November 15–November 21, 2025

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THIS WEEK IN…

CRIMES, CORRUPTION AND GRIFT

The Epstein scandal has captured so much media attention because it lays bare the deep corruption among the elite and the sense of impunity enjoyed by the wealthy and powerful. Overwhelming public support for releasing the files shows that it is not a partisan issue but rather reflects a frustration with a seemingly two-tier justice system in which the rich commit abuses and, especially under the current administration, operate with increasing confidence that they will face no accountability. However, the Epstein case is far from the only example of those both in government and the upper echelons of society who often behave as though rules do not apply to them. The intense focus on Epstein this week has overshadowed other stories that also reveal the rot, grift and corruption.

Especially under the current administration, the wealthy and powerful operate with increasing confidence that they will face no accountability.

Daniel Dayden calls “elite impunity the defining issue in America for more than two decades.”

Jeffrey Epstein is not the only accused rapist and human trafficker treated with kid gloves. The current administration intervened to help ardent Trump supporter and online influencer Andrew Tate to be released from house arrest in Romania, where he is under investigation for several allegations, including sex with a minor. Robert Faturechi and Avi Asher-Shapiro have investigated the White House’s interference in their piece for ProPublica.  

Jeremy Kohler examines how How Powerful Figures Were Prosecuted in Trump’s First Term, Then Pardoned in His Second.

Donald Trump has always used the presidency to enrich himself and his business enterprises, especially through deals with foreign countries. However, his deals since his reelection pale in comparison to his first term. Dave Lawler examined the many real-estate projects in Trump’s business empire goes global while he’s in the White House. To keep track of how profitable the second term has been, CAP has launched a live tracker that shows how much the Trump family has pocketed in cash and gifts.

Cabinet members have their hands in the cookie jar as well, as lucrative deals generate profits for their family members or business associates. Justin Elliott, Joshua Kamplan and Alex Mierjeski examine how Kristi Noem has profited from her appointment as Homeland Security Secretary in Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts. Oftentimes, it is the appointees’ families that benefit as well, as Todd Gillespie reports in his piece about how financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald is on track to post revenue in 2025 of upwards of $2.5 billion, an all-time high. Cantor is controlled by Brandon and Kyle Lutnick whose father happens to be Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

And as long as the FBI director continues hunting the president’s perceived enemies, as Marc Fisher recounts in the New Yorker article “Kash Patel’s Acts of Service,” Patel is unlikely to face any criticism for flying, at taxpayers’ expense, to the luxury exotic-hunting retreat Boondoggle Ranch in Texas, one of many private excursions as compiled by Brendan Rascius for The Independent in “Private jet flights, luxury hunting trip and tipping of suspects”.

The Economist examines how Donald Trump is creating his own police force. The administration has repeatedly assured ICE and Border Patrol agents that they have ‘federal immunity’, which might explain the violence they inflict on citizens and non-citizens alike. How else to explain the ongoing brutal tactics against protesters? One of the more memorable images of the past week was that of Rev. Michael Woolf, who was violently arrested. Tim Dickinson spoke with him: ‘It’s as if Jesus Is Locked Up in Broadview’. Luck for those responsible for these attacks might run out if the GOP loses the House Majority in next year’s midterm election. Democrats have already vowed to prosecute and hold accountable anyone who issued or followed unlawful orders. Pablo Manriques looks into “hundreds of sexual-assault allegations against ICE and Border Patrol agents remain largely uninvestigated” in Women Voters Sue Kristi Noem.

Michael Woolf, minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston, was slammed on the ground and detained by Illinois State Police during a peaceful protest outside the Broadview/ICE facility in Chicago on November 4, 2025. @Reuters

…IN OTHER NEWS

Since September 2, the U.S. military has carried out 20 strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean that killed 80 people. Most legal experts believe the strikes on suspected drug traffickers to be unlawful, extrajudicial killings.

Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth is more nuanced, as Regina Garcia Cano found out.

Ryan Lucas looked behind the scenes of the Justice Department and found that one DOJ official told prosecutors that U.S should ‘just sink’ drug boats.

How Many People Has the U.S. Killed in Boat Strikes? Nick Turse provides answers and reports that Officials acknowledged they don’t know the identities of the people they’re killing and can’t meet the evidentiary burden to prosecute survivors.

NOVEMBER 8–NOVEMBER 14, 2025

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THIS WEEK IN…

EVERYDAY LIFE IN A SHIFTING AMERICA

 In only 300 days, life under the Trump administration has already fundamentally changed for many Americans. The recent headlines about the government shutdown highlighted mainly the hunger and healthcare crisis in this country, but the dramatic effects that Trump’s policies have had on the everyday lives of millions are much more widespread. The high import tariffs threaten the survival of small businesses and farms and have driven up prices for everyday goods. Across the country, the mass deployment of armed National Guard troops makes some neighborhoods resemble militarized zones. People of Hispanic background live in constant fear of being stopped on their way to work, flagged down on the highway, or arrested simply for looking “not American enough”. The administration’s dismantling of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs within the federal government has already led to increased discrimination of LGBTQ+ people and people of color.

The president may have claimed that the  “2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden”, citing a Walmart promotion, which fails to mention that the shopping basket contains fewer and lower- quality items. In addition to the many millions receiving food stamps, an even larger number are food insecure reports Mardas Kardas Nelson in 33-cent ramen, peanut butter, and community: How the state’s most food insecure get by. The uncertainty created by Trump’s erratic tariff and trade policies has led to hesitation in both investment and hiring.  As CHRISTOPHER RUGABER reports for the Associated Press, the No Hire Job market leaves unemployed in limbo as threats to economy multiply.  

The end of the government shutdown has not alleviated the dire situation of poor Americans, Americans with jobs that pay too little to live without government subsidies of just over the qualifying amount for federal help.  “It’s hard to speak up when your teeth hurt. It’s hard to stand up when you are hungry. It’s hard to show up when you can’t afford gas,” writes FELISA ROGERS in her personal essay for The Guardian.

Small business owners feel the brunt of higher import costs. At best, they are forced to lay off employees; at worst, they must shut down, in either case with devastating effects on the local communities. Some Northeast Ohio businesses say continued tariffs may cause them to close. “We won’t survive,” they tell GABRIEL KRAMER of WYSO.  Trump’s argument that high tariffs would push American businesses to source and produce their goods domestically may sound appealing in theory, but in practice, it is far from reality.  CLAYTON HENKEL writes for NBC Newsline that  From farmers to entrepreneurs, these homegrown businesses say tariffs are taking a toll on their bottom line. In some cases, tariffs have quadrupled material import costs, forcing business owners to raise prices, take out loans, and cut staff.

The cruelty of masked ICE agents has left many communities throughout the country in constant fear of harassment, assault and arrest.  The numbers of disappeared people are staggering.   CAITLIN DICKERSON repords for The Atlantic in her article, Hundreds of Thousands of Anonymous Deportees, that “amid the president’s fast-moving deportation campaign, the stories of most people being swept up are missed.”  Increasingly, small children become victims of ICE agents’ overzealous pursuit to meet the administration’s deportation and arrest quotas.  “Viral Videos Show Toddlers Caught Up in Aggressive ICE Crackdown,” writes REBECCA SCHNEID in Time.  Video footage published in the Los Angeles Times by  BRITTNY MEJIA and RUBEN VIVES documents one such case:  Armed agents drive off with child after detaining her father In Massachussetts, an “Everett 13-year-old [was] arrested by ICE and sent to [a] Virginia detention facility” reports MARCELA RODRIGUES for the Boston Globe.

Officers with the Memphis Safe Task Force conduct a traffic stop Oct. 18. The activities of the task force — made up of 31 agencies including the FBI, National Guard and local law enforcement — have raised concerns about harassment and racial profiling. Andrea Morales/MLK50

Black Americans see Trump’s militarized police presence as an increasing danger to their communities. “I Don’t Feel Safe”: Black Memphis Residents Report Harassment by Trump’s Police Task Force finds a Pro Publica investigation by WENDY C. THOMAS and KATHERINE BURGESS in cooperation with MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.

Rolling back anti-discrimination policies has further threatened the civil rights of non-binary Americans.  Trump’s executive order removing transgender troops from the military recently gained support from the Supreme Court.  In an increasingly transphobic atmosphere, three transgender service members courageously spoke on the record about “the military ban, and the rise of transphobia in the United States.”  Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, one trans officer told JEN RAININ for The Conversationalist,  “I Find Hope in Simply Still Being Here”.

The Trump administration’s policies have reshaped the nation’s social and economic landscape in less than a year, deepening divisions and eroding fundamental rights. For millions of Americans, daily life has become more precarious, fearful, and uncertain. This sentiment is reflected in recent November polls, which show decreasing approval ratings for the Trump administration, even among Republicans. 

…IN OTHER NEWS

The Constitution gives the president almost unconstrained pardon power. However, it was not designed to be used for personal or financial gain. Donald Trump’s pardons and commutations have followed a pattern of overtly political and self-serving decisions. He has rewarded friends, donors and business partners. The latest round of pardons for allies involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election shows how far Trump is willing to take the abuse of this power by protecting those who have acted on his behalf or even broken the law for him.

Presidential Pardon

JOE HERNANDEZ put together a list of Who has President Trump pardoned and why?

“Only 10 of the roughly 1,600 people granted pardons had filed petitions to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and even within that small group, some did not appear to meet the Justice Department’s standards and requirements.” JEREMY KOHLER examines Trump’s corrupt pardon spree in How Trump Has Exploited Pardons and Clemency to Reward Allies and Supporters.

DAVID POZEN, a law professor at Columbia University, writes that Trump’s “meting out of pardons for blatantly corrupt and self-serving ends is a classic authoritarian tactic that undermines the rule of law,” in this article by PETER STONE.

Trump’s pardons aren’t just political; more importantly, they’re transactional, argues AARON BLAKE.

Since none of the people pardoned for their involvement in trying to steal the 2020 election face federal charges, “Trump’s clemency grants are symbolic. They are part of Trump’s larger effort to downplay his attempt to subvert the 2020 election and his responsibility for the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress,” writes DAN FRIEDMAN in Trump Issues Fake Pardons For Fake Electors.

Many of Trump’s “recent pardons violate Justice Department policies designed to ensure fairness and public safety”, as JOSEPH NEFF points out in Trump flaunts pardon rules, costs victims and public more than $1 billion.

Some of the people Donald Trump pardoned have “been rearrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes,” among them one January 6 insurrectionist charged with threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Just this week, Jonathan Braun, a convicted drug dealer granted clemency by Trump, was sent back to prison.

November 1–November 7, 2025

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A SCHISM ON THE RIGHT

The fight over Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has roiled conservatives and consumed the MAGA movement. What began as a backlash to the interview has spread to the influential conservative Heritage Foundation whose President Kevin Robert’s remarks defending Tucker Carlson and downplaying antisemitism prompted a storm of criticism. The fallout exposed the Right’s failure or refusal to confront neo nazis and extremists within their ranks and how normalized white supremacist views have become amongst them. Only over the past few weeks, the Republican Party has been grappling with a series of pro-Nazi and antisemitic incidents from a nominee boasting of his “Nazi streak” to a leaked group chat praising Hitler and a Nazi symbol spotted in a GOP congressional office. For a long time, conservatives have not only tolerated but empowered extremists’ voices which appear now to have grown too powerful to contain. It seems that the white nationalist wing is no longer on the fringe of the American Right.

In a podcast with TNR’s Greg Sargent, David Austin Walsh, an expert on conservatism decodes, how [the fallout] tells the bigger story of the American right’s refusal to police its extremists for the last half-century.

Tucker Carlson’s interview “has led to a major reckoning in the Republican Party,” reports David Gilbert in The GOP Civil War Over Nick Fuentes Has Just Begun.

Jon Passatino on the civil war engulfing the Right in the wake of the friendly Carlson-Fuentes sit-down: The Right’s Race Reckoning.

Much of the criticism has been aimed at the Heritage Foundation. Even the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal faults the think-tank’s President Kevin Roberts in its piece on The New Right’s New Antisemites. Will Sommer looks at the schism growing on the Right in his piece Groyper War Consumes the Biggest Right-Wing Think Tank.

text bubbles from a group chat.
On October 14, 2025, Politico reported on 2,900 pages of leaked Telegram chats, spanning over a seven-month period, from leaders of the Young Republicans in several U.S. states.

In Nick Fuentes is the GOP’s Latest Frankenstein Monster, Jet Heer describes the white nationalist podcaster’s rise as a sign that racists and antisemites are tired of being the junior partners in the Republican coalition.

Who is Nick Fuentes? A profile by David Gilbert Nick Fuentes’ Plan to Conquer America and one by Ali Breland The Firewall Against Nick Fuentes Is Crumbling.

In a prescient piece from last year, Yair Rosenberg wrote about The Anti-Semitic Revolution on the American Right.

…IN OTHER NEWS

Through acquisitions and mergers, a small group of billionaires dominates the U.S. media and has consolidated control over much of what the public sees, reads and hears. Outlets that are not yet owned by some of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters, have quietly softened their coverage of the administration’s actions and policies. Just last week, CNN’s CEO following his visit to the White House told his staff to scale back coverage of the White House demolition coverage and on Tuesday, Conde Nast announced that it will fold Teen Vogue into Vogue’s Website. The magazine, which has offered fearless political coverage of the Trump era, laid off all their political writers.

What Donald Trump friendly mainstream media looks like, show his interview with CBS last Sunday. Edith Olmstead examines how Trump feels he can now dictate CBS News’s content by telling them what to cut and omit.

Trump has celebrated CBS News’ new leadership under his billionaire buddy as the “greatest thing”. Matt Gertz looks at what this development means for the U.S. media: With Trump’s suborning of CBS News, Orbanization is just beginning.

Ann Telnaes, a Washington Post cartoonist, resigned over the paper’s refusal to publish a cartoon in which she skewered today’s titans of industry—­Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Post, among them.  (Ann Telnaes)

Under the ownership of Jeff Bezos, The Washington Post has undergone quite a transformation. Michael Tomasky on the mainstream media becoming increasingly right-wing.

With the Ellison family buying up media outlets, Jake Lahut profiles the head of the media empire in Larry Ellison is a ‘Shadow President’ in Donald Trump’s America.

Alejandra Caraballo wrote about The Oligarchs’ Coup Against the Free Press.

October 25–October 31, 2025

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HUNGER IN AMERICA

In the richest country on earth, more than 40 million Americans rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, to be able to purchase food each month. For low-wage workers, the elderly, and people with disabilities experiencing food insecurity and hunger, the program provides desperately needed benefits for their families. Contrary to right-wing propaganda, most working-age recipients do in fact have a full-time job, but many companies, especially in the retail and fast-food industries, don’t pay their employees a living wage, forcing taxpayers and the government to subsidize their labor costs instead. With the government shutdown now in its fourth week, and the Republicans still unwilling to negotiate with Democrats on conditions for continued federal funding, 12% of Americans are facing the grim reality that their SNAP food benefits will run out on November 1. 

In The Guardian, ERIC BERGER goes so far as to predict that Americans might face the greatest hunger catastrophe since the Great Depression.

Long line of people waiting for food, New York City, Feb. 1932 (National Archives)


CALLUM SUTHERLAND, writing for TIME, headlines his article: A Man-Made Disaster: Food Banks and Experts Issue Grave Warning as SNAP Benefits Set to Run Out Amid Government Shutdown.

The Guardian reporter MICHAEL SAINATO spoke with Katie Giede, a single mother from Conyers, Georgia, who, despite her job at a fast-food chain, depends on SNAP to feed her family. She worries that those who rely on the program are “already not eating enough, so we’re going to lose lives over this. It’s those of us at the bottom that are really feeling it.”

In his analysis The Hunger Games Begin, PAUL KRUGMAN outlines who will be hit hardest by the impending cut-off. Among SNAP recipients, “40 percent are children; 18 percent are elderly; 11 percent are disabled.” And like Katie Giede, “a majority of recipients who are capable of working do work. They are the working poor: their jobs just don’t pay enough, or offer sufficiently stable employment, to make ends meet without aid.”

The loss of SNAP funding will also have serious ripple effects on local economies, small businesses, and farmers. As ELENA PERRY, MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS, and THOMAS CLOUSE report in The Spokesman-Review, ‘A sad reality’: Food banks, grocery stores, residents expect to feel the strain from impending SNAP benefit expirations.

Teal-colored one-story building with sign Fort Bragg Food Bank
Food Bank in California, Fort Bragg (c) Missvain/Wikimedia Commons

David Gilbert looks at how right-wing influencers use racist AI slop videos to spread falsehoods about SNAP recipients in No, SNAP Benefits Aren’t Mostly Used by Immigrants

There are potential stopgap solutions, such as using SNAP’s emergency contingency fund or exercising presidential transfer authority to continue payments even during the shutdown. But the administration and Republican politicians have rejected those options. SARAH FORTINSKY reports in The Hill that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson claims “contingency funds are not ‘legally available’ to cover benefits during the shutdown.”

Republicans have attempted to shift blame onto Democrats for refusing to “compromise,” but ERIC BERGER points out in The Guardian that this framing is misleading. “While Republicans have sought to blame Democrats for the potential loss in benefits that people who make little money rely on, those who work in the food-insecurity space say that is misleading because Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ already eliminated almost $187 billion in funding for SNAP through 2034, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate.”

The Trump administration also took steps to obscure the true scope of hunger in the United States. BETH SHAPIRO writes in her article America’s Hunger Crisis Is Growing. We’re Choosing to Look Away that “last month, the Trump Administration canceled the USDA’s annual Household Food Security Report—the only national data source that measures hunger by age, disability status, and household composition. For the first time in 30 years, America will no longer track hunger nationwide. Without that data, millions of older adults … will vanish from view as the social safety net continues to collapse around them.”

The troublesome truth is that the United States with over 10% of Americans living with food insecurity, has the sad record of ranking among the countries with the highest percentage in the industrialized world.  

…IN OTHER NEWS

Since the start of the second Trump term, it has been ordinary citizens who have fought back against the administration’s actions. Once relied upon to uphold and defend democratic principles, the elite and numerous institutions have surrendered, rolled over and contributed to eroding fundamental rights and undermining the rule of law. In its place, Americans across the country have stepped forward and are not afraid to protest and exercise their rights, even at the risk of facing severe consequences. Many have paid a steep price for their defiance, facing violence, arrests, or even detention.

Demcast and Jennifer Canter met with “ordinary people in forgotten places” in: How Americans Are Blocking Trump’s Militia

Demcast USA

“If convicted, people who showed up to a protest could face “decades of prison time”. Andrew Lee portrays attendees at a July 4th noise demo in Texas who are facing charges for “providing material support to terrorists” in These Dallas Residents Are on the Front Lines of Trump’s War Against “Antifa”

Continuing its weaponization of judicial power to crush dissent, the Trump administration has indicted progressive Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh along with 5 other individuals for protesting near an ICE facility outside of Chicago report Lisa Rubin and Brandy Zadrozny.

How an innocuous Facebook post landed a man in jail. Liliana Segura on The Absurd Prosecution of a Man Who Posted a Charlie Kirk Meme. Larry Bushart had been jailed for more than a month. The charges were only dropped on Wednesday.

“While the media continues to ignore and even mock Trump’s war on “Antifa” terrorism as legally impossible, the FBI is quietly interrogating protesters” writes Ken Klippenstein. He tells the story of protesters who are being detained for exercising their First Amendment rights. Among them Chicago-based English professor Elias Cepeda who was arrested for speech federal authorities considered “pro-Antifa” and special-needs teacher Miles Serafini who was targeted and questioned by the FBI even though he had not been charged with any crime.

October 18–October 24, 2025

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SOYBEANS AND COCKROACHES

Despite government claims that the economy is booming, experts caution that this image is dangerously misleading. While the stock market has hit record highs this year, Americans are battling food insecurity, rising health insurance premiums, and a growing inability to make ends meet. A record number of farmers face economic hardship, and bankruptcies are soaring. This disparity between a surging stock market fueled by an AI boom and households burdened by mounting debt and increasingly unable to even pay back their car loans may pose a threat not only to the U.S. but the world economy.

How Americans deal with ever-increasing grocery prices caused by Trump’s tariffs describes Shrai Popat in Empty shelves, higher prices’: Americans tell of cost of Trump’s tariffs.

The administration’s economic policies are particularly hurting farmers and ranchers, and Trump’s trade war is making it worse reports Scott Horsley from the Midwest.

Man holding soybean bushels in a soybean field at sunset
Brady Holst raises soybeans, corn and wheat near Augusta, Illinois. Despite a bumper crop this year, he and other farmers are losing money as a result of rising costs and falling crop prices. (c) Illinois Soybean Association

Trump’s solution to counter high beef prices is to import more meat from Argentina. This proposal has alarmed major American agricultural organizations, which have been among Trump’s strongest supporters. His plan has not only been met with fierce criticisms from ranchers but also Republican senators. Cattle producer associations call it ‘A Betrayal of the American Rancher,’ as MARIAH SQUIRE  and  NATALINA SENTS BAUSCH report.

Jill Lawrence takes a fascinating look at the harm Trump is doing from too wildly different angles. The Disney Heiress, the Soybean Farmer, and Trump’s Dangerous Decisions.

Bullish investors may see prolonged profitable times ahead, fueled by expectations of further Fed rate cuts and more disposable income from Republican tax cuts scheduled for 2026. Others, including some of America’s top bankers and hedge fund managers, see warning signs with major implications for the United States and the world.

Harvard Economics Professor and former IMF chief economist Gina Gopinath looks at how dangerously dependent on American stocks the world has become: The crash that could torch $35trn of wealth

ELISABETH BUCHWALD and MATT EGAN explain why [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon is warning of ‘cockroaches’ in the US economy after the bankruptcies of a subprime auto lender and dealer, and an auto-parts supplier. He cautions that trouble could be lurking again just like in 2008 and sounds warning on US stock market fail, report Simon Jack and Michael Sheils McNamee.

Bridgewater hedge fund manager Ray Dalio sees an even gloomier future. In an interview with Bloomberg, he warns of soaring debt and ‘civil war’ brewing in (the) US. Speaking with ANNIKA INAMPUDI, the billionaire investor reiterated warnings that U.S. government debt is rising too quickly, fueling a climate “that’s very much analogous” to the years before World War II.

The razing of the White House’s East Wing seems like a metaphor for the destructive forces shaping the current political climate of this country.  

More Americans say violence might be necessary to get the country back on track found a NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. Speaking with Americans from both parties and independents, DOMENICO MONTANARO found that even if respondents would not commit violence themselves, there is a growing acceptance of political violence in this country.  Add increasing economic hardship and widening inequality, and this country might face a gigantic wrecking ball.   

…IN OTHER NEWS

While it is not surprising that Trump is treating the DOJ like an instrument of revenge, the work and effort the administration is putting into going after his perceived enemies is astonishing.

Jonathan Landay, Sarah N. Lynch and Phil Stewart have uncovered how a Wide-ranging group of US officials pursues Trump’s fight against ‘Deep State’

Trump’s NSPM-7 memo, formally named National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, directs law enforcement and regulatory agencies to “investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations” that, according to the president, are responsible for encouraging acts of political violence. Jacob Knutson looks at how the DOJ and other and other federal agencies may wield it against left-leaning nonprofit organizations who hold ideological beliefs and fund progressive political activity the president and his allies oppose

DOJ whistleblower Erez Reuveni describes how government officials are undermining the rule of law, and New York University law professor Ryan Goodman and his team have analyzed 400 lawsuits filed against the Trump administration and found over 35 cases in which the judges have specifically said what the government is providing…false information. It might be intentionally false information, including false sworn declarations time and again.

  

OCTOBER 11–OCTOBER 17, 2025

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PEOPLE POWER


The Women’s March on Washington, held one day after Donald Trump was inaugurated for his first term in 2017, left many participants uplifted, instilled with a sense of community, and encouraged to continue their engagement in a wide range of political and civil issues. The day saw hundreds of sister marches all over the country, drawing some 4 million participants.  

Pink knitted hat with abstract cat ears
Pink “pussy hat” worn by Judy Bazis on January 21, 2021. Ntl. Museum of American History Collection


In June of this year, around 5 million Americans took to the streets in more than 2,000 locations to protest the Trump administration’s authoritarian policies.


Two of the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States happened during Trump’s presidency.  Their numbers will likely be eclipsed by the second No Kings rallies on October 18. The Cavalry is Coming, predicts NATASHA KORECKI.  


“ ‘The anger level is way higher’ than it was for June protests, which will drive turnout,” says Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert in an interview with SARAH D. WIRE for the USA Today article, ‘No Kings’ protests could draw historic turnout in pushback against Trump”.

No Kings Day events nationwide on October 18, 2025

History has shown that civil resistance works when a movement is large and relentless. In his article, America needs a mass movement – now for The Atlantic, DAVID BROOKS explores successful protest movements and argues that “without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades.”


The reaction from the White House, Republican leaders and other Republican politicians to upcoming mass protests has been to label the No Kings rallies as “hate America” events, and to dismiss the demonstrators as “the rabid base” of the Democratic Party.  ‘No Kings’ has Republicans in Disarray comments JOE PERTICONE for The Bulwark, exploring “why GOP lawmakers are spreading fear about the upcoming rally”. 


As much as the critics of the No Kings rallies want to paint a picture of radicals and dangerous leftists, the people participating in Saturday’s rallies come from all walks of life: Doctor. Teacher. Mamaw. Meet some ‘No Kings’ protesters organizing in ‘deep-red’ Kentucky, as introduced by Kentucky Lantern reporters JAMIE LUCKE and LIAM NIEMEYER.

Protestors with signs in city street
Thousands gather in Lexington, Kentucky, for ‘No Kings” protest. Kentucky Local News WKYT


Millions of people protesting in all 50 states will send a powerful message against the argument that the Trump administration’s policies rest on a strong public mandate. 
ROBERT REICH argues in his opinion piece for Raw Story, that “Trump’s power depends on maintaining the illusion that he’s all-powerful, and that most Americans (apart from those he and his lapdogs label “pro-Hamas,” “terrorists,” and “antifa”) adore him.”

No Kings event poster for October 18, 2025. Source: Indivisible

…IN OTHER NEWS

Donald Trump has long had an odd fixation with the death penalty, dating back decades to 1989, when he demanded the execution of five young Black and Latino men wrongfully convicted of raping a woman in Central Park. During his first term, he ended a 17-year federal moratorium and oversaw 13 executions, the most in a single year in over a century. He pushed to expand capital punishment to crimes like drug trafficking and killing police officers, and authorized alternative execution methods such as firing squads, electrocution, and poison gas. At one point, he even mused about alternative methods like hangings and beheadings. On his first day back in office for his second term, he vowed to pick up where he left off and to pursue more executions.

room with green walls, mirror window and gurney with straps in foreground
Execution chamber with gurney Source: The Innocent Project

His stance is now influencing a wave of state legislation aimed at expanding the death penalty. Surina Venkat examines how Trump’s death penalty push gains traction in statehouses

States have executed 30 people this year, already the highest annual total in more than a decade. Maurice Chammah analyzes What’s Behind the Execution Surge of 2025

Joe Biden halted federal executions and just before leaving office, commuted the death sentences of 37 death row inmates. Unable to kill them, Donald Trump has found a way to still make them suffer as much as possible, as Jess Bravin reports: Biden Spared 37 Killers From Execution. Trump Ordered Up a Lifetime of Torment.

October 4–October 10, 2025

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STATE VIOLENCE

Immigration raids have been carried out daily across the country for months, with numerous incidents of ICE agents using excessive force against both citizens and non-citizens. What unfolded over the last week in Chicago, however, represented a significant escalation by the Trump administration as military-style operations spilled into residential neighborhoods. While images of heavily armed personnel detaining individuals and transporting them in unmarked vehicles have become distressingly routine, the deployment of armed troops, over the objections of state and local leaders, to intimidate and terrorize entire communities, and the militarized tactics being employed, mark a new and dark chapter in this administration’s war on the American public and American democracy.

An ICE raid conducted last week on an apartment complex in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, a predominantly Black community, left a trail of destruction. According to eyewitnesses, agents in full tactical gear rappelled down from helicopters onto the roof of that apartment building, knocked down doors, dragged families out in the middle of the night and even zip-tied small children. Cindy Hernandez examined the incident and spoke with some of the residents and Daniel Knowles analyzes What a Chicago immigration raid says about Trumpism.

Historian Garrett Graff on how “ICE crosses another big, important line” with this raid on an entire apartment building.

Agents fired so much tear gas that even people who were not protesting got sick when they left their homes, reports Samantha Michaels: ICE Is Hounding Chicago Area Locals With Excessive Chemical Munitions.

Kelly Hayes examines how Trump is is normalizing attacks on blue cities in an effort to overpower hubs of democratic resistance: Trump Is Releasing the Full Force of Federal Police on Chicago.

ICE agent sprayed protester
A masked ICE agent sprayed David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, directly in the face during protests outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview, Illinois. Photo by Ashlee Rezin of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Last Saturday, Border Patrol officials shot and wounded 30-year-old Chicago resident Marimar Martinez, who they claim rammed her car into a federal law-enforcement vehicle during a protest at Brighton Park. But as David Struett and Kade Heather report, Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim: Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims agent said, ‘Do something b—-‘ before shooting.

Federal agents violating individuals’ constitutional rights and using increasingly violent tactics have been on shocking display these past few days. Here are just a few examples:

…IN OTHER NEWS

The Trump administration has dismissed concerns about the environmental and economic impacts of climate change. Funding for climate research has been slashed, and terms like “sustainable,” “emissions,” and “green” have been scrubbed from official communication. The president even appears personally offended by the look of wind turbines. 

The administration’s environmental policies will have negative economic consequences.As The Guardian’s OLIVER MILMAN writes,  Trump’s hatred for renewables means the US is falling behind the rest of the world”.

An AP investigation by MATTHEW BROWN and MEAD GRUVER describes the administration’s push to open public lands to coal, oil, and gas drilling both outdated and uneconomic. Their article “Trump is reviving large sales of coal from public lands. Will anyone want it?” shows that the “fair market value of 167 million tons of federal coal next to the Spring Creek mine was just over $126,000. That is less than one-tenth of a penny per ton, a fraction of what coal brought in its heyday”.

Despite these rollbacks, Oregon and several other states are fast-tracking renewable energy projects before federal tax credits expire, countering what many see as regressive national energy policies. MONICA SAMAYOA reports that Oregon [is] to accelerate siting of renewable energy projects to beat Trump’s incentive deadline. Oregon governor Tina Kotek signed an executive order prioritizing the approval and construction of such projects before access to tax credits expires.

Oregon joins Colorado, Maine, and California in countering the administration’s regressive energy policies.

September 27–October 3, 2025

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THIS WEEK IN…

GUTTING GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS


Eight months into the second Trump administration, the federal government’s ability to serve the public has been steadily hollowed out despite many aspects of daily life seemingly continuing as usual. Through sweeping budget cuts and mass layoffs, the erosion of the administrative state has started to impact the delivery and scope of services relied on by millions of Americans. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) operates with reduced readiness, national parks face staffing shortages, people lose their healthcare and food assistance benefits run out.


Michael Sainato looks at how food banks all over the country brace for the impact of the largest cuts to the government’s food assistance program for low-income people in US history . Leah Douglas and Nathan Frandino examine what essential programs States are forced to cut. In addition, rising food prices due to recently imposed tariffs are making life harder for everyone from teachers to gig workers and small business owners.

Illustration of an office with a giant DOGE cap wearing figure attacking through the windows
Illustration for WIRED by YONK


Significant budget and staffing cuts to FEMA have led to the cancellation or reduction of several services. Scott Petersen and Tarini Parti report from St. Louis, where residents are still waiting for help from FEMA after a tornado struck the city back in the spring: FEMA Is Paralyzed. Disaster-Torn Communities Are Paying the Price. Jennifer Berry Hawes and Ren Larson report on how lower-income residents who lost their homes during Hurricane Helene are struggling to receive help: Arduous and Unequal: The Fight to Get FEMA Housing Assistance After Helene.


Due to cuts in federal health spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, Rural health clinics are closing as David Wright and Eva McKend write. One California county is losing its only hospital. Ana B. Ibarra examines the impact on the residents who are being left without local emergency care. 


More than 24 million Americans receive subsidized health insurance and will see their premiums jump by the end of the year unless Republicans agree to a deal proposed by the Democrats. Couples are even considering divorce to keep their insurance premiums somewhat affordable, reports Sarah D. Wire in her article These people have found their health care at the center of a shutdown showdown. “Small business owners, self-employed people and early retirees are among the 4 million Americans who could lose the tax credit – and maybe their health insurance.”


The National Park system is struggling to keep the gigantic land areas clean, protected and its visitors safe.  With more than 25% of the workforce gone, essential climate, wildlife and ecology research can no longer be conducted and that “the real crisis is happening behind the scenes”. Kylie Mohr argues that Trump is setting the National Parks up to fail,in her story for The Atlantic.

Some 300,000 federal workers have lost or left their jobs, one in eight employees. WIRED “spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) tore through their offices.”  The Story of DOGE is a distressing investigation into how the callous and indiscriminate job cuts affected people in dozens of agencies.

DOGE was only the beginning, as the Project 2025 tracker shows, many of the objectives have not yet been achieved.

…IN OTHER NEWS


On Tuesday, Ronald Reagan–appointed U.S. District Judge William Young ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully targeted students for their pro-Palestinian activism. In a blistering opinion, unusual in its style and substance, he calls out the administration’s “full-throated assault on the First Amendment” and discusses the state of the country. “It’s a sign of the times that a federal judge would write an opinion like this,” Steve Vladeck, Supreme Court analyst and Georgetown Law professor. “Judge Young is committing to writing what so many of us are thinking.” Judge Young also writes: “ICE goes masked for a single reason — to terrorize Americans into quiescence… To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed, masked secret police.”

Two masked men stand in the door of an elevator
The two ICE agents who accosted and shoved amNewYork Police Bureau Chief Dean Moses at 26 Federal Plaza, Lower Manhattan, Sept. 30, 2025.
Photo by Dean Moses


Meanwhile, ICE agents have become even more violent, using excessive force and no longer targeting only minorities. At Federal Plaza immigration court in New York City, a reporter was assaulted and another journalist seriously injured, report Robert Pozarycki and Adam Daly.

Masked men in an elevator shoving a man out the elevator door. A woman photographs the scene
An ICE agent grabs hold of amNewYork Police Bureau Chief Dean Moses at 26 Federal Plaza on Sept. 30, 2025.
Obtained by amNewYork
A man lies on the ground, assisted by a kneeling man, and surrounded by other people with cameras
A photographer tends to injured journalist L. Vural Elibol after an ICE agent apparently shoved him hard to the floor at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 30, 2025.
Photo by Dean Moses


Journalist Raven Geary was shot in the face with a pepper ball by federal officers while reporting on protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois where Federal ICE Agents even tear gassed local police and first responders

September 20–September 26, 2025

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THIS WEEK IN…

STANDING UP TO AUTOCRACY

From pushing prosecutions against perceived enemies despite a lack of evidence to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, as well as branding the anti-fascist movement “Antifa” a domestic terrorist group, even though no such designation exists under U.S. law, the Trump administration has clearly escalated its war on dissent. Considering these recent developments, one could reasonably question whether the United States remains a functioning democracy or is sliding into authoritarianism. The past few months have left the opposition seemingly exhausted, even hopeless and under the impression that resistance is futile. As George Packer writes in The Atlantic, “The regime’s “overriding goal is to render most citizens passive.”

Yet, the battle for U.S. democracy is ongoing, fought by people all over the country. As Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa tells late-night host Jon Stewart, the United States has not yet reached apocalyptic conditions but is still at the stage of Armageddon. Many of the fights against Trump’s agenda do not make splashy headlines, as did the massive backlash against Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary suspension, yet there are numerous examples of ordinary citizens showing what successful pushbacks look like and that fighting back can work.

New York Times Opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie explains in this video how the Trump administration is using propaganda in order to create the illusion we are already living in an authoritarian state despite all the ways society is pushing back.

@jamellebouie

consider this a continuation of my previous video. genuinely worried that some of you have basically internalized the administration's own vision of itself!

♬ original sound – b-boy bouiebaisse

The most recent public display of resistance was the reaction to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. Disney’s decision to cut the show sparked a huge boycott from customers expressing outrage and concerns about the company’s values. Even some conservative politicians and commentators felt that the silencing of a comedian was an assault on free speech. Millions of subscribers to Disney’s streaming services cancelled or threatened to cancel their subscriptions to the broadcaster. Even Disney’s most ardent fans pushed back. STEPHANIE MCNEAL reports how The Jimmy Kimmel and Disney Drama Has Some Superfans Dumping the Mouse.

Resistance to the policies and actions by the Trump administration has a different face this time around. Most protests do not get the attention and coverage as the big Kimmel blow-up. That does not mean that Americans opposing the administration wait patiently, hoping to turn things around with the mid-term elections in 2026. Protests are local, smaller, initiatives more personal. Protesters at an ICE facility in Broadview near Chicago were hit with tear gas and pepper balls deployed by federal agents. “Pain only hurts,” Marine Corps veteran Curtis Evans told reporter Nicholas Slayton. Stacey Wescott’s photograph of Evans carrying the country’s banner went viral after the Chicago Tribune published it on its front page.

Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune

Every day, ICE agents snatch people off the streets or detain them in their homes or at their workplaces. Residents have come together to help protect their fellow community members. ALEJA HERTZLER-MCCAIN reports from Massachusetts, where an Episcopal bishop and 500 supporters accompanied a Honduran immigrant to her court hearing to protect her from being arrested. Alex V. Hernandez writes about a neighborhood in Chicago: In Little Village, Residents Are Blowing Actual Whistles To Warn Neighbors About ICE and Leilani Clark about a New Kind of Neighborhood Watch. Sonoma County’s ‘Adopt a Corner’ program aims to protect undocumented day laborers from ICE.

For the many powerful law firms that caved to demands from the Trump administration to avoid sanctions, there are still lawyers challenging the administration’s actions, writes Peter Stone: Legal groups resist Trump authoritarian moves with pro bono work.

JONATHAN SCHIEFER, senior researcher at the Harvard Business School, takes a scholarly and scientific approach to examine the success rate of autocratic transformation attempts. He argues that the American Democracy Might Be Stronger Than Donald Trump.

Political scientist Daniel Drezner writes about Trump’s efforts to “claim broad popular support for his actions” when in fact his administration has shown itself to be “unable to autocrat”, stressing the importance of showing citizens that resistance works: The Weakness and Incompetence of American Authoritarianism. And why it needs to be continually highlighted.

How unpopular are Trump and his actions? G. Elliott Morris provides the numbers: A lot of powerful people just don’t realize how unpopular Trump is. The backlash to ABC/Disney canceling Kimmel shows why it’s important for businesses and the public to understand that two-thirds of Americans are not Trump voters. After only 8 months in the office, pessimism about the direction of the country is (even) growing among Republicans, finds an analysis by AP-NORC: Only forty-nine percent of Republicans say things in the United States are heading the right direction down from seventy-five percent in June.

…IN OTHER NEWS

A new cohort of Democrats is challenging the party’s establishment. The push is led by younger politicians and activists frustrated by recent electoral defeats, the lack of clear messaging from the party’s leadership, the inability to address voters’ concerns, and an unwillingness to forcefully fight the Trump administration.

Sam Brodey and James Bindell profile some of the “new” democrats running for office in the Boston Globe: Tattooed, tough, and running: Democrats’ new 2026 strategy

The 26-year old Illinois Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh decided to launch her campaign in response to, in her words, Democratic leadership’s “culture of giving up”. A video of her being thrown to the ground by ICE agents during a protest outside a detention facility in Chicago recently went viral. Katie Knibbs has profiled her for Wired: She Fought the Far Right Online for Years. Now She Wants to Do It in Congress and Amanda Becker for The 19th: Kat Abughazaleh’s punk-rock House bid. The 26-year-old Chicagoan is betting that empathy and righteous anger can remake Democratic politics.

September 20–September 26, 2025

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THIS WEEK IN…

PHOTOGRAPHY

SHEITEL

A Photography Portfolio by Tamar Shemesh

At sundown on September 22, Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year celebrations have begun and will end at nightfall of September 24,2025. The celebration starts the year 5786 in the Hebrew calendar.

“Shanah tova”, a good year –

We take the occasion to show Tamar Shemesh’s wonderful photography project on the traditional head coverings worn by married women in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

The Sheitel—the wig worn by ultra-Orthodox married women, is a ritual rooted in both religious devotion and personal style. For over two centuries, Jewish women have shaped their sense of beauty and femininity within the boundaries of modesty (tzniut), while also adapting to modern aesthetics and cultural shifts.

Through close access to women from the Crown Heights community in Brooklyn, this project traces the relationships women cultivate with their sheitels as an extension of the self; from the transitional moments of wedding ceremonies to everyday practices in wig salons and private spaces

You can explore more about Tamar Shemesh and her work:

Website https://tamarshemesh.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tamarshemesh_photography/