Daily Wrap-Up

1 October, 2025

To watch the full episode, click here:

[edited fo clarity and flow]

I sometimes think it’s the pettiness of it all that’s going to kill me. The pettiness of these people, for some reason, gets under my skin in a way few other things do; the idea that somebody is petty and immature, and vindictive, and immature as Donald is a role model admired by tens of millions of people. Sometimes it’s that that pushes me close to the edge, especially since I have something of a history with watching this kind of thing unfold in my own family. The reason I had such a hard time after the 2016 election, or at least one of them, was knowing that once again, the worst person on the planet was elevated above somebody whose shoes he was not fit to shine.

That was what happened with Donald and my father. Or, at least, I eventually understood the extent to which it was unfathomable and grotesquely unfair that Donald was picked to be my grandfather’s successor at my father’s expense. Donald wasn’t simply chosen instead of my father—his elevation meant my father’s destruction.

My family was a zero-sum game. The only way for you to feel you were worth anything at all was make sure you had everything and everybody else had nothing. That’s the United States of America right now. Donald always made sure he had everything, even if it was at the expense of everybody else, no matter how much more deserving. My grandfather was the prime mover of that drive.

In the simplest terms: my father was the oldest son, my grandfather’s namesake. But beyond that, he was also smart, funny, accomplished, kind, and generous. These are qualities that most of us value. When he was 25, he became a pilot for TWA at the dawn of the jet age which at the time was a very big deal. Donald, on the other hand, was given everything despite having done nothing.

The only reason his grades were good enough to apply to the University of Pennsylvania was because my Aunt Maryanne, his older sister, did all his homework for him. The only reason he got in was because he paid someone to take his SATs for him and my dad’s fraternity brother worked in Admissions. The only reason Donald was able to make it into Manhattan real estate was because my grandfather was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and he had very deep connections to New York real estate and New York politics. Every step along the way, Donald’s rise has been enabled by somebody else with more power and their own malign motives: from my grandfather to the New York media, from the banks to Mark Burnett at NBC; from the Republican Party to the fucking Supreme Court. And yet, Donald continues to be petty. For him, having everything isn’t enough unless you’re humiliating the person you stole everything from.

During his meeting (not a negotiation) with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries— “TRUMP 2028” hats suddenly appeared in the Oval Office. His having a third term would be unconstitutional. What was the point of that? Clearly that child thought that the stunt would get under Jeffrey’s and Schumer’s skin. I assume it didn’t because, no matter how many problems I might have with them, they seem to be relatively mature people. They probably saw those hats and thought, “Oh my God, what a loser. I cannot believe we have to sit down with him and take this shit seriously.”

So, yes, it’s the pettiness. It’s knowing that Donald is building that grotesque, gaudy ballroom with blackmail money and that he’s grifting off the office of the presidency to enrich himself and his worthless adult children. It’s knowing that he’s going to use the Kennedy Center to host MMA matches. Yes, it’s the pettiness that sometimes more than anything else makes it very hard to stay connected to everything that’s going on. How do we continue to be engaged if we allow that pettiness to get under our skin? Here’s the thing, and this is something I’ve long said about my family, letting them win in any way is unacceptable. We have no right anymore to be surprised by the corruption, the criminality, the treason, or the pettiness. We just have to take it as it comes and remember that it would be so much worse to be them.

Let’s dive in.

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Hello, everybody. Welcome to tonight’s episode of Mary Trump Live. Thank you for being here.

Today is the first official day of the government shutdown. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Vice President J.D. Vance held a press conference, and the shutdown was the only topic of conversation. The two bashed the Democrats for causing the shutdown, which is absurd on its face, as were their claims that the shutdown was caused because Democrats are asking for billions of dollars in healthcare for illegal immigrants. Take a look at what Levitt had to say:

The Democrats shut down the government because President Trump and the Republicans will not force American taxpayers to pay for free healthcare for illegal aliens. America is $37 trillion in debt. We cannot afford to provide taxpayer-funded free healthcare to illegals who broke the law, to enter our country. To put this all into perspective, the Democrats refuse to keep the government open over healthcare to illegal aliens and now have jeopardized critical healthcare programs for American citizens, instead.

Vance then said:

To the American people who are watching: the reason your government is shut down at this very minute is because despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans, and even a few moderate Democrats, supported opening the government. The Chuck Schumer/A.O.C. wing of the Democratic Party shut down the government because they said to us, “We will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for healthcare for illegal aliens.”

That never happened yet people listen to what they have to say and believe it. That’s why Democrats need to be on every news outlet they can find, and be on twenty-four hours a day, because the White House has a much bigger platform and a much louder bullhorn. They have to do whatever they can to counter that. They must drown out the abject nonsense that is coming from the Republicans. Also, the A.O.C./Chuck Schumer wing of the party is not something that exists in the real world.

Leavitt mentioned that the country is $37 trillion in debt, and the last thing we could possibly afford is to give health care to undocumented workers. What she neglected to share, of course, is that the debt is almost entirely due to Donald’s horrific economic policies and the fact that the Republicans keep giving tax cuts to the corporations and the obscenely wealthy.

When Leavitt was asked about government layoffs, she was as callous as she usually is and she took another opportunity to bash the Democrats instead of reassuring those who will be affected either by being furloughed or by losing their jobs entirely. which Donald has threatened to do. The question was:

This administration continues to say that they don’t want to lay people off, but obviously there is a plan to lay people off. So what is your message to those people who are getting laid off? And then if the government reopens, will those rifts reverse? Are they not permanent? If the government opens, specifically reopens, pretty quickly?

And Leavitt’s answer:

Well, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, and it’s because the Democrats have put us into this position. If the Democrats did not vote to shut down the government, we would not be standing up here talking about layoffs today. We’d be talking about all the other news stories going on in the world, in our country. We’d be talking about all of the great things that this administration is doing to uplift Americans across the country. But unfortunately, the Vice President of the United States and I have to come out here today to talk about a government shutdown, that the Democrats have put us in this position.

It’s so awful for them that they have to be paid by the American taxpayer to come out there today and lie to our faces repeatedly. The Democrats did not vote to shut down the government. There was a vote on the spending bill and the e consequence of not passing that was the government shutdown. But why did the bill not pass? That’s the question. The bill didn’t pass because there were no concessions on the part of the Republicans. It’s their bill, and there was literally nothing in it that the Democrats could support. The bill is a draconian assault on American workers and American families. Democrats cannot vote for that kind of thing ever. They tried it back in March and it has not gone well for us. The idea that the shutdown is the Democrats’ fault because they didn’t support the spending the bill, no matter how bad that bill would be for the American people, would be laughable if it weren’t so horrific.

Since January 2025, Donald and the Trump regime (especially at the beginning when Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency) have been coming after government agencies and civil servants.

Typically, during a shutdown, workers are “furloughed.” That means they still have their jobs, but they don’t get paid for the duration of the shutdown. Donald’s position is that they will start firing civil servants if the shutdown continues. That is not the Democrats’ fault. When JD Vance was asked about the legitimacy of Donald’s negotiation efforts, he made it clear just how little the Trump regime in general, and Donald specifically, cares about resolving the shutdown. Here’s what a reporter asked Vance:

The president’s been posting some images of Leader Jeffries and Senator Schumer recently. You’ve said that you’re interested in good faith negotiations with these leaders, but what message does that send? Is it helpful to post pictures of leader Jeffries in a sombrero if you’re trying to have good faith talks with him?

Vance laughed it off:

Oh, I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith, while also poking a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats positions, and even poking some fun at the absurdity of the Democrats themselves. I mean, I’ll tell Hakeem Jeffries right now: I make this solemn promise to you, that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop. And I’ve talked to president of the United States about that.

I have a question for you, Baby J.D. Vance. You’re totally cool with memes, baby J.D. Vance? I mean, we’re just having fun. Isn’t it ok to have fun during a government shutdown while countless Americans aren’t going to get paid, aren’t going to get their social security checks, aren’t going to have access to benefits to feed children, Baby J.D. Vance? Are we having fun yet, Baby J.D. Vance? After the barrage of lies from those sycophants, here’s a response to the layoffs from minority leader Hakeem Jeffries:

The mass firings of federal workers? Trump administration has been engaging in this since January 20^th. Targeting the clean energy economy? Republicans have been doing that since January 20^th and assaulted the clean energy economy and the creation of good-paying American jobs in their one big, ugly bill. Trump administration has been killing jobs. This is a job killing administration. Job creation is down, but you know what’s up? Costs. They promised to lower costs on day one. Costs aren’t going down. Costs are going up. Inflation is going up under the Trump administration. And one of the reasons why Democrats are fighting hard at this moment is because, unless we extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, more than 20 million Americans-- in a matter of days-- are about to experience the reality of dramatically increased premiums, copays, and deductibles. Many of them will experience medical bankruptcy as a result. That’s why Democrats are fighting hard on behalf of every day Americans.

Meanwhile, Politico reports that in a private call with House Republicans, chief of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought said mass layoffs of federal workers will start in a day or two. Vought acknowledged that these layoffs don’t have to happen. Instead, they are a strategy being used to pressure Democrats to give in to Donald and the shutdown. That is a cynical ploy but Republicans are comfortable with it because they are the party of cruelty; they are the party that cares about nothing except their own petty power. Vought warned that funds are running out for key programs such as is WIC, which supports low-income mothers and infants. Active-duty troops could start missing paychecks as of October 15^th.

While lawmakers draft measures to ensure military pay, G.O.P. leaders are holding off on advancing them to preserve leverage in negotiations because the American people—whether they’re children, sick people, the elderly, or active military personnel—are merely pawns in what is for Donald and the Republicans, a game of one-upmanship.

Vought also posted this today on Twitter:

Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.

This is personal for me. Let’s start with the phrase: “DEI principles are unconstitutional.” DEI stands for “diversity, equity and inclusion.” The horrors! Inclusion—how could we possibly want such a thing? Diversity? Well, we learned yesterday that Pete Hegseth is really against diversity in the military. His motto is, “diversity makes us weak.”

The federal government has no right to withhold funds from a city on such a pretext. But let’s think about what that money would be used for. It’s meant to improve infrastructure and make the lives of New Yorkers better by modernizing the subway and expanding the Second Avenue subway line, among other things. The improvements will also help the environment because improving public transportation increases the likelihood that people will use it instead of driving. In a city as densely populated as New York, this would be a very good thing. In what universe does it make sense to cancel $18 billion in infrastructure spending?

The difference between a Democratic administration and the Republican fascist regime we are currently suffering under is this: Biden funded infrastructure initiatives in red states to make people’s lives better; Donald is just holding the rest of us in blue states hostage, because we hate him.

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Because of the shutdown, things are about to get much worse for our economy. Despite the fact that Donald’s shutdown conveniently delays official jobs data, ADP released its initial finding on last month’s job report, and it’s abysmal. U.S. companies shed 32,000 jobs in September, according to the payroll processing company. This marks a surprising decline that adds to a growing concern about the rapidly weakening labor market. Our economy is worsening for Americans and it’s happening at an increasingly rapid pace. Donald can try to manipulate the jobs numbers all he wants, but his initial pick to take over the Bureau of Labor Statistics will no longer be leading that charge. After widespread criticism over his qualifications, including from the Republicans, the White House has withdrawn E.J. Antoni’s nomination.

It looks like Donald is going to have to find somebody else to distort numbers in his favor. The government shutdown, however, gives him an easy out, because we won’t have access to any data at all. American businesses and corporations will be flying blind at a particularly precarious time.

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Today, Donald faced setbacks in his quest to purge the government of non-loyalists. The Associated Press reports that the Supreme Court ruled that Lisa Cook should remain on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for now. They rejected the Trump regime’s request to have her removed immediately. It is illegal for the President of the United States to remove a Fed Governor, even for cause. Such a move would be unprecedented in the Fed’s 112-year history. This Supreme Court’s decision is an outlier. In other recent cases, the corrupt illegitimate super majority has allowed the firings of agency officials while court cases played out.

Oddly, and I don’t know why this ruling allows Cook to participate in the Fed’s final 2025 meetings, the court’s full arguments have been scheduled for January. That is a good thing, if perhaps a temporary one, because allowing Donald to stock the Fed with sycophants and loyalists would be yet another alarming trend: one, the Supreme Court’s attempt to make Donald an Imperial President without any way to reign him in; and two, it would just be horrible for the American economy to have a bunch of people who believe that they are more beholden to Donald than they are to the American people doing Donald’s bidding.

Donald’s lawlessness is legion, rapid and spreading. The courts do not have the appropriate mechanisms in place to counter his aggressive attempts to upend the rule of law. But we will take good news where we get it.