Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down ...

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Trump risks war with Venezuela if navy and clandestine buildup 'spins out of control'
Times Radio
Oct 17, 2025



Transcript

We have an asymmetric advantage in that
we have overwhelming outrageous amounts
of firepower. Uh but you're talking
about a country whose armed forces would
be the equivalent of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard right on their turf
homefield advantage. Um and you can
steam out there at 11, you know, 12
nautical miles all you want. You can go
out and interdict these little vessels
for the video arcade v view of them
burning, you know, and watching people
jump into the water on fire, which is
all you're getting out of this. But at
some point, you know, um it could psycho
out of control.
Hello and welcome to the Trump Report.
I'm Luis Sykes. Today we are joined by
Malcolm Nance, intelligence and foreign
policy analyst and a former
cryptologologist in the US Navy.
Malcolm, welcome back. Hey, always good
to be here on Times Radio.
Thanks, Malcolm. Well, we're seeing a a
pretty significant naval buildup in the
Caribbean as President Donald Trump
continues to threaten action against
Venezuela. How closely should we watch
this gathering of US naval power?
Well, you should have been watching it
closely for the last 6 to 8 weeks as
it's been building up. And that's
because there was a finding that was
done in late July uh where the president
decided that he was going to make
Venezuela a priority in US national
security. Part of that finding was a
intelligence community directive to
increase intelligence if not carry out
clandestine operations uh against
Venezuela itself. We've already seen
just in reporting this last week that
the CIA had ret received tasking to
essentially destabilize
uh the government of the Maduro regime
inside of Venezuela. Now with that in
late August came the naval buildup.
First it was a flotilla of Navy warships
uh Arley Burke class guided missile
destroyers uh a US uh Tyonderoga class
cruiser and then came the USS Ewajima
the amphibious helicopter carrier
amphibious aircraft carrier which has
been pretty much stationing itself off
Puerto Rico so that it could use the
facilities and air bases there and to
you know keep the 2,500 Marines that
would be an amphibious this landing
force uh at the ready as opposed to
being down steaming down off Venezuela
without a mission. This all being said,
we've already seen that, you know,
firepower has been applied rather
extrajudicially,
uh, you know, on people that they
suspect are drug smugglers without any
real evidence. So, there has to be a
purpose for all of these warships that
are down there. And this, by the way, is
a significant amount of naval firepower.
Uh there's been, let me put it this way,
there was less firepower of warships off
of Yemen when we were striking Yemen
than there is off of uh Venezuela. Right
now, all that's missing is a US full
complement US aircraft carrier. But it's
become very controversial now. They have
struck five uh of these Panga boats
which are common high-speed boats that
are used down there. They're used for uh
you know inner island transport between
Venezuela and Trinidad Tobago. None of
them have the capacity to get more than
a few hundred miles into the you know
into the Caribbean Sea. And so all of
this about they're carrying drugs and
fentanyl into the United States. Um, we
have been interdicting and boarding
vessels down there for decades. And what
we do is we board the vessel, we
determine if there's drugs in it. We
seize the drugs, uh, bring them back,
weigh it out, destroy them, and then we
send the people there to trial or we
bring them to trial in the United
States. they've just decided to do this
Tom Clancy routine from the from the
novel uh you know a clear and present
danger and just kill them without
knowing whether they're they're drug
dealers or not. Also, there is no death
penalty in the United States for drug
dealers. So they have either declared a
secret war and there's a secret
presidential finding that we don't know
about or we are at war with Venezuela
and it just hasn't been declared which
of course is a power of Congress not the
president.
And what do you think of the the the
message that's being sent here? because
you uh you talked there about uh the
purpose of this of this uh collection of
of of this flotilla of US naval power.
Um is it possible this is still just
about sending a sort of political
message, a level of grandstanding that
we do know that Trump likes to engage in
or or should we be worried about the US
actually really using these naval assets
outside of these smaller strikes we've
seen?
Well, what we're seeing is a progression
of uh pressure against Maduro. And I
think what they're doing is they're
making a very big show of putting a, you
know, this flotilla off of there which
has enormous strike power. I mean, they
have, you know, dozens upon dozens of of
land strike missiles. They could shoot
down aircraft if the uh, you know, the
the Venezuelans flew two F-16s out
towards a US Navy warship, which were
operating in international waters. But
then again, the F-16s are operating in
international waters and so long as they
don't present a threat, uh, you won't
have any incidents. That doesn't mean
that the White House isn't going to tell
them to engage and shoot them down in
the future. I think there is a lot of
vexation with what's happening there
because we either the administration
doesn't really know what they want to do
and they're waiting for more resources
like special operations troops to go
into you know and neighboring countries
or to um find their way to you know the
through the clandestine services or it's
it's a game it's a show that's part of
the immigration battle Trump likes to
use to put it and no, you know, no
uncertain terms. He likes to use little
toy ships and toy le soldiers, which is
how he views this. He views these
actions, you know, like he can raise his
finger and six warships go down there.
That is an enormous force to sustain.
And it costs money. It costs personnel.
It'll impact your retention of those
personnel, especially if there's no real
mission. the previous interdiction
mission which was done by dozens of
ships, the US Coast Guard, you had a you
had a payoff. The payoff was you would
seize these vessels, you would get the
drugs out there and you would know what
you were doing is correct. And that of
course this nebulousness
is probably why that southern command
the commander of all US forces south of
the physical United States why that
admiral Admiral Horsley may have
resigned or or to decide to take an
early retirement.
Well, yeah, I want to I want to come on
to the the retirement of Admiral Holley,
but um just just first of all, we often
look uh when there are these kind of
buildups for for some sort of uh uh
climax point. I mean, I'm thinking of
when we were when we were watching
Russian forces amassing in Barus, there
was the the moment where um uh plasma
started to be being delivered to
frontline troops and at that point, most
people were certain that these troops
would eventually cross the border into
Ukraine. Is there any developments we
should be watching in how uh this
flirtillaa has come together that that
could give us an indication of what
comes next and where in that process of
escalation we are now?
Well, what you're actually looking for
is what we in the intelligence community
call unambiguous intelligence
indicators, right? Um it is not just
bringing one amphibious transport ship
with, you know, 10 F-35 stealth
fighters. The definitive unambiguous
indicator would be the deployment of a
US aircraft carrier there, which means
we are now bringing 100 aircraft with
multiple layers of strike capacity to do
the same thing. Now, I was quite
surprised and shocked when they we found
out that there was a Los Angeles class
atomic submarine sent down there, which
for someone who has ridden Los Angeles
class submarines in a you know, four,
you know, less than uh less than overt
reasons, right? Going places where you
shouldn't be doing things you shouldn't
be doing. Um it it's either they've
either been sent there uh to support
sealed delivery vehicles or they've been
sent down there to go and you know to
use one of the biggest assets we have
right a nuclearpowered
torp you know torpedo and cruise missile
carrying vessel in a mission that would
be laughable unless you intended to sink
the two or three small you know vessels
advanced you know you know corvettes
that the Venice Venezuelans have, you
know, but putting sailors down there,
you know, in a in an atomic submary for
30, 60 days at a time, you know,
hovering around at five knots, seeing
what you could see with a periscope is
actually very taxing. And if there is no
clear mission, what's your mission?
You're going to see how many sailboats
come from Aruba and go to, you know,
Martnique. I mean, that would be a fun
job. Not. So
these assets that are being deployed
down there, I'm not sure they're being
deployed with the actual recommendations
of Southern Command commanders, the US
Navy chief of naval operations because
they would have deployed greater assets
to interdict the boats. More Coast Guard
who are professionals in doing this,
right? This is an armada of of US US
strike force and um right now they're
wandering aimlessly but then again we
don't know what Donald Trump Steven
Miller who is pretty much you know one
of the coaches for this you know this is
all part of their immigration war but
it's it's rooted in really horrible
information they said when they struck
that last boat which killed apparently
two trinidadians who were just coming
home from doing migrant work in um in
Venezuela
um that you know they they they strike
this vessel and you know they they they
don't have any justification for doing
it other than for the video of people
burning and jumping into the ocean. And
I've seen plenty of people burning and
jumping into the ocean in my career when
we fought the Iranians in the Persian
Gulf. But they were a military force.
You knew what they were doing out there.
They were coming to attack us. We were
fighting them and then they were
neutralized as a military force. Just
because you got four outboard mercury
motors on your on a panga does not make
you a drug smuger. Now there are two
apparently
you know um uh drug interdiction
intelligence has just has no longer
become a component of this
administration's intelligence apparatus.
We have an entire agency assigned for
this. Um, you know, we have the
president and the the vice president,
uh, the head of homeland security and
others saying I the secretary of of
defense, not war, um, saying that they
were interdicting fentanyl. Fentanel
does not come from Venezuela. Fentanyl
comes through legal means through China
which may either be fentanyl precursors
and it's done here or it's comes in you
know comes over across the Mexican
border and in some instances you know
most fentanyl comes in the United States
and it goes in different directions like
Canada and and places like that.
Fentanyl is it's also a legal drug in
the United States. It's used within the
hospital system and that's where we see
the greatest abuses, right? 100
microgram fentanyl patches stolen or
purchased uh or you know sold on the
street. So cocaine comes from Venezuela.
But again, this administration has
adopted a strategy that I call what we
jokingly called in the intelligence
community TC, right? When it was
something ludicrous. Uh we called it Tom
Clansancy combat cont concepts. They
took the idea from a Tom Clancy novel
and it's already been written obviously
in present danger, right? Which is about
the drug war, you know, uh, Pablo
Escobar style drug war where they were
shooting down airplanes, blowing up
boats extra legally, and putting
commandos into these places in order to
stop the drug labs. Yeah. Okay. We would
do far better by trying to stop the drug
use in the United States. It's a demand.
Well, indeed. And and as you allude to
there, Trump has announced this week
this CIA authorization to operate within
Venezuela. Um, as you say, it's it's a
strangely public way to announce
something that would usually be covert.
Uh, why do you think he's been so loud
about it?
Because he has a big mouth. And uh, and
it's and make no mistake, this has been
going on for months. that finding based
on based on the behaviors of the naval
task force would had to have been done
in July. And I've read other
corroborating information that there was
a finding about Venezuela done in July.
So, you know, you don't just sit there
and go, "Oh, we're going to start
putting clandestine agents into
Venezuela." It could be used as a
destabilization thing uh method where
you don't have agents or assets down
there. Um, and another thing is is that
all you've done is put the, you know,
300,000
man inter, you know, armed forces, their
their own tens of thousands of men in
internal security and intelligence to
hunt down regime opponents. And, you
know, we just saw the Nobel Prize winner
this year was a regime opponent who was
who was there for, you know, uh,
supporting the peaceful transition of
Venezuela to a democracy. Well, you may
have just condemned everyone in that
organization to death because now the
Maduro regime can say they're CIA assets
or just make it up and say they're CIA
assets. But this is what happens when
there are no adults in the room behaving
like adults. These are a bunch of
incompetent children who are playing at
government.
And and we mentioned before Navy Admiral
Alvin Holsey, the admiral who leads US
military forces in in Latin America. Um
he's he's announced he's going to leave
his job now in December. That's just
over a year in post, which seems
unusual. What do you make of of that
decision of his to
I have two thoughts about that. Number
one, he's been at that post as deputy
commander southern command since 2023.
So he's put in some time in SOCOM uh
Southcom. Um and you know, however, he's
also operating in an environment where
someone may have come up to him and
said, "You you retire or we're going to
fire you because he is a black four-star
admiral." And let's make no mistake
about it. This Pentagon operates on with
white supremacy and racism as a basic
operating function. This guy's enable
Let me tell you about this guy's career.
I mean, he's really impressive. Naval
aviator, uh, commanded three frigots, a
destroyer, two Tyonderoga class
cruisers, a aircraft carrier battle
group. So, he's worked his way up from
the tiniest little boats, you know,
learning how to sail in the, you know,
Annapolis, you know, in the temps of
Annapolis Harbor, uh, to commanding
vessels, uh, as an aviator commanding
vessels, which is super special in the
Navy. Uh, and it's interesting because
his last name is Halvy and it's very
close to Bull Holy, right? The famous
admiral in World War II who was a naval
aviator who commanded surface fleets and
it was controversial back then. Well,
apparently it's become the norm. This
man knows how to operate warships at
every level right up to a carrier strike
route and now every asset south of
Florida, you know, to Valparzo.
So whether it's, you know, 40 P8
reconnaissance aircraft or all the F-35s
that in chop into his AO, all the
clandestine operations, all the J-sock
operations that be carried out with them
or just plain old ships going out there
and seizing boats, this man has done it
all. Um, and of course the first thing
you would say is that's the guy I want
in the job, right? This administration
does not care a whit about your
competence or you know your character.
They care about whether you're going to
play ball when the time comes. And I'm
pretty between you, me, and the fence
post and you know anyone who's
listening, he's probably seen the
writing on the wall that they are out to
purge women and African-Americans and
Latinos from the armed forces and they
pretty much made that clear. So also if
he has reservations about what's going
on, trust me, if this gets out of
control, if the administration is really
operating on the, you know, the way that
I've described it, be prepared for him
to be relieved of his command due to
lack of confidence by the president of
the United States. And that will just
be, you know, a not even a dog whistle,
a fogghorn that, uh, you know, they're
going by the the racist, uh, you know,
uh, we don't like you because you're a
black admiral as opposed to being the
most competent man in the room. Uh, you
know, but when I go to war, I really
like people that know what they're
doing. And this guy knows what he's
doing. But then again, we've seen them
fire some of the best people in the
armed forces simply because they were
women and blacks.
Indeed. Indeed. And and you know he had
been ostensibly in charge of those
strikes we were discussing before um on
on uh
that we know of because we do not know
what platform actually dropped the
munitions. It is quite possible you were
watching US Air Force or CIA predator
drones carrying out the same strike same
ordinance. We don't know whether they
were launched from ships. We don't know
whether it was special operations
command you know little birds or you
know uh you know strike hawks or any of
these aircraft. But the way that they're
acting in a persistent manner and being
relatively selective, you would think
that what they would do is watch a
facility out in the jungle, watch
material be brought up to a to a known
trans shshipment point be loaded onto a
boat, then comes out in the water. The
stinks of a non US Department of Defense
predator.
I see. I see. So
he doesn't control those.
No. No, he wouldn't. He wakes up in the
morning and gets a a cup of coffee and a
report that another boat's been blown up
in his area of operation.
So for the Trump administration then I
mean in terms of who will replace Hulse
um does that then give the US
administration depend I mean I I don't
know exactly how the selection of of new
admirals would work but would that give
them the the capability to put someone
in place there who might be uh more
willing to go along with with further
strikes on on boats or or even uh
further buildup targeted at Venezuela.
Yeah, it's really not about further
strikes on boats. It's really about
carrying out actions against Venezuela,
which is the United States going to war
with Venezuela. Uh we can't do anything,
you know. I mean, this this little
patriot game, you know, uh clear and
present danger Tom Clancy game that
they're playing right now is skirting
the law. They are extrajudicial
executions and there is no legal
precedence for them. They can call
Trenar Aagua terrorists all they want,
but the war on the authorization for the
use of force for the war on terrorism
was strictly oriented to al-Qaeda and
its global anticidence. Right? The
groups which spawn from al-Qaeda and
ISIS. There is no finding that says that
that narot traffickers are designated
terrorists. To be a terrorist, you
actually have to go through a criteria.
I wrote a a small book called the
terrorist recognition handbook. It is
used across all agencies in the United
States government. It's on its third
edition in the last 15 years. And you
actually have to carry out an act of
terrorism or being prepared to be carry
out an act of terrorism saying that you
are in the distribution of narcotics. Uh
and by the president declaring that
that's a death penalty. Let me tell you,
I mean uh first off, what you're doing
couldn't be considered a war crime,
right? the extrajudicial killing of
civilians without cause. So that being a
war crime um is something that they are
really going to have to be prepared to
answer for. But then again, these people
don't care a wit about law if you
haven't figured that out. Uh you know,
it's about show and optics and you know,
but if this gets into a shooting war in
Venezuela, let me tell you, 2500 Marines
ain't going to cut it, right? I don't
care how much clandestine activity you
put in there. if the millions of people
in Venezuela do not support you. Okay.
Also, you're playing around in the
backyard of Russia, Iran, and you could
wake up one morning and be prepared to
go out there and and and carry out all
these activities, maybe even land
marines, you know, uh in and you know,
on on the coast. And then as you wake up
that morning, you find out that Iran has
shipped 25 anti-ship missiles you did
not detect. And now suddenly you got
vampires flying at you left and right
and maybe hit or sink a US warship and
then this will go to where a h 100,000
men will have to be mobilized. I mean we
don't do well with guys in flipflops and
that's all they wear down there. We
we've lost every war against guys in
flip flops.
Well well indeed. So, so you know, even
if there is no direct plan now by the
the US administration for some sort of
wider conflict, in your mind then,
should we actually be quite concerned
about these tensions with Venezuela just
bubbling over? Because Venezuela is one
of the better armed countries in South
America as well, isn't it? I mean, they
do have a significant military
capability, even if it is, of course,
not as big as the US is itself.
Yeah. Well, you know, speaking
asymmetrically, right? We have an
asymmetric advantage in that we have
overwhelming outrageous amounts of
firepower. Uh but you're talking about a
country whose armed forces would be the
equivalent of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard right on their turf homefield
advantage. Um and you can steam out
there at 11, you know, 12 nautical miles
all you want. You can go out and
interdict these little vessels for the
video arcade v view of them burning, you
know, and watching people jump into the
water on fire, which is all you're
getting out of this. But at some point,
you know, um it could psycho out of
control. They, you know, there have been
attempts by amateurs to send armed
mercenaries into uh Venezuela. You might
recall a few years back these uh these
Americans. I have no earthly idea where
these idiots get their ideas from, but
they were just like, "We're gonna land
on Venezuela. We're going to come in by
small boats and we're going to go there.
We're just going to look cool bad
carrying their military ID cards, their
passports. There were white guys with a
couple of Venezuelans and they are
living this fantasy world that there are
not hundreds of thousands of soldiers
and police waiting for them. All right.
And they have their you know these
people have love their own country and
unless something changes to where the
military destabilizes that country or
some major or general decides to become
General Lissimo um we are operating an
environment where they have the capacity
to hurt us. They have the capacity to
roll up every C if there aren't CIA
assets there um that knew about this.
Well, now every one of them's burned
because the president has spoken about
things he shouldn't have spoken about.
If they're not there and he was just
talking smack, well, now you've
sentenced civilians who may have
cooperated with us to death because
they're just going to be suspected.
Indeed, it's a it's a a very a moment of
very high tensions and I'm I'm sure
we'll discuss it again with you soon,
Malcolm. But Malcolm Nance,
intelligence, foreign policy analyst and
former cryptologologist in the US Navy,
thank you very much for joining me today
on the Trump Report. It's always my
pleasure.

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‘No Kings’ Protest Live Updates: Bird-eye view of Chicago crowds uniting against Trump’s policies
ANI News
Oct 18, 2025 #NoKingsProtest #Chicago #Trump

‘No Kings’ Protest Live Updates: Bird-eye view of Chicago crowds uniting against Trump’s policies



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JB Pritzker tells Trump to "stay the hell out of Chicago” during "No Kings" protest
CBS Chicago
Oct 18, 2025

Governor JB Pritzker spoke at Chicago's No Kings" protest on Saturday. “Donald Trump, stay the hell out of Chicago,” Pritzker said



Transcript

And someone who has been leading in that
fight with us is our very own Governor
JB Pritsker.
Hello Chicago.
We are here today to defend a principle
that has defined America since its
founding. the belief that tyranny in any
form must be resisted by the people of
conscience, especially here in Chicago.
We will never surrender.
Throughout history, we've learned that
tyranny doesn't arrive with dramatic
proclamations.
Most times it comes quietly wrapped in
the language of law and order with
fingers pointed at someone who doesn't
look like you, promising safety while
demanding that we sacrifice our
neighbors.
Today, we're here to say with one voice
that there is an existential threat to
our constitutional republic. This is not
a political choice. This is a moral
imperative.
The reality, the reality here in Chicago
is this. Black and brown people are
being rounded up because of the color of
their skin.
Children are being zip tied and
separated from their parents.
Worshippers coming from church are being
questioned and detained.
Workers are being harassed and detained
at our shops and restaurants.
These are not abstractions. These are
people who pay taxes, own businesses,
teach our children, care for our
elderly, and contribute to the fabric of
our society. This is us. All of us.
We're seeing midnight raids, arrests
without judicial warrants, federal
agents violating our right to free
speech, the fourth and fifth amendments
ignored, and communities living in fear.
It means children coming home to empty
houses wondering if their parents will
ever return. And here's what concerns me
the most, the normalization of it all.
When we accept the idea that the color
of your skin is probable cause to detain
you, that the government should have
unlimited power to round up and imprison
people without due process,
that Trump can build a massive
enforcement apparatus with no
constitutional limits.
Well, then we erode the foundations that
protect all of us. Chicago, is that okay
with you?
History teaches us that powers granted
in the name of security are rarely
relinquished. The precedents that we set
today become the justifications for
tomorrow's abuses. When we allow
tyrannical policies against any group,
we make tyranny possible against every
group.
Chicago, is that okay with you?
We are here today at this rally because
Donald Trump and Steven Miller
are already coming for the immigrants
and for black and brown people and for
LGBTQ people and for their political
opponents.
The famous the famous Martin Neimler
poem first they came concludes with the
words then they came for me and there
was no one left to speak for me.
What Trump didn't count on is Chicago
coming together to stand up for freedom
and individual rights for American
values because we love America.
USA.
USA.
Trump. Trump and Steven Miller tried to
stop us from rallying today by calling
us names. Do we care if they call us
names?
and they're threatening still to bring
military troops into Chicago, claiming
there's an insurrection here. Is this an
insurrection?
It's because peaceful democratic
resistance is always scary to
authoritarians.
And Chicago is known for our peaceful
resistance, for labor rights, and for
civil rights.
Going all the way back to the 1850
Fugitive Slave Act, requiring cities
like ours to capture and return black
people fleeing slavery, the city council
said no. The people of Chicago said no.
Communities of everyday Americans banded
together to protect those who had fled
slavery, hoping to find freedom in
Chicago. Because we in Chicago are not
afraid to stand up for fundamental
American values.
Now, the vast majority of Chicagoans are
here because our ancestors fought to
escape from tyranny. And another great
portion of Chicagoans were brought to
this country in shackles and had to
fight for their literal freedom.
Resistance and survival are in our
American blood.
Today we are resisting more than just
Donald Trump's attacks on democracy and
he knows it. Trump is panicking about
the growing public backlash to his
broader agenda. His tariff taxes are
costing average American families
between 2400 and $4,800 per year.
Illinois soybean farmers are losing
billions and going bankrupt because of
Trump's trade war.
And so are small businesses. and he
defunded programs to reduce crime and is
cancelling food assistance and medical
care for the middle class and working
class and our most vulnerable.
People are here today standing up for
our constitutional rights and our
economic freedom. And that is what
resistance looks like.
And you know, resistance starts with
refusing to normalize cruelty.
Resistance means choosing solidarity
over fear.
It means recognizing that an attack on
free speech, on immigrants rights, on
due process is an attack on everyone's
rights.
It means understanding that we're either
building a society based on human
dignity or one based on domination.
Which is it? Human dignity.
History will judge us by where we chose
to stand right now today. Future
generations will ask, "What did we do
when fellow human beings faced
persecution? when our rights were being
abridged, when our constitution was
under attack,
they'll want to know whether we stood up
or we stayed silent, whether we chose
compassion.
Do we get it?
We need a medic over here.
Thank you for looking out for each
other.
Folks, tyranny requires your fear, your
silence, and your compliance. Democracy
requires your courage.
And tyranny depends on good people doing
nothing. It requires us to accept the
unacceptable, to rationalize the
irrational, to normalize the abnormal.
But tyranny also fails when ordinary
people refuse to cooperate, when they
say no kings. And they mean it.
So, Donald Trump stayed the hell out of
Chicago.

[admin]

[admin]

Trump descends into FULL BLOWN PANIC over No Kings
Brian Tyler Cohen
Oct. 19, 2025

BREAKING #news - Trump posts AI video of him dropping feces on Americans

For more from Brian Tyler Cohen:
Straight-news titled YouTube: / @briantylercohennews
YouTube (español): / @briantylercohenespanol
Order my #1 NYT bestselling book:

[admin]

Trump NUKED By RESIGNATION As All HELL BREAKS LOOSE!
Jack Cocchiarella
Oct 21, 2025 Jack Cocchiarella Show

Political commentator Jack Cocchiarella reacts to a shock MAGA resignation.



Transcript

Donald Trump's administration is in a
state of absolute chaos right now. His
poll numbers have never been worse. Him
and Mike Johnson are unable to negotiate
an end to this shutdown. One, because
they're incapable. And two, because
Donald Trump doesn't even understand
what's happening. And three, because
they know what's coming next. An end to
the shutdown also would mean the
beginning of more Epstein turmoil for
Donald Trump. He is panicking like never
before and it was just made worse by a
shock resignation exposing the crisis in
the White House that we are going to get
into. But before we do, if I could
quickly ask you to leave a like on this
video and if you haven't already and you
enjoy our channel to hit that subscribe
button because it goes a long way in
supporting our work. Now before we get
into that shock resignation, I want to
start with how things are going for
Donald Trump over the past couple of
days after No Kings. It's really not
great, but it was broken down by someone
who it brings me a lot of joy to hear
mock Donald Trump, and that's Jamie
Raskin right here.
Totally positive, totally patriotic, um,
and totally supportive of us getting the
American government back in business
again, reopening, and supporting the
healthcare of the American people and
supporting the federal workforce. And
you know, I kicked off by saying that
Speaker Johnson was talking about a hate
America rally, but that one had already
taken place on January 6th, 2021 when uh
Trump incited a mob of insurrectionists
who violently assaulted our police
officers, wounding and injuring more
than 140 of them in order to overturn a
presidential election he lost by more
than 7 million votes. That's what a hate
America rally looks like. This is what a
Love America movement looks like. And
that's why they've been trashing it for
weeks now because they know that
millions of Americans are standing up
against their authoritarianism.
I guess the question, Congressman, and
particularly obviously for Democrats, is
it a movement? Can you take the energy
from these rallies and use it
effectively moving forward?
Yeah. Well, that's the question, but I
think it was answered on Saturday. I
mean, this is right now the largest uh
set of demonstrations uh that's ever
occurred in American history. I don't
know that there's ever been 7 million
people who have assembled in unity
against an administration that has been
so determined to violate the civil
rights and civil liberties of the
people, usurp the powers of Congress, uh
and trampled the constitution as well as
shut down the US government. So, uh,
these are definitely movement conditions
and, uh, we have tremendous focus and
unity within our party to hang tough
for, uh, Medicaid for the American
people, to hang tough for the monthly
premium tax credits that are part of the
Affordable Care Act. They want to throw
millions of people off of healthcare,
and the Democrats are saying, "No way.
We're not going to allow you to do that.
Uh, we're going to reopen the
government. We're going to uh
reestablish the health care rights of
the people. We want to rehire the
federal workers who have been illegally
sacked, including more than 4,000 at the
end of last week from eight different
agencies, including uh the people who
are the disease trackers at the Centers
for Disease Control. And we want to see
sworn in Adelita Grihalva as quickly as
possible so we can get America moving
forward again. And then you know the
millions of people you saw in the
streets as protesters on Saturday become
organizers in 2026 for us to take back
Congress even against the extreme
gerrymandering of the Republican party
and all their voter suppression tricks.
Let me ask you short term because you
brought up healthcare um and and there
are I I don't need to tell you. I'm
guessing you hear from your constituents
a lot of nervous people out there about
what is going to happen with their
premiums. Are there any meaningful
conversations going on behind the scenes
that you think could help break the
shutdown impass?
Well, I don't know whether any took
place over the weekend, but I will tell
you this. Um there I heard from tons of
people out on the road and at the
protests saying that their health care
is going to be going up hundreds or
thousands of dollars a month uh because
of the Republican refusal to negotiate
to reopen the government.
Things could not be going worse for this
administration. They really couldn't.
Donald Trump's approval rating is in the
gutter. He cannot win a messaging battle
about the shutdown. He just keeps lying
and doing AI slop that everyone is kind
of just uncomfortable with and shows
kind of the demented state of the Trump
brain. But we see what's happening right
now. Donald Trump is just trying to use
this shutdown to continue to be the most
corrupt president in history by slapping
tariffs that allow for insider trading.
Uh having the media distracted enough to
pardon George Santos and maybe Ghislaine
Maxwell. And that is why Donald Trump is
being hit with a shock resignation
blowing up everything. and I want to get
into it. GOP fundraiser trashes Trump's
authoritarian regime in scathing
resignation. A Republican fundraising
strategist has revealed that he is
leaving the party, saying he has finally
had enough of its appeasement of Donald
Trump. Miles Bruner, a former senior
fundraising strategist for the
Republican digital fundraising firm
Campaign Solutions, wrote an essay for
my colleagues at the Bulwark
explaining why he is quitting the party
and urged others to do the same to save
the future of the country. Since Donald
Trump descended that golden escalator in
2015, the Republican party has devolved
into a cult of personality that mirrors
the worst authoritarian regimes of the
last 100 years. He wrote, "For 10 years,
the GOP has waged war, an unrelenting
war on our civic institutions, the
separation of powers, the foundation of
the rule of law, and the very nature of
truth itself." While Trump and his
supporters in Congress have been the
driving force behind the rights descent
into desperatism, it would also not have
been possible without the thousands of
consultants, aids, and politicos working
behind the scenes to fully execute their
systemic dismantling of American
democratic norms. Bruner said that much
of his job at campaign solutions
revolved around drafting fundraising
emails designed to outmaga the previous.
It was routine to publish content that
pushed election fraud conspiracies,
stoked anti-immigrant sentiment, and
sowed distrust in our institutions, he
wrote. He described becoming
disillusioned while working as a
political coordinator for moderate
California state senator Janet Nan.
Bruner said that he tried desperately to
distance the state senator from Trump
during the 2016 campaign and hoped that
Trump's very fine people response to the
deadly far-right rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 would
provide the perfect opportunity to break
away. However, the state senator was
reportedly unhappy with the statement
her team released describing Heather
Hire, the woman struck and killed by a
white supremacist during a demonstration
opposing the neo-Nazis, as an American
hero after she received backlash from
Trump's MAGA base. The staff stressed to
the state senator that they had the
person had been indeed killed by a
terrorist for protesting Nazis in her
city. But that didn't matter. The text
was changed and any further
condemnations of Trump or alt-right
activities occurring in our district
would stop. Bruner wrote, "It was the
first time I would have drawn the line
and said, "I quit, but again, I stayed."
Bruner said that throughout his time in
the GOP, he rationalized,
compartmentalized, and found excuses to
stay tethered to the party despite his
deep concern about Trump being the
defacto leader of the GOP. His essay
concludes with a plea for others to
follow his lead even if they fear how it
might affect their careers or personal
lives. This is exactly the type of
courage that we need in this moment and
I'm so glad that there is an independent
media outlet like the bulwark maybe
growing faster than any other of course
rivals like Meidas touch or crooked but
but this is a this is a story that needs
to be told and I'm glad that the bulwark
is the space where that can be done
and I'm glad that I have been able to
work with them on telling some other
stories on Sunday and one of them was
about Rand Paul a Republican who has
broken with Trump doing both that
breaking with Trump and calling him out
for committing war crimes, but also
sucking up to him in the weirdest ways
on the Sunday shows. I want you to take
a look at what we're doing over at the
bulwark on Sundays. In this clip right
here, Republicans are cucks. At least
Ran Paul is. Rand Paul is a cuck. He is
submissive to Donald Trump. He likes to
debase himself at his pleasure. And I I
know I always talk about the fact that
the Sunday shows are an opportunity for
Republicans to put on their favorite
humiliation ritual for the dear leader,
but what Ran Paul did today was one of
the saddest things I've ever seen out of
a United States senator. Like truly
truly embarrassing, especially because
then he went on to criticize Donald
Trump after saying, "Oh, dear leader,
won't you give me some more?" But but
this is some truly bad stuff that I want
to get into. Donald Trump made a wild,
outlandish, as he always does,
ridiculous true social post about Rand
Paul earlier this week that he had to
respond to. And his response again, you
will get secondhand embarrassment.
This was a post on Friday night. Let me
read you, get your reaction on the other
side, he said, quote, "Whatever happened
to Senator Ran Paul? He was never great,
but he went really bad. I got him
elected twice in the great Commonwealth
of Kentucky, but he just never votes
positively for the Republican party.
He's a nasty little guy. Why do you
think President Trump is targeting you,
Senator?
I think the problem is this is that in
Washington, what I represent, some
people describe as unusual, and the
president describes it as weird, that
I'm for uh less debt and balanced
budgets. But, you know, when I come home
to Kentucky or when I travel United
States, people come up to me and say,
"Stick to your guns. You're the only
voice up there, Republican or Democrat,
who's still talking about the debt and
still talking about balanced budgets."
But I don't take it too seriously. Look,
I've known the president for over a
decade. I played golf with him many,
many times. I enjoy his company. I was
one of his biggest defenders on
impeachment and would do so again. I
think he's one of the best presidents,
if not the best presidents of my
lifetime. So he gets mad at me
sometimes, but I'm still one of his best
supporters if he's willing to have it.
You're still one of his best supporters.
You love him. You're going to do
whatever it takes. His company is so
great to be around. What is wrong with
these people? Like, do they not feel
embarrassment? Oh, you know, like, dear
Leader Trump, he said that I was a
[ __ ] and an idiot, but he's just
joking around. You know how President
Trump is. He loves me. We're great guys.
Oh, he said that my wife was ugly. When
I don't know, Becca, she's working on
it. She's getting the makeups done. You
know, it's fine. We love what President
Trump says. Like, have you no shame? Do
Do you not care? Like, how far are will
you willing to sell yourself out, Rand
Paul? Like, but again, this is the
humiliation ritual of the Sunday shows,
but you are usually defending something
that Trump said about Democrats or
people of color or I don't know, he was
attacking some marginalized group or
enacting some illegal action. It's
usually not about them. But for Rand
Paul to not just like excuse it, but
fully embrace it and then be like, do
you know what it is? It's because I
wasn't with him. I love being in his
company. Saying, "I love being in his
company." That is crazy. He is doing
tricks on it. What are you talking
about? Well, when Mr. Trump is tweeting
about me, that's different. But when we
get together, I just see that look in
his eye and he loves me. He says that
I'm a good boy. Like I I truly don't
understand how the the party that claims
that it's all about the masculinity and
the machoess and we're so [ __ ] tough
is also just a bunch of cucks. Like
these guys aren't cool. There is nothing
that exists in their life outside of not
even politics because if it was politics
it'd be one thing. Like that's all I
spend my time doing but it's because I
actually give a [ __ ] about people. But
their dedication is to Trump. Like their
worldview is of Trump. It is of nothing
else. We need to get some larger lockers
in the US Senate and like just start
stuffing like these people are
embarrassing to us. What is tough about
constantly and always capitulating to
Trump and oh the dear leader he is so
great. He is so fantastic and praising
him non-stop. But what's so insane to me
about this and I just can't believe Rand
Paul. I guess I should. These people
truly are embarrassing and we have to
call them out more and more and more
every single day and point out the fact
that they should be humiliated and that
this is embarrassing and that
Republicans shouldn't be able to call
themselves the tough macho men when they
are always capitulating to Donald Trump.
We are going to continue to do that on
this show. And if you want to support
that, as always, you can hit that
subscribe button, leave a like on this
video. If you stuck around to the end,
drop a blue heart in the comments. Keep
on fighting. Don't let them silence you.
And until next time, I'll see you

**************************

GOP Fundraiser Trashes Trump’s ‘Authoritarian’ Regime in Scathing Resignation. Miles Bruner spent more than a decade advising and fundraising for Republicans.
by Ewan Palmer
Daily Beast
Published Oct. 20 2025 11:19AM EDT
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-fundr ... signation/

[x]
President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House as he prepares to board Marine One on October 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.

A Republican fundraising strategist has revealed that he is leaving the party, saying he has finally had enough of its appeasement of Donald Trump.

Miles Bruner, a former senior fundraising strategist for the Republican digital fundraising firm Campaign Solutions, wrote an essay for The Bulwark explaining why he is quitting the party and urged others to do the same to save the future of the country.

“Since Donald Trump descended that golden escalator in 2015, the Republican Party has devolved into a cult of personality that mirrors the worst authoritarian regimes of the last 100 years,” Bruner wrote.

[x]
Miles Bruner sees the far-right rally in Charlottesville and Trump's reaction to it as a key moment.
Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“For 10 years, the GOP has waged an unrelenting war on our civic institutions, the separation of powers, the foundation of the rule of law, and the very nature of truth itself. While Trump and his supporters in Congress have been the driving force behind the right’s descent into despotism, it would not have been possible without the thousands of consultants, aides, and politicos working behind the scenes to fully execute their systematic dismantling of American democratic norms.”

Bruner said that much of his job at Campaign Solutions revolved around drafting fundraising emails designed to “out-MAGA the previous.”

“It was routine to publish content that pushed election fraud conspiracies, stoked anti-immigrant sentiment, and sowed distrust in our institutions,” he wrote.

He described becoming disillusioned while working as a political coordinator for moderate California State Senator Janet Nguyen. Bruner said he tried desperately to distance Nguyen from Trump during the 2016 campaign and hoped that Trump’s “very fine people” response to the deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 would provide the perfect opportunity to break away.

[x]
Miles Bruner began working as a political coordinator for Janet Nguyen’s state senate campaign in California, eventually becoming her district director. Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

However, Nguyen was reportedly unhappy with a statement her team released describing Heather Heyer—the woman struck and killed by a white supremacist during a demonstration opposing the neo-Nazis—as an American hero after she received backlash from Trump’s MAGA base.

“The staff stressed to her that Heyer had indeed been killed by a terrorist for protesting Nazis in her city. But that didn’t matter; the text was changed, and any further condemnations of Trump or alt-right activities occurring in our district would stop,” Bruner wrote. “It was the first time I should have drawn the line and said I quit. But, again, I stayed.”

Bruner said that throughout his time in the GOP, he “rationalized, compartmentalized, and found excuses to stay tethered to the party,” despite his deep concerns about Trump being the de facto leader of the GOP.

He said that what “finally broke” was the “rightward lurch” of the Supreme Court during the Trump years and “the lengths to which the right was willing to go to undermine established legal precedents and access to reproductive rights.”

Bruner added that having a baby delayed his final decision to quit his job and the party, but he has now officially cut ties as Trump’s second term enters its 10th month.

His essay concludes with a plea for others to follow his lead, even if they fear how it might affect their careers or personal lives.

“I know the thought of walking away from your career and your familiar social network is terrifying. I urge you to recognize that our nation is heading down a very dark path. But it’s not too late to change direction,” he wrote.

“If you believe in this country, now is the time to refuse to ferry its destruction for a tainted livelihood. Take a stand. Speak out. Show your pride as an American who believes in the Constitution and the values we grew up with.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

*****************

My Last Day as an Accomplice of the Republican Party. Why I’m leaving the GOP and why I’m urging my former colleagues to do the same.
by Miles Bruner
The Bulwark
Oct 20, 2025
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/my-last-da ... les-bruner

[x]
Miles Bruner in Washington D.C. (Photo by Carl Maynard for The Bulwark).

SINCE DONALD TRUMP DESCENDED that golden escalator in 2015, the Republican party has devolved into a cult of personality that mirrors the worst authoritarian regimes of the last one hundred years.

For ten years, the GOP has waged an unrelenting war on our civic institutions, the separation of powers, the foundation of the rule of law, and the very nature of truth itself. While Trump and his supporters in Congress have been the driving force behind the right’s descent into despotism, it would not have been possible without the thousands of consultants, aides, and politicos working behind the scenes to fully execute their systematic dismantling of American democratic norms.

That’s why I’m publishing this letter today.

For over twelve years, I worked inside the Republican ecosystem, helping the party advance its goals in several fields, ranging from grassroots voter outreach to digital fundraising. I worked inside GOP circles through Trump’s takeover of the party, his initial downfall, and his resurgence in 2023–2024. At every step along the way, I rationalized, compartmentalized, and found excuses to stay tethered to the party, even as I grew to believe it was undermining the foundations of our constitutional republic. But over the last few months, the compartmentalization and coping stopped working to silence my conscience.

And now, after more than a decade, I have decided I have finally had enough.

I quit. I quit the Republican party and my job as an accomplice to the party in the throes of an authoritarian cult. Today, I resigned from my career as a senior fundraising strategist for one of the leading Republican digital fundraising firms in Washington, D.C.

I’m not the first to take this path. A lot of ink has been spilled by former Republican politicians and staffers about why they left the Republican party. Tim Miller’s Why We Did It provides a valuable perspective from the vantage point of a political strategist at the Senate and presidential level. My journey has been through the lower tiers of the Republican party, in state-level campaigns and as a mid-level manager in a GOP-affiliated consulting firm. Mine wasn’t as high a vantage point. But when it comes to understanding the MAGA takeover, it was no less critical. It was at this level that I saw firsthand how Trumpism, as both a cultural and political force, took hold at the grassroots level, driving local politicians to make the thousands of decisions and compromises that in turn enabled Trump and GOP leadership to wedge the MAGA movement even deeper into American life.

Don’t get me wrong: My ego is not so large that I believe I played a significant role in putting Trump into office. What I mean is that it took the collective action of thousands of people in similar positions, working nine-to-five jobs, figuring out how they were going to pay for their kid’s daycare or fund their retirement, to get us where we are today. I was a part of that—until I decided I could no longer be.

MY GOAL IN QUITTING the party and writing this piece is twofold: first, to shed light on why someone would continue to work for an increasingly corrupt and authoritarian political party despite their divergent ethical and political beliefs; second, to convince any number of consultants, staffers, and former colleagues to follow their consciences and leave with their integrity still intact.

To do that, I should start by explaining how I arrived at working for the Republican party.

My self-identification as a Republican pre-dates my professional life. It took shape as a teenager in the social and political milieu of post-9/11 America, where I developed a belief in American exceptionalism derived from George W. Bush’s willingness to take the fight to terrorists in Afghanistan and bring democracy to Iraq. It was an exciting time for a kid fascinated by politics. Volunteering for a local Republican congressional candidate in the 2004 election as a high school junior is one of my most treasured memories to this day. I can still vividly remember how thrilling it was driving around the district in my 1997 forest-green Chevy Blazer putting up yard signs while blasting Toby Keith’s “American Soldier.”

I eventually became disillusioned by the Bush administration’s handling of foreign affairs. But one belief never left me: that the projection of American soft and hard power not only makes America safe, it makes the world safe. Throw in a little misguided hagiography of Ayn Rand, and you have the foundation for a deeply committed Republican.

My career as an actual Republican operative started in 2013 when I became political coordinator for Janet Nguyen’s state senate campaign in California. The job involved a lot of election precinct analysis, social media copywriting, and any gofer work my boss could think of. After Janet’s victory, I transitioned to her Senate office, ultimately becoming her district director.

Janet, who is now a county supervisor in Orange County, was known as a moderate and represented what should have been a solidly Democratic state senate district in Orange County. While she was a backbencher in a legislature dominated by a Democratic supermajority, she had a compelling story. She was a refugee from Vietnam. She came from nothing and achieved the American Dream. Her election, however, came at a moment when the Republican party had started drifting away from the very things she represented. Much of that drift can be attributed to the influence of one man: Donald J. Trump.

I’d like to say that even before Trump burst onto the political scene, my disillusionment had started to set in. Our staff had, for some time, known that there was a toxic strain of know-nothing populism festering at the ground level inside the GOP. Working on Janet’s 2014 campaign, we routinely heard volunteers sharing conspiracies over vaccines or Obama’s birthplace. We assumed they were a fringe and that keeping them happy was the cost of electing moderates like Janet. Then came June 16, 2015. We watched from our district office as Trump came down the golden escalator and announced his campaign for president. I admit, I didn’t initially think it would be a disaster for the country, because I still assumed he was a joke and would lose the primary in a landslide. My concern was over how this would impact Janet’s political standing in a district where Latinos held a plurality of the vote.

The real anxiety didn’t set in until a month later when Trump dropped the John McCain is “not a war hero” line at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. I was walking around a street festival with my girlfriend when I got the text from Janet calling for an emergency staff meeting to discuss a possible response. Everyone was on the call. My personal outrage aside, I thought Janet’s story as a refugee of Communist Vietnam made issuing a full-throated condemnation the only logical response. She would show Latinos she’s willing to stand up to Trump, and she’d appeal to conservatives by standing up for our military. Call it a lack of imagination, but I couldn’t wrap my head around her taking any other course of action.

However, a consensus rapidly emerged that a non-response was the most prudent course of action. The thinking was that Trump’s candidacy was a joke—why alienate the sliver of voters Trump was holding when he’d be out of the race in a few months? From that point on, my anxiety began to fester.

[x]
(Photo by Carl Maynard)

I didn’t give up hope of trying to create distance between Janet and Trump. Later in the campaign, I proposed that she write an op-ed about the Syrian refugee crisis, again leveraging her background while calling on America, as the bastion of freedom, to open its doors to those fleeing the Syrian civil war. She loved the idea. The full staff and her consultants didn’t. The op-ed was killed.

After that, I stopped trying. For the remainder of the 2015–2016 campaign, I tried to pretend Trump didn’t exist. When he won the primary, we compartmentalized it by assuming he’d lose the general election to Hillary Clinton. And when that didn’t happen, I got drunk with my colleagues at Janet’s house.

And yet, I kept going. New rationalizations took hold. First, I was working for a moderate who I still believed represented the future of the party. She believed in the efficient use of government services, she didn’t belittle immigrant populations, and she firmly believed in American exceptionalism. Second, I was in my late twenties, with a mountain of student loan debt, and still living in my childhood home. The prospect of leaving was too overwhelming to imagine. So, I stayed.

We more or less muddled our way through the first seven months of Trump’s presidency, relying on the same head-in-the-sand strategy that got us through 2016, until the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally and the murder of Heather Heyer in August 2017. The images of young white men in polo shirts carrying tiki torches and screaming “Jews will not replace us” horrified our entire staff. With alt-right events, including one planned public book burning that was eventually canceled, popping up in our region, we knew Janet had to issue a statement condemning the rally—and President Trump for saying there were good people on both sides. This was the initial statement we drafted and had Janet post on Facebook:

Today our nation mourns as an American hero is laid to rest. Heather Heyer stood up for our most sacred of American values — equality, freedom, and individual liberty. Having fled the persecution of a fascist regime and to now see one of our fellow Americans fall victim to the very same hateful ideology is enough to bring me to tears.

We buried the condemnation of Trump on Twitter, believing that fewer of her Republican supporters would see it:

[x]
Senator Janet Nguyen@SenJanetNguyen
It's unacceptable and unconscionable that the President left a moral gray area sympathizing with #whitesupremacists & neo-nazis. 1/5

There must be no equivocation when rejecting bigoted and hateful ideology.

It's time we come together and embrace the ideals that make our country the envy of the world - freedom and equality.

My parents and I, like so many, fled Vietnam fearing fascist persecution for a land where human liberty would be respected - America.

Let's remind everyone in this world that our country is still the land of opportunity and inclusivity.

12:13 PM Aug 16, 2017

Within minutes of putting up the Facebook post, Janet received calls from supporters outraged that she would ever think to call Heather Heyer a hero. Not realizing that she had approved the post, Janet was outraged. She ordered us to revise it. The staff stressed to her that Heyer had indeed been killed by a terrorist for protesting Nazis in her city. But that didn’t matter; the text was changed, and any further condemnations of Trump or alt-right activities occurring in our district would stop. The Twitter post stayed up because she believed her most vocal supporters weren’t on Twitter. A belief we didn’t bother to contend.

I had never felt more defeated in my entire professional career. When I got home that night, I sat on the couch with my then-girlfriend (now wife) and broke down. I was angry; I hated my boss; I hated Trump; I hated what our country had devolved into; I hated myself for being a part of it; and I hated that I lacked any ability to see a way out.

It was the first time I should have drawn the line and said I quit. But, again, I stayed.

IT’S HARD TO CONVEY the emotional and mental weight one feels when one’s career suddenly conflicts with one’s beliefs. A coping mechanism I found myself reverting to several times over the course of the last ten years was to take myself out of the present moment and focus on the future. Doing this allowed me to ignore my current predicament and create plans that gave me a way out. It gave me a clearer sense of agency in an environment I felt completely lost in.

For me, the prospect of getting the title of campaign manager for Janet’s re-election campaign in 2018 kept me going. I thought that once I had the experience of managing a campaign in one of California’s most contested Senate elections, I would be able to write my ticket anywhere. I eventually did get the title I wanted and did manage the final stage of Janet’s re-election campaign. We weren’t in a congressional race, which meant we weren’t fielding a whole lot of questions about Trump. But his presence loomed over all elections that cycle. Our strategy was to juice the Vietnamese vote for Janet in Little Saigon, hope the white vote held steady everywhere, and minimize the damage in the Latino community. On Election Night, it looked like we had avoided being swept up by the Blue wave. But we kept bleeding votes as more ballots were counted over the following couple of weeks. We lost.

By December, I was out of a job, and for the first time in four years, I felt like I was finally free. But the reality was far from liberating. What followed was a nightmare-inducing seven-month job hunt. I applied to over a hundred jobs, went through multiple rounds of interviews, and was ghosted by several employers. The entire process drained my savings and left me desperate for a job anywhere I could find it, even if it meant slinking back to the Republican party.

So I did. In June, I took an RNC campaign-management course in Oklahoma, and by August, I was hired by Campaign Solutions, a digital fundraising firm based in the D.C. area.

So, my wife and I uprooted our entire lives in Southern California and moved to Northern Virginia. From a cozy office tucked away in a picturesque suburb of Washington, D.C., I assisted in and coordinated digital fundraising campaigns for political action committees, congressional and gubernatorial candidates, and House and Senate campaign committees.

After seven months of unemployment and being down to the final few dollars of my life savings, any misgivings I had about the direction of the Republican party had been eclipsed by my relief to finally have a steady paycheck again. But that quickly changed. In my new position, I became enmeshed in the D.C. Republican consulting ecosystem that was now fully orbiting around Trump.

The clients I oversaw and the emails I wrote for them were all 100 percent pro-MAGA. Every piece of fundraising content had to somehow out-MAGA the previous. It was routine to publish content that pushed election fraud conspiracies, stoked anti-immigrant sentiment, and sowed distrust in our institutions.

In D.C., I got better at compartmentalizing my work. Given all the tumult and chaos of the COVID pandemic and the George Floyd riots, our routine remained relatively simple. Our company shut down our offices during the pandemic, so for most of the 2020 election, I didn’t have to see or experience the consequences of my actions or be around others who seemingly reveled in Trump’s chaos. I also felt Joe Biden was going to defeat Trump anyway, so my work didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

In the end, Biden won. But my need to compartmentalize and rationalize would not end with his win.

WE’RE AT THE POINT in the story where I know what you’re thinking: How are you in any way a sympathetic, let alone a believable, character in any of this? Perhaps you’re asking why I should be listened to. After all, I stuck around in the muck I’m now decrying for years. I profited from it (albeit barely). That’s fair.

I’m fully aware that any excuses at this point won’t justify why I stayed so long and will only sound like thin attempts at rationalization to alleviate my personal guilt. Maybe they are. I know that the fact that I’ve finally taken action doesn’t on its own bring me absolution. That’s not what I’m looking for here. My intention rather is to try to explain how it is that people who know better don’t act on that belief—to illuminate how we justify our contributions to the degradation of our politics in real time.

Perhaps no moment can illuminate this better than January 6th.

No one in our office anticipated what was about to happen on that day. The footage of violent rioters storming the U.S. Capitol just a few miles from us left everyone in a temporary daze. A consensus seemed to slowly emerge that Trump had finally gone too far. Even Lindsey Graham, one of our company’s clients and one of Trump’s most ardent defenders in the Senate, told the nation to “count me out” following the riots.

Yet, paradoxically, January 6th gave me still another excuse to continue in my job. After all, the system had held, the courts had stood firm, Trump’s cadre of supporters had been thoroughly humiliated, and Trump was going into exile at Mar-a-Lago as a political pariah.

[x]
(Photo by Carl Maynard)

The bonus following the election didn’t hurt either; 2020 had been the company’s best year in history, and everyone on staff reaped the rewards. For the first time in my adult life, I was finally on sound financial footing. With my wife and I preparing to start a family, the idea of leaving the Republican party ceased to be a serious consideration.

The next few years went by uneventfully. I clocked in at the office at nine and left at five. I was treated to conventions in exotic locales and was invited to D.C. parties. I got promoted and received a sizable pay raise. At a superficial level and putting my ethics aside, I was living the life I had imagined having as a teenager.

But my comfortable position papered over a massive chasm between my personal political beliefs and the new MAGA orthodoxy of the Republican party. I had believed there was a red line that, once crossed, would force me to leave the Republican party for good and never turn back. But at this moment, I wasn’t so sure where that line was.

WHAT FINALLY BROKE ME out of my comfortable cocoon had nothing to do with Trump or his grip on the Republican party. Rather, it was the rightward lurch of the Supreme Court and the lengths to which the right was willing to go to undermine established legal precedents and access to reproductive rights.

When I was younger, I was staunchly pro-life. But as I got older, I grew to realize this wasn’t the black-and-white issue I had previously believed it was. While I slowly became pro-choice, I still didn’t consider it a personal priority when I voted. In fact, I failed to fully process the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

But in early 2023, after trying for over a year to start a family, my wife and I were finally expecting our first child. Early into the pregnancy, we were informed the fetus had stopped growing and was no longer viable. We were crushed. To see the emotional and physical pain my wife endured was agonizing.

I couldn’t begin to comprehend that there were now states where women were going through the same sorts of emotionally shattering and potentially life-threatening experiences without the safety net of legal medical care. For the first time, I started to go out of my way to avoid news articles on a political issue. I started putting up mental walls. I wasn’t just compartmentalizing my emotions around Trump; I was walling off my outrage over the contempt the entire conservative movement had toward women and families.

When my wife finally became pregnant again, the preparations of becoming a new father distracted me from any anxieties I couldn’t compartmentalize, even as Biden’s poll numbers continued to slide. But below the surface, anger and resentment simmered over the Dobbs decision and its fallout, which led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that created such large legal risks for fertility treatment that many clinics temporarily paused their operations. It was easy to picture my wife and me in the shoes of another couple trying to build a family in this legally fraught environment.

To a degree, I understood the selfishness of my reaction. I had been willing to work in a system and for a party that had allowed rulings like these to take hold—that had celebrated them, in fact—only to find it unbearable when I felt personally attacked. It is not to excuse my actions that I note that sometimes a personal experience is what it takes for an awakening like this to occur.

I began plotting to leave behind a decade-long career working for the GOP. But just the idea of leaving seemed like a monumental task. I wanted a clean break. But with a kid on the way and almost no professional contacts outside of organizations associated with the Republican party, I was on a tight schedule. My job hunt was perfunctory at best, limited to reaching out to other former GOP staffers who had left. The minute I became a father, my brief attempt to escape came to an abrupt end.

I spent the next six months just trying to survive as a new dad. When Biden had his disastrous debate in June 2024, I went into a full media blackout. I was balancing surviving on three hours of sleep a night and a full-time job at the peak of the election season. I only paid attention to what I needed to in order to provide the necessary level of service to my clients. I couldn’t bring myself to read the news of Trump’s inevitable-seeming return as president.

In the months immediately following Trump’s election and swearing-in, I resumed my job hunt. I perused LinkedIn and job boards, made some contacts, and sent in my resume to a few potential employers. Admittedly, I could have done more. But once again, my personal life was intervening. I now had a family to help support. The prospect of starting from scratch and blowing up my life was just too overwhelming.

[x]
(Photo by Carl Maynard)

Comforts set in once more. Campaign Solutions was one of the most professional, supportive, and collaborative work environments I had experienced. We routinely ate lunch together in the common area and joked over the latest movies and TV shows that had just come out. (Ironically, Andor was a smash hit around the office.) It was easy to ignore my disgust with my portfolio of clients.

So, why now—why have I arrived at this decision today? At every mile marker, I’ve rationalized, compartmentalized, and found every excuse to stay. I stayed past Trump’s migrants-are-‘rapists’ tirade. The January 6th insurrection wasn’t enough for me to leave. His lack of leadership during the COVID pandemic contributed to the deaths of over a million Americans, yet I still went into the office.

I’ve made this decision now because our nation has arrived at a moment in its history where staying silent for personal comfort isn’t an option anymore. Almost every institutional guardrail holding our constitutional republic together has either broken or has been strained to the point of failure. Seeing masked federal agents and soldiers on our nation’s streets was a visceral reminder of the small role I have played in making this moment a reality. It was the moment I fully recognized that the damage I’m doing to our country for the safety of a comfortable office job and a paycheck is no longer an abstract concept I can ignore. I’ve spent countless sleepless, anxious nights speculating about the future of our country. Questions about whether our family would have access to vaccines, quality education, basic health care, and foundational constitutional freedoms we took for granted run on repeat through my head. I know now that if I continue to stay, I won’t be able to explain to my children why I didn’t take a stand when I had the chance.

As you can tell, this was not a decision I arrived at lightly. It took hours of painfully emotional conversations with my wife, family, and friends. How will this affect my career? After a dozen years working in the trenches for Republican bosses and clients, what does my next job look like? I don’t know the answers to these questions.

Also, will I face any retribution for taking this stand? I’m not a public figure, but at a time when political violence is on the rise and when Republicans are celebrating the use of government as a tool of vengeance against perceived political foes, I can’t help but wonder whether I am putting a target on my back. These are questions no American should have to face. But if we’re going to make it through this dark period in our history, we need to be asking these uncomfortable questions and having these difficult conversations. That underscores why I felt compelled to say something rather than just walk away silently.

I wish I had realized this sooner and I applaud my colleagues who did so long before me. For those who remain and who harbor doubts about what the Republican party has become, this is my message to you: I know the thought of walking away from your career and your familiar social network is terrifying. I urge you to recognize that our nation is heading down a very dark path. But it’s not too late to change direction. If you believe in this country now is the time to refuse to ferry its destruction for a tainted livelihood. Take a stand. Speak out. Show your pride as an American who believes in the Constitution and the values we grew up with.

Today, I quit allowing my complacency to destroy America, and I urge you to quit, too.

[admin]

The White House Is Being Demolished | The GOP's "Nazi Streak" Continues | Cops Tackle Giant Penis
by Stephen Colbert
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Oct 21, 2025 #Ballroom #NoKings #Alabama

President Trump is literally tearing down the White House to build his fantasy ballroom, another Republican has been exposed for sending racist text messages and praising Nazis, and police in Alabama forcibly detained a 61 year-old woman who wore an inflatable penis costume to the "No Kings" rally.



Transcript

[Applause]
Welcome, welcome to the late show. I'm
your host, Stephen Colbert. Folks,
well, at at you know, uh at this point,
after two terms, what what we nine
months into this, you think we think it
would be impossible for us to be shocked
by Donald Trump. But give the man
credit, every so often he takes the time
to attach the electrodes to our nipples
and
and and and then it feels like the first
time.
Case in point, yesterday as part of his
White House ballroom project, he sent
out a backhoe to rip off a chunk of the
East Wing.
That That is it. We are not giving him
the security deposit back.
Ivon, can we see that picture again?
That is deeply
that is so deeply unsettling. It's like
being a kid and seeing your teacher at
the grocery store
for sale
in in the meat department.
We're we're just, as I said, we're just
nine months into Trump's turn and he's
going Hulk smash on the White House.
Last time it took him at least four
years to bring a demo crew to the
capital.
This This is happening after Trump
specifically promised his ballroom
construction wouldn't touch the existing
White House. Here he is talking about it
this summer.
It won't interfere with the current
building. It won't be It'll be uh uh
near it, but not touching it and pays
total respect to the existing building,
which I'm the biggest fan of. It's my
favorite. It's my favorite place. I love
it.
So, that was a lie.
At this point, should we even believe
that this is going to end up being a
ballroom? It could just as easily end up
being a combination Pizza Hut, Taco
Bell.
Nobody Nobody
Nobody out pizzas the bell.
Out pizzas the bell.
Now, some someone in his administration
is clearly smart enough to know how bad
this looks because the Treasury
Department is right next door facing the
demolition. And Treasury has now told
their employees not to share any photos
of the construction. Not generally
something you instruct when you're proud
of what's going on. Hey guys, remember
no photos at my wedding. And it's not
because I'm marrying a body pillow of
Mariah Carey.
Yesterday at the White House, Trump
talked about his wrecking ballroom. And
and the one thing I don't think we make
enough fun of is how his brain is filled
with cotton candy fantasies of lavish
princely soirees. So you'll have drinks,
cocktails, everything on this floor, and
then they'll say, "Welcome to dinner."
You walk into the ballroom, Mr.
Senators, and you're going to see a
ballroom the likes of which I don't
think will I don't think it'll be
topped.
There'll be drinks. There'll be drinks,
cocktails
like this. Drinks and cocktails.
Drinks and cocktails. Mr. Senators, we
have drinks and cocktails. Mr. Senators,
you sure are there. You see that? This
is the cocktail shape of a glass.
Mr. Senators, penguin raers with trays
of tiny hot dogs and puff pastry and a
horny candalabra trying to make time
with a beautiful feather duster.
Be my guest. Trump
cocktails. Now, this is
Chris Trump has plenty of time to build
his Barbie dream ballroom because he
sure don't have a government to run.
It's been three weeks and it turns out
not having a government is not good.
With so many federal workers furoughed,
there's a pause on national park tours
and new drug reviews. So these days
you'll need to get your drug reviews
from Yelp. Like like this one. Meth
helped me bike from LA to Vegas but lost
all my teeth. Spiders. Spiders. Four
stars.
Four stars.
If you have some
been a tough PR week for the the GOP.
Last week Politico published a young
Republican group chat loaded with
horrible messages like I love Hitler.
Then a Republican congressional staffer
was seen on Zoom with a Nazi swastika
American flag hanging on the wall behind
him. But folks, that's all in the past.
Until yesterday, we found out that a
Trump nominee boasted of having a Nazi
streak in group chat. All right, Ivonne,
let's reset the counter. Days since last
Republican Nazi thing. There you go.
According to OSHA, according to OSHA, we
have to have one of those. Tonight's
Nazi Dert is Trump's pick to head the
office of special counsel and
self-lubricating butler Paul and Gracio.
I think that's I think that's what's on
his head. According to a leaked
Republican group chat in 2024, Ingrassi
admitted, "I do have a Nazi streak in me
from time to time." Folks, there's no
such thing as a Nazi streak. You got any
Nazi in you? You a Nazi.
Hey, let me ask you. Let me ask you.
Let me ask you before I dig in. Is there
any poop in this casserole? Oh, just a
streak.
[Laughter]
I'll stick with the uh
I'll stick with the salad.
Those are raisins in there, right?
Seems that
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Wasn't in the prompter. That
one was free.
That one was free. Threw that in there.
It seemed that Gracia also had a racist
streak. For instance, at one point in
the chat, he used an Italian slur for
black people while complaining about
federal holidays, writing, "From Kwanza
to MLK Junior Day to Black History Month
to Junth, every single one needs to be
eviscerated."
Wow,
what a weirdly violent way to talk about
days.
Give me 10 minutes alone with Memorial
Day and I'll give it something to
remember.
The GOP is having a rough ride with all
of this. And in their attempts to
distance themselves from the Nazi, it's
not being helped by the fact that we
recently learned that Trump is
considering an overhaul of the refugee
system that would favor white people.
Explains the new poem on the Statue of
Liberty. Give me your Gwens, your
declans, your huddled Chads, yearning to
J. Crew.
Now, quality products.
Nothing against J.
Crew love.
I love a khaki. Oh yeah,
I love a plead and khaki.
Trump's proposal would give preference
to English speakers, white South
Africans, and Europeans who oppose
migration. That's right. We'll only let
you migrate here if you oppose
migration, which is means as soon as we
let you in, you're going to have to help
us kick you right out.
They specifically want to prioritize
Europeans who have been targeted for
support for populist political parties,
which seems to be a direct reference to
the European far-right political party
alternative for Germany and would also
emphasize that these migrants assimilate
into the United States and respect
American cultural norms. They think
Germans are going to be interested in
American cultural norms. Excuse me. I'm
so excited to come to your beautiful
land. Just checking how many years of
paid parental leave do you give?
Oh, and
just
a moment mentioned,
how universal is the healthcare?
Really? Okay, let's do an easy one. Easy
one. Leather BDSM overalls. Yay or super
yay?
I've got to polish mine up. I've got to
oil mine up for the holidays. With stuff
like this, it's no wonder 7 million
people took to the streets on Saturday
to peacefully protest this
administration.
Y'all down with it? You got any noises?
You got some noises?
Not Not that there were zero arrests.
For instance, in Fair Hope, Alabama, a
woman was arrested for wearing this
giant penis costume,
which the police deemed obscene.
What? They can't call that obscene. You
can clearly see in the picture the penis
is using a flag to cover its boobs.
The cops
The cops demanded the woman remove the
costume. She refused. So, three of them
pinned her to the ground, then arrested,
and then handcuffed.
Handcuffed
the penis.
Oh, sure. Those cuffs fit now. But
just wait till that penis is in a cold
prison cell.
They're going to slip right off.
The woman The woman in the costume is
61. Now,
you might think,
good for her. Good for her.
You might think it's pretty bad look for
three cops to tackle an older woman, but
remember, they couldn't tell she was 61
because every penis looks like it's 102
years old.

[admin]

Trump Wrecks White House & New GOP Nazi Group Chat Drops
The Daily Show
Oct 21, 2025 #DailyShow #Trump #MichaelKosta

Michael Kosta checks in on Trump's latest White House makeover, which includes demolishing the First Lady's quarters to build a gigantic ballroom in the East Wing. Plus, while a Democrat apologizes for problematic Reddit posts, Trump's nominee for special counsel blames his pro-Nazi text messages on AI, and Ronny Chieng teaches politicians how to get away with racism.



Transcript

Welcome to The Daily Show.
I'm Michael Kosta.
We've got so much to talk about tonight.
The White House shows hole.
Communism is running wild.
And texting about how you're a Nazi-- good idea or bad idea?
I investigate.
So let's get into the headlines.
Come on.
[CHEERING]
President Trump Begins Renovations on a New White House Ballroom
The government shutdown is now in its third week.
Countless federal employees aren't being paid.
Food stamps will run out soon.
And there's no end in sight.
But not to worry--
President Trump is working day and night to build a ballroom.
[LAUGHTER]
It's exactly what you voted for, coal miners
in Pennsylvania, 90,000 gilded square feet for Trump
to do the jerkoff dance in.
[LAUGHTER]
Got him.
[APPLAUSE]
But if you're worried such a renovation might
damage the people's house, let Donald Trump
put your fears to rest.
It won't interfere with the current building.
There won't be-- it'll be near it but not touching it
and pays total respect to the existing building,
which I'm the biggest fan of.
It's my favorite. - Yeah.
It's my favorite.
I never want to leave.
And I'm never going to.
[LAUGHTER]
I believe it's his favorite building, though.
He loves the history, the decor,
the immunity from criminal convictions that it provides.
But great.
The White House itself is going to be fine.
They're not going to touch it.
They're not even going to touch it.
REPORTER: This morning, demolition day
at the White House--
crews tearing down walls as construction
for President Trump's 90,000-square-foot
ballroom ramps up.
[BOOING]
It looks like they touched it?
I mean, holy shit.
Who's this general contractor, Bin Laden and Sons?
[LAUGHTER]
Apparently, not touching the White House
turned into demolishing the White House.
And for what?
Does he really need a ballroom attached to his home?
I mean, it would be good to have
one room where Barron didn't have to crouch, but still.
[LAUGHTER]
I mean, they're tearing apart the entire East Wing.
I hope there's nothing important going on there.
REPORTER: Constructed in 1902, the East Wing houses
the Office of the First Lady.
[AUDIENCE GROANS]
That's harsh.
That's harsh.
Do you think Trump warned Melania in advance?
Or did a crane just scoop her up mid bubble bath?
[LAUGHTER]
Let's move on.
Trump Nominee for Special Counsel Under Fire for Texts
You might remember that last week,
there was a little bit of a scandal where
members of the Young Republicans group
had a bunch of their texts leak,
where they reportedly made jokes
about sending people to gas chambers
and how much they loved Hitler.
But it was a one-time thing.
And now, hopefully, the Republican Party
can move on from this isolated incident of Nazi text
messages, right?
Right?
[LAUGHTER]
(IN SILLY VOICE) Right?
President Trump's nominee to lead
the Office of Special Counsel is
in jeopardy after the publication of a group chat.
The nominee, Paul Ingrassia, saying,
"I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time."
Quote, "I will admit it."
First-- first of all, why do these
guys who think they're the master
race always look like this?
[LAUGHTER]
It's never a Hemsworth.
It's always a big toe with eyes.
[LAUGHTER]
But yes, we have yet another Republican
apparently sending Nazi texts.
And I've never heard someone say they
have a Nazi streak before.
That's by far the worst streak you can have,
even worse than the streaks I got
freshman year in high school.
Look at that.
And when you see his other reported texts,
you know it wasn't a streak.
It was more like a lifestyle.
Ingrassia allegedly wrote, "Never trust
a Chinaman or Indian, NEVER."
Ingrassia uses an Italian-American equivalent
of the N-word saying, quote, "No blank holidays.
From Kwanzaa to MLK, Jr. Day to Black History Month
to Juneteenth," adding, "Every single
one needs to be eviscerated."
REPORTER: In one exchange, he wrote, "MLK, Jr.
was the 1960s George Floyd and his holiday should be ended
and tossed into the seventh circle of hell,
where it belongs."
That prompted another participant to respond,
"Jesus Christ."
[LAUGHTER]
Wow.
Wow.
You know you're racist when even
the guys in your racist group chat are like,
Jesus Christ, that was racist.
[CHEERING]
Look, in general, I try not to judge people
on what they say in private.
Our group chats should be a safe space
to express ourselves, where someone can say, I don't know,
that they can't shake these feelings
about their hot cousin, Stephanie.
By the way, Stephanie, you never replied to that.
But the point is, I don't love people getting scrutinized
for their private thoughts.
But on the other hand, what I don't love even more
is Nazis getting nominated to our government.
Because I, Michael Kosta, believe Nazis are bad.
[CHEERING]
And that's my brave political stance of the day.
[LAUGHTER]
Thank you.
I know.
I'm a hero.
I'm a hero.
Now, to be fair, having a paper trail of offensive comments
isn't just a Republican phenomenon.
Maine Democratic Nominee for Senator Gets Called Out for Reddit Posts
Up in Maine, there's a Democrat named Graham Platner
running for Senate.
He was getting a lot of momentum until this happened.
REPORTER: CNN reviewed social media posts mostly made
under Platner's Reddit handle five years ago
that were deleted ahead of his campaign launch.
In them, he once called himself a "communist," dismissed "all"
police as bastards, and said rural white Americans "actually
are" racist and stupid.
Ooh, oh, boy, a communist who hates police and thinks
rural white people are stupid.
Mr. Platner, you must step down from Maine's Senate race
and move to Brooklyn to be their anointed king.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm kidding.
I think Platner still has a chance.
Sure, his posts are offensive to rural white Americans.
But keep in mind, most of them can't read.
But hey, it's at least refreshing that we
found someone's old posts.
And for once, they weren't saying racist things
about Black people.
REPORTER: In another controversial comment,
Platner referenced his time bartending, asking why Black
customers, quote, "don't tip."
OK.
So now I'm having a hard time figuring
out this guy's politics.
He's like, we got to stop the police from abusing
these cheap Black people.
[LAUGHTER]
Keep in mind, he's from Maine.
So the stereotype he's relying on
is based on the one Black guy from Maine.
And that Black guy is actually just
a white guy who likes hip-hop.
[LAUGHTER]
And this is why I never post on Reddit.
Well, that and I'm banned, OK?
Apparently, Ask Me Anything doesn't include
asking for butthole pics.
And again, my apologies to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
[LAUGHTER]
There's a lot of strange jokes here,
and you guys are doing a great job with it.
I just want you to know.
But look.
[CHEERING]
But look, I'm not going to pretend
that these two guys are the same or that what they said
is even on the same level.
And one of the ways you can differentiate them
is how they respond to their leaks.
Graham Platner, let's start with you.
You asked why Black people don't tip.
Please report to the nearest podcast
and explain what you meant.
What's your response to people
who hear that and think that is, like,
textbook racism and it's offensive?
I remember this time when I had first started bartending.
And then I had a conversation with a friend of mine
who was Black, who was a bartender, who
did a great job of walking me through structural injustice
and the fact of feelings of lack of agency.
There were a whole bunch of reasons.
And then after that, I was like,
oh, yeah, that makes-- that makes absolutely perfect sense.
OK.
There you go.
Platner says, I thought Black people didn't tip.
But then I talked to a Black person.
And now I still think Black people don't tip.
But it's-- but it's because of structural injustice.
[LAUGHTER]
I give that apology a solid B-minus.
[LAUGHTER]
And I will say, they should add that as an option
to the iPad screen--
20%, 10%, or making up for structural injustice.
I would do that.
But OK, Platner acknowledged his mistake
and learned from it, which is great to see.
Plus, I love the hair.
Right?
[LAUGHTER]
Now, what about Mr. Nazi Streak, Mr. Let's Send MLK,
Jr. Day To Hell?
Let's see how he responded to his scandal.
Now, reached for comment by Politico,
Ingrassia's attorney said, "In this age of AI,
authentication of allegedly leaked messages
is extremely difficult."
OK.
First off, if your apology starts with in this age of AI,
that's not a great apology.
Babe, did you forget to flush the toilet?
Listen, honey, in this age of AI--
[LAUGHTER]
He didn't even say AI doctored his messages.
He just said AI exists.
Deal with it.
I'm sorry, sir, but that apology is not going to cut it.
If you think the administration of Donald J. Trump
will tolerate Nazi rhetoric and ideas,
the White House doors are closed to you, OK?
But you can enter through the hole in the East Wing
because it's wide open.
Now, for more--
Ronny Chieng Weighs in on the Uprise of Racist Leaked Messages
[CHEERING]
For more on the response to both scandals,
we go to Maine with our very own Ronny Chieng.
[CHEERING]
Ronny.
Ronny, what's the latest on these leaked messages?
Well, they make me sick, Michael.
Nobody should be writing racist shit online.
Thank you. Thank you.
I totally agree, Ronny.
They should be saying racist shit in person, all right?
That way, there's no paper trail so they
can keep saying racist things.
I thought you were going to say people just
shouldn't be racist at all.
[LAUGHS] Don't be such a stupid white moron, all right?
People-- people are always going to be racist.
But before technology, you'd just quietly be whispering
it to your friends, all right?
For example, you walk by me.
And then I say to my Asian friend, like, wow,
can you believe he wears those shoes from the subway
into his bed?
What a-- what a gross race of people.
And then I walk by you.
And then you turn to your white friend.
And then you'd say racist things about Asians, like--
like what would you say about--
I don't say racist things about Asian people.
Oh, come on, man.
I already said my racist thing, all right?
This is a safe space.
Just go, you round-eyed giraffe.
[LAUGHTER]
All right.
You're asking me to.
So I guess if I said anything, if I have to,
it would be stop taking so many pictures, you know?
Like--
[LAUGHTER]
You asked me.
You-- the internet exists.
How many photos of the Empire State Building
do you need, you know?
Wow.
[LAUGHTER]
Wow.
That was so racist.
OK.
We need those pictures because of structural injustice.
Look, look.
[CHEERING]
You made me say it.
You made me say it. - No, no.
No, no. It's OK.
It's OK.
Because we didn't write it down.
[LAUGHTER]
So no one's ever going to know how racist you are.
OK, OK.
Can we just get back on track?
Do you think this is going to derail any of these men's
political careers?
Oh, no, no, probably not.
I mean, the Nazi guy's Republicans,
so his approval rating went up.
And the guy from Maine is in Maine,
where everyone's on heroin.
So they got-- they got bigger problems, all right?
Also, racial curiosity is not a bad thing.
I mean, he's got questions about Black people,
just like I've got questions about white people.
For example, I've always wanted to ask, why don't
white people wash their legs?
[LAUGHTER]
OK.
I'll answer you in good faith, Ronny.
It's because our maids do it for us.
Oh. OK.
See? See?
This is great.
We are healing the nation with this dialogue.
And now you get to ask me a question.
This feels like a trap.
[LAUGHTER] - No, no.
No, no, no. Go.
All right.
OK.
All right.
I guess I've always wondered why I always see Asian people
driving so poorly.
I mean--
Oh, oh, oh.
No, no, no. It's fine.
No, no. I'll tell you why.
It's because you're a racist [BLEEP].
That's why. - God damn it, Ronny.
[BLEEP] you.
You set me up again.
Well, yeah.
And--
You set me up.
Yeah, yeah, but you fell for it because Asians
are smarter than you.
[BLEEP]
That's true.
That's true.
You people are smart. - Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean, you people?
You know what?
[BOOING]
Look, you're right.
I'm sorry.
I'm growing.
And I will try to do better.
Thank you, Michael.
I appreciate your apology to Asian people.
And maybe you want to apologize for what
you said about white people.
Well, I didn't say anything.
That was AI.
Agh.
Ronny Chieng, everyone.

[admin]

Trump’s ICE Thugs SNATCH Protester in SHOCKING MOVE
Katie Phang and Robert Held
Oct 22, 2025 Interviews

During these terrible times, ordinary people are doing extraordinary things to fight for democracy. Katie Phang sits down with Robert Held, an attorney in Chicago, who is using his training and skills (and a good bullhorn) to defend the rights of Americans.



Transcript

So, they say never meet your heroes, but
I got to meet one today. His name is
Robert Held. You've probably never heard
of him. He's a lawyer in Chicago,
Illinois. But he did gain some internet
notoriety recently because among other
amazing things he's been doing outside
of the Broadview Detention Facility in
Illinois, is he did a quasi attempted
mooning of Gregory Bo, the head of
Customs, Border, and Patrol, CBP. No
spoilers. I'm getting ahead of myself.
This is a conversation you're not going
to want to miss because you will be
inspired and you'll be motivated after
you hear what he has to say. And joining
me now is Robert Held, an attorney from
Chicago. Robert, I do my homework before
I speak with people. And I was
pleasantly surprised to see you're not
an immigration lawyer. You're not a
First Amendment free speech attorney. In
fact, my friend, you are a trust and
estates practitioner, meaning you do
what we call TN. You help all of us
figure out what the hell happens when
we've when we've long gone past this
earth through estate planning. But you
have now become an inadvertent hero as
well for several people that have
decided to go and exercise their First
Amendment rights outside of the
Broadview detention facility in Chicago,
which I think humbly I would submit has
become kind of ground zero for the
atrocities, which is ICE and DHS these
days. But talk about what happened to
you a few weeks ago when you went and
you were just protesting outside of
Broad View and they actually took you
into custody.
Well, yeah, and to be honest, thanks for
the kind introduction. I was more than
just protesting. Um, I I have, for
whatever reason, little little fear and
um little restraint on the things that I
say, and I was making very uh derogatory
comments to the Border Patrol commander
whose name is Gregory Bo, because he was
Honey, we know him very well. Trust me,
he is a he is somebody who's very well
known at this channel, but go on. I'm
sorry. And so I was uh not using the
bullhorn as I recall, but rather um just
shouting through a fence that separated
the federal agents from the protesters.
And and I was being very direct, very
blunt, very passionate um in a demeaning
and derogatory way to Gregory Bo. So I,
you know, clearly had the attention of
the federal uh authorities or the agents
behind the fence. Ultimately, make a
long story short, Gregory Bo unlocked
and opened this gate that had been
installed to separate the protesters
from the agents. And I was genuinely
flabbergasted because the fence was what
separated, you know, peace from, you
know, what turned out to be uh not a
peaceful um interaction between the
federal agents and the protesters. And
so I was backing away like I was
confused about why they were opening it.
and Gregory Bovino and I have it on on
video. He's saying um clear the street
or you'll be impeding us and you'll be
arrested. Words to that effect. I backed
up and continued to video and and tried
to back up more quickly than they were
walking towards me and ultimately
decided to clear the street, ran off the
street and was chased by federal agents.
That's also on video. An independent
journalist actually caught a substantial
portion of that chase. Um, I'm 68 with a
bad hip. Uh, I used to be a runner. Uh,
ultimately I I got to a fence where I
couldn't get any further and I was
detained by um agents from an unknown
unknown agency because they were masked
without any insignia.
Okay, but Robert, we're going to break
that down. I feel like we're in trial. I
feel like we're on direct examination
and you're like my witness and we're
like, Robert, we're going to break this
down for the members of the jury. Um,
last I checked, and trust me, I'm a cage
rattler and I have no problem using bad
language, especially here. Last I
checked, using profanity or any type of
salty language with u federal agents is
not a crime and it's actually protected
free speech. Correct.
I'm not a First Amendment lawyer, but um
certainly there is very little
restriction on, you know, using
derogatory and dismissive language to a
federal officer. But I was worse than
that, Katie. I'm gonna be honest with
you. I have I have little fear. And I
did turn I I faced away from Gregory
Vino and the federal agents. And I bent
forward, meaning my backside was facing
um the agents. And I
You didn't actually drop trial, though.
Correct. You didn't actually drop your
trial.
I I pretended to, but clearly there was
no mistake about the message I was
sending that I was holding them in
contempt.
Okay. But last I checked as well, even
if you were to drop your trousers, like
that that in and of itself doesn't merit
what happened, which is they chased you,
tackled you, and put you in custody.
Correct.
They didn't actually tackle me. Um I
gave myself up when I got to the fence,
and they gave me orders that I complied
with. Get on the ground, put your hands
behind your back, etc. No, of course
this is this is just, you know, um
outrageous conduct that that I did that
was clearly um intending to demean and
antagonize um and and show my passion
for the disdain for which I hold the
administration, Border Patrol, and ICE
generally.
You know, Robert, what really troubles
me about this though is like I said a
few minutes ago, I feel like broad view
has kind of become ground zero for how
horribly the Trump administration is
treating protesters that are exercising
their first amendment rights to free
speech and and we've seen um for
example, congressional candidates get
thrown to the ground and we've seen
people pretty much be mistreated by this
government as a part of and maybe they
didn't even realize it, but they're
filming all of this like They are
literally creating propaganda videos,
which for me are very reminiscent of
like North Korea and Nazi Germany.
They're creating all this propaganda to
be able to pedal and to push out. And
they're doing it so that they're so they
can create and ferment fear. They they
want to quell any idea that somebody
could think about going to Broadview or
frankly any federal facility to be able
to protest what's happening there.
I think that's right. I think there's
two things that are going on at the same
time. One is the issue you point out
which they have their own film crews and
I' I've seen them and in fact the very
moment that Gregory Bo opened the gate.
Um I think they were filming and a
reason I say that is because there was a
film crew that I had specifically seen
just prior to that happening. Now, I I
can't honestly say that I saw them
filming the gate opening, but there's no
doubt in my mind because in the hour
prior to them opening in in a repeated
series of events, Gregory Bo would hold
on to the shoulder of an immigrant or
walk, you know, directly next to an
immigrant and quote, "Escort them into
the facility." There was no reason to
escort them in. They have a vehicle that
drives in um you know, to the doorway.
So, he was creating this political
theater, this theatrics, if you will,
and I'm I'm pretty sure they were
filming when they came out that gate.
So, that's one thing that's going on.
They're creating um sure propaganda,
whatever it is, for their own social
media sites.
Yeah. Um but this there's something even
more important going on in my opinion
and that is that they are seeking
confrontation and violence because I
think the administration wants to
justify the deployment of National Guard
troops. So there is no reason for the
physical violent interaction between the
federal government and the protesters at
Broadview. There is separation. They
need first of all let me let me just say
they need to do their job. They're a
violent criminalist. Trenagua there are
um you know gang members that have
committed horrific crimes and they need
to the government should go after the
worst of the worst.
Yeah
Katie that is not what's happening. They
are creating this confrontation
interaction and violence among peaceful
demonstrators like myself. I've been
shot at and it's just horrific I think
what they're doing.
Well, and listen, you've been shot at.
You were chased by them and you were
taken into custody and yet you still
went back out there. So, it hasn't
worked to intimidate you. In fact, we
have a little clip of video off of
Instagram that somebody took of you
recently where you did have a bullhorn
and where you were doing which I think
is you were taking everybody to law
school. So, we're going to watch that
for a second and then I'll have some
questions for you on the inside.
Do not understand what state law you are
invoking. Please be clear in your
instructions. These peaceful protesters
are exercising their first amendment
right. They do not understand your
order. They do not understand your
statements. You state troopers are an
unlawful assembly right now because
you're impinging on our First Amendment
right to free expression. We do not
understand your instructions. You have
weapons. We do not have weapons. You are
invoking uh you appear to be threatening
violence. We're not threatening
violence. You are exacerbating the
tension. We are lowering the tension. We
don't understand what you're doing. We
don't understand why you're doing it. We
don't understand how to comply with your
orders. You said to disperse, "Where do
you want us to go? Why can't we exercise
our First Amendment rights? Where is the
Commander Owen or State Trooper Owen?
Where are you? You need to be clear." I
mean, Robert, you could not have been
clearer. And I know that you were doing
that for the benefit of not only the law
enforcement that's there, but you were
also doing it for the people that were
there as well. One of the things that
I've done in South Florida is an
immigration town hall to let people know
what their rights are. How important is
it for people that are showing up to
these protests and these demonstrations
and these marches for them to also
understand what their rights are?
I don't think people are going to
understand the nuances of the first
amendment and the rights of police and
exgen circumstances. I think it's I
think it's pretty subtle stuff and
there's a mix of people out there.
There's older people like myself and
even much older people as well that are,
you know, absolutely have no intention
to be involved in any confrontation.
There are there are other people who are
seeking confrontation if not seeking
confrontation but they are willing to
resist a forceful interaction. Um in
that case we were looking at state
troopers. I would I was you know
shouting to state troopers with the
bullhorn but I'd like to give just a
little bit of context because the mayor
you alluded to the restrictions going on
and that was Broadview Illinois. the
mayor had issued an executive order that
limited protests from 9:00 am to 6 pm.
Well, at the time of that video, it was
not 6 pm. It was roughly 5:45 p.m.
Oh.
So, we had 15 more minutes. We had been
in an area that was off the street that
was reserved for protesters. And without
any explanation that I heard, the state
troopers started to kettle us. And I was
genuinely confused because many of the
state troopers had uh you know powerful
weapons. They all had their sticks. Uh
there were a few that were in riot gear
and it was clear that this thing is
escalating. And I'm looking at my watch
and I'm thinking why are they doing
this? And Commander Owen who is the
leader there had not been clear to what
the expectations were. So I was sure I
was talking to the state troopers. I was
talking to the protesters too, but that
whole thing was extemporaneous. I was
genuinely confused. People think we were
blocking the street. No, we were pushed
into the street and the street had been
closed by the state police for hours and
hours. I was not we were not blocking
traffic.
Well, I think it's a practical reality
which is that trooper Commander Owens
guy was probably told to do it and
didn't really question it, right? I
mean, that's kind of the terrifying
thing that I think we're seeing that's
unraveling here for all to see. It's
there are orders that are coming down
from high and people are just quote
obeying orders. But we've we've seen
that happen in history where people have
literally justified their actions by
saying I was just doing my job or I was
just doing orders. There are people that
are conscientiously objecting to this
that are in these roles in law
enforcement. But fundamentally, I think
even they don't understand what's
happening. And to your really well taken
point, I don't I have not seen
protesters at Bravio or others
instigate. Let me be clear. You did you
did say there are people that are strong
and brave that maybe don't mind, you
know, being involved in some type of
physicality if that happens when it's
initiated by the feds. But I haven't
seen instances of protesters that are
legitimate that aren't like the
agitators, right? But like that are
there. They're not trying to provoke the
federal agents. They're not trying to
create a physical confrontation. They're
just there to say what you're doing is
wrong and you should be ashamed of what
you're doing.
That's right. Um so I I've been to
Broadview a lot and at the Broadview,
Illinois ICE facility, I have never seen
a protester instigate uh violence.
um unless you consider people vocally
expressing their passion as instigation,
which as you've pointed out earlier is a
first amendment protected expression.
Couple of things though I think to point
out. Um, one is that the state police
reached out to me at at a high level,
reached out to me after that uh, video
uh, went viral and they said there were
some things going on they couldn't give
me the details, but things that I didn't
know about and the protesters didn't
know about which helped motivate
Commander Owen to do what he did. And my
response to that is, "Understood. Then
just be clear. All they had to do was
say, "We acknowledge it's not 6 p.m. We
acknowledge your First Amendment right
to protest because of an emergency. We
need to clear the street. We need to
clear the area. We're asking for your
cooperation." We don't get that. So,
there is not the transparency that we
need. And I forgot the other point that
I was going to make.
I mean, it's okay. I mean, my question,
my setup question, I guess, was a little
bit long in fairness to you. I mean, you
know, Robert, what really bothers me is
that these a lot of the people,
especially like the National Guardsmen
and women, right, that get called up,
like these are people from the
community, right? They're literally
facing off against fellow members of
their community, but this is all, and
you've called it political theater, but
this is political theater that has very
real impacts on humans. There are people
that are being round up on the street. I
mean, Robert, you're from Chicago. I
covered extensively here at my channel
when they were repelling snipers off of
Blackhawks onto the roof of that
apartment building on the south side and
busting down doors and dragging kids zip
tied naked into the streets. I mean,
there was a whole racial element to that
as well, right? Let's be frank. But
that's what they're doing. They're
trying to create an environment of fear
so that people get either immunized to
seeing National Guardsmen and federal
agents armed on the street or that
people just cow into submission. I mean,
this is not the America that you and I
grew up in.
It's much worse than that. I talk to
people on a frequent basis that are
living in fear.
There's the tamalei lady that people in
Chicago know. M
and I, you know, we'll just say that
that's one example, but there are many
examples of individual families that
have been torn apart that have, you
know, they're in crisis and there are
people that don't go to work. There are
people that don't socialize or go to the
grocery store. Um, the level of fear and
what's being done to our communities is
really beyond the pale. It's just there
aren't words in the English language to
describe the despicable conduct of the
administration in this regard. I say
that with great respect. I'm a Air Force
veteran. My son's active duty military.
Um what law enforcement has to do, what
the National Guard must do at times, um
I have the deepest respect for. But
again, what's happening, you know, is
not law enforcement. It's political
theater to a large degree. And we want
the violent criminals to be arrested,
prosecuted, and or deported. But what we
don't want is what the administration is
doing, which is really terrorize our
communities and ferment violence that is
instigated, as you pointed out, by um,
you know, the authorities themselves,
not the protesters in my experience.
And there's a huge difference, Robert,
between a trenda gang member and the
tamalei lady, right? I I think and I
think that and and honestly, look, I
mean, I appreciate this dialogue with
you because I do feel like the
Republicans have hijacked the narrative,
right? And and they make it seem like
Democrats are supporting gang members
when that's not happening, right? That,
you know, and that blue cities are
sanctuary cities for gang members.
That's not what's happening. Everybody
doesn't want criminals and gang members
living in their communities and so they
support um them being removed and
prosecuted, but due process seems to
have escaped this administration in very
large ways. You know, I read somewhere
that you never really protested a lot.
Oh, and before I forget, I want to say
thank you for your service and please
tell your son, we appreciate his active
duty service as well. But I read
somewhere that you're not a big
protester. Like that's not your jam.
Like that's not really something that
you've done a lot and you you felt
compelled and motivated to go and do
this. Why now? Why at this moment in
your life did you feel compelled to have
to get out there like you do? I have a
busy law practice and and don't get out
much quite frankly, but I I was seeing
videos of and and you know, the
logistics of the ICE facility in in
Broadview is that there's this uh you
know, probably two-story building at at
best and and there used to be a fence,
but a separation between the protesters
and the facility and there's still a
separation now because of the way the uh
Broadview ordinance or the executive
order in Broadview is being enforced.
But the but the upshot is is that the
federal authorities were putting a
person that I called a sniper. They put
a person with weapons on the roof of the
building and they had line of sight
targets which were the protesters. And I
was watching these videos and I'm
thinking, wait a second, that protester
has not done anything to warrant being
shot with a pepper ball or a rubber
bullet. And so I started going and and
again there was a fence there at the
time and I'd go up to the fence and um
you know they they shoot these pepper
balls at me and I would try to make the
angle so that they it couldn't go
through the fence and the pepper ball
would would ricochet and I never got hit
by a pepper ball.
But I will tell you that I was maed. I
actually I don't know the chemical, but
the um federal authorities carry these
canisters that's like a small fire
extinguisher. And I was up against the
the the fence at the time and I I had a
gas mask on um and got a spray hit me so
hard it was so close to me cuz I was up
against the fence.
Yeah. that it either moved or went under
my gas mask and I was debilitated for
over an hour and actually for the the
remnants of this chemical stayed with me
for days despite multiple showers and
that was the day that I was detained. So
I had to live with that chemical um for
all those hours in detention before I
could take a shower. But the shower
doesn't help because this chemical is so
weird. It stays in your hair and your
skin and it moves throughout your body.
People that have been had this chemical
will tell you that it just doesn't go
away no matter what you do for days.
I mean, I feel like thank you is an
insufficient thing to say to you. You
and I have never met. Um, and
you know, when when we have the chance
to share these stories like the ones
you're telling now, it really moves me
because
this is what I think America is, right?
When we see injustice,
this is what we do as Americans. we
stand up to the injustice. And I I read
that after you were detained, not
arrested, not charged, um but detained,
which I think technically was an arrest,
frankly, because you weren't free to
leave. So screw them for thinking that
that didn't happen to you. But I read
that you went back out just a couple of
days later with your daughter and her
boyfriend to protest. I mean, talk about
a held family affair going on right
there, right? I mean, but you know, for
example, this Saturday, this past
Saturday for No Kings Day, my mom, my
82-year-old mom, uh,
you know, she's never, trust me, that
lady is very, very serious and very
conservative. She's never protested a
day in her life. I mean, other than my
bad life decisions, she protests all the
time. But she came out to No Kings Day
in Miami, and her reasoning was she was
fed up. She was fed up with what has
been happening to the country that she
dreamt of to go to from Korea, right?
Like for her, this was supposed to be
the place of abundance and opportunity
um and freedom. So, you know, Robert,
thank you. Thank you for taking time out
of your busy practice. Thank you for
using your skills and training as a
lawyer to educate and to empower people
because that's what we should all be
doing, I think, on an individual basis.
It's so great to be here and I think you
know the fundamental point is that
there's so many Americans there's 7
million people out on No King's Day and
just there's a fundamental feeling among
many of us and I just got a phone call
from a threetime Trump voter um
Republican rural white older male in
downstate Illinois a former retired
judge who said he is fed up. And I think
the fundamental feeling is as you put it
that this is just not right. It's just
not the America that not just citizens
but anyone present in our country
deserves which is due process fairness.
And we know in our hearts what what is
right and what's happening right now is
not right. It's wrong.
Robert Held, thanks for being I I called
you the inadvertent hero that you have
become. Um but I appreciate everything
that you're doing and thank you for the
privilege of your time today. It really
meant a lot to me.
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
Thanks,
Katie Fang here. We launched the Katie
Fang News Channel in partnership with
the Midas Touch Network so we could
bring you the latest in legal and
political news. Straight, no chaser. So,
if you're a fellow trutht teller, hit
that subscribe button and share the word
about this channel so we can build a
highinformation America

[admin]

Melania Trump BLINDSIDED by NEW LAWSUIT over EPSTEIN?!?
by Michael Popok
Legal AF
Oct 22, 2025 The Intersection with Michael Popok

The intrepid journalist Michael Wolff who has unique inside access concerning the Epstein scandal and Trumnp's coverup of it, and has beaten Melania to the punch, and filed a lawsuit late last night against her in New York State Supreme Court after she threatened him with a "Billion Dollar" lawsuit if he didn't retract his good faith reporting. Michael joins Court of History Sidney Blumenthal and Legal AF's Michael Popok for an exclusive interview and briefing for our audience on why he sued and were he found the courage to stand up to the Trumps in this dangerous historical moment.



Transcript

We got some breaking news here on Legal
AF. Michael Wolff, the intrepid reporter
and journalist, the person who spent
years interviewing Jeffrey Epstein, has
sued Melania Trump to beat her to the
punch and cut her off at the pass about
claims that she was defamed by certain
reporting of Michael Wolff. and he has
taken affirmative action to run into
court in the state supreme court of New
York, which is the trial level court, in
a new case, Michael Wolff versus Melania
Trump, in which he claims that she has
violated the antislap law, which is the
strategic litigation um against public
participation. And it means you can't
threaten somebody with a lawsuit, which
is exactly what Michael says that she
did for billions of dollars in order to
chill First Amendment expression or
speech. And so rather than wait around
to see if Melania was going to sue
Michael Wolf yesterday, he sued her both
for a declaratory judgment declaring
that each and every one of the
statements that she listed in her letter
is not is not false, can't be the
subject or the basis of a defamation
case. and to also get a ruling that her
letter to him and threats against him
violate the anti-SLAPP law of New York.
We're going to put up a copy of the
complaint into the Legal AF Substack
Live. And now we've got an interview
with Michael Wolf, a crossover episode
of Court of History here on Legal AF.
It's Sydney Blumenthal. Michael Wolff
just hours after he filed the lawsuit
and me. And here's the interview.
I'm Sydney Blumenthal. The Court of
History is now in session. Today,
Michael Wolf
has filed a lawsuit
against Melania Trump. And we have
Michael with us. He needs no
introduction, but here's the
introduction. He is the renowned author
and journalist. He's received two
national magazine awards. He's the
biographer of both Donald Trump and
Rupert Murdoch. He is the author most
recently of All or Nothing about the
2024 presidential campaign and he is the
host of the new Inside Trump's Head
podcast. Welcome, Michael. Sid, nice to
see you again.
And I am here joined by Michael Popac
who is the founder of Legal AF and is
the head of the Popac law firm. and we
have a lot of questions about your new
lawsuit against Melania Trump.
Fire away. So, let me frame it for our
audience who may be joining this story
already in progress. Michael, you've
made um some statements about Melania
and Donald Trump and Epstein in no
particular order at various news outlets
including on Legal AF and Court of
History and Daily Beast and different
places. and you've stood by that
reporting for quite some time. Um I
don't think you've ever wavered in the
testimony. Depends on the question
you're asked, of course.
Yeah. And let me just just interject
just a bit of background here is that um
is that before Jeffrey Epstein's death,
I spent several years in interviewing
him. So, um I think I am probably the
journalist closest to this story, at
least on a firstirhand basis. And the
last one that Jeffrey Epstein ever
talked to while he was still alive.
Right.
The last well the last message that he
got out of the prison I believe was to
me. Yes.
Right. And certain of the comments that
you made just for our audience were
about the relationship between Donald
Trump and Melania. And it looks like you
got a you got a threat letter which
you've attached to the lawsuit that's
been filed in the New York State Supreme
Court which is the trial level court in
New York. um giving you until yesterday
to do a a bunch of uh a bunch of things
towards Melania, including an apology or
she was going to sue you, but you sued
her first. Talk about the the receipt of
the letter, what happened yesterday, and
the filing of the lawsuit today.
Well, I'm not the first person to
get such a such a letter. Um and and
also not about such a subject. I mean a
lot of people have or a number of people
have made statements related to um
Melania Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. I
mean there are pictures of them
together. So this is not a um um this is
not uh this is not far-fetched. Um they
um and so the discussion is what kind of
relationship that they had and a lot of
these are questions what kind of you
know who introduced them in what
circumstance all of these questions
which clearly the Trumps do not want
asked and they certainly don't want
answered. So um I got a a letter on on
the 15th which said they're going to sue
me for a billion dollars unless I
retract and apologize.
Nothing that I've said in any
reasonable actually even in any wild
conception of this can be called
defamatory. Actually there's what I've
said is is is not only just statements
of fact but but mild mild circumstances.
They knew each other. They um might have
been in the same room when that kind of
that kind of thing. But this entire
discussion they are they are deeply
deeply allergic to and their way of
dealing with it is to is to threaten
billion dollar lawsuits and
you know they've had a they've had a
fantastic record of media um of of the
media saying yes okay fine you know
we'll correct we'll do this we just
don't want to be sued. You
know, this came to me and you know I
and I've been aware that this could
happen and I thought, well, what would I
do? Well, clearly I can't
retract. I can't apologize. This is
ridiculous. And and who would want to
live in a world where that was required
that obescience because they want
it. So with my lawyers um um who
said hey you know this is actually
against what they're doing is against
the law. It's a called a slapp lawsuit.
Its very purpose is intended to
intimidate and and silence. Um and New
York has has has a statute expressly
against this an anti-slapp law. Um,
how is this an anti-slapp?
Uh, how was this a slapp suit against you
as a journalist? In your
conversations with me on the court of
history, you have acted as the reporter
and you have reported what you were
told. You've recounted what Jeffrey
Epstein told you and now they want to
suppress
that. So that's what a slapp suit
suit is. We're suing you so you shut up.
Um and um and as I say that's against
the law in New York State to file to use
the law for such for such purposes. So
last night we went um we sued we sued in
court in New York asking for a
declaratory judgment, a judgment that
says you can't do this. And this
process will gives us now the right to
call witnesses, subpoena power and um
and those witnesses might very well will
very well um include um Melania Trump
and Donald Trump and therefore afford me
the opportunity to really have
an in-depth discussion with them under
oath before a court reporter about their
relationship with Donald Trump, with Jeffrey Epstein
I mean with Jeffrey Epstein.
Yes. So I mean Donald Trump and Jeffrey
Epstein had this long
friendship, really a joined by the hip
friendship. So there will be a lot
of questions
and there there may be other witnesses
called as well.
Oh yes. and anyone who might have
been have information about their
relationship, Donald Trump's
relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,
Melania Trump's
relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and
his circle. Yes, they would
call Ghislaine Maxwell, couldn't you?
Oh, you certainly could.
Even though she's in a Texas camp right
now.
Yes. I mean, I don't know what the
procedure is, but see, but if she's if
she's subpoenaed, she has to testify.
Yes,
you could call. Let me just say one
other witness. You could call Paulo
Zampoli, who is Melania's agent,
seems to have introduced
Trump to Melania,
of course. Um and and many others who I
know who were who were involved in that
in that circle.
Yes. Let me let me jump in, Cindy. The
for our audience, this we keep saying
slapp, I know people are writing it down
and what it means. It's it's
um strategic lawsuits against public
participation. And so again, it's a way
for somebody to try to stop and chill
first amendment speech or in this case
reporting as well by threatening a
lawsuit. And many states, including New
York, have a statute against that.
Sometimes they award you attorney's fees
if you are successful. Now, let me just
give an example to our audience. I'm
going to put this lawsuit up in the
legal AF Substack, but here's just one
example of how your lawyer so
properly set this up with you being the
plaintiff coming out against the
slapsuit and challenging the defamation
claiming that and wanting a declaration
from the judge to declare that these
statements cannot be defamatory and you
getting into the driver's seats. For
instance, in the statements that were in
the letter, one of the statements was
this one state. This is in paragraph 9.
Statement five. In explosive tapes
recorded by Wolf, Epstein alleged that
Trump, this is this isn't tapes. Epstein
alleged that Trump liked to sleep with his
friend's wives, and first slept with
Melania on his Lolita express
dispositive defects in the claim, says
your lawsuit. This statement is true.
She cannot prove it was false and she
cannot prove the actual malice that is
necessary and that it's not defamatory
to say of Mrs. Trump that Mr. Trump
liked to sleep with his friends wives. This is
really the structure for the entire
lawsuit. Right.
Exactly. Yes. So reporting what you have
and it'll be interesting to have to
obviously have a discussion with
those friends and those wives.
Yeah. Well, some of them have already
gone on the record, in print, in the
past, and they may find themselves giving
testimony now.
Yeah. No, this is I mean it's
kind of extraordinary that they would do
this and I can only assume that they do
this they do this because they
absolutely believe that that I and that
everyone will will fold. I mean the
idea of them sitting down under oath
to discuss these kind of matters I mean
this is the
central vulnerability of Trump's
political life which he has been been so
gifted at avoiding and evading and
avoiding and this this suit against me
and and others is just one of the ways
he's avoided having to deal with these
questions.
One of the statements that's alleged
to have been held against you
by Melania in her libel suit is in a
Daily Beast article which you didn't
write and it's a
quote by implication.
Yeah. No, I mean
that is the Daily Beast. I'm
very fond of the Daily Beast and I work
with the Daily Beast and they wrote an
article or a young person in the
office wrote an article based on the
podcast that I did and
in fact incorrectly said that Jeffrey Epstein introduced
Melania to Donald Trump. I didn't say it and I
don't know that to be I don't know that
he made the direct introduction there.
So anyway, I didn't say
it. So it's again, I don't think they
spend much time on these lawsuits. I
don't think they hire very good lawyers
on them, and this was just
a slapdash effort.
Donald Trump himself said that
he had gotten his wife to file these
suits and he said it publicly.
Yeah. No. Well,
so the idea that she is not involved in
the whole Epstein matter can't possibly
be true.

Of course not. And you
know, that leads to the question of who
is paying for these lawsuits. But it's all a rich
territory to mine.
Let me read from just two
paragraphs at the very introduction of
your lawsuit, which I think will put
this in a sharp relief for the
audience. In paragraph 4, your
complaint says, "Mrs. Trump and her
unitary executive husband ,along with
their MAGA Mirmadins, have made a
practice of threatening those who speak
against them with costly slapp actions in
order to silence their speech to
intimidate their critics generally and
and and to extract unjustified payments
and North Korean style confessions and
apologies. The threat letter at pages
two and three lists some of those whom
they have pressed into unjustified
submission. Paragraph 5. These
threatened legal actions are designed to
create a climate of fear in the nation
so that people cannot freely or
confidently exercise their First
Amendment rights. The threats are also
intended to shut down legitimate inquiry
into the Epstein matter which the Trumps
and their collaborators have at every
turn sought to impede and and suppress.
Why do you think that was important for
the public and for the court to know at
the top of your lawsuit?

I think it goes to the heart of this.
This is not about
defamation. This is about the effort on
the part of the Trumps to shut people
up. And it's an
extraordinary effort. I mean, I don't know of any instance in
the modern age where the president of
the United States, or the first lady
in this instance, basically they are one
and the same, have have sued the
media, personally sued the media.
And they have done it now repeatedly
over and over and over again. And it has
worked. It has chilled everybody's sense of safety in our
business. Well, you know, Trump
himself said he was behind Melania's
complaints, as I noted, and the quote is,
"you know, I've done pretty well on these
lawsuits lately, and I said go forward."
Jeffrey Epstein has nothing to do with
Melania. But they do
make up stories. So he
has stated that he got his wife to file
these libel suits which you have now
attacked as a slapp suit, and so Trump has
put himself in the middle of it.

Yeah. No, I mean this is the
White House in all its power acting
against the media and me. And I'm
hardly the media. I'm just a
single writer.
Yeah. So Trump, as you know, and you can
tell us since you've written
many books about him, has a history of
intimidating people, because he has
lawyers behind him. It began with his
hiring of Roy Cohn and getting people to
concede to him, to take back lawsuits
against him, to withdraw complaints.

Yeah. No, I mean the
president is doing that.
It's a very powerful tool if you're
willing to abuse it.
And frankly, it is frightening.

Yeah. How do you feel about doing this?

I feel that I don't
have any alternative. I mean, if I
think this through, how do I get
this to go away? I just
couldn't figure out a way. And also I felt well, you
know, damn it, there's a
responsibility here. You got to do it
now.

And let me say here, I mean,
this is going to be a very expensive
effort, an effort that I can't
afford. So, I am going to ask, I have
to figure this out. And I'm no doubt
going to come back to you and say, "Can
I come on the show when I have a
GoFundMe, or this and that set up, because
this is going to have to be a a joint
effort on the part of lots and lots of
people who recognize that this is about a fundamental principle,
right?

And Legal AF was of course in
our audience will support you on the
the next steps here. She didn't sue
yesterday. You sued first. I assume that
without getting into attorney client
privilege that you're expecting some
sort of countersuit back your way.

Yeah. Well, let me not
address that part because
I don't know.

Yeah. I'm sure this is the
first step, and we'll see what happens.
Maybe you called their bluff, and maybe
not, and we'll see what it looks like. You
have some great lawyers here in New York
that are handling it. Has a judge been
assigned?

No, not yet. I mean, this was literally
filed last night.
And even early this
morning we were looking, and it hadn't
shown up on the [docket], on whatever it shows
up on on yet. So, this is fresh off the presses, or
whatever you say in your business.
So major law firms with enormous
resources have, you know, completely
collapsed in front of Trump in a kind
of quiver of collaboration and
cowardice. But here we are with a
journalist standing up.
Yeah. And media companies, major media
companies, have also another
folded, and
paid him millions. Paid him millions.

I mean essentially, you know,
in some way, major media
companies are owned by even larger
companies who want things from him. So
these lawsuits then become a kind of
way to give him a legal bribe.

You've been doing this intrepid
reporting for quite some time. Have they
threatened you before with a lawsuit?

You know, when my first book about
Donald Trump came out, Fire and
Fury, and that was in 2018, I was, yes, he
came down hard, and there were legal
letters that threatened and efforts to stop the publication of the
book. And my publisher then and this
almost feels like a different time and a
different climate, my publisher
was McMillan, and the head of
McMillan was a kind of
publishing book legend by the
name of John Sergeant. And he
was like, not only do we not capitulate
but we move up the publication date.
And we just let them
come, and they folded. They didn't
come. So even then I
felt, oh my god, you know, this is very
fragile, and what happens if
your publisher does start to get
nervous and thank god that didn't
happen then, but it is happening all over
now.

No you're a courageous defender of
free speech and the first amendment. It
takes a lot to go into court first.
It's very aggressive, but I think it's a
winning strategy to challenge
defamation, to challenge slapp acts,
especially in New York. We'll see who
your judge is, and we'll certainly have
you back as the case progresses and
we see what the next developments are.

Yeah. Well, thanks. Thanks so much. And
I mean, I love coming on
this show.

Yeah. We're pleased to always have
you, Michael, and particularly on this
day when you have filed this lawsuit. So
you can explain to us your reasons about
it.

And so the court of history
is now adjourned.

Welcome back. Thanks for watching. We
try to bring news makers on in real time
in real life as they happen. Can't get
any more courant than having Michael Wolff
just hours after he filed the lawsuit
against Melania Trump coming on Legal AF
to brief our audience. I'm glad you're
here.

[admin]

White House East Wing will be torn down ‘within days’ even as no plans filed for Trump’s new ballroom. Demolition has drawn fierce backlash, with National Trust for Historic Preservation saying plans are ‘legally required’
Trump takes a wrecking ball to White House in on-the-nose
By Lauren Aratani and Robert Mackey
The Guardian
Wed 22 Oct 2025 19.03 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... demolition

[X]
The facade of the East Wing of the White House being demolished by work crews on Wednesday. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Trump administration officials confirmed to various outlets on Wednesday that the White House’s East Wing will be demolished “within days”, a revelation given the administration has not submitted plans for the new ballroom to the federal agency that oversees construction of federal buildings.

In discussion with reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Donald Trump was asked by Jeff Mason of Reuters to respond to the widespread surprise that the entire East Wing is being torn down. Trump said that the wing he described as a separate building “was never thought of as being much; it was a very small building”.

“Rather than allowing that to hurt a very expensive, beautiful building,” he continued. “In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure."

Then, pointing at a model of the new ballroom on a table in front of him, and a new structure leading to the ballroom in the location where the East Wing used to be, Trump added: “The way it was shown, it looked like we were touching the White House. We don’t touch the White House.”

[X]
White House demolition - video

“That’s a bridge, a glass bridge going from the White House to the ballroom,” Trump said, of the new structure that will replace the East Wing.

Trump said the result is “going to be probably the finest ballroom ever built” and that the ballroom is “being paid for 100% by me and some friends of mine”.

The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing a senior administration official, that the ballroom plans will mean the demolition of the entire East Wing. The official also said the demolition should be finished by this weekend.

Two Trump officials told NBC News similar information, noting the entire East Wing of the White House will be demolished “within days”.

On Tuesday, the White House told Reuters it intended to send plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, an agency that typically approves and monitors construction on federal buildings. Demolition began earlier this week, with reporters taking video of a backhoe ripping out chunks of the White House’s exterior.

[X]
Construction continues on the White House ballroom. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/Reuters

Plans for Trump’s 90,000 sq ft ballroom were made public in the late summer, with Trump saying he would personally fund the $200m construction. “Just another way to spend my money for this construction,” he said at the time.

White House officials insist demolition is allowed without the commission’s approval. Will Scharf, the Trump-appointed head of the commission, who is also a White House staff secretary, said in September there was a difference between demolition and rebuilding work, and only the commission can approve new construction.

In a statement to the Guardian, a White House official said: “The National Planning Commission does not require permits for demolition, only for vertical construction. Permits will be submitted to the NPC at the appropriate time.”

But in a letter sent to the White House on Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a leading historic preservation non-profit created by Congress, told the White House that demolition plans were “legally required” to go through public review and urged Trump to pause demolition.

“We are deeply concerned that the massing height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself – it is 55,000 sq ft – and may also permanently disrupt carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings,” the group said in the letter.

[X]
Work begins on the demolition of a part of the East Wing Washington DC, before construction of a new ballroom. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

During Trump’s first term, the White House went through the commission to install a new fence, a much smaller project than the construction of the new ballroom.

Amid the backlash over the demolition, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told Fox News on Tuesday that “there’s a lot of fake outrage out there right now”.

“While many presidents have dreamt about this, it is actually President Trump who is actually doing something about it. And he is the builder-in-chief. In large part, he was re-elected to this people’s house because he is good at building things,” Leavitt said, noting that many presidents had made changes to the White House.

Critics have pointed out that Trump over the summer said new construction would not affect the existing structure.

[Donald Trump]“It won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it, but not touching it, and [it] pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” Trump said.

On Tuesday night, the late-night host Stephen Colbert pulled up pictures of the White House exterior with gashes from demolition and noted “so that was a lie”.