U.S. Government & governance 3 July 2025-

No Kings Unveils a Big New Trump Protest, and the Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher
A movement leader tells Rolling Stone about the No Kings 2 demonstrations on Oct. 18 2025, and how they can curb Trump’s overreach
No Kings 2 is being organized by a big tent of grassroots and advocacy organizations. One of the most prominent players is Indivisible, the activist group that sprang to life in the early days of the first Trump administration.
Rolling Stone spoke to Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin last week, in advance of No Kings 2 unveiling today. The protest is planned for Oct. 18 — in the aftermath of an unpredictable showdown over government funding that could lead to a partial government shutdown by the end of the month.
Letters from an American June 30, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
“This is the most deeply immoral piece of legislation I have ever voted on in my entire time in Congress,” said Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“[W]e’re debating a bill that’s going to cut healthcare for 16 million people. It’s going to give a tax break to…massively wealthy people who don’t need any more money. There are going to be kids who go hungry because of this bill. This is the biggest reduction in…nutrition benefits for kids in the history of the country.” Murphy continued: “We’re obviously gonna continue to offer these amendments to try to make it better. So far not a single one of our amendments…has passed, but we’ll be here all day, probably all night, giving Republicans the chance over and over and over again to slim down the tax cuts for the corporations or to make life a little bit…less miserable for hungry kids or maybe don’t throw as many people off of healthcare. Maybe don’t close so many rural hospitals. It’s gonna be a long day and a long night.”
“This bill is a farce,” said Senator Angus King (I-ME). “Imagine a bunch of guys sitting around a table, saying, ‘I’ve got a great idea. Let’s give $32,000 worth of tax breaks to a millionaire and we’ll pay for it by taking health insurance away from lower-income and middle-income people. And to top it off, how about we cut food stamps, we cut SNAP, we cut food aid to people?’… ”
17 July 2025
What are rescissions – and why does Trump want Congress to push them through?
The president is pushing for cuts in spending that Congress needs to approve to take effect – but what exactly are they?
Congressional Republicans are pushing for passage of a rescissions package, legislation requested by Donald Trump that will claw back $9bn in funding intended for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.
The bill, which is part of the president’s campaign to slash government spending, has passed the Senate by a narrow margin of 51 votes to 48.
What is a rescissions package?
Congress controls the power of the purse by approving a budget and then appropriating money. But under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the president may request the rescission of previously authorized funds, and Congress has 45 days to approve it, otherwise the money must be spent.

Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American July 23, 2026
In mid-April [1953], [President]Eisenhower warned of diverting the nation’s tax dollars to war at the expense of the people.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed,” he said. “This world in arms is not spending money alone.
“It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
Eisenhower’s speech has been on my mind as the Trump administration slashes Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, foreign aid, scientific and medical research, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and yet is demanding more money for the Defense Department, bled out by Trump’s foreign adventures in Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, the Caribbean, Venezuela, and, of course, Iran.
Because Trump’s war on Iran has run through the already-expanded budget Congress provided, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on Capitol Hill Tuesday asking Congress for an additional $67 billion to get the Defense Department through the end of September. But Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) picked up on the possibility that the administration was trying to use the supplemental funding request as a backdoor way to get around the constitutional and legal requirement for Congress to approve military action in Iran.
22 July
House Republicans adopt $95 billion package for the Iran war and Trump’s priorities
(AP) — The House adopted a Republican-only $95 billion budget proposal Wednesday, a long-shot effort to fund the Iran war and other White House priorities over objections from Democrats and a few GOP holdouts in a final push before the midterm elections.
House Republicans were divided over the plan, with conservatives wary because there are no offsetting budget cuts. But Speaker Mike Johnson plunged ahead, viewing the go-it-alone process as the best chance to usher President Donald Trump’s priorities through the split Congress, despite skepticism in the Senate.

29 June
Robert Reich: The End of Independent Agencies
The Supreme Court majority throws out the New Deal and much else
I spent five years of my life advising the commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) how they could best protect Americans from monopolies and deceptive corporate practices.
… Part of the reason the FTC has been so effective is that it is — or was — independent, and therefore immune to the political moves of powerful corporations seeking to stop it from acting for the common good.
The FTC was established in 1914 as part of what’s known as the “progressive era” when the government first sought to rescue the nation from the grip of the robber barons who then ran the railroads, oil, shipping, and much of the rest of the economy — and corrupted the nation’s politics — during the First Gilded Age.
We’re now in America’s Second Gilded Age, when a new set of robber barons (think Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry and David Ellison) are running much of the economy and corrupting our politics.
Unfortunately, we now have a president and a Supreme Court, three of whose members he appointed, who are in their pockets.
Hence, today’s Supreme Court ruling that a president can utterly disregard the will of Congress and install his own hacks in all independent regulatory agencies (with the odd exception of the Federal Reserve Board).

27 June
On Holding Elon Musk Accountable
Why aren’t we talking more about DOGE?
Paul Krugman
…if Democrats retake Congress, they should hold investigations into the role of Elon Musk as head of DOGE, the sort of not exactly but effectively government agency, in destroying USAID, the agency that was the principal channel for aid to the most desperate, poorest people in the world.
…there are credible estimates that the cancellation, the destruction of Doge has led to millions of unnecessary deaths, including millions of children — which is exactly true. There are studies that say that there is both in the field evidence of widespread death as a result of the cancellation and, of course reasonable health models. Because what do you think happens when you cut away tens of billions of dollars of aid to people who are living right on the edge? So of course it’s a reasonable thing to say.

Heather Cox Richardson June 6, 2026
In the wee hours of Friday morning, Senate Republicans passed a measure to provide about $70 billion in additional funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the parent agency for Border Patrol. They did so without meeting any of the demands Democrats had made to reform ICE and Border Patrol in the wake of the violent sweeps that led to the deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Putting more billions behind ICE and CBP now will mean those agencies are funded through the rest of Trump’s term. Even if Democrats take control of Congress after the midterms, the funding will be in place, preventing Democrats from using funding to demand reforms. … Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) notes that the $70 billion in tax money Republicans just gave to ICE and Border Patrol could provide free childcare for 1.3 million children through September 2028, cover the annual cost of groceries for about 10.7 million U.S. households, provide a year of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to 31 million Americans, expand the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits for at least a year, cancel about 31.5% of Americans’ medical debt, and end homelessness for about eight years.

4 June
Putting American Science on a MAGA Leash
Stephen Holmes
A draft rule from US President Donald Trump’s White House Office of Management and Budget would subject all scientific research funding to the whims of political appointees, further undercutting a pillar of American power. The goal is to foreclose any future that is plural, contestable, and beyond the president’s control.
On May 29, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a 412-page rule that would place scientific research largely under the supervision of political appointees. Peer review—the mechanism by which the United States has allocated research funding since World War II—is to be reduced to an “advisory” role, with the appointees, not scientists or program officers, personally approving every discretionary grant.
Moreover, those appointees would be expressly forbidden to defer to the experts they replace. Awards must “demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities,” and ongoing grants may be canceled at any moment, without any finding of fraud or failure, simply because an appointee decides they no longer align with the administration’s aims.
The OMB’s new rule can be viewed as further evidence of the political capture of previously nonpartisan institutions.

3 May
America Is Officially an Empire in Decline
By Christopher Caldwell, a contributing Opinion writer and the author of “The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties.”
(NYT) The American-Israeli attack on Iran was more than a bad idea; it has turned into a watershed in the decline of the American empire. Some might prefer the word “hegemony” to describe the world order the United States leads, since its flag does not generally fly over the lands it protects or exploits. But the rules are the same: Imperial systems, whatever you call them, last only as long as their means are adequate to their ends. And with the Iran war, President Trump has overextended the empire dangerously.
… It would be wrong to say the United States is trapped in the war it started. It has options. But it is now going to pay a very steep price, no matter which of them it chooses. It can desist in Iran — having demonstrated, for no good reason, that its military is far less dominant than the world had assumed. Or it can draw resources from theaters that are of vital national interest, such as Europe and East Asia, to fund what the president refers to as his Iranian “excursion.” Or it can resort to the extreme military options Mr. Trump darkly alluded to in social media posts starting in early April, which will redound to the everlasting shame of the country he leads. The United States stands to lose its reputation, its friends or its soul.

19 April
Democrats are closer than you think to upending the Electoral College
Jason Willick
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact going into effect is suddenly plausible.
(WaPo Opinion) … Last week, [Virginia’s Democratic governor, Abigail] Spanberger signed legislation entering Virginia into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), an initiative that aims to fundamentally change the way the United States elects presidents without amending the Constitution.
Spanberger’s signature brings the NPVIC from the realm of the theoretical to the realm of live politics. And this half-baked rewrite to a centuries-old institution of American democracy could invite a constitutional crisis. The implications deserve more attention before voters go to the polls in November and potentially bring the NPVIC over the finish line in time for the next presidential election. …
The 2000 and 2016 experiences have convinced Democrats that the Electoral College is a structural obstacle to their party. Though demographics are always changing and it’s anyone’s guess which way the institution will lean in 2028, the Democrats would be under tremendous pressure to move toward a popular vote system for the first post-Trump presidential election if they got the power to do so.
Voters could give them that power in November. In Michigan and Pennsylvania, just one house of the legislature would need to flip for Democrats to have a trifecta, assuming Democrats hold on to the governorships. In Nevada, incumbent Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo would need to be unseated, but the legislature is already controlled by Democrats.
NB Any state ratifying the NPVIC would require a Democratic trifecta” —Democratic control of the governorship and both houses of the [state] legislature.

13 April
Analysis: Vance’s bad week: vice-president risks becoming face of two Trump foreign policy failures
Andrew Roth
Orbán is out in Hungary and talks have failed to end the war in Iran – ill-fated road trip has been setback for MAGA aims
(The Guardian) Shortly before JD Vance’s ill-fated week crisscrossing the world, Donald Trump asked him during a private Easter brunch about how the Iran negotiations were shaping up. “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance,” Trump said to laughs in the room. “If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”
The joke at Vance’s expense contained an unfortunate nugget of truth: this is not an administration that rewards failure.
The odds were already against the US vice-president when he flew to Hungary one week ago to help rally for Viktor Orbán, the Maga movement’s closest ally in Europe, who was facing electoral defeat after 16 years in power. Then Vance traveled on to Islamabad, where he held last-ditch negotiations in order to reopen the strait of Hormuz and end Iran’s nuclear programme, as Trump threatened to bomb the country “back to the stone ages”.
Vance went 0 for 2 in one of the most bruising weeks of his term in office.
… With the talks now in tatters, Vance risks becoming the face of two foreign policy failures in a single week. And with Trump now taking aim at Pope Leo XIV as “weak on crime” and “terrible”, Vance, a Catholic convert, may find himself ensconced in yet another international incident.

2 April
Bye-Bye Bondi
Don’t cheer.
Robert Reich
There’s always a temptation to celebrate when Trump does something sensible, like firing his attorney general, Pam Bondi — until you ask yourself why he’s done it.
Not since John Mitchell, who was Richard Nixon’s attorney general, has anyone done more to tarnish that office and damage the Justice Department than has Bondi.
But Trump didn’t fire her because she turned the Justice Department into a cesspool of corruption. Just the opposite. He fired her because she didn’t hide the corruption well enough. She failed to achieve all the corrupt goals he set for her: She didn’t make the Epstein files go away, didn’t fully prosecute his enemies, and wasn’t convincing enough in congressional hearings and on television in advocating for Trump.

1 April
Trump, GOP leaders unveil plan to end DHS shutdown through Senate bill and reconciliation
(CBS) Republican leaders in Congress and President Trump unveiled a plan Wednesday to end the partial government shutdown and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, mirroring a framework that the Senate pursued last week before it was quickly batted down by House Republicans.
House GOP leadership spent all day last Friday criticizing Senate legislation that split off immigration enforcement funding from the rest of DHS, but they now appear to have reversed course.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump demanded that Congress fund ICE and Border Patrol through reconciliation, which would allow Republicans to pass a bill without Senate Democrats. He told lawmakers to get the legislation to his desk by June 1.
“We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” Mr. Trump said.
The plan would fund most of DHS until October through an appropriations bill while funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through reconciliation. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune soon said they would work to make it happen.
The House and Senate are currently away from Washington on recess. But a vote in the Senate could come as soon as Thursday, when the chamber will hold a pro forma session. The House is also set to meet later Thursday for a pro forma session.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized GOP disunity in a statement responding to the announcement, saying “Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction.”
“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat. “We were clear from the start: fund critical security, protect Americans, and no blank check for reckless ICE and Border Patrol enforcement. We were united, held the line, and refused to let Republican chaos win.”

28 March
Third No Kings protest draws millions from across US to push back on Trump administration
Anti-authoritarian rallies, taking place in all 50 states plus 16 countries, are expected to be biggest in US history
(The Guardian) More than 3,000 No Kings protests against the Trump administration were held nationwide and in more than a dozen countries on Saturday, according to a coalition of organizers that includes “anti-authoritarian” groups Indivisible and 50501, labor unions and other grassroots organizations.
“I would expect March 28 to be the biggest protest in American history,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said ahead of the protests.
‘No Kings’ protests: Large crowds attend nationwide rallies against the Trump administration (CNN Live)
West Coast marches are underway on a day of protests large and small across the US, including a marquee event in Minnesota.
• Widespread protests: “No Kings” demonstrations have taken place from coast to coast today, with attendees rallying against President Donald Trump’s policies, the rising cost of living and the war with Iran.
• On the ground: Throughout the day, crowds gathered to march, sing, dance and wave signs in major cities, suburbs and small towns across red and blue states, including Los Angeles and New York. A marquee event in Minnesota featured a Bruce Springsteen performance and a slate of high-profile speakers.
• Third round: Last year, millions of people attended largely peaceful protests on two “No Kings” days. Since then, Trump’s nationwide immigration enforcement blitz has come and gone in several major cities. Now, Americans are facing skyrocketing gas prices and a flagging economy due to the war.
“No Kings” movement spreads to Europe
Crowds of people in Italy, France, Germany and Spain are demonstrating against US President Donald Trump. It comes on a day thousands of “No Kings” protests are planned in the United States.

27 March
Live:House Rejects D.H.S. Funding as White House Orders Pay for T.S.A. Workers
(NYT) House Republicans on Friday angrily rejected a Senate-passed deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, threatening to extend the agency shutdown that has crippled airports in a fit of outrage over the agreement their own party struck with Senate Democrats to end the crisis.
After quickly assessing the compromise that passed the Senate early Friday, conservative House Republicans tore into it in harsh terms. They derided it for hewing too closely to the Democratic position by omitting money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, the two agencies responsible for carrying out President Trump’s immigration crackdown, which are operating under previously approved funds.
While Trump’s executive order today will fund the T.S.A., and law enforcement agencies like ICE and Border Patrol have continued to be funded throughout the weeks-long shutdown with money Congress previously approved, lawmakers must still pass legislation to fund the rest of the Homeland Security Department, including FEMA, a cybersecurity agency and civilian staff at the Coast Guard. The House bill will create a standoff between the chambers and their two proposals to reopen D.H.S.

20 March
White House revises its DHS offer as talks to end shutdown pick up
Border czar Tom Homan met again with lawmakers Friday night in the Capitol.
(Politico) …a Democratic aide familiar with the meeting said there is “a ways to go” in the ongoing negotiations “to secure the significant reforms that Democrats have laid out for weeks and that are necessary to earn the support of the Democratic caucus.” … … The group of lawmakers is hoping to meet again over the weekend, with the Senate planning to be in session both Saturday and Sunday working on other legislative priorities. But Republicans said timing will be up to Democrats, who are now expected to respond with a counteroffer.
Another DHS funding vote coming to House floor
It will be the third attempt to pass Homeland Security appropriations.
(Politico) Speaker Mike Johnson is planning to put a stalled Homeland Security funding bill on the House floor a third time next week.
Two versions of the bill have already passed the House, each time with just a few House Democrats breaking from party lines to back it. But the bill is still held up in the Senate, where Democrats have refused to approve DHS funding without adding new restrictions on immigration enforcement.
DHS shutdown urgency grows as negotiators hold more funding talks
(NBC) Senate Majority Leader John Thune threatened to nix the chamber’s two-week Easter recess unless negotiators can strike a deal on Department of Homeland Security funding.
DHS FUNDING: White House border czar Tom Homan met for a second day with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss funding the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans said after tonight’s meeting that they had submitted a counterproposal to Democrats in the form of legislative language.

8 March
Democrats make political bet on DHS demands, despite GOP’s Iran warnings
(The Hill) A week after President Trump launched strikes against Iran, Democrats are digging in against reopening the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without significant reforms to the agency.
Party leaders are amplifying their demands for tougher rules governing agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Rank-and-file Democrats appear to be fully on board. And a test vote in the House on Thursday demonstrated that, if anything, the Iran conflict has only solidified the party’s support behind the leadership position.

A very dangerous person’: alarm as Pete Hegseth revels in carnage of Iran war
(The Guardian) Hegseth, 45, a former Fox News TV host who now commands the world’s most powerful military, has this week become the face of Donald Trump’s war in Iran. That has set off for alarm bells for critics who warn that the Secretary of Defense – pointedly rebranded “Secretary of War” – has rapidly transformed the Pentagon into the staging ground for an ideological and religious crusade.
With machismo, Christian nationalism and callousness toward the lives of US troops, they say, Hegseth’s puerile displays on TV are aimed at sating Trump’s desire for a warmonger worthy of the manosphere.
… As defence secretary Hegseth has vowed to “unleash overwhelming and punishing violence” on enemies and promised to dispense with “stupid rules of engagement” – rules designed to restrict attacks on civilian populations.
Now, in his first week guiding the nation through a murky new Middle East conflict, Hegseth has largely forgone the solemnity of a traditional defence secretary in favour of the performative antics of a partisan broadcaster revelling in America’s capacity to inflict violence.
… Now, faced with a geopolitical crisis that demands nuance and strategic foresight, he appears to many to be out of his depth.
Stephen Miller a ‘big problem’ for Trump administration, says Republican senator
The senior senator representing North Carolina, when asked on CNN’s State of the Union if he thinks Miller should go, during a conversation about the administration’s immigration crackdown, responded to host Jake Tapper stating “Oh, of course I do.”
“He is not worried about substance. He’s more worried about form, but I also think that he has an outsized influence over the operations of the cabinet. And I believe we’ve got qualified cabinet members there that sometimes are doing less than what they want to, because of his direction and his outsized influence. He’s a big problem in this administration. He has been from the beginning,” said Tillis. …
“It gives me pause that you had people like Stephen Miller calling the shots,” Tillis added. “It was Stephen Miller who said it was the position of the United States that we should go after Greenland. And Stephen Miller, that’s been repeatedly responsible for embarrassments for the President of the United States by acting too quickly speaking, first, and thinking later.”

21 February
Robert Reich: The Supreme Court’s tariff decision extends far beyond tariffs
It stops Trump from deciding not to spend money Congress appropriated, and from going to war without Congress’s approval
This is a big decision. It goes far beyond merely interpreting the 1997 International Emergency Economic Powers Act not to give Trump the power over tariffs that he claims to have. It reaffirms a basic constitutional principle about the division and separation of powers between Congress and the president.
On its face, this decision clarifies that Trump cannot decide on his own not to spend money Congress has authorized and appropriated — such as the funds for U.S.A.I.D. he refused to spend. And he cannot on his own decide to go to war.
“The Court has long expressed ‘reluctan[ce] to read into ambiguous statutory test’ extraordinary delegations of Congress’s powers,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for himself and five other justices in the opinion released yesterday in Learning Resources vs. Trump.

6 February
Homeland Security shutdown grows more likely as Republicans rebuff Democrats’ ICE demands
(AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Security will shut down next week if they do not work with Republicans and the White House.
Democrats say they will not vote for a DHS spending bill when funding runs out unless there are “dramatic changes” at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies in the wake of the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis last month.

7-26 January
Stephen Miller: ICE’s ideologue-in-chief (audio)
(CBC Front Burner) Massive anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis intensified over the weekend, in the wake of the second fatal shooting of an American citizen involving federal law enforcement agents in the city this month. On Saturday, border patrol agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse.
Today, we’ll be talking about Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, and how the deadly ICE surge in Minnesota is only the latest example of domestic policy that he has championed. In Trump’s second administration, Miller is emerging as the main architect and enforcer of Trump’s signature policies: from hard-line immigration policies and mass deportations, to retaliation against the administration’s perceived enemies, to increasingly aggressive foreign policy.
…we’re joined by Michael Scherer. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers American politics, and in particular the people behind it. He’s the co-writer of a recent profile called “The Wrath of Stephen Miller.” Transcript
7 January
The Wrath of Stephen Miller
The man who turns President Trump’s most incendiary impulses into policy
By Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, and Nick Miroff
(The Atlantic) Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy ruthlessly pursues the president’s vision, especially when it comes to pushing immigrants out of the country, and he runs a tight, efficient meeting. Consensus is not the goal.

13 January
Thomas Friedman: Trump’s Scheming to Sack Powell Paves the Road to Constitutional Ruin<
if the Justice Department can be leveraged to destroy the sacrosanct independence of the Federal Reserve, then Trump will be completely unbound, and we are heading for economic trouble and constitutional ruin.

8 January
Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’
(NYT) On topic after topic, President Trump made clear that he would be the arbiter of any limits to his authorities, not international law or treaties.
Mr. Trump’s assessment of his own freedom to use any instrument of military, economic or political power to cement American supremacy was the most blunt acknowledgment yet of his worldview. At its core is the concept that national strength, rather than laws, treaties and conventions, should be the deciding factor as powers collide.

2025

Trump’s ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Also Involves a Lot of Mopping Up
The president’s push to do everything at once has overwhelmed Democrats, the courts, the media—and the White House.
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
Donald Trump signed 205 executive orders from Jan. 20 to Sept. 20, as part of his far-right governing agenda outlined in Project 2025.
Trump’s administration is struggling to manage the torrent of actions they’ve unleashed, including tariffs, deportations, and lawsuits, with sometimes contradictory orders causing problems.
The government is trying to refill about 17,000 jobs that were eliminated in Elon Musk’s purge of federal agencies earlier this year, with departments such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Energy seeking to fill hundreds of positions.

18 October
‘No Kings’ is a Start, but the American Resistance Needs a Leader
Jeremy Kinsman
(Policy) The same unpredictability that made Trump’s leverage plausible in the dynamic with Israel — and makes less plausible his leverage with more symmetrical actors like China — remains the hallmark of Trump’s domestic presidential command as he unilaterally explodes norms on several fronts at once, exceeding presidential authority and precedent to destabilize U.S. society and dominate the news cycle.
Trump continues to demonize Democratic opponents and civil society protesters he depicts as “the enemy within,” deploying troops into “Democratic” cities to counter invented disorder he is actually seeking to incite — a time-worn technique of aspiring dictators, one that the long-gone drafters of the US Constitution intended to insulate the people against. Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court have abandoned conservative originalism in deference to authoritarian appetite.
Trump’s strongman persona surfs on a wave of rising authoritarianism that has been cresting across the world for at least a decade as a counterforce to the “third wave” of democratization that followed the end of the Cold War.
… In Cairo, the inspiring young occupiers of Tahrir Square ended the 30-year regime of Hosni Mubarak but couldn’t agree on what to do next and were displaced by the better-organized Muslim Brotherhood regime. The chief of the Armed Forces, Abdel Fattah El Sisi, led a military coup in 2014, and has since imprisoned 65,000 Egyptian citizens in a blatant lockdown of civil rights. …As I write this, the “No Kings” demonstrations across America and abroad drew an estimated seven million protesters to more than 2,500 sites.
But the street rally also needs inspiring democratic leadership able to present a positive alternative to Trumpism. An interesting example is the unlikely favourite to be elected November 4 as New York City’s next mayor, 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, whom Trump labels a “communist.” Mamdani, the son of Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay!), fuses charisma with common sense commitment to kitchen-table issues of affordability, and need of efficient basic public services.he Sharm el Sheikh summit, President Trump lauded his Egyptian co-chairman autocrat as “tough on crime,” just his kind of leader. …

17 October
Tomorrow and forever: No Kings in America
Reform the Insurrection Act
Robert Reich
With No Kings rallies occurring across America tomorrow, and the Trump administration’s unhinged reaction to them on full display, it’s never been more important for Congress to reform the Insurrection Act. Please contact Congress and demand action immediately.
Donald Trump — the man who incited a violent insurrection against the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and has pardoned those who attacked our democracy — is now calling peaceful protesters “insurrectionists” and threatening to use military force against them.

9 October
This is who’s next on Trump’s list. It’s horrifying
(Raw Story) … Now they’re kicking in doors, shooting pepper-gas balls into the open windows of cars driven by reporters, smashing windows and furniture, and concealing their faces and identities like the Klan did in days of old. In Chicago, they’ve shot two unarmed people, killing one. And there wasn’t a warrant signed by a judge to be seen anywhere.
People ask, “Are we there, yet? Has America gone fascist? Are we now in a militarized dictatorship?”
Last week’s illegal, unconstitutional military assault on an apartment building in Chicago argues “Yes.” And if it doesn’t stimulate a similar level of public outrage as the Jimmy Kimmel suspension did, we’re all screwed.
And by “all” I mean you, too. None of us are safe if all of us aren’t safe. We have to stand up and speak out now.
Trump, Vance, Hegseth, and Noem carefully selected a low-income apartment building filled with Black and Hispanic people, correctly believing that the American mainstream media wouldn’t give it the coverage they would if ICE and our military had instead kicked in the doors of a building full of middle-class white people.
… ICE isn’t bothering to get the kinds of warrants required by the Fourth Amendment, instead they’re using “administrative warrants” signed by ICE officials; these are just window-dressing paperwork and are not legal warrants.

Letters from an American October 7, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson examines the power wielded by unelected officials in the Trump administration, citing the power of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), (headed by Russ Vought, formerly of Project 2025).
“If Trump were not going to use the power of the government for the good of the American people, Republicans in Congress could have picked up the power that he let fall. But they have chosen not to exercise their Constitutional duties, instead going along with what White House officials want. With their abdication, power appears to have flowed to unelected officials, first to billionaire Elon Musk and now to OMB director Russell Vought, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

30 September – 1 October
Veterans react to Hegseth’s ‘insulting’ address to generals and admirals
Defense secretary’s speech touching on physical fitness and doctrine of lethality was seen as ‘egotistical’ and ‘dangerous’
Hegseth wants to return the military to 1990 — a dark time in its history
The early 1990s saw the U.S. Navy rocked by the Tailhook sexual assault scandal, exposing a dark underside of military culture. … Among the changes that Hegseth announced was that the Pentagon will hold “a full review” of how words such as “bullying,” “hazing” and “toxic leadership” are used, saying those terms have been “weaponized” to undercut military leaders. But back in the 1990s, they were mild in describing what was actually going on.
The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay
Trump put on a disturbing show for America’s generals and admirals.
By Tom Nichols
(The Atlantic) … As comical as many of Trump’s comments were, the president’s nakedly partisan appeal to U.S. military officers was a violation of every standard of American civil-military relations, and exactly what George Washington feared could happen with an unscrupulous commander in chief. The most ominous part of his speech came when he told the military officers that they would be part of the solution to domestic threats, fighting the “enemy from within.” He added, almost as a kind of trollish afterthought, that he’d told Hegseth, “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military—National Guard, but military—because we’re going into Chicago very soon. That’s a big city with an incompetent governor. Stupid governor.”
… In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: “How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?” The question cost him his career. Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them. But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question?
Generals silent as Hegseth ends ‘warrior ethos’ rally speech: ‘Out with the Milleys’ and ‘in with the Pattons’
More than 800 of America’s top military leaders sat silent and showed no reaction as ex-Fox News host turned Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth issued a series of new directives that will make it harder for women to serve in combat and easier for personnel to engage in hazing and bullying without repercussions…
“Out with the Chiarelli, the McKenzies and the Milleys and in with the Stockdales the Schwartzkopfs and the Pattons,” Hegseth said, denigrating former Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli, ex-U.S. Central Command commander and Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, and ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and Army General Mark Milley, each of whom has been critical of Trump or his administration.
Hegseth, an Iraq war veteran who attained the rank of major in the Army National Guard but became a critic of the Pentagon’s efforts to open up military service to women, racial minorities and LGBT+ persons, said the War Department must “restore a ruthless, dispassionate and common sense application of standards” that are “uniform, gender neutral and high.” …
29 September
Why Does Hegseth Want More Than 800 Admirals and Generals in the Same Room?
Few things are important enough to justify the security risk of putting all of these people in the same place.
By Tom Nichols
(The Atlantic) Secretary of Defense/War/Lethality Pete Hegseth…recently decided that some 800 generals and admirals needed to come, in person, from every corner of the planet to a Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, reportedly to listen to their boss, a former TV host, lecture them on the “warrior ethos”—and, for some reason, personal grooming. The Tuesday meeting will feature not only Hegseth but also a last-minute addition: the commander in chief himself.
Hegseth has had a lot of bad ideas, but this one is disruptive and even somewhat dangerous. All of these men and women have real jobs they should be doing. Even if Hegseth is calling this meeting to discuss serious issues of national defense—and so far, the Pentagon has given no such indications—few things are important enough to justify the security risk of putting the entire top U.S. military command, the secretary of defense, and the president all in the same room.

26 September
Gabbard Ends Intelligence Report on Future Threats to U.S.
(NYT) The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, led by Tulsi Gabbard, is eliminating the group that compiles a public document that predicts what challenges the country — and the world — will face. Some issues in the document, which is published every four years, had become politically inconvenient, former officials said.

19 September
Michael Bloomberg: In Dark Times, Americans Need Leadership That Unites
Our response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination must be better.
… While talk of vengeance and retribution fills the air, the fact is: The overwhelming majority of Americans of all political persuasions are horrified by the shooting, and the shooter’s hatred should not be projected onto others as a pretext for repressing political opposition and free speech. Attempting to do so would only make intolerance for dissent — and the violence it breeds — worse. Many on the left are now learning this the hard way, but many on the right have long known it and should speak up more forcefully.
The partisanship fueling such animosity is a cancer that is consuming and weakening the body politic. The good news? There’s a simple cure: leadership.
Asking all Americans to rise above hostile and narrow-minded thinking — and to seek, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “the better angels of our nature” — is what real leadership is all about. In times of crisis, strong leaders ease tensions. They don’t inflame them. They seek solutions, not scapegoats. They pull us together, rather than pushing us apart. And they remind us of the values that transcend party.
… We need leaders in both parties, and at every level of government, to provide stronger leadership in these times. It is not enough for governors, mayors, members of Congress and state legislators to issue the usual statements denouncing violence.
We need them, and civic leaders of all kinds, to stand together physically in displays of bipartisan unity, as more than 20 members of Congress did this week on the steps of the Capitol.

14 September
Inside Stephen Miller’s Reign of Terror
Everything you loathe or love about Donald Trump’s America, you hate or cherish about Miller’s republic of fear
By Asawin Suebsaeng, Nikki McCann Ramirez, Andrew Perez
(Rolling Stone) … Under Miller’s guiding hand, the  president and his lieutenants …  [have]  quickly turned much of federal law enforcement into the masked, nameless, unaccountable secret police, working at the whims of the president and his staff. The president can deploy armed National Guard troops, and even U.S. Marines, to the streets of an American city any time he wants — and deem it enemy territory. The administration has made censoring media organizations, comedians, and aging rock stars a policy priority, in an anti-free-speech crusade waged from the West Wing to the Federal Communications Commission.
… As the president’s policy architect and enforcer, [Miller] is obsessed, according to three Trump advisers, with deploying the might of the government to stamp out what he deems “anti-white hatred” and “anti-white racism” and “anti-white discrimination” — no matter the cost. … He’s yearned to erect a vast hyper-militarized network of what he’s dubbed “camps” for detention and mass deportation — a network he hopes will change the American political and physical landscape forever.
… Nowadays, according to various sources working in and close to the Trump West Wing, the president’s lieutenant is technically a deputy White House chief of staff, but he far outpaces the actual White House chief of staff — Trump’s former 2024 campaign co-chief Susie Wiles — as Trump’s primary chief of administration policy.
Miller touches virtually every policy and executive action (especially as it relates to domestic initiatives), effectively all documents, Trump directives, constitutionally dubious orders, and memos. The architecture of Trump’s military crackdowns (in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and coming to a Democratic-dominant city near you) is in part a product of Miller’s vision for dominating liberal strongholds he despises.
The Trump administration’s sweeping clampdown on diversity programs, higher education, and free speech Trump does not care for is a direct expression of Miller’s ethos, bringing to life a long-held ambition of federalizing the conservative “culture war” in ways once thought uncouth.
15 August
Stephen Miller’s revenge? Duke is now in the crosshairs
(The Hill) Nationwide, blanket research compensation cutbacks on all universities have already cost Duke 600 jobs, mostly through buyouts. Three thousand more positions may be at risk.
…  Some on campus see in all this the malign hand of perhaps the most powerful Duke alum in the country, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, class of 2007. Miller, a conservative student firebrand on campus, may be out to settle some scores.
28 February
Stephen Miller: Understanding the man who became ‘Trump’s brain’ through his [Duke University] Chronicle opinion column

2 September
The Anti-Trump Strategy That’s Actually Working
Lawsuits, lawsuits, and more lawsuits
By Michael Scherer
(The Atlantic) The first seven months of Trump’s Oval Office do-over have been, with occasional exception, a tale of ruthless domination. The Democratic opposition is feeble and fumbling, the federal bureaucracy traumatized and neutered. Corporate leaders come bearing gifts, the Republican Party has been scrubbed of dissent, and the street protests are diminished in size. Even the news media, a major check on Trump’s power in his first term, have faded from their 2017 ferocity, hobbled by budget cuts, diminished ratings, and owners wary of crossing the president.
One exception has stood out: A legal resistance led by a patchwork coalition of lawyers, public-interest groups, Democratic state attorneys general, and unions has frustrated Trump’s ambitions. Hundreds of attorneys and plaintiffs have stood up to him, feeding a steady assembly line of setbacks and judicial reprimands for a president who has systematically sought to break down limits on his own power. Of the 384 cases filed through August 28 against the Trump administration, 130 have led to orders blocking at least part of the president’s efforts, and 148 cases await a ruling, according to a review by Just Security. Dozens of those rulings are the final word, with no appeal by the government, and others have been stayed on appeal, including by the Supreme Court.

Letters from an American August 11, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
President Donald J. Trump’s big announcement today at his press conference—to which he showed up late—was that he is assuming control over the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and deploying more than 100 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and about 40 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, along with officers from the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals Service and members of the District of Columbia National Guard, “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor, and worse.” He reiterated that officers would clear homeless encampments from the city.
…legal analyst Asha Rangappa notes that FBI agents are not trained to patrol the streets, and that every one of them assigned to do that is not investigating foreign spies, foreign and domestic terrorists, or crimes like fraud, murder, corruption, and human trafficking.
… The administration’s seizure of power is anything but imaginary. As Stengel noted, “Throughout history, autocrats use a false pretext to impose government control over local law enforcement as a prelude to a more national takeover. That’s far more dangerous than the situation he says he is fixing.” While Trump is mobilizing the National Guard under a pretext now, he memorably refused to mobilize it on January 6, 2021, to protect the lawmakers under siege in the U.S. Capitol as his supporters tried to stop the counting of the electoral votes that would make Democrat Joe Biden president.
Some clues to what the administration is attempting showed up today in a court in California, where Governor Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta are suing the Department of Justice, saying it broke the law by deploying about 4,000 troops from the National Guard and 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles in June without authorization. A federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal troops from acting as law enforcement officers.
… The administration is also consolidating power over the economy. Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal noted today that the U.S. is marching toward a form of state capitalism in which Trump looks much like the Chinese Communist Party, exercising political control not just over government agencies but over companies themselves. … Ip also notes that state capitalism is a means of political control, using the power of the state to crush political challenges. “In Trump’s first term, CEOs routinely spoke out when they disagreed with his policies such as on immigration and trade,” Ip writes. “Now, they shower him with donations and praise, or are mostly silent.” Ip pointed out that Trump is deploying financial power and regulatory power to cow media companies, banks, law firms, and government agencies he thinks are not sufficiently supportive.
Trump’s second presidency has been following the plan outlined in Project 2025 closely, even though Trump denied any association with Project 2025 when he ran for office. Russell Vought, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote the section of the plan that called for an extraordinarily strong executive in order to put in place Christian nationalism. Increasingly, it looks like members of his administration are using Trump in order to create a system that will respond to whoever is in charge, making it possible for today’s leaders to retain control over the country even without Trump there to mobilize MAGA voters.

18 July
Congress approves Trump’s $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid
(AP) — The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.
The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

4 July
Trump’s Rejection of America’s Founding Principles
Steve Pincus
(Project Syndicate) As the United States marks its 249th birthday on July 4, Americans must reckon with the fact that President Donald Trump’s administration has largely abandoned the principles underpinning the Declaration of Independence. Without free trade, free immigration, and internationalism, America resembles what its founders rebelled against. …
No one truly committed to the original meaning of America’s constitutional document can abandon the principles of free trade, free immigration, or internationalism, as framed by Franklin and Jefferson, embraced by Adams and Lincoln, and presumably celebrated each year on the Fourth of July. But recent developments suggest that today’s political leaders are doing just that. The Trump administration’s flurry of tariffs and trade barriers, terrorization and deportation of immigrants, and increasing isolationism are more reminiscent of George III’s policies than of those defended by America’s founders. Over the past 249 years, the US was arguably at its greatest when it fervently pursued its founding mission to guarantee the free flow of people and goods, and to build international alliances opposed to tyrannical and autocratic governments. As the country approaches its semiquincentennial, one fears that it is also approaching its nadir.

1-3 July
This is Fascism
Trump’s Big Ugly Bill is fascist — not only in what it does and authorizes, but in how it got enacted
Robert Reich
Trump’s 940-page Big Ugly Bill was passed today by the House and is now on the way to the White House for Trump’s signature.
It is a disgrace. It takes more than $1 trillion out of Medicaid — leaving about 12 million Americans without insurance by 2034 — and slashes Food Stamps, to give a giant tax cut to wealthy Americans.
It establishes an anti-immigrant police state in America, replete with a standing army of ICE agents and a gulag of detention facilities that transform ICE into the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the government.
It will increase the already-bloated deficit by $3.4 trillion.
It’s also disgraceful because of how it came to be.
Trump was elected with only a plurality of American voters, not a majority. He eked out his win by a margin of only 1.5 percent.
His Big Ugly Bill squeaked by in the Senate by one vote, supplied by JD Vance, and by just two votes in the House. No Democrat in either chamber voted for it.
Polls show most Americans oppose it.
It was passed nevertheless — within an artificial deadline set by Trump — because of Trump’s total grip on the Republican Party.

The House gives final approval to Trump’s big tax bill and sends it to him to sign
(AP) The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition and send the bill to him to sign into law. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting for more than more than eight hours by seizing control of the floor with a record-breaking speech against the bill.

Fractured G.O.P. Fights Over Trump’s Bill as His Deadline Looms
(NYT) Divisions within President Trump’s own party threatened on Wednesday to derail the major legislation to fulfill his domestic agenda. The White House and Speaker Mike Johnson are working to unite House Republicans behind the bill to slash taxes and the federal safety net, but objections from several conservatives suggest that Mr. Johnson might lack the support to pass it before Mr. Trump’s Friday deadline. Fiscal hard-liners say the bill would add too much to the national debt, while more moderate Republicans fear its cuts go too far. Read more ›
Johnson faces G.O.P. resistance to a quick vote on Trump’s signature bill.
Mr. Johnson can only afford a small number of defections on President Trump’s signature domestic policy bill
House left in limbo as megabill talks continue
Leaders blame travel delays, but vote-whipping has heated up.
(Politico) Republican holdouts on the Senate-passed version of the party’s “big, beautiful bill” are huddling with House GOP leaders, who are holding open a vote to move the legislation forward as they negotiate.
The procedural vote remained stuck more than 90 minutes after it was first called. Seven Republicans have yet to vote, and several of them are gathered in a room off the House floor where Speaker Mike Johnson and other top leaders have been shuffling in and out.
The House rushes to pass Trump’s big bill
(AP) Republican leaders in the House are sprinting toward a Wednesday vote on President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cuts package, determined to seize momentum from a hard-fought vote in the Senate while essentially daring members to defy their party’s leader and vote against it.
It’s a risky gambit designed to meet Trump’s demand for a July 4 finish.
House members scramble to return to DC for megabill vote
Storms along the east coast are forcing some lawmakers to drive hours back to DC
Some House members are going to great lengths to make it back to to Washington for a vote on the Republican megabill after severe weather canceled dozens of flights.
US Senate passes Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, setting up House battle
Measure passes 51-50 after days of debate, all-night session
Democrats criticize bill for Medicaid cuts
Vice President JD Vance cast tiebreaking vote
Path to House passage also tricky
(Reuters) U.S. Senate Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill on Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, advancing a package that would slash taxes, reduce social safety net programs and boost military and immigration enforcement spending while adding $3.3 trillion to the national debt.
The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for possible final approval, though a handful of Republicans there have already voiced opposition to some of the Senate provisions.
Senate Republicans Overcome 3 Holdouts to Send Signature Policy Bill to House
The Senate passed President Trump’s marquee bill to slash taxes and social safety net programs after more than 24 hours of debate and negotiations. It must now go to the House for final approval.
(NYT) The Senate passed President Trump’s signature tax and domestic policy bill on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote after three Republicans broke ranks and joined Democrats in opposition. If approved in the House, where deep cuts to Medicaid and the $3.3 trillion it would add to the national debt have unnerved some Republicans, the legislation could deal staggering financial losses to low-income Americans while reserving its greatest benefits for the rich.
Republican Bill Puts Nation on New, More Perilous Fiscal Path
Among the most expensive pieces of legislation in years, the Republican legislation could reshape the country’s finances for a generation.