Trump’s Lawless, Petty, and Vindictive Purge of the Justice Department and FBI
We begin with Trump’s lawless, petty, and vindictive purge of the Justice Department and the FBI, making a mockery of pledges made by Pam Bondi and Kash Patel in their confirmation hearings to head the DOJ and FBI. Joining us is Bill Yeomans, a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School who previously taught constitutional law, civil rights, and legislation at American University Washington College of Law and also spent 26 years in the Department of Justice, serving in a series of management positions, including acting Assistant Attorney General. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Alliance for Justice.
Musk and Trump’s Shock and Awe Campaign to Wreck and Loot the U.S. Government
Then we look into Trump and Musk’s fast and furious “shock and awe” campaign to wreck and loot the U.S. government by stripping funding from the programs the American people rely on in order to make up for the revenue loss, as they give massive tax cuts to billionaires and corporations. Joining us is Karen Dolan, the Project Director of the Poverty and Race Project at the Institute for Policy Studies whose work focuses on anti-poverty issues, local democracy and empowerment, and peace. She previously coordinated the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, with the late New York Times Best-Selling Author Barbara Ehrenreich, and is author of The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of Poverty. We discuss her article at otherwords.org titled “Trump’s Freeze Was a Brazen, Unlawful Attempt to Steal Our Tax Dollars.”
Trump Slaps Tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, in a Dangerous and Misguided Frenzy of America First Nationalism
Then finally, with Trump slapping tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China in a flurry of America First nationalism, we assess how misguided and expensive his accelerated great-power competition with China will be, assuming Trump doesn’t roll over and cave to Xi Jinping in a corrupt and artless photo-op deal. Joining us is Michael Brenes, Interim Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and Lecturer in History at Yale University and a senior nonresident fellow at the Center for International Policy. He is the author of For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy. His new book, with Van Jackson, is The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy. They have an article at Foreign Affairs, “Trump and the New Age of Nationalism: A Dangerous Combination for America and the World.