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Below the radar, the second Trump administration has taken extraordinary steps to expand the rights of gun owners and manufacturers. He doesn't care about crime, nor does he care about kids. Trump 2.0 shows every sign of doing anything the NRA wants. trib.al/JOEX4xp
Trump may do things for all the wrong reasons—cronyism, control, or just plain spectacle—but if the Left seizes this moment, it can help build a new common sense: one in which public money buys public power, and ownership becomes the foundation for a more equitable economy. trib.al/xdFhJLm
"Where has she been for the past 30 years? The Republicans have been screwing rural voters relentlessly for decades ... you expect GOP lawmakers to not screw their voters on *literally everything* at all times." trib.al/FexAuwA
The Democratic Party establishment has proven its loyalty not to Democrats, but to its own ironclad control. trib.al/kOnJNws
Trump is threatening a Republican-led “comprehensive crime bill." The president offered no other details, but his current occupation of D.C., and his countless unsubstantiated claims about how bad the streets of America are, can help us guess. trib.al/hfeeYe1
To execute his authoritarian takeover, President Trump requires the devoted service of willing accomplices. Case in point: Trump’s appalling new effort to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. trib.al/aQH7w1Z
Yet another GOP lawmaker was blasted by his own constituents for supporting President Trump’s agenda. This time, it was Barry Moore of Alabama, a U.S. representative and Senate candidate. He slipped out the back door as the audience chanted, “Shame!” trib.al/lVT3W8n
Firefighters in Washington state were waiting for their superior to arrive when Customs and Border Patrol showed up in “Police” vests. The agents made the entire crew line up and show ID—detaining 2 firefighters, with no chance to say goodbye to fellow crew members and loved ones. trib.al/rzNZWlG
"This bill screws rural America in every which way you can possibly imagine. And yet, it becomes easier for Republican representatives to get away with this precisely because Democrats aren’t in these areas ... telling their constituents what these lawmakers are doing to them." trib.al/Tht3GI7
For decades, the U.S. has showered corporations with subsidies and tax breaks and bailed them out while rarely asking for much—or anything—in return. If taxpayer money is going to prop up private firms, as it has for decades, then taxpayers deserve a share of the gains, too. trib.al/s355CA4
What Newsom is doing is he is not giving them the benefit of the doubt. He is responding to the obvious implications of what Trump is doing rather than quibbling over whether or not that’s what he’s doing. trib.al/M2pTjom
President Donald Trump vowed his administration would be filing a lawsuit against California “pretty soon” over its plan to put the state’s congressional lines to a vote. “BRING IT,” Newsom wrote back. trib.al/hijwT1y
After Sec. RFK Jr.’s ouster of the CDC director, four more high-ranking officials reportedly resigned. Letters from them include warnings that the agency’s mission has been compromised, with anti-vaccine policies and other growing misinformation. trib.al/XyuOntD
A DOGE whistleblower revealed that employees uploaded a Social Security database—containing full names, dates of birth, and addresses of hundreds of millions of Americans— to a cloud server without “independent security or oversight," creating “enormous vulnerabilities" to hackers. trib.al/FDTWG43
*Even Reagan*—who set this country on the course whose nihilistic end point is in sight—respected norms for which Trump has no regard. Donald won’t take yes for an answer. He wants to destroy the Federal Reserve. I doubt even he really understands why. trib.al/EjVzaCB
The Intel deal should be treated not as a scandal, but as a shift in America’s approach to capitalism—one that could serve Trump’s cronyism or, if the left seizes it, a more democratic vision of public ownership. trib.al/HddRzQS
“You wanna straighten out the budget? Start taxing corporations and the wealthy like we’ve been telling you. Do you think we’re idiots? Do you think we don’t pay taxes? ... You know nothing about what a working-class citizen does." trib.al/00wInYP
Next federal takeover: Chicago. The Trump administration is asking the nearby naval base for help carrying out the president’s massive deportation campaign. “These operations are similar to what occurred in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Same DHS team." trib.al/4s3uBRn
We’re fighting a war on American soil in voting booths for Americans to wake up and see what Donald Trump is doing before it’s too late. trib.al/67Oel9z
The governor of another blue state has a message for the president: stay away. trib.al/4o8Lb2j
Leavitt has a habit of verbally assailing reporters and condescending to them rather than answering their questions. trib.al/991Yq0T
This is all the dress rehearsal for Trump firing Jerome Powell, and the Supreme Court will likely let him do that, too. trib.al/l9NNEKU Even before that happens, Cook’s firing is, as Penn’s Peter Conti-Brown told The New York Times, “the end of central bank independence as we know it.”
During a town hall Wednesday in Worth County, Iowans urged Hinson to “stop lying” after she claimed that the president’s key legislation had ushered in “higher wages” and an improved cost of living. “Higher wages?” shouted one woman incredulously. “For who? For you?” trib.al/KGFzxKS
Good news from Utah: Judge Dianna Gibson blocked the state’s GOP-controlled legislature from enacting their gerrymandered congressional map, declaring it unconstitutional. This comes as Texas and California are locked in a heated gerrymandering battle, egged on by President Trump. trib.al/caYhCCY
“I would appreciate you taking your father’s U.S. Constitution book, read it, study it, make your own lines underneath it, and get Trump out of office. The man is a dictator.” — a longtime Missouri resident who said he's at risk of losing his family farm. trib.al/hPOlu0F
Republicans rarely ask, “But how do we talk to Democrats?” They already know: You don’t win voters over by decoding them. You win them by speaking plainly—and by seeming like you mean it. Maybe that’s why Collins’s cosplay of moderation is wearing thin. trib.al/4ho2Y5Q
As Americans have known for far too long, Trump sees truth as indeterminate, ripe for manipulation by his regime. Trump simply doesn’t want reliable, accurate AI. He wants MAGA agitprop. trib.al/F2JIosX
"Trump is showing, with this insane rant, that he fully intends to maximally abuse presidential powers in every way possible to try to rig and swing the midterms. It’s not an accident that this is all happening while he’s militarizing cities." trib.al/8vnBGIq
One of several top CDC officials to leave their post this week—after Kennedy fired the agency’s director for refusing to “rubberstamp unscientific, reckless directives"—is telling all. Including that Kennedy has never been briefed by any of the center’s scientists on major diseases. trib.al/Vd2vBxu
"Newsom is saying two things. First, we’re not going to let Republicans play by different rules anymore. And second, we are going to use our power however we can, no matter what The New York Times editorial board says about it." trib.al/SpzgHnV
Gavin Newsom is "finally doing what Democrats should have been doing for a decade. [Donald Trump has] defined American politics since 2015. And what we have seen, especially since Hillary Clinton lost in 2016, is that Democrats have been afraid to talk about it directly." trib.al/CWjPGui
JB Pritzker's response to Trump's threats shows how politicians who creatively resist the despotism will be seen nationally as leadership figures. Trump’s firing of the CDC director—and effective decapitation of our public health system—provides Democrats with exactly this chance. trib.al/hONhs7D
The president woke up today in an uproar about Old Glory. He then took it out on the First Amendment. trib.al/BPoxswf
GOP Sen. Susan Collins’s first public, press conference-style event in her home state in nearly a decade, turned into a public shaming as more than 200 protestors gathered to jeer. “You don’t ever listen to us!” “Your votes destroyed our Supreme Court!” trib.al/yLowh7r
Here is the terrifying truth: D.C. residents outnumber the populations of Vermont and Wyoming. What’s happening to them now could happen to those of us who enjoy the full privileges of the Constitution. trib.al/iYqQKGR
After Minneapolis, Vice President Vance and Melania Trump are trying to shift the topic from guns to mental health. But as usual, the rhetoric is the opposite of reality—Trump's drastic Medicaid cuts in his big, ugly bill will greatly impact mental health services. trib.al/UaeE8F7
Rather than embracing candidates that spark grassroots enthusiasm and tap into the populist ferment of the American public, establishment Democrats are working to favor exactly the kind of uninspiring corporatists that dug the party’s current hole. trib.al/PzEickb
Trump-appointed D.C. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is losing case after case amid the president's federal takeover—the judge calling her latest attempt to jail a local attorney and West Point graduate “one of the weakest requests for detention” he’d ever seen. trib.al/2scJ7Ns
To execute his authoritarian takeover, President Trump requires the devoted service of willing accomplices. Case in point: Trump’s appalling new effort to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. Yet this maneuver may backfire. trib.al/wddoKBF
President Trump balked when asked whether he would send National Guard troops to Republican-led cities with high crime rates: “Sure, but there aren’t that many of them." Of the 30 U.S. cities with the highest number of violent crimes, more than half were in red states. trib.al/fa7nEgq
You can’t make this stuff up. The Department of Homeland Security has hired an election conspiracy theorist to work in election integrity. The role did not previously exist under the Biden administration. trib.al/ukUWYfx
Everything with Trump is the law of the jungle. It’s hit or be hit. And it’s taken the Democrats a decade to understand Trump steamrolls his opponents who stand by thunderstruck waiting for some referee to call foul. Well, for one Democrat to figure it out, anyway. trib.al/sTw3zi6
“I would appreciate you taking your father’s U.S. Constitution book, read it, study it, make your own lines underneath it, and get Trump out of office. The man is a dictator.” — a longtime Missouri resident who said he's at risk of losing his family farm. trib.al/5QqRhMj
The Supreme Court warned President Donald Trump on May 22 that he could not lawfully fire members of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. It took him only 95 days to ignore them. trib.al/hnHmORP
Charles Kushner—father of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and convicted felon—went a step too far in his role as U.S. ambassador to France. Why is the U.S. ambassador to France more focused on lobbying on Israel’s behalf than the United States? trib.al/f7cpWIB
During a town hall Wednesday in Worth County, Iowans urged Hinson to “stop lying” after she claimed that the president’s key legislation had ushered in “higher wages” and an improved cost of living. “Higher wages?” shouted one woman incredulously. “For who? For you?” trib.al/KPLYXyQ
The term “comfort women” was a euphemism for South Korean women forced into military sex slavery during WWII. Use of the phrase has been criticized for minimizing the harm and gravity of Japan’s actions. But given Trump's history, it’s no surprise he doesn’t understand. trib.al/Ly6uK0W
“The loyalists around Trump are much more open and much bolder in their authoritarianism than they were six months ago,” Harvard professor Steven Levitsky told TNR's Greg Sargent. “So we’re in a very dangerous moment.” trib.al/kIENaBA
The overall goal here is clear: Trump wants full control of the U.S. economy. That’s reckless no matter who the president is. But it’s a ruinous mission for a president who obviously has no idea what he’s doing. trib.al/VnbR4iD
The president’s assault on the independence of the Federal Reserve is only the latest of several reckless economic actions. trib.al/WjdyF9X One fact remains: the economy is in significantly worse shape than it was a year ago, thanks in large part to actions Trump himself has taken.
A high profile conservative lawyer (and the ex-husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway) is calling Donald Trump’s political strategy what it is: “authoritarianism.” “We have never seen anything like this in America." trib.al/pEOjXko
"I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States," he declared. trib.al/bfSFP2W
Platner is blunt, even proud, about how he’s benefitted from government programs. He went to college on the GI Bill. His healthcare is free—paid for by four tours in Iraq & Afghanistan. "But watching your friends die as the bar to meet for decent healthcare is disgusting.” trib.al/wOGSXj4
"Trump is showing, with this insane rant, that he fully intends to maximally abuse presidential powers in every way possible to try to rig and swing the midterms. It’s not an accident that this is all happening while he’s militarizing cities." trib.al/ufHfbdA
President Trump’s policies, particularly tariffs, are driving up the cost of school supplies and other goods that average Americans use regularly—on top of the fact that Trump’s attacks on elite colleges are intended to make them essentially schools for white wealthy kids. trib.al/fQHbzHI
Trump-appointed D.C. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is losing case after case amid the president's federal takeover—the judge calling her latest attempt to jail a local attorney and West Point graduate “one of the weakest requests for detention” he’d ever seen. trib.al/OA2Tcni
After Minneapolis, Vice President Vance and Melania Trump are out there trying to shift the topic from guns to mental health. But as usual, the rhetoric is the opposite of reality—Trump's drastic Medicaid cuts in his big, ugly bill will greatly impact mental health services. trib.al/kmStLpp
Trump’s manufacturing of fake pretexts for use of law enforcement and the military to target critics and consolidate power. Do we get to call it fascism yet? trib.al/VgoFp6F
Leavitt struggled to defend President Trump’s decision to oust Susan Monarez, former head of the CDC, saying Monarez was simply "not aligned with the president’s mission." trib.al/gINt6FJ
A Republican official in North Carolina was charged with felony child abuse after he allegedly attempted to drug his two granddaughters with cocaine and MDMA. trib.al/3r2r48y
Republicans rarely ask, “But how do we talk to Democrats?” They already know: You don’t win voters over by decoding them. You win them by speaking plainly—and by seeming like you mean it. Maybe that’s why Collins’s cosplay of moderation is wearing thin. trib.al/gtV3TIT
"I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States," he declared. trib.al/WazrDdk
The Iowa Republican’s apparent decision comes just a few months after a horrifying gaffe at a town hall where she responded to constituents' concerns about Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill and she responded by saying, “Well, we all are going to die.” trib.al/B2BASgm
JB Pritzker's response to Trump's threats shows how politicians who creatively resist the despotism will be seen nationally as leadership figures. Trump’s firing of the CDC director—and effective decapitation of our public health system—provides Democrats with exactly this chance. trib.al/hf0Af3J
This is all the dress rehearsal for Trump firing Jerome Powell, and the Supreme Court will likely let him do that, too. trib.al/c2yltK6 Even before that happens, Cook’s firing is, as Penn’s Peter Conti-Brown told The New York Times, “the end of central bank independence as we know it.”
The Supreme Court has given Trump practically whatever he wants over the past two years. But Cook’s lawsuit makes it as easy as possible for SCOTUS to hold the line. The consequences of bowing to Trump once again, as Cook makes clear, are too immense to ignore. trib.al/zA6VRBi
For the 2nd time in just a few weeks, Bondi's DOJ has done her brother, Brad, a solid. In July, federal prosecutors scrapped fraud charges against a politician he was representing. Now, they've has dropped felony wire fraud charges against another client. trib.al/GbnumPz
Below the radar, the second Trump administration has taken extraordinary steps to expand the rights of gun owners and manufacturers. He doesn't care about crime, nor does he care about kids. Trump 2.0 shows every sign of doing anything the NRA wants. trib.al/MliH8vt
Politicians run campaigns pledging to rein in the police, wealthy developers, and other entrenched blocs in their cities—but then find these establishment forces too powerful to overcome in office. But Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has figured it out. trib.al/MOtxSjw
Trump is once again stomping all over Congress’s power of the purse, invoking a rare “pocket rescission” to claw back roughly $5B from the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. It’s the first time anyone has used the maneuver in nearly 50 years. trib.al/URbqygD
Graham Platner is blunt, even proud, about how he’s benefitted from government programs. He went to college on the GI Bill. His healthcare is free—paid for by four tours in Iraq & Afghanistan. "But watching your friends die as the bar to meet for decent healthcare is disgusting.” trib.al/ohYlK9C
Remember that $30 million military parade the president forced on everyone in June? Now our dear leader wants a redo—by sea. Under the guise of "restoring patriotism," the U.S. Navy is planning a larger parade for this fall after the president told aides he was “disappointed.” trib.al/CM5pOmf
One of several top CDC officials to leave their post this week—after Kennedy fired the agency’s director for refusing to “rubberstamp unscientific, reckless directives"—is telling all. Including that Kennedy has never been briefed by any of the center’s scientists on major diseases. trib.al/j3PrEDR
Yet another GOP lawmaker was blasted by his own constituents for supporting President Trump’s agenda. This time, it was Barry Moore of Alabama, a U.S. representative and Senate candidate. He slipped out the back door as the audience chanted, “Shame!” trib.al/IsWdAbg
Governor Pritzker pointed out that cities in Tennessee and Mississippi have higher crime rates than Chicago. “And yet Donald Trump is sending troops here? And not there? Ask yourself why.” trib.al/h96Yfsn
Here is the terrifying truth: D.C. residents outnumber the populations of Vermont and Wyoming. What’s happening to them now could happen to those of us who enjoy the full privileges of the Constitution. trib.al/VmNYUSN
Next federal takeover: Chicago. The Trump administration is asking the nearby naval base for help carrying out the president’s massive deportation campaign. “These operations are similar to what occurred in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Same DHS team." trib.al/ErB0RqN
The federal agents and troops are not the distraction. They are the whole point—quite literally the spear in Trump’s increasingly fascist assault on American democracy. trib.al/y8CJoIz
The MAGA purge of the government has reached new heights. This time, it's Surface Transportation Board member Robert Primus, a Democrat who Trump himself first appointed to the railroad regulator board in 2020. Primus is at least the fourth top official fired this week. trib.al/rvMfCo5
If the choice is between Hitlerian AI and accurate AI, Trump is between a rock and a hard place. An AI like Grok that says—“I am MechaHitler!”—might expose his ideology a little too bracingly. But an accurate AI will contradict his lies. trib.al/PNEDIIM
Collins’s dedication to a spineless centrist conservatism has frustrated Maine voters, especially in a state won by Kamala Harris in the 2024 general election. One person shouted, “You don’t ever listen to us!” trib.al/YgVdpWS
Netanyahu's government approved the battle plan to head into a full takeover of Gaza City. Most Israelis hate the war and their government. But a tiny right-wing faction controls all. Sound familiar? trib.al/KNYdupr
Authoritarian takeovers in other countries happened more slowly, in part because there was more institutional opposition. Scholars and journalists in the U.S. *need* to sound the alarm against Trump, even if it gets them accused of being partisan. newrepublic.com/article/1997...
"Newsom is saying two things. First, we’re not going to let Republicans play by different rules anymore. And second, we are going to use our power however we can, no matter what The New York Times editorial board says about it." trib.al/LHfzgCF
As Americans have known for far too long, Trump sees truth as indeterminate, ripe for manipulation by his regime. Trump simply doesn’t want reliable, accurate AI. He wants MAGA agitprop. trib.al/b68G88l
BREAKING: Trump’s attorney general and FBI director will *finally* be called to testify before Congress after deceiving their base and inadvertently sparking days of national controversy. trib.al/IX93jf8
Scholars are saying President Trump is gaining power at a faster rate than many autocrats abroad did—and the divides between progressive and centrist Democrats were weakening the resistance. → Right Now With Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social trib.al/5iptvxc
After Wednesday’s mass shooting, Fox News host Sean Hannity proposed a “simple” solution that, in reality, would have done nothing to prevent the tragedy earlier that day. "Every school in the country should have a metal detector." trib.al/RGcdO8A
I spoke with @perrybaconjr.bsky.social about why we need candidates who will fight for a government that does more for working people, not less. It's not a radical concept.
"I was encouraged to see the CDC director refused to resign, to force the Trump administration to fire her. I was thrilled to see Lisa Cook refuse to passively accept Trump's attempt to fire her and to say instead, no, this is illegal," says @brendannyhan.bsky.social.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the Fed board member says Trump’s “concocted basis” for her removal fails to “amount to ‘cause’”—and is an “unprecedented and illegal” violation of her due process rights as well as the central bank’s independence. trib.al/Dh2K0vt
During a town hall Wednesday in Worth County, Iowans urged Hinson to “stop lying” after she claimed that the president’s key legislation had ushered in “higher wages” and an improved cost of living. “Higher wages?” shouted one woman incredulously. “For who? For you?” trib.al/x4XL1QU
During a discussion on the Minneapolis mass shooting, the Health Secretary said he is investigating whether antidepressants can be linked to homicidal ideation. trib.al/oBWM3Jq
There was no going back after January 6, 2021, when political perpetrators made a violent attempt to overthrow the government. If Trump has his way, other cities may soon feel what that’s like. trib.al/wiX7kbo
As the Illinois governor infuriates Trump with an extraordinary response to his threats on Chicago (the president called Pritzker a bunch of names and instructed him to bow down and beg for “HELP”), it suggests that pundits are wrong. Dems can challenge Trump on this issue—and win. trib.al/R752v1i
Firefighters in Washington state were waiting for their superior to arrive when Customs and Border Patrol showed up in “Police” vests. The agents made the entire crew line up and show ID—detaining 2 firefighters, with no chance to say goodbye to fellow crew members and loved ones. trib.al/jdA36k9
A high profile conservative lawyer (and the ex-husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway) is calling Donald Trump’s political strategy what it is: “authoritarianism.” “We have never seen anything like this in America." trib.al/Av6VV4h
In a remarkable development, after Sec. RFK Jr.’s ouster of the CDC director, four more high-ranking officials have reportedly resigned. Letters from them include warnings that the agency’s mission has been compromised, with anti-vaccine policies and other growing misinformation. trib.al/D2guwih
You can’t make this stuff up. The Department of Homeland Security has hired an election conspiracy theorist to work in election integrity. The role did not previously exist under the Biden administration. trib.al/3jYBvX0
The president deployed the National Guard to deal with a so-called crime emergency in Washington, D.C—so why are troops wandering around picking up trash? trib.al/kLU5gwQ
