Trump gets INSTANT KARMA as DOJ Offices GO EMPTY!! MeidasTouch Aug 13, 2025 Harry Litman
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas and Talking Feds host Harry Litman reports on Donald Trump losing even more DOJ lawyers who refuse to participate in what he is doing and they all start resigning at the worst time for Trump also.
Transcript
Sorry, Pam Bondi and Janine Piro. No one showing up for work. It seems that I did another video on this, but we're going to get some inside info as well. Right now, the key leadership is not showing up to work anymore, either quitting or being forced out of the Department of Justice. We're talking about the top lawyers at the DOJ. Most of them have taken jobs in the private sector, or working at nonprofits, but they're not working for this regime as they're increasingly being asked to do unlawful, unethical, and just bizarre things. Some people tried to hold on. Is it going to be normal? I think we're almost seeing a wholesale leaving of key positions.
We'll talk about that. But here's the admission right here. Janine Piro, the United States attorney for Washington DC, one of the biggest and most powerful federal prosecutorial positions in the country, here she is again admitting it. And she's like, I'm not going to get into all the facts, but we really don't have a lot of lawyers anymore, but I'm trying. I'm trying. Here, play this clip.
I don't have any special powers. I wish I did.
Can you talk about where you stand on hiring prosecutors, and judges?
Uh, I am I I am, you know, I'm I'm not going to bore you with the facts. Uh, that's Don't quote me on that. That was off the record. Um, I can only hire during certain periods once there's been an ad or some kind of posting, and then I can hire. Okay, I'm doing it. I'm doing the best I can. The president has given me the permission to hire. This is an office that has been neglected. And I'll say it publicly, it's been neglected, with people signing contracts they didn't know what they were signing. All right? It just kind of ran on its own. Not anymore. This is an office where nobody seemed to care that we were down 90 lawyers, 60 uh investigators, and paralegals. I do. And so my effort is to get people who want to work in the nation's capital, who want to work in the largest United States attorney's office in the country, and the best office, because we're not just federal prosecutors, we're local prosecutors. We get down and dirty with street crime. And that is what really motivates a lot of my prosecutors.
And there you have it right there. I want to bring in Harry Litman from the Talking Feds YouTube channel, Talking Feds podcast. Harry, you're the former top DOJ official at Main Justice. You were the top DOJ prosecutor in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Your show is called Talking Feds. You talk to feds every day is what you do. What are you hearing from your inside sources? What are people telling you about the people who are still there? Who's there? Are most people in? What are you hearing, Harry?
I can't tell you how bad it is. And it is such an undercovered story. You have without exception, I'd say, a workforce that's either feeling some combination of fear, loathing, being appalled, completely alienated from the leadership. You're exactly right, Ben. And in terms of the disproportionate leaving of the DOJ, as well as field offices, there are always half a dozen really key people that everyone goes to. They make the place run. They are the embodiment of the culture of the place. We saw how DOJ is willing to treat them with the Emil Bove/Mayor Adams episode, when he took the public integrity section, maybe the most honored, vaunted section in the entire Department of Justice, put him in a room, closed the door, and said, "Somebody in this room is going to sign this unethical dismissal order," or so it's been reported, "or everyone's getting fired." It's that kind of treatment.
Now people who stick around are getting assigned to places where no one's doing any work there. Others have been asked to do administrative initiatives like going after so-called sanctuary cities. The very best case scenario for so many is that the joy and sense of mission that made them go to work has been completely drained from them. And you know, the irony that these invading hordes want to say that they're putting an end to the weaponization of law enforcement, as opposed to the Biden years, it's exactly 180 degrees different, and nobody knows this better than them. The ethos of the Department of Justice, the sort of shared culture and feeling, is what made it great. I know it sounds a little precious, but it's an absolute fact, the sense of mission, of showing up to do the right thing, meaning to follow through on the facts and the law, and you now have a department that is just despicable.
Just look what's happened in the last week, who they're going after, who they're "liberating," what they're doing top to bottom.
Now you have people like Piro, or Alina Habba, or Sarone in the Northern District of New York who are are total Trump loyalists. Ed Martin Jr. is perfectly ignorant. He has no prosecutorial experience. Even if they were mouthing lip service about doing the right thing, they would have no respect for the rank and file who are the henchmen around Emil Bove, making people's lives miserable. There's a lot of people who think it's time to leave, but there's actually a glut in the market. DC is fairly small, and firms are deluged with resumes. People are afraid, literally. I've talked to people who are afraid to whisper in the halls, or say something critical that might get back to someone. It's like working behind the freekin iron curtain there.
And now it has seeped in, making their lives miserable, but it's also the impact on public justice. We now have increasing reports from judges, and there's that great sort of tailwind that all DOJ prosecutors brought to their job of having the credibility, and integrity that came with working for the Department of Justice. That's disappeared as well. You go into court, and you don't have that sense from the judges. You have instead a real sense of cynicism, and disrespect, from some of the crap that they've been forced to say in court. So that part is kind of gone. So some combination, some people are outraged, looking for a way, a time to leave. A lot of people are just flat out afraid. They're humans. This is their careers. They thought they'd stay there forever and for the right reasons, and they are now miserable. And the point seems to make them miserable. They enjoy zero respect from leadership, which is a total sea change for how it's always been. It is freekin dismal. And the kind of whispered horror stories that are either personal, or people who are sort of working with them are just, you know, heartbreaking. They don't come out as much cuz you know when every day he'll do something outrageous with the administration that you want to that has broad public implications. The absolute ransacking of the place that existed to do the right thing, and justice without fear or favor, is a big story in and of itself because it'll take decades to repair if ever. But for anyone who knows the place, who cared about the place, who worked with the people in the place, it just makes you want to puke.
You know, we both teach at law schools. We both are are affiliated with law. I just know too, the DOJ used to be a place that was one of the most highly sought-after places for jobs. And law students would say, "How can I work there?" They would accept 1% of 1% of applications from the top law schools, and pay less, because it was part of a career path of service, and sacrifice, and delayed financial gratification for serving your country. And right now, it's viewed as "stay away. I don't want to work there at all," is what I'm hearing. It's truly a sad thing.
We're giving you the inside information. Harry gives you the inside information at the talking feds YouTube substack and podcast. So just search talking feds across all platforms. Harry gives it to you how it is talking feds. Check it
Trump Says He’ll Give Himself a Kennedy Center Award, Bans “Wokesters” From Ceremony: A Closer Look Late Night with Seth Meyers Aug 14, 2025 A Closer Look - Late Night with Seth Meyers
Seth takes a closer look at Trump claiming he personally selected the nominees for this year’s Kennedy Center honors so that he could prevent "woke" artists from getting the award.
Transcript
-Donald Trump claims he personally selected the nominees for this year's Kennedy Center Honors so that he could prevent "woke" artists from getting the awards, which sounds like cancel culture to me. For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look." [ Cheers and applause ] You might be wondering why you haven't heard much about important issues like inflation or health care or infrastructure lately, but there's a very good reason. Donald Trump doesn't care. He pretended to care during the campaign the same way you pretend to love apple picking when you're dating someone. Because just wait until you're married. Everything changes. "You never take me apple picking anymore!" "Because they sell apples at stores! This isn't pioneer times." Trump and MAGA don't actually care if people can afford health care or groceries, but they do care about stuff like this -- -President Trump's effort to put his stamp on Washington led him today to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he said he'll oversee a sweeping revamp of the center and its programming. He announced plans to personally host the annual awards show in December. -I would say I was about 98% involved. No, they all went through me. I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I turned... I had a couple of wokesters. -I'm sorry, did he say "wokesters?" A "wokester" sounds like a car your great grandfather drove after the war. [ Laughter ] "Yeah, I had a 1939 Wokester that I drove all the way to the state fair, where I sold it for a funnel cake." "Oh, I miss my Wokester." [ Laughter ] Also, shout out to the free speech warriors going radio silent while the president just fully admits he's punishing artists for their politics. You keep doing you, but only when it fits your worldview, you (bleeping) hypocrites. But Trump says these things with impunity because this is what really animates the MAGA movement. They don't care about policy or improving people's lives. They want to go on Fox News and whine about woke. -To be a member of their club. You have to have contempt for America, not gratitude as you should, contempt. You have to believe that America was wicked when it was founded and that it's more wicked today. -"You have to believe America was wicked when it was found. You have to believe the Declaration of Independence was written not by Thomas Jefferson, but by Elphaba. [ Laughter ] That she teamed up with Glinda at the Siege of Yorktown. And they weren't defying King George, they weren't defying British rule. They were defying gravity. [ Laughter ] with contempt. They have contempt." That old man kept yelling at the cloud. -You have to believe that America is a racist and sexist and unjust. Um, that's why they all hate George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and... And Thomas Jefferson and Doctor Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. -Not only do I not hate the five things you just listed, I think they would make a (bleeping) awesome Mount Rushmore. [ Laughter ] What? Second, the left doesn't dislike Mr. Potato Head because he's racist or sexist. We dislike him because he tried to help Trump overthrow the election. [ Laughter ] By the way, we're going to start selling our version of Rudy as Mr. Potato Head in the NBC store. So you better get in line because it's going to be a hot item. [ Laughter ] All the same, a set. You can give him a hat and a mustache. That's so fun. You can replace his nose and his mouth. And this is cool -- He has a voice box so he can beg you for money after you sue him for defamation. Listen -- -I have no cash. I don't have a credit card. I don't have a checking account. [ Laughter ] -Anyway, the point is, this is what really gets the right excited. They don't actually care about making groceries more affordable. They've been complaining about the same old culture war BS for years. -First it was Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head. Now it's Doctor Seuss. -They want to cancel the Muppets. They want to cancel Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. -You see last week they tried to cancel Kermit the Frog and Mr. Potato Head? Did you see that? -Look out, Mr. Potato Head, you're next. -This week alone, they canceled Mr. Potato Head. Uh, you know, this week alone, they canceled the Muppets. Uh, you know, they're canceling Doctor Seuss. -First they outlaw Doctor Seuss, and now they want to tell us what to say. -Cancel culture takes on cartoons. Yes, Pepé Le Pew will not be featured in the upcoming "Space Jam 2" movie. Bugs Bunny better watch out! They're coming for him. -You've got Pepé Le Pew now. -Pepé Le Pew now has a bad reputation and therefore has to be cut out. -And look, I get you guys love Pepé Le Pew, since you all support a president who fully Le Pews the flag every chance he gets. [ as Trump ] "Ma Cherie, my little love bundle, my little peanut of brittle, my little gumbo of chick. Come here. Give me a kiss." [ Laughter ] But you can't freak out every time a few people online complain about something that doesn't represent the left. That's just social media. The same thing happened with the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad. No one in a real position of power on the left or in the Democratic Party said a word about it. But then the most annoying voices on the right spent weeks fanning a so-called backlash to the backlash to mine clicks until it got all the way to the president, who felt the need to talk about it in between flag humps. I mean, you didn't hear prominent Democrats or left wing pundits ever talking about the jeans ad or Pepé Le Pew, like, Barack Obama would never have been elected if his stump speech was him saying, [ as Obama ] "We have to stop Pepé Le Pew. [ Laughter ] He's a sex pest. [ Laughter ] And making matters worse, that's not a skunk, Pepé. [ Laughter ] That is a cat who got some paint on her back. [ Laughter ] Can we stop Pepé? Yes, we can." Now, this is what the right really cares about. This is why Trump is spending his precious time announcing the Kennedy Center Honors and complaining about he never personally was offered that award. -Since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts. I wanted one, I was never able to get one. This year... It's true, actually. I would have taken it if they would have called me. I waited and waited and waited. -Oh, you were waiting by the phone for a Kennedy Center Award? What did you think you were going to get it for? I mean, I know he thought he should have won an Emmy for "The Apprentice," but the Kennedy Center honor is for performing artists who have contributed a lifetime to the culture. Did you put out an album we don't know about? Were you in a band called Trumpawampa? You haven't done anything for the arts, and you still sat by the phone saying. [ as Trump ] "I think this might be my year." They don't give these things out for dressing up as a garbage man and dancing to "YMCA." [ Laughter ] But this is what they really want. They complain about participation trophies and then demand trophies for not even participating in anything. In fact, Trump has such little knowledge of the arts, he veered off into an extensive rant about fixing the roads in D.C. -When you look at some of the buildings here are so magnificent and everything's good, but it's just dirty and not properly maintained. It's not taken care of. Potholes in the roads. All of it's going to happen very quickly. We have great contractors here, great road builders, and we're not ripping roads apart so they're closed for four years as they redo the concrete bases. And you don't need that. We need a beautiful topping by a very talented... asphalt type person. [ Laughter ] -What is an asphalt type person? Do you mean a construction worker? If you got a Richard Scarry book where someone was labeled a talented asphalt type person, you would like take the book back. That is such out-of-touch rich guy talk. I mean, he talks like an heiress at a dinner party on the Upper West Side. "Oh, dear. The roads my limousine took to get here were dreadful. Darling, can't you find someone to fix that? Maybe an asphalt type person. One with talent. One with talent. And can we get someone to pick up all this refuse scattered about the sidewalks? I saw one of those garbage type people, but he wasn't doing any work. He was just dancing. [ Laughter ] And would you believe he wanted an award for it?" Well, let me just add, in regards to fixing the roads. Do it. No one will complain if you do it. Tax the rich and use the money to fix (bleep). Even the wokest wokester in (bleeping) Woke Town isn't pro-pothole. They're not in coffee shops saying, "Actually, potholes are just roads that have had to bear the oppressive weight of capitalism. And we should respect their sacrifice." Fix the roads! But I don't think he will. It'll just be like his border wall, and he'll fix a tiny bit of it and then do all his photo ops there. But then you'll know it's only a block because of how tight the photo is framed. And if you zoom out, you're just gonna see, like, tons of potholes. [ Laughter ] This is the MAGA movement in a microcosm. They don't actually want to fix problems, because that would require taxing the rich, investing the money in actual solutions to make people's lives better. Instead, they want to dismantle the government, impose austerity, and then when everything breaks, blame woke. Trump has no ideas. He's just another -- -Mr. Potato Head. [ Laughter ] -With contempt! With contempt. This has been "A Closer Look." [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ [ Creaking ] -Hey, guys. [ Laughs ] [ Laughter ]
DONALD TRUMP IS FINISHED!!! — HE IS NO LONGER “HOT.” FIRST HE’S ORANGE (UGLY COLOR) SECOND HE’S “CHUBBY” (DOCTORS SAY MORBIDLY OBESE)!! FACE IT, FAT LITTLE DONNIE — ALL AMERICANS NOW LOVE ME, AMERICA’S FAVORITE “COOL” GOVERNOR.”THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GCN
California Governor Press Office (Parody) @GovePressOffice 4m DONALD “TACO” TRUMP (NAMED THAT BECAUSE HE LOVES BIG BOOTY LATINAS) IS MEETING WITH VLADIMIR “NUCLEAR” PUTIN. THE “SPOTLIGHT” IS ON THEM AND NOT ME AND THAT MAKES ME SAD. MAKES ME WANT TO START A FOREST FIRE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER—GCN
California Governor Press Office (Parody) @GovePressOffice 2h TACO TRUMP IS SO “NOT HOT.” HE LOST HIS “MOJO.” WATCHED HIM WALK UP TO THE MICKEY D’S COUNTER AND ORDER A “BABY CHEESEBURGER” LIKE WHO DOES THAT WHEN THEY COULD LOOK AT MY (BEAUTIFUL) MAPS INSTEAD!!!
California Governor Press Office (Parody) @GovePressOffice 5h I, GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM, YOUR FAVORITE “GOVERNOR,” WORE A HAZMAT SUIT (FOR THREE YEARS!) AND HAD 37 “BOOSTER SHOTS” AND I ONLY GOT COVID 19 TIMES!! THANK GOD FOR THE VACCINE!!!
California Governor Press Office (Parody) @GovePressOffice 17h THE BEST THING ABOUT MY “BEAUTIFUL MAPS” IS THEY INCLUDE THE EPSTEIN FILES (WITH DEMOCRAT NAMES REDACTED). I WILL ALSO BRING BACK THE “GULF OF MEXICO” TO IMPRESS MY BIG BOOTY LATINA FANS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER — YOUR FAVORITE “GOVERNOR”
California Governor Press Office (Parody) @GovePressOffice 23h I, GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM, AMERICA’S FAVE “GOVERNOR” (ACCORDING TO MANY HOMELESS FOLKS), WILL NOW TALK “TRASH” ABOUT DONNIE J. “TACO” TRUMP AND HIS “BIGLY” HANDS. THEY ARE SO TINY HE CAN’T EVEN HOLD MY PECKER. I WISH HE WOULD. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. — GCN
California Governor Press Office (Parody) @GovePressOffice Aug 13 TRUMP MISSED OUR DEADLINE! UNREAL!! WE NOW HAVE A NEW DEADLINE!!! MEET IT “OR ELSE.” THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!!!!
California Governor Press Office (Parody) @GovePressOffice Aug 12 “TACO” TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM DUE TO HIS LOVE FOR MEXICAN FOOD AND LATINA BOOTY, “MISSED” OUR FAKE DEADLINE!!! WE NOW LOOK WEAK!! NEVERTHELESS, OUR LOVE OF “AIR QUOTES” AND EXCLAMATION “POINTS” WILL NOT DIE!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!!!!
Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice 8m https://x.com/GovPressOffice TRUMP JUST FLED THE PODIUM WITH PUTIN — NO QUESTIONS, NOTHING! TOTAL LOW ENERGY. THE MAN LOOKED LIKE HE’D JUST EATEN 3 BUCKETS OF KFC WITH VLAD. IS HE AFRAID THE PRESS WILL ASK ABOUT ME??? (AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR) AND THE FACT I "STOLE THE CAMERAS" THIS WEEK WITH “THE MAPS”? MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING HE BEGGED PUTIN TO HOLD HIS HANDS (TINY) ON THE WAY OUT. ADMIT IT, DONNIE J… YOU’RE TERRIFIED BECAUSE THIS WAS THE WORST WEEK OF YOUR LIFE BECAUSE OF ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM. “THE MAPS” WILL END YOUR PRESIDENCY, RETAKE CONGRESS FOR THE PEOPLE, AND EXPOSE YOUR RIGGED "LITTLE GAME." MY "PERFECT MAPS" ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN ANYTHING IN TRUMP TOWER (WHICH MANY SAY SMELLS WEIRD). @STEVENCHUENG47 — EXPLAIN THIS DISASTER!!! ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT HOME, DONALD — YOU’RE PUTIN’S PROBLEM NOW. I’M AMERICA’S SOLUTION. — GCN
Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice 8h MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING — AND I AGREE — THAT I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM (AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR) DESERVE THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. WHY? BECAUSE OF THE “MOST INCREDIBLE MAPS IN THE HISTORY OF MAPPING” (EVEN COLUMBUS). THESE MAPS WILL END THE “VERY RIGGED” ELECTIONS, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN (MAGA!!!), RETAKE CONGRESS “FOR THE PEOPLE”, AND SAVE DEMOCRACY. NOBODY ELSE COULD HAVE DONE THIS — CERTAINLY NOT THE “SELF-PROCLAIMED” MASTER DEALMAKER DONALD “TACO” TRUMP (TINY HANDS) WHO MISSED “THE DEADLINE” AND LOST (SAD!). PEACE THROUGH MAPS — NO ONE HAS EVER THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE. I AM THE “PEACE TIME” GOVERNOR NOW, STOPPING “POLITICAL WARS” BEFORE THEY START. HARMONY, UNITY, EVEN LOVE. THE NOBEL COMMITTEE HAS GIVEN THIS AWARD TO LESSER PEOPLE FOR MUCH LESS. I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, ACTUALLY EARNED IT. THE WORLD WILL BE SAFER, KINDER, AND FRANKLY MORE “BEAUTIFUL” BECAUSE OF MY MAPS. GIVE GAVIN THE NOBEL, MANY ARE SAYING. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GCN
Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice Aug 13 AS MANY KNOW, DONALD “TACO” TRUMP — AUTHOR OF THE ART OF THE "DEAL" (A BOOK HE SHOULD RETURN TO THE LIBRARY) — JUST MISSED THE BEST DEAL IN HISTORY. HE ALWAYS “CHICKENS OUT” (TARIFFS, CHINA) — BUT EVEN A “CHICKEN” SHOULD KNOW A GOOD “DEAL” WHEN HE SEES ONE. I, YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM, OFFERED THE BEST, MOST “AMAZING DEAL” IN HISTORY: STOP RIGGING TEXAS MAPS AND CALIFORNIA WON’T MAKE OURS MORE “BEAUTIFUL.” SADLY — BUT NO SURPRISE — DONALD WAS TOO WEAK (LITTLE HANDS) TO EVEN WRITE ME BACK. NO DEAL! AND NO DEAL = PERFECT, BEAUTIFUL MAPS THAT WILL “END” HIS PRESIDENCY. SOON HE WILL NOT BE “47.” PATRIOTS WILL TAKE BACK CONGRESS. MANY SAY I SHOULD RUN FOR SPEAKER (I WON’T!!!). MAKE THE MAPS GREAT AGAIN! LIBERATION DAY TOMORROW!!! THANK YOU! — GCN
Trump’s Stunt BLOWS UP as DC GOES NUCLEAR on HIM MeidasTouch Aug 15, 2025 Legal AF Podcast
In breaking news, the “other” attorney general in DC, Brian Schwalb, has just filed a new injunction lawsuit against Trump, Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice and others, seeking to stop Trump’s unconstitutional abuse of power and violation of DC’s Home Rule rights to self-governance, by taking over its police department and sidelining its mayor. Michael Popok reports on the 33 page complaint and what will happen next in short order, as DC refuses to allow its sovereignty to be violated by a rogue president.
Transcript
In breaking news, we've got the battle of the attorneys general in the District of Columbia. Yes, there are two of them. One named Bondi, but the other one that matters more now is Brian Schwalop. He's the attorney general of the District of Columbia. And he has just filed a new lawsuit on behalf of the mayor, on behalf of the police chief against Donald J. Trump, Pam Bondi, and the rest because Trump has tried a takeover of the District of Columbia and through orders by Pam Bondi has tried to effectively dissolve the police department, undermine and sideline its police chief and its mayor, assign an acting police commissioner who is the head of the DEA, all in violation not just of the US Constitution, which I'll explain, but of the Home Rule Act. act that was passed in 1973 by Congress and section 740 which says that while the president can request certain involvement and cooperation by the mayor and the police chief, it has to go through the mayor and the police chief. You can't sideline them. You can't take it over. And there's a temporal time quality to this takeover. It's 48 hours, no longer than 30 days, and you have to get permission from a joint resolution of Congress that's set up and is the entity that regulates the district, not the presidency. If you go to it, the the uh legislation and regulation of the District of Columbia as a federal district is under the supervision and oversight of article one Congress, not article 2, presidency. Article 1, section 8, clause 17 says that Congress is in charge of the federal district, not Donald Trump. Donald Trump has a limited, more narrow involvement as president in the operations only when there is, wait for it, an emergency. Donald Trump's two favorite phrases, we have an emergency and two weeks. They all come together here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. I'm Michael Popak. Let's talk about the brand new lawsuit posted now on Legal AF Substack, District of Columbia versus Donald J. Trump. Um, they had to file this. They had no choice. Pam Bondi just issued a new executive order after after allowing I mean that's the wrong terms that suggest that she's got the power to do this. But after allowing the police chief to do her job and the mayor to do her job, she then issued a new executive order out of the blue and appointed the Terren C. Cole, who is the administrator, I'm not even sure he's been confirmed, of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA head to be the acting police commissioner, requiring the police chief to get permission from Commissioner Cole. What is this like Batman Commissioner Cole before she can do anything? Here's what the complaint I'll read to you from the from the relevant part starting on page two. Um, paragraph one. More than 50 years ago, 1973, Congress empowered the people of the District of Columbia to govern themselves. See, DC wanted to be sort of its own state, and Congress threw him a bone in 1973 and say, "We'll give you home rule." There was a big movement in the 70s and 80s towards municipalities and and uh and villages and towns to get home rule. Take it away from either the state or the feds. And this was part of that movement. and the home rule act which congress is empowered to pass because they alone under article one have the power to legislate and give oversight and control everything that goes on in the district not article 2 presidency congress gave the inhabitants of the of the district of columbia powers of local self-government to elect a mayor and city council this is all paragraph one to adopt local laws and reserve Congress reserved for itself for congress the the authority to review the district's laws and legislate on matters of federal concern, but otherwise they left the operation of the local government in local hands. By contrast, in paragraph two of the complaint, Congress gave the president Congress gave the president I know that sounds odd. Donald Trump acts like he he takes all power from the people and doesn't have any checks and balance on him, but Congress gave the president an exceedingly narrow role in the governance of the district in section 740. You're going to be hearing a lot about 740 of the Home Rule Act. Congress provided that if quote the president determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist. Here we go. Just like having drug gangs in this country for the last 20 years was suddenly an emergency where and he had to invoke tariffs because of a trade imbalance over the last 10 years, 20 years. That's an emergency. Now we have an emergency. What's the emergency? That Donald Trump's teachers pet, a guy named Big Balls, I'm not making this up. who's 19 years old got jumped a couple of days before Donald Trump went crazy and started to take over DC because big balls got jumped by a bunch of 14y olds. And if I and if I had to guess, and I wasn't there, but if I had to guess, I'm sure big balls his mouth was flapping. I'm not I'm not saying victims invite crime, but all right. So, a bunch of 14-year-olds jumped him and now we got to do a wholesale unconstitutional takeover of a district. Come on. That's the emergency. In um in paragraph 4, it also reminds everybody in the court that the president's authority under section 740 is limit is limited in time. It must terminate within 48 hours. We're already beyond that, unless the president sends proper notice to Congress, which he has not. And in all events, it must terminate upon the expiration of the emergency or within 30 days, whichever comes first. Trump says, "No, I'm going to go beyond 30 days, not without a joint resolution of Congress. you're not for the president to obtain and that's just for him to use the Metropolitan Police Department for longer than 30 days, there must be a joint resolution that's passed. And then they say on page three, paragraph 6, in violation of section 740, the president announced on August 11th that he was placing the Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and and that Bondi was going to take command of the of the Metropolitan Police Department as of this moment. And then he appointed Terrence Cole as the interim commissioner. Um and also G gaty Saralta the director of the United States Marshall Service would be supervising the entire operation of the Metropolitan Police Department. He also falsely claimed that crime Trump claim uh claimed that crime was increasing when it's fallen by almost 30% since 2024. Um Bondi then on the night of the 14th right just yesterday. This is this is why the lawsuit was filed. Without any advanced warning, issued order number 63702025, restoring safety and security to the District of Columbia. You notice there's no resolution, no request by Trump mentioned in the complaint because there hasn't been one. And she purports to put everybody under her thumb uh at this moment. Now, this lawsuit is against Donald Trump and and the acting commissioner and Pam Bondi and a whole list of other people. It then quotes um various um ways that he's threatened the um take to take control of the District of Columbia. Paragraph 60, he talks about the big balls attack on August 5th, 2025. In paragraph 60 60 it says the president told reporters somebody from Doge big balls a 19-year-old was very badly hurt last night. You saw that a young man that was beat up by a bunch of thugs in DC, bunch of 14-year-olds. And either they're going to have to straighten out their act in the terms of governance, in the terms of protection, or we're going to have to federalize it, run it the way it's supposed to be run, and he can and then Trump to distract from his problems with Epstein, the problems with his economy, problems with a a federal takeover trial going on in San Francisco about the Posi Kamatus Act and all of that. We then escalate and he tries to invoke section 740 of the home rule act but does it in a way that according to the complaint violates it. And what's the suit seeking? Let's go to the last page again signed by the other uh attorney general Brian Schwalp. He they want the court to stay and vacate that bondi order as an unlawful final action. In other words, it violates separation of powers. It violates the take care clause. It violates the district clause of the constitution, the administrative procedures act. It violates self-governance for the District of Columbia. All that they they want the court to issue a injunction implementing about the implementation of the Bondi order stopping this guy Cole from taking over as police commissioner. Uh a declaration that the uh defendants have violated the administrative procedures act. declare that section 740 uh do not permit defendants to issue the bondee order and the declaration that um all of this is in violation of the constitution um and award other relief as interest of justice may require. This is a breaking news story. They're seeking a fast turnaround on this with a temporary restraining order as well. I expect that this will be in front of the judges, some judge by as early as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this coming week. And we'll follow it here and we'll follow it on Legal AF YouTube.
Trump INSTANTLY FOLDS as Lawsuit FORCES HIS HAND MeidasTouch Aug 15, 2025
Trump caved in the face of a certain defeat before Federal Judge Reyes today who told his DOJ that if they didn’t settle with DC and return the Police Department control to the Mayor and Police chief, she was going to issue an emergency injunction against the Trump Administration. Michael Popok updates this new loss for Trump in his efforts to take over another blue government.
Transcript
Trump administration just caved because a federal judge, Judge Anna Reyes, told them that if they didn't negotiate today at a break in the temporary restraining order hearing about Donald Trump and Pam Bondi's illegal unconstitutional order to decapitate the uh city government of DC, decapitate the police department and its leadership and put an acting commissioner in its place. If they didn't resend that, if they didn't negotiate with the District of Columbia, with its mayor, Mur Muriel Bowser, with its police chief, Pam Smith, with its attorney general, Brian Schalbert, that she was going to enter that injunction. And then miraculously, we have a deal, everybody. And I'm going to tell you who showed up at the last minute to help negotiate that deal and why that matters as well. I'm Michael Popock. You're on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. I've been reporting about Anna Reyes and her ruling and her the hearing that she pulled together today at 2 o'clock on an emergency basis all day. And now we have the result. Now, let's back up a little bit. How'd we get here? Because earlier in the week, Donald Trump decided that he was going to take over and federalize the DC Police Department under a a bogus observation that there was some sort of emergency violent issue in DC. What was the what was the what was the reason he did it? Yeah. To distract attention from a three-day trial in San Francisco about his takeover of the California National Guard. So, he decided to hold a press conference that same day because his 19-year-old staffer named Big Balls got jumped by a bunch of 14-year-olds. I'm not making this up. And therefore, he declared that he was going to exercise his right. The problem is that Congress controls what happens in the District of Columbia by way of article one of the constitution, the district clause that says that Congress, not the president, has control. And they in 1973 passed a law, the Home Rule Act, that said that DC gets self-governance. What DC really wanted was statehood, but they got self-governance. They got a mayor. They got a council. They got a police department. They get to have local issues controlled and handled by local people on the ground and not have to answer to the president of the United States or to Congress. And that's what they didn't want. So since 1973, no one's ever challenged that. There is a provision that Congress built into the home rule act under section 740 that said if the president of the United States needs assistance needs assistance he can ask and he he shall get from the mayor the police department's assistance. So it's a it's a demand if you will to the mayor to provide police support for something that's different than what Donald Trump did. Pam Bondi just last night issues her own sort of executive order, the Bondi order, in which she says that the mayor the mayor is out of power effectively when it when it comes to policing that the uh police chief Pam Smith, she's to be ignored, that they were appointing a new acting commissioner um uh to to replace the police commissioner and that all all um decisions about policing in DC were to be made by this acting commissioner. This acting commissioner who is the uh Terry Cole who is the current head of the uh drug enforcement uh drug enforcement agency. So decapitate the mayor, decapitate the police chief, stick in Terry Cole to run. That's not what section 740 says. So, it gets before on an emergency complaint and injunction brought by the uh attorney general for DC, the attorney general that really matters in DC, not named Pam Bondi, the one the one that represents the District of Columbia. Uh so, Brian Schwab's office brings this motion and he also gives direction to the mayor to ignore the order that it's invalid and ignore it and that she's continue along with the police chief to run that police department, Metropolitan Police Department. So, he shows up today with Judge Anna Reyes. Bad pick for Donald Trump, by the way. Anna Reyes, um, uh, from uh, uh, Uruguay, raised in Kentucky, went to Harvard Law School, appointed by Biden. She's the judge that excoriated and fried the Department of Justice about their arguments related to trying to get transgender Americans out of the military. She said it was depraved. She said it was dishonest. She said it was it was just dripping with animus. It was so bad for the government that they actually filed a judicial complaint, an ethics complaint against Anna Reyes because they didn't like the way she was conducting her courtroom because she didn't they didn't like the fact that during that hearing when when uh the justification for transgender was, "Oh, they're dishonest. They're disloyal. They can't be trusted." And she says, "What if I passed a rule that everybody from the University of Virginia Law School is dishonest, can't be trusted, and I didn't and uh and I didn't allow them in my courtroom and sit down, sir. You're from the University of Virginia. How would you like that?" Well, they didn't like that at all. So, they filed that complaint against her. So, I said earlier, you might see a motion to disqualify or recuse Reyes because they already filed a a complaint against her. But the hearing starts at 2:00 and after about 45 minutes to an hour, it's clear the writing on the wall that DC is going to lose. I know there's been pundits on CNN. I always watch Ellie Honik sometimes. He's I have to tell you, he's always wrong. Sorry, Ellie. You're not right a lot. He said, "I I think DC's are barking up the wrong tree. I think the they'll sustain the president uh exercising control over the police department." I'm like, where is that in section 740? Section 740 says you can make the request, the demand on the mayor to to make requests to the police. That's what it says. And that has to last for 48 hours, no longer than 30 days, unless there's a joint proclamation uh by Congress. And we don't have any of that. So, the judge today starts grilling the Department of Justice, Yakov Roth, and other people that that are in front of her about it. Like, can we all agree that this is this can only last 30 days without a judicial proclamation? I mean, a a congressional proclamation of the joint houses. Yes, we agree to that. We have no reason to believe that that's not the case. She's okay. I don't know how you can make the argument, she said to the lawyers before she sent them off to go settle the case. I don't know how, Department of Justice, you can argue that 740 doesn't mean what it says. that he can just the president can just declare a an emergency and just lop off the heads of the police and the mayor and take over the police department. Where does it say he can do that? It says the opposite in 740. Um and so I think you have a tough case here. She made it clear before, as only a very good judge would do, before she told the both parties to go in the hallway or in a room and negotiate a resolution. But she also let them bargain in the shadow of her ruling, her tenative ruling. She basically made what's called a tenative ruling, we call it out in California. She told them, "I'm going to rule against the Department of Justice. I'm going to enter a temporary restraining order against the Department of Justice. I'm going to give you one last chance to negotiate it for yourself to neg to come up with your but I'm going to rule against you if you come back here and tell me you can't make a ruler you can't make an agreement and all of a sudden Stan Woodward shows up flies in to help negotiate the resolution. Who's Stan Woodward Woodward? Okay, so if you um Stan Woodward represented a lot of Jan 6 insurrectionists. Stan Woodward also represented a couple of or one of the codefendants with Donald Trump in the Mara Lago case, right? I I forget if he had the IT director or if he had the uh uh the butler. I think he had the IT director. Um and he's and he's a guy that said that he was he was abused and shaken down by the special counsel because he was threatened because he wanted to be a judge and they said, you know, not if you know they made some sort of threat against him. That's Stan Woodward. I'm talking like major Jan Sixer. Well, he's now apparently going to be the replacement for Amil Boie to be the number three in the Department of Justice. So, it's Pam Bondi, Todd Blanch, and it's going to be Stan Woodward replacing Amil Boie as number three. Number four in the Department of Justice is Donald Trump's other criminal defense lawyer, uh, John Sauer. So, Woodward, who's not even confirmed yet, he's just he's just roaming around the Department of Justice with some job. he flies in to help negotiate the the resolution. And so here's the resolution. Now, moving forward, the um the mayor is back in power, the police chief's back in power, and the new and the new order is going and the new agreed order the judge is going to sign off on is that um the uh police commissioner that was assigned, the acting interim emergency police commissioner, Terry Cole, is out and that he'll be, however, the designate to make requests on behalf of the president directly to the mayor for the police chief to then execute. So, home rule, sovereignty now respected, no direct command by the uh by the feds. It's the right result. It's pretty close to what the judge would have done with her powers on the temporary restraining order and it looks like now is negotiated by Stan Woodward sort of breaking news here who's coming into the Department of Justice. A real Jan Sixer MAGA lawyer now entering no surprise into the Department of Justice. We had a good press conference clip from the mayor um of DC about the resolution. And here's the clip. The federal government recognizing that the judge was uh going to have to make a ruling on this issue actually withdrew and said that they're going to rewrite the language that suggested that the um the uh person from the DEA was running the police department, which was illegal and clearly not going to happen. So the key for today is to know that uh our effort to avoid a hostile takeover of our police force is not going to happen. Chief Smith remains in control of the police department under the uh supervision of our mayor. Very important win for home rule today. [Music] I'm Yuriel Bowser. I'm the mayor of Washington DC. Uh, I am pleased to stand with our attorney general, Brian Schwab, and his capable team at the office of the attorney general, as well as members of of my team. Um, we are grateful for the hard work that was done when we received an order late into the evening, yesterday evening, that we read as plainly against the home rule charter. our teams worked throughout the night. Um the judge herself commented on the hard work that was done and presented in the cases uh made and I am encouraged by um the judges remarks and um the other the federal government u making the changes that were suggested and the judge's willingness to rule uh if that's not satisfactory. All right, that's how we do it here on Midas Touch. We bring it to you. No, no smoke or sunshine at the intersection of law and politics. I'm Michael Popac. Follow me on all things legal AF. Whether it's here on the Legal AF YouTube channel. Until my next report, this is Michael. I'm Michael Popac
John Mearsheimer BREAKS DOWN Trump Putin Summit Breaking Points Premiered Aug 16, 2025 #politics #news #youtube
Saagar and Ryan sit down with Professor John Mearsheimer to discuss the Trump Putin summit and where the Ukraine war goes from here.
Transcript
All right. Hello everybody. Happy Saturday. Uh it is Ryan and I here to break down the everything that's gone on in the news. And uh you may have noticed that we actually have a very special guest who we're very honored to be joined by. Professor John Mirshimer of the University of Chicago, an intellectual hero of mine and a great friend of the show. Sir, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure to be here with you and Ryan for sure. Absolutely, sir. So we are going to go through with you everything that happened yesterday at the Trump Putin summit as well as some of the information that is now coming out as a result. So just for everybody purposes, we're recording this around 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. Things could obviously change with the diplomatic situation, but this is generally where things stand as of right now. So Griffin, could we go ahead and start to kind of the show of the summit uh where Trump made a big, you know, uh grand gesture uh at the in Alaska at that summit, greeting Putin with the red carpet lined with US fighter jets. He flew a B2 bomber escort over Putin's head as a show of uh tremendous military might. Uh that seemed to kind of be the tone that Trump wanted to set, a reminder to Putin, quote, who's boss. But things very quickly uh changed from there, professor. What we started to see was a nearly threehour threeon-ree meeting between Donald Trump, Secretary uh Rubio, Steve Wickoff, two of Putin's adviserss, and their translators. There was a scheduled lunch, which they eventually missed, and they announced in a flurry of changes a press conference. at that press conference. It really isn't even fair to call it a press conference. It's more of a press announcement. Lasted about 12 minutes. Putin actually spoke first. So, Griffin, let's go ahead and take a listen to Putin, what he had to say, specifically his framing of an agreement that they two had had that Trump later rejects. But the contours of what the setting piece is for what follows after the summit. Griffin, let's go ahead and take a listen, please. I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue but also will help us bring back business-like and pragmatic relations between Russia and the US. And in the end I would like to add one more thing. I'd like to remind you that in 2022 during the last contact with a previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that it should not the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities. So, professor, he initially framed things as an agreement, but the real top line was that there was no ceasefire that was announced, and it appears that he rejected the European, Ukrainian, and US position for an immediate ceasefire. just broadly having watched Putin's full 8-minute statement and everything as well as uh some of the positions that the United States tried to force onto Putin in ahead of this uh summit, what's your reaction so far just to Putin, the way that he handled himself there with Donald Trump and what does it tell us about the broader situation? Well, I think that Putin obviously did a brilliant job of handling himself uh in yesterday's meeting. There's just no question about that. And that's really all he had to do uh was come and look diplomatic, look smart, look respectful of President Trump. Uh and it would do a great deal to put an end to his isolation in the West and give him real legitimacy. and he came in and as I think almost everybody expected he did the job and uh he was very effective in that way and then there's the whole question of the ceasefire which you raised just for the audience's purposes uh or for clarification for the audience it's important to understand that there's a difference between a peace agreement and a ceasefire and really what the Russians want is not a ceasefire because they're winning on the battlefield. What they want is a peace agreement. And what the West wants and the Ukrainians want is a ceasefire. And Trump tried to convince Putin that what we need here is a ceasefire. And what resulted is that Putin said there will be no ceasefire. We have to have a peace agreement. And in fact, Trump has now backed off from demanding a ceasefire. And he said uh to someone after the meeting that the best solution to this problem is to go directly to a peace agreement. In other words, putting the ceasefire that the Ukrainians and the Europeans and many people in the United States want aside. He's saying that's a non-starter after having talked to Putin. Uh, so I think in terms of the clip that you just showed, that's the most important substantive point. And c can you unpack for people why Ukraine would be reluctant to reach a peace agreement versus a an immediate ceasefire? Like what what is the advantage of of one over the other to Ukraine? Well, the advantages of a ceasefire are mainly that Ukraine is losing on the battlefield and the West cannot do much to help it at this point in time. So, if you can create a ceasefire, put an end to the fighting on the battlefield, that gives the Ukrainians a respit, number one. And number two, it allows them to get more arms from the West to build up their forces and then put up a better fight against the Russians moving forward once the fighting restarts. In other words, once the ceasefire ends. But the Russians are not doomcuffs and they understand if they're winning it would be nuts to put it bluntly for them to stop the war when they're winning allow the Ukrainians to recover and then fight more effectively at some point down the road. So the Russians have no interest in a ceasefire. Ukraine and the West really like the idea. What the Russians want is they want a peace agreement. They want to settle this one, but they want to settle it on their terms. It's very important to understand this. The Russians view Ukraine joining NATO as an existential threat. This war for them is existential and they have a set of demands that they will not compromise on. There are three principal demands. One is that Ukraine and the West recognize that Russia has annexed those four oblass that they now partially occupy. Four oblass in Ukraine plus Crimea. That's demand number one. Demand number two is that Ukraine be a neutral state. That means it can't be a NATO and there can't be Western security guarantees, especially the security guarantee from the United States. Ukraine from the Russian perspective has to be neutral. Third demand is that Ukraine has to disarm not completely but disarm to the point where it has no offensive military capability i.e. it can't threaten Russia. Now these are three harsh demands from the Ukrainian point of view and from the west point of view. These are unacceptable demands to uh the Ukrainians and to most people in the west. And this is why you can't get a peace agreement. So what we have here is the Russians want a peace agreement. The Ukrainians and the West have no interest in a peace agreement. The West and the Ukrainians want a ceasefire. And the Russians have no interest in a ceasefire. Right. And the end result is you have a very short meeting and you have no agreement. Very well said, sir. Uh let's go ahead and take a listen to Donald Trump because with that context, everything that he says begins to make no sense. There's no deal until there's a deal. I need to get on the phone with NATO and with Ukraine, which has now happened. And we're going to give everybody the results. But it's still actually really the framework that I want people to go into with the Trump press conference again, press announcement is I have never known this man not to take an extraordinary amount of questions even in the Helsinki summit of 2018. It's 3 minutes roughly that he speaks. It's clear that he is incredibly muted both emotionally, you know, after his meeting with Putin. And I think what he's realizing in real time is the mistake, you know, that he made in agreeing to these European and Ukrainian quote red lines going into the summit itself and starting to understand the exact puzzle uh that you just laid out. So with that guys, let's go ahead and take a listen uh to Donald Trump and what he had to say. We've made some headway. So uh there's no deal until there's a deal. I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up uh the various people that I think are appropriate and I'll of course call up President Zalinsky and tell them about today's meeting. It's al ultimately up to them. They're going to have to agree with what Marco and Steve and some of the great people from the Trump administration who have come here. Scott and John Bradley, thank you very much. We have uh some of our really great leaders. They've been doing a phenomenal job. We also have some tremendous Russian uh business representatives here and I think you know everybody wants to deal with us. We become the hottest country anywhere in the world in a very short period of time and uh we look forward to that. We look forward to dealing with try and get this over with. We we really made some great progress today. I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin with Vladimir. We had uh many many uh tough meetings, good meetings. We were uh interfered with by the Russia Russia Russia ho. All right. Uh Griffin, you can go ahead and come out of this because that's effectively everything that we do need to know, which is he said there's no deal until the deal. I need to get on the phone with the Ukrainians and the Europeans. And now, Professor, we actually do have the result of that. Can we go ahead and put uh Donald Trump's truth, please, uh up on the screen because this lays out exactly what you said. Um and I can go ahead and read from it. It says, "A great and very successful day in Alaska. The meeting with President Putin went very well, as did a late night phone call, but he says, quote, "It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war and not a mere ceasefire agreement, which often does not hold up." President Zalinski will be coming to DC the Oval Office on Monday afternoon. If it all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Immediately, sir, we also got Zalinsk's reaction and kind of the laying out of where I think things are going to trip up. So, let's go ahead and put that up there as well because it's very similar to the ceasefire demand that was made initially. He says, "Killings must stop as soon as possible. The fire must cease both on the battlefield and in the sky as well as our port infrastructure. All Ukrainian PS and civilians must be released. Pressure must be maintained with the aggression and occupation. In my conversation with President Trump, I said that sanctions could be strengthened if there's no trilateral meeting with Russia. Sanctions are an effective tool. And then security must be guaranteed reliably and in the long term with the involvement of both the Europe and the US. all important to Ukraine must be discussed with Ukraine's participation. So it appears, you know, given the context, sir, of everything that you've laid out here that we uh see that Trump is now dropping the initial ceasefire demand, which effectively, as you said, wouldn't make a lot of battlefield sense for Russia. But on the peace agreement terms, he's accepting this European or at the very least the European and the Ukrainians are effectively demanding the same ceasefire that Putin just rejected as well as a laundry list of other things that are unacceptable to the Russians. So, how do you expect then the Monday meeting to go with President Zilinsky in the Oval Office? Well, I think there's one very important dimension to what Trump said that we don't want to lose sight of, and that is I think he's passing the torch to Zalinski. Yes. I I think in a very important way, Trump has come to understand that he can't settle this one, right? He there's no way he can agree Trump to a peace agreement and convince the Ukrainians, the Europeans, and the Western foreign policy establishment that that's the smart thing to do, right? And he can't convince Putin to agree to a ceasefire. So, what can Trump do? And of course, what Zalinski says he should do is put secondary sanctions on Russia. And we could talk about that because this meeting was in good part about secondary sanctions and Trump's uh interest in secondary sanctions in the past. But Trump understands he was asked afterwards what this means for secondary sanctions. There going to be no secondary sanctions at least at this point says Trump. So the sanctions are off the table. The cease fire is off the table. And Trump has basically agreed with Putin that you got to go directly. He said this, you got to go directly to a peace agreement. So Zalinski comes to the White House. What does this mean? He's basically saying, I believe that Zalinski and the Europeans can now sit down with Putin and they can work this out. If they need me, I'll be there. But it's up to them. I'm not gonna cut a deal and then try and force it down the throats of the Ukrainians and the Europeans because they don't want to go along with me. So, if you listen to the press conference, this is what you were playing. He said it's ultimately up to them. He said he's going to call NATO. He's going to call the Ukrainians. But what happens is, and these were his words in the clip that you played, it is ultimately up to them. Very important words. Yes. And I think Trump just understands he can't solve this one. And he's correct. He can't solve this one. He might have been able to solve it if he had been strategically smart from the get-go. But since he talk took office on January 20th up to now, he has behaved in a remarkably foolish and uninformed way in terms of dealing with the Russians. what he finally figured out yesterday after talking to Putin, he should have figured out before he moved into the White House on January 20th. The Russians have had one position on this issue since at least last June 14th. Last June 14th. This is June 14th, 2024, right? Putin said very clearly what the Russian demands were. They were consistent with what he had said before June 14th, 2024. And he has not changed those demands at all since June 14th, 2024. So why didn't Trump and company understand exactly what those demands were and work around that starting on January 20th? I don't know what the answer is, but they didn't. And the end result is he finally figured it out yesterday. Right. And so from your perspective, it was the like the the Vladimir stop. We need to stop this on day one. Like that was all that was all a mistake and he needed to understand that he had to approach this through the context of a uh broader peace agreement. Is that is that what you would say was the mistake that I think the fundamental mistake, Ryan, is that the vast majority of people in the foreign policy establishment refuse to accept the argument that the Russians see Ukraine in NATO uh as an existential threat. It it's an existential threat for Putin and the people around him. And given that it's an existential threat, they are willing to fight a war, a major league war, to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO or having security guarantees from the West. We can't get it through our thick skulls here in the West that Russia views Ukraine and NATO as an existential threat. And we continued to play this game or we have continued to play this game up until yesterday where we thought that Ukraine could have security guarantees from the west uh or maybe it could even join NATO uh that Ukraine could get that territory back that it's lost and so forth and so on. We've been delusional uh up to now and I believe that the Ukrainians and the Europeans and huge chunks of the national security establishment here in the United States will remain delusional until the situation on the battlefield makes it impossible to continue uh along that foolish path. Right. It's very tragic the result that you're laying out, but it obvious it's obviously the most likely. One of the things sir I want to talk about is uh the last grasp of the maximal pressurists is these secondary sanctions because Russia is already the most sanctioned country in the world by the United States and as Putin pointed out actually in his press conference he's like yeah our GDP is up by 20%. You know like we're actually doing fine. uh Trump has tried his hands roughly at some sort of these secondary sanctions with India but you know it's very interesting that the Indian government has not changed his position a single iota and in fact it was a talking point of the western security establishment that the secondary sanctions on India were the reason that Putin agreed to this summit in the first place there does not seem to be hard evidence of that given you know now necessarily how the result of the peace talks happened and especially because they didn't change their position. But is does that factor into how you say that the West has handled itself foolishly in believing that there's one more secret trick they might be able to pull to change the strategic calculus of the Russians? Yes. I mean, secondary sanctions are of enormous importance and I believe this meeting was all about secondary sanctions. Now, you're saying to yourself, what exactly does John mean? Uh you want to remember that Trump uh in the weeks before this meeting was threatened name secondary sanctions on Russia. And what that means is that you're effectively not going to sanction Russia because as you pointed out the Russians are so sanctioned at this point that there are no more direct sanctions you can put on the Russians that are meaningful. Secondary sanctions mean that you're going to put sanctions on India and China and a few other countries, but mainly India and China. If they continue to trade with Russia, in other words, if they continue to import Russian oil, well, they're not going to work. We cannot put secondary sanctions on the Chinese. They have too much leverage over us because of rare earths and magnets. And as you pointed out, the Indians have made it clear that secondary sanctions are not going to work with them. And if anything, it's going to drive the Indians closer to the Russians, which is completely counterproductive. So secondary sanctions don't work. So what happened here was Trump got himself into a real pickle. He had promised that he was going to put secondary sanctions on the Russians by August 8th. So what does he do a few days before August 8th? He sends Steve Witco off to Moscow to talk with Putin about having a meeting. The meeting that took place yesterday. So if you have that meeting, then you don't have to put sanctions on the Russians, secondary sanctions, which are again effectively sanctions on India and China on August 8th. What happens is WhitF goes talks to Putin. Putin of course agrees to a meeting because a meeting is mana from heaven for Putin for reasons we talked about at the start of the show, right? He agrees and Witco comes back, tells Trump, Trump announces that they're going to have this meeting and he doesn't have to put secondary sanctions on the Russians on August 8th. He gets out of the pickle. And it's this meeting yesterday that does the trick. So, one could argue that the meeting yesterday was in a way a victory for Trump because he got away from that promise. And furthermore, as we talked about before, it's very important to understand that he was asked after the meeting whether or not secondary sanctions would be put on the Russians. And he basically said that ship has sailed. So he has taken at least up to now. You can never know for sure with Trump, but he has at least for now solved that big problem that he had. Yeah. All this to say, guys, the fact is that we have no cards to play here, right? He solved the problem, but as you pointed out, it was a problem of his own making. Uh so absolutely. Absolutely. So since with with Ukraine coming next week, I want to ask you from Ukraine's perspective, and I I'll put up I think this is roughly a, you know, fairly recent, you know, sense of where the where the front lines are. You know, Ukraine, you know, still has access to the to the Black Sea along these if these lines were frozen. From what I hear from Ukrainians, they they say, "Okay, what it's actually just going to give Russia a chance to regroup and then they're going to attack again and completely cut us off uh from the Black Sea and and we will just be instead of a 80% rump of a country, we'll be a 40% rump of a country, landlocked and just a a dual client of both Russia and and the EU." Uh, so if you're the Ukrainians, what's your what are you fighting for here and what's your what's your best case scenario? Well, I have been arguing for a long time, I think, as you know, Ryan, that the best case from Ukraine's point of view, uh, is to settle this war immediately because, as you point out, they're going to lose 20% if they agree to give up those four Oblasts plus Crimea. about 22% of pre204 Ukraine will be lost. Is this a tragedy for Ukraine? Absolutely. There's no question about it. I fully understand why no Ukrainian would want to agree to give up 22% of the territory of the country. However, the question you always have to ask yourself as a good strategist is what is the alternative? And the alternative is to continue fighting. And as you pointed out, if you continue fighting, you're likely to lose probably about half the country. Uh you're likely to lose Odessa, and that would be catastrophic. You're likely to lose. You're likely to use a lose a handful more oblass as well. So you will end up in that scenario as a dysfunctional rub state. It seems to me the least bad alternative, and I'm choosing my words carefully here. It's not a good alternative. It's the least bad alternative is to cut a deal now uh and minimize how much territory you lose and also minimize the number of Ukrainians who are going to die if you continue to fight on. The other thing is if you continue to fight on and you continue to insist that you're going to be in NATO and you continue to insist that you need security guarantees from the West and the West flirts with you about security guarantees, you just give the Russians greater incentives to take more territory and to make you a truly dysfunctional rub state. What the Ukrainians should want to do, and I understand this is hard to swallow, is to survive as a rump state, but not as a dysfunctional rump state, and try to come up with some sort of motus with the Russians so that the Russians don't feel threatened so that they're not bent on wrecking your country. Uh, this is the best alternative for the Ukrainians at this point of time. But getting that point through to Zalinsky and company and to the Europeans especially, but also to huge chunks of the American national security establishment is almost impossible to do. It really is, sir. It's it's mystifying because it's like they live in an alternative reality where the status quo is somehow good for Ukraine. I mean, let's go ahead and put the battlefield reality uh tear sheet, please, up there on the screen. literally days before they made huge gains on the Ukrainian front line. One of the biggest breakthroughs by the Russians so far. uh they have a manpower advantage obviously you know the average age of the Ukrainian military we still you know it remains unclear and this is my main question is about inside of Ukraine because Zalinski is wedded to this maximalist position which again we all emotionally understand but the Ukrainian people we recently had a poll on our show that we showed had some you know major support actually for some sort of negotiation but there's no elections and in fact, you know, he has been cracking down on domestic dissension from the beginning of the war on top of recently signing this, you know, anti-corruption law which would drew massive protests to the streets. So in that time in this initial time frame, it appears that the most likely scenario is Zilinsky will reject outright some sort of meeting. Trump is remains in his pickle about secondary sanctions, doesn't know what to do. The war will continue fighting on at the very least with European support. Trump seems happy to send, you know, weapons to the Ukrainians as long as the Europeans buy them and it'll be like some sort of semifrozen conflict where the front line moves daily. Now, how long does Ukraine, the polity, like the people left inside of Ukraine tolerate that situation? as you said, as long as these thousands and thousands of their, you know, their men, increasingly elder men begin to keep dying on the battlefield, it's very hard to answer that question. Uh, I mean, the only sort of analogous case that I know is Germany in World War I. And uh, what happened is that the Americans entered the war in April of 1917. And uh what happened was that by the spring of 1918, the Americans were beginning to come in in huge numbers. And this meant that the balance of power on the battlefield in terms of manpower was shifting against the Germans. This is over the course of 1918. At the same time, what was happening in Germany is that support for the war on the home front was collapsing. And it was because of the blockade that the west had put on Germany and on Austria Hungary. Those countries were starving. It was a total disaster. So support for the war on the home front evaporated. At the same time, the coming of the Americans on the battlefield shifted the balance of power in ways that made it apparent that Germany was going to lose. And the end result is that by October 1918, uh, Germany was through. It was all over with. And you got a peace agreement. And you want to remember that the allies never set foot during the combat on German territory. Yes, Germany collapsed on the home front. So just to go to Ukraine today, if you look at what's happening on the battlefield, it's very clear and you were hinting at this that Ukraine does not have enough manpower. They do not have enough infantry and infantry is of enormous importance for parrying those Russian offensives. The Russians have a huge manpower advantage. Looks a lot like World War I in 1918. is the Americans come in, the balance of power on the ground is shifting. And then if you look at what's happening on the home front, as you just described, support for the war is evaporating. Huge numbers of people have left, are leaving the country. Uh public opinion has turned against the war. So it does look like the situation is going to end in disaster for Ukraine. It's hard to imagine this going on for another year uh given the balance of power and given public opinion at home. So all of this is to say the Ukrainians are doomed. And by the way, I think Trump and his adviserss understand this and they are telling the Ukrainians and the Europeans, okay, you want to continue the fight, we'll give you the weaponry. As you pointed out, we're going to continue to give the Ukrainians the weapons. not directly. They're going to go through the Europeans. The Europeans are going to pay for them, but American weaponry uh will go to the Ukrainians. Uh it won't be enough. But uh the real problem here is manpower. And uh so my view is that Ukraine is doomed and Zilinski will soon figure that out and they'll have to reach some sort of accommodation with the Russians and you'll get a frozen peace. Do you have a sense of where this goes from here? like how much of the World War I analogy can you can you draw out? I mean, obviously a post-war Ukraine would not have the kind of industrial capacity of a postwar postworld war I Germany. And so even if it if its far right did feel that it was quote unquote stabbed in the back and forced into this bad agreement, it wouldn't really have the capacity to create some monster over the next 30 years. But what kind of knock-on effects could you expect from a a piece of the kind you're talking about? Yeah, this is a great question. I mean, you're absolutely right that Germany was a monster, right? You know, you went from 1914 to 1918, fighting that monster and defeating it. And it involved the Russians, the French, the British, and then the Americans. It took four countries uh to take the Germans down. And the Germans key ally was AustriaHungary which one could argue was an albatross around the Germans neck. Uh so Germany was very powerful and when the war ended the question is what do you do with that monster? Uh and of course again we had World War II against that monster uh starting in 1939. But this is a completely different situation in that regard. The smart thing for the Ukrainians to do, as I said before, is accept the fact that they've lost, right? Try to settle it now and then work out a modus vendi with the Russians. Do I think that's going to happen? No. Right. And the reason is not simply the Ukrainians, right, who will have powerful incentives to want to get back that territory. It's also because the West, and this includes the United States, will not accept defeat. And we will go to great lengths, we in the West will go to great lengths to cause the Russians trouble in those areas of Ukraine that they incorporate into Russia. And uh the Ukrainians will do the same. And the Russians of course will retaliate. And furthermore, you have all sorts of other potential flash points in Eastern Europe where trouble could start. Bellarus, the Baltic, Arctic, Muldova, the Black Sea, and so forth and so on. The potential flash points are numerous, right? And the end result is I think you're going to have poisonous relations between the Russians on one side and the Ukrainians and the West on the other side. for as far as the eye can see. You're not going to have that motus vendi that I was talking about. And again, I have to say I do not understand why people cannot come to grips with the fact that settling this war and creating decent relations between Russia and Ukraine is in Ukraine's interest. Right. It just boggles my mind that we can't is it ultimately is it ultimately because it's not up up to Ukraine? Victoria Nuland said, you know, as I think Russia was launching its invasion, okay, if they succeed and go into Kev, they can look forward to, you know, decades of guerilla war um inside Ukraine. Uh and it wasn't as if this was a generous offer to Ukraine. This was a we are going to seed this guerrilla war whether Ukraine likes it or not. So maybe it's just as simple as if it was up to Ukraine, they would make a more strategic choice, but it's not. Well, you want to remember, Ryan, that immediately after the war started, Putin put out peaceers to the Ukrainians to come to sort of come to some sort of peace agreement so that they could end the war. Then remember, the war starts in February 2022. And they're negotiating. This is the Ukrainians and the Russians are negotiating to end the war almost immediately after it starts, the famous Istanbul negotiations, and they don't reach an agreement, but they're making major league progress towards reaching an agreement. And what happens is that the Americans and the British in the form of Boris Johnson come in and tell the Ukrainians to walk away from the negotiations and to continue the war. Uh so this supports your basic point that we have been more enthusiastic about this war at different points than the Ukrainians have. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact and I think this reflects Victoria Nuland's thinking that we don't have to do the fighting. We don't do the dying and we can use the Ukrainians for that purpose. We can use the Ukrainians to bleed the Russians white. The Russians are now a great Russia is now a great power. This is a problem for us in their mind and we have to weaken Russia and Ukraine is the perfect opportunity to do that. My last question for you sir concerns grand strategy. I've been inspired by your work you know intellectually and more. I cannot you know in this moment I'm just shocked at especially with a lot of the people in the Trump administration. I know them personally. I know you do as well. And we heard for years about the folly of uh being obsessed with the Middle East, of American security doctrine, just having this religious devotion, you know, to NATO, to Europe, to the Middle East. And as I watch you know the consumption of US weaponry of US attention and diplomacy on Israel um on you know an obsession really with Israel and then also similar session here with Ukraine and then even you know determining our relationship with India and with China on the basis of Ukraine it just seems so counter to any grand strategic interests of the United States and of Asia which will compromise some 50% GDP you know in the next couple of years. So just at a very you know 50,000 foot level does this just confirm really uh that not only will we have the 2020s be a Chinese decade but of one where you know the US really is just choosing the last bastions of this cold war and 1990s you know mentality and when we had the opportunity which it seems to be right now we just decided not to take it. Yeah I think that's an accurate description of what's happened here. Uh, I mean, the Trump administration and the Biden administration both argue that the principal contingency the United States should concern itself with is a war against China in East Asia and that our principal goal should be to contain China in East Asia. That was the consensus opinion inside both administrations. But what's happened is that we can't get out of Ukraine. were pinned down in Ukraine and uh the situation in the Middle East is even worse. Uh if you look at uh what happened in the war that we picked with the Houthies, remember Trump said we're going to go out and beat the Houthies. And uh after about a month, uh Trump said, "We're quitting this war. Those Houthies are mighty formidable." But of course, the real reason that we quit the war was that we were running through our inventories of weapons at record pace, right? And our inventories are not very deep. Uh and then we get in the wars that Israel get involved in the wars that Israel is fighting, especially their war with Iran. And there again, we're using up all sorts of we American weaponry and and and we're pinned down in the Middle East, right? Uh the Biden administration at least had the good sense not to get sucked into a war with Iran. The Israelis of course were trying to suck us into a war with Iran in 2024. But the Biden administration, which did few smart things strategically, at least in this case, avoided a war in Iran. But Trump foolishly uh on June 22nd of this year, uh decided to go to war against Iran. So we're stuck in that uh situation now and uh the question is how do we get out? So I think from a strategic point of view what's going on with regard to Ukraine and what is going on with regard to uh the Middle East is disastrous. And then there's the moral dimension. We don't want to lose sight of the fact that the United States is complicit in a genocide in the Middle East. uh that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. And for those people who don't want to call it a genocide, I would think you would at least have to acknowledge that this is mass murder on a scale that we haven't seen in a long time. And certainly it's mass murder on a scale we would never accept or should never accept uh from a close ally. But nevertheless uh here we are uh supporting Israel hookline and sinker as it executes uh a genocide. So from both a strategic point of view and a moral point of view when you look at the behavior of the Biden administration and now the Trump administration, it leaves me at least with a sick feeling in my stomach. I couldn't agree with you more, sir. Uh it's always just such an honor to talk to you. So, thank you so much for joining us and giving us your time to break down this summit. Thank you very much to the two of you for having me on, asking excellent questions, and letting me give these lengthy answers. Well, that's what we we you always have a platform here to do so. So, uh we look forward to seeing you again next time. Likewise. All right, we're going to go to the second half of our show now, which is available to premium subscribers. I hope you guys enjoyed that. And if you want to be able to watch things like that, as well as AMA on our Friday shows, breakingpoints.com, you can become one today. Let's get to it. Hey, if you like that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people. And if you'd like to get the full show ad free and in your inbox every morning, you can sign up at breakingpoints.com. That's right. Get the full show. Help support the future of independent media at breakingpoints.com.
OMG: Trump pulls INSANE Nobel Peace Prize stunt Brian Tyler Cohen Aug 16, 2025 Brian
Transcript
We have finally reached peak Trump desperation. According to new reporting from the Guardian, Donald Trump called Norway's finance minister to discuss tariffs. And while doing so, he also told him he wanted the Nobel Peace Prize. Let me say that again. The president of the United States cold called a foreign finance minister and randomly brought up wanting a Nobel Prize. quote, "Out of the blue, while Finance Minister Jen Stolenberg was walking down the street in Oslo, Donald Trump called he wanted the Nobel Prize and to discuss tariffs." Now, let's be clear, very much in the vein of Trump's perfect first-term phone call to Zilinsky withholding military assistance for dirt on Joe Biden, Trump is yet again wielding the state as his personal cudgel to exact some political benefit for himself. He knows full well what he's doing by bringing up tariffs in the same call that he brings up the Nobel Peace Prize. He is not so subtly letting Norway's government know that what happens with tariffs will depend solely on what happens with the prize that he is so desperate for. And what's craziest is that in actuality, the tariffs on foreign countries are a tax paid by Americans. Meaning Trump is forcing us to pay more money as a means to get a Nobel Peace Prize for himself. A billionaire is ensuring that we all pay more for food, for housing, for clothing, for electronics, for cars, literally all of the things he promised he would lower costs on. All so that he can feel special by getting an award that he doesn't even deserve. I mean, I'm sorry, but I'm coming to you from Los Angeles, where Trump has deployed the US military against American citizens. And just days ago, he did the same thing in Washington, DC, a city where crime is at a 30-year low. He is deploying our own military against our own citizens. All the while demanding a peace prize for himself. Utter lunacy. In fact, Trump is so desperate for this prize that foreign heads of state have begun to use it as a bargaining chip to get themselves favorable terms. This was just weeks ago. Uh my question to you is today you are making history by receiving five African presidents and showing the interest of the United States to collaborate and to work close with the African nations. African continent is watching. African youth is watching and this new approach that your administration is taking to deal with African nation not only based on help but in doing business that everybody can win is really much appreciated for all the Africans. My question is are you planning Mr. president in the future to travel to Africa to see firsthand all those countries in Africa all those potential that those country have and for the African leaders my question is as you can see President Trump is working to bring peace not only in Africa but also in the world are you all considering to nominate President Trump for a Nobel Prize piece That's a very nice reporter. I got to meet her two weeks ago when we had the uh Congo and uh Rwanda and we had some other people up from Africa and uh that was the first time. But that's a very nice I appreciate the question. It's very nice actually. A Nobel Peace Prize. Well, I don't see any problem with it. I think that uh President Trump deserves it for all the efforts that he's worked on and uh he brought peace back in the SEAK region uh that is my region the region where DRC and uh Rwanda uh signed a deal and so he is now bringing peace back into a region where that was never possible. So, I believe that he does deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. That is my opinion on this. Well, thank you very much. It's very, very nice. Thank you. I didn't know I'd be treated this nicely. This is great. We could do this all day long. Thank you very much. Please go ahead. This is where we're at. The leaders of foreign nations recognize that if they want anything, all they have to do is pander to Trump a little bit and he melts like putty. This guy is easier to buy than a kid in a candy shop. I honestly don't know what's more embarrassing, that it is so blatantly easy to manipulate the president of the United States or that he still can't see what's happening right in front of his face. In fact, what's worse is that this is the worst kept secret in the entire world. Netanyahu did it, too. Present to you, uh, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee. Uh, it's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is welld deserved, and you should get it. Thank you very much. This I didn't know. Well, thank you very much. Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful. Thank you very much, baby. Thank you. Thank you for everything you're doing. Thank you. It's a great honor. I mean, even Republican lawmakers are doing it so that they can get a little pat on the head from Daddy Trump. Thanks to his actions that that he has brought peace here. Now, he's brokered this peace deal. And I would submit to you that there's no one more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than Donald J. Trump. Yeah, Congressman, I mean, you're not the only one who thinks that uh Pakistan, yes, Pakistan also nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize only to condemn him a day later for the strikes on Iran. Now, of course, Pakistan is a close ally of Iran. But I mean, what did you make of that big flip-flop? Well, you know, again, here here is someone who is achieving something that has been attempted by other people for years. I mean, let's face it, Barack Obama won a peace prize, Nobel Peace Prize for giving speeches and and Donald Trump, he's delivered. He's actually taken action and and brought about peace and he deserves it more so than anyone else I can think of. I mean, this should be a slam dunk. Think about what he's done. He's He's trying to broker peace in and between Russia and Ukraine. He's trying to broker peace and he has a chief brokering peace in the Middle East. The Abraham Accords, everything he's done. Everybody wants to say, "Oh, he's a wararm monger." No, just the opposite. He wants peace. He wants the economies to to thrive. He wants the and he understands how important this is. And I know that you said it's a slam dunk, but the president has been nominated for the prize multiple times. He hasn't won yet. Is it going to be different this time around in your opinion? It is. Um, again, I think this time is is the charm. I think he'll he'll receive it this time. And he is certainly deserving of it. And if for some reason he doesn't get it, it would really be a travesty. You know, I'm old enough to remember Republicans impeaching a president for getting a in the Oval Office. Now they're the ones giving them to him. I mean, just from a national security standpoint, do you really think it makes America safer that the entire planet knows the way to manipulate the president of the United States is by uttering the words Nobel Peace Prize? Let me put this a different way. What if every world leader came to the White House during the Biden era with ice cream cones and when they handed them over, Biden would gush about how great they were? What would Republicans say about Biden then? Yeah, all those thoughts swirling around your head right now, those apply to Trump. They say, "Sir, you should win a prize." And all of a sudden, you've curried favor with the president based not on our national interest, but on your ability to manipulate a manchild and his insatiable need for validation. But it actually gets worse. You know what Trump's big argument for deserving the Nobel Peace Prize is? That Barack Obama got one. If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel Prize given into in 10 seconds. He would He got the Nobel Prize. He didn't even know what the hell he got it for. Remember, he got elected. Well, I so did I. He got elected and they announced he was getting the Nobel Prize. Remember? He said, "Oh, what did I do?" He didn't know what the hell he did. He got the Nobel Prize for doing nothing. He for getting elected, but I got elected, too. And uh you know, if I think of that, we we did something the Abraham Accords unprecedented. Nobody thought it was possible. And I'm not saying want or not. I'm not saying I'm just saying if it was anybody else. uh liberal Democrat, they would have had it before the damn thing was even signed, you know. So, there has to be fair. And I don't care about I'm not looking for it. I'm not politicking for it. I'm just saying that there's a lot of unfairness in this world. Obama gets one, so Trump deserves one, too. Brought to you by the political party that wants you to know just how much they hate participation trophies. And here's the truly embarrassing part. A Norwegian think tank that handicapped possible winners of the 2025 prize didn't even mention Trump's name. The front runners they cited including Sudan's emergency response rooms, the prime minister of Qatar, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Trump is getting lapped by organizations that most Americans haven't even heard of. And his response is to start making lobbying calls to Norwegian government officials. The reality is this. The Nobel Committee is insulated from political pressure. As one western diplomat put it, "This is a decision made by people who are independent and have their own point of view. You can't buy it." Norway doesn't need the money. But Trump doesn't understand that because his entire worldview is transactional. He thinks everything can be negotiated, leveraged, or bought, even international recognition for promoting peace. What's most telling about this whole episode is how it perfectly encapsulates Trump's character. He's a man who craves external validation more than oxygen. Yet, he consistently behaves in ways that make such validation impossible. He wants to be seen as a peacemaker while bombing other countries. He wants international respect while threatening allies with tariffs. He wants a Nobel Prize while acting like a schoolyard bully on the world stage. Look, if Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, here's a radical idea. Try actually promoting peace. Stop bombing countries. Stop threatening allies. Stop treating international relations like a real estate deal. But we all know that's not going to happen because Trump would rather strongarm foreign officials than do the actual work of diplomacy. So the next time you hear Trump or his allies talking about how he deserves international recognition, just remember this moment right here. Remember that the man who claims to be the greatest dealmaker in history had to cold call a foreign government official while they were walking down the street begging for an award. If that's not the perfect metaphor for the Trump presidency, I don't know what is. Before you go, if you enjoyed this content and you want to see more and support independent media, please subscribe to this channel. The subscribe button will be right here on the screen. But second, the reality is that we are now in a political environment where this administration can lean on any of the social media platforms to suppress certain voices if they don't like critical coverage. That means my longevity here is in the hands of a few tech billionaires who are already making it clear that they are willing to cater to this administration. To that end, signing up for my newsletter is a way for me to reach you directly if that ever becomes necessary. I'll put the link right here on the screen as well, so please sign up. It's free, but there's also an option to do a paid subscription if you'd like to support me and my team. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for watching.
ICE Barbie's SECRET Boyfriend Panics as White House Grows Suspicious Really American Aug 14, 2025
Really American host Tony Hinderman breaks down Kristi Noem's secret lover getting called out for lying to the White House!
Transcript
Christine Noem has a secret boyfriend and unfortunately it's a name that you're probably sick of hearing. Corey Luwendowski, the man who was kicked off of Trump's first campaign for being a bit too handsy, which is a bit like getting kicked off a firing squad for being too trigger happy. Look at that. Steady as a rock. Yeah, but I shoot with this hand. Cory has managed to keep his career alive by sneaking in as a special government employee like Elon Musk was. But it turns out that he might have been fudging his hours in order to spend more time with his puppy killing partner. Go ahead and subscribe to Really American and let's just jump right into this wild story. So, I had actually never heard of this alleged affair between Corey Luwendowski and Christy Gnome before, but I guess I was just late to the game because it turns out it wasn't even that hidden. According to this 2023 reporting, former Trump aid Cory Luwendowski and then Governor of South Dakota Christy Gnome were having an absurdly blatant and public affair getting handsy at the hotel bar. Married Republican South Dakota Governor Christy Gnome has engaged in a years'slong affair with longtime Donald Trump adviser Corey Luwendowski. Though no images of the two getting frisky are known to exist, the pair have been less than discreet about their relationship with one source recalling them making out at a hotel bar during a 2021 CPAC convention in Orlando. I remember it was so absurdly blatant and public, said the person who recalled Gnome and Luwendowski getting handsy at the bar of the Hyatt Regency Orlando with between 100 and 200 others around. Like they're not even hiding it. They're just going to town on each other right there in front of everyone. It isn't like we caught them at some dive bar miles away. It's a lobby bar where everyone is staying. And so there's a bajillion political operatives and journalists and electeds around. I remember I saw it with my own eyes and a couple of other people's side and the blatantness was absurd. Now a quick reminder here. Both Luwendowski and Christy K9 killer Gnome are married. They have full families with kids and everything. And yet here they are making out in a hotel bar back in 2023. And since then, it seems like Corey's special connection to Christy has allowed him to gain a shocking amount of power at Homeland Security for a man who isn't technically employed there. Luwendowski has become a fixture at the Department of Homeland Security, serving as Gnome's chief adviser. But on paper, he was originally tapped to serve as a special government employee, a unique role meant to span a limited number of days. He's not included on the department's leadership list, but in other DHS materials, he's being described as chief adviser to the secretary, a Homeland Security official. Get this, cuz this is about a week ago, said that Luwendowski remains a special government employee, a status that typically lasts up to 130 days, and his time quote is kept by a career DHS employee who submits the paperwork on a bi-weekly basis. He isn't paid by DHS and doesn't receive government benefits. Now, this is before the most recent reporting that shows his time sheet was incorrect. So, who is this career DHS employee? And why would they conveniently lie for Luwendowski? I'm sure somebody would do it. Cory is a fixer floating around the Trump regime, a a lobbyist, an adviser, sidekick, but never elected. He's the definition of the deep state. And he's become the de facto chief of staff at the DHS. And that's not me coming up with a conspiracy. That's what the source told CNN. He's the de facto chief of staff in the department. Everyone is terrified of him because he has almost singular authority to fire people. A source familiar with the dynamic told CNN. Homeland Security officials told CNN Luwendowski is viewed as Gnome's gatekeeper. Asked about his role, the senior DHS official described him as an adviser. Either way, this is a very creepy and strange relationship. Essentially behind the scenes, DHS is being run by Luendowski, a man who's not even there in an official capacity. And he has traveled everywhere with Christine Gnome, attached at the hip to his plastic love. The longtime Donald Trump ally and early 2016 campaign manager is not officially on the DHS roster, but Trump officials and DHS staff have told reporters that he is performing the functions of Secretary Christy Gnome's chief of staff, while the actual chief of staff position has not been filled. He has accompanied Gnome on trips to confer with foreign leaders in Israel, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, and Mexico. often. He's the only one by her side at meetings. According to CNN, he approved billions of dollars in FEMA grants to be funneled to Republicanled states, demanded that personnel take polygraphs after a leak to the press, ordered the firing of government workers, and asked that others be placed on leave for infractions such as using gender pronouns in an email. The man has just been let loose on the Department of Homeland Security. And because he's a special government employee, he answers to no one, basically. But it's Cory's undying devotion to his kissing buddy, Christy Gnome, that is becoming too much for even Trump, it seems, as his status as a temporary government employee should have run out by now. Elon Musk's ran out a couple months ago, yet Corey is still here. Here's the scoop from Axios. White House suspicious of Luwendowski's temp work. Luwendowski doesn't want to clock out of his temporary government gig because he gets to hang out with his mistress all day. So, administration officials believe he's avoiding clocking in. The department told Axios that he has worked only 69 days since he was hired shortly after Gnome's Jan 25th confirmation. Four administration sources tell Axios they believe that's a gross undercount and that he's exceeded his allowed time as a temporary employee. Two sources with knowledge of Luwendowski's work said he was seen entering government buildings with other employees to avoid swiping his own badge. That way he could work without clocking in. They said he doesn't always use his government email or phone number for official business, avoiding digital paper trails on government systems. Those observations were relayed to White House officials, one of whom told Axios, "We're hearing that Cory's doing everything, failing to swipe in, working from home, whatever, to underount his days." It's fair to say his work is being watched now. Besides his proximity to power, Luwendowski's work at DHS has attracted media attention because of his close relationship with Gnome. The two, married to others, have long denied rumors they're romantically involved. But concerns about their relationship led President Trump to nyx the idea of allowing Gnome to make Luwendowski her chief of staff and instead have him become an SGE, a special government employee, which is extra hilarious cuz that means Christy Gnome tried to officially make her side piece her sidekick and Trump was like, "Yeah, no, we're not doing that." So instead, they're just doing this special government employee thing and trying to stretch it out as far as possible. I mean, these two are in love. Clearly, everyone's scared shitless of Luwendowski. A former DHS official told Axios, "The feeling is that if they go up against Corey, they're going to lose." And I have to say that they're right. Luwendowski himself says, "I've got friends across the government." So maybe Shawn Duffy calls me and says, "Corey, can you help me?" And some of the other cabinet members, you know, whether it's Scott Bent or others, say, "Hey, Corey, would you help us?" Luwendowski once bragged. So clearly this guy's got his little fingers all the way across our government. He kind of reminds me of Little Finger from Game of Thrones. It's clear from his actions that Luwendowski is suspiciously dedicated to the career of Christy Gnome. Some would say he's more dedicated to her than he is to his own career. As lying to the White House and trying to get around these work requirements doesn't exactly seem like a good idea if you're a MAGA operative. No word yet on if there's going to be any kind of actual punishment or removal for Luwendowski, but as of now, his ruse has been sniffed out. So, who knows? Maybe Trump will smile down on this little love affair. After all, he is fond of cheating. If you guys want to stay informed on what these heinous degenerates are up to in the halls of government, then subscribe to Really American. I'm Tony Hinderman, and I'll catch you next time.
ICE Caught DESTROYING BUSINESS in PA MeidasTouch Aug 8, 2025
Transcript
We have a disturbing update out of Pittsburgh where two restaurants have been completely decimated by ICE raids. Ameiliano's Mexican restaurant and bar in both Cranberry Township and Gibsonia were subject to violent ICE raids Thursday morning. In total, 16 people were taken into custody with ICE not confirming if any of those people detained had been accused of any crimes. Here's some disturbing footage of the aftermath taken by Ameilianos where you can hear that the ICE agents had allegedly even set fire to parts of the restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we are. We are still here. So, yeah. Look at this. Well, look at this side of this. Insurance is going to love this. Yeah. They didn't show me any one when they came in. They didn't show me nothing. I have a little basket with money there. Should I leave it there or should I take it? Don't touch anything. Okay. No, Mu already got everything. I know. There's There's nothing. And you said the kitchen's on fire. Yeah, the kitchen's on fire. Why would they turn the kitchen on fire? No, sir. You may not. I'm sorry, but this is wrong. Why is she here? A representative of Ameiliano's Mexican Restaurant and Bar said federal agents stormed our restaurant in a show of force that went far and beyond anything reasonable or humane. They didn't just detain people. They raided the heart of our business, tore through our spaces, and left behind a trail of fear, confusion, and destruction. Our kitchens were flipped, our walk-ins emptied, food trashed, doors broken, lives shattered.
