THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

On Thursday, after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mitch McConnell, the only Republican to vote no, issued a powerful statement citing RFK’s anti-vax conspiracy theories and crediting vaccines for saving millions of lives around the world. That prompted two unhinged, angry rants from Trump in which he absolutely savaged McConnell as a loser, a failure, and worse. We talked to veteran congressional observer Norm Ornstein, who explains what this Trump-McConnell rift tells us about Trump’s ability to terrorize today’s GOP into submission—and why we can’t count on Republicans to stand up to him going forward. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With President Donald Trump’s agenda suddenly facing a huge wave of lawsuits, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt unleashed a long, angry tirade on Wednesday about the mounting court rulings against the president. Laughably, she claimed that this constitutes “the real constitutional crisis” we’re facing right now. It’s a revealing moment: Trumpworld is building a case for ignoring judicial rulings because they know their agenda is now vulnerable to legal challenges on many different fronts. We talked to legal commentator Leah Litman, author of the book Lawless, about the prospects for stopping Trump in the courts, what happens if he defies them, and what’s likely coming in the next few months. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Little by little, congressional Republicans are waking up to discover that their own voters are in revolt against Elon Musk’s efforts to wreck the federal government. New reports from CNN and The Bulwark show that Republicans are quietly seeking to tamp down voter angst in all kinds of revealing ways. These are voters in GOP districts, but very few Republicans will prominently take on Musk, even though he is usurping their power. We talked to political science professor Elizabeth Saunders, author of a new piece for Foreign Affairs about the threat posed by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. She reflects on how complicit GOP lawmakers are in the destruction we’re seeing unfold—and on what, if anything, might prompt them to defend the system before the damage is irreversible. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an interview on Fox News, President Donald Trump angrily signaled that his goal of making Canada into a “51st state” is “real” while ranting that Canada is supposedly taking advantage of us. Whatever Trump actually intends, Vladimir Putin has been cheering on Trump’s various threats toward Canada, especially the threat of tariffs. Russia is also happy about Elon Musk’s efforts to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development. We talked to international relations professor Nicholas Grossman, who explains why Trump’s rising anger at Canada is alarming even if he doesn’t fully intend to send in troops. Grossman also details how all these moves show that Trump is signaling a genuine repositioning of the U.S.’s place in the international order—and why this repositioning has Putin so gleeful. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rage is mounting among President Donald Trump’s allies over the losses that Trump’s agenda has suffered in court, which are clearly becoming a serious obstacle to him. It’s gotten so bad that Elon Musk shared a tweet from someone who suggested that it may be time to defy the courts. Musk also boosted Trump allies who are seething over these rulings. All that amounts to a pretty dark threat from Musk: He and MAGA appear to be steeling themselves to defy judicial rulings. We talked to Norman Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action, who is litigating against Trump, about how successful the legal resistance has been thus far, whether Trump and his allies will defy the courts, and what would happen if they did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump unleashed an angry rant Thursday about the U.S. Agency for International Development. He falsely claimed billions of dollars had been stolen there to fund pro-Democrat media. But only hours later, CNN posted video of Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly praising USAID in the past and describing foreign aid as crucial to U.S. national interests. So what position will Rubio be put in if Trump and Elon Musk continue trying to destroy USAID? We talked to Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official, who explains why Rubio will inevitably clash with Trump and Musk, their dark and unstated reasons for attacking USAID, and why the humanitarian consequences of all this are terrible to contemplate. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Miller privately worried about imposing overly aggressive tariffs on Mexico, because it could imperil Mexico’s effort to apprehend migrants traveling north to our southern border, reports the Wall Street Journal. That revelation is more striking than you think. Understood correctly, it’s an acknowledgment that Mexico had already been cracking down on migration, due to an arrangement secured by President Biden. That badly undermines Trump’s scam that his threat of tariffs forced Mexico to do his bidding on the border. We talked to Adam Isacson, an expert on Latin America, who explains what Mexico has actually been doing on immigration, and why it undercuts Trump’s biggest claims about immigration, tariffs, Mexico, and more. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Elon Musk’s government takeover continues, Representative Jamie Raskin has been sounding a particularly urgent alarm. And during a Twitter fight between the two, Raskin asked Musk a simple question: As someone who supposedly works for the government now, will he submit to basic financial disclosure and conflict-of-interest rules? This got us thinking: Why are we treating the idea that Musk should submit to these rules as a fool’s errand? Let’s demand it! We talked to election law expert Andy Craig, a fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies and author of a new piece for The Unpopulist on Musk’s power grabs. He explains how lawless Musk has gotten, why it’s so important for lawmakers like Raskin to speak out, and how public resistance might have a real impact. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump has empowered Elon Musk to undertake a gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development that is pretty clearly illegal. And this week, on numerous fronts, this has suddenly become a much bigger scandal. First, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency took over the agency and locked its workers out of internal systems. Then Musk confirmed that Trump had agreed with him that the agency must be shut down. On Monday, Democratic lawmakers denounced the illegality of these moves, showing up at USAID offices to protest. We talked to one of those Democrats, Representative Don Beyer, about why the Trump-Musk assault is illegal and how Democrats can resist it. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After President Donald Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on China, he unleashed some angry, ranting tweets about the move, with his ire at Canada growing particularly unsettling. This comes amid new indications that many Republicans are suffering high “anxiety” about Trump’s presidency. So what is the likelihood that Trump’s allies in the GOP and the corporate world will step up and challenge this madness? We talked to Cathy Young, a staff writer at The Bulwark who’s written on these issues, about why the very fact that Trump seems so unhinged and unshackled could lead them to muzzle themselves—and why that makes this moment more perilous. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a passenger jet collided with a military helicopter over Washington DC, leaving no survivors, President Donald Trump went before the cameras and blamed Democrats and DEI for the disaster. He then seethed at reporters who dared to ask tough questions about his claims. This is an early indication that he will fall back on far right obsessions at the most sensitive moments. We talked to Juliette Kayyem, a former senior Department of Homeland Security official who has a new piece for The Atlantic about what might have led to the crash. She explains what Trump got wrong—and why his anger at facing basic scrutiny is exactly what we don’t want in a president in situations like these. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s administration rescinded the Office of Management and Budget memo that instituted his disastrous funding freeze, an apparent surrender amid a national outcry. Soon after, Trump pushed a bizarre lie about $50 million in U.S. dollars supposedly being spent on condoms for Hamas in Gaza. These kinds of things are often described as a “flood the zone” strategy, in which Trump throws so many lies and abuses of power at us that we can’t keep up. But what if this approach is more likely to backfire? We talked to The New Republic’s Timothy Noah, author of a good analysis of Trump’s chaos strategy, who explains why the hidden story here is that Trump is best seen as “a weak president.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave her first media briefing in the White House. Leavitt unleashed a sleazy, gratuitous attack on Joe Biden’s age, dodged responsibility for the rise in egg prices on Trump’s watch, and even defended Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. The attack on Biden is worth dwelling on: It shows that a certain type of ugly, abusive MAGA trolling ethic is now fully installed inside the White House. We talked to Salon writer Amanda Marcotte, a skillful interpreter of MAGA politics, about what really lies behind Leavitt’s performance—and what it signals about the ugliness to come. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Already, Donald Trump is “disappointed” about the pace of deportations under his presidency, The Washington Post reports. Trump officials have instructed ICE to aggressively ramp up the daily arrests to assuage his anger, even setting quotas and threatening discipline on officials who fail to meet them. But that’s not all: The pressure to meet those quotas also makes it more likely that ICE officials will sweep in noncriminal undocumented immigrants. We talked to Deborah Fleischacker, a former senior Homeland Security official, about why Trump’s obsession with removal numbers could divert the focus from serious criminals—and what all this says about the absurdity of White House/MAGA cult propaganda extolling Trump’s “strength” in combating the migrant “invasion.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Friday night, President Donald Trump fired 15 independent inspectors general in a late night massacre that appears to have been illegal. Yet since then, that story has only gotten worse. First, Trump defended the purge by calling it “very standard,” attempting to normalize his lawlessness. Second, some Republicans quickly signaled that they will be just fine with this, confirming again that he’ll he’s be largely unbound in his second term. We chatted with Jennifer Rubin, co-founder of The Contrarian, who explains why this is illegal and poses a profound threat to good governance, how Trump’s absurd defense of it compounds the problem, and how Democrats and others can fight back. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump suffered his first legal setback Thursday when a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. The judge delivered quite a smackdown, saying the move “boggles my mind.” This comes as Trump’s Justice Department is now threatening to prosecute local officials who don’t comply with his immigration agenda. But that, too, appears to lack real legal basis. The quality of his arguments so far suggests resistance from the states may have some success. We talked to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who outlines the lawlessness he anticipates from Trump, what his state’s resistance will look like, and why there’s a real shot at hindering his ugliest intentions. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Republicans struggling to spin Donald Trump’s pardon of 1,500 rioters who attacked the Capitol, CNN anchor Jim Acosta had a remarkable exchange with GOP Rep. Tim Burchett over the insurrection. Acosta refused to let the MAGA lawmaker evade how horrific Jan. 6 really was, and pinned him down on whether Trump was justified in pardoning people who savagely attacked cops. Why isn’t there more media questioning of Republicans like this? Would it make a difference if there were? We chatted with Matt Gertz of Media Matters about why the right wing media propaganda apparatus may be winning the Long War over Jan. 6, and how the media’s failure to meet the moment is helping to make it happen. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an extraordinary moment on Tuesday, Donald Trump was treated to a sermon in Washington by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who urged him to show mercy toward the likely victims of his policies, especially undocumented immigrants. Trump reacted angrily and dismissively. Which raises a question: What are the prospects for appeals to decency and humanity, such as this one, to combat the rising cruelty and authoritarianism that Trump is set to unleash? We talked to Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director of the advocacy group America’s Voice. She reflects on the difficulties of speaking to people’s higher values in this supercharged environment, and urges Democrats to seize the moment and capture for themselves the power of this sermon’s message. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump insists he has a massive “mandate.” But The New York Times reports that his allies worry that big initiatives like mass deportations might not prove as popular as he thinks. They’re arguing over pardons of insurrectionists, which also might prove unpopular, and fear his hubris might backfire. Politico reports similar worries. In short, they’re admitting he might not have a huge mandate, after all. This raises a question: If Trump’s presidency is seen as modestly successful, could it normalize Trumpian politics? Or is overreach and the discrediting of MAGA more likely? We talked to political theorist Alan Elrod, author of a new piece for MSNBC arguing that the former is very possible. He lays out why so much is riding on public rejection of his second term. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Donald Trump ranted that no one with ties to certain Republicans who have criticized him will get jobs in the new government. The inclusion of Nikki Haley among them got attention, because after her primary against Trump, she bent the knee and obsequiously endorsed him. It didn’t help her much: Her reward is Trump’s thorough humiliation of her. We think this is really a warning to future GOP critics: Cross Trump and you risk being on the outs, with no way back in. We talked to Casey Michel, a reporter who covers lobbying and influence peddling, and he explains how Trump’s rewarding of friends and punishment of enemies are central to a bigger story: His creation of a new Trump kleptocracy that will now dominate us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, sought in some ways to project an apolitical aura. But Bondi also refused to answer direct questions about Trump’s threats to prosecute enemies, and dissembled about similar threats from Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to head the FBI. All this accidentally revealed something important. Bondi could not say straight out that she wouldn’t carry out Trump’s corrupt designs, because saying that could disqualify her in his eyes—which is itself the problem here. We talked to former prosecutor Mimi Rocah, who explains how Bondi exposed herself as an unreliable defender of the rule of law—and what that telegraphs about the coming hellscape of 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Jack Smith released his final report on Donald Trump’s insurrection, Trump erupted, gloating over the failure to prosecute him. Meanwhile, Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, MAGA hero Pete Hegseth, had some alarming moments at his confirmation hearing, and the MAGA cheerleading for him hints at ugly times ahead. Take this all together and Trump and MAGA look invincible right now. So we talked to historian Julian Zelizer, author of a good piece in The New Republic that reminds us that George W. Bush looked formidable in 2004, only to see the tide turn dramatically two years later. Zelizer discusses his new book, In Defense of Partisanship, and explains why Trump-MAGA’s grip on power may prove fragile, especially if Democrats fight them effectively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump recently declared that the U.S. is a “disaster” and a “laughingstock all over the world.” In reality, by many metrics, the economy is quite good, and our recovery from covid has been an international success story. But Paul Krugman recently noticed something interesting: This could create problems for Trump. As Krugman asked on his excellent new Substack, how will he justify radical, across-the-board tariffs and mass deportations if things are going well? We talked to Krugman, who explains how Trump is likely to resort to gale-force levels of propaganda, how he’s threatening havoc with the economy, and how his voters are getting “brutally scammed” in the process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, Steve Bannon’s fury at Elon Musk truly went off the rails. Bannon, who has been feuding with Musk over immigration, vowed that he will run Musk out of the MAGA movement by Inauguration Day, suggesting this battle will continue once Donald Trump is in office. This battle exposes major divisions in the MAGA movement—yet Democrats aren’t really trying to exploit them. Why not? We talked to Mona Charen of The Bulwark, who has a good new piece arguing that Democrats need to find their footing as a loyal opposition. She explains what the feud says about Trump, the MAGA movement, and the rise of global authoritarianism and fascism—and how Democrats can rise to the moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we learned that Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito spoke privately with Donald Trump to recommend a former clerk for a job. Jamie Raskin just tore into this news, urging Alito to recuse himself from Trump-related matters. This comes as Trump asked the high court to block a New York judge from sentencing him for his hush money conviction. What Raskin got right is to zero in on the corruption embedded in Trump’s relationship with the Supreme Court. After all, between this and Judge Aileen Cannon ordering Special Counsel Jack Smith not to release his report on the evidence he’s collected against Trump, the courts face a legitimacy crisis. We talked to Politico’s Kyle Cheney, who untangles all these stories and explains what’s coming next. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With wildfires raging in Los Angeles, Donald Trump unleashed some ugly and hateful tirades on Truth Social. He attacked California Governor Gavin Newsom with a vile slur, blamed the fires on him and President Biden, and even scapegoated environmental protections, which Newsom’s office dismissed as pure fiction. We think this is best seen as another example of how the MAGA right wing seeks to thoroughly degrade public life at every conceivable opportunity. We talked to Nicole Hemmer, a leading historian of the conservative movement and the right wing media. She explains how today’s MAGA derangement traces its lineage back many decades, and discusses how we should respond. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump signaled that things are about to get very, very ugly. He wouldn’t rule out using military force to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal. He celebrated the idea that his threats to jail Mark Zuckerberg might have caused Zuckerberg to surrender to him. And Trump vowed to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. We talked to Jennifer Mercieca, a professor of rhetoric who writes about fascist tropes. She explains how Trump is attempting to acclimate Americans to expansionist nationalism and naked threats to jail people without cause to force them into line, and why that bodes so badly about what’s coming. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

miserable for Republicans in Congress, particularly Mike Johnson. He’s signaling that his demands of the House Speaker will be borderline impossible to meet. He continues to declare that he wants virtually his entire agenda pass in one big bill, which will put Republicans in a deep bind. And he’s empowered Elon Musk to propose huge spending cuts that will create major political problems for Johnson and the GOP. With Republicans already battling over all of it, we talked to congressional scholar Norman Ornstein, who decodes Trump’s latest gambits and the GOP infighting over them—and explains what it all signals about the travails Trump will inflict on Johnson and Republicans, not to mention his own voters. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, Donald Trump unleashed an angry new rant over the news that his sentencing for his hush money conviction will proceed this week. Buried in Trump’s rage was a key tell: He’s signaling that he’ll use his conviction as a pretext to carry out his own autocratic second-term designs. There are also indications that he hopes to milk his sentencing toward other ugly ends. We talked to Adam Gurri, the editor of Liberal Currents magazine, who’s been making good arguments lately about Trump’s pursuit of “personalist” rule, which shapes everything around the personality at the center of his movement. Gurri explains how Trump is already signaling that this is where his presidency will go—and why that’s so ominous. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As of this recording, lawmakers are still chaotically rushing to avoid a government shutdown. And one thing is already clear from this fiasco: Donald Trump will betray his voters very, very badly. Trump and Elon Musk killed a compromise bill, demanding deep spending cuts that would inflict real harm on Trump country, portending a lot more like this to come. (After we recorded, the House voted down the second government funding bill House Republicans advanced.) We chatted with Paul Waldman, the co-author of White Rural Rage. He explains why all this is happening, the tensions it reveals among Republicans, and how the Trump-Musk alliance looks poised to sell out MAGA voters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, sounded an extraordinary warning this week. After a House GOP report recommended that the FBI prosecute Liz Cheney, Murphy argued in a social media thread that Donald Trump is clearly putting in place a plan to cripple our democracy, one we might never recover from. In an interview with the podcast, Murphy expands on his alarm, arguing that within a few months, some of Trump’s enemies might be in jail, the media might be cowed into submission, and that Democrats need to sound the alarm before it’s too late, lest Trump’s attacks on democracy prove “fatal.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, Donald Trump exploded with fury at Judge Juan Merchan after he refused to dismiss the hush-money conviction of Trump in Manhattan. Trump also filed a frivolous lawsuit against pollster Ann Selzer for getting her pre-election survey wrong, suggesting more bullying of the media is coming. Meanwhile, Donald’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump just brazenly suggested that Kash Patel is being installed as FBI director precisely to carry out revenge against Trump’s enemies. We chatted with Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall about his interesting new piece arguing that these targets need to band together in the face of what’s coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, Donald Trump issued some rambling, tortured claims. He bent over backwards to reassure people about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and vouched for the polio vaccine—while bizarrely clarifying that he sees “problems” with vaccines and even opposes vaccine mandates in schools. We think this reveals a surprising political vulnerability. Trump knows RFK’s extreme views are a problem, but also seems aware that being supportive of vaccine mandates might alienate some constituencies in his base. We talked to Anne Shoup, a senior adviser for the Democratic-allied group Protect Our Care, which is running ads against RFK, about whether stopping him is really possible and what more Dems should do to oppose Trump’s nominees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ABC News has abruptly agreed to a $15 million settlement with Donald Trump in his lawsuit against the network. Coming after Trump raged at ABC throughout the campaign, some observers see this as a sign of broader capitulation to him. Indeed, it comes as Trump openly boasted that he’s “tamed” the media. We talked to The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, author of Autocracy, Inc., who explains why this outcome has “really disturbing” implications, how Trump is conditioning Americans to accept authoritarian rule, and what the prognosis is going forward. It’s not great. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Christopher Wray resigned as FBI director, Donald Trump unleashed a long, angry rant on Truth Social, suggesting that a major purge of the bureau is coming—and that the targeting of his enemies will commence the moment Kash Patel is installed. Meanwhile, leading MAGA figures are ramping up pressure on GOP senators not to stand in Trump’s way—and some of them are already signaling they’ll likely fold. We talked to The Bulwark’s William Saletan, author of a good new piece on the dangers of this moment. He explains that this is what it looks like “when a criminal takes control of law enforcement,” and lays out what it will take for us to resist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Trump has stepped into the international limelight as the face of the new Trump oligarchy. At a conference this week, he told an audience that he and father Donald Trump will work together once Trump is president to push crypto, which the Trump family is invested in. Eric, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, has also been prominently negotiating the ethics policy—or lack thereof—that Trump will submit to as president. We talked to Casey Michel, the author of several books on American kleptocracy, who explains how ripe conditions are for unprecedented elite corruption to flourish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, Donald Trump and his advisers have left no doubt: He will deport as many of the 11 million undocumented people in this country as possible. But on Fox News, Alina Habba, who’s set to be a top White House lawyer, offered some new spin on the coming plan that revealed a lot about how Trump’s propagandists will try to defend the indefensible. We talked to Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director of America’s Voice, who grapples with the hardships that immigrants will soon face, why Latinos moved toward Trump, and how pro-immigration forces should rally in response to what's coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

These are heady times for MAGA. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elon Musk are teaming up to slash the government to ribbons as part of Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency. What could give MAGA a bigger thrill than that high-wattage duo? But Politico reports that some Republicans quietly fear that Greene’s involvement could become a major distraction from the Trump/GOP agenda. We talked to tech writer Gil Duran, a close observer of Musk’s machinations, who explains why the right-wing “techbro” worldview is so dangerous—and how Greene could make it even more combustible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The New York Times reports that Donald Trump is telling advisers that his biggest regret from his first term was that he appointed “traitors.” As a result, his transition team is grilling prospective nominees to gauge their loyalty to Trump. Is there some way for Democrats to drive home how dangerous all this is? We chatted with Brian Beutler, author of the excellent Substack Off Message. He argues that even as Trump’s second-term plans are getting more overtly dangerous to the rule of law, Democrats need to do a lot more to alert the public to what’s coming—not just because it’s good politics, but because the country needs it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Points for candor to Senator Tommy Tuberville. On Thursday, he admitted he thinks Trump should vet his own nominees, suggesting the Senate GOP should forget about playing its advice and consent role. That’s a stark admission about what MAGA actually expects from Senate Republicans. Yet revelations about Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, are so damning that Republicans are finding him impossible to rubber-stamp, and he’s hanging in the balance. We chatted with Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, author of a new piece about Trump, Hegseth and the GOP. She explains how Tuberville said the quiet part out loud, how Trump is expressly trying to build a cabinet of misogynists, and how that’s backfiring, perhaps forcing Republicans to thwart his worst excesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump’s choice for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is hanging by a thread. GOP senators are clearly signaling that he’s in deep trouble. Yet powerful right wing influencers are now angrily rushing to Hegseth’s defense, urging those senators to stand behind him. We chatted with Matt Gertz of Media Matters, who has a good new piece reporting on Fox News’s efforts to save Hegseth. Gertz explains how MAGA is turning this into a test for GOP Senators: Will they surrender to the “liberal media” when it reports facts about Trump, or will they side with Trump and MAGA? If GOP Senators fail now, it bodes badly for what’s coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump’s administration is already shaping up as a Murderer’s Row of Billionaires. By one count, he’s already picked eight billionaires for top positions. He has now chosen a ninth billionaire to serve as Deputy Defense Secretary, and this one enjoys lucrative contracts with the Pentagon. We talked to Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, about how unprecedented it is to have so many billionaires in the government—and whether there are any post-Watergate safeguards left that can withstand the oligarchic corruption that’s about to hit us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an extraordinary expose, The New Yorker has revealed the “secret history” of Pete Hegseth, who’s Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary. This includes allegations of extreme drunkenness and financial mismanagement of a nonprofit he ran. Along with other highly unqualified nominees, this fiasco raises a question: Do Senate Democrats have what it takes to make revelations like these stick in confirmation hearings? We talked to Tara McGowan, a progressive media executive who often urges Democrats to go on the offensive. She explains how the party can get more serious about fighting the information wars—and why this will be essential during a second Trump presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump just announced that his FBI director will be Kash Patel. We know why: Because Patel himself has already suggested that in a second Trump term, law enforcement should pursue Trump’s enemies, and as a result, Trump’s pick already has leading MAGA figures in a frenzy of excitement about the persecution that’s coming. It’s all a reminder that Trump feels zero constraints of any kind, again raising the question: Are the guardrails gone? We talked to Michael Sozan, a senior fellow for the Center for American Progress and author of a useful report that grapples with this very question. Sozan explains how far Patel will be able to get in carrying out Trump’s campaign of retribution, and why there’s cause for deep alarm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that Donald Trump has threatened huge tariffs on Mexico, some MAGA figures are suddenly consumed with a dark new fantasy about Trump inflicting all manner of punishment on that country. One top MAGA ally claims Mexico should prepare for a U.S. military invasion. Another says that if Mexico doesn’t do Trump’s bidding, “pain and suffering will ensue.” Trump’s propagandists are laying the groundwork to cast Mexico as a major scapegoat for U.S. social problems. We talked to Douglas Rivlin of America’s Voice, one of the best immigration and border observers out there, about how misguided Trump’s threats are, why MAGA thrills to them, and what all this could portend about the horrors that are coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Donald Trump erupted in fury at The New York Times. He appeared triggered by a story about a Trump aide named Natalie Harp, who serves as his gatekeeper with creepy levels of devotion. What caught our eye is that in his rant, Trump demanded that The Times show obeisance to him because he won the election, perhaps providing an early glimpse of how he will seek to cow the media into submission. We talked to Margaret Sullivan, the former Times public editor and author of the great Substack “American Crisis,” who explains what Trump’s crackdown on the press might look like—and how well the media will respond to it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Democrats sift through the wreckage left behind by Donald Trump’s victory, it’s become clear the party needs a major rebuilding effort with the working class. A new analysis from The New York Times finds unnervingly large swings among working class voters during the Trump era, including among nonwhites. We talked to veteran strategist James Carville, who offers a deceptively simple diagnosis: The Democratic Party is simply “in the dark” about how many Americans, especially working class, young, and nonwhite voters, are getting their information right now, and getting to the bottom of this conundrum is urgent. Carville also unveils a new project he’s pursuing that he hopes will begin to solve the problem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump’s top allies are already at war with each other over the transition, according to The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Trump just tapped anti-Islam extremist Sebastian Gorka for a big national security role, and that’s unnerving even some in MAGA. Trump is so certain he won a massive mandate that he doesn’t feel obliged to run a smooth transition or refrain from appointing wildly extreme people. We chatted with political scientist Julia Azari, author of a great new piece on presidential delusions about mandates. Azari explains why mandates are usually illusory, how Trump is grotesquely overreading his victory, and why it all bodes badly for what’s to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Matt Gaetz abruptly withdrew from consideration as Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Trump seemed uncharacteristically muted. Intriguingly, he accepted this outcome without once trying to crack the whip on the Senate Republicans who apparently blocked Gaetz’s nomination—which is doubly strange, as MAGA personalities were furiously urging Trump to use recess appointments to put the Senate GOP in its place. What really happened among Republicans here? We talked to Congressional scholar Norman Ornstein, who brilliantly explains what’s really driving the key GOP senators to watch going forward—and whether we’ll see real resistance among them to Trump’s future authoritarian excesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Donald Trump confirmed that he will use the military to carry out mass deportations. This prompted a surprisingly sharp response from GOP Senator Rand Paul, who denounced the idea as a “huge mistake” that will send a “terrible image” to the world and likely be “illegal” to boot. But why is it left to a fringe figure in the GOP to denounce Trump’s vile threats? Where are the rest of Republicans on this? We talked to Tom Nichols, a writer for The Atlantic and a sharp observer of the MAGA-fication of the GOP, about what will really happen within the military and beyond once these threats get put into action—and why it poses such a menace to the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices