birthright citizenship in the Constitution. Once you start chipping away at it, you’re setting a precedent that other foundational concepts are up for debate.

Even though this wasn’t a rout by any means, and it’s impossible to predict how they’ll rule, the Justices at least appeared inclined to side with the plaintiffs. Nowhere was it more obvious than when Justice Kavanaugh, talking to attorney Cecilia Wang, laid out how, with “just a short opinion,” there are two ways the Court could rule against the government.

Wang said she’d be “happy to win on either or both of them.”

What’s actually going on

This is an argument about the bedrock of the United States itself. Trump wants to fundamentally change the definition of who gets to be an American.

And it’s connected to all of Trump’s other fetishes: his obsession with voter fraud and making sure “the right people” (re: white people) are the ones voting. His brutal immigration policies. His thinly veiled White-Nationalist-coded anxiety about changing demographics in America writ large.

The fact that the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court shows you just how much the ground has shifted. Even a few years ago, this argument wouldn’t have made it beyond the fringe of crackpot legal theories.

Speaking of, here are just a few points that the Trump administration’s lawyer, Solicitor General D. John Sauer relied on. Chief Justice John Roberts called many of these “quirky.”

• “Birth tourism,” by “thousands of foreigners from potentially hostile nations”

• Chinese media reports

• They “don’t do it in Europe.” (Kavanaugh’s response: “We try to interpret American law with American precedent based on American history.” Yeesh.)

• Roman law sources

He used all of these things to paint a picture of a United States that’s under siege by “hostile foreigners” and an onslaught of “illegal aliens.” He described a world where “8 billion people are a plane ride away” from being U.S. citizens. He called it a new world.

Justice Roberts came in with the mic drop there.

“It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.”

We’re entering Week 5 of “Operation Epic Fury,” or as I like to call it, “The War No One Asked For.” In this week’s episode, we get exactly what Trump promised he wouldn’t do: boots on the ground in the Middle East. As Trump runs up the bill with this next development, Republicans are forced to find a way to pay for it. Their latest proposal: deep cuts to healthcare.

What Just Happened

After Trump put his hand out and demanded another $200 billion be added to his allowance, like a kid who wants to pay for Pokemon cards, Republicans in Congress revealed they’re considering cuts to federal health subsidies to cover the tab.

One proposal pulls $30 billion out of healthcare subsidies, which would leave 300,000 more Americans uninsured.

It’s Not What It Looks Like

What might look like a budget tradeoff is actually a reallocation. Secretary of Defense (of War? of Excursions?) Pete Hegseth may have thought he was just firing off a meme worthy soundbite when he said, “It takes money to kill bad guys.”

But what he really should have said was that it takes money from Americans to kill bad guys. And by taking that money from Americans’ healthcare subsidies, he is, ironically, killing Americans. Who’s the bad guy, then?

What’s worse is that this funding bill isn’t just to pay for the war. It also funds ICE.

What’s Actually Happening

Republicans are pulling the old bait and switch. What they’re calling a “funding problem” is actually an opportunity for them. It’s a packaging strategy. They’re rolling three politically difficult policies into one single bill: war funding, ICE expansion, and healthcare cuts. On their own, each of these things would face a tough vote. But smashed together, this becomes a package where enough Republicans support one or the other that it can pass with the right coalition.

Republicans are attempting to use a process called reconciliation to bypass the filibuster. Reconciliation requires only a simple majority to pass legislation. No need to play games to finagle Democratic support. All they have to do is build a Republican coalition by dangling carrots for the war hawks, the immigration nutjobs, and the healthcare sadists, and boom - you’ve got yourself a majority.

That’s not to say that this is a slam dunk, or even a good idea. Actually, it’s potentially a very bad idea. Republicans are painting themselves into a corner, and facing two unpleasant options (if it even qualifies for reconciliation by the parliamentarian): Either vote for this and own the resulting massive healthcare cuts in an election year when Republicans’ approval numbers are already in the toilet. Or, vote no on this and break with Trump. Which, well, we all know how that goes.

Spin vs. Reality

They’re saying: Republicans claim they’re targeting “fraud, waste, and abuse” in federal programs. They point to programs like the earned income tax credit and housing tax credits as examples of inefficiency.

What’s actually happening: This is very straightforward. Republican spending cuts kick 300,000 people off their health insurance, and those lucky enough to remain get slapped with huge premium increases.

And all those “savings” just get funneled into the war and ICE.

The Pattern Here

Republicans are going to have to come up with a new strategy because this one’s becoming too obvious. What they’re doing is manufacturing “waste” or “fraud” that needs to be taken care of. Then they can rebrand cuts to those wasteful or fraudulent programs as “reform.” And then they’ll take those cost savings and funnel them elsewhere. In this case, Iran and ICE.

That’s not savings. That’s cooking the books.

Who Loses

It’s you. You’re losing your health coverage, or your premiums are shooting up, or you’re paying for a war you were promised wouldn’t happen.

Who wins? Trump. It’s always Trump.

Because while he claims he doesn’t have time to deal with all that - he’s doing a war, you guys - he does somehow find the time to help himself. Somehow he has the time to build a ballroom, or refurbish a Qatari jet, host Crypto dinners that put millions in his own pockets.

The Bottom Line

Trump always manages to find time to help himself. He ran as a populist champion. Then, he launched a trade war that raises the cost of everything, passed a tax cut that disproportionately helps millionaires and billionaires, cut healthcare, and plunged the US into a war that costs billions per day.

And he does it all while millions of Americans get crushed in the fallout from those decisions. What’s worse, he knows, and he doesn’t care.

In all, 8 million people showed up at over 3100 protests in cities all across the country (and world). There’s no way Trump and the Republicans could tune that out. It shouldn’t surprise anybody that these protests have gathered so much momentum, considering Donald Trump is at the lowest point of approval in his presidency. And he’s brought this all on himself.

Because - and I’ve been saying this all along - Donald Trump is for one person. Himself.

Everything he does is meant to make sure he’s comfortable, taken care of, surrounded by riches, opulence, and wealth. Meanwhile, Americans are poorer, sicker, and hungrier than they’ve ever been. And the fact that it’s happening at the hands of a populist president goes to show that this was a con from day one.

And by the way, he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew what it meant to tap into the pain that Americans were feeling in the lead up to this election. He was perfectly content to exploit people’s pain so that he could help himself, with no intention of fixing any of the problems he was exploiting.

You can watch my speech here, and read it below. If there’s one thing I want you to take away, it’s to be inspired not by me, but by the energy of those thousands of people gathered in Los Angeles and beyond who are all determined to fight for our country, and to do it together.

Let me ask you all a question: where are all the pro-Trump marches? Where are the boat parades? I’m thinking that maybe the reason they disappeared is because no one voted for ICE to terrorize our streets and slaughter Americans. No one voted for a price hike on everything. No one voted to cut healthcare and food assistance. And no one voted to spend billions of dollars per day on another fucking war in the Middle East.

This whole country - left, right, and center - has woken up to the bill of goods being sold to us by this government and the Republican Party. They cosplayed as populist champions. But they have done more for the oil companies than for working class Americans. They have done more for Epstein’s accomplices than for working class Americans. They have done more to renovate the White House than for working class Americans.

But that’s what happens when your government decides that it’s no longer accountable to the people. When the president views himself as a king and his majorities in Congress view themselves as appendages of their ruler. When they think they can ignore popular pressure.

Well, I’ve got some bad news for them. It’s gonna be difficult to ignore what will be the biggest protest in American history. And that’s possible because you all decided to be here, using your voices to speak out against the regime. But I want to be clear about something.

It can’t stop here.

This is not the destination, it’s the on-ramp. You’re not the end-user, you’re the beginning. YOU need to be the messengers now. YOU need to go back to the people in your lives who don’t pay attention to politics, and make them your responsibility.

When you march today, remember that there are organizations here that need your help. There are campaigns here that need your help.

So, I need to hear from everyone here that you will take the energy you feel right now, and that you will use it every single day between now and November, and then every single day from November 2026 to November 2028.

Because we are going to win the House just a few months from now.

And we are going to win the Senate a few months from now.

And then we will take the White House.

We will relegate Trumpism to the dustbin of history. And we will do it with a new generation of elected officials who are responsive to WE THE PEOPLE. Not the donor class, not the political class, not the Epstein class.

We will bring about an America where we have healthcare for everyone in the richest country in the world. Where we take climate change seriously. Where we fund education and infrastructure, and end the corporate welfare that plagues this country. Where we take corruption seriously and hold accountable the people who commit it. Where we excommunicate the Epstein class from our government-- even if the Dow is above 50,000, Pam Bondi.

A new America that works for all Americans is in our grasp, but it means fighting for it every single day. I’m grateful to be marching alongside you all today as we fight to take this country back.

TMZ put out a call for citizen journalists to send in photos of members of congress leaving DC for spring break amidst the longest TSA shutdown in history. And the people have delivered.

They caught Sen. John Thune on his way out at Reagan Airport in D.C., crossing his fingers a resolution to fund TSA passes the House. Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

Senator Marsha Blackburn got caught booking it out of D.C. The night before the Senate even voted on the bill.

And, obviously, Senator Ted Cruz had his email set to “OOO” well before the House even took up the vote.

Can you imagine being the unpaid TSA agent forced to go through Ted Cruz’s carry on as he stands there barefoot, hoping he’ll make his flight to Cancun on time? We all know he loves a trip to Mexico in the midst of a crisis.

How is it that TMZ is one of the only remaining mainstream media outlets with any integrity?

On the one hand, you have Bari Weiss gutting CBS News and turning it into a mouthpiece for the state. The same CBS News whose legacy includes Edward R. Murrow’s historic reporting live from the bombing of London during WWII. Then you have TMZ out here holding our elected officials to account. This is the same TMZ whose legacy includes photos of Britney Spears shaving her head and attacking an SUV at a gas station. How the tables have turned.

These Senators, who probably refused to make eye contact with the TSA agents they’ve nearly bankrupted, seem to feel like it was enough to get the funding bill out of their chamber and hope for the best when it went to the House. As if there was any chance Mike Johnson would get it over the finish line. Which, he didn’t. Surprise, surprise.

So now we have Trump swooping in, claiming to save the day with an executive order to fund TSA and resolve a crisis he caused. Long story short, he is paying TSA agents from the existing DHS budget, which begs the question: If he had this authority, why did he wait until right now to use it? Why did he allow Americans to spend weeks contending with hours long lines at airports? Why did he allow Americans to miss their flights? Why did he voluntarily subject Americans to chaos if a solution was available to him all along?

These are all rhetorical questions, because we already know that Trump had solutions right in front of him. Besides just funding TSA himself, which apparently he always had the ability to do, he was also given a plan that both Democrats and Republicans had reportedly agreed to.

According to Senator Thune, we could have had TSA paid by the end of the week. But the president said “no deal.” Trump explained: “Any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it.”

I explained this in more detail yesterday. Trump has tied this DHS funding bill to passing the SAVE America Act, which guts voting rights, forces states to hand over voter rolls to DHS, and makes it extremely difficult for millions of Americans to vote. All of which is because Trump knows he and the Republicans are facing a brutal midterm season as voters turn on them for any number of things making life difficult: Gas prices, a war no one wanted, horrific immigration raids, sky rocketing health insurance costs, and now, a nightmare at the airports.

All of which is a mess of Trump’s own making.

So if you see something, say something, and send a photo of your representatives to TMZ. They deserve to be shamed.

After blocking multiple standalone bills from Democrats to fund TSA while the debate over DHS funding continues, Republicans put out their own proposal. It would have funded all of DHS except for some parts of ICE. Democrats said the offer didn’t include any of the limits on ICE agents they’re asking for.

So now, you have untrained ICE agents sent in to do the jobs of TSA they have absolutely no business doing. Which sounds idiotic on its face, but there’s a perverse logic to it, according to some. Like, for example, Steve Bannon. On his podcast, he said that sending ICE agents to airports is a test case for sending them to polling places in November.

First you had these masked idiots terrorizing Americans in the streets. Then you send them to the airports, to make the already stressful process of making a flight on time even worse. The end goal is apparently to take all the skills they’ve mastered and apply them to the midterms. It’s so obvious that Republicans are terrified of the absolute devastation they’re facing in this election, if they feel like they have to literally physically scare voters away from the polls.

Then there’s the fact that this isn’t just about ending the stalemate over funding and ending the DHS shutdown. Trump has made it explicitly clear that he’s not approving any funding deal unless Republicans pass the SAVE America Act, which is itself another desperate attempt to disenfranchise voters.

All of which is to say, Congress has been very busy. Here are a few things I’ve been keeping an eye on, and what’s really going on here.

The SAVE America Act

What happened:

Why paraphrase when Trump just came out and said it?

“I’m tying Homeland Security into voter identification, with picture, and proof of citizenship in order to vote.”

So, he effectively killed any chance of resolving the DHS issue, unless Democrats not only get on board with Republicans’ half assed funding proposal, but ALSO agree to essentially gut whatever is left of the Voting Rights Act.

What’s really going on:

This isn’t about election integrity, or preventing widespread voter fraud, which, to be clear, does not exist. This is about suppressing the vote, making it harder for people to vote, making it harder for specific people to vote.

The SAVE America Act would impose “proof of citizenship,” which is really just a fancy way of saying, “we don’t want young people, poor people, and married women who change their last names to be able to register to vote.” It also states that government-issued ID does not include student IDs issued by colleges and universities. I wonder why.

It’s also a blatant attack on mail-in voting, something Trump’s been railing against since time immemorial. On any given day, it’s “corrupt” and guarantees a “crooked election,” or cheating.

Apropos of nothing, Trump just cast a mail-in ballot in a Palm Beach special election this week. I don’t blame him though. It must cost a fortune to gas up the jet and get down there with oil prices being what they are.

Pam Bondi Threatens to Defy Subpoena

What happened:

Lawmakers have subpoenaed Pam Bondi to testify about her failure to release 3 million missing Epstein files. But Bondi hasn’t yet committed to comply with her deposition under oath, offering up an off the record briefing with lawmakers instead.

What’s really going on:

Here’s the thing. They’re mutually exclusive: “under oath” and “off the record.” And Pam Bondi has already proven that when she’s under oath, she has a tendency to - for lack of a better word - shit the bed. The last time she testified under oath, it did not go well. She perjured herself by saying that there’s no evidence in the Epstein files that Trump committed any crime in connection with Jeffrey Epstein. She was then immediately confronted with evidence.

She can only pull off this stunt for so long. Rep. Thomas Massie, who’s been leading the charge on the Epstein Files alongside Rep. Ro Khanna, had sharp words for her.

“I think Pam Bondi just needs to follow the law. We literally passed a law, and if Pam Bondi doesn’t follow it, her successor could prosecute her for that.”

Congress Won’t Rein In Trump’s War Powers

What happened:

The Senate rejected a war powers resolution that would have blocked Trump from using military force in Iran without congressional approval.

What’s really going on:

Democrats have put forward war resolutions three different times, all of which were rejected by Republicans. We’ve been watching Trump and the Republicans trip over themselves desperately trying to describe this war as anything but a war, because it’s only a war if congress says it is. But Trump waltzed into Iran unannounced, and that lack of communication extends to congress. So their hands are tied without passing some kind of resolution.

Meanwhile, Trump is sending 1000 paratroopers on an “excursion” into Iran, while simultaneously offering Iran a proposal to end “the war.” Which is it?

The Takeaway

You’ll notice that we’re not just talking about Congress in each of these instances. Trump butts in on every argument, puts his finger on the scales, sends his minion to do his bidding. It looks like chaos, but there’s a strategy. It’s meant to overwhelm us so that when we’re not looking, power shifts, and the structures safeguarding democracy get a little bit weaker.

Congress is struggling to keep up, but it’s everyday Americans taking the hit. At the airports, at the gas pump, and at the grocery store. That’s why it’s crucial to keep an eye on what’s happening and the pressure on the people in charge.

What’s Going On

As Trump continues to flail in the aftermath of his disastrous handling of the economy, the Epstein files, and now a new war in the Middle East, he took to Truth Social with a pretty unhinged threat:

If Democrats don’t agree to his demands, he’s going to send ICE agents into airports to handle security and start making arrests.

So if airport security already feels chaotic right now, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

Here’s What They’re Doing

Democrats have put forward multiple standalone bills to fund TSA (and FEMA and the Coast Guard), which Republicans have blocked six times as of March 20.

They want DHS fully funded: no concessions, no conditions, no accountability. Now, Democrats are absolutely open to funding the department, but with some basic guardrails: no masks, ICE agents must identify themselves, requiring judicial warrants to enter private property, and stay away from polling places.

You know, baseline following the law. All of which is completely reasonable. Republicans keep rejecting this anyway. So, instead of funding TSA and ending this immediately, they’re making the conscious decision to hold up funding and use the chaos as leverage.

Why it Matters Right Now

This workaround isn’t going to fix the problem. Sending untrained ICE agents in to triage long security lines packed with travelers on edge is not setting them up for success. Now we have ICE playing the role of TSA at US airports. Moving on from their previous role as “law enforcement” in American cities. We all saw how that went. What could possibly go wrong this time?

Spin vs. Reality

They’re saying: Democrats are causing the chaos at airports.
What’s actually happening: Republicans are blocking standalone TSA funding and tying it to unrelated DHS demands.

They’re saying: This is about making airports “safe again.”
What’s actually happening: They’re proposing to replace TSA agents with ICE agents, who aren’t trained to perform security screenings (let alone anything else).

They’re saying: Democrats won’t negotiate.
What’s actually happening: Democrats agreed to fund DHS with basic guardrails. Democrats put forth multiple clean bills to fund TSA. Republicans rejected all of it.

Who Loses

It’s the travelers stuck in endless security lines at the peak of Spring Break travel. It’s exhausted TSA agents forced to work without pay, doing double duty as more and more employees, understandably, call out of work. It’s the airlines forced to hold flights, leading to a domino effect that will cause delays across the country. And it’s travelers coming into the country whose first interaction will now be with the same trigger-happy losers whose actions have scared off tourists and now threaten the upcoming World Cup. (Which the already decimated tourism industry is counting on for a much needed boost.)

In the DHS funding standoff, TSA is the main pain point. It’s the one arm of the department that most regular people interact with most often. As the wait times at security get longer, and lines snake out onto the sidewalk, it’s regular Americans who are feeling the pain here.

The Pattern Here

We have the complete breakdown of an apolitical agency that performs a basic function for everyone. And we have one party using America’s headache for leverage.

The Republicans are once again holding American’s basic needs hostage in order to extract some completely unrealistic concessions from Democrats. Before it was healthcare, this time it’s the TSA (and FEMA, and the Coast Guard, so you’d better hope there’s no natural disasters or maritime… “excursions” before this is over.) How will they inconvenience us next for political gain?

Bottom Line

This could all be over tomorrow. Congress could fund TSA, agents would get their paychecks and return to work. Delays would disappear. Democrats want to do it. It’s Republicans who refuse to offer a single compromise.

My new book is called The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World.

If you’ve followed my work, you know the throughline: Democrats need to fight. Because what we’re up against didn’t start with Trump. He’s the endpoint of a decades-long project to consolidate power at any cost.

This book is a wake-up call about how we got here. And more importantly, what comes next.

It reveals how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have failed to use it, and what it actually looks like to wield power effectively if we get another shot. This is not about restoring the status quo. That already failed. This is about building something bigger, more resilient, and more impactful. This book is the blueprint for progressives who want to build something stronger. A country with real opportunity, real accountability, and institutions that actually work for people.

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A federal judge just ruled that kicking journalists out of Pentagon briefings is unconstitutional. Newsflash: revoking press passes, muzzling journalists, and forcing them to publish propaganda slop is, in fact, a First Amendment violation. It was the rare hopeful outcome of a lawsuit filed by the New York Times, alleging that Pete Hegseth had basically given himself carte blanche to shut down negative coverage of the Pentagon. Because “national security.”

The judge rightly pointed out that it’s even more in the interest of national security that the public know what’s going on. Whether, for example, our tax dollars are being poured into launching a surprise attack on Venezuela and kidnapping their president. Or, another example, being lit on fire in the pursuit of a pointless war in Iran that no one asked for.

The Pentagon was mealy mouthed about what the policy actually was, but it committed to this convoluted line of reasoning, that soliciting military personnel to commit a crime by disclosing unauthorized information is not legally protected speech.

What they’re really doing with this is criminalizing… questions. If a journalist can’t ask questions, what are we doing here?

This all started in October, when the Pentagon abruptly revoked press passes from seven mainstream journalists for, seemingly, reporting the news. Then they enacted this policy, to which anyone seeking a press pass had to sign on in order to continue doing their jobs. More than 50 journalists declined to do so and turned in their badges. Then they were all swiftly replaced by pro-Trump influencers— by which I mean people who are easily influenced by Trump to say whatever he wants.

And this isn’t even the first time a news outlet has sued the Administration over such ham-handed media censorship. Last year, the Associated Press sued after Trump kicked them out of the White House Press Briefing Room for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

We are in the dumbest timeline.

But This is Serious

First it was Stephen Colbert, then it was Jimmy Kimmel. It’s anyone aiming to tell the truth at CBS News, or refusing to rewrite their stories to suit Trump’s addled interpretation of reality. Media censorship isn’t the exception anymore; it’s the rule. Legacy media is caving under pressure from this Administration.

Just last week, Bari Weiss subtweeted Zohran Mamdani, costing CBS a major interview with the New York City mayor after he pulled out. It’s just another instance of her doing her masters’ bidding, by which I mean Trump, since she was installed because of her willingness to parrot the party line.

The Media is in Trouble

You have the Trump-loving Ellison family first buying Paramount and now Warner Brothers, putting them in control of fully 25% of the entire media market. That includes half of the cable TV market. It will put CBS and CNN under one roof. They’re also gutting CBS - it was just announced today that CBS News Radio will shut down after almost 100 years.

We’re talking about the outlet that broadcast Edward R. Murrow’s rooftop reports on the Nazi bombing of London live during World War II. This was the home of Walter Kronkite and Dan Rather.

This is the death knell of real, respected journalism in America. At this point, these federal judges, like the one who ruled against the Pentagon, are our last line of defense against the end of a free press as we know it.

That’s why independent media grows more essential every day. The need for it is growing at an exponential rate that even I didn’t see coming. That’s why I continue to do this work. No one can censor me. I only answer to you, the readers, and I will continue to do so.

Bari Weiss is hammering so many nails in the coffin at CBS News, she’s building a mausoleum at this point. This time it’s with a tweet criticizing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for… condemning the (war/excursion/incursion, you pick) in Iran.

Mamdani had already been taking hits from her other publication, The Free Press, and Weiss’ tweet was apparently the last straw. Weiss retweeted a video of Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad going off on Mamdani, adding the customary sign of journalistic ethics: “fire emoji.”

In the statement deemed “controversial” by CBS news, Mamdani came out against things like “killing civilians” and “bombing cities,” and committed the cardinal sin of pointing out that nobody wants this, least of all Americans struggling through an affordability crisis.

Because of Weiss’ public display of aggression, CBS Sunday Morning lost out on what would have been a huge get with Mamdani. If there was any question before what Bari Weiss’ agenda was, it’s crystal clear now— and it has nothing to do with journalistic integrity.

The End of The Beginning

This, to me, is the next phase of the complete collapse of CBS News, which started last year when Trump cronies bought Paramount, then installed Weiss, and culminated with the Ellisons moving to take over CNN in their purchase of Warner Brothers. Weiss is just the mouthpiece, but she’s happy to say and do whatever her bosses - cough Trump cough - tell her to.

Journalists, like Robert Costa who was set to do the Mamdani interview, are supposed to ask the questions and let the answers speak for themselves. To let the audience decide how to feel without trying to influence them. But when Bari Weiss puts her finger on the scale, she’s making the decision for you: this guy is bad. Doesn’t matter what he has to say.

It turns legacy media into a Kangaroo Court of public opinion, especially in this case where CBS has become a willing mouthpiece for whatever message it is Trump wants to convey.

The Wheels are Coming Off

This debacle is certain to exacerbate what was already a mass exodus of journalists from the network who were fed up with Weiss. Whether it was for outright censorship of a story that made the Administration look bad (like when she pulled a story about the horrendous conditions at an El Salvadoran prison where DHS was illegally sending immigrants) or for putting out straight up propaganda (which she did following the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by dutifully publishing the Administration’s lies about what happened), veteran journalists are abandoning ship. Anderson Cooper recently walked away. Mary Walsh resigned after 46 years, calling out the network for explicitly pushing journalists to ‘aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum.’ Your standard 1984 “thought police” playbook. Scott MacFarlane - who covered the January 6 riot - walked away last week, apparently disgusted by CBS barely even acknowledging the fifth anniversary of the insurrection.

When you have this much institutional knowledge leaving the building, when all of your professional journalists are running for the exits, there’s nothing left of the institution. And it leaves behind a vacuum that Bari Weiss herself gets to fill. And if she’s taking orders from the Ellisons - which means Trump - you can bet she’s not filling it with consummate professionals who are going to deliver the unbiased truth.

She’s going to do exactly as Trump does, and fill the place with mindless sycophants who are ready to do and say whatever benefits the Godking.

It’s Only Getting Worse

First it was Jimmy Kimmel, then it was Stephen Colbert, now it’s anyone aiming to tell the truth at CBS News. Media censorship isn’t the exception anymore; it’s the rule. Legacy media is caving under pressure from this Administration.

It’s extremely telling that in his statement, Scott MacFarlane said he looks forward to “some independence and finding new spaces to share my work in line with my personal goals.” I’ve been beating the drum for years now that independent media is becoming the only reliable source of real information as we watch these institutions get infiltrated and compromised by bad actors like Bari Weiss.

That’s why I continue to do this work. This space remains completely independent from influence or control. I only answer to you, the readers, and I will continue to do so.

Trump, in his latest spiral, just tried to rebrand soaring gas prices as a good thing.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Who is “we?” I’ll tell you who it’s not: the voters who put this guy in office. Trump isn’t even trying to hide it anymore. When he says “we” make a lot of money, he means oil executives, and he means himself. Because that’s all Trump cares about. How he can put more money in his own pocket and deliver a payout for his billionaire cronies.

According to petroleum analyst, Patrick DeHaan, Americans today will spend roughly $250 million more on gasoline than they did 30 days ago. That’s over $1.5 billion per week.

That right there is the Trump gas tax.

Welcome to the Trump War Economy™

Trump is the king of branding. It’s his whole business model: Slap his name on the thing, sit back and watch the cash roll in. But Trump is also the king of failed business models. Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Casinos, he drove them all into the ground. One embattled failure after another. It’s like everything this guy touches turns to shit. (Maybe that’s why his toilets are gold.)

If you look at Trump’s war economy by the numbers, we have on our hands, yet another flop.

Nevermind that the Pentagon said today that the war cost $11.3 billion in the first six days. As mind-numbing as that number is, it’s not surprising given the blank check this administration allocates to defense.

Let’s take a look at his claim that “we make a lot of money” because of high gas prices. Experts say that this is a short term windfall for your ExxonMobils, your Chevrons, your Shells. All oil producers that don’t rely on supplies from the Middle East.

But there’s another layer here. Each of those companies gave at least a half million dollars to Trump’s inaugural committee. And oil and gas interests donated $75 million to Trump’s 2024 election campaign.

That’s the quid.

Now, last week, Qatar - the largest supplier of natural gas in the world - shut down production due to military attacks on its facilities. With supply constrained, oil prices skyrocketed. And once those facilities are down, they take weeks to come back online. Experts say that if they stay offline into the summer, those US oil companies stand to gain $20 billion more in profit every week.

And that’s the pro quo.

No Endgame is the Game

Every day, when Trump comes out with a new and different incoherent reason for starting this war and refuses to come up with an endgame, which forces Republicans to tap dance rather than answer questions, it’s not just a sign of his rapid cognitive decline (that’s a given). Having no plan was the plan all along. Trump has every incentive to keep this going on as long as possible, because it makes his friends rich.

But don’t forget about his family (he certainly won’t). Just days after Trump started the war, Don Jr. and Eric announced they’d invested in a military drone company called Powerus. Don Jr. sits on the board of another drone company called Unusual Machines, which coincidentally announced a government contract worth $15.2 million right after he came aboard. They’re moments away from changing their LinkedIn titles to “war profiteer.”

That’s the whole point.

Pay No Attention

Once again, Trump is telling you not to believe your lying eyes. He tells you high gas prices are great for everyone. Meanwhile Americans are getting crushed by them, along with soaring energy costs, grocery bills, rent, health insurance… every single campaign promise Trump ran on, broken.

It’s going to backfire. Donald Trump himself exploited the Democrats’ gaslighting on the state of the economy to win the 2024 election. But now he’s fallen into the exact same trap, and the rest of his party is falling right in line, parroting his delusional belief that “everything’s great!”

Americans aren’t buying it anymore. That’s why we’re seeing double-digit swings to the left in places Trump and Republicans won handily in 2024. Trump is ignoring the fact that he’s decimating his support while lining his own pockets. And he and the Republicans are going to pay dearly for it, come November.

Gas prices had been at a 4-year low under Trump, with a national average of about $2.98. Which we know because Trump wouldn’t shut up about it. Caveat, he was lying about gas being at a “20-year low”; nevertheless, it’s true that it was cheap.

That was until the No New Wars President started a war with a country he promised he wouldn’t and now oil prices have skyrocketed. Trump can’t tell you why he’s doing this, and he certainly doesn’t want you to know how much it’s going to cost you. Nor does he care. When asked about the spike in gas prices, here are some of his choice soundbites:

"I think it's fine. It's a little glitch. We had to take this detour,"

Prices? “If they rise, they rise.”

Is it worth it? “It’s a small price to pay.”

And anyone not so sure it’s happening? “Fools.”

How it Started, How it’s Going to Go

The price of oil shot past $108 per barrel over the weekend.

When oil spikes, five things get very expensive, fast: gas, airfare, shipping, food, and plastic packaging.

Gas goes first: and the national average per gallon hit $3.40, up from $2.98 last week. That’s practically a 50 cent jump - in a week.

Airfare is next. One third of the cost of airfare is jet fuel, and that jumped by 55% in the last week. The CEO of United said himself, we’ll be feeling it fast. One expert suggested it’s better to book flights with points rather than actual money. (Isn’t it always? Good luck if you don’t have any.)

The cost of jet fuel doesn’t just get passed on to passengers, it also jacks up the cost of shipping. Ground shipping takes a hit as well, since gas prices also affect trucking.

Then comes food. It’s not just the increased cost of getting your food from farm to table, or factory to supermarket. Oil is part of the equation every step of the way. It powers farm and factory equipment. It’s a key ingredient in fertilizer. And it’s in your plastic packaging. All of that stuff accounts for half the cost of your food, and just about everything else you throw in your shopping cart.

This is Just the Beginning

All of that comes in the first wave of price increases. More dominoes will fall.

Airlines start to reduce capacity over 6-12 months. Ground shipping gets a surcharge tacked on within 3-6 months. Shipping from overseas slows down, and that can last for up to 18 months from that first spike in oil prices.

The tsunami hits first, but the boat keeps rocking after. There’s the aftershock that shows up in inflation, which leads to a slowdown in consumer spending, which leads to market volatility.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

This affects different regions differently, and it’s complicated. On one hand, the energy producers - Texas, South Dakota, Alaska - get a boost, since the demand for domestic oil will jump. But that’s only in the areas where drilling actually happens. Everywhere else suffers. Increased oil prices actually hit rural states harder, since they spend almost twice as much on energy as urban areas with better transportation infrastructure.

The Midwest and Southeast better brace for impact. Since those areas depend on manufacturing, they bear the brunt of a drop in spending as people cut back on purchases. And anywhere dependent on car manufacturing takes a hit as people delay buying new cars, which means the Rust Belt should be prepared to absorb a blow.

Those places that depend on tourism and hospitality can expect a terrible season, since travel will become increasingly more expensive. (As if tourism wasn’t already injured by the prospect of masked men plucking random people off the streets and shipping them off to Central American gulags.)

The Delusion Deluge

This administration remains committed to their preferred strategy: It ain’t broke, so there’s nothing to fix.

Case in point: A White House official told CNBC on Friday that the Trump administration believes “the oil markets remain well supplied.”

But experts, analysts, and anyone with eyes willing to look at the evidence will tell you that’s absolutely not the case. To put it in perspective, the last major energy crisis was in 1973, when about 7% of the global oil supply was removed from the market. Oil prices quadrupled.

This time around, Trump has locked up 20% of the world’s oil supply with this war. And there is NO surplus oil to tap into, because the countries with the surplus oil like Saudi Arabia and UAE also use the Strait of Hormuz, which is blocked off due to Trump’s idiocy.

Now, there’s a backstop here. In the 70s, our economy was almost exclusively dependent on oil for energy. Today it’s more diversified and we’re using more renewable sources than ever before— in spite of Trump’s best efforts. We all know how he feels about renewable energy. If Trump gets his way in his relentless push away from green energy sources, it’ll be yet another shot in his own foot.

We’re at a crossroads. That last energy crisis was a disaster because it lasted over a year. Trump could end this right now if he wants. But I’m not running to Polymarket to bet on that. Trump chose this, because he’d rather wage war in Iran than make good on literally any one of his campaign promises to make life better for Americans at home.

Trump yadda yaddas all of this away, calling it “a small price to pay” to stop Iran (from what exactly, I’m not entirely sure) but, he’s not paying it. You are. And he doesn’t give a shit.

Not only is he ignoring the downstream effects on the economy, he clearly hasn’t thought about how it affects his party. Trump makes an idiotic move, and now Republicans have to go out and defend it. And they can’t. And it’s decimating their support. Which is why we’re seeing double digit swings to the left, with Democrats flipping seats in elections across the country, from Arkansas to Georgia to Pennsylvania and beyond. Small price to pay, indeed.

It wasn’t because of her disastrous handling of the immigration raids in Minneapolis that left two Americans dead, or for reflexively calling them “domestic terrorists,” kicking off a propaganda campaign the Soviets would have called “heavy handed.” It wasn’t for egregious obstruction of internal investigations. It wasn’t for sowing chaos and dysfunction inside her Department of Homeland Security.

That incompetence and corruption are practically pre-requisites for employment in this administration at this point.

Kristi Noem committed the one mortal sin that gets you booted from this administration: she ran afoul of Trump.

Kristi Noem’s Rap Sheet

Handling of ICE raids in Minneapolis

Noem oversaw the violent and chaotic ICE raids in Minneapolis that terrorized the immigrant community, decimated local businesses, and brought thousands of people into the streets to defend their neighbors.

Noem’s immigration raids swept up American citizens and legal immigrants, leading to their violent arrests, and wrongful deportations. She turned American cities into scenes from 1984, with an untrained secret police force brutally targeting people.

FEMA

Noem was also in charge of running FEMA into the ground. She delayed assistance to California after last year’s fires and North Carolina following Hurricane Helene in 2024 with her decree that all contracts over $100,000 be reviewed by the agency. The bureaucracy ground the recovery to a halt, leaving Americans in the lurch as they tried to piece their lives back together.

Chaos Inside the Agency

Noem’s DHS was an absolute mess. Unofficial political advisor and Noem’s not-secret-at-all boyfriend Corey Lewandowski wielded outsized influence inside the agency, for some reason. Likely, the two held their strategy sessions, away from the prying eyes of their respective spouses, on the private jet complete with bedroom suite Noem claimed to use for deportations. She spent $172 million on two of those jets during a government shut down.

The DHS inspector general - a Trump appointee - said Noem obstructed investigations and blocked access to evidence 11 times. It’s not like she had anything to hide.

At one point, Noem had a Coast Guard pilot fired for leaving her favorite blanket on a plane, only to reinstate him shortly after realizing there was no one who could fly the plane back.

Corruption and Self-Dealing

Noem was questioned about a major campaign during congressional testimony, when said - under oath - that Trump had personally approved it.

Trump immediately retorted, “I didn’t know anything about it.”

That moment is what sealed her fate. She flew too close to the sun, and her extensions melted in the heat.

But it wasn’t just that she’d lied about the President on national television, forcing him to contradict her. Kristi Noem succumbed to a terminal case of Main Character Syndrome.

Those ads that Trump definitely did not approve were all about Kristi Noem. Here, we had Kristi Noem, in full glam, atop a horse in front of Mount Rushmore. Kristi Noem, in full glam, demanding immigrants self deport on screens in airports. Kristi Noem, in full glam, the star of her own DHS show. She appeared at the border in full glam and a flak jacket. At an El Salvador in full glam and a flak jacket. Doing ridealongs on ICE raids filmed like action movies in full glam and a flak jacket.

Kristi Noem tried to upstage the President. And Trump would never stand for that.

You can run an agency into the ground, and trample all over Americans’ constitutional rights, and use government funding like it’s your own personal slush fund. But you absolutely cannot steal Trump’s spotlight.

This Time is Different

We’re a year into Trump’s second term, and this is the very first firing of a Cabinet level official. If you’ll think back to Trump 1.0, that Cabinet had a revolving door. It was a circus. All you had to do was look at Trump the wrong way and you’d be out the door with a bankers box in hand with a picture of your kids.

Trump 2.0 is different. He stocked his Cabinet with absolute loyalists. They may be incompetent, they may be comically cruel or evil or corrupt, but they are die-hard Trumpists, and that’s what got them the job. It’s fealty above all here. That’s the pattern.

Which is why it’s so telling that Noem got fired. She did it all right, until she crossed the line and went against the Godking.

Noem Doesn’t Deserve all the Credit

Kristi didn’t lose her job in a vacuum. After the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and her immediate launch of the propaganda campaign against them, Americans poured into the streets to protest her and her policies. Attorneys filed suit and judges ruled against her and her cronies inside the agency. And journalists and independent media amplified those stories and images and built the narrative that ended with her up against the wall, lying through her teeth.

That pressure matters.

Noem’s firing is a win, but it won’t stop here. Her replacement is MAGA maniac and former MMA fighter Markwayne Mullin, and I don’t expect a nuanced reexamination of the decisions made or, frankly, a sane approach to anything going forward.

I called out Noem’s disgusting lies from the moment they happened, unlike certain media outlets that tried to cover it up or smooth it over (Bari Weiss, we’re looking at you). Legacy media is becoming more and more compromised by the day, which is why independent media is absolutely critical right now. Pressure matters; I intend to keep applying it.

UPDATE: Per a statement from attorneys representing The Strategy Group, “The Strategy Group has never held a direct contract with DHS… the The Strategy Group served solely as a subcontractor to Safe America for limited production services, for which it received $226,137.”

This is already the most expensive Senate primary ever. Cost estimates put it at almost $130 million. The Republican side accounts for $90 million of that. So now, instead of spending money going after the Democratic nominee, James Talarico, Republicans are going to dump God knows how much more money into knifing each other.

John Cornyn, who hasn’t lost an election since he set up shop in the Senate in 2002 outspent Paxton by $65 million, and he still couldn’t beat a guy who was impeached by the Texas legislature for fraud. I mean hell, Paxton’s wife just filed for divorce due to his multiple affairs. (Although, that’s probably an asset if you’re trying to make yourself in the image of Trump.)

It was a mess down the ballot, too. The 4-term incumbent, Trump suck-up Dan Crenshaw lost to a rightwing challenger, MAGA acolyte Steve Tot, despite outspending him by almost $2 million.

What this says is that Texas Republican voters don’t like what they see and are no longer predictably breaking for the incumbents. The old playbooks aren’t working anymore.

The fact that Republicans have to pour this much money into Texas is a major red flag for the party. If it takes almost $100 million dollars to triage the situation in a supposed slam dunk red state, imagine what that means for North Carolina, and Alaska, and Maine, and Ohio - states where the margins are much slimmer. And those are states where we’ve got extremely strong candidates: Mary Peltola, Sherrod Brown, Roy Cooper, and either Graham Platner or Janet Mills.

These people can win. I’m even more confident that they can win in places where Democrats are overperforming 12, 14, 16 points and more relative to 2024.

In true Trumpian fashion, Republicans seem hellbent on employing their patented Wile E. Coyote strategy, lighting TNT only to have it blow up in their faces. They are doing a spectacular job driving down their favorability among voters by going back on just about every campaign promise that swept them into office in 2024. Costs have been rising for a year since Trump launched his trade war, then surged again this week after he launched an actual one in Iran. The ongoing Epstein coverup, exploding gas pricing, a plunging stock market. It’s like these conditions were engineered in a lab to drive up enthusiasm for the opposition. Which is impressive for a party that has embraced a wholesale denial of science (re: climate change, vaccines, everything RFK Jr. has ever said, etc.)

As long as Republicans keep shooting themselves in the foot, day after day, they put their candidates in the line of fire when it comes time to explain to voters why they should continue to support bad policy that’s actively hurting them. The true cost of bad strategy will play out come midterms, and the Republicans may be left holding a hefty bill.

Republican Thom Tillis came for her in a blistering take down of her incompetence running DHS. And if you’re thinking, “well, he’s retiring, who cares?” then there’s Republican John Kennedy of Louisiana who had no qualms about castigating her over her most obvious instances of corruption. When you have Republicans risking the wrath of Trump on Truth Social and getting primaried to go on the record like this, you know we’ve crossed the Rubicon.

Noem’s catastrophic performance today didn’t come close to her even more disastrous run overseeing the ICE raids in Minneapolis that resulted in the shootings of two U.S. citizens, who she wasted no time branding “domestic terrorists,” in order to pre-clear the ICE agents who killed them.

Now, when Noem was asked point blank if she called them that, she denied it. And yet here she was in the immediate aftermath of the shooting:

Kristi Noem has been in damage control mode since the moment those words came out of her mouth. They set in motion a rapid fire chain of events that saw her immigration strategy completely overhauled almost overnight and put her on thin ice with Trump, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. She hasn’t quite pissed him off enough to lose her job, but that’s just a helpful side effect of Trump’s pathological need to be right. Firing her would amount to admitting he made a mistake, and that’s simply a bridge too far.

But it’s been glaringly obvious since day one that hiring Noem was a huge mistake. Politics notwithstanding, this is a woman who openly bragged about killing her dog in her book. That vile, stomach-churning behavior should be immediately disqualifying from anything besides a storyline in a Ryan Murphy show.

But if that wasn’t enough, we have a litany of instances of her complete lack of moral character. Take, for example, the government contract Noem handed over to a company owned by her own department spokeswoman’s husband: a $143 million friends and family deal.

Or the $70 million private jet complete with a bedroom that she’s been flitting across the country in with her boyfriend, Corey Lewandowski. (They are both married, both deny the affair, and are both terrible at keeping a secret.)

Noem’s corruption, her self-promotion, and her amorality was on full display to the point that both parties can easily recognize that she is wholly unqualified for her position. She should resign, which, knowing Trump, will probably only make him double down in his defense of her.

Most chilling of all though, was the fact that Noem refused to rule out sending ICE agents to polling places on election day. That wouldn’t be on the table if Republicans were delivering on anything to make life for Americans better in any way. But they’re not.

Some Republicans are finally starting to realize that the wagon they’ve hitched themselves to is a lemon full of liars and grifters, and all the wheels have come off. That’s why it’s absolutely crucial that we keep amplifying these images, replaying the tape and spreading the word that this administration is beyond incompetent. Voters need to know just how dangerous these people are and how necessary it is to turn out in the midterms and vote them out.

The midterms start now. I’ll be live here on Substack tonight for the Texas primary results, which will be an early indicator of how things might shake out for Democrats as these campaigns ramp up.

This morning, while the bombing was underway, Trump wrote:

Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States.

Let’s be clear: Trump doesn’t care about foreign countries meddling in our elections. If he did, he’d be bombing Russia right now. So why then would Trump invoke Iran interfering in our elections as he bombs the country? Put simply, he is trying to validate the claim that our elections are not secure, so that he can use that as a pretext to usurp control of our elections in the name of national security.

Here’s an excerpt from The Washington Post’s reporting from just days ago:

Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

I do have one gripe with this framing: declaring a national emergency would not “unlock” extraordinary presidential power over voting. There is no extraordinary presidential power over voting. The states control elections, not the federal government. Full stop.

But that poor framing notwithstanding, Trump is very clearly looking for claims of foreign interference (first China, now Iran) to serve as a basis to declare a national emergency. He has threatened to nationalize the election for months. This is how he’s going to try and do it.

Add this to his apparent obsession with passing the SAVE Act, which in part gives the federal government access to the voter rolls (and if you’re looking to suppress the vote, it helps to know whose vote to suppress).

And of course, Trump has a long, sordid past when it comes to steps he’s already taken to undermine the sanctity of our elections. He tried to seize the voting machines in Georgia in 2020. He tried to get Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 nonexistent votes. This year, he sent his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to Fulton County to collect all of the ballots. He’s sending troops into US cities who can serve as his boots on the ground in the event that he hands down orders. He’s put in place an attorney general who herself is an election denier. History shows that Trump is not shy about using any pretext necessary to interfere in a free and fair election in the United States.

There is a silver lining. Because he is so ham-handed, his scheme is already apparent. I’ve spoken with Marc Elias, the founder of Democracy Docket, who can see the writing on the wall. If and when Trump asserts his nonexistent authority, he will be sued. And he will lose. But our job is to spread the word, because the more Americans recognize the real reason for his actions, the less effective this pretext will be when he attempts to use it.

Paramount elbowed out Netflix to buy Warner Brothers Discovery after a months-long bidding war. When (not if) the deal closes, Paramount will control 25% of the entire media market, and half of the cable TV market. It will put CBS and CNN under one roof. And that roof sits atop a house owned by the Trump-friendly Ellison family.

CNN got a clear picture of what its future now looks like over the last year, following the Ellison’s purchase and remake of CBS news. See: the installation of Bari Weiss. See also: the muzzling of Stephen Colbert. They’ve effectively turned the network into a mouthpiece for the state.

Larry Ellison has said exactly what he plans to do with CNN, which is whatever Trump wants. In calls with the White House, he discussed axing CNN hosts Trump doesn’t like, including Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.

Paramount’s allegiances are abundantly clear, all but ensuring that CNN will get the full MAGA rebrand, just like CBS. It’s yet another domino to fall in the march towards right wing control of the media.

Oh, and if you think there’s a chance the deal might not go through, that Trump’s Justice Department will do literally anything to enforce antitrust laws, let that delusion go now. FCC Chair Brendan Carr ruled that out months ago. “I’d be very surprised if there was an FCC role at all in that type of transaction,” he said.

The Bigger Picture

Nevermind that this massive consolidation of TV and movie studios moves Hollywood one step closer to death’s door. Thousands of people will lose their jobs. But giving one billionaire family control of a huge portion of the country’s news outlets puts press freedom on life support.

And this isn’t the only big consolidation threatening media independence.

Trump just gave the thumbs up on another massively consequential merger, this one between the owner/operators of TV stations, Nexstar and Tegna. You may not know Nexstar by name, but you’re probably familiar with their work. Last year, they refused to air Jimmy Kimmel on their local affiliates once ABC reinstated him after pulling him off the air for a joke Trump didn’t like. (Cue Elon Musk saying: “Comedy is legal again.”)

That deal lacks the flashy name recognition of the Paramount/Warner deal. But it’s just as, if not more insidious. It would mean one rightwing company owns 80% of local TV stations in the country.

If there’s any question about what the implications of that deal are, look no further than Trump’s Truth Social commentary on it:

“We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks. Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar – Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level.”

And there’s a third right wing conspiracy to destroy the credibility of TV news. Sinclair is another conservative corporation that owns 200 local TV stations. You may remember a spectacularly Orwellian moment back during the first Trump administration, when news anchors all over the country all recited the same exact script about the dangerous spread of fake news, word for word, on air.

This is how the media gets compromised: slowly, then all at once.

And that’s why I’m working harder than ever to expose these corrupt attacks on the media and freedom of speech. This is why independent media matters. I can’t be bought by MAGA billionaires, and no one can tell me what to say. I work for you. I’m accountable to you. And it’s because of you that I’m able to keep doing it.