John Nichols Wisconsin’s governor was well positioned to win a third term. Instead, he cleared the way for a new generation of Democrats to run. Others should take note. The post Tony Evers Did What Too Many Senior Democrats Have Not appeared first on The Nation.
Steve Brodner Sami Sage. The post Summer of Epstein appeared first on The Nation.
A cartoon by Clay Bennett. Related | Guess who’s reportedly named in the Epstein files
President Donald Trump on Friday refused to rule out the possibility that he could grant clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for helping her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploit and traffic underage girls. Trump was asked twice about whether he would pardon Maxwell—whom he used to party with—and both times, he refused to answer. “It’s something I haven’t thought about,” Trump said to the first reporter who asked Trump about possibly granting clemency to Maxwell. “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.” YouTube Video Trump was then asked again before he got into Marine One for a taxpayer-funded trip to two Trump-branded golf courses in Scotland. “Would you consider a pardon or clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell?” a reporter asked Trump. “I don’t want to talk about that,” Trump said, going on to bring up other men who have been tied to Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton. YouTube Video Trump’s refusal to rule out clemency for Maxwell comes as Todd Blanche—Trump’s former criminal defense attorney who now serves as deputy attorney general—is interviewing Maxwell for a second day about whether she has incriminating information about Epstein’s alleged clients. But as Daily Kos reported, the interview is a sham and should be taken with a grain of salt. Maxwell has ample reason to lie and tell Trump what he wants to hear in order to butter him up for a pardon. And Blanche likely has Trump’s interest at heart when questioning Maxwell, rather than the truth. Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, during a news conference in New York in July 2020. Trump was asked about the Maxwell interview on Friday, but he tried to distract from that interview by pushing the baseless lie he’s crafted and ordered other Republicans to parrot about former President Barack Obama committing “treason.” “People should really focus on how well the country is doing, or they should focus on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama led a coup,” Trump said. But ultimately, Trump refusing to rule out a pardon for Maxwell is unlikely to quell the Epstein-files mania that is consuming Trump’s presidency. In fact, it will likely only increase the public’s dissatisfaction with how the Trump administration is handling the Epstein case, as well as the belief that Trump is hiding something by not releasing the files. After all, Trump was reportedly told by his top aides that he appears multiple times in the files. “Thousands of FBI agents from NY’s Field Office were pulled from terrorism, drug, and gang cases to work 12-hour days combing through and redacting info from the Epstein files. After all that there’s nothing to share with the public? Even Trump loyalists know it’s a cover-up,” Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York said Thursday night on MSNBC, referring to the MAGA outrage over Trump’s Epstein files response.
President Donald Trump’s war on U.S. history is far from over. Thanks to an executive order, books telling the true story of slavery in the United States have reportedly been labeled as “corrosive ideology” and could soon be purged from national park bookstores. A sign in a bookstore window reads, “We sell banned books.” According to The Washington Post, internal records from the Department of Interior show that books on slavery, George Washington, and the history of Native Americans are among those that have been flagged for possible removal. Trump’s March 7 executive order, “Restoring Truth And Sanity To American History,” instructed the Smithsonian Institution and the national park system to purge materials that don’t align with conservative ideology on U.S. history, which prioritizes the views of racist white people. Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, slammed the Trump administration’s attempt at whitewashing. “Great countries don’t hide from or sanitize their history,” he told the Post. For instance, a book sold at the Washington Monument gift shop that labels George Washington as an “enslaver” has been flagged for potential violation of Trump’s order—despite the fact that Washington did indeed enslave people. Former Interior Secretary Deb Halaand was the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history. The official website for Mount Vernon, Washington’s residence, notes that he owned “hundreds” of Black people who lived on the estate. It also says that Washington “depended on their labor to build and maintain his household and plantation.” The department has also reportedly flagged a children’s book on the life of former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. Haaland was the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary in U.S. history. This right-wing attack is in line with other racist conservative initiatives, including a Florida education curriculum that falsely claims that slavery brought “personal benefit” to enslaved Black people. The Trump administration has been focused on purging educational materials on U.S. history, particularly regarding abuses against people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. It has also sought to erase evidence of advancement of people in these groups and to establish laws and policies to undo civil rights gains. At the same time, the Trump team has celebrated white supremacy by renaming military bases after pro-slavery Confederate figures and by using white supremacist imagery in official government communications. All told, the Trump administration has made it clear that it wants to pervert the historical record and restrict Americans from learning the truth—good and bad—about their own country.
Before jetting off to Scotland for a 5-day trip, President Donald Trump was asked about the application of the Supreme Court’s 2024 immunity decision to President Barack Obama, who is weathering baseless treason accusations, cooked up to distract from the ongoing Epstein scandal. At the time of the decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that it made Trump “a king above the law.” “It probably helps him a lot. It probably helped him a lot, the immunity ruling, but it doesn’t help the people around him at all. But it probably helps him a lot. He’s done criminal acts, no question about it. But he has immunity, and it probably helps him a lot,” Trump said before adding, “He owes me big. Obama owes me big.” YouTube Video The irony is that Trump’s defense against the many lawsuits he faces now revolves around the court’s presidential immunity decision, and the man he repeatedly slanders would likely be protected by the radical right-wing Supreme Court’s decision. Unable to escape the fallout from the Trump administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files, GOP officials have also latched onto the conspiracy that Obama committed a “treasonous conspiracy” that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. Of course, Obama shouldn’t need immunity to beat this evidence-free case.
The Trump administration is considering a move that could significantly hinder non-English speakers from filing their taxes: removing multilingual services at the IRS. According to The Washington Post, the agency is reviewing its language access policies following Trump’s March executive order declaring English the official language of the United States. The announcement was controversial from the start. The U.S. has never officially designated an official language. While English is the most widely spoken, between 350 and 430 languages are spoken across the country—something Trump’s order conveniently ignores. It’s also unclear whether he even has the authority to make such a declaration. Related | Trump to overturn 249 years of history with new executive order “Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society,” the order states. On July 14, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued guidance instructing federal departments to “phase out unnecessary multilingual offerings” and redirect funds toward programs that enhance English “proficiency and assimilation.” “A shared language binds Americans together,” Bondi wrote, “while leaving ample room for the vibrant linguistic diversity that thrives in private and community spheres.” But the fallout is already unfolding. Internal emails reviewed by the Post show Treasury officials believe the IRS needs to reevaluate its “commitment to assist non-English speaking taxpayers.” This could mean cutting over 100 translated forms, eliminating free interpreter services, removing the IRS’s multilingual website, and stopping Spanish-language communications, including on social media. The impact would be broad—and primarily affect Spanish speakers. And this isn’t the first time Trump has targeted them. In April, he issued another executive order requiring U.S. truck drivers to speak English, a move critics called unnecessary and discriminatory. Other agencies are scrambling to interpret the mandate, but the IRS stands out. The agency has already gutted its civil rights division and only recently renewed its phone interpreter contract for a few months after the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump’s cost-cutting office, pushed for a review of all expiring contracts. IRS commissioner Billy Long DOGE’s reach has extended even further. In May, CNBC reported that nearly one-third of IRS auditors had been cut, due to staffing reductions linked to DOGE’s deferred resignation program and mass layoffs. The agency has lost more than 11,000 employees—11% of its workforce—according to a Treasury Inspector General report released May 2. Meanwhile, the interpreter contract is set to expire before the year’s end. Sources told the Post that senior officials at the IRS and Treasury agreed the services were critical—but that wasn’t enough to secure long-term support. Whether the new IRS commissioner, Billy Long, will extend the contract remains uncertain, though before he became commissioner he long campaigned to abolish the IRS completely. All signs point to an agency being dismantled and reshaped to align with Trump’s political agenda. What was once a push to make government services more accessible is now being reversed—one executive order at a time.
A cartoon by Jack Ohman. Related | CBS cancels Trump critic Colbert’s ‘Late Show’—and faces sharp blowback
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr was asked about Stephen Colbert, whose show was canceled in what many view as a craven concession to appease President Donald Trump, during an appearance on CNBC Friday. “They have such a storied history, and it’s sort of sad to see what’s happening to Colbert. They obviously can’t get it done. They’re not making money over there. But I think they need a course correction. And frankly, I think, you know, the media industry across this country needs a course correction,” he said. YouTube Video Carr was on the show to discuss approving a multibillion-dollar merger between Paramount and Skydance, which came just weeks after the media giant paid Trump $16 million to settle his frivolous lawsuit—a lawsuit that was mocked by “South Park,” a Paramount-distributed show. Anna Gomez, the sole Democratic-appointed FCC commissioner, castigated Paramount’s “months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration.” When asked about her statement condemning the obvious bribe and violation of the First Amendment, Carr responded, “I think it’s time for a change.” YouTube Video While CBS claimed that Colbert’s late night show was canceled for financial reasons, it’s been widely criticized as disingenuous. And as Carr defends President Donald Trump ’s war on the First Amendment as an effort to combat “bias” against the right, his actions prove otherwise.
Even in an era where every new presidential executive order is a body blow, President Donald Trump’s “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” is particularly awful. Ostensibly about “making America safe again and ending homelessness,” per the ever-mendacious White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, it’s nothing but criminalizing homelessness, substance use disorders, and mental health issues. And, like so many things in the Trump era, the right-wing justices on the Supreme Court cleared the way for this cruelty. The first part of the order purports to be about “restoring civil commitment,” which is nothing but a call for mass institutionalization of people experiencing substance use issues or a mental health crisis. Civil commitment has never gone away, so there’s nothing to be restored as such. Every state has laws providing for involuntary commitment, but those generally have far higher barriers to entry than those preferred by conservatives. What this boils down to is that right-wingers haven’t yet managed to figure out a way to arrest and imprison people simply based on their diagnoses, so they need a different approach. The approach here is just to demand that states lock people up anyway, albeit under the guise of “civil” commitment. But what to do with people who aren’t suffering an acute mental health crisis but are unhoused? How can Trump impose some sort of cruel incarceration on them as well? Well, by trying to force states and cities to criminalize urban camping, “loitering,” and “squatting.” The latter two are inflammatory terms meant to make it sound nefarious that the unhoused get to be out in public, standing around. Trump on homelessness: “Tents — I’m getting rid of them right now. You can’t do that, especially in Washington DC. I talk to the mayor about it all the time. I said, ‘you gotta get rid of the tents.’ When leaders come to see me to make a trade deal & there’s tents outside the WH, you can’t have it” [image or embed] — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 25, 2025 at 10:08 AM And here’s where the Supreme Court comes in. In 2024, the court decided Grants Pass v. Johnson. There, the conservative majority ruled that cities could impose criminal penalties on people sleeping or camping in public places, even if there were not enough available shelter beds. As repugnant as that decision was, it obviously couldn’t force states or municipalities to adopt those criminal penalties, and executive orders aren’t law, as much as Trump wants them to be. Additionally, those orders really, really, really can’t bind states thanks to that whole federalism/Tenth Amendment thing on which our democracy is theoretically still based. Never fear, though. The order has a solution. For grants from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, or Transportation, priority will be given to states and municipalities that adopt policies making it easier to arrest the unhoused. That approach is unforgivable on its face, but it’s also bad policy. Any pretense that the administration cares about anything except cruelty is belied by the fact that it has already slashed billions from programs that help people. Conservatives loathe “Housing First” policies, which prioritize getting people into secure and sustainable housing where things like treatment options are available, but not mandated. Instead, they want people forced into a cycle of forced treatment and incarceration, their vision of the appropriate “punishment” for poverty. Housing First efforts result in better results for the whole community by providing housing stability. Conservatives also hate harm reduction efforts, which focus on lessening the harmful effects of substance use with efforts like providing fentanyl test strips or clean needles. Exposing people with substance use disorders to as much danger as possible should not be a viable policy position, but it is one held by a majority of conservatives. The executive order is a permission slip to stigmatize and incarcerate people rather than helping. But hey, wait, conservatives love the troops, right? Surely they want to make sure that struggling vets get housing? Not so much. They’ve slashed programs that help vets pay for housing. And while Trump made a big splash demanding that the Department of Veterans Affairs house 6,000 unhoused veterans in West Los Angeles by the end of his term, there are no real details or money attached to making that happen. Also, good luck with that, given that overall cuts to the VA will help grind that agency’s effectiveness to a halt. Always money for cruelty, never for compassion. It’s the hallmark of the Trump era.
