Background Briefing (5am) – April 1, 2025
Upcoming Episode
Background Briefing (5am)
5:00 AM PACIFIC TIME: TUESDAYS - FRIDAYS
Annelle Sheline / Thomas Bollyky / Ruth Conniff
Team Trump’s Amateurs and Incompetents Exposed on the Signal Group Chat Prepare to Bomb the Houthis Again, Maybe This Time With “Clean Opsec”?
RFK Jr’s Brutal Cuts to HHS as His Quackery Harms Kids From Cod Liver He Recommends Instead of a Measles Vaccination
Are We About to See a Defeat of Musk in Wisconsin, After Successfully Buying the White House, the Senate, and the House?
Lincoln Mitchell / Michael Hiltzik / David Daley
Heading Into the Generational Fight Against MAGA Fascism
Can Social Security be Saved From Musk’s Wreck Then Rob?
Trump’s Executive Order to Rig Elections in His Favor He Claims Have Been Rigged Against Him
Jacob Heilbrunn / Gregory Treverton / Samuel Moyn
The Trump Team Group Chat Reveals Vice President Vance is Running the Presidency, Along With Stephen Miller
Incompetent and Unqualified Heads of U.S. Intelligence on Display Before the Senate Intelligence Committee Today
The Courts Will Not Save Us, Since They Got Us Into This Mess
David Phillips / Asher Kaufman / Olga Lautman
Trump Greenlights Erdogan’s Crackdown, While Musk Removes Turkish Opposition Content on X
The Strategy Behind Netanyahu’s Resumption of His War on Gaza
The Pathetic Asymmetry Between Seasoned Russian Diplomats and Intelligence Professionals Negotiating Against Trump’s Real Estate Buddy Witkoff
David Bateman / Ken Vogel / Alex Isenstadt
The MAGA Trump/Vance Takeover of American Education Using Money to Control Minds and Eradicate Intellectual Inquiry
Trump and the GOP Aim to Cripple the Left by Defunding Democrats
Vengeance Drives Trump As He Tears Down People and Institutions
Marci Shore / Michael Gorham / Henri Barkey
Could Massive Demonstrations Against Despots and Kleptocrats in Serbia and Hungary be a Model For the U.S. to Get Rid of Trump and Musk?
Russia Claims Victory After Trump’s Call With Putin, Who Paid No Price For Rejecting Trump’s Ceasefire Deal
Will Erdogan Get Away With the Brazen Jailing of the Leader of Turkey’s Opposition?
Omar El Akkad / David Faris / Simon Rosenberg
As Netanyahu Renews His War On Gaza, We Challenge the Comfort Zone of What is Happening in Distant Lands
As Musk and Trump Tear Through the Fabric of American Society, the Days of Choosing Between Gutless Liberals and Callous Conservatives are Over
What Kind of Opposition Will Emerge at This Critical Moment For the Survival of American Democracy?
John Nichols / Jonathan Zimmerman / Nader Hashemi
A Growing Grassroots Opposition Movement to Catch up to the Damage Musk and Trump Are Doing
Musk’s Gutting of the Department of Education Before Trump Abolishes it
The Bombing of the Houthis as a Prelude to a “Peace” Deal With Iran Meant to Deliver Trump a Nobel Prize
David Enrich / James Galbraith / Ben Burgis
The Strategy Behind Trump’s War on the So-Called Legacy Media
An Assessment of How the Senate Democrats Might Extricate Themselves From the Government Shutdown Trap
Having Decided Chuck Schumer Is No Longer Jewish, Trump Conflates Terrorism, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Americanism
Tom Mockaitis / Robert Creamer / Michael Swaine
With Trump Attacking Free Speech on Campuses, Should We Expect Patel and Bongino to Order the FBI to Round Up Trump’s Critics and Those on Patel’s Enemies List?
The Dilemma Senate Democrats Face Whether to Vote For a Bad Bill or Stand up to Trump and Musk and Risk a Government Shutdown
Trump’s Losing Strategy of Wooing Putin Away From Xi and Musk’s Outsized Influence Over China Policy