On Friday night, President Donald Trump fired 15 independent inspectors general in a late night massacre that appears to have been illegal. Yet since then, that story has only gotten worse. First, Trump defended the purge by calling it “very standard,” attempting to normalize his lawlessness. Second, some Republicans quickly signaled that they will be just fine with this, confirming again that he’ll he’s be largely unbound in his second term. We chatted with Jennifer Rubin, co-founder of The Contrarian, who explains why this is illegal and poses a profound threat to good governance, how Trump’s absurd defense of it compounds the problem, and how Democrats and others can fight back. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump suffered his first legal setback Thursday when a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. The judge delivered quite a smackdown, saying the move “boggles my mind.” This comes as Trump’s Justice Department is no...

With Republicans struggling to spin Donald Trump’s pardon of 1,500 rioters who attacked the Capitol, CNN anchor Jim Acosta had a remarkable exchange with GOP Rep. Tim Burchett over the insurrection. Acosta refused to let the MAGA lawmaker evade how horrific Jan. 6 really was, and pinned him down on whether Trump was justified in pardoning people who savagely attacked cops. Why isn’t there more media questioning of Republicans like this? Would it make a difference if there were? We chatted with Matt Gertz of Media Matters about why the right wing media propaganda apparatus may be winning the Long War over Jan. 6, and how the media’s failure to meet the moment is helping to make it happen.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an extraordinary moment on Tuesday, Donald Trump was treated to a sermon in Washington by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who urged him to show mercy toward the likely victims of his policies, especially undocumented immigrants. Trump reacted angrily and dismiss...

Donald Trump insists he has a massive “mandate.” But The New York Times reports that his allies worry that big initiatives like mass deportations might not prove as popular as he thinks. They’re arguing over pardons of insurrectionists, which also mig...

This week, Donald Trump ranted that no one with ties to certain Republicans who have criticized him will get jobs in the new government. The inclusion of Nikki Haley among them got attention, because after her primary against Trump, she bent the knee and obsequiously endorsed him. It didn’t help her much: Her reward is Trump’s thorough humiliation of her. We think this is really a warning to future GOP critics: Cross Trump and you risk being on the outs, with no way back in. We talked to Casey Michel, a reporter who covers lobbying and influence peddling, and he explains how Trump’s rewarding of friends and punishment of enemies are central to a bigger story: His creation of a new Trump kleptocracy that will now dominate us.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, sought in some ways to project an apolitical aura. But Bondi also refused to answer direct questions about Trump’s threats to prosecute enemies, and dissembled about similar threats from Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to head the FBI. All this accidentally revealed something important. Bondi could not say straight out that she wouldn’t carry out Trump’s corrupt designs, because saying that could disqualify her in his eyes—which is itself the problem here. We talked to former prosecutor Mimi Rocah, who explains how Bondi exposed herself as an unreliable defender of the rule of law—and what that telegraphs about the coming hellscape of 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Jack Smith released his final report on Donald Trump’s insurrection, Trump erupted, gloating over the failure to prosecute him. Meanwhile, Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, MAGA hero Pete Hegseth, had some alarming moments at his confirmation hearing, and the MAGA cheerleading for him hints at ugly times ahead. Take this all together and Trump and MAGA look invincible right now. So we talked to historian Julian Zelizer, author of a good piece in The New Republic that reminds us that George W. Bush looked formidable in 2004, only to see the tide turn dramatically two years later. Zelizer discusses his new book, In Defense of Partisanship, and explains why Trump-MAGA’s grip on power may prove fragile, especially if Democrats fight them effectively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump recently declared that the U.S. is a “disaster” and a “laughingstock all over the world.” In reality, by many metrics, the economy is quite good, and our recovery from covid has been an international success story. But Paul Krugman recently noticed something interesting: This could create problems for Trump. As Krugman asked on his excellent new Substack, how will he justify radical, across-the-board tariffs and mass deportations if things are going well? We talked to Krugman, who explains how Trump is likely to resort to gale-force levels of propaganda, how he’s threatening havoc with the economy, and how his voters are getting “brutally scammed” in the process.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, Steve Bannon’s fury at Elon Musk truly went off the rails. Bannon, who has been feuding with Musk over immigration, vowed that he will run Musk out of the MAGA movement by Inauguration Day, suggesting this battle will continue once Donald Trump is in office. This battle exposes major divisions in the MAGA movement—yet Democrats aren’t really trying to exploit them. Why not? We talked to Mona Charen of The Bulwark, who has a good new piece arguing that Democrats need to find their footing as a loyal opposition. She explains what the feud says about Trump, the MAGA movement, and the rise of global authoritarianism and fascism—and how Democrats can rise to the moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we learned that Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito spoke privately with Donald Trump to recommend a former clerk for a job. Jamie Raskin just tore into this news, urging Alito to recuse himself from Trump-related matters. This comes as Trump ask...

With wildfires raging in Los Angeles, Donald Trump unleashed some ugly and hateful tirades on Truth Social. He attacked California Governor Gavin Newsom with a vile slur, blamed the fires on him and President Biden, and even scapegoated environmental protections, which Newsom’s office dismissed as pure fiction. We think this is best seen as another example of how the MAGA right wing seeks to thoroughly degrade public life at every conceivable opportunity. We talked to Nicole Hemmer, a leading historian of the conservative movement and the right wing media. She explains how today’s MAGA derangement traces its lineage back many decades, and discusses how we should respond. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump signaled that things are about to get very, very ugly. He wouldn’t rule out using military force to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal. He celebrated the idea that his threats to jail Mark Zuckerberg might have caused Zuckerberg to surrender to him. And Trump vowed to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. We talked to Jennifer Mercieca, a professor of rhetoric who writes about fascist tropes. She explains how Trump is attempting to acclimate Americans to expansionist nationalism and naked threats to jail people without cause to force them into line, and why that bodes so badly about what’s coming. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

miserable for Republicans in Congress, particularly Mike Johnson. He’s signaling that his demands of the House Speaker will be borderline impossible to meet. He continues to declare that he wants virtually his entire agenda pass in one big bill, which will put Republicans in a deep bind. And he’s empowered Elon Musk to propose huge spending cuts that will create major political problems for Johnson and the GOP. With Republicans already battling over all of it, we talked to congressional scholar Norman Ornstein, who decodes Trump’s latest gambits and the GOP infighting over them—and explains what it all signals about the travails Trump will inflict on Johnson and Republicans, not to mention his own voters. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, Donald Trump unleashed an angry new rant over the news that his sentencing for his hush money conviction will proceed this week. Buried in Trump’s rage was a key tell: He’s signaling that he’ll use his conviction as a pretext to carry out his own autocratic second-term designs. There are also indications that he hopes to milk his sentencing toward other ugly ends. We talked to Adam Gurri, the editor of Liberal Currents magazine, who’s been making good arguments lately about Trump’s pursuit of “personalist” rule, which shapes everything around the personality at the center of his movement. Gurri explains how Trump is already signaling that this is where his presidency will go—and why that’s so ominous. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As of this recording, lawmakers are still chaotically rushing to avoid a government shutdown. And one thing is already clear from this fiasco: Donald Trump will betray his voters very, very badly. Trump and Elon Musk killed a compromise bill, demanding deep spending cuts that would inflict real harm on Trump country, portending a lot more like this to come. (After we recorded, the House voted down the second government funding bill House Republicans advanced.) We chatted with Paul Waldman, the co-author of White Rural Rage. He explains why all this is happening, the tensions it reveals among Republicans, and how the Trump-Musk alliance looks poised to sell out MAGA voters.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, sounded an extraordinary warning this week. After a House GOP report recommended that the FBI prosecute Liz Cheney, Murphy argued in a social media thread that Donald Trump is clearly putting in place a plan to cripple our democracy, one we might never recover from. In an interview with the podcast, Murphy expands on his alarm, arguing that within a few months, some of Trump’s enemies might be in jail, the media might be cowed into submission, and that Democrats need to sound the alarm before it’s too late, lest Trump’s attacks on democracy prove “fatal.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, Donald Trump exploded with fury at Judge Juan Merchan after he refused to dismiss the hush-money conviction of Trump in Manhattan. Trump also filed a frivolous lawsuit against pollster Ann Selzer for getting her pre-election survey wrong, suggesting more bullying of the media is coming. Meanwhile, Donald’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump just brazenly suggested that Kash Patel is being installed as FBI director precisely to carry out revenge against Trump’s enemies. We chatted with Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall about his interesting new piece arguing that these targets need to band together in the face of what’s coming.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, Donald Trump issued some rambling, tortured claims. He bent over backwards to reassure people about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and vouched for the polio vaccine—while bizarrely clarifying that he sees “problems” with vaccines and even opposes vaccine mandates in schools. We think this reveals a surprising political vulnerability. Trump knows RFK’s extreme views are a problem, but also seems aware that being supportive of vaccine mandates might alienate some constituencies in his base. We talked to Anne Shoup, a senior adviser for the Democratic-allied group Protect Our Care, which is running ads against RFK, about whether stopping him is really possible and what more Dems should do to oppose Trump’s nominees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ABC News has abruptly agreed to a $15 million settlement with Donald Trump in his lawsuit against the network. Coming after Trump raged at ABC throughout the campaign, some observers see this as a sign of broader capitulation to him. Indeed, it comes as Trump openly boasted that he’s “tamed” the media. We talked to The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, author of Autocracy, Inc., who explains why this outcome has “really disturbing” implications, how Trump is conditioning Americans to accept authoritarian rule, and what the prognosis is going forward. It’s not great.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Christopher Wray resigned as FBI director, Donald Trump unleashed a long, angry rant on Truth Social, suggesting that a major purge of the bureau is coming—and that the targeting of his enemies will commence the moment Kash Patel is installed. Meanwhile, leading MAGA figures are ramping up pressure on GOP senators not to stand in Trump’s way—and some of them are already signaling they’ll likely fold. We talked to The Bulwark’s William Saletan, author of a good new piece on the dangers of this moment. He explains that this is what it looks like “when a criminal takes control of law enforcement,” and lays out what it will take for us to resist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Trump has stepped into the international limelight as the face of the new Trump oligarchy. At a conference this week, he told an audience that he and father Donald Trump will work together once Trump is president to push crypto, which the Trump family is invested in. Eric, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, has also been prominently negotiating the ethics policy—or lack thereof—that Trump will submit to as president. We talked to Casey Michel, the author of several books on American kleptocracy, who explains how ripe conditions are for unprecedented elite corruption to flourish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, Donald Trump and his advisers have left no doubt: He will deport as many of the 11 million undocumented people in this country as possible. But on Fox News, Alina Habba, who’s set to be a top White House lawyer, offered some new spin on the coming plan that revealed a lot about how Trump’s propagandists will try to defend the indefensible. We talked to Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director of America’s Voice, who grapples with the hardships that immigrants will soon face, why Latinos moved toward Trump, and how pro-immigration forces should rally in response to what's coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

These are heady times for MAGA. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elon Musk are teaming up to slash the government to ribbons as part of Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency. What could give MAGA a bigger thrill than that high-wattage duo? But Politico reports that some Republicans quietly fear that Greene’s involvement could become a major distraction from the Trump/GOP agenda. We talked to tech writer Gil Duran, a close observer of Musk’s machinations, who explains why the right-wing “techbro” worldview is so dangerous—and how Greene could make it even more combustible.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The New York Times reports that Donald Trump is telling advisers that his biggest regret from his first term was that he appointed “traitors.” As a result, his transition team is grilling prospective nominees to gauge their loyalty to Trump. Is there some way for Democrats to drive home how dangerous all this is? We chatted with Brian Beutler, author of the excellent Substack Off Message. He argues that even as Trump’s second-term plans are getting more overtly dangerous to the rule of law, Democrats need to do a lot more to alert the public to what’s coming—not just because it’s good politics, but because the country needs it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Points for candor to Senator Tommy Tuberville. On Thursday, he admitted he thinks Trump should vet his own nominees, suggesting the Senate GOP should forget about playing its advice and consent role. That’s a stark admission about what MAGA actually expects from Senate Republicans. Yet revelations about Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, are so damning that Republicans are finding him impossible to rubber-stamp, and he’s hanging in the balance. We chatted with Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, author of a new piece about Trump, Hegseth and the GOP. She explains how Tuberville said the quiet part out loud, how Trump is expressly trying to build a cabinet of misogynists, and how that’s backfiring, perhaps forcing Republicans to thwart his worst excesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump’s choice for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is hanging by a thread. GOP senators are clearly signaling that he’s in deep trouble. Yet powerful right wing influencers are now angrily rushing to Hegseth’s defense, urging those senators to stand behind him. We chatted with Matt Gertz of Media Matters, who has a good new piece reporting on Fox News’s efforts to save Hegseth. Gertz explains how MAGA is turning this into a test for GOP Senators: Will they surrender to the “liberal media” when it reports facts about Trump, or will they side with Trump and MAGA? If GOP Senators fail now, it bodes badly for what’s coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump’s administration is already shaping up as a Murderer’s Row of Billionaires. By one count, he’s already picked eight billionaires for top positions. He has now chosen a ninth billionaire to serve as Deputy Defense Secretary, and this one enjoys lucrative contracts with the Pentagon. We talked to Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, about how unprecedented it is to have so many billionaires in the government—and whether there are any post-Watergate safeguards left that can withstand the oligarchic corruption that’s about to hit us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an extraordinary expose, The New Yorker has revealed the “secret history” of Pete Hegseth, who’s Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary. This includes allegations of extreme drunkenness and financial mismanagement of a nonprofit he ran. Along with other highly unqualified nominees, this fiasco raises a question: Do Senate Democrats have what it takes to make revelations like these stick in confirmation hearings? We talked to Tara McGowan, a progressive media executive who often urges Democrats to go on the offensive. She explains how the party can get more serious about fighting the information wars—and why this will be essential during a second Trump presidency.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump just announced that his FBI director will be Kash Patel. We know why: Because Patel himself has already suggested that in a second Trump term, law enforcement should pursue Trump’s enemies, and as a result, Trump’s pick already has leading MAGA figures in a frenzy of excitement about the persecution that’s coming. It’s all a reminder that Trump feels zero constraints of any kind, again raising the question: Are the guardrails gone? We talked to Michael Sozan, a senior fellow for the Center for American Progress and author of a useful report that grapples with this very question. Sozan explains how far Patel will be able to get in carrying out Trump’s campaign of retribution, and why there’s cause for deep alarm.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices