THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

Anxiety is rising among President Trump's staunchest allies that he's politically lost his way. The New York Times reports that his advisers fear he's alienating key voters in his own coalition. And CNN reports that some Republicans are openly warning the White  House that the GOP is in trouble in the midterm elections. Meanwhile, Trump just erupted in a furious new tirade about the Jeffrey Epstein fiasco. In it, he ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein's ties to Democrats. Bondi immediately did his bidding. That Trump has now formally turned the Justice Department loose in this way shows his anger over Epstein has hit new highs. Some Republicans say all these things are related: Trump is so consumed with Epstein that he's letting everything else go to hell. So we talked to analyst Michael Cohen, who has a good new piece on Trump's doldrums on his Truth and Consequences Substack. He explains why Epstein is undoing Trump, how the MAGA coalition is fracturing, how deeper structural factors are working against him, and how it will all impact the midterms. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump is angrily urging Republicans not to join Democrats in pushing for release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. But all of a sudden, with the discharge petition set to force a House vote, things are rapidly going in the wrong direction for Trump. In a surprise, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene now predicts that the number of Republicans who will vote to release the files will be “a lot higher” than anyone expects. If the GOP defectors hit truly sizable numbers, as suddenly looks likely, it will be a bombshell with terrible implications for Trump, ramping up the pressure across the board in any number of ways. But the process that's about to unfold is complex. So we talked to Democratic Representative Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, a high profile voice throughout this saga. She explains what it's like to talk personally with Epstein's victims, why Republicans are finding it harder to resist pressure, what Democrats will do next to keep the story alive, and why this will keep getting worse for Trump until the truth comes out in the end. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Suddenly, the Jeffrey Epstein files are back. Democrats released new emails raising fresh questions about the relationship between the sex trafficker and President Trump. It's gotten so bad that the White House is now privately pressuring Republicans to stop trying to get the Epstein files released, a clear sign Trump is deeply rattled by the emerging info. Indeed, now that it looks like the discharge petition calling for release of the files will get 218 votes, Trump angrily warned Republicans not to join it, another indication of his mounting anxiety. The big MAGA reckoning over all this is coming. So we talked to Nicole Hemmer, author of several excellent books about the right wing. She explains the deep tensions inside MAGA all this is unleashing, how some prominent figures are positioning themselves for a post-Trump MAGA future, where this scandal is heading next, and what all this means for our politics. The discussion gets dark. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Signs are mounting that the Supreme Court might invalidate President Trump's tariffs, and he's clearly on edge about it. Trump just vented wildly about the case on Truth Social, but he made a mess of it: In one rant, he claimed his tariffs have pulled in $2 trillion in revenues. In a second rant only hours later, that number suddenly ballooned to $3 trillion. We think this badly undermines Trump's case: It shows how reckless and blundering the tariffs truly are, while vividly demonstrating how uncontrollably he lies about their impact and implementation. To unravel all this, we talked to Alex Jacquez of the Groundwork Collaborative, who served as a trade adviser under President Joe Biden. He explains the deeper incoherence underlying Trump's self-defeating tirades, digs into why even some conservative justices are looking askance at his tariffs—though with this court you never know—and outlines the looming fiascos we face no matter which way the court rules.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eight Senate Democrats are now providing the votes to move forward with funding the government, but without getting the Democrats' principal demand: A continuation of expanded Obamacare subsidies. On Monday, President Trump exploded in a deranged Truth Social rant, attacking air traffic controllers who took time off during the shutdown. He even bizarrely said money will be sent to those who did not. It occurs to us that the absurdity of Trump's tirade revealed that his stance in the shutdown is weak: He's the one experiencing most of the political pain from it, and all he can do is shriek wildly at government workers, urging them to minimize that pain for him. We think that should wake up Democrats: It makes a strong case for them to hold the line and not cave. We talked to Brian Beutler, who has a good new piece on his Substack, Off Message, digging into the Democratic surrender. He explains the deeper strategic failings causing the cave, why Trump will take from this that he can extort Democrats further, and how they can still salvage something from this mess. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Under questioning from reporters about last week's GOP losses, President Trump seethed that worsening inflation on his watch—a driver of the outcome—is nothing but a Democratic “con.” To buttress this, he floated a ludicrous distortion about Walmart's Thanksgiving dinner package. Then, when a reporter raised facts contradicting him, he snapped in anger, because only the despot says what reality is. Trump then vehemently claimed “everybody knows” that goods cost more under “Sleepy Joe Biden,” as if shouting it endlessly will make it true. Meanwhile, a New York Times analysis shows that in key races, Democrats won over a meaningful sliver of Trump voters and that Hispanics snapped back to them in big numbers. And another analysis reveals striking details about GOP losses among working class voters. We talked to Bulwark reporter Joe Perticone, author of a good piece on GOP denial. He discusses the fragility of the MAGA coalition, why Democrats were able to reach into new info-spaces, and how Republicans are privately interpreting the loss, given that they're not allowed to publicly acknowledge the truth about Trump's unpopularity.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's excuses for his party's losses are getting stranger. He's now claiming it's all because Republicans didn't talk about his accomplishments enough, even though the results dramatically repudiated them. But he knows there's a problem. Sounding weirdly subdued, he just openly said Republicans should end the filibuster—to pass lots of new laws making voting a whole lot harder. Translation: The GOP's response to the losses should be rigging the 2026 midterms. Indeed, he also openly declared that if he gets his way, Democrats will “never obtain power.” Donnie, you're supposed to say voter suppression is about targeting “fraud,” not about locking the opposition out of power forever! We checked in with Democratic operative Jessica Post, who has extensive experience on state-level races, to see how Trump's rigging efforts are really going. She discusses the state of his gerrymandering scheme, how that could still be a problem for Democrats, why it conversely might backfire on the GOP, and how Democrats should proceed to thwart Trump's schemes.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Tuesday's elections, Democrats scored crushing victories everywhere. They won the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races by double digits, made big inroads with working class voters, handily won the California referendum, which could result in five more Democratic House seats, and more. Yet Trump is blaming everyone but himself. Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio reports that he privately rebuked GOP Senators, suggesting their shutdown was the culprit. He urged them to nuke the filibuster to end the shutdown, claiming failure could render the GOP a “dead party.” And he angrily snapped at Senator Lindsey Graham in the process. In short, Trump cannot accept something fundamental: His coalition is much more fragile than advertised, and he is making it even worse by, well, wrecking the country. We talked to New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard, who has a good new piece on the energy driving Democrats. We discuss the shift of working class voters toward Democrats, the media's hangover from overreading Trump's 2024 win, and the through line connecting those gubernatorial victories with Zohran Mamdani's triumph. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, President Trump unleashed an angry tirade in which he threatened to stop doling out food stamp payments until Democrats capitulate in the government shutdown. He seethed over “crooked Joe Biden” and made up stuff about food stamp fraud. Coming after a judge ordered payments to continue, Trump's threat seemed to suggest he's now directly defying the courts. But then White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt quickly clarified that Trump will obey the law, after all. Given that Trump intended his threat as a dominance display over Democrats, Leavitt undercut him, because she had no choice. We think this shows Trump's team knows they cannot be seen as breaking the law to deny food to the hungry. We talked to David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, who has a good piece arguing that Trump has lost the shutdown. He demystifies the food stamp battle, explains why Trump's terrible standing on the economy has made him vulnerable in the standoff, and discusses how this all shows that Democrats need to get in the fight and engage. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MAGA personalities are suddenly raging at Tucker Carlson, who just conducted a shocker of an online interview with white nationalist and open antisemite Nick Fuentes. They're attacking Carlson for hosting a “Nazi-sympathizer” who espouses the “foundation of Nazism,” calling this “sick” and “despicable,” and claiming it shows that the effort to “gatekeep the antisemitic, hateful freaks out of the Republican Party” has “failed.” We think one reason this angered right-wingers is that it revealed too much about MAGA: It can't keep the hateful views at bay, because the movement constantly traffics in similar ideas, albeit in somewhat more subtle ways. We talked to David Austin Walsh, the author of Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right. He explains how all this sheds light on the importance of racists and other extremists to the MAGA coalition, how it previews the coming post-Trump struggle over the MAGA movement, and how it captures the broader story of the American right's refusal to police its extremists over the last half-century or more. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, President Trump issued two furious tirades demanding that Republicans end the Senate filibuster to reopen the government. He ranted at great length in demanding this “NOW” and exploded in all-caps while urging the “NUCLEAR OPTION.” As many noted, this undercut Republicans, revealing that they could simply end the shutdown themselves, ultimately showing that they control the government. Then Trump ranted about his horror that health care premiums are set to spike for millions. This, too, undercuts the GOP, because guess who won't extend Affordable Care Act subsidies to prevent that? Republicans! Trump's fury forced Mike Johnson into an awkward routine declaring that the president is “angry” because...the government hasn't reopened. But this just showed how disconnected Trump is from all this, highlighting the Trump-GOP refusal to do the hard work of negotiating a settlement. We talked to Fair Share America organizer Maura Quint. She discusses Trump's deep laziness, how this is perceived by low-info voters, and whether this will allow Democrats to penetrate Trump-dominated info spaces.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's militarized raids in Chicago just took another horrific turn when agents disrupted a children's Halloween parade, triggering mayhem. Agents deployed tear gas on locals and tackled several of them, including U.S. citizens. One resident screamed: “You're scaring our children to death.” In response, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker issued an unnerving warning: Children are getting “terrorized” and “traumatized.” Pritzker also sent a strong message to the country: Your community could be next. And he challenged top Trump officials to suspend their raids just for Halloween weekend, forcing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to give a terrible answer. We talked to Dave Karpf, a professor of media and public affairs who has a good piece for The New Republic about the state of Democratic communications. We discuss how this saga shows the need to supercharge attention to these riveting confrontations, how that's the ticket for reaching low-engagement voters, and how Democrats should do politics and information warfare amid our slide into authoritarianism.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The economic news is getting worse. Major companies are announcing mass layoffs, and it's dominating the headlines, including in the Rust Belt. Food stamps are about to expire for millions. And new info shows how Obamacare premiums will soar due to lapsing subsidies. That backdrop of bad news makes President Trump's tearing down of White House structures to build a gilded ballroom even more damaging. Indeed, new polling shows that the ballroom fiasco is now stirring a surprising public backlash. On top of that, commentators are noticing the disconnect between the ballroom optics and the darkening economic situation for millions, a dynamic that will only worsen. We talked to Elizabeth Pancotti, who tracks economic sentiment as managing director of the Groundwork Collaborative. We discuss what the economic news means, why the media should level with voters about Trump's out-of-touch displays, and how Democrats in key races are seizing the economic high ground. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Surprisingly, Marjorie Taylor Greene has emerged as a forceful critic of the GOP stance in the government shutdown fight. Greene just unleashed an angry rant at House Speaker Mike Johnson, pointedly accusing him of having no answer or millions of people who will lose Obamacare subsidies due to the GOP refusal to extend them. “He refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call,” Greene raged. “Apparently I have to go into a [classified facility] to find out the Republican healthcare plan!!!” This wrecks Trump's shutdown strategy: It sabotages his effort to blame the shutdown on Democrats wanting to give health care to undocumented immigrants, and shifts blame back to the GOP desire to take health care away from millions of Americans. We talked to Matthew Sheffield, who decodes the right at his Flux newsletter and in a new book charting how the GOP fights the information wars. He explains why this battle is fracturing the MAGA coalition, what that reveals about its deeper weaknesses, and what Democrats should keep in mind as the battle with MAGA intensifies.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Air Force One, President Donald Trump unleashed a bizarre, angry, rambling rant about the cognitive test he supposedly aced this weekend. Worse, he compared himself cognitively to two Democrats who both happen to be nonwhite women. This rant backfired on itself: It revealed his worsening mental unfitness, his naked racism, his effort to normalize his belittling of nonwhite members of Congress and his ongoing attacks on democracy, and more. In today's installment, New Republic contributing editor Meredith Shiner, who regularly critiques press coverage of this administration, paints a powerful picture of the horrors this administration is visiting on everyday people, including in Chicago, where she lives. She argues that the press should connect Trump's mental decline directly to these real-world impacts by highlighting who's really running things behind the scenes, and discusses how Democrats might drive home the horrific human toll of it all.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, President Trump has approved federal disaster aid for the red states of Nebraska, North Dakota, Missouri and Alaska while denying it to the blue states of Maryland, Vermont, and Illinois. The White House has not offered meaningful explanations for the discrepancies, which just happen to punish states that didn't support him in 2024. But we noticed something interesting about this whole saga: In Maryland, the disasters and damage in question severely afflicted the state's westernmost counties. Allegany and Garrett counties are in Appalachia, deep in Trump country: Both voted for Trump by at least 40 points. We talked to MSNBC's Steve Benen, author of Ministry of Truth, who has been writing well about Trump's selective approach to disaster aid. We discuss the explicit nature of Trump's punishment of states that don't support him, how Trump screws his own voters while seducing them with promises of pain to blue America, and how this latest saga illustrates MAGA ideology larger depravities.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a shockingly brazen move, President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him $230 million stemming from certain federal actions against him. Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a scalding letter to the White House demanding all internal communications on this shakedown. What struck us was the letter's forceful indictment of Trump's corruption and criminality: It denounced Trump's “blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal $230 million from the American people” and his “outrageous and shocking” effort to “shake down” the Treasury, labeling this straight-up “theft.” There's much more, and it made critical legal points as well. We talked to the University of Michigan's Leah Litman, author of Lawless, a book on the Supreme Court. We discuss Raskin's letter, the legal nitty-gritty of Trump's heist, how it exemplifies the MAGA movement more broadly, and how the Supreme Court brought us to this dangerous moment.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're seeing a confluence of events that suggest President Trump's corruption has crossed over to an ugly new place. Trump is destroying a White House building to create a ballroom for him and his rich friends. He's demanding that the Justice Department hand over $230 million in taxpayer funds to compensate him for “damages.” And Democrats from Senator Chris Murphy to Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries are going after all this in a newly aggressive way. Into this mess stepped White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who issued an extraordinary new defense of Trump's ballroom fiasco. It was absolutely laden with comically cultish devotion to the Audience of One, but the hagiography also revealed something darker. We talked to New Republic staff writer Matt Ford, author of a great new piece about Trump's self-dealing. He explains how all this corruption and all this worshipful propaganda reveals Trump's profound contempt for the rule of law, for DOJ independence, for the idea of the public good, and even for the American people. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not long after President Trump floated a $20 billion financial bailout for Argentina, he proposed importing beef from Argentina to bring prices down in the United States. This angered American beef producers and produced a backlash from farm-state Republicans. But the most interesting response came from Meriwether Farms, a beef producer in Wyoming that promises to “preserve the traditions of American ranching.” Meriwether posted a long lament on Twitter, professing “love” for Trump but urging him to change course. Meriwether warned that Trump was on the verge of an “absolute betrayal” of the “American cattle rancher” and of “the very people who put food on the table for us.” Does this mean Trump is screwing his own supporters so badly that they're finally getting angry about it? We talked to Matt Hildreth of RuralOrganizing.org, whose own family has been in farming for generations. He explains the perfect storm of terrible policies hitting Trump's rural supporters, discusses whether this will help Democrats rebound in those areas, and details how the party is changing its organizing approach in them.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the leadup to the “No Kings” protests, Trump and Republicans widely derided the protesters as extremists, criminals, and terrorists. Then the protests actually happened. They were a wild success: Peaceful, enormous, and representative of a very wide swath of American society. So what did Republicans do in response? They just kept on calling the protesters criminals and terrorists. That MAGA smear is sharply contradicted by countless on-the-scene accounts. We talked to writer Ana Marie Cox, who has a great piece for The New Republic capturing what the protests looked like in a red county in Texas. She explains that the protesters were mostly ordinary Americans who put on a civil and powerfully patriotic display. We think that in their own quiet way, what these protesters really offered, deep in Trump country, was a brutally effective repudiation of MAGA and Trumpism.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's fury at Democrats over the government shutdown is escalating. First he angrily announced that he's “terminated” the big tunnel project connecting New York and New Jersey, basically saying he'd done this to punish Chuck Schumer, an extraordinarily deranged act of direct retribution. Then he unleashed a rambling tirade filled with lies about “mentally damaged” Democrats' shutdown stance. All this comes as a new CNBC poll finds Trump and the GOP blamed for economic damage over the shutdown by 53-37. This has driven his economic approval down to 42-55, the worst ever in CNBC polling, with his standing on inflation at an abysmal 34-62. We talked to Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, author of “The Hopium Chronicles.” He argues we should focus on the fundamentals: Trump is doing immense harm to the country, he's deeply unpopular, and that will matter in the midterms—though Rosenberg also discusses why beating Trump and recovering from our authoritarian slide will be a brutal longer-term slog. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The other day, President Trump announced that he has bombed yet another boat allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean sea. He has now struck six boats, with 27 people dead, and the bombings have been widely denounced as illegal. Now, in a strange turn of events, The New York Times reports that the head of the military's southern command, Alvin Holsey, is stepping down amid unclear circumstances. Did his resignation have anything to do with these bombings? Congressman Adam Smith of Washington State, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, thinks the answer is likely Yes. Smith talks to us about what he's personally heard about the resignation and why it's plausible that Holsey was removed over potential opposition to the bombings. He illuminates just how appallingly lacking in transparency the administration has been about the strikes, and vows that his committee will seek Holsey's testimony about his departure, which could be very revealing indeed. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former special counsel Jack Smith just confirmed that he'd amassed extensive evidence that Donald Trump willfully and knowingly broke the law in stealing classified documents at the end of his first term. Smith's report on this may never be released. But House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan helpfully exposed a big Trump ruse here. Jordan is demanding that Smith testify to “prove” the Justice Department was “weaponized” against Trump, as Trump wants him to do. But Jordan will never seek Smith's report on classified documents! In today's installment, legal scholar Matthew Seligman, a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center, illuminatingly explains how Jordan exposed the scam underlying Trump's whole approach to DOJ: Everything is about suppressing facts that show the prosecutions of Trump were actually legitimate. Seligman also discusses the recent removals of career DOJ prosecutors, how they're getting fired for not being corrupt on Trump's behalf, and how Trump himself is admitting all this right in public.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, President Donald Trump seemed unusually crazed and power-mad, even for him. He imperiously refused to take a question from an ABC reporter as punishment for an interview with JD Vance that went badly. He boasted about cutting only Democratic programs. He confirmed he supports heinous new restrictions on media coverage of the Pentagon. And he threatened to nix federal funds to New York if “communist” Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor. We think all this suggests Trump is newly emboldened. We talked to Brian Beutler, author of a new piece about the urgency of the moment on his excellent Substack, “Off Message.” He explains the futility of news organizations paying bribes to Trump, why conventional politics will not suffice, how the resistance must find a new kind of politics to meet the moment, and what the “No Kings” protests might accomplish toward this end. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's allies are suddenly raging over the October 18th “No Kings” protests. MAGA Mike Johnson and MAGA-fied Representative Steve Scalise are angrily sliming expected attendees as America-haters, antifa, Marxists, and terrorists. Other GOP figures have done the same, with one hinting that the National Guard should crack down on them. This unanimity of messaging about terrorists means it's all almost certainly being coordinated by Stephen Miller. Yet it's backfiring: Democrats and rally organizers are using it to galvanize attendance, which will likely succeed. Robert De Niro amplified the call to turn out, inspiring more anger on Fox News. Indeed, the GOP demonization of legitimate protests itself ratifies the “No Kings” message. We talked to Jill Lawrence, who writes well for The Bulwark on Trump's hatred of blue America. We discuss why large legitimate protests infuriate Trump-MAGA, why the correct response to their smears is to turn out in force, and why that's likely to happen.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we talk to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who shares striking new details about President Trump's ongoing occupation of Chicago. What's happening there has really gone off the rails: ICE launching hypermilitarized raids of apartment buildings. Children getting pulled out into the streets and potentially traumatized. A priest shot in the head by a pepper ball. This has led Pritzker to take a lead role in denouncing Trump's abuses of power—and in warning that our slide into authoritarianism could end in catastrophe. In our interview, Pritzker tells us what he'd like to see from Democrats, discusses how Illinois law enforcement is protecting local residents from ICE, and debunks Stephen Miller's lies about what's happening on the ground. Pritzker also discusses his inability to even get Trump officials on the phone amid this worsening crisis—making this all look dramatically more dangerous—and warns that Trump's mental state is worsening fast. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's efforts to prosecute his enemies are suddenly looking even more lawless. Leaks to ABC News just revealed that Justice Department insiders doubt the validity of the prosecution of former FBI director James Comey. This comes after inside sources told MSNBC that a senior prosecutor is resisting indicting New York attorney general Letitia James because the case against her is so weak. Trump is demanding prosecutions of both, and the bucking of his pressure reveals just how corrupt his directives truly are. Meanwhile, Trump just called for the jailing of the governor of Illinois. We talked about all this with former federal prosecutor Kristy Parker, counsel at Protect Democracy. She explains why Trump's prosecutions are so baseless, what we can read into the resistance inside DOJ, and how it might slow our slide into lawlessness. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the government shutdown fight dragging into its second week, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene rolled a grenade into the GOP camp. She erupted on Twitter, demanding to know why Republican leaders have no plan to help millions of people who will be hurt when expanded Obamacare subsidies expire. This wrecks President Trump's whole strategy in this fight, because it rests on the idea that only Democrats are to blame for the standoff, all due to their undying love of “illegals.” Greene's broadside also sent House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling. But we think this fiasco goes even deeper. We talked to veteran congressional scholar Norman Ornstein, author of a new piece on the standoff. We discuss how Greene has exposed serious cracks in the MAGA coalition, why this exposes weaknesses in Trump's stance, and what Democrats can do to maximize their leverage.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, a federal judge blocked President Trump from deploying the National Guard in Portland. The judge blocked Trump from deploying the California National Guard to Oregon, too. Interestingly, the ruling cited Trump's own tweet, which described Portland as “war ravaged,” in determining that he does not have unlimited authority to wildly invent facts on the ground wholesale as a pretext to justify any use of the military he wants. “The President's determination was simply untethered to the facts,” this Trump-appointed judge declared. “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”  In short, Trump's gale-force bad faith worked against him. We talked to Oregon's Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who explains the ruling, details how Trump's lawless words and threats are undermining his own case, examines the larger stakes of this moment, and looks ahead to what's next.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Things are not okay in the White House. Numerous new national polls show President Trump and the GOP taking far more blame for the government shutdown than Democrats. One polling analyst flatly declared that the gap has reached double digits. Meanwhile, at a media briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt twice lost her temper under tough questioning. Notably, what angered her was the spectacle of reporters punching holes in the leading White House arguments in the shutdown standoff. Why is this happening, given that many pundits predicted Democrats are in the weaker position? We talked to Salon's Amanda Marcotte, a sharp observer of MAGA follies. She explains why the Trump-GOP talking points are failing, why Democrats have fresh incentives to hold firm, and what all this reveals about the deepening fissures in the Trump coalition. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut has taken a lead role in forcefully sounding the alarm about Donald Trump. He's urged Democrats to use their power creatively to constrain Trump's abuses. But in recent days, Trump's consolidation of authoritarian power has expanded. And we're in the middle of a government shutdown fight in which Democrats are drawing a hard line, but not for an end to Trump's lawbreaking. Trump has responded by escalating the lawless threats toward Blue America. In an interview with us, Murphy offers a lengthy indictment of all of Trump's lawlessness, corruption, malevolence and authoritarianism. It all adds up to a bracing, extraordinary takedown: Murphy says we're dangerously close to losing democracy, explains why other Democrats aren't acting as alarmed, and outlines what can still be done to stave off Trump's dictatorial designs before it's too late.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump unleashed a strange Truth Social rant declaring straight out that farmers are getting hurt because China is not buying soybeans. Of course, Trump's own trade wars are the reason for this, so he in effect admitted that his own policies are badly screwing one of his core constituencies. This comes as the ADP report finds that the economy lost 32,000 jobs in September, suggesting job losses could now get worse. All this bad economic news is piling up just as we're entering a bruising government shutdown fight, which will make the economy even worse. So are Trump and Republicans in a weak enough position for Democrats to hold the line in the shutdown fight? We talked to New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard, who has a good new piece analyzing the standoff. We discuss how Trump is increasingly shafting his own voters, how it's making him more vulnerable on the economy, and why all this should persuade Democrats to hang tough in the shutdown standoff. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a speech to military officials, President Trump went full fascist: He said America is under “invasion from within,” declared that the generals in the room will be enlisted in a “war” against that enemy, and bizarrely insisted that U.S. cities should be used as military training grounds. We think this is Trump's most explicit declaration yet that he sees large swaths of America as themselves constituting a kind of enemy nation within our borders. The display prompted Senator Ruben Gallego to scorch Trump at length as an “idiot,” suggesting that mockery and contempt is a good approach in situations like these. We talked to Ian Reifowitz, a history professor at SUNY Empire State University and co-author of Riling up the Base. He explains how Trump is relying on longtime right-wing political tropes that trade on grievance and hate, how Trump-MAGA are supercharging this in a newly emboldened way, and why it's all heading to a very dark place.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigators are still examining the motives driving Thomas Jacob Sanford, who opened fire on a Mormon church in Michigan, killing four people. Yet White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt quickly link the killing to an alleged rash of anti-Christian violence. “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians,” Leavitt insisted, amplifying a similar claim by President Trump. Yet this is backfiring: Evidence quickly emerged that the shooter may well be a Trump supporter motivated by anti-Mormon bigotry in particular. While it's of course possible for someone to be a Trump supporter and also target Christians, Leavitt was plainly trying to turn this to the political advantage of Trump and the MAGA movement, and that's gone awry. We talked to Sarah Posner, author of good books about the religious right, who explains how this all sheds light on a bigger story that we saw at play after Charlie Kirk's assassination, too. It's that Trump-MAGA relentlessly inculcate a sense of persecution among their armies of Evangelical supporters, to rally them for religious war against the Democratic, liberal, secular enemy within. Thus far, in this case, the facts aren't cooperating.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if we told you that Donald Trump is a really unpopular president? Would that surprise you? It's not something you hear much in the media. Yet in recent days new polls from the Associated Press, Gallup, Quinnipiac, Reuters, and the Economist all show Trump's approval rating in terrible shape. He's in the toilet on specific issues, too: On the economy and trade he's polling in the 30s, and he's deeply underwater on immigration, his “best” issue. Many of his most dramatic recent moments, from the failed Jimmy Kimmel ouster to the buffoonish indictment of James Comey, have flopped. We talked to Lakshya Jain, co-founder of the data firm Split Ticket and head of political data at The Argument, who's been explaining that Trump is in a weak position. We talked about what the new data really shows, why the media—and Democrats!—still reflexively assume Trump is “strong,” and what it all means for the 2026 midterms. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's Justice Department is widely expected to indict former FBI director James Comey, someone the president has hated for years. Yet this push was just undermined when The New York Times reported a surprising turn of events: Career prosecutors reportedly informed DOJ political appointees that they have not been able to find evidence that would sustain a conviction. As the Times notes, a prosecutor handpicked by Trump is “racing” to secure an indictment anyway. And in a twisted rant about Comey, Trump exposed his animus and politicization of DOJ once again. All this may not stop the indictment. But it reveals just how sordid this has truly become, provides grounds to contest the prosecution later, and exposes Trump's corruption of the justice system in a broader sense. We talked to Talking Points Memo editor-at-large David Kurtz, author of a great piece on this travesty. He explains the deeper states at play, the recourse we have, and why we need a whole new language to capture what's really happening here. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Jimmy Kimmel reappeared on ABC and spoke movingly about President Trump's failed effort to oust him, Trump lost it on Truth Social and threatened Kimmel yet again. He also threatened to “test” his ability to bully ABC into yanking Kimmel a second time. In so doing, Trump accidentally demolished a big new lie that Fox News and MAGA figures have been making again and again: That Kimmel's return shows Trump never brought authoritarian pressure on ABC and Disney at all. Trump said, in effect: Actually, I really am threatening government action against them. We think all the confusion signals weakness: Trump and MAGA are losing this battle. We talked to Mona Charen of The Bulwark, who has a great new piece arguing that Trump's crackdown on speech is “taking a page from dictators.” We discuss just how corrupt the anti-Kimmel effort truly is, how far Trump is getting in suppressing dissent, and why there's grounds for optimism that the culture and civil society are now fighting back. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump gave a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday that was a geopolitical and psychological dumpster fire. In addition to signaling absolute contempt for our allies and for global institutions, he slipped into angry and solipsistic grievance. He boasted about his polling, seethed that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, threatened to unshackle the U.S. military from international law, sent convoluted signals about NATO, lied endlessly about his domestic achievements, and bizarrely commanded other nations to cease combatting climate change. Many observers expressed alarm. We got to thinking: What if the self-obsessed craziness is itself the message the world receives about the United States? So we talked to international relations professor Nicholas Grossman, one of our favorite commentators on global affairs. He suggests other nations will conclude that Trump is “really crazy” and that the U.S. is an unreliable actor for the foreseeable future, explores why this could be so damaging, and explains why the prospects for a future president repairing this fiasco are grim.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, President Trump explicitly commanded Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies in a crazed Truth Social tirade. He named the Democrats he wants prosecuted, and even openly boasted that he'd pushed out a veteran career prosecutor for refusing to carry out this mission. Now Rolling Stone reports that Trump's open demand of his attorney general was so corrupt that it surprised even some of his own advisers. They apparently couldn't fathom that he'd knowingly make it public! But we think Trump wants it to be publicly understood that he's making this threat, and that grasping this dynamic is essential to understanding our moment. So we talked to Rolling Stone's Asawin Suebsaeng, the reporter on that story. He explains how Trump's threat was viewed inside Trumpworld, why even some of his most MAGA-fied advisers are not necessarily on board with this abuse of power, and what that all says about our ongoing slide into authoritarianism. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Several weeks after President Trump ordered a military strike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people supposedly suspected of drug smuggling, this saga has gotten much worst. Last Monday, Trump bombed another vessel, killing three. Again his administration released zero evidence supporting the decision, and the specifics in this case make this campaign look increasingly lawless. And we just learned that the White House is quietly circulating a draft bill that would vastly expand Trump's authority for these bombings. Its details offer a damning glimpse into how unrestrained he aims to be going forward. We talked to Brian Finucane, who's been writing great analysis of the situation as an editor at Just Security. He explains why the specifics of that draft bill are so alarming, why the bombings appear to constitute serious abuses of power, and why all this may be hurtling us toward darker lawlessness to come. (Since we recorded, Trump bombed a third vessel in similarly lawless fashion. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, ABC suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel's show under pressure from the Trump administration. The ostensible reason: Kimmel supposedly spread disinformation about Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin. But then President Trump ranted to reporters on Air Force One about the ouster, and he basically confirmed that he's sending a message to networks that they can't criticize him too much. “They're not allowed to do that,” Trump said. Actually, they are, and in this, Trump made the ouster look even more corrupt. Trump also rambled angrily about how many of the people he sees on TV are crazy or on drugs, and he reiterated his threat to unleash the state on the leftist enemy within. All this confirmed that Trump is both increasingly unhinged and emboldened to carry out his autocratic takeover right out in the open. We talked to Jennifer Rubin, editor-in-chief of The Contrarian, who has a good new piece on Trump's abuses. We discussed how Trump's consolidation of power works, why many institutions are capitulating to it, and how Democrats can fight back. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has worsened, President Trump's story has been that it's all Democratic “hoax,” and that his signature on that lewd drawing in Epstein's birthday book is a “forgery.” But at a congressional hearing Wednesday, FBI director Kash Patel faltered under intense questioning from Democrats. Patel filibustered when asked whether Trump's name is in the Epstein files. He seemed to accidentally reveal that he does know how many times Trump's name appears. And he agreed to investigate whether Trump's birthday note to Epstein is indeed forged, which seems ill-advised. Patel badly undermined Trump's whole stance. So how much longer can Trumpworld keep the lid on this? We talked to Nicole Hemmer, a historian who has written books about the right and its media apparatus. She explains the schism Epstein has opened inside MAGA, how Patel exposed Trump's position as untenable, and how it all fits into the last half-century of right wing deceptions and conspiracy theories.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump seems even more angry at the media than usual. His lawyers just filed a lawsuit against The New York Times that First Amendment lawyers are dismissing as a total joke. The suit, however, is also chock full of angry rants that appeared dictated by Trump himself. And he announced it with a Truth Social tirade that boiled with fury. Meanwhile, Trump himself snapped directly at reporters in strange ways, hitting one with a bizarre threat and engaging in a bizarre dominance display over the other. This comes as a new poll from the Economist reveals shockingly low support for Trump among independents, a key metric for gauging political strength—or weakness. We talked to Paul Waldman, who recently argued on his Substack, The Cross Section, that Trump's powers of persuasion are failing him. We discuss how Trump both despises and relies on the media, the real reasons for his mounting anger, and how it's all revealing big cracks in his authoritarian project.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a surprise, Fox News is reporting that the knives are out for FBI director Kash Patel due to many recent missteps, including the botching of key facts about the hunt for Charlie Kirk's assassin. That this is being featured by Fox News may be a sign of how dire Patel's internal standing has truly become. Yet we're in the middle of a complicated moment. Even as Patel's tenure is beset with follies, Stephen Miller just unleashed a vile rant making it clear that Trump is about to turn federal law enforcement loose on the liberal-left in a big way, all fake-justified by Charlie Kirk's assassination. So we talked to Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent who now writes a good Substack called “The Freedom Academy.” She explains why Patel compares so woefully to his predecessors, what the coming mass repression campaign could look like, how the FBI might figure into that, and how we'll know things are getting really bad.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an appalling move, President Trump went on Fox News and openly suggested that far-right political violence is typically justified as a response to left-wing extremism. This functionally tells Trump supporters that it is now open season on the liberal-left after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Trump also signaled he will use the power of the state to exact retribution on Trump-MAGA's designated scapegoats for Kirk's killing. This comes as eruptions of MAGA fury over Kirk's death, including calls for mass violence, are rising to alarming levels, making Trump's encouragement even more depraved. We talked to Will Sommer, who closely tracks the far right as a staff writer for The Bulwark. He discusses how far-right individuals and groups will take Trump's signals as “sanction,” notes the “all-consuming anger” he's seeing, and suggests we may see more organized violence coming from those precincts going forward.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Questions are mounting about President Trump's decision to bomb a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. The administration says these were drug cartel members who posed a threat to the United States, but many legal experts have concluded the bombing might have been illegal or a war crime. And this saga just got darker. Senator Tim Kaine and two dozen other Democrats just released a powerful letter laying out tough questions for the administration. The letter demonstrates the weakness of Trump's legal case in a freshly vivid way. And a Senate staffer tells us Kaine reached out to numerous Republicans in hopes of getting them to sign the letter, but damningly, none would. Meanwhile, new reporting indicates that the boat might have been turning around before getting hit, making Trump's decision look even worse. We talked to Scott Anderson, senior editor at Lawfare and author of a great piece analyzing the strike. He demystifies the legal and substantive complexities, sheds light on how brazenly Trump is stretching the law, and discusses whether we'll ever learn what really happened. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GOP Congresswoman Nancy Mace lost her temper on the House floor on Wednesday. It all started when Mace unleashed a long, vile tirade about transgender Americans. After that, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a Democrat, offered some cutting criticism of the absurdity of GOP anti-trans rhetoric. That prompted Mace to fly into a fury and start shouting. We think this is a telling moment: We're all supposed to just put up with it while the right unleashes nonstop vitriol and hate. But when a Democrat offers admittedly provocative pushback—albeit something that doesn't come close to routine right wing rhetoric—it's taken as this enormous affront, as if the Earth has been knocked off its axis. We talked to Representative Jacobs about the exchange, what we can learn from it, why she takes rhetoric like this personally, and how Democrats should navigate the complexities of the overall issue.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

House Democrats have released Jeffrey Epstein's “Birthday Book,” and it's brutal for President Trump. His note to Epstein is real and it appears to bear his distinctive signature. There's also an image of Epstein holding a big check that discusses selling a “fully depreciated” woman to Trump. On Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, visibly irritated, offered some truly absurd spin about Trump's signature on the note to Epstein, throwing in obsequious praise to boot. She dodged a question about the check with rank misdirection while curtly brushing off further queries. The upshot: White House spin looked comically awful throughout. Leavitt flashed anger at other points, accusing reporters of ignoring serious crimes and of being dishonest about Trump's militarization of Washington, DC. We talked to MSNBC's Steve Benen, author of Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past. We discuss why MAGA deceptions on Epstein are worse than usual, what that says about the evolution of the right-wing disinformation machine, and where this scandal is going next. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's been an amusing turn in the saga involving President Trump's vile effort to remove Lisa Cook as governor of the Federal Reserve. Trump has relied on his flunkies to cook up allegations of mortgage fraud against Cook—and other foes as well—but now news organizations have blown big holes in the scam. They've reported that numerous Trump officials, and even relatives of his top ally in the anti-Cook effort, have done similar things on their mortgages. Meanwhile, a new CBS News poll contains brutal findings for Trump across the board. Crucially, it finds that truly huge majorities oppose Trump's efforts to interfere with the Fed—yet another way this whole charade is backfiring on him. We talked to New Republic staff writer Matt Ford, who covers legal affairs. He explains why Trump's use of this tactic is so corrupt, why the stakes in the battle over Cook are larger than they appear, and what might happen when it all lands at the Supreme Court. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump's losses in court are suddenly piling up on many crucial fronts at once. Most of his tariffs were just ruled illegal, prompting him to explode in fury. An appeals court blocked Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. And a judge invalidated Trump's cancellation of grants to Harvard. There's a big through line here that deserves attention: Judges are taking a very hard line on Trump's use of pretexts to justify his illegal actions, on many of the issues where his abuses of power are most flagrant. But what happens when all this collides with the highest court in the land? We talked to Michigan University law professor Leah Litman, author of Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. She explains why Trump's manufacturing of pretexts is central to his consolidation of authoritarian power, why it's temporarily heartening that he's facing many setbacks in these areas, and what it will look like once it all goes to the high court. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a Senate hearing on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. got massacred by harsh questioning from Democrats and Republicans. They called out his anti-vax views and condemned his decapitation of our public health system. But Matt Gertz of Media Matters noticed something funny: Fox News' coverage bent over backward to portray him as pro-vaccine, as someone working to make vaccines available to Americans, not trying to restrict them. We think that reveals just how shaky President Trump's political position has become amid RFK's reign of destruction. Fox accidentally demonstrated just how deeply split Republicans are over this ongoing anti-vax fiasco—and how desperate Trump's propagandists are to cover up the truth about it. In this segment, Gertz relates more of the evasions he saw on Fox, explains how Fox is struggling to navigate many conflicting currents inside MAGA, and predicts RFK's lunacy is hurtling us toward a much bigger reckoning. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices