This Week in The Contrarian

 

One of the defining characteristics of the Trump administration has been its heinous assaults on hard-working migrants who are guilty of no crime other than wanting to become American citizens. He has assaulted them at every turn, devastating migrant families and communities–a far cry from his campaign promise to target criminals.

Perhaps the most outrageous of these Trump administration acts was the illegal abduction and rendition of hundreds of men to El Salvador, some on bogus claims that they had broken the law or were gang members when no such thing was true.

Because this is still the United States of America, we Contrarians do not need to take this lying down. That is why I was so proud, working with friend of the Contrarian Juan Proaño and his organization LULAC, to file on Thursday the very first Federal Tort Claims Act case that seeks accountability for the administration's wrongdoing. We did so on behalf of Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, who was unlawfully detained and removed from the United States. (You can read the New York Times report on this landmark case here.)

Mr. Rengel was among a group of Venezuelan nationals forcibly transferred by the Trump administration to CECOT, the notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, despite a federal court order prohibiting that.

No damages claim (here for over $1 million) can erase the trauma Mr. Rengel has suffered. But, this legal action is a necessary step toward accountability and justice. We and our LULAC partners will press to ensure the government gives Rengel and his family the resources they need through their recovery.

We will continue to fight Trump’s illegal and inhumane policies on this and many other fronts thanks to your help. Because the Contrarian is owned by nobody, all profits go to support legal matters like this one and more than 100 others that my colleagues and partners have filed. Your paid subscriptions not only get you the Contrarian’s unparalleled coverage of our democracy every day, but they also fuel the effort to preserve it. If you're not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one today.

This week, the Contrarian also offered some of the hardest hitting coverage of the Trump-Epstein scandal as enumerated in the roundup below—and, with your help, I also filed multiple FOIA requests across the government demanding the Trump-Epstein files. Indeed, after we filed, the media revealed that the exact documents we were seeking did in fact exist.

My colleagues believe that the FOIA requests helped smoke that out. The Trump-Epstein files we are demanding on your behalf matter so much to our democracy (as I explained in a column this week). This administration is by far the most corrupt that we’ve seen in modern American history and the Trump-Epstein scandal exemplifies that. As with the Big, Brutal, Betrayal Bill and Trump’s massive paydays from the same crypto industries his government is in charge of regulating, this latest scandal is about benefiting his wealthy cronies and the terrible harm to the most vulnerable.

I believe all of that is why Trump's popularity has been steadily sinking since he was inaugurated. This week, with the Trump-Epstein scandal, it dropped to a startling 37%. The American people don’t like targeting innocent immigrants, the Big, Brutal Betrayal, the crypto cash-in, the Trump-Epstein connection, and the corruption all of that exemplifies.

Of course, here at The Contrarian, neither we nor you needed public opinion polls to tell us that Trump would be an authoritarian disaster. We knew that based on his own words during the campaign— including promising to be a dictator on day one—and his deeds. They ranged from the chaos of his first administration to his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, to his 34 felony convictions. It hardly took a political genius to anticipate what the past six months were going to be, and yet you and we understood it when so many others did not. And we have kept on getting it! This was another huge week for our Contrarian contributors….

Trump Should Be Panicking over Epstein

In the wake of reports of a potential meeting between Ghislaine Maxwell and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, Jen Rubin laid out exactly how the scandal threatens Trump’s survival as president and, by extension, the entire GOP. "Will Republicans go along with a massive coverup, the sort of corrupt self-protection racket that authoritarian leaders pull to defend indefensible conduct?”

Maurene Comey’s unjustified firing looks even more corrupt today

Mimi Rocah and Jacqueline Kelly wrote on the DOJ’s disturbing choice to fire Maurene Comey, the prosecutor who helped take down Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, without reason last week—or at least, without any reason that isn’t sheer corruption. "In any other DOJ universe, the prosecutors who finally held Epstein criminally accountable would be given the highest awards—not fired."

How deep does this conspiracy go? Rep. Raskin on the Epstein coverup

Rep. Jamie Raskin joined Jen to discuss the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files despite bipartisan support, why MAGA feels betrayed by Trump’s noncompliance, and the incomprehensible lack of accountability for the accused abusers. "Donald Trump has this unusual habit of always returning to the scene of the crime."

E. Jean Carroll's take on the Trump-Epstein scandal

E. Jean Carroll gave her indelible thoughts on what it will take to hold the powerful accountable in the Epstein case, and how Trump’s base has clung to belief this long. "They will never accept a truth that goes to the heart of the cult, which is that Donald Trump is this Savior, and he's the one who's going to protect them against the evil Democrats….”

Public health–new and evolving threats

Our entire healthcare system is in jeopardy: Bruce Siegel on rural hospitals, Medicaid, & the social safety net

Bruce Siegel, CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, joined Jen to explain how cuts to social welfare benefits will have a massive ripple effect on American society, including roughly 16 million people losing their health care coverage. "This is the biggest step backward for the safety net and just for caring for our fellow people I think in American history."

Tennessee opens a new front in its unrelenting attacks on bodily autonomy

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on a new law in Tennessee that allows doctors to deny treatment based on “conscience,” and which has already been used to deny a woman prenatal care. "One thing is certain: These kinds of laws double as an affront to democracy."

Abandoning Public Media Is a Threat to Public Health

Allyn Brooks-LaSure of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explained the essential role public broadcasting serves in times of crisis, saving lives with timely local updates during floods, fires, and other disasters. With the extreme defunding in Trump’s budget bill, more than media literacy will be lost in communities nationwide.

The Monster Behind the Big Beautiful Bill

Author and anti-hunger advocate Mariana Chilton wrote on the devouring corporate greed behind the coming decimation of SNAP and Medicaid. “Something else is at work that has been present since America’s inception…Many people know it but seem afraid to lift the veil.”

No more politics as usual (and how Democrats must respond)

Republicans are brazenly rigging the 2026 midterms

Max Flugrath of Fair Fight wrote on the Trump DOJ’s backing of Alabama Republicans after a court found they intentionally suppressed Black voters—and how Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are racing to gerrymander while they can. "It’s authoritarianism in motion.... Republicans move full speed ahead. If Democrats won’t defend the people’s rights with equal resolve, the game is already over."

Booker’s lament can't stop Senate Republicans from acting as Trump's henchmen

In a congress that has effectively ceded the power of the purse to the executive branch, wrote Austin Sarat, Sen. Booker’s pleas to work across the aisle can only fall on deaf ears. "Reciprocity, courtesy, cordiality, and decorum were what used to make the Senate work. All that is long gone." Democrats must find their own version of the only game in town: hardball.

Democrats can wrangle back checks and balances with the 2026 budget

Tom Malinowski looked ahead to a new budget fight at the end of the (fiscal) year, on Sept. 30, arguing that it represents a vital opportunity for Chuck Schumer and his caucus to draw a new line and reclaim the power of the purse from the administration. “Let the mantra be: No budget guardrails, no budget deal."

After being attacked by Trump for years, Barack Obama should be an ‘angry Black man’

Carron J. Phillips highlighted one Democrat Trump has been targeting with belittling, dishonest, racist vitriol for a political lifetime—Barack Obama—and argued that it’s high time the former president stopped turning the other cheek. “Barack Obama embodies everything that Donald Trump aspires to be but knows he can’t…[and] with Obama’s oratory skills, his words will always do more damage than any sticks and stones could.”

Who’s fighting back

The Contrarian covers the Democracy Movement

This week we covered billboards bringing the Epstein files message home, Good Trouble living on protests in Colorado, California, New Jersey, Tennessee, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Rural America is worth saving: Jess Piper on finding blue dots in red states

Jess Piper joined Jen to warn how GOP-led cuts to Medicaid, public media, and weather services are devastating rural communities—but also to spread the word about real excitement in rural spaces and new avenues for Democrats to build local power and hope. “Trump might win this state. But you can win the school board. You can win the city council.”

How Andor is Inspiring Fans to Fight Authoritarianism in the Real World

Meredith Blake joined Indivisible’s Leah Greenberg to discuss the unlikely link between Star Wars fandom and real-world resistance. It turns out that fighting an Empire can get people excited about, well…

Three mayors are reducing crime by investing in residents

Shalise Manza Young wrote on three Black mayors–in Chicago, Baltimore, and Birmingham—who are leading historic declines in shootings and homicides by proving that investing in people, not policing, can reduce violent crime.

Fun stuff

This week’s cartoons brought broken “MAGA Goggles” in Tom the Dancing Bug, fascist-forward footwear in Nick Anderson’s If the shoe fits, and a getup only Trump could love in RJ Matson’s Nothing to see here….clearly, the emperor could use some new clothes.

Marissa Rothkopf Bates blessed us with another fantastic summer dessert. This week, she taught us how to bake a peach galette with ginger frangipane! This treat has a 100% success rate for satiating a sweet tooth!

This week, we were so lucky to feature the wonderful, the spectacular, the REGAL Stripey as The Contrarian Pet of the Week. Stripey is a 15 year old American Shorthair who loves to rest, watch TV with the family, and solve puzzles to earn some treats.

 

That's it for now Contrarians. Have a great weekend and see you at 9:15 AM ET on Monday for Coffee with the Contrarians! Warmly, Norman Eisen

 

Trump Epstein Obama

When the walls start closing in, Donald Trump doesn’t lawyer up: he doubles down. With Epstein’s ghost rattling through the headlines and the threat of explosive disclosures looming, Team Trump has rolled out its most cynical, racially-charged distraction yet: accuse Barack Obama of treason.

It’s not about justice. It’s not about truth. It’s a deliberate psyop meant to hijack the news cycle, enrage the MAGA base, and erase Epstein’s name from every chyron in America. Which is why it appears that the Trump White House is closing in on the conclusion that the only story that could be “big enough” to blow Epstein off the front pages will be “Obama Committed Treason!”

They’re busily assigning investigators, FBI agents, lawyers, and others in the Justice Department to find everything they can that might implicate our first Black president in having committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Democrats and many in the media are essentially ridiculing the effort, arguing that nobody is naïve enough — or malicious enough — to believe such a story. But things that seem illogical or even flat-out nuts to reporters and Democrats may, according to a scientific study published in recent months, make perfect sense for Trump supporters.

Titled Malevolent vs. Benevolent Dispositions and Conservative Political Ideology in the Trump Era and published last fall in The Journal of Research in Personality, the authors looked at the personality factors that showed up consistently among Trump supporters versus the rest of the American population.

What they found is both shocking and absolutely consistent with the observations and suspicions of those of us who have to regularly interact with Trump followers: they’re sick, at least by the standards of liberal democracy. They lack empathy and even get pleasure out of watching other people in pain.

In the conclusions section of their published article, the University of North Texas Psychology Department researchers explain: “We examined the associations between broad dispositions with political ideology that included views of Trump. Malevolent (+) and benevolent (−) dispositions predicted this ideology. In aggregate, those favorable to Trump reported greater malevolent and lower benevolent propensities, less empathy, and more enjoyment of others’ suffering.”

Given that Trump is quickly moving America toward autocracy, it shouldn’t be surprising that he himself displays the so-called Dark Triad of personality characteristics that are so easily observed in historical figures like Hitler, Pinochet, Mussolini, and modern-day autocrats like Putin, Orbán, and Erdoğon:

“Autocrats manifest socially aversive personality, including malevolent traits in the Dark Triad: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, and the same has been found for Trump. Similar results have been found for authoritarians’ loyal foot soldiers. … Thus, it is not surprising perhaps that voters with aversive traits tend to prefer aversive political figures.”

They point out that there are numerous studies that have been done over the years showing that people with “malevolent” dispositions tend toward conservatism while those with “benevolent” personalities are more likely to be liberals. They define their terms in clear, analytical language:

“A malevolent disposition reflects wishing ill will or doing harm to others, while a benevolent disposition involves intending or showing goodwill or kindness to others. …

“A malevolent disposition is measured via aversive features of Machiavellian manipulativeness, psychopathic callousness, and narcissistic self-absorption, all negatively associated with empathy and positively associated with antisocial behavior.”

As they note, Trump rings all the malevolent bells, but they wanted to know if his followers also had the same antisocial personality traits:

“A political candidate who boasts about being able to shoot someone can be understood in terms of a malevolent disposition. We seek to understand the voters who embrace such a politician and propose that insight may be gained by examining the links between malevolent dispositions and political ideology.

“Taken together, we propose that more extreme (malevolent) dispositions are necessary for understanding today’s modern incarnation of conservatism that includes a positive view of Trump.”

What they found was that — among white men — the stronger the constellation of antisocial personality characteristics a person carried, the more likely they were to support Trump and support him with a fervor that reflected the intensity of those qualities.

It was so vivid that even those on the extreme end of the antisocial spectrum — psychopaths — were generally enthusiastic about Trump and his policies, regardless (or perhaps because) of how many people those policies hurt:

“Across two different samples, we found a positive association between conservative ideology/positive view of Trump and malevolent disposition. For white men, psychopathic propensities predicted conservative ideology/positive view of Trump. …

“Thus, the current results add to a growing literature on a link between malevolent (aversive) dispositions and conservative ideology. Moreover, our results are in line with Barber and Pope (2019) who found those tied to a Trumpian symbolic ideology were most inclined to be uncivil to others. The results from both samples found that latent psychopathic and malevolent disposition means were significantly elevated among individuals who viewed Trump favorably.”

Interestingly, they noted that among racial minorities and women carrying many of these same personality characteristics, there wasn’t the same strong correlation between antisocial personalities and support for Trump; they mused that “sociocultural factors must be at play as well.”

This was because, they concluded, discrimination and the violence often associated with it had shaped even the authoritarians among minorities and women to be more liberal, more accepting of others, and less willing to go along with policies that hurt other people:

“Longitudinal research suggests that race/ethnicity may moderate the associations of RWA (Right Wing Authoritarianism) and SDO (Social Dominance Orientation) with conservative political behavior and gender might moderate the association between personality and conservatism with a stronger association for males than females. These moderation effects may be due in part to the fact that RWA and SDO are linked with racism and sexism.”

Which brings us to the big question they must be debating right now in the White House: Will indicting or even trying Obama for treason be enough to cause even “liberal” college-educated reporters and media executives to decide that it’s a big enough story to eclipse their now-nearly-constant coverage of Trump’s association with Epstein and the young women and girls they are widely believed to have exploited?

Trump and his people already know that going after our nation’s only Black president is good politics when it comes to their base, and right now that’s the group they’re most freaked out about losing. If the base goes, Trump won’t be far behind; it wasn’t until Nixon’s public approval ratings had collapsed among the GOP base in 1974 that Barry Goldwater felt safe visiting the White House and telling him it was time to leave.

That suggests that they’ll go all in on attacking Obama, perhaps even manufacturing information or — like Tulsi Gabbard is now doing — coming up with straw man arguments that are close enough to truth to confuse the majority of Americans. The strategy seems to be working over on Fox “News” and on rightwing hate radio, which have been pounding on the Obama “treason” story for several days now with few signs of letting up.

I’m skeptical, however, that mainstream media outlets will go along with this unless they’re subjected to overwhelming pressure from the Trump White House. And until those news and opinion operations have a change of focus, Trump is going to find it very hard to put Epstein and his victims behind him.

Their second bet on this, being acted on by House Speaker Mike Johnson, is to assume that if they can shut down Congress for a month it’ll put a halt to all political conversations during the August summer vacation season, leading to a recess of sorts on the Epstein issue. Historically — as I’ve learned from doing political talk radio for 23 years now — the summer is pretty dead when it comes to politics.

This is probably wishful thinking in the Epstein/Trump case, however, because Trump can’t keep himself off the TV. He has a deep, neurotic need for attention and approval (which he interprets as love) that, as I lay out in detail in my new book The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink, drives him to constantly draw attention to himself.

Also, when Congress reconvenes in September it’s likely the discharge petition requiring a full confidential disclosure to members of Congress of the Epstein files — that will have “ripened” by then and thus be subject to a vote — will still be there.

Nonetheless, because Trump and the people around him all suffer from the same collection of personality disorders and assume that most other people think the same way they do, I’d bet that they’ll still go after Obama in as big a way as they can.

This isn’t just a political maneuver: it’s a scorched-earth strategy born of desperation and malevolence. Trump and his enablers know their only way out is down, dragging the country with them into a pit of conspiracy, vengeance, and manufactured outrage.

If the media blinks, if Democrats shrug, if the public falls for the bait, the damage won’t just be another headline. It’ll be a rupture in the fabric of truth itself.

The only question now is: 

Will America call the bluff, or fall for the con?

Will it succeed?

Will it backfire?

Will Obama finally get up on his hind legs and start fighting (unlike when the GOP stole his nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court and he didn’t say much at all)?

Will JD Vance finally get the shot at the presidency that he so clearly seems to crave?

-Thom Hartmann: My daily work depends on readers like you. Subscribe for free to stay in the loop or become a paid subscriber to power the fight for democracy!

 

Captain Benjamin L. Salomon

   

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Captain Ben L. Salomon was serving at Saipan, in the Marianas Islands on July 7, 1944, as the Surgeon for the 2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division.

The Regiment's 1st and 2nd Battalions were attacked by an overwhelming force estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Japanese soldiers. It was one of the largest attacks attempted in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Although both units fought furiously, the enemy soon penetrated the Battalions' combined perimeter and inflicted overwhelming casualties. In the first minutes of the attack, approximately 30 wounded soldiers walked, crawled, or were carried into Captain Salomon's aid station, and the small tent soon filled with wounded men.

As the perimeter began to be overrun, it became increasingly difficult for Captain Salomon to work on the wounded. He then saw a Japanese soldier bayoneting one of the wounded soldiers lying near the tent. Firing from a squatting position, Captain Salomon quickly killed the enemy soldier.

Then, as he turned his attention back to the wounded, two more Japanese soldiers appeared in the front entrance of the tent. As these enemy soldiers were killed, four more crawled under the tent walls. Rushing them, Captain Salomon kicked the knife out of the hand of one, shot another, and bayoneted a third. Captain Salomon butted the fourth enemy soldier in the stomach and a wounded comrade then shot and killed the enemy soldier.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Captain Salomon ordered the wounded to make their way as best they could back to the regimental aid station, while he attempted to hold off the enemy until they were clear. Captain Salomon then grabbed a rifle from one of the wounded and rushed out of the tent.

After four men were killed while manning a machine gun, Captain Salomon took control of it. When his body was later found, 98 dead enemy soldiers were piled in front of his position. Captain Salomon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself his unit and the United States Army.

Details

·       Rank: Captain

·       Conflict/Era: World War II

·       Unit/Command:
2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment,
27th Infantry Division

·       Military Service Branch: U.S. Army

·       Medal of Honor Action Date: July 7, 1944

·       Medal of Honor Action Place: Saipan, Saipan, Marianas Islands

-Stories of Sacrifice, Congressional Medal of Honor Society

 

"The issue now threatens Trump’s survival as president—and, by extension, every Republican’s political career"

 

If you thought the Trump squad’s deal to conditionally dismiss New York Mayor Eric Adams’s multiple corruption charges in exchange for assistance in the lawless onslaught against immigrants was a “corrupt bargain,” as many attorneys in the South District of New York U.S. attorney’s office and Main Justice did, buckle up.

A potential, disgusting deal between the Trump regime and Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted colleague of Jeffrey Epstein, is gaining new attention. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years for conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

In the midst of a firestorm that Donald Trump can no longer contain regarding his refusal to release all materials concerning Epstein and his clients, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (Trump’s former personal attorney) announced a meeting with Maxwell (whom Trump previously wished well).

Maxwell is currently appealing her conviction. What could possibly be the basis for the number two person in the Justice Department to meet with the woman at the center of the criminal enterprise that now threatens to envelop Trump in a scandal like none other in his sordid career? (Interestingly, Attorney General Pam Bondi, already the object of scorn for her insistence that there is no “list” to release, has now taken a back seat.)

The prospect for such a meeting has set off alarm bells, even within the MAGA camp. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) actually got something right when she proposed that Maxwell could be “bartering for something.” Put more bluntly, Maxwell could be making a deal to pardon or shorten her sentence in exchange for exonerating Trump. This would be the height of corruption, raising the potential for impeachment and/or criminal investigation.

It seems preposterous that anyone would believe Maxwell’s possible exoneration of Trump after getting a deal from the ethically compromised Justice Department. However, Trump may be so desperate to persuade a segment of his most deluded cult members to let up that he is willing to risk elevating the scandal.

So far, it seems to be backfiring. On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) offered a motion in the House Oversight and Government Reform committee to subpoena Maxwell. It passed on a voice vote. Members of Congress will apparently be able to ask questions about Epstein’s associate, her contact with the Trump Justice Department, and the existence of documents. While she might assert her 5^th Amendment rights not to testify (so long as her case is on appeal), the questions posed in and of themselves should be enlightening.

Moreover, the scandal has forced the House to grind to a halt. “Republicans on the House Rules Committee continue to oppose allowing any legislation to reach the House floor for a vote this week,” the Washington Post reported. “That’s because they fear Democrats will introduce amendments related to Epstein. Democrats on the panel did so twice last week, and Republicans faced blowback from constituents and the MAGA base for voting against releasing the files.” The GOP chair of the committee said it might not meet again until September, and the House is set to scurry out of town for recess on Wednesday.

The Blanche meeting, like all the other attempts to divert attention (e.g., an appalling AI video showing President Obama’s arrest, the release of Martin Luther King, Jr. files, demands that the Guardians and Commanders revert to their previous names, and a threat to prosecute Trump nemesis, California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff) is unlikely to quell the uproar. While clueless, cynical legacy media practicing access journalism might insist the issue is going away (or Trump, at least, is gaining the upper hand), these developments show the opposite.

Trump is in a frenzy. Republicans are no longer complacent about a coverup. The public overwhelmingly disapproves of his handling of the scandal. Social media continues to stay on the case. And now the spectacle of Maxwell’s testimony provides the opportunity for wall-to-wall coverage.

House members on both sides of the aisle are irate with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who refused to move forward with a vote to compel release of the documents. Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) earned the ire of the Speaker (and Trump) after he scolded Johnson: “Who’s he gonna pick? Is he going to stand with the pedophiles and underage sex traffickers? Or is he gonna pick the American people and justice for the victims? … It’s irrespective of what the president wants.”

That comes close to the nub of the issue: Will Republicans go along with a massive coverup, the sort of corrupt self-protection racket that authoritarian leaders pull to defend indefensible conduct? The issue now threatens Trump’s survival as president—and, by extension, every Republican’s political career.

Once the MAGA GOP is seen as the party that protects rich, creepy, abusive, elite men at the expense of everyone else, they will be recognized for the villains they once claimed Democrats to be. After all, a deep state cover-up of sexual predators who victimized children should be the final straw for all but the most deluded Trump cultists.

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"If America is to survive as a free nation, we must confront the reality of Trump’s actions"

 

When historians look back on this era, they’ll inevitably ask how a nation built on principles of democracy, justice, and equality allowed one man to commit such a broad range of crimes and abuses, and whether Donald Trump is indeed the most dangerous criminal in American history.

To fully grasp the gravity of Trump’s actions, consider the extensive categories of his criminal and potentially criminal conduct, each more disturbing than the last.

First, there’s the relentless financial corruption. Trump has long played fast and loose with the law when it came to his finances. In New York, his company was convicted of tax fraud and financial manipulation designed to deceive lenders and inflate his wealth. Trump University was shuttered after a $25 million fraud settlement, its “students” left feeling defrauded.

His charitable organization, the Trump Foundation, was dissolved following revelations that funds intended for charity were instead used to benefit Trump personally and politically, and to pay off Pam Bondi in Florida where he and Epstein were living (she was AG for almost a decade and never went after Epstein).

But Trump’s shady financial dealings didn’t begin or end with these public scandals. For decades, he was closely associated with New York’s organized crime families. Trump Tower itself was built using concrete provided by mob-linked companies.

Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor and attorney as I detail in The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink, was a notorious fixer and lawyer for mob figures such as Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano.

Trump’s casinos also regularly skirted the law, drawing scrutiny from federal investigators for potential money laundering linked to organized crime, and his former casino manager recently revealed to CNN that Trump and Jeffrey Epstein once even showed up together with underage girls in tow (the White House denies the story).

Trump’s long relationship with Epstein further exposes his moral bankruptcy and possible criminality. The two were close associates and owned residences near each other in New York and Palm Beach, socializing together frequently.

Trump famously described Epstein as a “terrific guy” who enjoyed the company of beautiful women, some “on the younger side.” Multiple reports suggest Trump knew about Epstein’s exploitation of minors, yet Trump continued their association until public scandal made it inconvenient.

Then there are Trump’s questionable international relationships, with none more alarming than his mysterious affinity for Vladimir Putin. Trump’s first administration consistently favored Russian interests, dismissing election interference findings from American intelligence agencies, undermining NATO, and, in his second administration even withholding military aid from Ukraine, thus benefiting Putin’s geopolitical ambitions.

While the full nature of Trump’s entanglement with Putin remains hidden, Trump’s obsequious behavior toward the Russian dictator raises serious questions about financial leverage or compromised loyalties. For example, the only major country in the world Trump chose not to impose tariffs on this year was Russia.

Trump’s disturbing Russian connections also include his 2016 campaign manager and close confidant, Paul Manafort, whose career was dedicated to installing pro-Putin autocrats and corrupt oligarchs across Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Albania. Heidi Seigmund Cuda writes about his recent Albania connection in her great Bette Dangerous Substack newsletter.

Manafort was convicted of multiple felonies, including tax and bank fraud, stemming from his shady dealings overseas, actions intimately connected with Putin’s broader geopolitical ambitions, for which Trump pardoned him.

Trump’s choice of Manafort to lead his 2016 campaign wasn’t coincidental; it signaled to Moscow an openness to influence, further raising troubling questions about Trump’s susceptibility to foreign manipulation and complicity in Manafort’s criminal schemes.

Trump’s election interference is equally alarming. It began with hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to manipulate public perception during the 2016 campaign, for which he was convicted of felony election manipulation charges in Manhattan last year.

More brazenly, Trump attempted to subvert democracy in Georgia when he lost the 2020 election by demanding of Georgia’s Secretary of State, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”

His attempts to cling to power by any means necessary reached a terrifying crescendo with the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, ultimately joined by over 100 Republican members of Congress. This led to a federal indictment, making him the first former president charged with seeking to destroy the very democratic system that put him into power.

Trump’s abuse of presidential authority is chillingly unprecedented. Robert Mueller’s investigation laid out multiple instances where Trump criminally obstructed justice, brazenly interfering with federal investigations. He solicited foreign interference from Ukraine in the 2020 election, a move that led to his first impeachment.

Trump’s presidency was also marred by repeated violations of the Emoluments Clause as he profited directly from foreign governments funneling money through his hotels and golf clubs. He pitched Teslas from the White House in flagrant violation of the Hatch Act (penalty: 5 years in prison). Even after leaving office in 2021, Trump illegally retained classified documents and obstructed federal efforts to retrieve them, leading to further federal charges.

One of the most grotesque and morally bankrupt chapters of the Trump presidency unfolded in the early months of the Covid pandemic, when Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly made the political calculation that the virus was “only hitting Blue states” and disproportionately killing Black Americans so it could be weaponized.

According to reporting at the time, Kushner convened a secretive White House task force of mostly male, white, preppy private-sector advisors who concluded that a robust federal response to minimize deaths would be politically disadvantageous. Their analysis was clear: since it was primarily Democratic governors and Black communities suffering the early brunt of the pandemic (NY, NJ, WA), Trump could politically benefit by blaming local leadership and withholding meaningful federal aid.

It was a cynical — and deadly — strategy to let the virus burn through the opposition’s voter base that ultimately led to an estimated 500,000 unnecessary American deaths and gave us as the second-most Covid deaths per person in the world.

This approach not only explains the administration’s chaotic and insufficient response to testing, supplies, and coordination, it exposes a level of callous — morally, if not legally criminal — political calculus rarely seen in modern American history since the days of the Trail of Tears.

Leaked documents and internal communications at the time confirmed that federal resources were distributed unevenly, often favoring Republican-led states.

Trump also regularly lashed out at Democratic governors like Gretchen Whitmer and Andrew Cuomo while ignoring their pleas for ventilators and PPE. As the death toll mounted, Trump publicly minimized the virus, holding rallies and rejecting masks, while privately admitting to journalist Bob Woodward that Covid was “deadly stuff.”

This wasn’t just negligence: it was targeted neglect driven by racism and partisanship, carried out in the middle of a once-in-a-century public health emergency.

Beyond these abuses of power, Trump openly incited political violence. His rhetoric fueled vigilantism and violent confrontations at rallies.

Most infamously, on January 6th, 2021, he incited an insurrection designed to halt the peaceful transition of power in a stunning betrayal without precedent in American history. He encouraged extremist and white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and Oath Keepers, effectively endorsing domestic terrorism.

Right up until he took office and corruptly shut them down, investigations continued into potential wire fraud and misuse of funds from Trump’s “Save America” PAC, alongside scrutiny into financial irregularities involving his Truth Social platform.

Investigations into obstruction, witness intimidation, and potential bribery — now blocked as the Supreme Court has put him above the law, or shut down by his toadies — further compound his record of potential crimes.

Yet Trump’s ultimate crime goes beyond mere lawbreaking. He has methodically eroded democratic institutions, weaponized disinformation to undermine public trust, and attacked the traditionally nonpartisan independence of the judiciary, intelligence agencies, military, and law enforcement. His assaults on the press are right out of Putin’s playbook. Trump’s relentless assault on truth and democracy normalizes authoritarianism and political violence.

Thus, his most dangerous crime is not simply corruption or obstruction, nor even incitement of insurrection: it’s the deliberate attempted destruction of American democracy itself. This crime, far more profound than any individual act, threatens the survival of the republic itself.

If America is to survive as a free nation, we must confront the reality of Trump’s actions. He isn’t merely a criminal; he’s become the most dangerous criminal in American history precisely because his actions imperil the very foundations of our democracy.

Allowing such crimes to go unpunished risks setting a precedent that future would-be autocrats may follow, forever tarnishing the promise of American democracy. Once he’s out of power, our nation’s new mantra must become, “Never forget, never forgive, never again.”

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Our Democracy Is on Life Support

 

Donald Trump went politically underwater at an historically early point in his second term. His positive approval rating vanished in February, and his polling has drifted downward since then. Rising inflation; draconian cuts to everything from healthcare to public broadcasting; lies and erratic reversals in foreign policy (e.g., exaggerating the results of military strikes on Iran, flip-flopping on Ukraine, on-again-off-again-on-again-off-again trade wars); and now the intractable Jeffrey Epstein scandal have simultaneously annoyed his base and alienated the rest of the public.

Democrats may as well appreciate how quickly Trump has fired up their base while weakening his own, a rarity in politics. That leaves three key questions at the 6-month mark of his term:

• Where does our democracy stand?
• What do the last 6 months portend for 2026?
• How should Democrats focus the energy of their party’s direction?

Democracy hanging by a thread

Bluntly, democracy is in rotten shape. Despite heroic lawyering, growing protests, and dogged Democratic opposition, the Trump regime has progressed in its quest to create a police state, seize from Congress power to reshape government, and intimidate law firms, universities, and quisling legacy media companies (including CBS, ABC, and the Washington Post) that have capitulated to bullying. Government lawyers snub and evade court orders. Presidential corruption is off the charts.

While Congress has become seemingly irrelevant, the Supreme Court continues to enable Trump’s power grabs. The tribunal consistently reveals its blatantly partisan nature—not bothering to explain itself in emergency orders or to grapple with disagreeable facts. The MAGA majority at virtually every turn has undermined lower courts that have ruled against Trump’s authoritarian moves.

The results of Trump’s power grabs at the expense of the other two branches have reversed decades of progress. The Trump regime has made our tax system more regressive, increased prices, hobbled government services, undermined science-based health and climate policy, and snatched away healthcare coverage, food aid, and college assistance from millions. Republicans have slashed spending for everything from the National Weather Service to PBS to Planned Parenthood. Trump has crippled our soft power around the globe.

Certainly, if not for litigation wins, the pain and financial harm inflicted on Americans (e.g., AmeriCorps employees, teachers, cities, and non-profits) and our institutions (e.g., law firms, universities) would be far worse. Delaying or minimizing harm inflicted on such universities, government employees, law firms, and immigrants is not nothing. (Fortunately, the Supreme Court cannot hear every case, leaving many lower court rulings against Trump in place.)

Although democracy is inarguably in worse shape since Trump took office, democracy’s antibodies have surged. Millions have taken to the streets and otherwise protested the abrogation of civil rights, the shameful weaponization of the criminal justice system, and violent attacks on brown and black people.

Democratic politicians have learned to respond to Trump’s outrages more quickly and effectively, demonstrating solidarity with working Americans. As a result, Trump’s overall approval is underwater, and the public disapproves of his performance on virtually every issue, including immigration. That brings us to the midterms.

The midterms

Presidential approval is not always a determining factor in midterms. Democrats, the incumbent party, performed historically well in 2022 despite Biden’s approval ratings. In the wake of Dobbs, Democrats managed a net gain of 1 Senate seat and a net loss of only 9 House seats. By contrast, President Obama was barely in negative territory in 2010 when Democrats lost a net 6 Senate and 63 House seats.

Two factors give Democrats the opportunity to make the 2026 midterms look more like the opposition party’s tsunami of 2010 than the ripple of 2022. The Epstein scandal has punctured the trust between Trump and a segment of his base, which may prompt some MAGA voters to stay home in a huff. Republicans own every miserable vote and policy disaster.

They have rubber-stamped or condoned Trump’s parade of policy horrors. Democrats will be able to tie each Republican to specific, dire results that affect ordinary voters. (The map is expanding both in the House and in the Senate, thanks to North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis’s announced retirement and poor GOP candidate selection, putting many more seats within reach for Democrats.)

Some Democratic insiders might think that inoffensive policy and modulated language win elections. However, real-world experience (e.g., the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, victories in special elections, mass protests, New York mayoral race) confirms that when Democratic activists boldly take on Republicans, they can mobilize a broader cross-section of the electorate. Significant midterm victories—the only real way to stop and reverse assaults on democracy and Americans’ economic well-being—will be possible in about 16 months.

The longer term

Beyond setting the stage for midterm wins, the last six months offer Democrats valuable lessons.

Voters:

· Respond to fighters (e.g., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Corey Booker, Gov. Gavin Newsom, or Gov. J.B. Pritzker) who do not hold back in attacking MAGA extremists.

· Prefer fresher voices expressing righteous anger rather than old fogies acting as if opposition is futile.

· Favor politicians who pledge dramatic change, not more of the same.

· Understand that corrupt billionaires are ripping them off (e.g., taking away healthcare to fund enormous tax cuts).

· Reward plain-spoken messengers regardless of ideology (e.g., Zohran Mamdani or Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky).

· Favor a secure social safety net.

· Reject the notion that securing the border and deporting dangerous criminals necessitates a police state that disappears their hardworking neighbors.

· Recoil against power grabs, lawlessness, corruption, cruelty, and corrupt oligarchs, even though abstract appeals to “democracy” leave them cold.

That should encourage Democrats to offer bold programs that support American workers and expand opportunities (e.g., subsidized childcare, paid sick leave) and to back radical reform to knock oligarchs down to size (e.g., Supreme Court expansion and term limits, financial transparency for politicians, ending gerrymandering).

If Democrats decry attacks on civil liberties, cruelty, and state violence, voters will respond. And finally, years of fear, threats, insults, dystopia, and geriatric politicians coupled with an inspiring, authentic, and youthful Democratic leader who carries a message of hope and change may capture the voters’ imagination (as happened in 1996 and 2008).

Our democracy may be on life support, but its medium and long-term prognosis is brighter, provided Democrats impede the collapse of democracy and gain momentum with election wins this year in Virginia and New Jersey. The midterms, then, will be make-or-break time for democracy.

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Binoy Misra

                            I will miss you, my dear friend and neighbor.

“They threw away my card catalog like it was garbage—and with it, my life’s work”

 

I didn’t cry when my husband passed. Not when they tore down the diner where we shared pie on our first date. But the day they wheeled out those oak drawers—the ones with my handwriting on every tab—I stood behind the front desk and wept.

Forty-three years. That’s how long I wore this nametag. Same brass pin. Same coffee ring on my desk. Same chair, one wheel that always stuck. And every morning, without fail, I unlocked the front door of the Grant County Public Library like I was opening a treasure chest.

Because that’s what it was. It wasn’t just books we kept. We kept people. I knew which boy needed a quiet place after his father drank. Which mother needed job listings printed before her shift at the plant. Which farmer wanted the almanac just to remember what his father used to read. The library was the living room of our town. And I was its lamp.

Back in ’82, the roof leaked so bad we read under umbrellas. In ’96, the heater went out and we all sat in coats, reading aloud to stay warm. Once, a little girl named Rosa brought me a can of soup because she said I looked tired. Now, Rosa’s a nurse in Des Moines. She sent me a Christmas card every year until they took away our mailbox to “save funds.”

Last week, they came with clipboards. Said everything would be digitized. “Modernized,” they called it. “Accessible from anywhere.” But they never asked where here was. They don’t know that Mr. Dillard uses the globe in the corner to remember where his brother died in ’Nam. That the Braille Bible on the third shelf is the only one within a hundred miles. That we had a little shelf by the front window for obituaries—because not everyone in town gets the paper anymore.

That mattered to someone. It mattered to me. I tried to stop them. I said, “You can’t just throw away a century of hands.” They said the catalog was “redundant.” I said, “So am I, then?” They didn’t answer.

So today, I sit at my desk for the last time. No more morning rustle of newspapers. No more crinkled bookmarks left by loyal old hands. No more “Miss Ruth, can you help me find…” I suppose Google knows better now.

I look out the big front window. There’s still that old elm tree—the one couples carved hearts into. Still the cracked sidewalk I tripped on in ’77, broke my wrist shelving Steinbeck. Still the same warm light that used to fall on stories that smelled like time.

A boy walks in. Maybe ten. He’s got wild hair and shy eyes. “Are you the librarian?” he asks. I nod. He pulls a paperback from his coat. “I finished it.” I take it gently. “Did you like it?” He nods. “I didn’t know books could make you cry.” I smile. “That means it was a good one.”

Then I reach into the bottom drawer. Pull out an envelope. Inside, a paper card—my last library card, the kind with ink and smudges and a little crooked line where the stamp never lined up right. I hand it to him. “Keep this. Someday, it’ll mean more than a password.” He clutches it like it’s gold. And maybe it is.

As he walks away, I realize they can take the building. Take the catalog, the shelves, the budget, the staff. But they can’t digitize love. They can’t backspace belonging. They can’t replace a woman who remembers every book you ever checked out—because she believed you’d grow from each one. So yes, I was a librarian. But not just for this town. I was America’s librarian. And somewhere, in quiet corners and dimming rooms, I still am.

-FB

CNN: DOGE Cuts, Emil Bove, Police Violence, Trump and Epstein, Stephen Colbert

 

By Jade Walker The Trump administration has ended the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s specialized service for LGBTQ+ youth. Previously, people who called 988 for help could “press 3” to reach counselors specifically trained to respond to the needs of this community. Since it launched in 2022, the specialized service has received nearly 1.5 million calls.    House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to reporters at the US Capitol on Thursday. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters 1 DOGE cuts House Republicans approved a package of $9 billion in spending cuts overnight, handing a win to President Donald Trump. Roughly $8 billion will be pulled from US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs and another $1.1 billion will be withdrawn from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS. The measure will now head to the president's desk to be signed into law. A study published recently in The Lancet estimated that the USAID funding cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030. As for public broadcasting, Trump and many Republicans have long accused PBS and NPR of being “biased,” but public media officials said critics distort what actually airs. Although the funding will start to dry up in the fall, some stations are already laying off staff, preparing to cut programs and searching for “new funding models.” 2 Emil Bove Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to advance the nomination of Emil Bove, President Trump’s former personal attorney, to a federal judgeship. The decision came over the loud protests of Democrats who walked out of the committee proceedings. Bove’s nomination has been contentious. Earlier this week, more than 75 former federal and state judges called on the panel to reject Bove, saying his “egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position.” In June, a whistleblower letter from a terminated DOJ employee alleged that Bove and other top officials intended to ignore court orders and mislead federal judges. Bove rebuffed such claims during his confirmation hearing. 3 Police violence The former police officer who was found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor — when she was shot and killed in her Louisville, Kentucky home during a botched “no-knock” raid in 2020 — will face sentencing on Monday. Although Brett Hankison wasn’t the officer who killed Taylor, he did fire blindly through her window. In a court filing Wednesday, the DOJ asked that Hankison be sentenced to just 1 day in jail. And in Philadelphia, a former police officer who shot and killed a motorist during a traffic stop was sentenced on Thursday and then immediately granted parole. A judge sentenced Mark Dial to 9 1/2 months in jail for voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry — but then granted him parole because he had already been jailed for 10 months following his arrest in 2023. The city’s district attorney and the victim’s family condemned the sentence.  4 Trump and Epstein President Trump vowed to sue the Wall Street Journal and its owner on Thursday after the newspaper published a 2003 birthday letter to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name and a drawing of a naked woman. "I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story," Trump wrote on his social media site. "But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third-rate newspaper.” Trump also posted on Truth Social that he had ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi “to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony" about the Epstein investigation. It’s unclear if this order will placate many of his MAGA supporters who are upset that his administration didn’t release all of the Epstein files, as he had promised. Instead, the DOJ issued a memo that said Epstein had not been murdered in prison and did not leave a client list.

5 Stephen Colbert Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert will soon be off the air. On Thursday, he announced that CBS was canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” next year, citing financial pressures. “The Late Show” is typically the highest-rated show in late-night. The network’s decision comes just two weeks after Paramount, the parent company of CBS, paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit lodged by President Trump against CBS News. Colbert, who is one of the staunchest critics of Trump on television, condemned the Paramount settlement on air, likening it to a “big fat bribe.” “The Late Show” franchise has been a cornerstone of the CBS lineup for more than 30 years.