Mary Trump: I had a chance recently to sit down with Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. She’s also the proprietor of the excellent Substack, The Freedom Academy. We talked about a psychology experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in the early 1960s and what it can tell us about the total capitulation of the Republican Party. Enjoy.

Let’s start here. How are you doing?

Subscribe now

Asha Rangappa: I’m doing okay. You and I were chatting a little bit before we got on, and this is a stressful time. This is a very anxiety producing time in a lot of different ways. I’m doing okay, though. I actually find that the series that I’m doing is super helpful because it’s focusing on empowering ourselves and understanding the moment, how we develop our own agency and muscle and resistance muscle and all of these things. To me, that is more helpful than looking at Bluesky all day.

Mary Trump: Absolutely. It’s sort of like social media has lost its ability to connect us because all the people running it have destroyed the community aspect of it. So it’s basically doom scrolling without community. That’s why I think your Substack is so important because I’m absolutely a believer in facing things head on, keeping our eyes wide open, and not lying to ourselves about how bad things are, because they are. They are really, really bad.

However, that’s not to demoralize anybody or make anybody feel like it’s hopeless. It’s so we know where we’re starting from, and we know the tools we need to stay resilient and to engage in resistance. That’s why I want to talk to you about a lot of things, but I specifically wanted to talk to you about a piece you wrote recently, just before Todd Blanche’s confirmation, which unfortunately was inevitable. It’s called “Will Todd Blanche Get Confirmed? Ask Stanley Milgram.”

I want to talk a little bit about the experiment you draw from, which was conducted by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram in the early 1960s about people’s relationship to authority. It seemed to be the time for it because not long after that, Philip Zimbardo did his very notorious Stanford Prison Experiment. Of course, Milgram’s experiment would never get past the IRB. So if you could just tell us a little bit about the setup for the experiment, then we’ll get to why it’s relevant to what we’re dealing with right now.

Asha Rangappa: Yes. It’s a famous experiment. By the way, just a few weeks ago, I watched a movie about it called The Experimenter. It’s a good dramatization of it. Stanley Milgram, at Yale University in 1961, is looking to understand the psychology behind the defense that was given by the defendants in the Nuremberg trials, that they were just following orders.

He sets up an experiment which involves an experimenter who’s wearing basically a lab coat. The subject, that’s the person they’re actually observing, and there’s a learner. This is a confederate. This is an actor who’s in another room. The subject, who is the teacher, is told that they are conducting a memory experiment, and there are some word pairs that you give to the learner who’s in this other room. If the learner gets it wrong, you must give them a shock. There’s a big machine in front of him, a shock generator in front of the teacher, and the voltage on the shock goes up by 15 volts, starting at 15, all the way up to 450 volts.

As you get into the higher registers, it says danger, extreme shock, and then the very last one just says X, X, X. The 450 volts just says X, X, X, extreme shock or something like that. Milgram’s hypothesis was that most people would not go all the way up. The common understanding was people will stop because the learner, the confederate, the person that is working with them in this experiment, is instructed to basically say that he doesn’t want to keep going as the shock goes up.

He found the exact opposite. He found that the vast majority of people will. Sixty five percent in the original baseline study went all the way up to 450 volts. Sometimes along the way, they’d stop and they’d say, “Should we stop? This guy seems like he’s in pain.” But the experimenter, the person in the lab coat, would say:

No, you must continue. It’s absolutely essential that you continue.

They would say, “Okay,” and then they would just keep going. This is usually cited as obedience to authority. What I was also interested in was the gradual escalation piece of it, that there’s a psychological mechanism that’s happening. Every time you go up, you have to rationalize it to yourself. You have to come up with a story for why you’re choosing to ignore what your conscience is telling you and to follow the order.

The phenomenon of gradual escalation suggests that once you rationalize something, it becomes easier, not harder, to take the next one. In other words, as they’re going up, they’re actually getting more used to doing it. It’s becoming easier. I was applying that psychology to the debate that was happening around Todd Blanche.

Mary Trump: Yes. I think it’s Todd Blanche specifically, but also the Republican Party, elected Republican officials writ large. This is a question a lot of us have been asking, or a lot of us have been asked over the last decade. Why is it that Republicans continue to bend over backwards, bend the knee, kiss the ring, whatever you want to call it? Is it complicity? Is it that they’re weak? They’re afraid? They’re being blackmailed? Whatever the case may be.

I think looking at the psychology of it is really important because it isn’t just about capitulating. It’s also participating in something. You’re at Yale now, but you were in the FBI, so you understand this also from an intelligence perspective. I just want to read part of your piece. This is what you wrote:

Those who work in intelligence understand this phenomenon very well. You start with something small, a minor transgression that their susceptibility to temptation makes it easier for them to justify. Once they cross that line, you’re set. From that point, your job is just to help keep their own rationalization process going as they become increasingly compromised.

That’s really important, too, because it isn’t just about being worried about disappointing or disobeying. It’s also about getting something in return. Since I’ve been trying to figure out what was going on with Donald’s psychology, I thought of it as this series of microaggressions coupled with micro concessions. I think that gets us closer to trying to figure out what exactly is happening because this is party wide. It is systemic at this point.

I just want to know what you think about this moment and what it says about what we’re willing to accept. Are there any mitigating factors? Is there any reason to be hopeful that we can shift our perspective on these things?

Share

Asha Rangappa: That’s a lot to unpack, and I’m not sure where to start. I think one thing that is really clear to me when I look at complicity is the idea of identity and loyalty to identity. What you have with the people who go along with this stuff increasingly is that they have their identity wrapped up in not just MAGA, but maintaining their power and their position. They don’t want to give up their role, so there’s a way in which they are rationalizing a lot because they know that they’re not willing to pay the cost of what it is.

The other thing is that you get to a point in that gradual escalation that you mentioned where it’s very hard to turn around once you’re in deep because then you have to turn around and look at everything you’ve done. To go back to the Milgram experiment, if you’ve given the 350 volt shock, are you really going to suddenly stop at 365? What’s your reason for that difference? Because then you have to say, well, then maybe all of the shocks before were wrong.

Most people don’t have the humility and emotional intelligence to be able to reckon with the damage they’ve already caused. So they have to live in that kind of situation. What was the last part of your question? How do we make sense of this?

Mary Trump: I’m sorry. I threw way too much at you because I find this stuff fascinating. One thing your piece helped crystallize for me is how many things are going on that are contributing, in a very specific way, to Donald’s ability to keep getting away with everything, that so many people continue to capitulate, to sell their souls, if you will.

One of the things about the Milgram experiment that we need to keep in mind is that the people were being pressed by authority figures to continue, but at the same time they were removed from the subject they were shocking, and yet they were also getting feedback from the subject. So they knew they were causing harm, but they were distanced from it.

I think that plays a big role here. When you couple the authority with the distance from the harm you’re causing and the very human hatred of being wrong or admitting you’re wrong, and when all of those things are being modeled by the leader, it does create a very dangerous situation.

You do speak to this a little bit, and I wanted to broaden the conversation to talk about, given that that’s the case, given that we are in this moment that seems primed to give the worst possible people power over the way a lot of us are behaving or choosing to behave or justifying our behavior, what are some mitigations? What are some ways that we can maybe find our way through?

Asha Rangappa: Yeah, I’m glad that you pointed out how the variations altered the outcome. One of the things that I was thinking of that I thought might counter the Todd Blanche confirmation, it didn’t in the end, were the Epstein victims. Because one of the things is that, again, that proximity that you’re talking about in the experiment, people who are actually harmed, when people see it, there’s an empathetic response that comes up that makes it harder to go along.

So I was hopeful that maybe the fact that I think the vast majority of people, bipartisan, cross party, feel so much empathy for these victims might sway some of these senators. It didn’t, but I think that is something that we should keep front and center because I think it does keep the humanization piece of this front and center.

It’s also why some of these spectacles that the Trump administration does, their incompetence actually is helpful to counter them. Because it’s one thing to be doing things in secret, like you’ve got some secret camp somewhere, and we have those too. But when ICE is in the street, when they’re shooting people, when people see it, it is very hard to ignore and look away and do the rationalization.

So I think part of our job has to be to make sure we keep those things front and center and not let them get hijacked by all this stuff that’s happening every day. Because the human cost of everything that’s going on is what I think will ultimately touch people and get them to see what’s going on.

The other thing, and Mary, I have to tell you, I’m telling you this, but I don’t know how easily I can practice what I preach. Because it’s really hard for people to admit that they’re wrong, we have to find a way to give people an easy off ramp from MAGA. I think people hear that and they’re like, no, people have to be accountable.

Absolutely, the architects of what’s going on are accountable, but those people are in power because people are voting for them. And we all have people in our orbits that support them. I’m sure everybody does, right? Everybody’s got some relative that they get in a screaming match at Thanksgiving with or whatever.

We have to work on doing that recruitment process that I talk about, the intelligence world. Everybody needs to recruit their own MAGA back to the good side. Operation MAGA, okay?

Subscribe now

Mary Trump: I love that idea.

Asha Rangappa: Operation DMAGA. We need to, rather than being confrontational, do that psychological judo and help them turn around and come back to the light.

Mary Trump: I think that is something we don’t talk enough about. And part of what needs to start happening is gaming that out in a way you just suggested because we can’t just be mired in the day to day. There’s way too much going on, and if we just focus on what’s happening right now, what’s happening tomorrow, we’re going to lose sight of the overarching picture.

This is all of a piece, and we need to start turning towards, okay, what next? One, how are we going to get to these people? Because we need a lot of them. And two, then when we get leaders who actually care about the Constitution and human rights and all that sort of thing, then what?

We need to have a plan going forward. And I think we cannot succeed if we remain utterly intolerant. And I’m with you, it’s very hard. It is very hard. I guess, I don’t know if lucky is the word, but I’m in a situation where I literally have nobody in my life who is MAGA or even MAGA adjacent. So it’s really easy for me to be judgmental and black and white about it. I’m trying really hard not to be.

So I wonder what you think of this. One, I think part one of the project is convincing people who are on our side of things that they do need to, if not extend grace, at least acknowledge that the people we’re talking about have been lied to for decades by the people they keep putting back into power.

And then the second part of the project, I think, might be asking those people who continue to support Donald and fascism, not that a lot of them even know that’s what they’re doing, put the ball in their court. Instead of trying to convince them of something, say:

Hey, is it okay with you that there’s a government agency murdering Americans in our streets? And why?

So ask a series of questions that kind of puts the ball in their court and gives them a sense of agency as opposed to feeling attacked.

Asha Rangappa: Yes, yes. And it is easier said than done. Sometimes when my dad will defend Donald Trump, I just have to extricate myself from the situation. So I would recommend that Operation DMAGA not happen with a very, very close member of your family because there are also other triggering factors that are going to get in your way.

But yes, I don’t know what you would call it, Mary. Is it grace? I think, you know what they tell you in marriage, would you rather be right or happy? And I think there’s some of that, right? Social media, the way that the polarized environment is, somebody has to be right and somebody’s wrong. I think we’re right, but that doesn’t get us anywhere at this moment. It just keeps us stuck.

And so, yeah, I think there just needs to be a manual on how. It’s like we need a big kind of marriage counseling but for politics kind of paradigm or something to move past, but we can all do it in our own corner of the world.

Mary Trump: Yeah. I mean, it could be the alternative to Project 2025, right?

Asha Rangappa: Somebody said happy, that’s why I’m divorced. And I’m not laughing, I’m divorced too, but okay. Yeah, fair. Fair.

Mary Trump: But I think it does have to be a consistent project or a consistent strategy because there are a lot of the same. A lot of these situations are similar. They may be very different people, they may live in very different parts of the country, but we are dealing with these very real psychological phenomena that apply across the board to some people more than others.

There is such a thing as authoritarian personality. A lot of people who support Donald and the Republicans and the fascists have authoritarian personalities. As I said earlier, people hate being wrong. And people are also, as Milgram and others help demonstrate, and obviously as the Nazis in Germany demonstrated, easily led and easily convinced to hurt other people if they believe it’s to their benefit.

And these things happen slowly over time, so it doesn’t get us anywhere to be self righteous and judgmental, even though, as you say, we are absolutely right about this stuff.

Asha Rangappa: Yeah. You know what gives me also some hope is that there, and I don’t want to make this sound like American exceptionalism, but I do think there is a streak in our American culture that is, I guess, libertarian, kind of contrarian. It’s the same thing that rears its head when there’s a mask mandate or a lockdown, all the people who went crazy.

But I also think that there is a certain pushback when there’s anything that starts to encroach too much. And I think that’s a little thread that you can push on for people. Like you said, there is about 30 percent who love authority and obedience. But the vast majority, 70 percent, which would include people I think who think of themselves as Republicans, don’t want the government in their business and telling them what to do and all of this stuff.

And we are getting, I think, especially as it’s starting to hit their own pocketbooks with higher costs, they are, I think, more open to hearing ways that this is too much.

Mary Trump: Yeah, I think that’s right. And you said something earlier about incompetence and the increasingly obvious incompetence of the current regime. Donald’s always been incompetent, so the fact that anybody thought he wasn’t has always shocked me, but he’s had a lot of help.

Share

And I think between that and the hypocrisy, which is becoming so glaring, and his increasing weakness, I think if those of us who really, really want to turn the ship around can be a little bit more understanding, and again, as hard as it is, and recognize that this has been something, first of all, that I think a lot of Americans are primed for because you alluded to the myth of rugged individualism, and MAGA kind of taps into that. White nationalism, Christian nationalism, this is historical. This is not new, and they have just packaged it in a way that appeals to way too many people.

People have been conditioned to a lot. Not all of them. There are some straight up Nazis out there for sure, but a lot of these people have been conditioned over time by the people they trust. So it is a long term project, but I think we just started the demagnification of America project right here.

Asha Rangappa: Yeah. And I want to say, somebody mentioned data centers are a big thing. I think there is an avenue there also. I don’t think people like these oligarchs and billionaires. That is a great place.

You know more about projection than I do in terms of having a psychology background, so you can tell me if this works, but I feel like also giving people another target to kind of vent there. I think there’s going to be a big backlash against all of these tech bros. People are not liking this, and the more that’s linked to how these people govern and what they’re doing, bringing the data centers to our backyard, the data centers are increasing our costs, by the way, all of those things can give people an off ramp, actually, because I think it’s easier to vocalize hate for Elon Musk or whoever, maybe, than for Trump.

Mary Trump: That’s a really good point because the other reason that’s important, and I know we’ve got to stop soon, is because Donald’s not the problem anymore. It’s all of the people enabling him, and we need to look beyond him because if we keep the focus on him, too many of these corrupt, anti American creeps are going to turn around and say:

Oh, it was just Donald. It wasn’t us. We’re fine. Let’s just get back to the way things were.

Asha Rangappa: And let me tell you, I had Kim Scheppele on my Substack before. She’s fantastic, and she talked about what brought down Orbán. And the one thing that people hate is corruption. The more that that’s out in the open, the crypto, the tech, all of this stuff, it is more.

What I like to remember is that when you look at these authoritarian regimes, they’re more fragile than they seem. And all of a sudden, poof, they’re gone. And you’re just like, wait. I mean, remember the Soviet Union? We were hiding under our tables because of potential nuclear fallout. Then one day, it’s all over.

Mary Trump: Orbán’s a good example of this, and it turns out that the leader of the American fascist movement is hiding in catering trucks, which is not a sign of strength, last I checked.

Asha Rangappa: No. Yeah, no. You’re referring to Trump using the journalists as a decoy as he fled Turkey.

Mary Trump: Journalists and people who work for him, just again demonstrating, who make his food.

Asha Rangappa: The people who make his food.

Mary Trump: Exactly. So I think there is a lot of hope. And again, we do ourselves no favors if we look away from the bad stuff that’s going on. But one thing that gives me hope is that we’ve got people like you doing the work day in, day out.

So in addition to your just truly phenomenal Substack, The Freedom Academy, is there anything else you want to ask people to check out?

Asha Rangappa: I mean, that is the best place to find me. I am using my Substack for the research on my book. My book is on complicity and moral courage. And Mary, I will definitely be in touch with you when that’s out. We can talk about it, but it’s a book to help us activate our moral compass.

I’m exploring a lot of the themes and research. Actually, today I had on an organizational psychologist. We talked about the Milgram experiment for an hour, basically. So please check it out there. And yeah, I will be basically flagging anything else I’m doing on the Substack.

Mary Trump: Fantastic. And that series is just so timely, so thank you for doing it. I’ve learned so much from it, and it’s amazing to see you. Everybody who joined us, thank you so much. Thanks, guys. Bye.

The conversation continues in the comments, so let us know what you think.

Subscribe now

The Freedom Academy with Asha Rangappa

A Substack that explores how we can develop our "moral muscle" to stand up for democracy -- and each other -- in this critical moment. Plus insight and analysis at the intersection of law, national security, and the intelligence community.

Subscribe now

Ever heard of the term sane washing? It’s a portmanteau of sane and whitewashing. And one of the reasons we are in this situation, in which a deeply corrupt, unqualified madman is President of the United States, is because for over a decade now, probably several decades, corporate media have been sane washing Donald. They have been sane washing his speeches, his off the cuff remarks, and his press conferences. And by doing so, they normalize him.

Now, what do I mean by sane washing? Well, that’s when somebody says something so outrageous and incomprehensible that, if you quoted them directly, what they said wouldn’t make sense. So, in order, I guess, to help the reader get a sense of what the person meant, the reporter or journalist fills in the blanks. That is seriously problematic because what it means is that people get the impression that Donald is actually coherent and sensical.

There’s a lot to say about the Reflecting Pool debacle, which is still ongoing. But right now, I want to revisit remarks Donald made in the Oval Office after Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, declined to prosecute anyone for allegedly vandalizing the Reflecting Pool because there was no evidence that anyone had done so. And she, of course, is afraid of losing her law license. Donald’s remarks were, at least initially, a response to Pirro’s decision not to bring charges.

Here is what Donald had to say verbatim in the Oval Office:

Donald: Jeanine Pirro made a mistake. It was vandalism. I just told you we did, I think, 78. One of the things was the Reflecting Pool hasn’t worked since 1922 because it always leaked. It always leaked from 1922. It’s the largest, longest pool ever, all that. The concept is beautiful, but it always leaked because of the size, because of maintenance, whatever. But it was built in 1922, and from the day it was built, it, like Biden, spent $58 million. Barack Hussein Obama spent much more than that. He said, I have an idea. Let’s take the water from the Potomac. So they took the water from the Potomac and it was putrid. It was putrid. It was a disaster. Biden was a disaster. I said, I’m going to get that fixed, along with Doug Burgum, Department of Interior, and we worked harder than that. Now we worked harder in all 70.

It’s actually, I think, 81 now. You saw the new horses that just opened by the bridge with the gold. That was the way they were many years ago. Now they look better than they did many years ago, but these monuments looked better than they did when they were originally built. Now, just a little fix up. We made them the way they were plus, and everyone’s so proud. The biggest, one of the bigger jobs was not really the biggest, believe it or not, but one of the biggest was the Reflecting Pool, and we did a great job. We sandblasted the stone outside. It’s granite, so it has a long life. We did a great job. We got very expensive material to put on top of the surface that always leaked because it was stone. It was a stone surface, always leaked, and we put it on and it was beautiful.

Share

Now we have photographs or tapes, like moving cameras, right? We have them where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife. So now I’m not saying I was 100 percent thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th, and we got it done. But in addition, there was vandalism. Number one, look at the grass where the grass was all knocked out with a very powerful ingredient. We know very well what it is, but I’m not going to say the name because people get ideas. But they put a terrible phrase, I won’t say that either, but a terrible phrase on a massive piece of grass that we had had replaced, killed the grass, and we had to replace the grass, a lot of grass. In addition, they took knives or cutters and they cut the material, and they put their hands and they pulled it.

And there were also some maintenance things that we would’ve routinely fixed, but we had that up and it was perfect. And then you had the bubblers, which get rid of what forms in the water. And that works great, but they turned it up because of the fight, because it competed a little bit of noise during the fight. They turned it off and it grows very rapidly in the water, but that actually works very well, and that’s all. So now we’re just about set to reopen it, and we had to replace cut areas where they cut it and ripped it. But there’s a tape. And Jesse Watters, by the way, did a whole big thing on it. There’s a tape that’s out there that I posted on Truth where you have people leaning over the side, the weakest part because of the flexibility, it moves. It’s very complicated.

It moves. And the softest part has to be flexible, and that’s the stuff you can cut. And these guys knew what they were doing, and they cut all the way along the base, cut, cut, cut. Now, when you need to look at it, it was a day after the 4th of July with the largest fireworks display in the world, and the stuff was all over the pool. The fireworks, because they used the pool as one of them, it was all over the pool. It’s the day after or very shortly thereafter that was working perfectly, and it was vandalized. And if you look at the tape, now the tape isn’t a great tape in a sense. It’s a little hard to say who it exactly was, but it was people cutting this very expensive waterproofing material. Anyway, it looked beautiful, and then they cut it and they vandalized it.

Share

We weren’t necessarily thrilled with the contractor, but they did a job and they were fixing any problems. But then it got carried away because the judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine. And frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked. I don’t know what happened. Something happened. There was vandalism there, and there was some, I think, from the contractor, which we would fix, but it’s almost complete. And when it opens, it’s incredible. It’s really incredible. But remember this, it leaked from 1922. It opened in 1922. They never solved the leak problem because it was stone and the cracks with the stone. It’s not stone. Stone is really not a waterproofing material. We essentially used a high grade swimming pool material, which was my idea.

I’m very proud of that idea. By the way, I didn’t know the contractor, but when it was completed, it was perfect. And then somebody went in and cut, just like they did the grass. Nobody talks about the grass. They have helicopter pictures of what they did. Wasn’t it 87, right? Do you know what they did, right? Did you see what they wrote? 86, 47, 86 of them. So it’s 86, 47. They didn’t do 45. At least they left 45 out, and massive letters on the grass, 86, 47. And nobody talked about that. That was vandalism too. We had to replace all that grass. It was a tremendous amount of grass because when you hit it with this poison, it’s acid. It kills the grass no matter how. You can’t even clean it. Even if you got out there right after, it’s very powerful. So I know it well.

So people did great damage to this thing because they’re sick people. You know who’s representing the man is a man from CREW, a sleazebag who’s been suing me for my whole political, hasn’t won. He’s lost all the time. But CREW, do you know what CREW is? It’s a third rate operation that’s supposed to be a charity, but it’s not. They used it for political reasons. So we should be proud of our monuments, and we should be proud of our city. And you know that was open before they did the damage. It was open. It never looked more beautiful. It looked like a mirror, and that’s what it was supposed to be. It was a very dark color because otherwise you don’t see it as a Reflecting Pool, and it looked beautiful. Well, it looked just as beautiful. It’ll be fixed and open over the next week and a half, two weeks.

I don’t know about you, but I need to take a breath because that was something. I want to underscore the fact that what I just gave you is from a verbatim transcript of Donald’s remarks. I didn’t change a word. Now, some of the emphasis might be slightly different, but the words are almost exact to the extent that they could be.

In that stew of insanity, colloquially speaking, are a lot of lies, obviously, a lot of ass covering, a lot of excuse making, and a lot of blame casting. But I defy anybody to tell me that those are the remarks of a man who is fully in control of himself, that those are the remarks of a man who is cognitively and psychologically intact, because they are not.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

The Democratic Senate primary in Maine won by Graham Platner initially was an utter mess. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But Platner is out of the race now, and every Democrat who endorsed him withdrew their endorsement. Everybody who supported him called for him to step down.

Why? Let’s start with the tattoo. Platner had a skull and crossbones design that looks suspiciously like the Nazi SS Death’s Head symbol. This should have been the end of it, but for many it was not, so Platner’s campaign continued. Then some of his old Reddit posts resurfaced, including comments he made in a 2013 discussion about sexual assault and alcohol. In one of them, he wrote:

Don’t get so messed up you wind up having sex with somebody you don’t need to.

After this, members of his staff started leaving the campaign. His political director quit, saying she couldn’t look past what he had written. His campaign manager followed, and then his finance director left, citing differences in professional standards.

Finally, on July 6, 2026, a former girlfriend, Jenny Rasico, came forward and said Platner forced her to have sex with him in 2021. He called this claim categorically false, but it was the last straw. Bernie Sanders, one of Platner’s earliest and most loyal supporters, called on him to step down. So did Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer. Ro Khanna withdrew his endorsement. Eventually, Platner did drop out. He insisted this wasn’t an admission of guilt, but when the credible allegations and the history of his rhetoric and actions stacked up, his support within the Democratic Party collapsed.

That’s the way it’s supposed to work, unless you’re a Republican. So I want to take a look at some of the Republican Party’s worst candidates, for whom Republican leadership, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Donald, are rolling out the red carpet.

First, there’s Ken Paxton, a man impeached by his own party in Texas. That’s right. Ken Paxton, who is running for Senate in Texas, was impeached by his own Republican controlled state House on allegations that included bribery, corruption, and abuse of office. Paxton was later acquitted by the Republican controlled state Senate. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.

He competed in the Republican primary against John Cornyn, an actual four term senator, but he won in a runoff despite years of legal trouble, including a securities fraud prosecution that ended in 2024 with Paxton paying nearly $300,000 in restitution under an agreement that avoided trial. It also probably helped that Donald endorsed him.

Share

Then there’s his marriage. Paxton’s wife, Republican State Senator Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year on what she referred to as biblical grounds. Her court filing alleged adultery. There are now so many videos of Paxton awkwardly trying to avoid both his alleged mistress and whatever cameras are pointed at him that there’s practically a genre of political content. I don’t believe his behavior is biblical. The NRSC called what Paxton had put his family through truly repulsive and disgusting. Republicans spent millions in the primary trying to stop him. Again, they failed, in large part because of Donald’s endorsement of him.

There’s another part of Paxton’s record worth knowing about. His attorney general’s office took over the prosecution of Adam Hoffman, a Waco attorney charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy. After Hoffman’s first trial ended with a hung jury and the child did not want to testify again, Paxton’s prosecutors negotiated a plea deal. Hoffman would plead guilty to two misdemeanors. He would not have to register as a sex offender. And the original punishment proposed by Paxton’s prosecutors was one day in jail for sexually assaulting a child.

The judge refused to accept the deal. Hoffman ultimately admitted as part of the plea that he had sexually touched the victim without consent, which should go without saying, for his own sexual gratification. He surrendered his license, and the judge imposed 60 days. None of this stopped Texas Republicans from making Paxton their nominee to be a senator of the United States of America.

Then we have Jake Lang. He’s running for Marco Rubio’s old Senate seat in Florida. Lang spent nearly four years in federal custody awaiting trial on charges stemming from the Capitol attack. He had not yet been convicted when Donald’s January 20, 2025 pardon ended the federal case against him, and now he’s running as a Republican for a Senate seat in Florida.

This is what Lang said as a candidate:

I would deputize the Proud Boys and the January 6th Patriots to bounty hunt illegal immigrants.

He also promised to ban Islam. At an anti AIPAC protest, Lang gave a Nazi salute. He threw chocolate coins and invoked antisemitic stereotypes about Jews and money. He later organized an anti Islam march he intended to take into Minneapolis’ Cedar Riverside neighborhood, home to a large Somali American population. The march fell apart after counterprotesters overwhelmed his small group. But his legal problems didn’t end when Donald pardoned him. Lang has been arrested repeatedly since then. In Texas, he was charged with making a terroristic threat after allegedly threatening a Muslim man. His initial bond was set at a million dollars.

Subscribe now

Brandon Herrera, also known as the AK Guy, is a gun influencer, because only in America. He’s also a firearms manufacturer who is now the Republican nominee in Texas’ 23rd District, the same district that includes Uvalde, the site of the 2022 elementary school massacre. Herrera got a clear path to the nomination after incumbent Tony Gonzales dropped out because of an affair.

Herrera has spent years creating content designed to shock. He’s appeared goosestepping with a German military song associated with Nazi era imagery playing in the background. He’s shown off his copy of Mein Kampf. He made a video recreating the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. using a ballistic dummy. He’s appeared in promotional material for a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He’s also joked about veteran suicide, once saying that because he thought about putting a gun in his mouth, he was “basically an honorary veteran.” Herrera says the Nazi material was mocking Nazis, not celebrating them.

When confronted with the goosestepping video, this is how Herrera responded:

I stand by it. This is funny as hell.

Donald has endorsed him. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has endorsed him. Last month, Johnson traveled to San Antonio to campaign and raise money for this Nazi who also, by the way, happens to be a virulent misogynist. Yes, holier than thou Mike Johnson is out there raising money for a congressional candidate who thinks Nazi jokes are funny and who, by the way, is a virulent misogynist in a district where 19 children were murdered using the kind of weaponry Herrera glorifies.

Turning to Colorado, Victor Marx is not some fringe candidate anymore. He’s the Republican nominee to be governor of that state. He runs a multimillion dollar ministry built around what he calls spiritual warfare. He says he casts demons out of people. He can even do this over the phone. He’s that good at it, although he does object to the word exorcism, which is interesting because it sounds like a synonym for the kind of thing he’s pretending to do. He describes what he does as prayer.

Marx has claimed that when he was seven years old, his abusive stepfather forced him to participate in killing a man. The story, of course, has never been independently substantiated. When a Colorado journalist asked whether Marx believes he has killed people as an adult, this is how Marx replied:

Does it matter?

I think it should probably matter. Not to Colorado Republicans.

Marx has also claimed that his organization rescued more than 45,000 women and children, a very large number that reporters have been unable to substantiate independently. When a reporter confronted him about that claim, along with the exorcisms and other stories, and asked whether Marx understood why critics considered him a conman, Marx simply said no.

Share

His Republican opponents certainly understood the question. During the primary, rivals called him a conman, a grifter, and a fraud. In other words, Donald’s preferred candidate. After Marx won, Republican State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer ended her concession with one final line:

And for the record, I still haven’t killed anyone.

Maybe that’s why you didn’t win the Republican primary, because Marx won anyway, and he is now the Republican Party’s nominee to run the state of Colorado. And why wouldn’t he be? Because the person that 78 million Americans voted for in 2024 is also a conman, a grifter, and a fraud.

Every political party will eventually find itself explaining a candidate it wishes had never made it through a primary. The test is what the party does when that happens, and that’s what makes this moment different. This has actually been the trend for a long time now. It has, of course, along with everything else, simply worsened since Donald’s been in power.

Inside today’s Republican Party, there are no guardrails anymore. The behavior that would once have triggered a candidate’s being called on to withdraw is actually the reason he or she gets nominated or elected in the first place.

These people are being handed power. They’re being handed the power to write our laws, to control our institutions, to decide who gets governmental protection, who gets targeted by the government, and whether or not you have civil rights. They’re going to get to confirm judges. They’re going to control who gets money and when. They’re going to oversee our elections and govern whole states.

So when a political party stops asking whether someone is fit to wield that power, that is a fundamental problem. Republicans are not asking the questions democracy requires of anyone seeking public office: What have you done? Do you understand your role going forward as a civil servant? Can you be trusted to wield the power you are being granted?

The question they seem to be reduced to is simply this: Whose side are you on?

And if the answer is, we’re on the side of Donald Trump, that is all they need to say in order to get a pass for everything else.

Subscribe now

Hi all – it’s Mary here with an important post exclusive to our page’s paid subscribers.

Read more

Subscribe now

Hi, I’m Mary Trump, Donald’s niece. That means, unfortunately, that my uncle is President of the United States. More importantly, I’m also a writer, activist, clinical psychologist, and the founder of Mary Trump Media. For years, I have been speaking out about Donald’s unfitness for office and the corruption of the party that continues to enable him.

What is obvious to anybody with eyes is that Donald continues to demonstrate the fact that he is psychologically, emotionally, cognitively, and physically in decline. This has been increasingly evident over the last couple of months. We’ve seen off the chart press conferences and cabinet meetings at the White House, his deeply unhinged remarks during rallies and other public events, and his middle of the night social media rants.

Donald’s communications have always been full of grievance, whining, and innumerable lies, but they have become not only increasingly provocative, his genocidal threats against Iran come to mind, but also increasingly focused on weird obsessions like his hatred of windmills, his fear of magnets, and his despair over shower heads with low water pressure. These show that he is increasingly self aggrandizing and detached from reality, which is to say delusional. He often does not seem oriented to time and place.

I can’t always understand exactly why Donald becomes obsessed with the things with which he is obsessed. I don’t know why he hates wind energy so much, beyond, of course, the fact that it is competition for his oil buddies. I also don’t really understand why he keeps making the demonstrably false claims that windmills kill birds, fish, and whales. I don’t know why he is obsessed with water pressure.

Every once in a while, though, Donald tells on himself.

A few months ago, during remarks at Davos, Donald gave us a remarkable window into what is going on in that terrifying head of his. This was in front of world leaders.

Share

Donald: We had in my area in Queens, I grew up in Queens, at a place called Creedmoor. Did anybody know that it was big? I said, Mom, why are those bars on the building? I used to play a little league baseball there at this place called Cunningham Park. I was quite the baseball player. You wouldn’t believe it, but I said to my mother, Mom, she would always be there for me, she said, Son, you could be a professional baseball player. I said, Thanks, Mom. I said, Why are those bars on the window? Big building, powerful building. It loomed over the park. Actually, now I think that’s a pretty unfriendly sight. I’ll never forget it. I don’t know if it’s still there because they got rid of most of them, but I’d say, why does the building have those bars? It wasn’t normal. You’re used to looking at a window. With this one, you’ll look at all these steel, vicious steel, tiny windows, bars all over the place. Nobody was getting out. It’s called a mental institution. That was an insane asylum.

Creedmoor is a psychiatric hospital. Donald, of course, misspoke. He did not grow up in Creedmoor, although some might argue that he probably should have.

Yes, that is a direct quote of something Donald said on the world stage while representing the United States of America. Where to start? I’m pretty sure that is not the kind of thing those world leaders were at Davos to hear, although perhaps it was more welcome than hearing how he is going to take over Greenland.

Let’s try to analyze this a little bit. Donald is riddled with anxieties. He has fears that are so deep and unacknowledged that they can never be assuaged. As we know, he talks often about insane asylums, particularly in the context of immigration, because he seems to exist in a hellscape in which malign powers are flinging open wide the doors of their asylums and pointing the criminally insane toward our southern border.

One of his rationales for justifying the egregious assaults by ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents on immigrants, undocumented workers, and American citizens is that President Biden welcomed such people in. But what is this about Creedmoor, and why is he so obsessed with the bars on the windows?

I think, in part, it’s because Creedmoor did sort of loom large in our lives in Queens. We often passed it on our way out east to Long Island. Small detail, and maybe it was an honest mistake, but the park next to Creedmoor is Alley Pond Park. Cunningham Park, which was on the border of Jamaica Estates, where Donald grew up, and Fresh Meadows, was the park where we most often went to play sports because it was just down the road from his house.

Subscribe now

Creedmoor was a massive psychiatric hospital complex in the 1960s and 1970s, so yes, it had a reputation. But why is Donald so focused on revisiting the terror it seems to have caused him? And why is he bringing my grandmother into all of this, my grandmother who actually was never there for him?

This rant has me thinking about the fact that Alzheimer’s runs in my family. Of course, I’m hoping it skips my generation, or at least I’m hoping it skips me. On the one hand, I sometimes see similarities between Donald and my grandfather, Fred Trump, who developed Alzheimer’s sometime in his late seventies or early eighties, which is to say when he was around Donald’s age. But there are many, many differences, too.

What they have in common is that they do not always seem, as I said before, oriented to time and place. The first time I saw this with my grandfather, we were at an event in Brooklyn at which he and my grandmother were being honored. It was very well attended and it was outside. My grandfather was standing next to my uncle Rob when he grabbed Rob’s arm and suddenly looked like a deer in the headlights.

I had never seen my grandfather look like that before. He looked terrified, as if he had no idea where he was or who he was with.

I’m beginning to see that look in Donald’s eyes sometimes.

That might be where the similarities end, though. By the time my grandfather was in his mid eighties, he started forgetting everybody he knew. Sometimes these were people he had known for decades, including his grandchildren, to the extent that he cared about them at all, but also, increasingly, his children.

I was with him and my Aunt Maryanne at Mar a Lago the first time my grandfather failed to recognize her. Of course, my aunt was a terrible person, but despite this, it was still very painful to watch when she realized that her father no longer knew who she was.

The other thing that happened with my grandfather is that, despite the fact that his entire life he had been a straight up sociopath, a cutthroat businessman, and a cold, unaffectionate father and grandfather, he actually became sweet, like a kitten. In fact, he was never kinder to me than when he had completely forgotten who I was. He used to refer to me as “the nice lady.”

I don’t see any such softening with Donald. In fact, I would argue that he is getting more cruel and more belligerent as he becomes more out of control. He is more prone to lash out. His impulse control is eroding at an alarming rate.

This happened with my grandfather, too, but there is an important difference. My grandfather always had really good impulse control. Donald has never had good impulse control. And my grandfather’s lack of impulse control exhibited itself in very private settings. It almost always happened only with my grandmother.

Share

Donald, on the other hand, is completely unhinged, often in very public places. I think part of this is because the more threatened he feels, the more he feels that the walls are closing in on him, or the more he feels that he can no longer control the narrative, the more he has to try to regain some control.

Of course, this is just making him more dangerous.

We can never, ever trust anything Donald has to say. He is always going to be looking for another way to get somebody to capitulate to him, whether through threats or through the actual use of force, just as he told other members of NATO that he would use force against Greenland. We can’t take him at his word because he is not making decisions based on facts on the ground. He is making decisions based on his very deep and increasingly terrifying insecurities.

And that is where the comparison between Donald and my grandfather becomes most important.

My grandfather essentially was in his house with his wife. He was no longer making decisions that had an impact on anybody else. Whatever was happening to him, whatever he was forgetting, whatever control he was losing, the consequences were largely contained within his own life and his own family.

Donald is President of the United States.

His decisions have a serious, deleterious, and terrifying impact on all of us. His inability to control himself does not remain behind closed doors. His fears, grievances, obsessions, and insecurities become public policy. They become threats against other countries. They become decisions about the use of force. They become the words of the President of the United States spoken in front of world leaders.

That is what makes the contrast with my grandfather so stark. I watched my grandfather lose his orientation to time and place. I watched him fail to recognize people he had known for decades. I watched his impulse control erode. But by that point in his life, he was no longer in a position to make decisions that could affect millions of people.

Donald is.

He is increasingly belligerent, increasingly cruel, increasingly prone to lashing out, and increasingly desperate to regain control whenever he feels threatened. At the same time, he is occupying the most powerful office in the world.

That is what we’re up against.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Speaker of the House: They have full on Trump derangement syndrome, and it informs how they see the world, how they react, and how irresponsible they are. Now it is on full display for the whole country. I hope voters remember this in the fall. You’ve got to keep the grownups in charge, and that’s the Republicans.

So, speaking of Trump derangement syndrome, did you know that Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, destroyed an entire branch of government just for Donald Trump?

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Trump Trolls Trump. It has now been 593 days since Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, and we’re taking a look back at week 85. We’re getting closer and closer to the midterm elections. In fact, we are now just 59 days away, which is not a lot of time.

So I wanted to take a look back at week 70, when Donald offered up his glowing endorsement of who he thought could be the future Republican ticket, J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio.

This is what Donald said:

So we got a lot of beauties out there. J.D., I envy you and other people. I don’t know. Who’s it going to be? Is it going to be J.D.? Is it going to be somebody else? I don’t know. Does anybody have? Okay, let’s go. You ready? Who likes J.D. Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio? All right. Sounds like a good ticket, J.D. That was a perfect ticket. By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team, but these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance.

As if anybody thinks that guy is going to endorse anybody who could possibly succeed Donald Trump, they are wrong. How could he possibly know who his successor is going to be? Well, he can’t because he doesn’t want anybody to succeed him. He’s just going to hunker down in his bunker. It’s easy to get those words confused. After $900 million, I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty nice.

But here’s the thing. In Donald Trump’s America, it looks like the vice presidency and the presidency are not just beauty contests. They’re popularity contests, too. And based on the tepid response from that tiny sample size, sorry, Little Marco, but you’re going to be stuck manning that Diet Coke button. Because even if J.D. Vance doesn’t drink Diet Coke now, he certainly will if he becomes president of the United States. And please, let’s not let that happen.

Share

Nobody has encapsulated the Republican panic quite as well as Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas who goes on vacation anytime there’s any kind of crisis in his state. As we know, things have gotten so bad that Donald is heading to Texas to campaign for Republicans ahead of the midterms, as if that’s going to help. Many Republican candidates have even started scrubbing any mention of Donald from their campaign websites. So, with that in mind, I wanted to take a look back at what Ted Cruz was already saying in week 73 about the upcoming election.

Ted Cruz: I think this midterm election is the most important midterm we’ve ever seen, that if the Democrats take the House, it will be nonstop impeachment and attacking President Trump every single day. And if they take the Senate, they’ll do that and they’ll also shut down every confirmation for every cabinet member, every judge. It is their view as total warfare.

To which I say, cool. And Ted, stop threatening me with a good time because that sounds like paradise to me.

In week 77, Donald had this to say about crime in Washington, D.C.:

91 percent of the crime in Washington, D.C., as an example, was caused by 2.1 percent of the population. These are many career criminals, sick people, mental problems.

Now look, I know that geography and demographics aren’t Donald’s strong suit, and I also know that D.C. is a relatively small place. But Donald, you alone aren’t 2.1 percent of the population. Let’s get it straight. The vast majority of crime in D.C. is committed by him and his regime.

It was that same week that Baby J.D. Vance, the aforementioned vice president and guy who will never be president, spoke at a campaign rally and asked the crowd who they were going to vote for this year. The fraudsters? Shocking. Yet more self awareness from Baby J.D. Vance.

Baby JD: So I ask you a very simple question. When you come to vote in November, are you going to vote for the pro fraud party? Are you going to vote for the party who is sending your tax money to the fraudsters? No, we’re going to support the party that is sending the fraudsters to jail and is protecting your money. We’re going to vote for Derrick Van Orden and for Bryan Steil.

I’m really confused. Why is J.D. Vance campaigning in a room full of Democrats? That’s weird. Oh, wait. There’s that aforementioned lack of self awareness.

Subscribe now

It was in week 80 that we took a look at Donald’s continuing claim that, since the Trump regime took over, the United States has become the hottest country in the world. I still have no idea what that means.

Donald: In just 18 months, we’ve turned this country completely around. The king of Saudi Arabia said to me a year ago, Your country was dead, and now you’ve got the hottest country anywhere in the world. Today we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. Everybody respects us. And today you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And it’s true. We have the hottest country in the world. The hottest country anywhere in the world. The hottest country anywhere in the world. The hottest country anywhere in the world. The hottest country in the world. Now we have the hottest country in the world. We are the hottest country anywhere in the world. The hottest. The hottest country anywhere in the world. We have the hottest country in the world. Our country was laughed at from all over the world. We were the laughing stock all over the world. They’re not laughing anymore.

Mar a Lago hot? Check. But if he means literally, he’s certainly doing everything in his power to accelerate catastrophic climate change. So, in terms of temperature, we may soon be the hottest country in the world.

I wanted to close today with a voter from Pennsylvania’s expressing her feelings about the last election. At the time, Pennsylvania’s average gas price was about $3.76 a gallon, and the reporter went to the cheapest station in the area, where gas was $3.54 a gallon. He asked one voter what she would say to Donald if she knew Donald would hear her.

This is what the voter said:

You are a worthless pile of...

The reporter then asked her how many times she had voted for Donald.

This is what the voter said:

Three times. That was my bad. Apparently I’m an idiot.

Well, don’t be too hard on yourself. I always appreciate it when adult human beings are able to admit when they were wrong. And one of the reasons we’re in this situation is that Donald Trump is not one of those mature, reasonable human beings. He’s wrong all the time, but he will never admit it.

By the way, that clip wasn’t too long ago, and gas prices are now over $4.20 a gallon. So, well done.

That’s it for this episode of Trump Trolls Trump. Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with us. We’re going to be back next week because mockery is our superpower, and we will not let these criminals, thieves, and grifters get away with their crime, thieving, and grifting without ridiculing them to the fullest extent of the law.

Please like and share this with your friends and even your enemies, or should I say especially your enemies, because they’ll hate it, and that’s a treat for us.

Subscribe now

[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

Mary Trump: I had a chance to catch up with my friend, NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar of fascism and authoritarian leaders. She’s also author of the bestselling book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present and is the proprietor of the essential Substack Lucid. Ruth and I discussed the role of self debasement in keeping people close to Donald in line and the implications of their subservience. Hope you enjoy it.

Subscribe now

Mary Trump: I’m here with the amazing Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is the proprietor, as you should know, of Lucid, which is one of the essential Substacks out there. So if you haven’t subscribed already, you need to. Ruth, I think one of the challenges, as I started to talk about, is the sense of being overwhelmed by so many different things happening. And I think, in some way, the antidote to that is to find the through lines that help people understand that all of this is of a piece, even though the onslaught of news is crazy.

I wanted to start with this great piece that you wrote about Todd Blanche in particular and the role of the personal lawyer in general to personalist rule. So if you could walk us through it and answer this question: Has Donald finally found his Roy Cohn in Todd Blanche?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Yeah, and he’s also found his equivalent of some of the personal lawyers who other autocrats have had. Mary mentioned this idea of personalist rule, which is a kind of subset of authoritarianism, almost like a concentration of a political system that’s designed to retool institutions and everything to protect the leader, to indulge his whims, to boost his ego with personality cults. And very importantly, the purpose of the institutions, including the judiciary, becomes to solve the leader’s financial, personal, and legal problems once and for all.

So the attorney general and judiciary, as we’ve seen in our country, are targeted early. And so I went down a rabbit hole. The piece, if those of you have read it, got a bit long because I decided to look at what were the fates of the personal lawyers of other authoritarians, either real dictators or authoritarian style leaders.

Some go to jail, like Berlusconi’s Cesare Previti. Berlusconi worked in a democracy, and he hugely damaged that democracy. He tried to appoint his personal lawyer to be Minister of Justice, which is the equivalent, but the president vetoed that, and Previti ended up going to jail for bribing judges on Berlusconi’s behalf. So one lesson is that sometimes these people are supposed to take the fall for the leader.

And then, one more thing I’ll mention, there are all kinds of strategies. These people get promoted to important posts, and one of them is to make them, or appoint people who are already members of parliament, like members of Congress, so that the personal lawyers are doing this. Their salaries are paid by taxpayers while they’re also solving the problems of the autocrat and doing lawless things, and they’re in Congress or parliament to vote on laws that protect the leader. It was the case with Orbán in Hungary. It is the case now with Erdoğan in Turkey. And so you see that what’s happened with Blanche has a context.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And it is, I think, worth pointing out that certainly in the case of Todd Blanche, he didn’t start here. He had, as far as I’m aware, a fairly respectable career as a prosecutor for the SDNY, the Southern District of New York, also referred to as the Sovereign District of New York because getting a job there is considered such a pinnacle.

And how far has he fallen? It sort of begs the question of why. Now, we of course understand why Donald would want somebody like Blanche to do his bidding, but why would somebody like Blanche be willing not just to put himself in thrall to somebody like Donald, but to use his power to dismantle the rule of law in America? I don’t think I’m overstating it. I think it’s fair to say that the DOJ, as it currently exists, is Donald Trump’s personal defense firm, and it is antithetical to the rule of law in America.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Yeah, because the attorney general is supposed to represent the interests of the American people, and instead, this is personalist rule. He ends up being the personal attack dog and defender. And so the entire judicial system is retooled, redone to suit the leader.

Share

What you asked is the essential question of complicity under authoritarianism and how these regimes function. Sometimes you have people who get swept up and they become fanatics. Some people were always fanatics, with long histories of fanaticism. Other people decide that they’re going to ride this. They buy into this. They want power. They decide they can have incredible power at a fateful time. So they go with it, and they just put aside their conscience, adopt other values, and they’re rewarded for those values.

That’s the key. Individual loss of conscience can happen, but in authoritarian states with leaders like Trump, it gets institutionalized. Your lawlessness isn’t just tolerated, it’s actually rewarded because lawlessness becomes the law of the land.

And then other people, I do have to mention, because we are talking about Trump and who adopts through Roy Cohn and also Putin, Trump collects information on people. I’m not saying that’s the case with Blanche, but there are other people who collaborate or continue to collaborate because Trump has stuff on them. And he’s been doing that for decades, way before he went into politics. Roy Cohn taught him to do that. And Roger Stone, let’s not forget Roger Stone, another mentor.

Mary Trump: Wish we could, but we could. Yeah, I think it’s important for people to realize that it’s not because Donald is, across the board, some strong, charismatic leader, although sadly he is for some people. He also just has dirt on people, which is ultimately a sign of weakness, but it still allows him to have power over people he might not otherwise have.

I think Blanche is a good example of something else I wanted to talk to you about. We have this string of events happening, seemingly insignificant in some ways and others deeply significant, that don’t seem to have much in common. So you could say that Donald’s war of choice against Iran is kind of a sign of his arrogance and his complete inability to admit that other people know more than he does. The reflecting debacle is emblematic of the just grotesque corruption and incompetence that he represents. And now we have this Air Force One thing where he got whisked away in a catering truck, which is just a sign of just how pathetic and weak he is, as well as, of course, demonstrating that he does not care about anybody but himself.

But I think the through line of all of these things is, despite the demonstrations of the corruption and the incompetence and the cruelty, what have you, he continues to be surrounded by a significant number of people who are willing to debase themselves for a man who couldn’t care less if they lived or died, truly.

Mary Trump: Blanche is an example of that. We’ve seen some of his public statements about Donald that are just cringe inducing. It’s just so pathetic and groveling. We’ve seen his Cabinet meetings in which every Cabinet secretary outdoes him or herself in bending the knee and making complete fools of themselves.

And now we have a situation in which Donald potentially put people’s lives at risk knowing that he was doing that. I can remind us that he did the same thing on January 6th. So can you talk us through that? Because it’s like somebody who smokes four packs of cigarettes a day knowing that they could cause cancer, but it’s not going to happen to me. It’s like, as long as I debase myself and stay as loyal as I could possibly be, Donald will never turn on me. I will always be his favorite. What is going on there?

And is there any example you can think of that really exemplifies how far people are willing to go for this guy? Before we continue, please take a second to like this video and subscribe to the channel. Also, leave a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going. Thanks for watching.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: I’m glad you mentioned January 6th because it was a very important psychological training for the GOP. So just to review in two seconds, he incited a violent mob to go after Republicans as well as Democrats who were there. And those Republicans, we know, called their loved ones thinking they were going to die. They called their loved ones to say goodbye.

And so everyone saw the two acts of Senator Josh Hawley, who did the fist pump to egg on the violent rioters, thinking he wasn’t going to have a problem, and then had to run for his life. That’s act two. But act three is the key here to set up what we’re going through today. Act three is when that same senator had to forget his trauma, running for his life, and eat it and move on and start calling his own attackers patriots.

When you force someone to forget that you put them in mortal harm and praise the attackers as patriots, and that becomes the party line, then you’ve broken them. You’ve broken them emotionally, psychologically. So many other things have happened along the way to produce what we have now, where these are people who will continue to praise him, even though the examples of Trump putting them in mortal harm potentially, like Air Force One for Secretary of State Rubio, Bessent, all of them.

Subscribe now

It’s very clear that he doesn’t care about them and that it’s a use and discard relationship, but that will not stop them from continuing in their jobs because that’s how authoritarian systems have always operated. There are lots of stories in my book, Strongmen, about ministers. It’s like a revolving door of ministers where you’re in, and then you’re in prison or you have to go into exile, and then you can come back and be a minister again.

All of this is called divide and rule. The only one who never has to lose his position is the leader, until he does later.

Mary Trump: Yeah, right. And the only one who never gets held accountable is Donald. But before we get to, because I know we want to talk about Bill Cassidy, it’s so weird to me. The people Donald chose to go with him in the catering truck were Natalie Harp, a 35 year old, very blonde woman whose job, it seems, is to be by Donald’s side 24 hours a day. It’s creepy. Walt Nauta, his co-conspirator in the Mar-a-Lago stolen classified documents case, and Dan Scavino, who used to be his caddy.

And in addition to the Washington press corps, about which we know Donald doesn’t care, being left on the plane, we have, as you mentioned, Cabinet secretaries Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, Stephen Miller, whom you’d think would be one of Donald’s closest confidants, and Karoline Leavitt, whom you also would’ve thought would’ve made the list of people to put on the catering truck. So does it tell you anything about who Donald chose and whom he left behind? It’s bizarre.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: In a way, these people, well, Natalie Harp is a little newer to my understanding, but from the reporting that I’ve seen, she is available 24 hours a day. She actually posts for him. She’s the one who physically posts the rants that go on all night, but she also sends him texts that say:

My whole world is centered around you.

So you could say that she knows how to play him. You could say that she’s sincere and she really has made him her world. And imagine feeling that you are so close to the “most powerful person in the world.” So she’s a newer addition. The others, as you mentioned, Walt Nauta was. We still don’t know what the fate of that classified intelligence and those documents has been, whether Trump was selling intelligence when he took the classified documents to Mar-a-Lago.

And by the way, that is a perfect example of personalist rule because you do not accept any division between public and private. Everything is yours. So everything that should be classified or belongs to the government, and you are a custodian for four years and then you leave, that’s not how authoritarians think.

So these are people who were involved in complicity also in his private spaces, like the caddy, because golf is a big deal for him and it’s how he makes money, promotes his golf courses. And so it’s also a narrowing of the world, and the more corrupt they become, the more paranoid they become.

Trump has long been, and now especially, in what I call the bunker stage. And that’s why there was a picture the other day of him golfing with what looked like a missile launcher, some kind of major weapon defense system right next to him, and then a whole bunch of barbed wire.

Share

Now, the last thing I’ll say is one of the biggest threats to American safety has always come from Iran, many years of Iran being responsible for lots of plots. Trump has provoked Iran hugely, which makes everybody less safe. And so the Air Force One incident, along with building the ballroom and especially the bunker for himself, he’s obsessed with the bunker, is an example of how he’s making all of us less safe. At the same time, he’s seeing to his own security needs because that’s all he cares about.

Mary Trump: Right. Yeah. And I would hope that that’s obvious to everybody by now. And just really quickly, I’ll say the one tiny, perhaps, glimmer of hope here is it does feel like things, for the first time ever, are starting to stack up and stick. So here’s hoping.

But I did want to turn to Bill Cassidy. Just a reminder, Bill Cassidy is a medical doctor who, even though he knew better, voted to confirm the sociopath Robert Kennedy, who has already killed a lot of people and has every intention of killing more. So Ruth, what is up with Bill Cassidy, and why is he doing this?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Yeah, for those of you who read Lucid, I was writing some notes up because I wanted to discuss this with Mary, who, it’s important, is a clinical psychologist, because what I’ll say is probably more her territory in this sense. And I’m going to probably do a little essay on this.

It’s like a classic example of authoritarian psychological dynamics. So stage one, you debase yourself, and this is our theme, and yet you do it in a very fateful way. You cast a decisive vote to approve Blanche, but you know in your conscience that it’s wrong. And so, as you do it, you get all emotional and your voice cracks, and you say something like:

I know I’m going to be judged negatively.

He said that he couldn’t help himself. Stage two, the day after, or days after, you have to go on all the major news shows, and in one of them, you explain to the public why your voice was cracking. You can’t say that your conscience was bothering you. So what he said is that, what’s interesting to me is that he felt the need to bring it up and explain. And what he said is:

Oh, it was the emotion of being part of history.

And then stage three, to salvage your professional identity as a doctor, you start speaking out again about the vaccine policies, even though, as Mary just mentioned, you confirmed this lunatic Kennedy and you keep confirming lunatics and fanatics. And so the fact that he needed to explain why he was emotional and that was his conscience talking to the nation is the saddest thing, and I’ve seen it many times before around the world.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And it’s just as everything that’s going on now, as disparate and unique as it might all feel in the moment, it is of a piece just in terms of what this country is going through, and it’s of a piece in terms of history. I think it’s important that we all understand that context.

Ruth, I can’t think of anybody better to help us do that than you. You always make me feel infinitely more knowledgeable and smarter. And again, everybody needs to subscribe to Lucid, and you must read Ruth’s brilliant, brilliant book, Strongmen, if you haven’t already. And if you have already, buy another copy and give it to somebody else because it helped me understand so much of what we were dealing with while we were living through it, and that was sort of a tremendous gift at the time. So Ruth, it’s always amazing to see you.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Likewise. It’s always great to talk. I always feel better talking with you, even though what we’re saying is not necessarily cheery, because I think we’re coming to an understanding together. And with your political and psychological expertise, I think it’s really valuable.

Mary Trump: Well, thank you. And again, it’s always awesome to see you, and I hope we see each other again soon.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Donald says he loves women.

We love women. Women are the whole deal. Okay.

Donald loves women, right? Well, if by loves women, you mean loves abusing them, objectifying them, sexualizing them, and subjugating them, then sure.

On his first day back in office last year, Donald signed an executive order directing the federal government to recognize only two sexes, male and female, and defining sex as a biological and immutable classification, which is not just unscientific, it is objectively absurd. That definition now affects policies involving education, employment, healthcare, athletics, and civil rights enforcement. The people Donald put in charge are carrying those policies into virtually every part of women’s lives, from education, the workplace, the military, immigration, and the Justice Department.

The Justice Department, which is supposed to protect and defend the civil rights of all Americans, is now seemingly in service to defending the rights only of white straight men in this country. And some women, I guess.

But here’s the thing. When Donald says he loves women, he means women as defined by him.

It isn’t just trans women, of course, that he and his regime discriminate against, although they reserve their worst discrimination for that tiny percentage of the population, that most vulnerable group among us. He also likes to discriminate against women who actually have the audacity to think that they should have control over their own bodies.

Abortion access remains highly restricted or banned in 13 states while the Trump regime continues pursuing policies that could further restrict medication abortion and advance fetal personhood. The new Attorney General of the United States of America, Todd Blanche, has promised that abortion and abortion medication will be unavailable across the entire country. The Trump regime froze nearly $35 million in Title IX funding for 16 organizations providing reproductive healthcare.

In July of this year, women accounted for 100 percent of the net decline in the labor force. Women lost 32,000 jobs while men gained 9,000, and 165,000 women left the labor force that month. Women continue to earn substantially less than men while the Equal Rights Amendment remains unrecognized as part of the Constitution.

On July 21, the Republican led Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted to propose ending the requirement that employers report workforce data by race and sex. Forty three percent of women told the National Women’s Law Center they had fewer rights than a year earlier because, in fact, they do. Among Black women, that number was 54 percent. Federal agencies have flagged words including women and female in research and grant applications. A study of more than 17,000 NIH grants found diversity related language fell 25 percent between January 2024 and June 2025.

Share

Linda McMahon, sadly for us, the Secretary of Education, has made the fight over transgender athletes one of the Education Department’s most visible civil rights battles. And, of course, the fight is against transgender girls and women. McMahon has made enforcement of Title IX based on biological sex a priority of her department, a department, by the way, which she has been tasked with destroying.

On August 9, McMahon was defending the Trump regime’s lawsuit against Maine over its policy allowing transgender girls and women to participate in women’s sports.

Linda McMahon: We want to make sure that if you open women’s sports or intimate facilities to males, you expose yourself to federal civil rights investigations. Governor Mills will definitely get her wish.

Of course, the focus is almost exclusively on trans girls and women who, thanks to the cruel, ignorant people writing our government policy, would have them use men’s rooms. And then transgender men would be forced to use women’s public restrooms.

The Supreme Court upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, which seems like a form of child abuse that affects the tiniest percentage of people in this country. Title IX is the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education. For more than 50 years, it has been central to expanding opportunities for women and girls in sports. The Trump regime has opened Title IX investigations involving transgender athletes. And, by the way, it’s important to point out that many of these athletes, to the extent that there are many of them, are children.

They are simply girls who want to play a sport with their friends without being vilified, discriminated against, and singled out.

That brings us to another institution where the administration’s love has been felt: the military.

Pete Hegseth: Today, at my direction, each service will ensure that every requirement for every combat MOS, for every designated combat arms position, returns to the highest male standard only.

Really? Nothing says incredibly weak little man like that level of misogyny.

Hegseth has made his position on women in combat clear, calling for what he describes as the highest male standard. He has also blocked the promotion of women in the armed services, some of them at the upper echelons of military service. A New York Times analysis found that the percentage of female nominees for the military’s highest ranks has fallen to its lowest level in at least 25 years. Hegseth has blocked at least 40 peer selected senior military promotions from reaching the Senate. Roughly half of those nominees were women or people of color. In one Navy promotion list, Hegseth removed multiple women and Black officers, leaving an all male slate of 22 officers advancing as one star admirals.

Subscribe now

The administration’s policies aren’t only affecting women once they’re in institutions. They’re increasingly reaching decisions involving pregnancy itself.

Stephen Miller, resident White House Nazi and denier of the wage gap, has been one of the central architects of Donald’s immigration policies. But now pregnancy has become another part of the regime’s fight against immigration. On August 6, Donald signed new executive orders targeting birthright citizenship and what the Trump regime refers to as birth tourism.

Stephen Miller: The second action that he’s taking, which is especially historic, is for the first time ever in American history to ban birth tourism. So I want you to really let that sink in. This has been something that people have talked about not only for years, but for decades. The idea that people come here pretending to be a tourist, pretending to be a visitor, saying they want to go to Disneyland, they want to go visit a monument or go to a national park. But the real reason they’re here is to have a child, to make that child as an automatic citizen, leave our country, and then have a US citizen child. It gives them access under this broken system to welfare benefits, ultimately to the voting booth, and all the other rights and privileges that belong solely to Americans. So that practice of birth tourism is as of the signing of this order hereby banned.

And what that means is that no one in the world is any more allowed to obtain a visa for this fraudulent purpose.

It’s amazing how many executive orders Donald has signed to eradicate problems that don’t even exist. Birth tourism is not a thing. The practical question still looms. How exactly does the government determine a woman’s intent? How exactly can we determine if a woman came here to go to Disney World or somehow hoodwink the entire US system by knowing when to go into labor?

The United States continues to have the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries, with Black and Indigenous women facing particularly severe disparities. That leaves wide open the question of why anybody in their right mind who lives in a country with socialized medicine, with actual healthcare systems that serve people without bankrupting them and have lower rates of maternal mortality, would come here to have a child.

Miller has argued that the gender wage gap was largely explained by women’s choices, including the jobs they take and whether they leave the workforce after having children. The guy who’s married to a DEI hire should probably keep his mouth shut when it comes to this stuff.

The SAVE Act’s requirement for documentary proof of citizenship raised concern for married women who have changed their names. In other words, women whose married name on their driver’s license or passport does not match the name on their birth certificate, and transgender people whose identification documents may also not match. Pregnancy, reproductive rights, and gender are also central to Justice Department policies.

And that brings us to the egregious Todd Blanche, our newest Attorney General.

Share

Blanche was recently asked whether the public would learn about the men who abused girls and young women through Jeffrey Epstein.

Todd Blanche: I mean, you just baked in an assumption into your question that I have never said, and I don’t know to be true. Is the public going to learn about men that abuse these girls? What does that mean? I mean, I don’t understand what that means.

When the interviewer clarified that she meant the men who abused the young women through Epstein, Blanche continued:

We said in July, and it remains as true today as it was in July. If we had information, we meaning the Department of Justice, about men who abused women, we would prosecute them. We talked about the work that we’re doing. That’s why I said that. I said this earlier, there’s this built in assumption that somehow there’s this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about that we’re covering up or that we’re choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case. I don’t know whether there are men out there that abuse these women.

And Heinrich Himmler is not going to bother to find out because he may not like what he sees. His job is to protect Donald and whomever Donald tells him to protect.

With his newfound powers as Attorney General, Blanche has backed making the post Dobbs abortion landscape permanent nationwide, as I said earlier. The Justice Department with Blanche in charge has also sharply limited federal enforcement of the FACE Act, a federal law protecting access to reproductive health clinics.

In July, Blanche finally met with Epstein survivors and their attorneys after Republican Senator Thom Tillis made the meeting a condition of his support for Blanche’s confirmation as Attorney General. Blanche did this reluctantly, shall we say. One survivor later said the meeting offered no credible plan for accountability, and another said Blanche treated them with contempt.

On August 5, New Mexico sued the Justice Department over access to Epstein related records connected to Zorro Ranch. The state says it made at least 10 requests for records and the federal government has still not provided complete, unredacted access, which hinders its ability to provide justice for the survivors.

But that’s because the federal government, as run by Donald Trump, and the DOJ, as run by Todd Blanche, isn’t interested in justice for the Epstein survivors because these men hate women. And more than they hate women, they love their power and they love their impunity.

So is Todd Blanche, as Attorney General, going to investigate anybody in the Epstein files when his boss, the man who made him, is mentioned in the Epstein files over a million times?

Let me ask you: Do we really think that guy is going to protect anybody if it means going up against Donald Trump?

And yes, that was a rhetorical question.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

The Air Force One debacle happened a couple of weeks ago, but it is worth continuing to discuss because it has broader implications. First of all, it has all the makings of a bad joke. It is hysterical in the way that it demonstrates what a physical coward Donald is, how inept the people around him are, and it should disabuse anybody of the notion that he is a tough guy, that he is strong or brave. This perfectly exemplifies his complete and utter selfishness and the aforementioned cowardice.

The Secret Service or the intelligence agencies intercepted what they believed were credible threats against Donald and Air Force One. So they removed him without letting anybody else but a very small handful of the select few know. And they snuck him off the plane and put him, and this is just perfection, in a catering cart, which is humiliating. It is something out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This is utterly humiliating. It is shameful, and it underscores just how pathetic he is.

On the other hand, though, it is not funny at all because it demonstrates how dangerous and insane the people making the decisions in this regime are. They responded to a credible threat by removing Donald and his handpicked coterie from Air Force One, the potential target. Fine. So let’s talk briefly about who he brought with him.

Thirty five year old Natalie Harp, who I believe is referred to as the human printer, is a woman who spends about 24 hours a day with Donald telling him how great he is, taking down dictation to post his social media rants, and writing him love notes about how he is the center of the universe, her universe. There was Walt Nauta, who used to be his valet and was, of course, his co conspirator in the Mar a Lago stolen documents case, and his former caddy, Dan Scavino. I do not know what Dan Scavino does now. I am sure he made that caddy experience very relevant to working with the president. And, of course, there was the perpetually incompetent Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense. The fact that Donald chose those four people to go with him speaks to his priorities and his insecurities because he could have brought anybody.

Share

The question is not really why Donald chose those people, although it is a potentially interesting question that maybe I will get to at some point. And it is not even why he chose to leave the other people behind, although I think it is important to know who those people were. The flight crew, the White House press corps, members of his cabinet, including Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and some of his closest advisers, Stephen Miller and former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, were left behind.

Again, the question is, why did he leave anybody on the plane at all? By removing him secretly, the people making these decisions made sure that everybody else on that plane remained targets. Because by removing him secretly, they did not remove the threat. They just removed him.

Is there any other way they could have gone about doing this? Sure. I can think of several. They could have said that the plane had mechanical difficulties. They could have said that there was a health emergency. They could have said that something came up with the scheduling and they had to postpone. There are so many ways this could have been done properly, but the fact that they did not just shows you how the people surrounding him are just as incompetent as he is and how deluded they have become into thinking that Donald is literally the only person who matters, that no other human life has intrinsic value.

This is the thing we need to figure out. Why are so many people willing to overlook Donald’s utter lack of humanity and participate in it? They should know by now that it does not matter how loyal they are. I cannot think of two people more loyal to him than Karoline Leavitt and Stephen Miller, and yet he left them on the decoy plane.

It does not matter what you do for him, how you lie and cheat and steal for him. It does not matter how you debase yourselves for him because he does not care about anybody else unless somehow they are of use to him. And then that is another question worth asking. How is it that Walt Nauta, Dan Scavino, Natalie Harp, and Pete Hegseth are of use to Donald Trump, and yet his Secretary of State, Stephen Miller, Karoline Leavitt, and the Secretary of the Treasury are of no use to him whatsoever? Who with the tiniest bit of self respect can continue to work for this man who literally keeps trying to get people in his orbit murdered? If you do not believe me, just remember January 6th.

Subscribe now

Explaining the psychology of these people is getting harder to do because this is just the latest in a long line of things that have happened in the last few months that demonstrate just how weak, corrupt, and in decline Donald is. His flailing is becoming more obvious and his self aggrandizement more grandiose because he is desperate to assuage his pathetic little ego. Meanwhile, he is making it clear that, with the exception of that special handful of people I mentioned earlier, he cares nothing about the health, wellbeing, and safety of those closest to him.

I think the best way to understand, to the extent that we can understand, why these people are continually willing to debase themselves to Donald despite the fact that he does not care if they live or die, is that Donald is not good at many things, but he is very good at this. He is good at getting people to make micro concessions to him. Over time, as he and they become more comfortable with the concessions they make to him, the asks get bigger. We have seen this in a broader sense with the electorate as well. Donald has gotten people who continue to support him to accept things that would have been unacceptable earlier.

I am pretty sure we are going to get to the point where he is going to say, “Hey, in order to make America great again, you have to be willing to give up your Social Security.” Or, “Hey, in order to make America great again, we are going to have to put your children into reeducation camps.” And they will all basically say, “Okay, we will willingly do that for you.” This is something that happens slowly over time.

I recently spoke with a Yale professor and former FBI agent about the experiments at Yale University in the early 1960s that psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted. Participants were told by people wearing white lab coats to inflict shocks on other participants who were in other rooms. The point of the experiment was to see the role authority played in people’s willingness to override their own hesitance to inflict pain on other people.

When one of the subjects administering the shock showed hesitance because they could hear, even though they could not see, how the person they were shocking was responding, the person in the lab coat, the authority figure, told them they must continue for the sake of the experiment. More than 60 percent of the time, the subjects were willing to administer the highest level of shock because they were told to by an authority figure. The alleged victim was not actually being shocked, but the subjects did not know that. The Milgram experiment showed people’s relationship to authority and how problematic it could be. We are seeing this play out in real time, both at the societal level and, what we are more interested in right now, the interpersonal level between Donald and the people who continue willingly to choose to be in his orbit.

Share

How much are they willing to put up with? I would not be surprised at this point if they were willing to shock themselves to death if Donald told them to because, in their worldview, he is the ultimate authority and compared to him, they are nothing.

Whenever we see pushback, that is shocking, not in the electric shock sense, but in the, “Oh my God, somebody actually stood up to him,” sense, because it happens so rarely. We saw Jeanine Pirro recently willing to draw the line when Donald was pressing her to indict people falsely for having vandalized the reflecting pool, which, of course, did not happen. Pirro’s willingness to draw the line in the sand here was completely self interested because she did not want to get disbarred for bringing a fraudulent prosecution.

It is also important to remember that Donald was not angry with her because she did something wrong. He was angry with her because she would not break the law for him. When she said, “No, I cannot continue to do this unethical, potentially illegal thing,” she was in trouble. And she did not like being in trouble with Donald. So guess what? She is once again choosing to do his bidding, potentially putting her law license and her future at risk.

That keeps happening in different ways and in varying degrees with all of them. But here is what I would say to anybody still willing to put up with this, who is still willing to debase themselves, who is still willing to risk everything for a man who does not care if they live or die: You people are going to get punished. Donald never will. And your punishments are going to be severe.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Hi, I’m Mary Trump. My uncle Donald is President of the United States, unfortunately. More importantly, I’m also a writer, activist, and clinical psychologist, and I started Mary Trump Media to call out the damage Donald and his corrupt enablers continue to do to our country.

Donald would like Americans to believe everything is going extraordinarily well, particularly when it comes to the economy.

Donald: We’re doing an unbelievable job. Costs are coming way down. I inherited. They talk about costs. I inherited very, very high costs, and they’re all coming down now. The food, the groceries, it’s all coming down. We’ve done a great job. I think we should be given an A+ on the economy.

He did inherit. He inherited a ton of money, which is why Donald doesn’t understand what it means to struggle economically in this country. It’s why he doesn’t care about lying to the American people about the fact that prices are going way up, for which, yes, I would give him an A++. Congratulations. It is becoming unaffordable to live in America. And perhaps that’s partially because Donald doesn’t believe there is such a thing as affordability, and he certainly isn’t making it something that is possible.

For Capital One customers, Donald’s lies are probably a little difficult to swallow. On July 31, Capital One disclosed that it had closed more than 300 accounts associated with Donald’s businesses in 2021 after a months long review by its anti money laundering team. The bank says the accounts showed activity with characteristics associated with potential money laundering, something for which Donald has been known since the 1990s, when he was allegedly laundering the money of Russian oligarchs. Donald’s businesses are now suing Capital One, claiming the accounts were closed for political reasons because we know how much banks love to support Democrats. Capital One denies that, of course.

Here’s where it gets interesting. In January 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Capital One, accusing the bank of costing its savings customers more than $2 billion in interest. Capital One then donated $1 million to Donald’s inaugural committee. A month after Donald returned to office, his CFPB magically dropped the case against Capital One with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again. Now Donald has nominated Brian Johnson, a Capital One vice president, to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Share

Customers are fighting for their money without the backing of the CFPB. On July 23, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned Brian Johnson at his confirmation hearing.

This is what Senator Warren and Johnson said:

Warren: Mr. Johnson, do you still work for Capital One today?

Johnson: I do, Senator. I am here today in my personal capacity.

Warren: So you’re drawing a paycheck from Capital One right now as you sit here and testify in front of us?

Johnson: Senator, I’m testifying in my personal capacity today.

Warren: Okay. But they’re paying you to get confirmed for this job. I understand they’re also letting you keep a bonus that you haven’t yet earned when you leave. They must be really excited about getting you confirmed here. Congress did not create CFPB to aid and abet Trump’s corruption. You had a chance to take a different path, but all you’ve done today is indicate you’re there to keep the corruption machine humming.

Sounds about right. In January 2026, a federal judge gave preliminary approval to a $525 million private settlement involving Capital One savings customers. Warren has requested Capital One’s communications with the Trump regime concerning the CFPB’s decision to drop its case. Johnson has agreed to recuse himself from Capital One matters for two years if confirmed, and we know the extent to which we can count on promises coming from people working in the Trump regime. At his July confirmation hearing, Johnson would not commit to notifying Congress or the Inspector General if the White House contacted the CFPB about an enforcement matter involving one of Donald’s family businesses or major donors. That is what they call a tell.

Donald has also made building massive new AI data centers a cornerstone of his economic agenda. Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, and in March Donald acknowledged the problem when he brought seven major technology companies to the White House and announced his Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

This is what was said at the White House:

This is going to ensure American AI dominance in the years ahead while also ensuring that American ratepayers, ordinary Americans paying their electric bills, aren’t paying anything more. And along with the proclamation that you’re signing, each of the CEOs of industry representatives that we have present here will be signing an actual copy of the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, committing them to your vision for this industry going forward.

Donald responded:

Pretty good.

If you’re somebody who owns a data center, I’m sure it’s lovely. Ratepayer Protection Pledge sounds reassuring, but we’ve heard this kind of thing before. TrumpRx was supposed to solve high drug prices. Now the Ratepayer Protection Pledge is supposed to keep the AI boom from making your electric bills unaffordable. According to the latest federal data, electricity prices are still 4 percent higher than they were a year ago.

Subscribe now

While Americans are being sold a promise in the form of protection from the cost of AI, Donald and his regime are positioned to make money from it because that is the point of all of this, of installing cronies and naming legislation in an Orwellian fashion. It sounds like you’re trying to achieve something to help the American people, while really what you’re doing is adding to the costs of living in this country if you’re not obscenely wealthy.

DAMAC Properties, run by Donald’s longtime business partner Hussain Sajwani, plans to invest at least $20 billion in U.S. data centers. DAMAC previously partnered with the Trump Organization on two Dubai golf courses that paid Donald millions of dollars in licensing and management fees. Donald has suggested DAMAC could receive expedited reviews for its data center projects. I wonder why. I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he got paid millions of dollars to partner in projects with them.

Then, of course, there are the war profits. The seemingly forever war in Iran, remember that illegal, unconstitutional war of choice that Donald started and lost in one day, has completely disrupted global energy markets and helped send American gasoline prices through the roof. According to the latest federal data, gasoline costs 26.7 percent more than it did before the war started. Glencore reported that its energy trading profit had soared from just $40 million during the first half of last year to $2.66 billion this year. Phillips 66 reported that its quarterly profit had nearly quadrupled as the war boosted refining margins, and Aramco reported quarterly profit had risen 44 percent.

These statistics would be remarkable under any circumstances. But Donald spent years courting this industry and now he says they’re making too much money.

Donald: They’re making too much money. Okay. Based on a shortage, they’re making too much money. I don’t like it. And I should be the last one to say because I’m a big free enterprise guy. Nobody bigger. And you’re going to see oil when we’re finished with Iran, you’re going to see the prices drop through the floor. But they made too much money. Too much money. Chevron, too much money. ExxonMobil, too much, too much money. When you look at one company where they made 12 times what they made the year before, they ought to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price. Too much money. You surprised I’m saying it? I’ll say it loud and clear. I’m not happy about it.

It’s simply because he’s not getting a big enough cut. Let’s be real. For Donald Trump, there’s no such thing as too much money, unless, of course, you’re a working American who’s struggling. What we’re talking about here is price gouging. The price of oil is going up, our expenses are going up, and yet the oil companies’ profits are expanding. That makes no sense. It’s illegal and it should stop. If only somebody had the power to stop it. Maybe the guy saying they’re making too much money.

Share

During the 2024 campaign, just to give you some sense of how insincere Donald is being here, he asked oil executives to raise $1 billion for his campaign while promising policies favorable to their industry. Chevron donated $2 million to Donald’s inaugural committee. ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Occidental Petroleum each donated $1 million. Chevron reported roughly $12 billion in second quarter profit this year, while Exxon reported $14.5 billion. Chevron has since awarded employees a special bonus following its earnings surge.

On August 10, oil prices rose another 3 percent as uncertainty continued over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices are going up because of Donald’s actions. His buddies in the oil industry are profiting accordingly. All of the extra expenses are being handed down to the American consumer, and this is exactly as Donald would have it be.

Before the 2024 election, Donald promised that putting him back in office would make life more affordable, even though he now thinks the word affordability doesn’t exist and is a Democratic hoax. Consumers are fighting banks without the federal watchdog that was founded in order to help people fight the banks. The people and corporations with money, access, and connections to the Trump regime somehow keep finding opportunities to make even more money.

This economy isn’t working for working people because it wasn’t designed to. It was designed so people like Donald, his close inner circle, and the people with access to and influence over them can make as much money as they want. And remember, there is no such thing as too much unless it’s for the rest of us.

Subscribe now

[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

Mary Trump: I spoke with my friend, the awesome Katie Phang, host of The Katie Phang Show, about a lawsuit she filed against the DOJ and Todd Blanche over their egregious violations of the Epstein Transparency Act. And also, why is it that other countries are so much better at holding Epstein associates and co conspirators accountable? Enjoy.

Subscribe now

Mary Trump: I am here with the amazing, wonderful, fabulous Katie Phang, and things are going to get a little dark, kind of like the inside of a casino. So, Katie, you have been one of the few people who has kept focusing attention on the despicable coverup going on over at Donald Trump and Todd Blanche’s DOJ. Of course, I’m talking about the Epstein files. You filed a lawsuit, so I want you to fill us in on those developments. And I also want to talk about Blanche’s confirmation and the fact that he was voted out of committee for the full vote in front of the Senate, and recent developments with the, I think not alleged anymore, suicide of one of Epstein’s closest associates in France, Jean Luc Brunel.

I know you were just over in Paris, so you were right there when that happened, which is kind of fascinating. So, one, tell us a bit about the case and how it’s going because I know there were some recent developments.

Katie Phang: Yeah, recently, as in I just finished recording an episode for my YouTube channel. It’ll go up in about an hour. So, for those of you who are tuning in, it’ll go up around 1:30 Eastern. But I literally just got a filing from Todd Blanche where he admitted that he blew the deadline to respond to my complaint. I was like, how can somebody be that incompetent, even legally, and want to be the Attorney General of the United States of America? For me, that was just jaw dropping.

For those of you who aren’t in the legal field, the short of it is, when you sue somebody, the rules of procedure give a specific window of time by which you have to answer that complaint. You can either answer it by admitting and denying the allegations that have been made, or you can move to dismiss as another example of something to be done.

In this instance, the deadline was June 29th, and it’s August 6th. It was only after my lawyers emailed Blanche’s DOJ last week and said, “Are you ever going to plan on responding to this lawsuit?” And they were like, “What are you talking about?” And my lawyers were like, “Your answer was due on June 29th.” They were like, “Oh, no, no, no. Look, we don’t even have to answer you because we’ve been litigating this preliminary injunction thing.” And we’re like, “No, no, that’s dead too. That was entered in our favor on June 15th. What are you talking about?”

So there’s this back and forth, and it’s an attachment as an exhibit to our motion to compel him to answer my lawsuit. You’ll see that they end up getting progressively more concerned because they realize this is actually legitimate. So we filed this motion late yesterday, and within seconds they filed their own motion.

Their motion is outrageous because, in their motion, they say to the judge who entered the order granting my preliminary injunction, “Judge, you haven’t ruled on the preliminary injunction issue yet, and that’s what we’ve been litigating over the last few weeks. And by the way, yeah, we didn’t actually respond by the deadline, but it was unintentional and it really is excusable, and we’re sorry. And by the way, what we want you to do is stay, as in pause, all deadlines in Katie Phang’s lawsuit.”

Then they want to do something in Latin. The phrase is nunc pro tunc, which basically means in English, “We want you to turn back the hands of time to when the due date was, which was June 29th, and we want you to give us more time.” Under the law, the only way you can do that, Mary, is if there is excusable neglect by way of good cause, meaning it can’t just be my dog ate my homework.

It has to be good cause. When you don’t answer a complaint, everything is deemed to be admitted in the complaint and you get a default entered against you, which means you don’t have any defenses anymore to what is alleged in my lawsuit. So not only do they want to wind back the hands of time to the end of June, they then want the judge to give them an additional 60 days after he rules on the preliminary injunction.

You’ll hear it in my episode, but here’s a little preview. The gaslighting is just on the daily with these people, and they must either think that we’re stupid as lawyers or that we’re stupid as Americans. But we’re all paying attention to this lawsuit because this man wants to be the Attorney General of the United States.

In a case that is the only one dealing with the Epstein files right now, you would think he’d be paying attention to this, especially seeing how it really is a big point of contention for his nomination to be the Attorney General. And yet they’re fighting with us, claiming that they didn’t blow a deadline. Yet, when push came to shove, they filed a motion asking for forgiveness from the judge and then saying, “Judge, by the way, not only did we blow the deadline, but you need to go back in time, you need to give us more time, and you need to give us even more time.”

But really, Mary, it kind of speaks thematically to what we all know is the important thing here, which is it just feeds the monster of, what are you trying to hide? All you have to do is turn these files over to the American people, but do it the right way, which is the whole crux of my lawsuit.

Share

Katie Phang: Redact the names appropriately. Don’t let people self identify as victims that we know are co conspirators so that you can protect them and never investigate them. That has become a real concern of mine, that the reason why Todd Blanche can, with a straight face, tell members of Congress under oath, as well as Epstein survivors, that “I don’t have any evidence,” is when you let everybody self identify as a victim, the next thing you know is Ghislaine Maxwell is self identifying as a victim.

Then, as a law enforcement investigative agency, you say, “Sorry, Mary, don’t have anybody to investigate because everybody is a victim of Jeffrey Epstein,” which is why it was this absurdity of Jeffrey Epstein trafficked girls to himself. No, he trafficked them to other people. Well, look, what if they all come forward and say, “Well, I was duped. I was duped by Jeffrey, so I’m a victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s, and that’s the reason why.” It is an outrageous turning on its head of the definition of victim.

Again, I know that there’s some gray area about people who were recruited and groomed and brought into his trafficking ring, and they also recruited and groomed other children to come in. But I do want to caution people. I’m not outing people. I’m just saying we need to be incredibly careful about the way that we allow this process to be.

In the meantime, we’ve also seen him tell the New Mexico Attorney General, who was forced to sue yesterday, “We can’t give you anything because we’ll be outing the victims in this case, and so we can’t give you stuff.” But we know that he doesn’t care about the victims. He told them, “Hurry up, get to the point. I don’t have anything for you. Come back to me when you’ve got something. In the meantime, go to the FBI.” But we know that they have.

I can’t imagine being in the shoes of these survivors and getting gaslit like this. I cannot imagine how cruel it is for the acting top cop in our country to be treating people like this right now.

Mary Trump: Katie, there’s so much there. And just the broader point is that this all speaks to the culture of misogyny that has been fostered in the Trump regime. We see it with the egregious Max Miller, who’s running for a seat in Ohio, even though he has been credibly accused of domestic abuse and child abuse.

Katie Phang: And emotional abuse. That’s really important too. The emotional abuse is what I’ve been really reading out of a lot of these communications.

Mary Trump: And just the thuggishness with which he’s defending himself. And what does Donald say? Because he’s Donald’s guy, he says he feels bad for Max Miller. So the contemptuousness with which people like Donald and Todd Blanche treat women who are victims of real violence and all kinds of abuse, including emotional and psychological abuse, should be disqualifying.

And yet here we are. Todd Blanche just got one step closer to being Attorney General of the United States of America. And he has gotten to this point because he cares about the rule of law? No, because he’s willing to carry Donald’s water. He’s willing to cover up for a lot of powerful people, allegedly. And this is one of the things that has been so stunning. I mean, I shouldn’t be stunned by it, actually.

Katie Phang: I struggle with the same thing, Mary, every time. I’m like, why am I surprised? I feel like, though, it’s a glimmer of our humanity that we keep that part of our humanity alive, right?

Mary Trump: Yeah. We should be shocked that he got out of Judiciary with the votes of two lame duck senators whose careers have been ended by Donald Trump because he assured them on a completely worthless piece of paper that this $1.776 billion slush fund wasn’t going to be a thing, even though he’s still letting Donald and his useless children off the hook for all of the financial crimes and the tax fraud they’ve committed.

That should have been enough, but as if that is the only reason Todd Blanche should be disqualified, his handling of the Epstein files has been grotesque. And here’s the thing. You mentioned earlier that one of the things about the DOJ’s handling of this lawsuit is just the sheer incompetence and contempt for the process. Now, this started with Pam Bondi, and Todd Blanche has just continued. The DOJ has been gutted. The DOJ had some of the most impeccably credentialed and brilliant civil servants doing work for the American people.

Seventy five percent of those people are gone. They’ve been replaced with hacks, which is why judges are used to presiding over cases the DOJ brings expecting the greatest prosecutorial talent, and that doesn’t exist anymore. Here’s the thing, though. Todd Blanche was a prosecutor for the SDNY. That is the Sovereign District of New York. He knows what he’s doing. And Katie, I think that makes it worse.

Katie Phang: Well, this just supports my contention that I’ve been saying for years, which is the enablers are the ones that get it done. I mean, Donald has the capacity on his own to think of either inane, stupid ideas or truly grotesque, horrific ones. But just like a gun needs the ammo, absent the ammo, the gun doesn’t have lethality to it. Just like that, Donald needs the enablers to make these things happen.

Historically, as we know, with his search for his Roy Cohn, Donald has looked for enablers, especially lawyers, to make this happen for him. The lawyers, if he didn’t have them, would not have gotten him where he is with his businesses, with his presidency, with the other things that he’s doing. And so I look at Blanche as the most recent useful patsy in a long line of useful patsies.

But I always said that Blanche, versus a Bondi or others, always occupied a different space for Donald. One, because of his misogyny, he’s never going to look at Blanche and say that Alina Habba, parking lot lawyer extraordinaire, or even Lindsey Halligan, insurance lawyer, that either one of those particular female attorneys could even carry the briefcase for Todd Blanche.

In his mind, remember, the reason why I call him convicted felon Donald Trump over and over and over again is because he was convicted of 34 felonies of falsification of business records. That is a crime that is a reflection of a lack of honesty. It is fraud. And the people who were responsible as his legal team were Todd Blanche and Emil Bove. It’s fascinating because, yeah, he lost other civil litigation with Alina Habba at the helm, but the criminal case, the only one that ever went to a jury, was that one with Alvin Bragg.

So you would think, as a client, frankly, if you lost his criminal case, “I’m a convicted felon,” as he sits right now, I don’t care if he’s appealed it, you would think, maybe I don’t love how good of a job Blanche and Bove did. But that’s where the loyalty kicks in on the part of Blanche and Bove. Bove gets his federal appeals court appointment for life on the Third Circuit, and Todd Blanche gets what he’s always wanted, which is to be the Attorney General of the United States. Why? Because they’ve both shown that they’re not going to continue to abide by their own oaths of office and that they would much rather pledge loyalty to their dear cult leader.

As a lawyer, I’m particularly troubled by it because I feel like there’s so much more that could be done by the licensing organizations that give people like Blanche and Bove their licenses. Although at this point, Blanche doesn’t need a law license to do what he’s doing. But I do think that they really should be doing more.

There’s a reason why, behind the scenes, and it’s utterly unreported by mainstream legacy media, Pam Bondi, for example, started, before she got jettisoned, changing how the DOJ processes bar complaints and instituted a policy where the bar complaints are actually handled internally at the DOJ, and external bar associations cannot even deal with those lawyers and their licenses until the internal DOJ process is completed. And you and I both know that’ll take forever, right? Even then, there may not be any type of censure.

So they’re really smart. For the stupidity that I like to talk about, there’s a level of wiliness. There’s a level of cleverness that happens. And the reason why we all kind of get surprised by it, honestly, Mary, is because we don’t operate in that headspace. I don’t wake up thinking of ways to hurt Americans. That’s what most decent people don’t do. They don’t wake up thinking of ways to hurt their fellow Americans. This is a totally different group and caliber of people. They are cut from the same cloth, and that cloth is something that I wouldn’t even let my dog near.

That is the problem that we have right now, which is they’re doing that and that’s how they operate. But they are the great facilitators and enablers because Donald couldn’t do this if they weren’t there going to court, if they weren’t there pushing these laws, if they weren’t there pushing their underlings to do all this dirty work with them.

Mary Trump: Yeah, it’s such a good point. If anybody thinks that Donald has come up with all of the ways to grift money off of the American taxpayer, or all of these crypto scams, or ways to enrich his children, or ways to manipulate the legal system to his benefit, no, he’s an idiot. He needs people like Todd Blanche and Scott Bessent and all of those other horrible people with whom he’s surrounded himself.

I think it’s also important to remember that, yes, this is for the benefit of Donald Trump because these people know they would not have access to the power they so desperately crave if they didn’t continue to do Donald’s bidding. But the larger project is to completely remake the system so it benefits them in the long run, and the oligarchs and the fascists. And that’s when it gets, again, not surprising because the Republican Party has shown itself to be what it is.

It should shock us, though, to our core that Republicans are willing to put Todd Blanche, who so clearly has nothing but contempt for the rule of law and the American people, as the Attorney General of the United States. I mean, it’s really shocking. Before we continue, please take a second to like this video and subscribe to the channel. Also, leave a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going. Thanks for watching.

Where do you think this lawsuit of yours is heading? What might we expect? And how does it, I don’t know, sorry, I’m thinking about Brunel and people in other countries who’ve actually paid a price for even being remotely connected to Jeffrey Epstein. And here we are in America continuing to cover up, protect, enrich, and empower people who potentially participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. So I’m sorry, I know there’s a lot there, but I think the fact that you brought this lawsuit is so important, but it shouldn’t have been necessary.

Subscribe now

Katie Phang: No, it shouldn’t have been necessary. And we sit here today having this conversation on Substack, and it’s just another day that’s gone by that the law’s been violated. I mean, Todd Blanche is breaking a federal law every day. And the reason why it’s infuriating is the double standard. If you and I did that, we would be arrested, or we would be prosecuted, or we would be sued into oblivion.

So I feel like the permissive structure that’s been created to weaponize the judicial system and the legal system is obviously one we’ve seen where political opponents are now being victimized. And then we see, for example, the irony of ironies. Jeanine Pirro does the right thing by dropping the indictment against Olympic canoeist Davy Hearn and the misdemeanor complaints against three other people who never did anything wrong to the reflecting pool. And now she’s being excoriated by Trump and others in MAGA world for, ironically, doing the right thing.

She is certainly, like Tillis and Cornyn, not a profile in courage at all, but that’s kind of where we are. We’re now in this upside down world where somebody who does the right thing, especially in the legal world, gets punished by Trump, the DOJ, et cetera.

But when it comes to my lawsuit, I think what is another upside down world moment is shifting the burden to the victims to have to prove something that they never should have to prove. Having people either in the public or members of Congress saying, “Well, why don’t they just come and name names?” Having done, and continuing to do, a deeper dive on a daily basis into these worlds, it is not easy for any of them to come forward. Why? Because some of them have a Leon Black nondisclosure agreement that could punish them if they speak up.

Some of them have fears and threats of physical harm to themselves and to their family and their children if they speak up. But the reality is almost all of them have spoken up. And now the chilling effect that my friend and survivor Dani Bensky spoke of the other day has happened. You have them speaking up, you have them walking the halls of Congress, and then the next thing you know, Todd Blanche gets advanced out of Senate Judiciary, and neither Tillis nor Cornyn made the cornerstone of their objections the Epstein files. They made it the slush fund, and they made it the tax immunity deal.

Then Tillis himself got busted because he was supposed to meet with the survivors, and he has yet to meet with the survivors. So Tillis made Blanche meet with survivors. Blanche did the check the box performative moment, and then Tillis himself hasn’t even done it.

So what does that tell you, right? It tells you that the calculus for Tillis, Cornyn, and others isn’t, “Donald didn’t help me get reelected.” It’s, “I want to keep on making money when I leave Congress.” And part of that is staying in everybody’s good graces on the Republican side.

I’m so grateful that Senator Ron Wyden came out with his report two days ago because his report documented grotesque failures on the part of JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank to report suspicious activity on Jeffrey Epstein’s accounts until 2019. The guy is dead pretty much in 2019. That’s when they start reporting these things, even though they were required to do so. That was because the people who were in those positions of power were making so much money. And that’s also Todd Blanche, who will leave government one day and go and make a lot of money.

That is also Kathy Ruemmler, who I don’t care if she was in the Obama White House as counsel to Obama. She had the nerve to sit there and tell members of Congress, “Well, I didn’t really think it was that big of a deal,” or, “I had no idea. I got snowed by Jeffrey.” But no, if you really listen to what she said, she said Jeffrey Epstein brought Bill Gates to her table, and because of the Bill Gates relationship and the Rothschild relationship, she made so much money at Latham that that’s the reason why she kept that relationship.

It’s all about the money. So it’s not just big oil declaring record breaking profits in Q2 2026 because of this illegal war, and that’s also just ignoring climate change, which is going to mean my grandchildren are not going to have somewhere to probably live safely on this planet.

It is always profits over people, and it’s not just corporate profits over people. It’s also the individual decision that is made by a Kathy Ruemmler, who didn’t have to represent Epstein, who didn’t have to take on that case, who didn’t have to sit there and help him. She chose profits over people.

And that is happening now in Congress, where these, they call them lame duck, but they’re just lame, members of Congress are doing this personal calculus, which is always picking themselves and their bottom lines over the rest of us. Which is why I am baffled that it is not a layup decision to get rid of all of them and just get some new people into office in November, because it can’t get any worse unless maybe you keep them for another two more years. But it’s so human nature to me.

If you screw me over repeatedly, I’m not going to be your friend. I’m not going to support you. And I feel like this is such an easy decision to make, and yet I don’t understand the struggle. I just don’t get it at all. But listen, that’s the reason why we have some clarity when we speak here.

Mary Trump: Right. And I mean, part of the problem, of course, is establishment Democrats who seem to think that it’s still more important to be buddies with their Republican colleagues than to say, “No, draw the line. We will not work with you. You have made it clear that you don’t believe in the system, you exploit the system, you don’t care about your constituents, you don’t care about the Constitution, you’ve abdicated your constitutional responsibilities, et cetera, et cetera.”

So we need more people speaking truth to power because apparently this is a message that’s very hard to get out. But one thing we need more of is Katie Phang. Katie, the fact that you brought this lawsuit is incredible. I hope that it helps expose what’s going on at DOJ vis à vis Todd Blanche and his corrupt approach to this coverup. I hope it brings more attention to this issue that never should have been dropped out of the spotlight. And before I continue to sing your praises, please let everybody know where they can find you.

Katie Phang: Oh, that’s so sweet. Yeah, so I’m here on Substack. This is where you see me and Mary, and you can also find me on YouTube. My channel is called Katie Phang News. It’s a free subscription. I would love you all to subscribe and support the channel. It’s incredibly helpful, and you can see all of those episodes. All those episodes are also available as a podcast wherever you find your pods. So if you can’t watch it, you can listen to it.

It does get the E for explicit label, which makes me laugh because I don’t know what you’re talking about. What do you mean, explicit language from Katie Phang?

Mary Trump: Katie Phang.

Katie Phang: I know, with a PH. That’s your full name. E. Jean Carroll gets to trademark that one. Katie Phang. But look, you know what, Mary? What I always say, and I think stands true, is we have our own little mini community of our friends, but we also have a community here at Substack. And what I like about Substack especially is it’s not an echo chamber. I get some legitimate, I think, credible constructive criticism about stuff, either about the work I’m doing or the reporting I’m doing or what’s going on.

I mean, that’s what we do as friends. We’re not here to just pat each other on the back and give each other platitudes. I mean, that’s how we work towards building something. And I can tell you, I’ve also kind of gotten to the point too where I actually had this happen with Andy Beshear the other day.

There is this, I don’t know, it’s not just with Andy, but there’s kind of this celebrity thing that some members of Congress and politicians have going on, which really drives me nuts. It’s like, I don’t really know where this kind of celebrity energy came from or this deified kind of energy came from. But I like Andy Beshear, and I kind of don’t like what he’s doing with this whole Mitch McConnell situation. And so I put him through his paces.

It’s funny because somebody asked me afterwards, they were joking, “Well, he’s probably never going to have a conversation with you again.” And I was like, “Oh, well. What do you want me to do about that?”

Mary Trump: Because we’re not doing anybody any favors by agreeing with them all the time. Now, obviously there are some people with whom I do agree almost all the time, like you, Joyce, et cetera, because, I mean, for obvious reasons, because we’re right about it. No, I’m just kidding.

But we aren’t doing anybody any favors if we think they’re misguided or they’re on the wrong track and we don’t push back. It allows them to continue getting away with things that are potentially harmful in the long run. And just like we’re seeing with establishment Democrats going after progressives and democratic socialists when we’ve got fascists running the country. Come on, guys. Be real.

Katie Phang: Yeah, that’s been bothering me too. I mean, we should have a whole conversation about this some other time because this whole idea of labeling people as democratic socialists and then trying to use it as a reason not to support them, I’m worried that we’re going to have a repeat in November 2024.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And if we do, it will be because establishment Democrats aren’t looking in the mirror. The fact that voters are electing progressives and democratic socialists, I don’t think it’s ideological. I think it’s because these people who are winning elections are demonstrating that they’re willing to fight and they do understand what civil service is.

And it’s an opportunity, I think, for Democrats who are in office, who maybe are a little too comfortable, to start looking at themselves and say, “Maybe there are things we should be doing differently, and maybe we should support these candidates because, well, one, because we have to win. And two, because voters elected them. Voters want them to be in these offices.”

Share

Katie Phang: And that is the thing. It’s not the label, Mary. We should be paying attention to what are they offering voters that is resonating so well that the voters say, “We want that.” And what it does, though, is I think it really does shake the foundation of what D.C. is supposed to look like. D.C. is supposed to be a representative entity, or Congress is supposed to be a representative entity of the people. It’s been looking very one note as of late.

And so that’s why I feel like a lot of the people who are doing well as candidates come from different walks of life. And we don’t all agree because we haven’t had the same lived experience to get to where we are now. But your experience is remarkably different than mine, and I don’t understand why there’s not an opportunity for you and me to work together in a legislative body where you lean into your lived experience as I lean into mine, and then we collectively figure something out.

In my mind, isn’t that what Congress is supposed to be? I mean, isn’t that supposed to be truly a representative democracy? And so that’s why I feel like we should probably shed the labeling, especially because now we’re at this point where I think this is a no brainer. If you have a Republican who is not standing up for the people in any way, then I’m not sure why we have to have the infighting on the other side of the aisle. I think we elect the Democrat and then we figure it out.

And look, here’s the other thing. I think the one maybe refreshing thing is this has now become very apparent because I think people are really being honest about it and embracing it. This is not your lifetime job. You’re not going to park yourself there and retire there or Mitch McConnell there.

Because he’s now a verb, because I’m not quite sure, he’s in purgatory, not quite dead, not quite alive, this guy. So you’re not supposed to go to D.C. and Mitch McConnell there. You’re supposed to go to D.C., do your work, and move on. Let’s move on, people. They should only give you a parking space in D.C. that should have an expiration date like my milk or like my lettuce.

So let’s elect people who go and they do their job. And look, if they’re doing a good job, then obviously they continue to do a good job. But then I also think, thank you for your good work. Go do your good work somewhere else now. I don’t think you should hang out there any longer, even if you’re doing a great job. I think it’s time to move other people in.

And so, look, I have big ideas. Some of them are very lofty. Don’t come to me with the details because I haven’t really worked them out yet. But I do know I’m hardcore about November. So let’s make this happen, and let’s have these conversations in really good ways after we win in November.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And actually, I think we should have a conversation in the not too distant future because, as we get closer to the election, I think we need to shift towards talking not just about how bad things are and policy issues, which are important, but also about where we want to go, how we want to change things fundamentally, the kind of leaders we want, et cetera.

And I think we can do both instead of just getting mired in what’s going on on a day to day basis and getting kind of overwhelmed by the onslaught of horrors. Let’s start thinking constructively about what we want going forward. And as everybody watching should know by now, Katie Phang is one of those essential voices out there. Subscribe to her Substack, subscribe to her YouTube channel, listen to her podcast. I mean, seriously, subscriptions on YouTube really matter. It doesn’t cost anything, but it makes a huge difference to get those numbers up.

So let’s help Katie do that. And my Substack is The Good in Us. I also have a YouTube channel, also free to subscribe. And just really quickly, my wife Ronda and I just started a PAC about a month and a half ago. It’s amazing, Transcend PAC. And our goal is to elect the kind of leaders Katie and I have been talking about. So check that out as well. Just Google Mary Trump Transcend PAC and you’ll get there.

But Katie, keep doing what you’re doing. We’ll keep checking in. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody who’s joined us today. This is great, as always. Love you.

Katie Phang: Bye, everybody. Bye. Bye, Mary.

Mary Trump: The conversation continues in the comments, so let us know what you think.

Subscribe now

Katie Phang

Live with Katie Phang x Ellie Leonard: Those Unredacted Notes

Thank you Lev Parnas, Rye, Lawrence Winnerman, Amy Gabrielle, Caro Henry, and many others for tuning into my live video with Ellie Leonard! Join me for my next live video in the app…

Listen now

17 days ago · 1810 likes · 270 comments · Katie Phang and Ellie Leonard

Subscribe now

Welcome to this week’s episode of Trump Trolls Trump. It has now been 586 days since Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, and we’re taking a look back at week 84.

With the midterms getting closer, Mike Johnson wants us to understand just how high the stakes apparently are.

Mike Johnson: People like you understand the stakes are so high, right? This is for all the marbles. We cannot lose this midterm. I want you to imagine a nightmare scenario with these insurgent Marxist Democrats taking over the Congress. They would impeach the president on the first day. They’ve already said what they’re going to do. They’ll convert every committee of Congress into an investigative body. They’ll spend every waking hour investigating the president and his family and the cabinet and going on this lawfare exercise.

Hooray. And apparently I’m a Marxist now.

Does anybody remember the infamous photograph of George W. Bush standing beneath a “Mission Accomplished” banner during the Iraq War? Fun fact, the ship he was on was actually the USS Abraham Lincoln. Who would’ve thought that, decades later, that very same ship would be stuck on an extended deployment, days and weeks and months on end, in yet another Middle East conflict, yet another war of choice, in which service members would literally be jumping overboard? At the time, Bush was declaring major combat operations in Iraq were over, but of course they weren’t. Years would pass before we finally extricated ourselves from that nightmare. It seemed like another endless war.

Well, this week Donald posted an AI generated photo to his failing social media site, essentially demonstrating that he is both delusional and stupid.

Obviously, Donald is not a student of history because “Mission Accomplished” is not a phrase most Americans recall fondly. Unless, of course, Donald, who, although not a student of history, is obviously a student of the English language, thinks that “Mission Accomplished” is a synonym for endless failure. Good job, little guy.

Donald also posted a chart rating himself against other presidents. In this chart, he is the greatest president who ever lived, despite the fact that time after time, surveys of American historians put him dead last. What’s also disturbing is that he rates Obama, Biden, and Carter as the worst presidents. Shocking, right? But among the great ones, in addition to Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin Roosevelt, he has Andrew Jackson listed as a great American president, the guy who helped commit genocide against the Native American population. Donald has very bad taste, obviously, but he cannot help himself.

Share

Speaking of which, beef prices, along with just about everything else in this country, are skyrocketing. Donald has a short term solution, and it’s perfect because it’s not really a solution and it’s going to hurt Americans. It’s a twofer. He’s going to import cheaper beef. Should we be surprised that American cattle ranchers absolutely hate this idea because it’s going to undercut their sales?

Here’s another slight problem. Although in our post FDA era, who cares? We have no idea where this beef is coming from, which also means we have no idea if it’s safe to eat. It’s mystery meat.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins: There’s a lot of ground beef that’s sitting in other countries that would potentially help serve Americans, especially lower income Americans who really lean into the lean ground beef. There has never been a higher demand for beef and protein than there is today, the new dietary guidelines. So again, that very short term effort to get some of that ground beef that’s sitting out there in the world into America.

When Donald was asked which countries would be sending the beef, this is what he said:

I don’t want to say which countries, but there are a few countries, but they’re going to be sending in the highest quality beef and it’s something that we need.

When Rollins was asked the same question, this is what she said:

I will be very transparent and that is over at US Trade Rep. I am actually not part of any of those conversations, so I am not sure what that looks like. I think we’ll know very soon.

Why would the Secretary of Agriculture and infamous backyard chicken lady be involved in those kinds of discussions? Clearly, she doesn’t know that one of the countries bringing beef into our country is Argentina, and perhaps she also doesn’t know that her department has recalled 30,000 pounds of Argentinian beef because it entered our country without the appropriate inspections and is considered high risk. But here’s hoping the American people get ground beef that probably, like our produce, is going to kill them.

Which brings me, tragically, to Donald’s unerring ability to make bad things worse. I’m talking, of course, about his insane, ill advised, unprovoked, and self defeating trade war with Canada, one of our oldest, strongest allies and our second biggest trading partner. Why is it getting worse? Because instead of confronting the problem head on, instead of trying to renegotiate the deal and hammer it out like a mature, sane person, Donald decided to rename Lake Ontario.

Donald: So this is Lake Ontario in Canada and in the United States, but we’re going to make a little change. We’re going to call it something different than Lake Ontario. We’re going to call it Lake America, and all it takes is a good pen and some intelligence. So Lake Ontario, that’s gone. Lake America. So now we have a lake and now we have a Gulf because we have the Gulf of America and now we have Lake America without the of. Thank you very much everybody. Enjoy Lake America.

He called the whole White House press corps into the Oval Office to make this stupid announcement and sign an executive order changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s still Lake Ontario. It’s still the Gulf of Mexico. Let’s be clear.

Subscribe now

Donald actually said that he thinks we need an ocean, too, whether it’s going to be the Atlantic or the Pacific. I think it was a couple of weeks ago when we learned that Donald wants to etch his name into the Kennedy Center and then the plaza outside of the Kennedy Center is going to be named after him. Let’s just cut to the chase and name everything after Donald Trump or put Donald Trump’s name on everything. So we’re just going to do the same thing with America. Like, the sky of America. The clouds of the United States. The Gulf Stream of Freedom.

We’ve heard a few suggestions Canada could use on their maps, although quite frankly, Canada and sane people everywhere are perfectly fine having it continue to be called Lake Ontario. There is no preposition there. It is not Lake of anything. So here are some of those suggestions: Lake Release the Epstein Files, Lake Obama, Lake Tariffs Are Taxes, Lake Joe Biden Won the 2020 Election, Lake Affordability, and Lake Donald Trump Is a Toddler. The last one’s not very catchy, but I think it sums up our problem. We’ll workshop it.

At this point, you can call these things whatever you want because apparently anybody can rename anything, even though that’s not a thing. The only people who refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and the only people who are going to refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America are the insipid sycophants in Donald’s inner circle. Canada is still going to call Lake Ontario Lake Ontario, as will sane people everywhere, and the rest of the planet is still going to call the Atlantic Ocean the Atlantic Ocean no matter how many times Donald scribbles his name on maps with Sharpies.

At this point, I think it’s worth pointing out, even though it isn’t funny, that our country is currently being run by a bunch of insecure, tiny little men who have very, very severe psychopathologies.

The midterms are getting closer, unbelievably enough. Election Day is 66 days away, so let’s take a quick look at some of the messaging we’re hearing from Republican candidates just two months out from Election Day.

First up is South Carolina Republican Senate candidate Darlene Nordone. Her answer to Democratic policies, including government run healthcare, comes from her own childhood.

Darlene Nordone: Government run healthcare, abortion until the moment of birth, bad idea after bad idea, Annie Andrews backs them all. I have a different background and vision for our state. I’m a hard worker with a servant’s heart. I grew up in the back of a bar and liquor store in one room in central South Carolina. My parents worked long, hard hours to make ends meet. We didn’t take vacations. If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work because if the doors weren’t open, we weren’t making money. My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father just over a year later.

Let me get this straight. The Republican answer to Medicare for all is work long hours so you never have to see your kids, work while you’re sick so you get other people sick. And then die. I love it. I think that is the Republican version of the American dream now. And, obviously, orphan the kids that you never wanted to see.

Share

Then there’s Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, another completely in the tank for Donald candidate. He launched an attack that I think is supposed to be aimed at his opponent, Abdul El Sayed, but could just as easily be aimed at somebody else.

Mike Rogers: What a con man he is. He says one thing and now he’s trying to say something else exactly like a con man. I was an FBI agent. I went after drug dealers and human traffickers and swindlers. I know a con man when I see one.

Me too. I’m pretty sure you’ve guessed by now that the person he should be and could be referring to is Donald.

And then there’s the governor’s race in Florida. What’s the message? If you guessed we have to repair roads so women can get to the hairdresser, well, get a cookie. Here’s GOP candidate Byron Donalds explaining it all to us.

Byron Donalds: By the way, the longer it takes for us to build out roads, the more damage it actually does to the quality of life here in Florida, because everybody gets frustrated when it just takes longer to get from point A to point B. And looking at the ladies in the room this afternoon, we want to make sure that you continue to have your hair looking good so you can get to the beauty salon as quick as you can.

Misogyny aside, the infantilization, the contempt with which he drips. Why does your hair need to look good before you go to the beauty salon? Just asking.

But how are voters feeling? More specifically, how are Donald’s voters feeling? One woman, who voted for him three times, described what life looks like for her now.

This is what she said:

It’s all hard. To be honest, I know this is going to go out in public and it’s kind of embarrassing, but at 44, I just moved back in with my mom. I have a college degree. I have a really good job, but rent prices are going up, gas prices are going up.

When asked if she was disappointed in Donald, she said she was very disappointed because prices haven’t gone down. She said she was over the Trump thing, the Trump wagon, whatever you want to call it.

Another mother described having to decide whether she had enough money to put gas in her car or buy eggs and milk for her child, and whether she could even afford the gas required to drive to work so she could make money.

A three time Trump voter was then asked whether he regretted his vote. He said yes. He would go back and rethink some things. And when asked what he would tell Donald directly about the war, prices, and the economy, he answer was simple. Stop it.

Damn you, Joe Biden. My God.

Actually, none of that is funny. People are really suffering because of Donald and the Trump regime. Behind all of the absurdity, the AI generated “Mission Accomplished” pictures, the mystery meat, Lake America, the imaginary Marxists, the misogyny, and Republican candidates accidentally describing Donald when they think they’re attacking Democrats, there are real people who cannot afford rent, gas, eggs, or milk.

So let’s have the last laugh, shall we? Election Day is 66 days away. Let’s vote every single one of these criminal insurrectionist traitors out of office.

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Trump Trolls Trump. And remember always, mockery is our superpower, and we will use it to hold these grifters and thieves to account. Their incompetence will not save them. It just gives us more reasons to mock them.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

For over a decade now, American media has done everything in its power to normalize the words coming out of Donald’s mouth. One of the ways in which they’ve done this is through the process known as sanewashing, which is to take his incomprehensible, insane, unhinged, immature, prepubescent rants and sanitize them, selectively quoting from them so that sense can be made of the senseless. All of this, of course, benefits Donald by making him seem less insane and more measured than he actually is.

He recently went on a couple of rants on his failing social media site about Canada and trade with the United States. So buckle up.

Donald: Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years. Their ridiculously high tariffs on our farmers and farm products has made life impossible for these great American patriots and has long created a $60 billion deficit between our two countries, not sustainable and not anymore. On January 1st, 2027, tariffs on all cars, trucks, both large and small, automotive parts and steel will be increased to 50%. Build in the US, there are zero tariffs. Canada will be treated like a state no longer on trade and in other ways. Also, they’re among the worst nations in the world to deal with. They feel entitled and yet we don’t need Canada. They need us. They do 95% of their business with the US. For us, the exact opposite. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

A couple of things. Oh no, should we spoil this with facts? My word. Yeah, we’re going to.

Not long after that, he continued.

Lots of bluster from Doug Ford, who is the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, but who is better known as the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late great Rob Ford. America has been carrying Canada for decades, but no longer. The USA will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada. Without the United States, Canada couldn’t survive. It’s where they get all of their money and because of their current bad leadership, primarily Governor Carney and his flunky Ford, they will not be allowed to keep taking advantage of the United States. Their key to survival. Remember, much of the electricity, oil and gas that Canada gets is transported through the USA. Someone should get these clowns to fall in line or the consequences for Canada will be far worse.

Canada’s unemployment rate is now at 10% and rapidly rising. Their businesses are fleeing for the United States and it’s all because of their failed policies and inept leadership. The days of ripping off our farmers and other businesses are over. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

What in the world is going on there?

Let’s break it down.

Where to start? As always, in a lot of these posts, there are just lies and then there’s a lot of projection. Let’s start with some of the lies. Over a hundred countries run trade deficits with the United States of America. Canada is maybe tenth on the list and, again, our second largest trading partner, so that tracks. The other thing is that America actually needs a lot of goods that come from Canada, including aluminum and lumber. So these tariffs are going to make many essential goods in the United States much, much, much, much more expensive.

And did we really think that Canada was going to take this lying down? President Carney is not going to take the bait. He doesn’t care if the prepubescent child who is Donald Trump calls him Governor Carney, as if Canada were not a sovereign nation but instead the 51st state of the United States. However, he’s not going to let America impose tariffs on Canadian goods and not retaliate with tariffs of his own.

The difference is this, though. Canada knows that they will suffer more economically in the short term, but in the long term, the United States is going to end up paying the price. Donald knows that tariffs raise prices on Americans. He’s finally figuring that out, and that’s why he’s starting to import foreign beef to get prices down, because his tariffs are one of the reasons that beef prices have gone up.

So he’s not going to have these tariffs go into effect until January 2027, which is, yes, after the midterms. Canada is not going to show such restraint. They’re imposing their tariffs on September 8th, the day after Labor Day, when Americans actually start paying attention again. So this is all going to backfire spectacularly on a man who continues not to understand how tariffs work.

Share

Also, I think it tells us everything we need to know about Donald when he compares Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, unfavorably to his brother, whom clearly Donald prefers.

Why is this all happening anyway? Because the guy with no impulse control and megalomania, which often comes in the form of a God complex, decided, when negotiations were this close to being settled, to force Canada to give up French language protections and give the United States control over who they traded with.

In other words, in order to get a trade deal, Donald wanted to weaken Canadian sovereignty.

Canada walked away, as they should have, because that is insane. This is just another example of the degree to which Donald is flailing because he knows what a weak, pathetic little man the world now sees him as. Nobody needs to capitulate to this loser anymore.

So he keeps trying to impose himself in situations in which his adversary, in this case one of our oldest, closest allies, is more than willing to walk away because, unlike Donald, Canadians have self respect and, unlike him, they are willing to fight for their rights even from a position of weakness.

That is what gets lost when Donald’s words are sane washed. If you take a sentence here and a sentence there and turn what he says into something resembling a coherent trade policy, you obscure what is actually happening. These aren’t the words of somebody laying out a measured argument about the economic relationship between two sovereign nations. Donald is calling the prime minister of Canada a governor. He’s talking about Canada as if it were a state. He’s threatening one of our oldest allies with economic consequences if its leaders don’t “fall in line.”

That is what he said. We should not pretend he said something else.

For more than a decade, we have watched people take Donald’s words and try to make them mean something more coherent, more sophisticated, and more defensible than what actually came out of his mouth. But sometimes the most important thing we can do is simply listen to him.

When Donald says Canada needs to “fall in line,” that is what he means. When he calls President Carney “Governor Carney,” that is deliberate. When he says Canada will be “treated like a state,” we shouldn’t rush in behind him and construct a more reasonable interpretation of what he might have meant. And when negotiations are close to being settled and Donald suddenly demands that Canada give up French language protections and allow the United States to control who it trades with, we should recognize that for what it is. He wanted to weaken Canadian sovereignty, and Canada walked away.

The result is that Americans and Canadians are now going to pay the price for Donald’s megalomania and inability to control his impulses. Canada knows it will suffer more economically in the short term. The United States will suffer, too. Americans are going to pay higher prices for essential goods because Donald still does not understand how tariffs work, even as he begins to understand enough to know that he would rather delay his own tariffs until after the midterms.

This is not going to end well for anybody because both Canadians and Americans will suffer with higher prices for God knows how long. And none of it needed to happen. We are here because Donald cannot tolerate being told no, because he cannot accept that Canada is a sovereign nation with its own interests, its own rights, and its own government, and because one of our oldest, closest allies finally decided it did not need to capitulate to him.

So, Canada, just remember there are a lot of us here who have your backs and who are on your side. Normally I say elbows up, but I think we’re way past that.

It’s gloves off.

Subscribe now

[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

Mary Trump: I was on with Jim Acosta not long ago, and Jim and I discussed just how worried we should be about the kinds of stunts the Republicans, led by Donald, are going to pull in the midterms by sending ICE to polling places, and what Democratic governors can do to combat that. And we covered a whole lot of other territory. Jim is amazing, so I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Subscribe now

Jim Acosta: Mary, it’s great to see you, as always.

Mary Trump: Jim, it’s great to be here. I love hanging out with you. And yeah, a thing or two happening on this day.

Jim Acosta: A thing or two happening, no question about it. I mean, the election stuff, and I want to get into Natalie Harp and the way he’s been losing it lately, the Kennedy Center, and so on. But this election stuff, I really am concerned because we’ve already been through this. This idea that, the way it’s covered in legacy media, as if this is something that may occur or it’s something that he’s threatening to do or warning he may do. He’s doing it. He’s doing it. And I think everybody’s being too cautious in saying it. What’s been your observation of this? How worried are you about these upcoming midterms?

Mary Trump: I’ve been worried about Donald’s willingness to cheat and steal elections since 2016 because he’s so deluded himself into believing that he deserves to win that he’s perfectly comfortable cheating in order to do so. And as we know, the only way this guy ever does win is by cheating. So we should all be concerned.

As you said, it’s not like this is new. The writing has been on the wall for a very long time, and especially since 2020 with the Big Lie and the insurrection. How much more evidence do we need that Donald Trump is capable of doing whatever it takes in order to stay in power?

And the thing about the mail in voting that’s particularly concerning is because it affects all elections. Now, gerrymandering, partisan gerrymandering, racist gerrymandering, those are all very bad things, but they can affect statewide or federal elections. Mail in voting can, and it’s just an indication that Donald knows that without this assist, this fraudulent assist, his party will lose, and that is not going to end well for him. So, of course, he’s going to pull out all the stops, and of course, the corrupt, illegitimate Supreme Court is going to help him.

Jim Acosta: Yeah, I mean, that’s the scary thing about it. I also have a problem with our judicial system and the way the judges and the Supreme Court have been behaving. I mean, this judge today lifted an order that had blocked the administration from carrying out these efforts. This is what The New York Times reported:

The Postal Service can for now move ahead with plans to restrict mail in voting ahead of the midterm elections in November after a federal judge lifted an order that had blocked it from carrying out Trump administration efforts.

The judge wrote that she felt compelled to act in response to a ruling from the Supreme Court on Monday that the action by the courts was premature. Under the plan, the Postal Service would not deliver mail ballots in states that do not share voter data with the agency and would deliver only ballots that meet certain criteria.

And just this week, Mary, the Supreme Court basically lied about Trump’s intentions. They lifted this lower court stay of the executive order on the mail in ballot stuff, and it begins with a lie. The ruling from the Supreme Court begins with a lie. It says:

About five months ago, President Trump issued an executive order designed to maintain public confidence in federal elections.

That’s not true. It says he issued an executive order regarding election integrity. He doesn’t care about election integrity. He cares about elections being tilted in his favor.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And apparently the aforementioned corrupt, illegitimate supermajority only cares about that too. Clearly, these people don’t care about the Constitution. Donald’s never read it. It is in the Constitution that elections are run by states. The federal government has no role here. And just to make it as simple as possible, Donald votes by mail.

The hypocrisy and the willingness of the Roberts Court to bend over backwards to give Donald an assist is bordering on the grotesque at this point.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. I was asking the other day, who’s the biggest superfan of Donald Trump? Is it Natalie Harp or is it Chief Justice John Roberts? I mean, they’re both in serious competition with one another.

Mary Trump: Roberts has done much more to help out Donald Trump than Natalie Harp has.

Jim Acosta: Yeah, there’s no question about it. And I mean, there’s example after example. Again, not to harp on this, hello, using ICE as a weapon against voting. There’s a Republican nominee for governor in Maine who told supporters he plans to ask Homeland Security to send ICE to polling places in Maine before the midterms. The Washington Post has a story today. Trump is threatening to arrest election officials. I mean, it goes on and on and on. This is what I want people to understand. It’s happening right now. It’s already started.

Mary Trump: Absolutely. And it would be malpractice for governors in blue states, or Democratic governors, not to be taking this seriously and not to have a plan in place. I mean, the good news is that Democratic AGs meet regularly to make sure that they do whatever they can to protect their state’s elections, so that should make us all feel better.

But I think that governors, who have a massive amount of power, and we forget that sometimes, states are sovereign, and Democratic governors could make sure that they counter any ICE presence with the National Guard, for example, just to make sure that there is no violence and there is no voter intimidation, which is exactly what will happen if ICE is allowed to show up to polling places in Democratic cities unchallenged.

Share

Jim Acosta: Yeah. No, and states have state police forces. I mean, I think that you could just have a couple of squad cars in certain locations and just say, “Hey, you’re keeping an eye on us. We’re keeping an eye on you.”

I mentioned Natalie Harp. Let’s talk about this because, Mary, you and I haven’t had a chance to speak in a while. We’ve seen Donald go through this over the years where he collects these aides who get super clingy with him. Natalie Harp seems to have blown all of them out of the water in her clinginess.

And I mean, just over the weekend, they had this big race here in Washington where they spent a whole bunch of money and I guess not a lot of people turned out, but Melania turned out. The First Lady showed up out of nowhere, and we haven’t seen her in a while. We have some video of this. She looked really angry with Trump. I’m sure you saw this. She did not look happy, and I guess maybe she was not happy that she had to make an appearance as part of her deal with Donald there. But what do you make of this whole Natalie Harp fiasco? We haven’t had a chance to talk about it.

Mary Trump: Well, I mean, obviously Melania only shows up if she’s handsomely paid, and that’s probably where most of the money went to get her there. But I think the Natalie Harp situation is of a piece with Donald’s general decline. It makes him look like such a pathetic, frail, needy old man that he has to have a woman young enough to be his granddaughter constantly with him, protecting him, making sure that he sees positive press clippings about him, positive articles, most of which are probably fictional. It’s a very bad look for him.

And it also shows you that probably, in the not too distant past, somebody like that would have been too much even for him. But because he’s in so much trouble, and he is really lashing out and is really desperate to change the narrative, and his ego is being threatened at every turn, he needs somebody constantly filling his head with compliments and positive messages. And she fits the bill, I have to say that.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. And this is more than what we’ve witnessed in the past, it seems, what she’s doing.

Mary Trump: Yeah. It’s extreme. It’s over the top. And again, it looks terrible. I personally don’t care what the contours of their relationship are. I really don’t care. Clearly, she’s somebody who needs help, though.

What I do care about, besides, again, the fact that it’s just another example of how far gone he is, is that she presents a very real national security threat to the United States of America, all because the president is a flailing, failing old man whose ego is fragile. That’s the most alarming thing about it to me.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. And I mean, there are signs of decline all over. The way he’s lashing out about the Kennedy Center. Now they’re threatening to demolish the Kennedy Center if they don’t put his name back up there. He’s lashing out at the Canadians. It sort of reminds me of Grandpa Simpson shaking his fist at the moon or the clouds or whatever it was.

And he’s got these Truth Social posts that he’s going to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” and nobody’s going to go along with that. Sort of like when your crazy uncle makes stupid racist jokes at the Thanksgiving dinner table and everybody just does one of these things, “Oh, geez, can’t wait for this dinner to be over so we can all go home.” He’s acting like that guy.

Mary Trump: Well, yes. Well aware.

Jim Acosta: Yeah, I’m sorry. And I mentioned uncle.

Mary Trump: That was my whole family at Thanksgiving, actually. But it’s getting worse, obviously. And he is. He is that guy shaking his fist at the clouds, but really what he’s shaking his fist at is reality because he has completely lost control of this narrative, and people are beginning to see that there’s no need to capitulate to this profoundly weak person.

There is no reason to go along with his rantings and his ravings because not only do they make him look bad, they make his supporters and enablers look bad. So you know that you’ve lost the plot when cattle ranchers have turned against you.

Jim Acosta: Right. Yeah, no, it’s so true. I mean, everybody is mad at him right now. Forty seven states and the District of Columbia. Apparently, he’s underwater in all of those places.

Mary Trump: If you enjoy this kind of content, please drop us a like and subscribe to the channel, and don’t forget to leave a comment below. Your support really does make a difference. Thanks.

Jim Acosta: One of the features of Donald Trump, Mary, and this is not really age relative, is the way he will throw people under the bus. And there was a Truth Social post where he reposted somebody saying that the GOP doesn’t understand how badly they’re messing things up. “I don’t think the GOP fully grasps how badly they’re messing up right now.” Trump put that on his Truth Social.

Subscribe now

Mary Trump: Well, that’s a way to message it right ahead of the midterms. Hey, thank you, Donald. That’s actually really helpful. And what’s interesting is, what’s the rationale for thinking that? Because the truth of the matter is, the ways in which the Republicans are messing up is by continuing to be completely, 100 percent behind him every step of the way, even though he got rid of two incumbents who easily would have won reelection, and he installed Darlene Nordon, who is likely to lose against a far superior Democratic candidate, Annie Andrews, in South Carolina. Wow. So that’s the way in which they’re messing up, not by doing anything that he could objectively object to.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. Darlene, she doesn’t know about national security. She doesn’t know anything about it. She admitted that during a debate. Okay, good luck with that. But the funny thing about Trump throwing the entire Republican Party under the bus is that, I mean, he is the one that is largely, I mean, he is 100 percent responsible for where we are as a country right now.

He put up a Truth Social post declaring “Mission Accomplished” with Iran. I mean, this is also the detachment from reality thing. He’s making fun of Bush for the “Mission Accomplished” thing. Mission not accomplished. And this says “Mission Accomplished 2026” with Iran. Nobody thinks it’s mission accomplished. Zero people think that.

Mary Trump: No. Well, we’re still at war. So, yeah, and tell that to the sailors of the USS Lincoln.

Jim Acosta: Yeah.

Mary Trump: Yeah, it’s an interesting strategy, but I think this is also part of what will eventually be his undoing. Now, strongmen, people like Donald who’ve always gotten their way and who have successfully used the strategy of humiliation to co opt people and gain power over them, can only do that if they still are in control. And I think he’s just used to that.

And to be fair, Republicans have let him get away with it. They stay in line even though he humiliates them all the time. Even people like JD Vance. It’s one of his favorite hobbies that he learned from my grandfather. But as his grasp of reality and his grasp on power weaken, they’re not going to sit still for it anymore. I mean, we’re seeing this with our allies. We’re seeing this with universities who aren’t caving in and bending the knee automatically anymore. So I think we’re going to see a steady stream of Republicans also starting to push back.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. And Fred Trump, he enjoyed a good humiliation ritual. Was that a thing?

Mary Trump: Next to money, my grandfather’s favorite thing was humiliating people who were weaker and less powerful than he was.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. And the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree in that regard, it seems.

Mary Trump: Yeah. This one did not.

Jim Acosta: This one did not. The other thing that, Mary, we should talk about too is, and I don’t know, I should have asked you what your thoughts were ahead of time on this. We’ll just do it. The way he has been picking on the trans community, the way he has been picking on trans kids. I’m old enough to remember when Donald Trump used to try to appeal to the LGBTQ community as a Republican, even though we knew he wasn’t a Republican way back then.

And the way these days he just totally picks on vulnerable people in the trans community, to me, it’s one of the more disgusting things that I’ve seen take place during the second administration. It’s not covered enough because I don’t think our legacy media, national media, I was doing a Google search, they don’t know how to cover it. And I guess he was at this event, what was it, yesterday in the Rose Garden? His hair looked super weird, by the way. I don’t know what you, maybe we can talk about it. His hair looks so weird, but he was talking about this.

This is what Donald Trump said:

The students proficient in reading and math. That was under the last administration. Under the Trump administration, we’re systematically ending every single one of these radical left betrayals, and we’re putting the parents back in charge. They’re the ones that love our children. They’re the ones that should be in charge. So immediately upon taking office, I signed an executive order to ban critical race theory and to ban transgender ideology from public schools. That was a big deal. We banned men from playing in women’s sports. That was so easy to do. I don’t get it.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. I mean, some of this stuff is gross. I don’t want to play it too long, but it’s almost like his favorite campaign thing now that he talks about. Your thoughts on this?

Share

Mary Trump: Well, unfortunately, this stuff works. Republicans are very good at crafting these kinds of vile, divisive messages, and they almost always do target the most vulnerable among us. We just need to look at how they’ve treated and talked about immigrants.

Now, here’s the thing. I agree with you that Donald is largely responsible for many of the horrors that we’re living through, but he couldn’t have done it without his enablers in Congress and on the Supreme Court and throughout the judiciary. This is not his idea. He didn’t come up with this stuff. Somebody else did, and it works, it tracks. And shame on anybody who actually believes this vile nonsense.

Trans people make up less than one percent of the population in the United States of America. Imagine what tiny percentage of those are children who want to play sports with their friends. So they are endangering the lives, the physical and mental well being of children, all to get people’s votes by instilling completely unreasonable fear in their base.

And it is so horrifying to witness this and watch it not be covered at all, or when it is covered, not covered properly, not to make it clear to people just what a nonissue this always was. Trans people have always existed. This is not new. So this was never an issue before. And then to have the President of the United States make up the most insane lies about schools giving people gender surgery, it’s maddening that anybody in their right mind would believe it and that it’s been allowed to take root. And I don’t know, it’s shameful.

[Subscribe note]

Jim Acosta: It is shameful. And you know what? You make a great point, Mary, in that this did not originate in his head. And the way he stupidly lies about it kind of makes that point because it’s so stupid and it’s so outlandish and it’s so exaggerated beyond the pale that it’s laughable how dumb it is. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so horribly tragic.

And there are so many people in the very culturally conservative MAGA community who should be holding their heads in shame over this because they’re the ones who put those talking points in his head. There’s no question about it. And you know they must sit around one of the tables at the White House and gin up how they can rake the trans community over the coals and rake vulnerable communities over the coals for political gain. And it’s disgusting.

Mary Trump: It is.

Jim Acosta: He uses them. He uses them, by the way.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And they use him, I guess. Because I think that the deal with the devil has been, as long as Donald has power and as long as he’s able to steal as much money from the American people as he wants and grift as much as he wants, the Nazis like Stephen Miller can come up with whatever cruel policies they want and Donald will sign off on them.

I think that’s pretty much where we are. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about other human beings. He doesn’t care what the impact of these horrible policies might be. He doesn’t care. So as long as he gets what he wants, and that is truly what we’re dealing with right now, it’s like the entirety of the United States government right now is in service to protecting his ego and to making him and his useless children rich, while the other people in his inner circle inflict such extraordinary damage to our country and the people in it.

Jim Acosta: Yeah, it is astounding. When I saw Jared Kushner meeting with Hakeem Jeffries the other day, I mean, I was like, “Wait a minute, what is going on here?” It is astounding how the kids have resurfaced in this White House. Remember when Jared and Ivanka, they ran off into hiding and they secluded themselves and they didn’t want to go in front of the cameras and they wouldn’t go to New York anymore?

And now Jared Kushner’s brother’s buying the Lakers, and Melania and Jared want to buy an island, and Jared’s meeting with Hakeem. It’s kind of sickening to see that come back too, I will say. And Donnie and Eric making all that money in a ridiculously corrupt way. It’s all corrupt.

Mary Trump: And Barron. And Barron. What 19 year old doesn’t have the business savvy to make $200 million in a year? Yeah, it’s disgusting. It’s despicable. And again, it wouldn’t be happening if we had a functioning government, which we clearly don’t.

It is not a good thing to have Jared Kushner or any of Donald’s useless children involved in anything. And what Jeffries did is inexplicable to me. Jared is not a member of this government. He doesn’t have a job in this government, and he’s one of the people who needs to be held accountable. So basically what Jeffries is signaling here is that when and if the Democrats regain power, people like Jared Kushner are going to have a say in how we work things out. No.

It’s mind boggling to me that you would do anything to legitimize or normalize or empower somebody as vile and traitorous as Jared Kushner.

Jim Acosta: Yeah. But it is happening, and I think Hakeem Jeffries maybe touched the hot stove and he learned his lesson, and we’ll see. We’ll see how that plays out. But when you bring up the kids, it’s extraordinary because I remember watching Don and Eric and Ivanka. They were all crying at that farewell ceremony to Donald Trump when he left office in disgrace the first time around.

I was there at Joint Base Andrews, and the way they’ve all come back and just made a fortune, to me, books could be written on that. It’s totally insane.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And it’s all been allowed to happen by other people.

Jim Acosta: No question. Chiefly, the Republicans in Congress who won’t investigate it at all. Mary, great to see you. Thank you so much for coming on, and wonderful to catch up.

Mary Trump: Thanks, Jim. This is always great.

Jim Acosta: Yeah, thanks, Mary.

Mary Trump: Please leave a comment in the section below, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Donald rushed the White House press corps into the Oval Office saying he had a big announcement, which is that, effective immediately, he is going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

One of his flunkies, when asked, “Do you have anything to say about it, Ben?” said, “Yes, sir,” before explaining that this was a straightforward but important executive order. It directs Secretary Burgum and the Department of the Interior to update the Geographic Names Information System to reflect that the lake once known as Lake Ontario will from this time forward be known as Lake America. According to him, this is a lake that has most of its volume in the United States and the deepest parts of the lake sit in United States territory, so this will reflect that this is an American lake. Thankfully, all of the necessary papers and documents were filed to make this official.

In case you were thinking, “Oh, well, okay, maybe he’s finally done renaming bodies of water,” you would be wrong.

This is what Donald said:

The lake change, Lake of America, was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, actually. As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico. We changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America. So if you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean. So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.

That’s the President of the United States of America who currently has us involved in an illegal, unconstitutional war of choice, who is currently engaged in an unprovoked trade war with our closest ally and second largest trading partner, which will wreak havoc on both the economies of Canada and the United States of America, creating even more hardship for Americans given the fact that the economy, thanks to Donald’s completely stupid economic policies and the aforementioned war of choice, is in shambles.

American farmers are going bankrupt by the score, up to 77 per day. America is divided. America’s reputation across the world is cratering. America is a shadow of its once relatively respectable self, all because of that man and the fascist Republican Party that continues to enable him.

And it’s not because they don’t know what’s going on. They can see clearly that he is in serious, serious cognitive decline. There is overwhelming evidence of this.

Share

They see clearly his toddler like levels of self involvement, his delusions of godhood, and his grasping need for attention. They see that his only priority is his wealth, his power, his megalomania, and yet Republicans continue to go along with his demands, which are increasingly insane, detached from reality, and utterly humiliating.

It’s not an accident, or maybe it is an accident, but it’s a convenient one, that by renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, the acronym for the Great Lakes, Superior, Huron, America, Michigan, and Erie, is now SHAME.

And I have begun to wonder if America will ever, ever be able to get out from under the weight of the shame Donald Trump and the Republicans have heaped upon us.

It is clear to any sentient being who isn’t lying to him or herself that Donald is increasingly unfit, increasingly just a prisoner to his psychopathologies. And now so too are we because not only has there been no pushback, he continues to be enabled. He continues to be told that he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to, because he’s him.

As you may have heard, Donald had wanted to close the Kennedy Center for two years because it needed such extensive renovations, according to him. Howard Lutnick is claiming that Donald is the only person in the world great enough to renovate the Kennedy Center. He also said that when the renovation project started, Donald, the great master builder, should be the project manager because being President is just another part time job.

Subscribe now

We’ve also learned recently that Donald wants to make the midterms about himself. So here’s what holier than thou, sick of it Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had to say about it.

This is what Mike Johnson said:

The president is going to look right into the camera and say, I am on the ballot, okay? Because even though his name isn’t, it’s his administration, his legacy.

No, that isn’t how any of this works.

By continuing to enable him, by continuing to spread the wild, unhinged, untethered from reality narratives, Donald is trapped with it. They continue to act as if it is normal for a president at war to spend his time giving tours of the White House construction projects, to spend millions of dollars renovating a reflecting pool and then arresting people because the job was done so incompetently it made him look bad.

This is the President of the United States spending his time changing the names of bodies of water. First the Gulf of Mexico becomes the Gulf of America. Now Lake Ontario becomes Lake America. And apparently, having secured a gulf and a lake, Donald is considering moving on to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans because, as he explained, “Now all we need is an ocean.”

This is happening while America is at war. It is happening while farmers are going bankrupt. It is happening while we are engaged in a trade war with Canada. It is happening while the economy is in shambles and America’s reputation around the world continues to crater.

Yet the people surrounding Donald continue to treat his increasingly bizarre demands as if they are perfectly normal acts of presidential leadership. Nobody apparently has the courage to tell him that changing the name of Lake Ontario is not an important presidential accomplishment, just as nobody seems willing to tell him that being President of the United States is not a part time job that leaves plenty of room for managing the renovation of the Kennedy Center.

Instead, they flatter him. They indulge him. They tell him that he is the only person in the world capable of doing things that have absolutely nothing to do with the job the American people elected him to perform.

Share

As long as we have people like Mike Johnson and everybody else in Donald’s inner circle trying to normalize this deviance, we are all part of this psychopathological system that will lead inevitably to our destruction.

To which I say, is there not one sane adult who knows where this is going to lead? Is there not one person in the Trump regime who can send up the signal flare to the rest of us that some of them are willing to start speaking out against this insanity?

Because this isn’t simply about renaming Lake Ontario. It isn’t simply about whether Donald decides tomorrow that the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean needs to have America stamped across its name, too. It is about the fact that there seems to be nobody around him willing to say no. There is nobody willing to stop indulging his grasping need for attention, his delusions of godhood, his megalomania, and his increasingly insane demands.

The Republican Party sees what the rest of us see. They know what is happening. They see the same behavior. They hear the same words. They watch him make the same increasingly detached demands, and rather than push back, they continue enabling him. They continue pretending that this is normal because Donald is Donald and therefore, apparently, he gets to do whatever he wants whenever he wants.

And that is how we get here. We have a President of the United States involved in an illegal and unconstitutional war of choice, an unprovoked trade war with one of our closest allies, and an economy that is creating extraordinary hardship for Americans, while he summons the White House press corps to announce that Lake Ontario is now Lake America.

And everybody around him plays along.

Donald said that now that America has a gulf and a lake, all we need is an ocean. Maybe he’ll change the Atlantic. Maybe he’ll change the Pacific. Maybe he’ll change both.

Meanwhile, the Great Lakes are now, conveniently enough, Superior, Huron, America, Michigan, and Erie.

SHAME.

That may be the most appropriate thing Donald has named yet.

This is unsustainable. He is unsustainable. And the sooner somebody is willing to stand up against the depredations that continue to be made against the American people by Donald and those who are perpetuating this, the better.

Subscribe now

[ Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

Mary Trump: I sat down with the amazing and brilliant Thom Hartmann, and we discussed just how bad things could get under Donald Trump’s leadership and the extent to which Donald is beholden to and potentially advancing Vladimir Putin’s interests. Enjoy.

Subscribe now

Thom Hartmann: Mary, welcome back to the program. It’s so nice to have you again.

Mary Trump: It’s always wonderful to be with you, Thom, even under the circumstances.

Thom Hartmann: Indeed. I was talking a little earlier about my concern that Natalie Harp is playing kind of the role of Rasputin or Hitler’s courtiers, giving Donald what he wants to hear rather than what he needs to hear. And this latest polling is really in the crapper for him. You know him really, really well, plus you have the insights that come with having a PhD in clinical psychology and having been in practice. How desperate do you think he might be? We can talk about that in the context of the elections or anything else here. What might he do out of that desperation?

Mary Trump: It is really, really all going south for him, and we’re seeing increasingly that he’s flailing. He’s desperate because, as much as he’s surrounded by the most sycophantic sycophants like Natalie Harp and Stephen Miller, well, all of them at this point, we don’t have to single anybody out. Although, of course, Natalie Harp has more access than anybody, which, as you point out, is deeply troubling.

So he is, in some regards, being protected from the worst information there is out there. But it’s so bad that even he, who has spent his entire life protecting his fragile ego from the truth of the fact that he’s a loser and an incompetent, knows that he’s losing control of the narrative. He’s trying to change the subject and trying to regain the upper hand by using his unfathomable power against those countries and individuals weaker than he is. Again, he’s trying to protect himself from what we have to say at this point are mistakes of his own making. Every bad thing that’s happening to him right now is down to him.

Thom Hartmann: There’s been a lot of speculation about things he might do. Apparently, there has been a discussion in the White House about using a tactical nuclear weapon against Iran. He has cut off Ukraine from any kind of weaponry that might protect them from Putin. Where is that going to go?

Then, of course, we’ve got this whole thing where he’s trying to rig the election. Do you think that we might hit a point where Donald Trump simply says, “Okay, that’s it. Democracy’s over. I’m declaring a state of emergency. This is the end of it?”

Mary Trump: Thom, I think it’s really interesting that we are finally at the point that some of us were warning about back in 2020. There is nothing Donald won’t do to protect himself. It’s funny, when we did have those conversations six very long years ago, we were often met with incredulity.

I said, “Listen, if Donald thinks he’s going down, he’ll take everybody with us.” And people would laugh and say, “You cannot possibly be serious.” Here we are, where we have to have this conversation on a much broader scale because he is not just signaling. He is telling us what he’ll do.

I think the simplest way to understand Donald at this point is to understand that there’s no such thing as worst. He will always get worse. He will always do the next worst thing, whether that is a tactical nuclear weapon in Iran, abandoning our ally Ukraine, which quite frankly he did a long time ago, or using the power of the presidency to declare martial law and cancel an election he knows his party is going to lose.

Subscribe now

Thom Hartmann: An old friend of mine, Armin Lehmann, was a dear friend of mine back in the ’80s. We traveled around the world for a couple of years together. We were working at that time, and it’s a whole long story, but Armin was the sixteen year old Hitler Youth who delivered the news to Hitler that the war was lost.

He wrote a book about it, in fact, that’s still in print, called In Hitler’s Bunker. Armin told me that when Hitler learned that basically the war was lost, he ordered the German army to bomb Germany, to kill his own people, because he felt that they had failed him, not that he had failed Germany.

Is there enough of a correspondence between Hitler’s psychological profile and Trump’s that we might see a day when Trump actually joins with his dear friend Vladimir Putin, who appears, every two weeks since he became president, to have at least a one hour phone conversation with him, and turns against America?

Mary Trump: I think you can argue that that happened a long time ago. Almost every domestic and national security move Donald has made benefits Putin. I don’t want to say Russia because, as you point out, Putin doesn’t care about the Russian people any more than Donald cares about the American people.

Donald is, I think, the equivalent of doing what Hitler did, which was start to destroy infrastructure. He is bankrupting our farmers. He is making it impossible for Americans to afford basic necessities like gas and food. He is destroying our alliances. He is engaging in the kinds of toxic masculinity that are designed to unravel the fabric of an evolved society.

Every single thing this man does is to the detriment of the American people. It’s to the detriment of American democracy and to the benefit of countries that used to be our most dangerous enemies, like Russia and North Korea. So, yes, I think he’s well on his way to committing to the kind of project Hitler aspired to.

Thom Hartmann: Wow. That’s worse than I had considered, but it makes perfect sense. I’ve been speculating for years that Trump was either afraid of or in the pocket of Putin specifically, or the KGB and the FSB more broadly, for those very reasons that you just outlined.

Mary Trump: Before we continue, please take a second to like this video and subscribe to the channel. Also, leave a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going. Thanks for watching.

Thom Hartmann: How do we best respond to this, both as a country and individually, and how do we discuss this with our friends and neighbors who may not be paying careful attention to the news?

Share

Mary Trump: Well, I’ll answer the second part first, to the extent I can, because that is a very difficult question. I think the truth of the matter is that, in certain parts of the country, only friends and neighbors and family can have the kinds of discussions that need to be had. I know that it feels risky. I know a lot of people have lost family and friends because of Donald Trump’s involvement in politics, which is sort of an ancillary knock on effect of putting somebody as divisive as he is in power.

I think we need to make it less about policy and more about who we are and who we want to be. Instead of saying to people, “Listen, he’s doing all these horrible things and you’re supporting it,” we need to start putting the ball in their court and asking questions. “Is it okay with you that this government is killing American citizens in American streets? Is it okay that they are making it impossible for people to feed their families?” There’s a whole long list of questions that can be asked. Ask the ones that resonate the most with the person you’re trying to have that conversation with.

As to the other part, what can we as a country do? The most obvious, basic thing is that we need to make sure that in November, the American people make it as clear as it can possibly be that this regime is unacceptable. We reject the kinds of fascism and corruption and anti democratic hostilities this regime represents. We reject all of these things entirely and wholesale, and we will put into power the kinds of people who understand what’s going on, how important accountability is, and that the United States of America has to expend much of its efforts going forward strengthening our alliances and, quite frankly, making up for all of the horrific things the Trump regime and the Republican Party have been allowed to do to our country and to our allies.

Thom Hartmann: Yeah, we really need to be having that conversation in that context. By the way, in a little less than a minute and a half, I’m going to hit a hard break that I can’t stop here, so this is time to keep it tight. I’m curious about your thoughts on John Roberts, Sam Alito, and Clarence Thomas going along with Trump’s mail in voting purge because they’re terrified their own corruption will be exposed. Sheldon Whitehouse came on this program and said, “I want to drag them in front of Congress.” I’m curious if you have any thoughts on that.

Mary Trump: John Roberts has so much to answer for, starting with Citizens United. This corrupt, illegitimate supermajority of the Supreme Court needs to be held in front of Congress. Alito, Thomas, and Roberts all need to be impeached, as far as I’m concerned.

Thom Hartmann: Yeah, and there’s a growing sentiment to that effect, so we’ll see how all this plays out. My sense of it, and I’d love to get your thoughts, is that we’re on the cusp of either a great progressive revival or turning into a total fascist country. What are your thoughts?

Mary Trump: Those are the options right now, and I tell people whenever I can that it is often in the darkest moments in our history that we are able to make the most fundamental change for the better. So let’s look at it that way. Let’s pick the first option, please. The only way we do that is to get these corrupt fascists out of power.

[Subscribe note]

Thom Hartmann: That’s true, and it happens about every eighty years. The American Revolution, and eighty years later, the Civil War. Eighty years after that, the Republican Great Depression, and now we’re eighty years out from the end of World War II. It’s like history is trying to tap us on the shoulder or something. I don’t get it.

Mary Trump, the brilliant Mary Trump. Mary, thanks so much for dropping by. It’s always great talking with you, and I always learn something. Thank you.

Mary Trump: The conversation continues in the comments, so let us know what you think.

Subscribe now

The Thom Hartmann Radio & TV Program

The Thom Hartmann Program (8/26/2026)

In today’s program…

Listen now

16 days ago · 45 likes · Thom Hartmann

Mary Trump: I spoke with friend and fellow Nerd Avenger Waj Ali, proprietor of the Substack The Left Hook, about Hakeem Jeffries’ bizarre meeting with Jared Kushner. Now, is there any way to explain this meeting that makes sense, and was it justifiable? It won’t surprise you to learn Waj and I have thoughts. Enjoy.

Subscribe now

Note: We’ve heard from many of you that the comments appear to be locked. Our comments are always open to everyone. We’re looking into the issue and working to get it resolved.

Mary Trump: We’re talking about Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ decision to meet with the vile, corrupt criminal Jared Kushner, who, Waj, last I checked, has no formal role and is not a part of the United States government. His entire job, it’s not even a job, he’s been tasked, I guess, with destroying American alliances around the world while continuing to enrich himself by taking in billions of dollars from countries like Saudi Arabia, for example. So I want to talk about why Jeffries thought that was a good idea, and then why he needed to make it worse by justifying it and then trying to change the subject.

First, I want to start with this comment by J.B. Pritzker, whom I actually like, the governor of Illinois. This is what he wrote:

Pritzker: I also met with Leader Jeffries this week. First, are you acquainting yourself with Jared Kushner? Mr. Governor, we both know we have to do all we can to hold every part of the Trump cartel accountable. Jared Kushner clearly requested a meeting so he could leak. He had one, and I don’t think Democrats should be divided by MAGA tricks.

Well, here’s something, Waj. If that’s the case, then why did Jeffries fall for a MAGA trick?

Wajahat Ali: It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. And in this club, there are a few donors and a few powerful, wealthy people who represent destructive industries, and they give money to both sides of the table. Hakeem Jeffries did an old, ossified trick from the playbook that used to work in this town. They call it the town, D.C. I scratch your back, you scratch my back. I help you, you help me. Let’s make a deal. Chuck Schumer used to do that, right? Joe Biden, back in the day, used to do that. Let’s have brandy. Let’s make a deal. We’ll go to the golf club. This is how the town works. So Jared Kushner, as you mentioned, has no official role.

Jared Kushner initially failed his security clearance. The only reason he got a security clearance is because a supervisor said, give him a security clearance. Jared Kushner was said to have been compromised. Also, I’m going to bring this receipt because no one talks about it. Do you recall a couple of months ago, The Wall Street Journal did an article that said Tulsi Gabbard intercepted a national security report that said a person close to the Trump family was potentially compromised? That person was Jared Kushner, right? No one talks about it. And instead of actually having national security do an investigation, Tulsi Gabbard took it to Susie Wiles, and they kept it apparently in this treasure chest and buried it in the Bermuda Triangle.

So here’s Jared Kushner meeting with Hakeem Jeffries. Now, some people have said, Mary, well, Mamdani met with Donald Trump. Mamdani is the mayor of New York. Donald Trump is president. He met with him publicly, and we know, as a result of meeting with him publicly, he got a detained student free. Remember that? ICE lied, went into her dorm, picked her up, and then he fluffed him, and he had those fake New York Post articles, and Donald Trump took a photo. This is a situation where Hakeem Jeffries meets with him in private. There’s one mysterious person that hooks it up. It gets leaked. It gets leaked to Maggie Haberman.

Now, another receipt. Maggie Haberman’s mom was part of a firm that represented the Kushners. So Maggie Haberman has an inside with the Kushner family. My take is that Kushner leaked it to Maggie Haberman that Hakeem Jeffries met with him. That makes Democrats look weak. And even if Jared Kushner was like, “Well, come on now, we know you’re going to get in power. Why are you making deals?” Hakeem Jeffries should have met him and said, “We’re going to get power. Once we do, we’re going to investigate, we’re going to do hearings, we’re going to do subpoenas, and I’m going to make sure you’re in jail.” There’s a lot more to say, but that is what I would’ve done.

And in the past week, in the final receipts I’ll give you, is this what Hakeem Jeffries has done? He’s gone on television to mock Medicare for all. He’s gone on television to mock Democratic Socialists. He has met with Jared Kushner without giving an explicit explanation. He has gone out of his way, even today, to repeat talking points against Hasan Piker, amplifying that story and attacking anyone to the left. And specifically, you heard Abdul say it: “Please tell me, with leaders like these, who needs MAGA?”

Mary Trump: Yeah, Waj, perfectly laid out and explained, as always. A couple of things. Mohammed bin Salman, the man responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, has said that he’s got Jared Kushner in his back pocket. The only person I can think of who is more corrupt and corrupted than Kushner is his father in law. He comes by it honestly. His father is a despicable human and felon who is now ambassador to France because that’s the way it works in this world.

Share

So Jeffries must have known almost immediately that the backlash was intense. I’m not going to suggest that he would admit he made a mistake, but he needed to do some damage control. So he came out with a very long video, like a three minute long video, explaining why meeting with Kushner was such an awesome thing. Also, Jeffries seems not to understand how optics work. I know it shouldn’t matter, but he looks like he’s not ready for primetime. He’s wearing a green screen green T-shirt and a baseball cap that’s two sizes too big for him. Never wear green screen green. Just ask Donald Trump, who waved a green screen green flag and somebody changed it into an image of a flag with him and Jeffrey Epstein on it. So, rookie mistake.

But his justification for this meeting was bordering on the nonsensical because, in posting it, he wrote, “No one from the Trump cartel is getting a pass.” Well, you just set a meeting. You are the most powerful Democrat in this country. You set a meeting with a man who should have no power, who should have no bargaining chips, who should have no say in anything. I don’t think anybody in the Trump regime should be allowed to speak after the Democrats win in November, if they win. They should be shut out of all discussions about how we fix the messes they’ve made and how we get ourselves out of the horrors they inflicted upon us. Nobody should have a say, certainly not somebody who is as unqualified and unofficial as Jared Kushner.

Is he including Kushner as being a member of the cartel? Clearly, he doesn’t seem to think Kushner is part of the cartel, otherwise he wouldn’t be meeting him. Meeting with him normalizes him. It empowers him. Also, pro tip, live your life so that you never have a mutual friend in common with Jared Kushner. I mean, that’s a trick and a half. I don’t know how that works.

The other thing is that it seems to me that the reason Kushner wanted the meeting, besides putting one over on Jeffries, was to make it. He knows that there’s a very good chance Democrats are going to win. He wants to insert himself in that, and guess what? That’s what Hakeem Jeffries allowed him to do. Hakeem Jeffries essentially said, “Yeah, we’re going to work with you guys. You fascists, you traitors, you anti American, anti constitutional grifters who have helped bankrupt our country, who have destroyed our alliances, all to enrich yourselves. Yes, we are going to give you a seat at the table.” Am I misreading this? Because that’s what I think, and it makes my head explode.

Wajahat Ali: No. Three things. I’ve been saying for several years, and I know Democrats don’t like hearing this, Hakeem Jeffries is not built for this fight or made for this moment. Neither is Chuck Schumer. Now you trust the evidence of your eyes. Just look at the past week, and you tell me this is the best that Democrats can do. If this is the best that Democrats can do for leadership, the Democratic Party should be destroyed, or it should be replaced with someone else, or it should be culled.

The fact that they’re rallying around Hakeem Jeffries is just because of internal politics, folks, New York politics. But I said, I agree with Mamdani and AOC a lot. They rallied for Jeffries because the bat signal went out. I said I disagree with you. The people will be loud, and we have to be loud. And I guarantee you, the louder you are, he’s not going to be Speaker. Neither is Schumer going to be the leader. We have to be loud because he has failed time and time and time and time and time again.

And folks, again, at 10:00 AM today, attack Donald Trump over the fact that, I don’t know, it’s a failed and unwinnable war. JPMorgan said we’re going to have a food shortage in 2027. The fact that his approval rating is at 32. Natalie Harp. The fact that he backed Randy Fine. The fact that he ate dinner with a Nazi, Nick Fuentes. He goes out and again weaponizes Hasan Piker to attack who? Abdul El Sayed, right? He’s doubling down on this.

Now, I know the second thing people might not like hearing this. I’m going to say it. Hakeem Jeffries still takes money from AIPAC, even after AIPAC has taken right wing, pro Trump billionaire money against Democrats. When I asked Hakeem Jeffries this, he goes, “I will continue to take money from who I want to take money from.” He continues to take corporate money. He rails against Medicare for All, which has 90 percent approval rating with the base. He refuses to pivot away from AIPAC, AI, crypto money. He attacks Democratic Socialists instead of giving the answer that Van Hollen did. He says, “Hey, they’re part of the big tent. Let’s go attack Donald Trump.”

He is completely bought out. Who also is completely bought out by Saudi money, Qatari money, UAE money, Israeli money, has real estate deals in the illegal West Bank occupied settlements? Jared Kushner. So they get paid by the same group, folks. I want you to see. At the same time, he does not care. They look at the same polls that Mary and I look at, and they still don’t care.

Subscribe now

He’s come out today and said, “Yes, pro Israel donors, I know you want me to attack Hasan Piker, even though no one cares about Hasan Piker. I don’t care if you like him or not. Let me weaponize him and use him as a battering ram against who, Mary?” Abdul El Sayed, right? You are helping the Republicans. If I was them, I would say Hasan Piker says stupid things, but you know who says even worse things? Charlie Kirk, who you made into a prophet. Hasan Piker says some dumb things, but you know who says even crazier things, who’s an elected official? Randy Fine. Another thing I forgot.

Mary Trump: No kidding.

Wajahat Ali: Guess what he did last week? Hakeem Jeffries defended Randy Fine.

Mary Trump: Who was an...

Wajahat Ali: Islamophobe. Did you see that tweet?

Mary Trump: I did not.

Wajahat Ali: Yes. He’s like, “Oh, this is terrible.” Yeah, like Randy Fine, these death threats, blah, blah, blah. So what you’re seeing is a completely compromised corporate Democrat who is perfectly fine playing by the old school rules.

And the final thing I’ll say is something I’ve said, and people have been really upset at me. They’re like, “Waj, don’t wish that evil into the world.” I’ve been saying, Mary, the way this town works, they all fail up. If you’re part of the town, you fail up. Why? I know I might be in a scandal one day. I’ll help you out. When I’m in a scandal, you’ll help me out. They’ll all fail up.

And I said this, I don’t know if I shared this with you, but a week and a half ago, Glenn Kirschner had his annual national justice meeting. Really powerhouse people, Katie Phang and others were there. I moderated a panel, and then afterward I met Ty Cobb, that old Trump White House counsel. It was interesting.

Mary Trump: The mustache.

Wajahat Ali: The mustache. The mustache entered first, then he did. But anyway, he came up to me and said some nice things. He goes, “That was a really good job moderating.” I was talking to Olivia Troye, who said hi to me, and I talked about the fact that I think people need to be prepared. None of these people are going to go to jail. None of these people are going to be held accountable.

And Ty Cobb said, “I think you’re right because some of the polling shows, and this is the polling that Democrats are probably going to rely upon, that people want healing. People want to move forward. People want to do away with the discord and the fissures.” And so Democrats are going to say, “Now is the time to move forward. Let bygones be bygones. The past is past.” And this, Mary, was an example of that.

Mary Trump: Okay. Well, we need to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn’t happen, because if that happens, we’ll be right back here in four years.

Wajahat Ali: That’s exactly it.

Mary Trump: Or worse. If you enjoy this kind of content, please drop us a like and subscribe to the channel, and don’t forget to leave a comment below. Your support really does make a difference. Thanks.

I had high hopes for Hakeem Jeffries. He has been an utter disappointment.

Wajahat Ali: I never did.

Mary Trump: I did because I was trying to be hopeful. I was trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I didn’t know enough about him. And I think sometimes people, when they’re given leadership positions, they step up. He has not. He has been not just a disappointment. He’s been, as you said, he’s undermining Democrats, and it’s kind of mystifying to me.

As last I checked, El Sayed, and it shouldn’t matter, by the way, but he’s not a Democratic Socialist. He’s just a progressive guy. You said it. Who cares about Hasan Piker? Why are Democrats talking about El Sayed in the same breath with Hasan Piker? One guy’s running for Senate. One guy is on TikTok a lot. I mean, seriously, I know more about Hasan Piker now than I did a week ago because I didn’t care. I didn’t listen to him. I don’t follow him. I know very little. The only thing I kind of knew about him, he seemed kind of misogynistic, but I don’t know because I don’t listen to him. He’s irrelevant to me.

Mary Trump: And you said it’s a Streisand effect. Now all this attention is getting focused on Piker, and more and more people are going to make the association between El Sayed and this other scary brown guy. And it’s just like, are you kidding me? Is this the best use of our time and resources? We are fighting fascism, but no.

Subscribe now

Wajahat Ali: And Mary, he said it again today. Hakeem Jeffries, four hours ago on Wolf Blitzer, came on and said, “I will continue to speak out against Hasan Piker.” Why?

The reason why he’s doing it is because if you can attack Hasan Piker, it deflects from the failed leadership and scandal of you meeting Jared Kushner. So he’s doubling down, and now you had a vote blue no matter who Democrat, Representative Scholten. You know what she said? Representative Scholten, “I’m not going to support or vote for Abdul El Sayed because of Hasan Piker.” And then you sit there and go, “How much money was spent against Abdul El Sayed? Sixty three million dollars.”

And then you see Chuck Schumer last week. I don’t know if I talked to you about this, Mary. I said, “Watch this space. They’re going to do everything to crush Abdul. They’ll lose Michigan, won’t they? Just to crush anyone who wants Medicare for All.” And Abdul El Sayed, folks, is a capitalist. He’s not a Democratic Socialist. He’s a progressive capitalist who’s been vetted. He was the deputy health commissioner of Wayne County.

Chuck Schumer last week, and this is why Chuck Schumer also, reason number 842 he should not be leader, he literally did a quote in The Washington Post saying, “There are other ways to get the Senate. I mean, it would be nice to win Michigan.”

Mary Trump: Yeah, I saw that. I mean, these people are inexcusable right now. Pretty much all you need to know, you don’t need to know anything about Hasan Piker. Don’t listen to him. I don’t care. Although Hakeem Jeffries is probably making him rich right now, so well done, and amplifying his message.

El Sayed, again, whatever his connection to Hasan Piker is, is irrelevant, quite frankly.

Wajahat Ali: He campaigned with him once. And Hasan Piker campaigned with Summer Lee and Bernie Sanders. And the Democrats, this is very important, Mary, because I’ve been keeping a receipt and I predicted this for anyone who’s watching Left Hook. Hasan Piker did a campaign stop with Summer Lee, with Bernie Sanders, even AOC. Democrats didn’t say anything.

Mallory McMorrow, when she was in the race, waited for the one time that Abdul El Sayed, a brown Muslim guy, was to do a campaign stop with Hasan Piker, a brown Muslim guy, and then Mallory McMorrow’s campaign pounced on it. Streisand effect. Made it into a thing. Mallory McMorrow then equated Abdul El Sayed and Hasan Piker with a terrorist attack on a synagogue. You guys see this? It’s very unsubtle.

Then it was the Democrats. We have to keep receipts. It’s the Democrats who made Hasan Piker into a thing to punch to their left, as you mentioned, Streisand effect. Now he’s blown up. Then the right wing ran with Hasan Piker after the Democrats made him into a thing, and now they’re doubling down and weaponizing Hasan Piker against who? Abdul El Sayed and anyone to the left. And now Hakeem Jeffries is doing it to protect himself.

Mary Trump: Himself and change the subject.

Wajahat Ali: Of meeting with Kushner.

Mary Trump: Because all these powerful men are incapable of admitting their mistakes. I mean, talk about taking a page out of Donald’s playbook. And I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to talk about TikTok anymore. I don’t care. El Sayed is not a fascist. His opponent is. It’s that simple.

And look, I don’t believe in vote blue no matter who. I really don’t. However, all hands on deck here, and there is no Democrat running for office in 2026 who is within light years of the hideousness of the Republican they’re running against. So please, let’s focus. And with so called leaders like Jeffries and Schumer, we are in big, big trouble. That’s why, when we win, we need to make sure that we win with the best candidates, the most independent candidates, the kind of candidates who can meet the moment. So hopefully, in January 2027, they do not give the gavel to Hakeem Jeffries. That’s sort of what I’m hoping.

Wajahat Ali: I’m not making this up. Just earlier today, Democrat Hillary Scholten will not support Abdul El Sayed. So when they say vote blue no matter who, Mary, they’re revealing themselves. You told us for ten years, vote blue no matter who. Oh, anyone to the...

Mary Trump: Well, not that guy. Yeah, exactly.

Share

Wajahat Ali: Exactly. Anyone who’s to the left of Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer, which is the majority of Democrats, you’re willing to crush them. What type of leadership is this? And now you’re telling me. I just gave you the receipts of the past week. You defended Randy Fine, you attacked Medicare for All, you attacked Democratic Socialists instead of pivoting and attacking, I don’t know, all the freaks in MAGA. You met with Kushner, and now you’re doubling down and attacking Abdul El Sayed essentially through proxy with Hasan Piker. And now you think you’re going to be the leader.

I don’t do this game. I disagreed with AOC and Mamdani yesterday. They circled the wagons because they had to. It’s internal New York and D.C. politics. Nope. You’re telling me Hakeem Jeffries is going to be the leader. I’m telling you that the Democratic Party is going to die, and I’m telling you that even if the Democrats win in four years, you’re going to get your first America First Nazi president. And I’m willing to have Democrats be upset at me. I’m looking at the long term, Mary.

Mary Trump: Yeah, absolutely.

Wajahat Ali: If a Gavin Newsom, Hakeem Jeffries, Schumer wins, it’s going to be the end of the Democratic Party. I don’t care about that. What I care about is it’s going to hurt American people. If you get paid by AIPAC, crypto, and AI, how are you going to hold these people responsible? You’re not.

And then what we’re going to get is crumbs, or they’ll give us a terrible deal. Then they’ll tell us, “Hey, Republicans give you nothing. At least we give you something. Be happy.” And then they expect us for the rest of our lives to say, “You’re right. You’re right. It’s either this or nothing. You’re right. We’re so grateful. At least you’re not a Nazi.” And then what’s going to happen? Everything’s going to get worse. In 2032, you’re going to get a MAGA candidate who’s going to lie about economic populism. He’s going to win.

Mary Trump: And by the way, they are going to continue to make common cause with the fascists. Yes. That is what they are making very clear instead of holding them accountable, and that will not end well. So we need to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn’t happen.

I am not going to say that that’s a foregone conclusion at all, because I think Democrats like Jeffries are making the case against themselves better than we possibly could.

Everybody, I’m being a bad capitalist on your behalf. I’m supposed to be a good capitalist on your behalf. Everybody must go subscribe right now to Waj’s The Left Hook. Get a paid subscription if you can, but nothing’s paywalled because, again, bad capitalist. Waj, anything else people need to be watching out for? Also, read his fabulous book, Go Back to Where You Came From.

Wajahat Ali: Thank you, Mary

Mary Trump: Anyway, everybody, thank you so much for being here with me and Waj. So sad about Dolly Parton, but again, go follow Waj everywhere. Go watch all of his stuff, and we will see you soon. Bye, everybody. The conversation continues in the comments, so let us know what you think.

Subscribe now

The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali

A political, cultural, and intellectual playground for the rest of us with writer Wajahat Ali

By THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali

[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

Mary Trump: What do the D.C. Grand Prix, I can’t believe I actually just had to say that, Hakeem Jeffries meeting with Jared Kushner, and Donald’s relationship with What’s Her Name have in common? Well, I sat down with friend and fellow Nerd Avenger, journalist Brian Karem, who’s also the host of Just Ask the Question and the author of the excellent book Free the Press, and we tried to sort all of the insanity out. Enjoy.

Subscribe now

Mary Trump: Despite the fact that we are currently at war with Iran, a war of Donald’s own choosing, despite its illegality and unconstitutionality, American farmers are going bankrupt by the score. We are in an unprovoked, unprompted, and, quite frankly, really stupid trade war with Canada, one of our closest, oldest allies, which will be to the detriment of many states. Republicans need to win in the fall. Let’s see what else. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Food prices are skyrocketing. Our produce is killing us, all because of this inept, corrupt, grifting, traitorous Trump regime.

But good news. According to The New York Times, 2026, the 250th anniversary of this failing democracy, is Donald’s summer of fun. And it’s been going so well that he’s taken a victory lap in the form of an obscene, grotesque Grand Prix event in D.C., through the streets, which, as you can imagine, was not very well received by the people who actually live there. So, Brian, am I missing something?

Brian Karem: Yeah, I think he took a victory lap through the Reflecting Pool. Was he in the Beast? Was he driving the Beast? Well, they did do that.

Mary Trump: I know. That’s why it’s ruined. Unless Donald took a box cutter to the Reflecting Pool, you never know.

Brian Karem: Well, who would’ve pegged Donald Trump as the secret weapon for Democrats this fall? What concerns me? I could laugh about all of it because it’s so fun. It’s so off the wall bad. I never had any of this on my bingo card, I have to tell you.

When Donald was on the South Lawn the other day pitching fertilizer and telling people that Scotts had paid him, so he was happy to, I mean, you pay him, he plays. And that’s just corruption. Sometimes he’s as transparent as he claims he is, especially when he’s glomming on the money. But none of this. I have to admit, I’m rather naive at this. I’ve only been doing it for forty some odd years, so it’s really hard.

Mary Trump: Well, that’s why we call you our cub reporter, because you’re a neophyte.

Brian Karem: Yeah, I’m a neophyte to this. I admit to being a little naive about how politics works, but my old man used to have a saying:

I’ve been to three county fairs and a goat wrangling, and I’ve never seen anything like this.

That’s the only way to describe what we’re seeing in the White House. There are no checks. There are no balances. There’s nothing left except pure delusional insanity. And this seems to be something that even the Democrats will be able to defeat Donald with, and they’re notorious for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. Please, not this time.

Mary Trump: Well, a perfect segue. Brian, you have been talking for a very long time about how dangerous it is that corporate, mainstream, traditional media seem just hellbent on normalizing the depravities of Donald as an individual and his regime in general, hence that appalling New York Times headline that this is Donald’s summer of fun and the rest of us be damned.

Brian Karem: Just for a second, the green flag. Just waving the green flag. I thought he was swatting at flies, but go ahead.

Mary Trump: Did you see, first of all, as somebody, I think it was Carrie Pennebaker, pointed out on Twitter, this guy can’t do anything normally. He can’t even wave a flag like a normal person. But somebody, because that flag is green screen green, turned it into an image of Donald, or projected onto it the video of Donald and Jeffrey Epstein with their white man, middle aged underbite while they were dancing. That was fun.

Anyway, we need to call out the normalization because, one, it’s increasingly untenable. Are you kidding me at this point? Secondly, it continues to be more dangerous as he gets more dangerous and more delusional, more untethered from reality, but also more enabled. Because, as you said, there’s no separation of powers anymore. Basically, the Republican Congress, just as the DOJ, just as the corrupt, illegitimate majority of the Supreme Court, they’re all in service to his whims as long as they get their agenda.

But what makes it worse is when Democratic leadership also normalizes the worst aspects of this regime. And I’m talking, of course, about Democratic leader in the House Hakeem Jeffries, probably soon to be Speaker of the House, meeting with Jared Kushner, who is among the most corrupt, vile people in Donald’s orbit. And, Brian, as another kick in the teeth, he’s not even part of the government. What in the world is going on here?

Brian Karem: All I know is that the silver lining in that playbook is the fact that it’s pissed off both Democrats and Republicans. Even his supporters are upset about it. But look, when you talk about reaching across the aisle and bipartisanship, I’m all in. I think the last great effort we had at bipartisanship was Biden’s trillion dollar infrastructure bill. That works. When you reach across the aisle to other lawmakers and try to find a consensus, that’s what this government should be about.

Share

But Jared Kushner is not part of that, and Hakeem Jeffries, the timing of it is horrible. First of all, you’re in the middle of a fight for your life for the republic and democracy. Reaching across to Jared Kushner, who you pointedly pointed out is not even a member of the government, to what ends are you doing it? It almost looks like you’re there for yourself.

It almost looks like you’ve got an agenda outside of the agenda of the American populace. And it also looks like you don’t know what you’re doing because if he reached across the aisle and tried to find Mitch McConnell in his crypt, that’s one thing. But you’re reaching across the aisle to what? To who? Why not reach across the aisle to Fred, who owns the grocery store down the street and votes Republican? It makes no sense. There’s nothing politically that makes any sense about it. There has to be a hidden agenda, and that’s what people are afraid of.

Mary Trump: Yeah. And look, I think there are a lot of things that Jeffries has done that are disqualifying. I think we could find a better Speaker of the House. He’s been disappointing. I had a lot of hope. I thought he was awesome. And every time he’s had a chance to take a stand, he’s failed to meet the moment. So it worries me that he will never learn. He seems not to understand.

I think this thing with Kushner is alarming for many reasons because I’ve heard speculation that it’s because Kushner’s reaching out because he knows that the Republicans are toast in the midterms and he wants to position himself or the party to get some say in things. I’ve been saying this about Democrats for a very long time. When you get power, wield it without mercy, and I don’t mean be cruel like the Republicans.

Brian Karem: I know what you mean. Get your agenda.

Mary Trump: Do not compromise. It’s like Jeffries is saying to the Republicans, “We have you exactly where we want you. What can we do to help?” No. We do not.

I feel this way, but I don’t think Democrats should be working with the Republicans at all, any even legitimately elected ones, until after the election.

Brian Karem: Until after the election, then you can search for common ground. But until the election, what you ought to be doing is trying to win the election. Now, there is a silver lining, like I said, in the fact that even the far right is upset with them for reaching across, but you’re not going to win those people over.

There are some conservative Democrats or Republicans who are now going to vote Democrat in Texas, according to the latest polls, but that doesn’t have anything to do with Hakeem Jeffries. That just has to do with the fact that everybody thinks Ken Paxton is the most evil, corrupt person to ever walk down the pike. So there’s that.

But right now, I would love it if the Democrats would just concentrate on putting the right people in the right places, turning out the vote, and getting elected. Then, wherever it takes you after that, fine. But again, I would like to say wherever it takes you, as long as it follows an agenda that adheres strictly to the Constitution, not what we’ve been getting out of the Republicans. So after that, fine.

Mary Trump: Yeah. My stance has always been, you never make common cause with fascists. I don’t care if it’s President of the United States or majority leader or some random creep who just happens to be the president’s son in law.

But I think what’s interesting is, you alluded to this, this doesn’t do anything to change people in the mythical middle or the undecideds to vote Democrat because they’re not going to.

Brian Karem: Exactly.

Mary Trump: All this does is anger the Democratic base. And here’s the great irony. Democratic establishment politicians, and I don’t think they’re establishment voters. When I say establishment, I mean the Jeffrieses and the Schumers of the world who still believe in this nonsensical idea of bipartisanship. They’re basically saying that the progressives are the problem. The DSA is the problem. They’re more of a problem than the fascists. Of course they’re not.

But what Jeffries is doing is making the case to those disaffected Democrats who are going to the progressive wing and the DSA wing that we can’t trust you guys in leadership because look what you keep doing. It’s not because we want to be socialists. It’s not because we think that there’s that much daylight between the policies of mainstream versus progressives. It’s that the people currently empowering the Democratic Party won’t fight for us.

So again, Brian, what is this impulse toward ceding power to people outside of the Democratic Party and ignoring your base?

Brian Karem: Because I think they’re scared to death. Whenever someone says the word socialist, the Democratic leadership runs for the hills. Whenever they allow the Republicans to frame the argument, and when the Republicans scream that there’s a communist conspiracy, where are the Democrats going, “What are you talking about, you fascist?” Why aren’t they standing up and demanding an accounting of what it is that they say? Why doesn’t the leadership in the Democratic Party actually ask the Republicans to define their terms?

Donald Trump is the one who’s buying, under the guise of government, stakes in private enterprise. That’s communism. That’s him. That’s not the Democrats. And you want to call them a democratic socialist when they’re talking about healthcare for everybody. Well, who are you going to listen to if you’re a voter? Why don’t they make that clear?

Subscribe now

I’m tired of the labels, honestly, because most of them, and again, I’m a neophyte, so maybe there’s something here I don’t get, but their definition of socialism is ridiculous. We have paved roads, schools, all of our public interests are paid for by our taxes. You can call that socialism. Strictly, it is, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Democracy is what counts, not fascism.

So every time one of these Republicans starts screaming, I just wish one Democrat would come out and say, “I’m for healthcare for everybody. What are you for, buddy, other than yourself?” And it bothers me, Mary, because at Christmastime, the Congress of the United States adjourned for Christmas with free healthcare for themselves and would not even take up affordable healthcare for anyone else. The President of the United States, his press secretary took eight weeks off with paid maternity leave, and millions of American women can’t get that. You call that socialism? I call it justice. I’m tired of that term. It bugs me, and the Democrats need to stand up for themselves.

Mary Trump: Well, Brian, when you get a little bit more experience, maybe we can have this conversation. Before we continue, please take a second to like this video and subscribe to the channel. Also, leave a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going. Thanks for watching.

Thank you for joining us. I’m here with the amazing cub reporter, Brian Karem, host of Just Ask the Question and many, many other things. Check out his Substack, et cetera, et cetera.

So, yeah, it is infuriating because Republicans continue to misuse these terms and Democrats continue not to define the terms appropriately. And hey, if you don’t like socialism, good for you. Then give back your Social Security checks and let’s not have a Veterans Affairs system.

Brian Karem: Or a military.

Mary Trump: Or a military, or paid healthcare for people who have it. By the way, in case people don’t know, in addition to having the best healthcare on the planet, if you’re in Congress, you get to keep that forever, even after you’ve retired or been voted out of office. So, nice work if you can get it.

Brian, I wanted to shift gears a little bit. First of all, I think it’s important to say I’ve seen some Canadian flags. Elbows up, Canada. We love you, and we are deeply, deeply sorry. We continue to be deeply, deeply sorry about what this horrific moron continues to do to your country and to our alliance, and it’s despicable. I’m just hoping that someday we’re given the chance to mend fences and make up for it. But I did want to shift gears to something else, Brian. You may have heard.

Brian Karem: I may have.

Mary Trump: That there’s a new woman in Donald’s life. And I think one of the things about this story that just sort of exemplifies where we are right now is that what people are glomming onto is the potentially salacious nature of it. I mean, this is a thirty five year old woman, young enough to be his grandchild, who’s with him more than he’s with anybody else on the planet. Sometimes it seems like they’re together twenty four hours a day. She clearly has this unhealthy obsession. She clearly seems troubled and needs help, just as much as he does, really, but nobody seems to care about either one of them enough to get them help.

And so the focus is really on that nature of it. I was thinking the other day, how ironic would it be that not killing millions of people with COVID, not committing insurrection, not destroying our economy, no, Natalie Harp is going to take Donald down. Maybe.

Anyway, but what’s much more important than that, Brian, is that she’s a serious national security risk. I don’t know that that’s getting quite enough attention.

Brian Karem: That’s the real issue here. I talked to Mark Zaid, who is a national security expert and helps people get their national security clearance. He says, “I need a vacation. I’m having dreams about having clients. I’m at dinner with him and I’m talking to him about national security issues.” I go, “You need better dreams, pal.”

But here’s the issue. You want to reach Donald and you’re a head of state, you can bypass everything and go straight to her text and email and her phone, and she’ll put Donald on the phone. That is a national security issue. Sneaking into the trunk of the car of the President. If she’s not vetted, if she doesn’t have clearance, how do we know? We don’t know her background. We don’t know how troubled she is. We don’t know the danger that she would be and can pose.

I mean, personal danger to the President of the United States and national security danger for the rest of the United States. This is not a healthy relationship by any stretch of the imagination. It’s nice to know where some of his weirdest posts have come from, straight from her pen, apparently, and her phone. So now we know how that’s getting to us because many of us have wondered. It can’t be Donald all the time. Sometimes it’s spelled correctly, so we know Donald didn’t post it.

She’s my child’s age, and I keep thinking about that. Here I am, the neophyte cub reporter, going, wow, I have a child that’s that age. And having them in close proximity to the President of the United States with no experience in government, no experience in how to deal with politicians, and none in national security, zero. Under any other title, she’s a stalker. But Donald likes the stalkers, and he loves his cultists as long as they’re blonde and female with blue eyes.

Share

So that, to me, is the real issue. It’s not Donald’s peccadilloes and what he may or may not be doing with her personally. It’s what she poses as far as a threat to the Constitution and to a democracy. And that, my friends, is the issue that we all should be concerned about. Sneaking into the trunk of the car. I don’t even know where to go with that.

I didn’t have that one on my bingo card either. I remember I thought one time that Ronald Reagan was kind of a cheesy guy. Still, as cheesy as he was, I can’t imagine anybody doing what Donald does with the presidency. It’s shocking, and it’s horrible.

Mary Trump: Well, the thing about so many of what seem like isolated, unrelated incidents is that there’s a through line here. The ballroom bunker, the Reflecting Pool, the UFC or whatever that cage match thing, the Grand Prix, Natalie Harp. Yes, they have elements that are different and distinct from each other. One’s more about grift, and one’s more about incompetence, and one’s more about the fact that Donald is a traitor who has no intention of leaving office. One’s about national security.

But I think one of the through lines, and there are more than one, but for our purposes right now, is what?

Brian Karem: Jeffrey Epstein? There’s a through line.

Mary Trump: Oh, yes. I think Jeffrey Epstein is always the through line. But in this particular instance, it’s the inability and unwillingness of anybody to say no to him. And it just shows us that our system is broken, has been broken for a very long time, and broken systems bend toward their most dysfunctional member, and that person ends up with an outsized amount of power.

And here we are. This is a thirty five year old woman. Nobody can get rid of her because Donald wants her there, despite the very real threats she may pose, not just to him, because I don’t know, whatever, but to us, to our country, to our national security. And it’s just not one person. I guess they’re too busy spending billions of taxpayer dollars making roadshow documentaries about themselves so they can feel cool.

Brian Karem: Well, I mean, I have to give it to Donald Trump. He has stacked the deck with the most incompetent. You couldn’t try to find incompetence and find them as well as he has. From Pete Hegseth, who will end up being the fall guy for the war in Iran, to the only one, actually, who has any gravitas at all, and he bent the knee too, who’s the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. He does have some background in doing government work, so I’ll give him that.

I’m not saying he’s actually competent. I’m just saying he has the background in doing the work. He’s the only one that’s even close. I mean, you’ve got Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury, who doesn’t understand the law of supply and demand. He can’t even tell you why oil prices are up.

Mary Trump: I’m glad oil prices spiked today. I have no idea what. That’s your job.

And just quickly, as for Marco Rubio, I don’t think anything in your past counts anymore if you have become a sycophantic war criminal. So it doesn’t matter if he used to be competent. He’s actually worse than they are because he should know better, but he sold his soul because he wanted power.

All right, Brian. I said twenty minutes. It’s been almost twenty five. I just wonder, is there anything you want to alert people to? Is there anywhere you want people to go?

Brian Karem: Well, I always pitch Free the Press. It’s a fine book. It’s in its fourth edition, and I recommend that people pick it up. If you want to find out what’s wrong with the press today, I think somebody wrote a book about it. Oh, me.

Then, of course, @BrianKarem on all social media. It’s Just Ask the Question as a podcast wherever fine podcasts are sold.

But more importantly, I want everyone to pay attention this week to what’s going to happen in the White House regarding the war in Iran. I think there’s going to be a lot of, or at least one or two, horrifying shocks come out about it as far as the amount of casualties, what actually happened to the base in Bahrain, and how despicable Donald Trump has been. This is an issue. And I’ve said this before, mark my words here.

I’ve said it. This war will not end as long as Donald Trump is president, unless he gives up, and he won’t. And he won’t put boots on the ground. No one wanted this war. This is the story that’s going to drive the midterms, along with the economic ruin that he has brought to us.

Keep those two in mind. The salacious stuff, it’s fun to talk about. It always goes viral. But these are the two things that affect the American electorate more than anything else, and I think people need to keep their attention focused on the economy. The price of oil, since Scott Bessent doesn’t know about it, we need to know about it. The beef cattle, then the beef, that is horrifying. And the Make America Great Again president is backing Argentina versus American ranchers. So that’s going to be horrifying to look at.

Brian Karem: So I’d say keep an eye on that prize.

Mary Trump: And people should care about that stuff.

Brian Karem: Well, everybody does. I mean, that’s a law of supply and demand too. If there were subsidies for not having more cattle, you might have a greater supply of beef. But this is part and parcel of the problem, and Donald Trump doesn’t care about that at all. Short term gain is what he would like.

So he’s lost MAGA farmers. I say everyone, if you’re going to do anything the rest of this fall, just get out and make sure you vote. Get on phone lines. Volunteer in precincts. Don’t let Donald Trump steal the election in the way that he wants to do.

If you have to stand for hours in line to vote, do it. This election counts more than any other in our life, and I’m not saying that as hyperbole. It’s not hyperbolic. This is it. Get out and vote.

Mary Trump: An unnecessary war of choice against Iran, a ruinous economy and reputational harm, a traitorous fascist regime, a completely complicit Republican Party and supermajority.

Brian Karem: Well, you’ve read my latest column.

Mary Trump: Yeah. So I think, let us not take anything for granted, please. There are three Dan Sullivans in Alaska. Who knew? We cannot take anything for granted.

So everybody, thanks so much for joining me. And Brian, it’s awesome to see you, as always.

Brian Karem: Oh, I love you.

Mary Trump: I love you, my friend, and I’ll see you soon.

Mary Trump: Bye, guys. The conversation continues in the comments, so let us know what you think.

Subscribe now

Brian Karem Reporter's Notebook

Free Speech is AWOL

Read more

18 days ago · 8 likes · Brian J Karem

Subscribe now

Donald recently decided to take reporters on a tour of the White House grounds to show off one of his latest accomplishments. Apparently, among the most pressing issues facing the United States, he wanted to make sure the American people understood the finer points of flagpole design.

Donald: As you remember, I donated the flagpoles, one on each side, because the White House didn’t really have an appropriate American flag. It had a small one on top. We left that, but it didn’t have an appropriate American flag. And this is a great pole. This is the top of the line. It’s tapered. This isn’t a straight up and down job, which looks terrible, frankly. It’s a tapered pole. I’m very good at flagpoles.

Welcome to this week’s episode of Trump Trolls Trump. I’m Mary Trump, and I have to admit I do not know much about flagpoles. What I do know is that I do not want to hear the man who got us into a war lecture the country about whether a flagpole should be tapered or straight.

It is week 83 of the second Trump regime, and it is comforting to know that Donald continues to have his fingers firmly on the pulse of what really matters to the American people.

It has now been 579 days since the beginning of what has become the largest renovation project in American history. And when I say renovation, I mean the wholesale destruction of what used to be the People’s House. It is almost as though we hired a contractor who knew absolutely nothing about construction, immediately tore out every load bearing wall, demolished half the building, destroyed the pool, infuriated the neighbors, and somehow left us $40 trillion over budget.

Actually, that is almost exactly what happened.

Donald can insist he is a master builder all he wants, but all anybody has to do is look at the current condition of the White House grounds to understand the kind of builder he really is.

With the midterm elections now just 74 days away, campaigns around the country are becoming increasingly revealing.

In Illinois, Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker is once again facing Darren Bailey, the MAGA former state senator whom Pritzker defeated decisively in 2022.

Bailey and his wife founded the Full Armor Christian Academy, which sounds very much in keeping with the biblical commandment to love your neighbor. Unfortunately, the school has come under scrutiny for using a Bob Jones University science curriculum that teaches dinosaurs and human beings lived on Earth at the same time.

I have questions.

Did Eve have to ride side saddle?

Probably. According to people who think this way, women are inferior and apparently should always be wearing skirts. These are the kinds of people who seem to believe The Flintstones was less a cartoon than a historical documentary.

This week, WGN News in Chicago gave Bailey an opportunity to respond to criticism that he is too extreme.

interviewer: There are also these silly things that the campaign is doing. For example, at the state fair here today, they’re having dinosaurs show up. They say that at the school that you founded there’s curriculum that teaches that dinosaurs and man walked the Earth at the same time. Of course, there’s a 65 million year difference. How do you respond?

This is what Darren Bailey said:

Well, I’ll simply ask him, was he there? Number one, because I think every day we’re learning wonderful things about history and the past.

When the interviewer pressed him further, asking whether dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth together, Bailey had a remarkably simple answer.

Were you there? I wasn’t.

The interviewer reminded him that science has settled the question.

Bailey’s response?

I wasn’t there.

If that man becomes governor, Illinois’ education system will be in very serious trouble.

Dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65 million years ago. Homo sapiens have existed for only a few hundred thousand years. There is approximately a 65 million year gap separating the two.

Share

But apparently none of that matters because Darren Bailey was not there.

I honestly do not know what to say. This level of willful ignorance is almost impossible to parody. It is smug self righteousness masquerading as common sense, or perhaps common sense masquerading as complete ignorance. Either way, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference.

Speaking of embattled species, apparently cattle are now under attack.

Yes, cattle.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced that America is experiencing what she describes as a war on cattle.

Well, in one sense that is true. People eat hamburgers.

What scientists have actually been saying for years is that industrial livestock production contributes significantly to deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate climate change. That is not a war on cattle. That is a discussion about climate science.

Yet, 579 days into Trump 2.0, there is apparently only one person who could possibly be responsible for rising beef prices.

Joe Biden.

Every Republican explanation now seems to follow the exact same formula: a noun, a verb, and blame Joe Biden.

Personally, I have already marked my calendar to blame Joe Biden for the hip replacement I expect to need about twenty years from now.

Brooke Rollins: What we are facing in America today is the direct result of a war on cattle by the previous administration. Frankly, a war on agriculture and a war on farming in general. When you’ve got a prior administration that is basically blaming cattle for their crazy climate agenda, then you have a real problem.

No.

Cattle are lovely, gentle creatures.

The point is not that cows are the problem. The point is that large scale industrial meat production contributes to deforestation and climate change.

Leave the cattle alone.

And while we are at it, leave Joe Biden alone. Nobody even remembers who he is anymore.

Apparently this has become the animal edition of Trump Trolls Trump because we now have to talk about puppies.

Thankfully, as far as I know, there is no war on puppies. But if you thought the Illinois governor’s race was strange because one candidate appears to believe dinosaurs and human beings shared the Earth, wait until you hear what is happening in the Texas Senate race.

The race between the deeply corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic candidate James Talarico has taken an unexpected turn. Talarico has been making the case that his Republican opponent is, quite literally, anti-puppy.

It sounds ridiculous until you hear his explanation.

James Talarico: Ken Paxton is anti-puppy. And I wish I was joking when I said that, but reports just came out revealing that as Attorney General, Ken Paxton protected a research lab that was notorious for torturing and killing hundreds of puppies. And then as a state lawmaker in the Texas legislature, Ken Paxton was one of the only votes against a bill to hold animal abusers accountable. So Ken Paxton never misses an opportunity to do the wrong thing, and he won’t fight for the little guy even when the little guy is literally a puppy.

Ken Paxton was asked to comment but, unfortunately, he could not be reached because he was having dinner with Michael Vick.

By now, you have probably heard Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff’s remarks at a campaign rally earlier this week. What has been even more fascinating, and entirely predictable, has been the performative outrage from the right, which accomplished exactly the opposite of what they intended.

Ossoff made what was essentially an offhand remark, and conservative media responded by amplifying it until millions of Americans who had never heard the name Natalie Harp suddenly knew exactly who she was.

Jon Ossoff : And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, Donald sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks. He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.

That was it.

He mentioned one White House staffer almost in passing, and the right completely lost its mind.

Now everybody knows who Natalie Harp is. She is the newest bleach blonde in Donald’s orbit and appears to have replaced Karoline Leavitt as his favorite.

Subscribe now

When Karoline Leavitt went on maternity leave, she came back to discover that not only was she no longer Donald’s favorite bleach blonde, but she had also been left behind on the decoy plane while Natalie Harp traveled with Donald in the catering car.

Fox State TV has been absolutely beside itself over Ossoff’s comments. Rather than simply explaining why they found his remarks objectionable, they decided to attack him while making a series of comparisons that made very little sense.

Dana Perino: The collapse and you got to get the clicks and all that kind of stuff. But we need answers. The country needs that more than we need clicks.

Another Fox panelist then added:

And Emily, I mean, who can blame a member of the party of Bill Clinton for seeing a female staffer and only thinking of one thing? I mean, they all laughed. They all get the joke. If they had dealt with that back in 1997, they might not continue to have this problem.

Are they talking about Bill Clinton?

Because I am fairly certain they are not talking about Donald Trump.

The comparison makes absolutely no sense.

Monica Lewinsky was twenty-two years old when Bill Clinton abused the power imbalance that existed between them. Natalie Harp is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is responsible for her own choices, just as Donald is responsible for his.

The issue is not whether there is or is not an inappropriate relationship between the two of them. The issue is that Natalie Harp is young enough to be Donald’s granddaughter, that she spent nearly a year obtaining a security clearance, that she now appears to be constantly at his side, and that American taxpayers are paying her salary while nobody seems able to explain what she actually does for the American people.

What is obvious is that she spends an extraordinary amount of time reinforcing Donald’s fragile ego and supplying him with flattering articles about himself, articles that generally seem to come from tabloids rather than credible news organizations.

The performative pearl clutching from the right has been remarkable, but it has also marked the beginning of another coordinated effort to attack Jon Ossoff’s character. Fox State TV, unsurprisingly, has eagerly joined that effort.

Fox State TV has been leading the charge against Jon Ossoff, and one of the more unusual attacks came from Laura Ingraham.

Laura Ingraham: Last month, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Ossoff spent more on makeup than any federal candidate this year, beating out AOC and Rashida Tlaib. And beneath all that pancake bronzer and all of that rouge, then we have an ambitious man, but one without a core. That’s the most dangerous kind of politician out there.

Was she talking about Jon Ossoff?

Because I honestly thought she was describing Donald Trump.

Sometimes I wonder if these people have any self awareness whatsoever. Everything Laura Ingraham accused Ossoff of lacking is precisely what Donald has lacked his entire life. He has no core beyond self interest. He has no consistent principles beyond whatever benefits him in the moment. If you stripped away the makeup, the spray tan, and the endless self promotion, you would be left with exactly what she described.

We have been hearing quite a lot lately about Natalie Harp, but you know who we have not been hearing from?

Melania.

In fact, we had not really seen her since July 19 at the World Cup, which, by the way, had been glorious.

She missed the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner. She skipped Lindsey Graham’s funeral. Unbelievably, she even missed the Patriot Games. Then, all of a sudden, she reappeared for what I assume is one of her great passions in life: IndyCar racing through the streets of Washington, D.C.

Share

There she was with her pseudo husband, Donald, participating in one of the most carefully choreographed photo opportunities of the year.

As they arrived, Melania addressed the crowd.

This is what Melania said:

Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am.

That is funny because I do not think anybody missed her.

The world is generally a quieter and better place when Melania chooses to remain out of public view. It was also fascinating to watch staff repeatedly encourage the audience to applaud, as though they were trying to manufacture enthusiasm that simply was not there.

The situation has become especially awkward because Melania now finds herself competing for Donald’s attention with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter.

Natalie Harp seems to spend more time with Donald than his wife does.

Of course, Melania is compensated extremely well to appear beside Donald and pretend she can tolerate being in his presence. At this point, I imagine she sends Natalie Harp thank you notes on a regular basis.

Still, the optics have become difficult to ignore.

Melania showed up for the event wearing an IndyCar helmet, smiling for the cameras and participating in another carefully staged public appearance. It all felt remarkably forced.

What was really going on?

There is actually an interesting arrangement behind the event.

Donald created a new IndyCar race by executive order to be held on the streets of Washington, D.C. Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News and Fox Sports, owns a one third stake in Penske Entertainment, the parent company of IndyCar.

What a remarkable coincidence.

Fox Sports and IndyCar also announced a $2 million contribution to Melania’s Foster Youth Initiative.

It is, we are told, a charitable donation, and I am sure that money will be spent exactly the way they tell us it will be.

What stood out, however, was something much simpler.

The happy couple did not actually seem to spend very much time together.

There was remarkably little warmth or affection between them. They looked less like a married couple attending an event together than two people fulfilling separate contractual obligations at the same location.

For the first time in quite a while, we did not see Melania slap Donald’s hand away or openly scowl at him. Then again, she had just received a rather substantial check.

Although, if we are being honest, it probably was not as substantial as the payments she usually receives for making these public appearances and pretending she can stand the man she married.

By the way, I read lips.

At the beginning of one of those clips, Donald leaned over to speak to someone nearby.

He said, “Where’s Natalie? I need Natalie.”

That probably tells you everything you need to know.

Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of Trump Trolls Trump.

We will be back next week because mockery remains one of our greatest superpowers. Authoritarians want to be feared. They want to appear inevitable, untouchable, and all powerful. Ridicule reminds them that they are none of those things.

And fortunately for us, they continue to provide more material than we could ever ask for.

Subscribe now

[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and legnth]

Mary Trump: I got to chat with journalist April Ryan, and we covered a lot, including the potential national security threats posed by Donald’s new thirty five year old assistant, Natalie Harp, and the ways in which Donald is laying waste to Washington, D.C., and what we need to do about it. I hope you enjoy it.

Subscribe now

Hello, everybody. I am here with the amazing, inimitable April Ryan. Journalist, badass, awesome human. April, it’s great to see you.

April Ryan: It’s great to see you back from vacation. It was, as Norm Eisen calls it, a “fakation.” I worked, but I worked in one of the most beautiful places that I love, Martha’s Vineyard. It was amazing. The internet was horrible, but it was still incredible.

I’ve been watching everything that has been going on in Washington from afar. Donald Trump has a great new best friend who wants to stay by his side, and now Melania is suddenly out of hiding. What is that? The First Lady is back. I mean, what is that?

Mary Trump: You know things are bad when they’re willing to pay Melania enough money to make a public appearance.

April Ryan: When she made that appearance, she might have been wearing designer clothes, but she certainly didn’t look happy. It looked like she was doing it begrudgingly.

Donald Trump surrounds himself with sycophants. Anytime someone is in power, people gravitate toward that power. The White House has become a magnet for the crazies. He inspires a level of loyalty that is completely detached from reality.

Looking at the letters from his assistant makes you stop and think. As Arsenio Hall used to say, it makes you go, “Hmm.”

Melania is back because of the optics. Donald Trump wants people to believe everything is fine, that they’re in sync. But we know they don’t even sleep in the same bedroom when she’s at the White House. They sleep in separate rooms, and she’s rarely there anyway.

You know why your aunt isn’t at the White House? Because Donald Trump didn’t want her there. He used the ballroom as an excuse, but he demolished her office in the East Wing. This isn’t really about building a ballroom. It’s about pushing the First Lady aside.

Some people say they don’t care, but we should care because this is the Office of the President of the United States, and it has been turned into a mockery. If somebody doesn’t care, that’s fine, but I’m going to keep talking about it because I’ve covered the presidency for twenty nine years, and I have never seen anything like this.

April Ryan: This is the kind of nonsense the American taxpayer is paying for. When you travel around the world and speak with people in other countries, the United States has fallen to the bottom rung in their minds because of the insanity happening here. Someone called it the Office of Delinquency, and honestly, that’s exactly what it looks like.

It is corruption. They are taking your taxpayer dollars while failing the people who actually serve this country. We have service members stationed in the Middle East whose deployments have been extended. We’ve heard reports of at least one sailor going overboard because conditions have become so unbearable. The food is rancid. The water is filthy. The sanitation is inadequate. These are the people we ask to defend this democracy.

Share

If something happens tomorrow, we expect them to stand up and protect us, but we can’t even provide them with decent living conditions.

Yet somehow there is always enough money to cover horses in gold, create vanity projects, and install things that exist solely to glorify Donald Trump. You can spend money making monuments to yourself, but you can’t take care of the people serving this democracy.

That is a national security issue, and almost nobody is talking about it.

Mary Trump: Exactly. I want to go back to something you just said because it is so important. The priorities of this regime, especially Donald’s priorities, are completely out of sync with what the American people need and what our military needs.

He brought us into a war. While our service members are suffering and Americans are struggling to afford groceries and gasoline, he is spending hundreds of millions of dollars, nearly a billion, renovating the White House. Nobody asked for that. Nobody wanted it.

We should absolutely care about that.

And we should also care about what’s happening with Natalie Harp. I’ll say her name because she’s allegedly a civil servant whose salary we pay. Natalie Harp represents a national security risk, and the hypocrisy surrounding her is astounding.

Remember when Bill Clinton first ran for president? Hillary Rodham Clinton received endless criticism simply because she had kept her maiden name. Lindsey Graham’s sister is now using her maiden name because she believes it will improve her chances in a Republican primary, and suddenly that’s perfectly acceptable.

Then there was Monica Lewinsky. A twenty two year old woman was vilified because a powerful man abused the imbalance that existed between them. Yet now we are apparently not even allowed to ask questions about a thirty five year old woman whose responsibilities remain unclear, who is being paid with taxpayer dollars, and who would never qualify for a security clearance.

She is the national security risk.

April Ryan: Exactly. If Donald Trump was careless enough to store top secret documents in a bathroom, then you know this young woman is seeing things she should never see and has no clearance to access. That isn’t speculation. That is based on what we already know about how recklessly he handled classified information.

When you mentioned Monica Lewinsky, it reminded me of everything that happened during those years because I covered it. But now I also think about Katie Phang and the lawsuit involving the FBI investigation into the woman who alleged she had been assaulted when she was only thirteen years old.

Subscribe now

Those are the stories people need to know about.

Back then, every salacious detail dominated the headlines. Now we are living through 2026, and America is in crisis, yet so much of what really matters is barely being discussed.

People ask what they should do. The answer is simple. Vote.

Do you see what’s happening in these midterms? Voters are frustrated, and they are demanding change. The Democratic Party is finally being forced to confront realities it avoided for years. Progressives are increasingly being welcomed under the Democratic tent, and that is because people want to feel represented.

This country spent decades trying to stay in the middle, but now everyone wants to know that there is room for them inside the party. I genuinely believe things are changing, and my bellwethers are Georgia and Texas.

I’ve spoken with people all over Martha’s Vineyard about Georgia. Keisha Lance Bottoms is within the margin of error, but Georgia remains a deeply racist state. That’s simply the reality.

April Ryan: Donald Trump has said it himself. He calls himself a developer. Well, if he wants to be a developer, then he should go back to being a private citizen and develop things. He should not be redeveloping the People’s House. Nobody asked for any of this.

Washington looks like one giant construction zone. Everywhere you turn there are scaffolds, barriers, and projects. I don’t remember seeing this city look like this except around inaugurations, when temporary structures go up and then come back down. This is different. It’s constant.

They’re pulling money from every corner of government to fund these vanity projects. The National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, and other agencies are losing resources so Donald Trump can indulge himself.

Think about who we’re talking about. This is the same man who bankrupted casinos. Hillary Clinton was right to point that out years ago. How do you bankrupt a casino? And now we’re watching someone with that record oversee the finances of the United States.

People are losing jobs. Markets are shifting. Companies are sending warning signs. We need to pay attention to what is happening because the warning lights are flashing everywhere.

Mary Trump: The national debt is now forty trillion dollars.

April Ryan: Inflation is up. Gas prices are climbing again. Eggs cost too much. Rent is too high. We are living through a real crisis, yet Donald Trump is showing off the renovations he paid for with taxpayer money.

When it comes to helping the American people, he says he doesn’t care. That’s exactly what he said.

Share

Mary Trump: That’s exactly right. People need to start listening to what he says and believing him. He doesn’t care.

And the continued sane washing of Donald has to stop. Instead of simply reporting what he says, too many journalists keep trying to explain it away or fill in the blanks for him. They try to make sense of statements that don’t make sense.

No. Let people hear exactly what he is saying. Let them decide. We don’t need reporters rewriting his words to make them sound coherent.

April Ryan: I do have some good news. I have a new book coming out. It’s called Notes on a Blacklash: When a Black Woman Goes Viral.

The book talks about what it’s like to continue covering the White House and how strategic I’ve had to become because every time I walk into that building, I’m attacked. I write about this administration, the previous administration, and what it means for women to speak with authenticity, become a viral moment, and then live with the consequences.

People see the viral clips, but they don’t see the death threats, the bomb threats, and everything that comes afterward.

I also write about what happens when Black journalists are targeted. Rachel Scott endured repeated verbal attacks from Donald Trump, including being called degrading names, and there was very little institutional support for her. Compare that with the response when Caitlin Collins is attacked, and you begin to see the different standards that still exist.

After Kamala Harris lost on November 5, many Black women said they were going to sit back and drink their tea because they had done everything they could. There was that powerful image of Black women sitting calmly while the city burned in the background.

But we can’t simply step back because the city really is burning. Donald Trump tried to blame a Black woman mayor, Karen Bass, for the Los Angeles fires, even though those fires extended far beyond the city’s jurisdiction.

The book is about our fight, our authenticity, and the cost of using our voices. We’re in the middle of a major preorder campaign, so I hope people will support it wherever books are sold. And Mary, thank you for allowing me to talk about Notes on a Blacklash on your platform.

Mary Trump: And if I’m not mistaken, it comes out on October 6. Preorders matter tremendously. They’re what help get a book onto the New York Times bestseller list and keep it there, so spread the word far and wide.

Go preorder it now, and then on October 6 you’ll get a wonderful surprise when it arrives. I’m already fortunate enough to have a PDF copy, and once I’ve finished reading it, we’re absolutely going to sit down together and talk about it.

April, it is always wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. Congratulations on the new book, and thank you to everybody for joining us. Go preorder Notes on a Blacklash and check out everything April Ryan does because it is always worth your time.

April Ryan: Thank you. Mary, when you finish reading the book, I already know you’re going to be texting me because your jaw is going to drop.

I’m reaching a point in my life where I don’t want to hold anything back anymore. I’m turning fifty nine, and I felt it was finally time to tell these stories. I can’t wait to hear what you think because I know you’re going to have a reaction.

Mary Trump: I am very, very excited, my friend. Congratulations.

Subscribe now