Mary:
Hello, and welcome to part two of my interview with Dean Obeidallah, host of The Dean Obeidallah Show on SiriusXM and the proprietor of the Substack, The Dean’s Report. In this part, we discuss Donald’s open corruption, the increasing violence of agencies like ICE, and how all of this underscores the existential importance of the 2026 midterms. I hope you enjoy it.
Dean:
The New York Times did some great reporting. For example, the United Arab Emirates invested two billion dollars—two billion, folks—into a company run by Donald Trump Jr. and related family interests. Then, two weeks later, they received approval for advanced semiconductor chips they had wanted.
Donald himself is making money from this. There’s the crypto scam—he and Melania are selling those coins—and the New York Times reminded us of that. Amazon is paying an enormous amount for the Melania documentary so Jeff Bezos and Amazon can get preferential treatment, fewer regulations, and federal contracts.
We’re watching a government for sale, like a third-world kleptocracy. That’s what he’s turned this into. And if the New York Times hadn’t done this reporting, it would just be scattered stories here and there. I don’t even know if it moves people anymore. I worry that too many people just shrug and say, well, that’s just Donald being Donald.
Mary:
That’s been one of the most damaging tropes in modern American politics. Nobody cares because that’s what we expected. Well, if that’s who he is and what he does, then that’s disqualifying. It’s not something we should accept and then make him president again.
It’s almost alchemical. I honestly don’t understand it beyond the fact that this is happening because a lot of people want it to happen. Donald remains useful to people in positions of power with obscene amounts of money, because he can get them even more money.
He’s openly talked about taking Venezuelan oil and just handing it to oil companies. What do we seriously think he’s going to do with rare earth minerals in Greenland if he gets his hands on them? He’ll give them to tech billionaires, AI companies, or sell them to the highest bidder.
That’s why this year we need to focus on the people perpetuating the horrors. It’s not just Donald. He’s being allowed to stay in power because he’s enriching and empowering other people who will ultimately do even more harm than he does, which is saying something.
Dean:
I couldn’t agree more. Yesterday on my SiriusXM show, and in an upcoming Substack piece, I talked about how if the European Union wanted to be serious about stopping Donald, they should do what they did to Putin—go after the oligarchs.
In this case, that means sanctioning Donald’s financial backers. Freeze assets. Ban travel to the EU. Prevent EU banks from doing business with their companies. Fossil fuel money, tech money, the people paying for the ballroom—go after them.
You apply pressure little by little and say, if you push further on Greenland, this escalates. That might be a pressure point. I don’t know. You understand him better than I do. But if the billionaires start saying, you’re destroying us, maybe then he’s forced out. Of course, then you get JD Vance, who would happily play along, and that’s deeply concerning too.
Mary:
One of the things they’re trying to do is change the system so much that when Donald exits stage left, it won’t matter who comes next. They’ll have created a structure they can’t lose. That’s why they’re focused on gerrymandering, locking in Republican seats, and entrenching power.
Dean:
When you look at it now, is reform just nonsense? When Democrats talk about reforming ICE, is that complete bullshit at this point? Do you have to abolish it given how bad things are and how widespread the abuse is?
Mary:
ICE should never have existed in the first place. Neither should the Department of Homeland Security. So yes, there is no excuse—none—for talking about reforming ICE.
How exactly would you reform this? Defund it? The Republican Party has completely abdicated its constitutional responsibility to control the purse. Donald will do whatever he wants with the money. ICE’s budget is roughly forty billion dollars.
And how do you reform this level of cruelty? It’s not a legitimate agency. It has to be abolished. Any Democrat who doesn’t have the courage to say that should step aside for someone who understands where we are and is willing to tell the American people the truth about the stakes.
You mentioned the momentum we had heading into 2026. The fastest way to squander it is to do what Democrats always do—tack to the right on immigration. Stop it.
Dean:
I don’t understand why party leaders ignore the base. The base is animated. Polling shows you can’t reform an agency this corrupt. The problem is structural and cultural.
Some people may have joined ICE years ago with good intentions. That’s no longer relevant. The agency is corrupted from top to bottom. And simply abolishing ICE without prosecuting crimes committed by ICE agents is meaningless. Those same people will just get hired elsewhere.
The only way to change conduct is accountability. The murder of Renee Good, the Fourth Amendment violations, excessive force, assaults—charge people. Prosecute them. People change behavior when jail is on the line.
We need Democratic attorneys general and district attorneys across the country—not just Keith Ellison in Minnesota—to charge ICE agents and let them litigate their claimed immunity. Make them show up in court. Make them post bail. That changes behavior immediately.
Mary:
I think you’re right. And just to show how desperate the Trump machine is to protect ICE and maintain this myth of absolute immunity, look at what’s happening now. The governor of Minnesota, the mayor of Minneapolis, the attorney general of Minnesota, and multiple others have been criminally subpoenaed.
The politicians and prosecutors trying to investigate the murder of Renee Good are now being targeted themselves. That’s where we are.
Dean:
They killed Renee Good and then turned around and investigated her widow. That’s straight out of Joseph Stalin’s playbook—execute someone and then invent crimes to persecute the surviving spouse.
The midterms are coming. I’ve compared them to the Battle of Gettysburg—not because this is a literal civil war, but because Gettysburg was a turning point. If we lose in November, it’s like Robert E. Lee winning Gettysburg and moving on Washington, New York, and Philadelphia. It’s over.
I don’t want to say it’s the most important election of our lives—that’s cliché. It’s the most important election of the life of our republic. How do we prepare? How do we keep people engaged and not feeling powerless?
Mary:
By focusing people on what we can do while understanding why the stakes are so high. They are trying to unravel 250 years of democracy and dismantle the post–World War II order. That was unthinkable to most Americans a year ago, but some of us have known this was coming since 2016.
This isn’t about saying I told you so. It’s about clarity. We had massive electoral success last year, especially toward the end, and we need to build on that momentum.
That also means challenging Democrats. Primary weak establishment Democrats who still cling to the myth of bipartisanship and treat fascists like colleagues. Watching Chuck Schumer hug Marco Rubio and laugh with him made me sick. Marco Rubio is a small man who feels powerful because he’s attached to a powerful regime. He’s profoundly anti-American and should be in The Hague.
Dean:
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve said repeatedly that while the International Criminal Court doesn’t have jurisdiction over crimes on U.S. soil, it does have jurisdiction in signatory countries. Denmark is a signatory. Venezuela is a signatory.
If Greenland were attacked, that would fall under ICC jurisdiction. Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and others could theoretically be charged with war crimes. He might be safe in the United States, but not elsewhere.
Mary, thank you for this conversation—the longest we’ve ever had, thanks to an internet glitch entirely on my end. I thought you froze, but you kept talking like an AI Dean was still listening.
Before we go, where should people follow your work?
Mary:
I’d love it if people checked out my Substack, The Good In Us. We also have a media channel, Mary Trump Media, on YouTube. And yes, I’m on all the platforms, because what else is there to do right now?
Dean:
Thank you so much, Mary. Thanks for your patience, and thanks to everyone for watching.
Mary:
Thank you so much for watching this interview with me and Dean. I hope you enjoyed it. Please take a second to share this video. It would be awesome if you could subscribe to the channel. If you’re listening in podcast form, please follow and give the show a five-star rating—it really does help other people find our content.
Thank you Kathryn Kirsten, Laura A. Drury, Sandra Steffen, Joanne Jubert, Mary Jo, and many others for tuning into my live video with Dean Obeidallah! Join me for my next live video in the app.
