The Trump administration over the weekend fired Steven Hatfill, a senior advisor to the administration who opposed the COVID-19 vaccines and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed to The Hill that Hatfill had been fired for cause, not providing any further details. Hatfill’s firing…
Alyssa Oursler Kristi Noem visited the Twin Cities and decried out-of-control crime. Is a federal occupation next? The post Minneapolis Braces Itself for the National Guard appeared first on The Nation.
President Donald Trump has long been loyal to UFC and the manosphere that surrounds it, but that doesn’t mean they’ll do the same for him. Last Friday, Bryce Mitchell, a 31-year-old MMA fighter, took a hard turn away from Trump, whom Mitchell previously said he would “take a bullet” for. Now, Mitchell thinks Trump is the “anti-Christ.” “I don’t support him, I don’t like him, I think he’s a corrupted leader, and yeah, it took me a while to come to that conclusion, but I finally am coming to it,” he said in a video posted to Instagram. Similar to others who had once supported Trump, Mitchell said he initially soured on the president after he refused to release the government’s files on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. “They’re sending Israel and Ukraine all of our tax dollars, just like the numbnuts before him did,” Mitchell added, denouncing Trump for “blaming the beef farmers for the price of beef.” Turns out, Trump couldn’t clear even Mitchell’s low moral bar. Earlier this year, the Arkansas-born fighter called Adolf Hitler a “good guy” on his podcast, where he also denied the Holocaust and made several antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ remarks. In response to that, UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime buddy of Trump, called Mitchell one of the “literally one of the dumbest human beings.” But young men—and the stars they look up to—have already been creating space between the man they slapped a red hat on for just last year. Joe Rogan is seen at the ceremonial weigh-in for the UFC 292 mixed martial arts event in 2023. Joe Rogan, the popular podcast host and UFC commentator, is also criticizing the president he defended in the past. Earlier this month, Rogan called out the inhumane treatment of immigrants coming out of Trump’s mass deportation efforts. “Everybody who has a heart sees that and go[es], ‘That can’t be right,’” he said on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “Have a fucking heart,” he added, criticizing Trump for deporting immigrants who have contributed to the society “for 20 years.” Theo Von, a podcast host and UFC fanatic who attended Trump’s inauguration, wasn’t happy when his face was associated with the administration. Last month, Von requested that the Department of Homeland Security remove a video on social media in which they used him to promote their deportation efforts. “Heard you got deported, dude—bye!” Von said in the now-deleted video, which the Trump administration took out of context from a previously recorded clip of Von. Responding, Von wrote in a deleted tweet, “Yooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this.” “I know you know my address so send a check,” he continued. “And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos. When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are a lot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!” Trump’s young voters are also turning against him. In August, the Pew Research Center found that Trump’s approval rating among Trump voters ages 18-34 had declined from 92% in February to 69% in August. Datawrapper Content This loss of favor could have to do with plenty of things. It’s possible these voters, similarly to Von and Rogan, are not on board with the administration targeting more than just the hardened, dangerous criminals they promised to remove from the country. Then again, it could also be the deepening of Trump’s own pockets through shady deals with his own Department of Justice. But if that doesn’t do it, maybe it’s the continued suffering and struggling of the middle and lower classes to pay for groceries as food benefits freeze, prices rise, and the rich get richer. Don’t worry, though. At least Trump and the bros left within his manosphere—including racist UFC fighter Conor McGregor—will be hosting their own bloodbath on the White House lawn to make up for it.
Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker has said that he lives “rent-free” in Donald Trump’s head. He also lives part-time in the official governor’s mansion in Springfield. “It’s the largest governor’s mansion in the country,” Pritzker told me when I met him in Chicago late Friday afternoon. His wife, M. K. Pritzker, oversaw a major redecoration of the 16-room, Italian-style manor after her husband was first elected, in 2018. The governor raves about the job she did. But does it have a ballroom? I asked. Pritzker declared this to be a “funny question.” No, he told me, although there is a “large gathering place.” “Do we call it the ballroom?” he wondered, in the general direction of an aide. She shrugged. (They do.) Pritzker and I were tucked away in a hybrid conference/break room that was definitely not a ballroom. My opening question felt timely, given that Pritzker’s main political nemesis of late has embarked on building a ballroom at his own official residence, a process that began with the shocking demolition of the White House’s East Wing. In the scheme of things, this landmark leveling was a small, if highly symbolic, step on the path of havoc that Trump has blazed across much of the federal government and blue America. Chicago and Pritzker have figured prominently as targets. Last month, ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers surged into the greater metropolitan area, engaging in conspicuous raids and stopping people “because of their brown skin,” in the governor’s words. The agents were acting at the behest of Trump, who is also trying to send National Guard troops into what he has called the “most dangerous city in the world.” A judge has blocked the deployment until the legality of Trump’s order is settled in court. [Read: Democrats bet on a billionaire in Illinois] Pritzker is currently a focal-point Democratic leader against the activist aggressions of the White House. One could make a case that a state-versus-federal discord of this magnitude has not existed since the civil-rights movement, or even the Civil War era. Throughout our conversation, the governor seemed to project disbelief, bewilderment, a sense of Are you kidding me? over what have now become commonplace parts of his job—asking citizens to film federal officers acting improperly, volleying daily insults with the president, even suggesting that the nation’s commander in chief is “suffering dementia.” While the Guardsmen’s status remains in limbo, Pritzker has remained in constant action, and in constant demand. Events have been whipping fast around the chief executive, who has been popping up everywhere—in person and on TV screens, often in the midst of chaotic police or press scrums. Corralling the governor for an interview took me three weeks. He granted me 27 minutes of his time. When we spoke, Pritzker had just finished a ceremony to mark the reopening of the Kennedy Expressway, which connects downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport, following the completion of a three-year, $169 million rehabilitation project. It was a gorgeous fall afternoon in the windy “war zone” (Trump’s words), with sun sparkling off of the skyscrapers and Lake Michigan packed with sailboats. The only real hazard I encountered during my day in the city involved dodging bikes, scooters, and jogger-strollers on Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive. I witnessed none of the “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” (the White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson’s words) that the president apparently believes to be the defining characteristics of America’s third-most-populous city. I suggested to Pritzker that these must be unprecedented times for him. He disputed this, and said that he has become well accustomed to unprecedented times. In fact, he maintained that since he was elected governor, he has enjoyed only about eight months of “precedented times”—a stretch in 2019 and early 2020, before COVID. “Then, the migrant crisis, which was started right, basically, as COVID was waning,” Pritzker told me. “And then now we get the Trump crisis.” This “Trump crisis,” I suggested, has ensured that Pritzker receives an overwhelming amount of national attention, perhaps more than he ever has. Winding up in a Chicago beef with Donald Trump might be welcome, of course, for a Democrat with possible presidential plans. Pritzker disputed this, too, or at least smirked at the idea that the intense spotlight is a big deal to him. “I think Gavin Newsom gets way more attention than I do,” he told me, referring to his counterpart in California, who has also been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2028—and who, like Pritzker, Trump has said should be arrested. [Read: The week that changed everything for Gavin Newsom] At the Kennedy Expressway event, I watched Pritzker standing behind a podium, surrounded by a cluster of state and local politicians, members of his administration, business and labor leaders, and a few dozen people in hard hats and vests. The governor has a thick helmet of brown hair; a large, round, sculpted-looking face; and an overall bowling-ball bearing—something between Babe Ruth and Ralph Kramden. When it was Pritzker’s turn to speak at the ceremony, he seemed to relish the highway reopening as a tactile triumph, something that felt blissfully like normal governor’s stuff. “It isn’t the flashiest project,” he said, after mentioning the 16 new overhead signs and 1,200 new LED fixtures that now adorn the revamped road, which carries 275,000 vehicles a day. He described the project as “gritty, foundational, and absolutely essential work.” “At a time of historic division in our politics, there is one idea that we can all rally around,” Pritzker said. “And that’s ‘Traffic sucks.’” This reprieve from the “Trump crisis” ended for Pritzker as soon as he commenced with questions from the press, about half of which involved ICE, CBP, or the president. The governor talked about a new “accountability commission” that he had introduced the day before, composed of a variety of community leaders. The commission’s charge will be to document any potentially illegal behavior that federal authorities engage in while they are in
Erik Loomis What drives Trump’s politics is nostalgia for the age of coal, when dirty fuel and no environmental regulations created his version of a great America. The post The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal appeared first on The Nation.
Sanae Takaichi is officially Japan’s first female prime minister. The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was elected to the post on Tuesday after winning four more votes than the required majority. Takaichi’s career in politics spans across a handful of ministerial posts and a decade in Japan’s congress. Japan’s new leader is a…
Laura Ingraham is the latest Fox News personality to team up with the Trump family, this time joining Donald Trump Jr. to head the billionaire-backed Colombier Acquisition Corp III. The new special-purpose acquisition company essentially serves as a “blank check” to help fund privately listed companies. In this case, the group—in an ominous statement on its filing—plans to “fund the next chapter of American Exceptionalism and help Make America Grow Again.” But Ingraham’s new relationship with Trump Jr. comes at a time when Fox News has been at odds with the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. “They allow [Democrats] to spew their narrative,” Trump Jr. said earlier this month, accusing the network of chasing “clickbait” instead of promoting the conservative message. “I don’t watch it anymore because it is so ridiculous. They try so hard to be unbiased that they’re actually biased towards conservatives at this point.” But, of course, Trump Jr. might just be parroting his father’s talking points. President Donald Trump has been complaining about the network for quite some time, complaining on Truth Social in 2024 that Fox News has “lost its way” and was too soft on Democrats. More recently, Trump sued Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch after his other outlet, the Wall Street Journal, published his alleged birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein. Still, Trump’s own administration is stacked with former Fox News personalities, so maybe all of this public trash-talking and legal drama is for show. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy are among those who made the small jump from Fox News to Trump’s team. And for those who didn’t get a spot in the Trump administration, they still remain close enough to the president to publicly do his bidding—like Sean Hannity. Perhaps Ingraham’s new business venture with Trump Jr. is a sign that the president and his propaganda machine have finally kissed and made up.
Some people are asking an important question after millions of people came out to participate in No Kings protests. After the joy and sense of community born out of coming together to say no to Trump had passed, the question was asked, are these protests making a difference? A better question is can these protests make a difference? PoliticusUSA will never bend the knee to any political party or special interest. Support our work by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now History and research movements tells us that successful protest movements DO make a difference. Earlier this year, Brookings weighed the possibility of the success of the Trump protests and wrote about Professor Michael Lipsky’s research, “In 1968, Professor Michael Lipsky wrote an influential article titled “Protest as a Political Resource,” in which he compared effective and ineffective movements. He argued that successful movements have clear strategic goals, use protest to broaden coalitions, seek to enlist more powerful individuals in their cause, and connect expressions of discontent to broader political and electoral mobilization. Lipsky cited the civil rights movement as a classic example of political activism that met all of those conditions and achieved landmark political and policy successes.” Lipsky’s research was done decades before No Kings, and it focused on the civil rights movement, poor people’s protests, and other movements of the 1960s. Our world has changed since the 1960s. We are both less of physical community, but more bonded via technology that we as a nation ever have been before. I have questioned whether or not No Kings is a political movement, or a protest movement. The No Kings movement has currently reached only one of Lipsky’s criteria for a successful movement, but that one is a big one, maybe the biggest of all in 2025. Read more
The adult-education program at Federal Correctional Institution Danbury needed a civics teacher. Conveniently, a new prisoner with a history of intimate involvement in American politics—inmate No. 05635-509—needed a work assignment. And that is how Steve Bannon, the man who stood accused of helping orchestrate an effort to undermine American democracy and to overturn a presidential election, found himself on the federal payroll making 25 cents an hour teaching civics to fellow convicts. Bannon’s class met up to five days a week, with as many as 50 inmates showing up for the sessions. Whether that impressive attendance had more to do with Bannon’s lectures or the sweltering summer heat is anyone’s guess—the classes were held in one of the only buildings at Danbury with air-conditioning. In class, he taught the story of the American founding, referencing both The Federalist Papers and the writings of the anti-Federalists who believed that the Constitution gave the federal government too much power. His lesson plans described how the growth of what Bannon calls the administrative state betrayed America’s founding principles. After one class on the evils of the Federal Reserve and the national debt, Bannon says one of his convict students raised his hand to ask, “And they say we’re the criminals?” The 70-year-old former chief strategist for Donald Trump had been found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress. His crime: defying a subpoena and refusing to cooperate with the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. For four months, he would be housed in a two-story cellblock with 83 other men, all of whom shared two showers. Bannon’s willingness to serve time rather than cave to Nancy Pelosi cemented his status as a towering figure in the MAGA movement. “I am proud to go to prison” if that’s what it takes “to stand up to tyranny,” he’d told reporters on the day he showed up to serve his sentence. Danbury is not the kind of prison where you would typically find someone like Bannon. But because he had another pending legal issue—he later pled guilty to one felony-fraud count in New York related to a fundraising campaign—he could not be sent to one of the minimum-security prisons, sometimes referred to as “Club Fed,” where inmates live relatively comfortably. Bannon wants you to know that he was locked up with hardened criminals in a real prison. [From the July/August 2022 issue: American Rasputin] Just a couple of weeks after his release, I sat down with Bannon in the cluttered living room of his townhouse on Capitol Hill. We spoke for nearly three hours about his time in prison. It was a dialogue that started with a phone call the day he was released, in late October 2024, and continued over dozens of telephone interviews as the former inmate resumed his role as one of Trump’s most important outside advisers. As we talked about Trump’s return to power, our conversations often came back to Bannon’s experience behind bars. “I wasn’t in a camp like that pussy Cohen,” Bannon told me, referring to Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen. Danbury is, in Bannon’s words, “a rough place”—“a fucking low-medium security with gangbangers and fucking drugs and stabbings.” Soon after he arrived, he told me he saw a group of inmates “take a shiv out and fucking rip a guy.” There was “blood everywhere.” When police officers asked Bannon what he’d seen, he refused to tell them anything. “You just can’t,” he said. “You answer any question a cop asks you, and you’re done.” He was eager, though, to tell me about the “murderers, fuckin’ mob hitmen, who were my besties.” This article has been adapted from Jonathan Karl’s book, Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America. Among the prison’s few amenities is a small room with three TVs—“a Spanish TV, a white TV, and a Black TV”—behind a glass barrier; inmates can use handheld radios to listen to the TV of their choice. One evening in July, all three were tuned to the same channel, to the reports from a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Bannon had been in the computer room when a guy raced down to get him: “Hey, boss,” the inmate said. “Trump shot.” “What?” “Trump shot.” Bannon had long feared that something like this would happen. I had spoken to him weeks before his prison sentence began, and he told me the only way Trump wouldn’t return to the White House was if the election was stolen or he was assassinated. “I’m very worried,” Bannon said. The Democrats, the media, “they’re giving moral justification that whoever takes [Trump] out is a hero.” In a speech that summer, he warned a crowd in Detroit, at a conference sponsored by Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, that “between now and Election Day, they’re going to try to take out so many people.” It was, he predicted, “victory or death!” Now, watching the news through the protective glass, he was convinced his fears were coming true. The Secret Service had failed to protect Trump. A gunman had taken a shot at him. Bannon watched as a blood-flecked Trump stood up and shouted, “Fight! Fight!” Had Bannon not been in prison, he would have immediately taken to the airwaves to amplify that message. At the time, I had one thought: America is lucky that Steve Bannon is behind bars. For as long as Bannon has been in Trump’s orbit, he has been the voice channeling the anti-establishment rage at the heart of the MAGA movement, preaching a no-compromise, screw-your-opponents, tear-down-the-institutions approach to politics. He used his post as “chief strategist” in the first Trump presidency to go after Republicans inside and outside the White House who were unwilling to do what was necessary for Trump to transform Washington. Bannon kept a list of Trump’s major campaign promises on a whiteboard in his West Wing office. After seven months, only a few items were checked off, and Bannon was fired. The truly
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday announced there had been another U.S. strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat days prior. “On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was…
