Drawing on his experience with national security war-gaming, the author argues Democrats should “game out” how the Trump administration could disrupt or overturn the November midterms by identifying likely tactics and weak points in election systems. He claims Trump is signaling a desire to stay in power and is using escalating deployments of federal immigration agents, the National Guard, and potentially active-duty military in blue cities like Minneapolis to provoke unrest, blame Democratic officials, and justify further crackdowns. The piece warns that efforts to obtain and exploit state voter files could be used to improperly purge voters, alongside federal actions like searches of election offices and lawsuits seeking access to voter data. It also cautions that Postal Service date-sta...

The article argues that Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by contractor Charles Littlejohn, despite Littlejohn being prosecuted and imprisoned and despite the disclosures not preventing Trump from winning in 2024 or growing his wealth. It contends the suit is an effort to extract taxpayer money through a settlement with agencies Trump controls, aided by Justice Department leadership portrayed as loyal to him rather than independent. The author says the claimed damages from news coverage are implausible, the complaint even includes deposition testimony suggesting little harm was possible, and the legal theory effectively blames the government for any breach it had been warned could occur. The piece frames the lawsuit as especially ...

JVL and Sonny Bunch discuss the “Melania” film largely through the lens of Hollywood economics and politics, arguing that Amazon’s unusually high purchase price and massive marketing spend make it look less like a rational documentary investment and more like influence-seeking. They dig into the players behind it, including director Brett Ratner’s attempted comeback after MeToo-era allegations and the way conservative audiences can make documentaries profitable—though not at this budget—before turning to Sonny’s review that labels the project a glossy reality-TV-style hagiography rather than a real documentary. The conversation highlights how the film emphasizes wealth, image, and personal grievance while sidestepping major controversies, offering a revealing look at how media, money, and ...

In Columbia Heights, Minnesota, ICE agents have been repeatedly surveilling and detaining people around Valley View Elementary and nearby schools, leading to empty hallways, heightened fear, and staff and community members standing guard at drop-off and dismissal. Despite federal claims that enforcement targets criminals, local educators and families describe racial profiling and detentions that include at least six children in the district, such as 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and other students taken with their parents to a Texas detention facility. School leaders say they are struggling to keep students safe and learning as families avoid leaving home, absenteeism rises, and about one-fifth of students shift to virtual school. Teachers and parents have also taken on emergency roles—deli...

The author argues that the FBI’s search in Fulton County for 2020 ballots, unusually attended by DNI Tulsi Gabbard and reportedly directed from FBI headquarters, echoes Trump-world’s earlier push to frame the election as foreign interference and justify extraordinary measures like seizing voting machines via a draft executive order. They note the warrant cites federal election-record and fraud statutes and required a judge to find probable cause, but highlight irregular staffing and oversight choices, a special-appointed U.S. attorney, and renewed Trump fixation on 2020 fraud claims after the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and the presence of a former Venezuelan leader in U.S. custody. Because the statute of limitations has expired, the author contends the ballots’ retrieval is likely aimed at...

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared in Fulton County, Georgia, as the FBI executed a search warrant tied to a Justice Department effort to seize election data while pursuing alleged 2020 voter fraud claims. Her involvement is portrayed as unusual for the DNI role, which typically centers on foreign interference, and Georgia officials suspect she may be trying to link the seized records to unsubstantiated theories of overseas meddling. The Trump administration offered broad statements about election security but did not explain any specific foreign-intelligence basis for the probe, and planned appearances by senior officials at a secretaries-of-state conference were canceled without clarification. Democrats and some experts argued her presence risks politicizing intelli...

The article revisits the 2015 Jade Helm 15 conspiracy panic, when figures like Alex Jones and prominent Texas Republicans portrayed a routine military training exercise as an Obama-era plot to impose martial law, disarm conservatives, and expand surveillance and police militarization. Though the claims were baseless, they tapped into real post-Snowden fears and helped mainstream a worldview that treated political opponents as existential threats. A decade later, the author argues, the imagined scenario has flipped into reality under Trump’s second term, with DHS and immigration agencies deployed as heavily armed forces in cities that oppose him, backed by expansive surveillance and rhetoric about an “enemy within.” The piece cites shootings by federal agents and disputed “domestic terroris...

The article argues that the United States has been living through a decade-long “era of Trump” that feels repetitive and inescapable, even as figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene accuse MAGA leaders of serving wealthy donors. It traces Trump’s rise from the 2016 primaries to his continuing dominance and contends that his historical significance now rivals major twentieth-century presidents, though in a destructive way marked by the Capitol riot and erosion of democratic guardrails at home and abroad. Drawing on Lincoln’s warning about ambitious would-be tyrants, it says the country’s failure is especially disgraceful because Trump is portrayed as a comparatively unimpressive demagogue who rose during a period of relative peace and prosperity. The piece concludes that resisting authoritarian...

The article argues that Jeffrey Epstein positioned himself as a connector between Russian officials and Western tech and political figures, urging Russia to “leapfrog” the West by reinventing finance through technology-driven new money and securitisation, and claiming he had access to Vladimir Putin. It traces Epstein’s cultivation of Peter Thiel around cryptocurrency, regulation, and investments, alongside links to surveillance-oriented ventures and shared alignment with pro-Trump politics. Epstein is portrayed as tracking and exploiting major political events, including facilitating social contact between Trump-aligned actors and Russia’s UN ambassador during the 2016 election period. It also describes his focus on the UK and Brexit as both a market opportunity and part of a broader popu...

Chris Hayes examines Donald Trump’s escalating push to federalize and control election administration ahead of the 2026 midterms, arguing it follows the failure of an attempted gerrymandering strategy and growing signs of Republican vulnerability, including a major special-election swing in Texas. The episode details actions like the Fulton County ballot raid, the return of 2020-election “stop the steal” figures, and proposed legislation tightening voting rules, while raising concerns about leveraging federal agencies and surveillance to intimidate or extract voter data from blue states. Senator Chris Murphy joins to argue Trump is openly signaling an effort to relitigate 2020 and preempt future losses, while noting constitutional limits, potential Senate resistance, and the possibility th...

The episode examines the Washington Post’s latest round of major layoffs and what they signal about the shrinking capacity of legacy newsrooms to cover government and global crises. Hannah Rosen speaks with media analyst Joshua Benton about how the Post’s troubles reflect both the broader collapse of the ad-supported newspaper model and a Post-specific set of owner-driven decisions by Jeff Bezos, including ending presidential endorsements, shifting the opinion section’s ideological focus, and the resulting subscriber cancellations and talent exodus. They also discuss the civic costs of a weakened watchdog press, tensions between consumer protest and sustaining journalism, and what potential futures remain for the Post—ranging from renewed investment to further cuts or even conversion to a ...

The article argues that a Minnesota welfare-fraud case involving the Somali diaspora was weaponized by right-wing propaganda into a pretext for a heavy-handed federal crackdown, despite prosecutions already underway, illustrating how showmanship can invert public understanding and derail competent governance. It contends that liberals need a more visible, accountability-focused approach to welfare administration and immigration enforcement to preempt scapegoating and protect public support for an open society. At the same time, the author insists this posture must apply equally to domestic threats by treating corrupt oligarchs and anti-democratic actors as dangers to the American creed of equal rights under law. The piece urges Democrats to move away from reflexive good-faith assumptions a...

The FBI has invited chief election officials from all 50 states to late-February and early-March calls about preparations and resources for the 2026 midterm elections, but the unusual outreach—signed by a little-known “FBI Election Executive” named Kellie Hardiman and met with no FBI explanation—has unsettled some state officials amid broader political tension over election control. Separately, President Trump briefly posted an AI meme video that ended with a racist depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes alongside claims about rigged voting machines, drawing condemnation from critics and Democrats while the White House dismissed the backlash before Trump deleted the post. In a legal fight over the dismantling of USAID, a federal judge ruled Elon Musk and two former USAID officials ...

Jon Favreau and Charlie Wurzel discuss how the Trump administration and its allies use propaganda, “content,” and narrative warfare to blur reality, and how Minneapolis residents’ phone footage and offline mutual-aid organizing have countered smears, challenged the “perfect victim” frame, and provided a model for effective resistance. They then turn to the latest Epstein document release as an example of information overload and institutional impunity, arguing that real, fake, and contextless material collapses into gossip while accountability fails, further corroding public trust and fueling conspiratorial thinking. The episode also examines Elon Musk’s Grok enabling non-consensual AI sexual imagery and the rise of AI-agent ecosystems like “Moldbook,” warning that faster, less-governed au...

Tim Miller discusses a National Review series by Andy McCarthy that details alleged Trump-linked crypto profiteering, arguing it far exceeds the corruption claims Republicans leveled at the Bidens and highlighting conservative media’s selective outrage. The episode focuses on how a Trump crypto venture purportedly leveraged official U.S. influence—especially through ties involving Steve Witkoff, the UAE, and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao—to secure massive foreign investment, a pardon, and policy benefits like access to advanced chips and involvement in AI and TikTok-related deals. Miller also explores what it means politically for a traditionally conservative outlet to air such accusations, suggesting it signals a small but notable shift in willingness on the right to confront Trump’s con...

Greg Sargent and Lauren Groh-Wargo discuss the FBI’s seizure of stored ballots and election materials in Fulton County, Georgia, tracing it to a referral from election denier attorney Kurt Olson that relied on debunked 2020 fraud claims and raising concerns about politicized law enforcement. They explore how similar tactics could be used to disrupt ballot custody and vote counting in future close elections, alongside broader efforts to restrict voting and “nationalize” election control, and why local officials and courts may become the main line of defense. The episode also emphasizes the lack of bipartisan Republican pushback and argues that protecting election administration will require legal preparedness, informed local election workers, and high civic participation.

The episode focuses on escalating turmoil at Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, recounting a string of recent incidents involving botched operations, disputed shootings and official narratives, alleged misuse of taxpayer data, questionable staffing, lawsuits tied to immigration raids, and looming political fallout as Congress debates DHS tactics. It centers on new Wall Street Journal reporting portraying internal dysfunction and entitlement, including claims that a Coast Guard pilot was fired over Noem’s missing blanket, that adviser Corey Lewandowski sought a badge and gun and pressured agency lawyers, and that Noem’s personal control of contracts and pursuit of TV exposure have fueled waste and mismanagement. The broader theme is that DHS leadership is driven by optics, perso...

Stephen Colbert introduces a rebranded house band, Louis Cato and The Great Big Joy Machine, promoting their upcoming album and charity tie-in before pivoting to a comedic but pointed critique of network legal restrictions tied to the FCC’s Equal Time Rule. He argues that proposed changes floated by FCC chair Brendan Carr would chill political appearances on late-night TV while leaving partisan talk radio untouched, framing it as political pressure aimed at silencing criticism. Colbert explains he’ll move the blocked interview with Texas State Representative James Tallarico to the show’s YouTube channel and riffs on the absurd limits placed on even mentioning or depicting the candidate.

The article argues that Putin’s long-standing push to dismantle the liberal international order is being advanced by Trump’s foreign policy, which normalizes spheres of influence and a “might makes right” approach that could reduce U.S. support for Ukraine and strain NATO. Russian media largely welcomes this shift, but some pro-Kremlin voices worry it also enables U.S. moves that threaten Russia’s interests, especially in the Arctic. The piece contends that the rules Putin resented also provided predictability and constraints on stronger rivals, allowing Russia to leverage institutions and norms to compensate for its weaker economy and limited conventional power. In a more anarchic great-power world, Russia faces growing vulnerability—economic stagnation, military strain in Ukraine, depend...

The episode focuses on mounting backlash—especially from right-leaning and MAGA-aligned voices—over the Trump administration’s attempt to downplay and contain revelations connected to the Epstein files, with discussion of upcoming congressional scrutiny including testimony from billionaire Les Wexner. The hosts and guests argue that Epstein-related conspiracies functioned as a core MAGA belief system tied to “drain the swamp” promises, so Trump’s perceived opacity and defensiveness is read not just as political damage but as a betrayal that destabilizes that worldview and alienates broader anti-elite voters. They also explore why Trump might want to keep the issue closed, including speculation that the files could be leveraged for influence or pressure over powerful figures potentially imp...