THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

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

The pressure is escalating on President Trump and Republicans to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Survivors of Epstein's sex trafficking spoke out on Wednesday, and one of them, Haley Robson, directly took on Trump in a very powerful way. She denounced him for calling the Epstein files a “hoax,” and called on Trump to recognize that the victims are human beings whose suffering should not be minimized. Meanwhile, a discharge petition to force release of the files is close to passing the House. And the White House is reportedly pressuring Republicans behind-the-scenes not to support the petition, a clear sign of panic. We talked to Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who has been in the middle of this debate as a member of the House Rules Committee. He explains why he thinks the petition might pass, why Republicans can't hold off the pressure much longer, why they're so terrified of Trump on this, and what's coming next.  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 suffered a major loss Tuesday when a federal judge in California ruled that his military occupation of Los Angeles was illegal. Trump's response was highly unsettling. Speaking to reporters, he sounded entirely unconstrained. He threatened to resend the military to L.A. and declared that the military is now definitely going into Chicago. He let out a strange, angry rant about crime in DC that sounded frankly pretty nuts, worrying a variety of legal observers. And he abruptly ended the presser amid another display of anger. We talked to former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, who explains the nuts-and-bolts of the judge's L.A. ruling and looks ahead to the possibility of a major inter-branch confrontation with Trump if the courts continue to block his military occupations. McQuade explains why all these displays from Trump show that we're in “a combustible situation waiting for something very bad 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 an ugly move, Fox News contacted Republican Senators and asked: Should President Trump deploy the National Guard in your states' blue cities? Fox News got back the answer it was trying to generate: GOP Senators actively want Trump to use the military in their states' urban areas, ostensibly to fight “crime.” This is an unnerving turn in the saga that makes Trump's threat look worse. Congressional Republicans expressly want Trump to employ troops to intimidate their own constituents, provided it's confined to largely Democratic areas—and they're saying this openly, egged on by Fox, making additional occupations more likely. Meanwhile, Democrats are consumed in a big debate over whether they can talk about this topic at all. We talked to media critic Jamison Foser, who has a good piece about all this on his newsletter, Finding Gravity. We discuss why the media is wrongly describing this as a political winner for Trump, what the polls actually say, and how the media storyline is encouraging Democrats' worst duck-and-cover instincts. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House is trying to fire Centers for Disease Control director Susan Monarez for opposing Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine policies. This has sent the CDC sliding into chaos. On Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt struggled to spin what's happening. She said Monarez had never been subject to a vote—but the Senate voted to confirm her. Leavitt insisted the White House had fired Monarez—but Trump's direct word appears to be required, and as of this recording, he hadn't spoken. Leavitt pretended Trump is defending the integrity of our vaccine system—but RFK is destroying it. We talked to the University of Michigan's Don Moynihan, author of a good Substack called “Can We Still Govern?” We discussed how Trump will struggle to defend this move, how the American people will recoil at the looming loss of a professionalized bureaucracy, and how all this is sowing the seeds for catastrophe later. 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, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker delivered an extraordinary takedown of President Trump over his deployment of the military in U.S. cities. Trump then exploded about Pritzker's impudence, calling the governor names and instructing him to bow down and beg for his “HELP” in fighting crime. Trump has threatened twice to occupy Chicago no matter what the city's residents and their elected representatives think about it, another window into his seething anger. In this standoff, Pritzker did something unusual: He communicated with his constituents from the heart, vowing to use all his power to protect them from Trump's authoritarian takeover. Rather than let Trump pretend he cares about crime, Pritzker cast Trump as the primary threat to his state's people. We talked to Brian Beutler, who has a great new piece on his substack, Off Message, taking stock of Pritzker's response. We discuss how Pritzker is shrewdly reading the moment in a way many Democrats are not, why Trump is vulnerable on crime, and what the punditry is getting so wrong about all of it.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to President Trump's big budget bill, funding has been canceled for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is cutting funding to hundreds of radio stations in rural areas that rely on them for critical information. Speaking to The New York Times, GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, who opposed the bill, sounded absolutely shocked that Trump and the GOP would harm their own voters so cavalierly. She said this is driven by a “blind allegiance to the president's desires,” adding that fear of Trump's anger overrode GOP lawmakers' concerns for their own constituents. Yet this has been the story on many other fronts, too. Will Democrats ever be able to capitalize? We talked to Lynlee Thorne, a Democratic organizer in rural areas as the political director of RuralGroundGame.org. She explains why rural radio is a lifeline, how Trump's agenda is shafting those areas particularly hard, what rural voters think about him right now, and how Democrats can repair the party's deep problems with 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 recent days, President Trump has reached new levels of emboldenment when it comes to his ongoing authoritarian takeover. He's vowing retribution at news organizations that displease him with greater audacity. He's responded to Democrats and others who criticized him by threatening to send troops to their cities or unleash state power against them in other ways. In recent days, something plainly has changed, and many observers are taking note. We talked to journalist and historian Garrett Graff, who has a great new piece on his Doomsday Scenario Substack arguing that we really are seeing the advent of “American fascism” right before our eyes. He explains that transformations like this are incremental and often hard to recognize, but that Trump's escalating brazenness strongly suggests we've crossed over into something new. The pile-up of new offenses Trump is committing daily, Graff says, amounts to “insanity.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California Governor Gavin Newsom is breaking through like no other Democrat. This is partly because he's forging ahead with a state gerrymander to add five Democratic House seats, countering President Trump's rigging of Texas. But we think there are deeper reasons Newsom is cutting through the noise. These were on display when Newsom recently issued a stark warning about Trump's long term intentions. Newsom connected numerous dots to offer a takedown of Trump that laid bare the full scope of his ongoing authoritarian takeover in a way other Democrats rarely do. We talked to Will Stancil, a policy researcher and attorney who has developed an interesting analysis of the Democratic Party on social media. We discussed what makes Newsom's approach different, how he's attempting to solve the party's struggles in the information wars, and why it offers the beginnings of an approach for the party to adopt amid Trump's imposition of authoritarian rule.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Thursday, JD Vance delivered a speech designed to reset the political battle over President Trump's abysmally unpopular budget bill. But Vance's speech devolved into a series of rants that seemed to ape Trump's style. Vance lied about the bill's health care cuts and dissembled wildly about its expected impact on rural hospitals—both times smearing undocumented immigrants with vile Trumpian dishonesty. He also baselessly attacked a nonpartisan agency whose analysis displeased him. All this comes as news outlets in many states are showing that people deep in MAGA country know they're set to get royally screwed. Vance's scamming of Trump voters here was extraordinary. But Democrats have work to do. We talked to Michael Linden, an economist and Democratic strategist organizing against the bill. He dissects Vance's lies about it, explains how badly it will shaft Trump voters and the working class, and discusses how Democrats can keep the focus on it through Election Day 2026. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Miller exploded in a long, unhinged rant about demonstrators who are protesting President Trump's military occupation of Washington, D.C. It was classic authoritarian agitprop, attacking demonstrators as “communists” who are secretly trying to make the city more dangerous to its salt-of-the-earth working class residents. Ominously flanked by the Defense Secretary and members of the military, he threatened to respond with more troops. But we think this is really an expression of weakness. Trump and Miller were certain that a latent majority is prepared to rally to authoritarian rule. But poll after poll shows voters rebelling. Miller's hubris has become a major weakness. We talked to New Republic staff writer Monica Potts, author of a great new piece analyzing Trump's long-term game plan. She explains how Trump is consolidating power right before eyes, why Democrats need to stop calling this a “distraction,” and how the opposition should proceed, secure in the knowledge that the public is not with Trump.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seethed at the media for well over a minute for not acknowledging President Trump's world historical peacemaking efforts or his smashing successes in the Russia-Ukraine talks, even though there haven't been any such successes. And she offered a wildly absurd explanation for why European leaders rushed to Washington, D.C. (to prevent the U.S. from selling out Ukraine to Vladimir Putin). This comes as a new Reuters poll finds Trump's approval rating down to a new low of 40 percent. That's fueled partly by Russia-Ukraine: A striking 54 percent of Americans say Trump is too aligned with Putin. We talked to international relations expert Nicholas Grossman. He explains how Leavitt's spin and European angst show that incredibly high stakes matters are now being dictated by an unnerving combination of Trumpian megalomania, his genuine desire for a future world marked by a weak western alliance and strong autocracies, and his utter indifference to the U.S. public's apparent rejection of that vision.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, President Trump unleashed a tortured Truth Social rant that lied relentlessly about vote-by-mail—and announced a forthcoming executive order that would end mail voting entirely. That's not legal, of course. But nothing, no matter how absurd, can be ruled out these days. Trump's eruption also revealed a bigger set of intentions: To abuse presidential power in every conceivable way he can to swing the midterm elections against Democrats. This comes as Trump's scheme to get Texas to gerrymander five extra GOP seats is gaining steam. We talked to David Daley, the great analyst of right-wing election subversion, whose latest book is called “Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right's 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections.” He explains how Trump will try to help the GOP cheat its way through the midterms, why it might work, and what Democrats must do in response—in this election cycle and, importantly, beyond. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With President Trump's crackdown intensifying in Washington, D.C., he lashed out angrily at the media for describing him as a “dictator.” In this same rant, he did not reassure D.C. residents and exaggerated wildly about crime there, suggesting people should thank him for his efforts. As observers noted, Trump clearly meant people should mute criticism of his militarization of cities simply because he claims they're needed to reassert control. We talked to legal commentator Joyce Vance, who writes well about this on her Civil Discourse Substack and is author of the new book Giving Up Is Unforgiveable. She explains how Trump's use of manufactured pretexts is worsening on many fronts, why this itself is an alarming threat to self rule, and how the opposition should respond, noting it's imperative for disengaged voters to “wake up.” This episode was recorded before Trump and D.C. reached an agreement limiting his control over the D.C. police, but the specifics remain unresolved, his use of the National Guard continues, and his broader threat to other cities has darkened. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original air date: July 25, 2025 A new Gallup poll finds that President Trump's approval has dropped to 37 percent. But the White House has figured out how to get those numbers back up: by picking a huge fight with The View. This week, Joy Behar unleashed a striking takedown of Trump, mocking him mercilessly for being jealous of Barack Obama. This enraged the White House, which responded with name-calling and a veiled threat. Which got us thinking: Doesn't the logic of the situation dictate that Trump's authoritarian threats will of necessity escalate? We talked about all this with Salon's Amanda Marcotte, a good decoder of MAGA's cultural hatreds. We discuss why Behar's broadside was so perfectly aimed at Trump's soft underbelly, why Trump's only way forward may be more arrests, and how this whole saga shows that Trump thought the culture was moving his way—but it's not, driving him into a fury.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original air date: July 23, 2025 In the last few days, we seem to have crossed a threshold. President Trump is ratcheting up the authoritarianism and threatening to prosecute his enemies in a new kind of way. In a series of angry new rants, Trump accused Barack Obama and other members of Obama's administration of serious crimes. He's also calling for Senator Adam Schiff to be put in “prison.” Critically, all this has been accompanied by unabashedly corrupt manipulation of the bureaucracy that's designed to manufacture pretexts for the prosecutions of those enemies. Ryan Enos, a professor of government at Harvard, put it very starkly on Bluesky, saying that authoritarianism is “right here in front of us.” So we invited Enos on the show. He explains why “we're in real trouble in the short term,” how Trump compares to other authoritarians around the globe, and why our only choices now are to fight the takeover or “accept that this is our future.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original air date: July 15, 2025 The MAGA movement has been in full meltdown ever since President Trump's Department of Justice concluded they have no evidence that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a client list or was murdered in jail. This contradicted a major MAGA conspiracy theory, and MAGA influencers are screaming cover-up. Tucker Carlson just ratcheted this all up by attacking Trump: He faulted Trump's government for failing to take questions about the matter seriously. In another heresy, Carlson even criticized Trump himself for brushing off MAGA's anger over it. Carlson's broadside has some Republicans quietly grappling with why he is so successfully capturing MAGA anger about the Epstein fiasco. We talked to historian Nicole Hemmer, author of several major books about the right and its media networks. She expertly decodes the MAGA pathologies animating the Epstein drama, digs into their deeper sources on the right, and explains what it all says about today's Trumpified political world. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original air date: July 11, 2025 Stephen Miller recently berated ICE officials in a private meeting, demanding that they hit supercharged new arrest quotas and steamrolling anyone who balked, reports The Atlantic. Yet in a surprise twist, the report also details that Miller's demands for maximum arrests are driving morale at ICE into the crapper. Importantly, what's irking ICE agents is precisely that the mission of arresting as many low-level offenders as possible is pulling them away from pursuing serious criminals. This brutally unmasks one of Trump's biggest scams: It demonstrates clearly that his mass deportations are not at all about public safety and are only about getting as many peaceful and noncriminal immigrants out of the country as possible. We talked to one of our favorite observers on this issue, FWD.us president Todd Schulte. He explains how all this reveals the soft underbelly of Trump's political strength, why MAGA is now addicted vile memes about shackling immigrants, and what ordinary people can do to effectively resist the coming horrors. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It appears to be dawning on President Trump that he will not be ending the Russia-Ukraine war in one day as he promised during the campaign. Trump's frustration at Vladimir Putin is rising: This week he accused Putin of hitting him with “bullshit” and even admitted Putin's word to him is “meaningless.” This comes as it's now being reported that Putin is escalating the war against Ukraine and that he's brushing aside Trump's anger about it. Add it all up, and Trump is plainly humiliated, realizing that Putin is laughing off his demand for “peace.” We talked to Mona Charen, policy editor at The Bulwark, who writes well about the Trumpified GOP's embrace of Putin. She explains how Putin has long played Trump, why Putin feels free to humiliate him, and what the various scenarios ahead look like. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original air date: July 30, 2025 You've probably heard that President Trump and the European Union have reached a big trade deal. This is being widely portrayed as a “win” for Trump and a big humiliation for the EU. But it's not at all clear what we gain as a country from this deal. Surely the phrase “Trump won” has to mean more than “Trump gets to claim a personal victory and the media is required to play along,” right? We talked to economist Paul Krugman, who has a great new piece on his Substack casting a lot of much-needed skepticism on the deal. Krugman explains in extensive detail what a sham it is: He argues that Europe's concessions are fake; that the deal won't spur a lot more manufacturing in the United States; and that its burden will fall heavily on MAGA, making it a “scam on his voters.” Krugman also discusses why the media seems incapable of reporting clearly and accurately on the magnitude of Trump's incompetence and delusions.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original air date: June 2, 2025 Ming Li Hui, who goes by the name of “Carol,” has lived for 20 years in the town of Kennett, Missouri, after coming here from Hong Kong. She has been raising a family there and works as a waitress—and as The New York Times reports in a piece featuring quotes from Carol and many locals, she's well-liked in the community. But Carol was recently arrested and now faces potential deportation. This has shocked and dismayed many of the town's residents, even though the area went overwhelmingly for Trump. Carol talked to us on the podcast straight from jail, where she is awaiting her fate. At times the conversation was difficult: She broke down in tears about her ordeal, was emotionally overwhelmed at the support she's received from the Trump-backing town, and offers wrenching thoughts about Trump's effort to deport countless others just like her. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered one of her most obsequious, fawning tirades about President Trump yet. She credited him with single-handedly resolving a half dozen major geopolitical conflicts around the world, and angrily asserted that it's high time Trump is granted the Nobel Peace Prize. It's no accident that this came amid new polling evidence that Trump's coalition is falling apart in a freshly dangerous way for him, as documented in a great new piece by New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard. In today's episode, Shephard explains how the numbers show key constituencies getting away from him. We discuss all the ways Leavitt's North Korea-style propaganda actually works against Trump by reinforcing the emperor-has-no-clothes vibe around him, why the press is reluctant to tell the truth about his unpopularity, how Democrats need to stop treating him as if he's invincible, and what that should look like. 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 has been raging at Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell for weeks, demanding that he cut interest rates. But on Wednesday, the Fed declined—and worse for Trump, Powell delivered a blunt assessment of his tariffs, claiming they are “pushing up prices,” and that “near-term measures of inflation expectations have moved up.” Given that this comes right when more of Trump's tariffs are set to take effect on August 1, and given that Powell is directly defying Trump's fury, that amounts to a harsh blow for the president. Indeed, Trump is also venting his fury at various GOP senators for not doing his bidding. On top of all that, two new polls show his approval rating down to an abysmal 40 percent, with one finding his approval on the economy even lower. We talked to MSNBC.com columnist James Downie, author of a new piece on Democrats and the midterm elections. We discuss why Trump is weaker politically than he looks, why various dynamics look poised to make that worse, and why it's high time for Democrats to start acting like it. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You've probably heard that President Trump and the European Union have reached a big trade deal. This is being widely portrayed as a “win” for Trump and a big humiliation for the EU. But it's not at all clear what we gain as a country from this deal. Surely the phrase “Trump won” has to mean more than, “Trump gets to claim a personal victory and the media is required to play along,” right? We talked to economist Paul Krugman, who has a great new piece on his Substack casting a lot of much-needed skepticism on the deal. Krugman explains in extensive detail what a sham it is: He argues that Europe's concessions are fake, that the deal won't spur a lot more manufacturing in the U.S., and that its burden will fall heavily on MAGA, making it a “scam on his voters.” Krugman also discusses why the media seems incapable of reporting clearly and accurately on the magnitude of Trump's incompetence and delusions.  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 just offered some bizarre new ramblings about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. But he undermined himself: He claimed to know about elite Democrats and liberals who had visited Epstein. But that just raises the question that won't go away: If this is what the Epstein files would reveal, then why isn't Trump ordering their release? Every time Trump says such things, he wrecks his own Big Lie: That the Epstein scandal is a Democratic hoax that actually implicates Democrats even as he won't release the files. Meanwhile, Elon Musk just endorsed the idea that Trump might try to pardon Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for exoneration. Musk knows Trump's machinations here are a major point of weakness. We talked to Jennifer Rubin, editor-in-chief of The Contrarian, who has a good new piece laying out why Trump should be panicking over this scandal. We discuss the absurdity of Trump's biggest Epstein deceptions, why they're unsustainable for Trump, and why it all underscores the urgency of a Democratic victory in 2026. 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 is now suggesting he may pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein who's serving time for sex trafficking. Trump told reporters: “I'm allowed to do it.” He dispatched Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to solicit testimony from Maxwell, ostensibly to gain new insight into Epstein's activities. But in today's episode, lawyer Philip Rotner, author of a new piece for The Bulwark on the Maxwell angle, suggests that the move by Blanche—previously Trump's personal lawyer—is itself extremely dodgy and appears motivated by a desire to protect Trump. Rotner explains why it's plausible Blanche hopes to get Maxwell to exonerate Trump, which Trump could then reward with a pardon.  It's hard to overstate how humiliating all this is for MAGA: After demanding the “Epstein files” for years, they got their people in at the Justice Department—and now they're taking new steps to cover it all up. While some in MAGA are telling themselves that Maxwell will finally reveal the whole truth, that only makes them look even more absurd. Rotner unpacks the latest developments and explains why it's all a “sham.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new Gallup poll finds that President Trump's approval has dropped to 37 percent. But the White House has figured out how to get those numbers back up: By picking a huge fight with “The View.” This week, Joy Behar unleashed a striking takedown of Trump, mocking him mercilessly for being jealous of Barack Obama. This enraged the White House, which responded with name calling—and a veiled threat. Which got us thinking: Doesn't the logic of the situation dictate that Trump's authoritarian threats will of necessity escalate? We talked about all this with Salon's Amanda Marcotte, a skilled decoder of MAGA's cultural hatreds. We discuss why Behar's broadside was so perfectly aimed at Trump's soft underbelly, why Trump's only way forward may be more arrests, and how this whole saga shows that Trump thought the culture was moving his way—but it's not, driving him into a fury.  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 is “furious” about his inability to make the Jeffrey Epstein scandal go away, Politico reports. He's frustrated with his staff's failure to tamp down the uproar, which continues to consume his base, and his allies are admitting this has become major problem, with one telling Politico that Trump understands that “this is a vulnerability.” This comes amid new reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy privately informed Trump earlier this year that his name appears numerous times in the Epstein files, suggesting this story will get worse. We talked to media strategist Tara McGowan, the publisher of the pro-democracy Courier Newsroom. We discuss why this scandal is dispelling the myth of Trump's superhuman control over media narratives, how Democrats must seize this moment, and why they should treat this scandal as a genuinely important story that really matters to many Americans. 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 last few days, we seem to have crossed a threshold. President Trump is ratcheting up the authoritarianism and threatening to prosecute his enemies in a new kind of way. In a series of angry new rants, Trump accused Barack Obama and other members of Obama's administration of serious crimes. He's also calling for Senator Adam Schiff to be put in “prison.” Critically, all this has been accompanied by unabashedly corrupt manipulation of the bureaucracy that's designed to manufacture pretexts for the prosecutions of those enemies. Ryan Enos, a professor of government at Harvard, put it very starkly on Bluesky, saying that authoritarianism is “right here in front of us.” So we invited Enos on the show. He explains how we know the moment has arrived, how Trump compares to other authoritarians around the globe, and why our only choices now are to fight it or accept that this is America's future.  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 propagandists are getting more frantic in their efforts to spin away the scandal around the Jeffrey Epstein files. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, unsurprisingly, has been the most creative of all: Speaking to reporters, Leavitt fobbed the whole fiasco off on to the FBI not once but twice, as videos posted by Acyn Torabi show. Leavitt said the same thing twice: You should ask the FBI. That's plainly an effort to shift this mess to FBI director Kash Patel. All this comes as Trump's approval ratings have just hit a new low. And those things are related: The Epstein scandal is perfectly suited to damaging Trump in all kinds of hidden ways. We talked to data analyst G. Elliott Morris, author of a new piece on the Epstein mess for his Strength in Numbers Subtack He explains why Trump is at a low point in the polling averages, how the Epstein fiasco is being perceived by voters, and why it's uniquely suited to striking at the heart of Trump's political strength.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices