Brad Reed, Common Dreams

Dozens of former US Department of Justice attorneys have now gone on record to describe the unprecedented corruption of federal law enforcement taking place during President Donald Trump’s second term.

In a lengthy story published on Sunday by the New York Times, the former DOJ attorneys described rampant politicization of prosecutions, directives to dig up evidence on Trump’s political foes, and orders to drop investigations into potential terrorist plots and white-collar crimes.

Several attorneys told the paper that the corruption of the DOJ began on Trump’s very first day in office when he issued a blanket pardon to everyone who had been convicted of rioting at the US Capitol building on his behalf on January 6, 2021, in a last-ditch effort to prevent the certification of former President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Gregory Rosen, who oversaw the unit at the DOJ that prosecuted January 6 rioters, told the Times that he felt “numb” seeing the pardons of the rioters, but he nonetheless facilitated the pardons because he understood they were within the president’s constitutional powers.

Mike Romano, a prosecutor who worked on January 6 cases, said that he had to resign as soon as he saw the broad scope of the pardons, which included rioters who were guilty of assaulting police officers.

“It’s incredibly demoralizing to see something you worked on for four years wiped away by a lie—I mean the idea that prosecution of the rioters was a grave national injustice,” he said. “We had strong evidence against every person we prosecuted.”

The mass pardon of the Capitol rioters was only the beginning, as prosecutors said that this politicization soon swept over the entire department.

In early March, for instance, Trump signed an executive order targeting law firms that had in the past represented prominent Democrats. Among other things, the order demanded federal agencies cancel government contracts with the firms and strip the firms’ employees of their security clearances.

The orders also accused some of the firms in engaging in supposed racial discrimination for maintaining policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Dena Robinson, a former attorney at the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, told the Times that the DEI investigation into law firm Perkins Coie was a particularly extreme example of the department’s politicization under Trump.

“The idea of the investigation was that Perkins Coie supposedly engaged in illegal discrimination against white men,” she explained. “But Perkins Coie is an extremely white firm—only 3% of the partners are Black. When my colleague pointed that out, the leadership didn’t care. They’d already reached their conclusion.”

Robinson said that this attitude was emblematic of how Trump appointees conducted investigations: They begin with desired conclusions and systematically ignore evidence that undermines them.

“I wouldn’t even call it the Justice Department anymore,” she said. “It’s become Trump’s personal law firm. I think Americans should be enraged.”

Another aspect of the DOJ under Trump that has drawn scrutiny has been his use of pardons for political allies, including his decision last month to pardon Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2023, and who had helped boost the value of the Trump family’s own cryptocurrency venture.

A new investigation from ProPublica found that Trump’s use of the pardon hasn’t just been relegated to prosecutions that took place during Democratic administrations.

The ProPublica report found Trump had wiped out convictions in “at least a dozen criminal cases that originated during his first term,” many of which involved politicians convicted of taking bribes or engaging in kickback schemes.

Frank O. Bowman III, a professor emeritus of law at the University of Missouri, told Pro Publica that the Trump pardons taken together are part of what he described as “the systematic destruction of the Justice Department as an objective agency that seeks to uphold the law and fight crime.”

In addition to this, Joseph Tirrell, former director of the Departmental Ethics Office, told the Times that the Trump DOJ has been hacking away at rules that bar law-enforcement officials from accepting gifts.

In one instance, Tirrell said he tried to intervene to stop DOJ employees from accepting cigars given by mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor and a soccer ball from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

“I felt like I really had to go to the mattress to convince the AG’s office: You can pay for the item or you can return the item or you can throw the item away,” he said. “There’s no other way to do this.”

Shortly after this, Tirrell said he got a call from the FBI general counsel inquiring “about changing exceptions to the gift rules because his boss, [FBI Director] Kash Patel, felt like he should be able to accept more expensive gifts.”

Tirrell said that he then reminded the counsel that “his client was not Mr. Patel, but the United States.”

Patel in recent weeks has come under scrutiny for some of the perks he’s taken during his time as FBI director, including using the FBI’s private jet to fly to a wrestling event where his girlfriend, country music singer Alexis Wilkins, was performing the national anthem.

MS NOW reported on Monday that Patel has also given Wilkins “a security detail made up of elite FBI agents usually assigned to a SWAT team in the FBI field office in Nashville,” an unprecedented arrangement for the girlfriend of the FBI director.

Christopher O’Leary, a former senior FBI agent and MS NOW law enforcement contributor, said that there is “no legitimate justification” for granting Wilkins this level of security.

“This is a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources,” he said. “She is not his spouse, does not live in the same house or even the same city.”

The No Kings Alliance on Friday announced that it was mobilizing in support of Starbucks workers who went on strike this week to demand a fair contract.

The alliance, which organized one of the largest demonstrations in US history last month with nationwide “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump’s administration, pledged solidarity with the striking workers, while highlighting the massive disparity in pay for Starbucks baristas and the company’s CEO.

“Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol was paid $96 million for just 120 days of work in 2024, paying himself 6,666 times what the average barista made—the worst CEO-to-worker pay inequity in the country,” said the alliance. “At the same time, Trump and his billionaire backers are doing their best to scare people out of speaking up for their rights on the job and in their communities.”

“Don’t cross the picket line,” the alliance urged its supporters, while also encouraging them to sign the “No Contract, No Coffee” pledge, an online petition demanding that the company negotiate with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) on a just contract.

“I call on you to bargain a fair contract with Starbucks Workers United baristas!” the pledge reads. “I support Starbucks baristas in their fight for a union and a fair contract, and pledge not to cross the picket line. That means I will not patronize any Starbucks store when baristas are on [unfair labor practices] strike.”

The striking Starbucks workers also got a pledge of solidarity from the AFL-CIO, which on Thursday urged the company to hammer out a deal with its workers to ensure fair pay and schedules.

“For four long years, SBWU members have fought tirelessly for better pay, fair hours, and adequate staffing for more than 12,000 workers and counting,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler. “Yet Starbucks has dug its heels in, engaging in shameless and persistent union busting... We urge Niccol and Starbucks corporate executives to finally do right by the workers who drive the company’s profit and negotiate a long-overdue fair contract.”

SEIU pledged support for the Starbucks workers, while also placing the strike in the context of the broader fight between labor and capital.

“Today’s strike isn’t just about Starbucks,” the union wrote in a social media post. “It’s about a broken system where billionaires and CEOs keep getting richer while the politicians they bankroll gut our wages, healthcare, and rights. Baristas are fighting for a fair contract and for a more just society.”

Some progressive politicians also gave the striking workers a shoutout.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) vowed to keep out of Starbucks franchises until the workers’ demands are met.

“When we strike, we win!” Tlaib exclaimed.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani joined the Starbucks boycott and encouraged all of his supporters to follow suit.

“Together, we can send a powerful message: No contract, no coffee,” the democratic socialist wrote.

Democratic socialist Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson—whose city is home to the coffee giant’s headquarters—attended an SBWU rally where she joined them on the picket line and said, “I am not buying Starbucks, and you should not either.”

Starbucks workers began their strike on Thursday, and SBWU has warned the company that it is prepared to dig in for a long fight unless it returns to the negotiating table.

Negotiations between the union and Starbucks stalled out last spring, and more than 90% of unionized baristas last week voted to authorize a strike intended to hit the company during the busy holiday season.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani may have a chance to fulfill one of his campaign promises on his first day of office, although legal experts have repeatedly cast doubt on his power to make it happen.

Republican New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov on Tuesday sent a formal invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak in New York City on Jan. 1, while at the same time daring Mamdani to keep his pledge to have him arrested on war crimes charges.

“On January 1, Mamdani will take office,” Vernikov wrote in a post on X. “And also on January 1, I look forward to welcoming Bibi to New York City. NY will always stand with Israel, and no radical Marxists with a title can change that.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) last year issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed at least 69,000 Palestinians.

During his successful mayoral campaign, Mamdani repeatedly said that he would enforce the warrant against Netanyahu should the Israeli leader set foot in his city.

Although Mamdani backed off some of his most strident past statements during the campaign, particularly when it comes to the New York Police Department (NYPD), he doubled down on arresting Netanyahu during a September interview with The New York Times.

“This is a moment where we cannot look to the federal government for leadership,” Mamdani told the paper. “This is a moment when cities and states will have to demonstrate what it actually looks like to stand up for our own values, our own people.”

However, legal experts who spoke with the Times cast doubt on Mamdani’s authority as the mayor of a major American city to arrest a foreign head of government, even if the person in question has been indicted by the ICC.

Among other things, experts said the NYPD does not have jurisdiction to arrest Netanyahu on international war crimes charges, and the Israeli leader would have to commit some crime in violation of local state or city laws to justify such an action.

Additionally, the US has never been a party to the ICC and does not recognize its legal authority.

Matthew Waxman, a professor at Columbia Law School, told the Times that Mamdani’s stated determination to arrest Netanyahu was “more a political stunt than a serious law-enforcement policy.”

President Donald Trump’s push for mid-decade redistricting to prevent Republicans from losing control of the US House of Representatives appears to be on the verge of backfiring.

The latest blow to Trump’s nationwide redistricting efforts came in Utah, where District Court Judge Dianna Gibson shot down a proposed map drawn by Utah Republicans because it failed to abide by a 2018 ballot measure that restricted partisan gerrymandering in the state.

As reported by NBC News, Gibson instead approved a map that created “a solidly Democratic seat ahead of next year’s midterm elections,” thus giving Democrats a likely net gain of one seat in the US House.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin hailed Gibson’s ruling and vowed that Democrats weren’t finished fighting Trump’s efforts to rig next year’s elections in his favor.

“Utah Republicans gerrymandered the maps because they knew they were losing power in the state,” he said. “Republicans doubled down when they chose to submit another gerrymandered map, but today, they were once again thwarted by impartial Courts. Democrats will continue to fight for fair maps in Utah, regardless of what Donald Trump and Utah Republicans try next. Every seat counts, and Democrats everywhere are fired up and ready to take back the House in the midterms in 2026.”

Dave Wasserman, a senior elections analyst at Cook Political Report, wrote in a post on X that the Democrats’ Utah victory, along with California voters’ approval of newly gerrymandered maps and reported plans to redraw maps in Virginia, have “pushed the mid-decade redistricting war closer to a draw.”

In a lengthy analysis published in Bloomberg on Tuesday, columnist Mary Ellen Klas argued that Republicans should take a deep breath before going all-in on Trump’s unprecedented mid-decade redistricting crusade, which began in Texas and subsequently spread to Missouri and North Carolina.

The issue, Klas explained, is that Republicans in those states have carved out more GOP-friendly districts based on assumptions that Republican gains among Latino voters and young men would hold in 2026. As last week’s sweeping Democratic victories showed, however, the GOP now appears to be hemorrhaging support among these two demographics.

“In New Jersey, 68% of Latino voters broke for Democrat Mikie Sherrill,” wrote Klas. “So did 56% of men under the age of 30. In Virginia, 67% of Latino voters went for Democrat Abigail Spanberger. So did 57% of men under 30. Many of these voters had voted for Trump last year. The exit polls show that both Sherrill and Spanberger won 7% of Trump’s 2024 voters, with Sherrill getting a whopping 18% of Trump’s Hispanic support in the state.”

If those trends hold over the next year, it could wipe out advantages the GOP had hoped to gain with its Texas gerrymander, which assumed that Latino voters who swung to Trump in the state would remain loyal partisan soldiers.

“Republicans are hardly going to admit it, but they should evaluate whether Trump’s push to ignite a redistricting arms race may have made it easier for a blue wave to wipe out more Republicans than if they had left their maps alone,” argued Klass.

In fact, some Republican strategists are already fretting about Trump’s gerrymandering plan, as one anonymous GOP insider told NBC News that if the endgame of the plan was “to net one seat across the country, then it will not have been worth it.”

A second anonymous GOP insider told NBC that there was “some concern” about whether Texas Republicans may have made themselves more vulnerable to a blue wave next year.

“In Texas, I do think there is some sense those seats will be ours, but nothing is guaranteed, so some concern there,” they said.

Chicago residents are increasingly resisting operations being conducted by federal immigration enforcement operations in their city, while at the same time warning the rest of the country about the trauma federal agents are inflicting on their communities.

In a lengthy article published in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend, journalist Andrew Carter documented how residents of the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago, which has been the target of multiple raids over the last month, have created a network of neighbors who carry whistles with them at all times so they can alert people when federal agents are in the area.

Baltazar Enriquez, president of the community counsel in Little Village, told Carter that he began walking around wearing a whistle this past June, and he said that since then “it grew like wildfire,” and spread to other neighborhoods in the city.

One person who has joined in the resistance to the immigration raids is Lisa Porter, a 53-year-old suburban mother who told Carter that she had never been much of an activist until she found herself horrified by videos of masked agents snatching people off the streets.

Porter said that she’s been following the lead of other Chicagoans in trying to warn people in her neighborhood whenever federal agents are in the area. In one particularly memorable instance, Porter said she saw a young man mowing a lawn in her neighborhood and told him to keep an eye out for Immigration and Customs Enforcement patrols that she’d seen earlier.

“They came and took my dad 10 minutes ago,” the young man said in reply.

Kyle Kingsbury, a Chicago-based computer safety researcher, wrote on his personal blog over the weekend about the pervasive sense of fear that has consumed his community ever since immigration officials began ramping up operations earlier this fall.

In his lengthy essay, Kingsbury said that he is constantly receiving messages from neighborhood watch groups alerting him about masked federal agents detaining people while going about their daily lives, including one notorious recent incident where officials dragged a woman out of the local childcare facility where she worked.

“This weight presses on me every day,” he explained. “I am flooded with stories. There are so many I cannot remember them all; cannot keep straight who was gassed, beaten, abducted, or shot. I write to leave a record, to stare at the track of the tornado. I write to leave a warning. I write to call for help.”

Kingsbury also warned that federal immigration officials, whether in the form of ICE or the US Border Patrol, are acting like an unaccountable secret police force akin to those typically seen in totalitarian states.

“I want you to understand, regardless of your politics, the historical danger of a secret police,” he wrote. “What happens when a militia is deployed in our neighborhoods and against our own people. Left unchecked their mandate will grow; the boundaries of acceptable identity and speech will shrink.”

Chicago Alderman Mike Rodriguez, who represents Little Village, told Block Club Chicago on Monday that recent Border Patrol operations in the neighborhood have been like a “reign of terror,” and he noted that agents once again deployed tear gas while making arrests over the weekend.

Despite angry condemnations from local officials and residents, US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino appears completely unbowed.

As Block Club Chicago reported, Bovino brought dozens of agents with him on Monday for a photo-op at the famous Cloud Gate sculpture—often called The Bean—in Millennium Park in which they smiled and collectively said “Little Village,” in mocking reference to the neighborhood they’ve been raiding, as photographers snapped pictures.

Sen. Angus King, one of the senators who broke with the majority of the Democratic caucus to support a deal to end the federal government shutdown, drew swift anger when defending his vote on Monday morning.

During an appearance on MSNBC‘s “Morning Joe,” King (I-ME) tried to make the case that shutting down the government had only given President Donald Trump a free hand to consolidate power in the White House.

“In terms of standing up to Donald Trump, the shutdown actually gave him more power, Exhibit A being what he’s done with [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program],” he said. “So, standing up to Donald Trump didn’t work, it actually gave him more power.”

Senate Democrats who supported the deal have been denounced by progressives, and even some moderates, for agreeing to fund the federal government without securing an extension for enhanced tax credits for people who buy health insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges. The tax credits have been at the center of the shutdown—the longest in US history—but the Democrats who voted with the GOP did so after securing only the Republicans’ claim that they’ll hold a vote on healthcare in the future.

Polls have shown a majority of voters have blamed the Republican Party for the shutdown, and a plurality of respondents to a KFF survey last week said Democrats should hold firm in their demand on healthcare subsidies. Trump said last week that the election results put more pressure on the GOP—not the Democrats—to take action to end the shutdown.

Additionally, the decision to cave on the shutdown came less than a week after Democrats won sweeping victories in key elections where candidates unapologetically stood up to Trump and vowed to fight his administration’s unpopular policies.

Given this, King’s statement that “standing up to Donald Trump didn’t work” was met by swift and immediate blowback.

“Bold choice going with a strategy of ‘we are losers,'” wrote Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters for America, in a post on X.

“Breaking Points” host Krystal Ball reacted with angry profanity to King’s statement.

“Jesus f---ing Christ,” she fumed. “Resign. Genuinely just f---ing resign.”

Photographer Brett Banditelli accused King and his like-minded Democratic senators who supported the deal of “living in another reality.”

“They’re just DC brained,” he wrote on Bluesky. “They live in a world where Politico and Punchbowl News are the most important publications.”

Indivisible cofounder Leah Greenberg sarcastically imagined Democrats incorporating such “inspiring messaging” about failing to stand up to Trump into fundraising appeals.

Fordham University economist Tony Annett marveled at King’s belief that it was ineffective to stand up to a president with historically low approval ratings, which stood at just over 41% last month according to one poll.

“No wonder their brand is in the toilet,” he said of the Democratic Party.

A Pew Research poll released in late October found that two-thirds of Democratic voters said they were “frustrated” by the party, with the top listed reason being that Democrats have “not pushed back hard enough against the Trump administration.”

Democrats’ sweeping victories in elections across the country this week may not be buying goodwill for party leadership among grassroots Democratic activists.

Progressive organizing group Our Revolution on Thursday released a survey over more than 3,500 voters showing there is overwhelming support for running primary challenges against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who for months have come under fire for failing to more aggressively combat President Donald Trump’s administration.

Overall, the survey found 90% of respondents want Schumer to step aside as leader, while 92% would back a primary challenge against him when he’s next up for reelection in 2028.

The survey showed less support for dumping Jeffries, although 70% said he should step aside, with 77% backing a primary challenger.

Additionally, two-thirds of respondents said that “current Democratic leaders do not understand the struggles of the working class, with confidence in party leadership remaining in the single digits.”

Our Revolution also hailed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s insurgent campaign as a successful model for Democrats across the country, as the organization said a message of “lowering the cost of living and holding corporations accountable” strongly resonated with progressive voters.

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, warned that establishment Democrats could pay the price if they try to brush off democratic socialist Mamdani’s victory as a fluke.

“Mamdani’s victory was not an outlier. It was a rallying cry,” he said. “The grassroots are demanding change. They want a Democratic Party that fights for working families, taxes the rich, and takes on Trump and the oligarchs driving this affordability crisis. The old guard must step aside or risk losing the movement that delivered these wins.”

Mamdani wasn’t the only candidate to successfully run on lowering the cost of living, as Democrats on Tuesday also scored upset victories by flipping two seats on the Georgia’s Public Service Commission, which is responsible for regulating utility prices in the state. In those elections, the Democrats hammered GOP incumbents for signing off on six rate increases for the state’s largest electricity provider over the past two years.

The US labor market, which in recent months had ground nearly to a halt, now appears to be entering a downward spiral.

As reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, new data from corporate outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employers in October announced 153,000 job cuts, which marked the highest number of layoffs in that month since October 2003.

Total announced job cuts in 2025 have now reached 1.1 million, a number that the Post describes as a “recession-like” level comparable to the steep job cuts announced in the wake of the dotcom bust of the early 2000s, the global financial crisis of 2008, and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

John Challenger, the CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, told the Post that the huge number of October layoffs showed the economy was entering “new territory.”

“We haven’t seen mega-layoffs of the size that are being discussed now—48,000 from UPS, potentially 30,000 from Amazon—since 2020 and before that, since the recession of 2009,” he explained. “When you see companies making cuts of this size, it does signal a real shift in direction.”

CNBC noted that the Challenger report found that the tech sector is

currently being hardest hit by the layoffs, and it said that the adoption of artificial intelligence was a significant driver of job cuts.

“Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes,” the report said. “Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market.”

With the backing of Big Tech investors, President Donald Trump has pushed to prevent states from regulating AI, over the objections of labor groups and progressive lawmakers. Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) warned that without strong regulation, tech billionaires’ investments in AI will likely “increase their wealth and power exponentially” while wiping out “tens of millions” of jobs.

According to Bloomberg, however, AI adoption is just one factor in companies’ decision to enact mass layoffs, as some firms have also cited the need to protect their profit margins from the impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have raised prices for a wide variety of products and materials.

Democratic lawmakers were quick to seize on the news of mass layoffs as evidence that Trump is sending the US economy into a ditch.

“Trump put billionaires in charge of everything,” remarked Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) in a social media post. “It’s a disaster.”

“Trump inherited the fastest growing economy in the [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], fastest reduction in inflation, record job creation,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL). “Dumb tariffs, racist immigration policies, attacks on the rule of law and termination of congressionally mandated programs did this.”

Several major US corporations in the last month have announced plans to cut thousands of workers as layoffs in the American economy have reached their highest level since 2020, when much of the global economy was shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As reported by Bloomberg on Monday, major firms including Target, Amazon, Paramount, and Molson Coors in October announced plans to lay off a combined total of more than 17,000 workers for a wide variety of reasons ranging from the impact of artificial intelligence to declining sales.

Taken together, these layoffs point to a significantly weakened labor market, which had already ground to a halt over the summer when the last jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed the economy created just 22,000 jobs in the month of August.

And while the BLS has stopped releasing monthly employment reports during the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, Bloomberg pointed to data collected by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showing that there have been “almost 950,000 US job cuts this year through September, the highest year-to-date total since 2020—and that was before the heavy October run of announcements.”

Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade Americas, told Bloomberg that he has detected a definite shift in the jobs market in recent weeks.

“We’re not just in a low hire, low fire environment anymore,” he explained. “We’re firing.”

Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, said in an interview with Reuters that he also expected the labor market to get worse in the coming months due to “adverse policy shocks emanating from Washington,” as well as “the change in behavior among corporates who hoarded labor for the past four to five years,” and were thus reluctant to carry out layoffs.

“That was never an indefinite behavior,” he said. “We’re going to see migration up in the unemployment rate.”

John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, told CBS News last week that he didn’t think that the layoffs announced over the last month were just a blip.

“These are major layoffs, the kind of which we only see in periods of real change in the economy,” he emphasized.

One challenge for economists in assessing the current state of the economy is the vast gulf between the experiences of America’s highest-earning households and households at the bottom of the economic ladder.

According to a Monday report from CNBC, recent corporate earnings reports have shown signs of a so-called “K-shaped” economy in which well-off consumers are maintaining or increasing their spending while low-income consumers are being forced to cut back.

“Last week, Chipotle reported it’s seeing consumers who make less than $100,000 a year, which represents roughly 40% of the company’s customer base, spending less frequently due to concerns about the economy and inflation,” CNBC noted. “Coca-Cola said in its third-quarter earnings that pricier products like Topo Chico sparkling water and Fairlife protein shakes are driving its growth. Procter & Gamble reported similar results, saying wealthier customers are buying more from club retailers, which sell bigger pack sizes, while lower-income shoppers are significantly pulling back.”

A Monday report from Fortune similarly picked up on evidence that the US is in the midst of a K-shaped economy, as it found that the percentage of Americans taking on subprime loans in the third quarter of 2025 reached its highest level since 2019.

This is significant, Fortune noted, because an increased reliance on subprime loans “adds to signs that many are facing increased financial pressure” to make ends meet. What’s more, Fortune pointed to a recent analysis from Moody’s showing that the top 20% of households in the US are now responsible for economic growth, while the bottom 80% have essentially been stagnant.

Lucia Dunn, an economist at Ohio State University, told Fortune that this economic disparity could increase instability if not addressed.

“We are losing the middle class,” Dunn said. “And when you get to a society where there are a lot of people at the bottom and then a small group at the top, that’s a prescription for real trouble.”

The reports of the layoffs in corporate American come as a new analysis released Monday by Oxfam offered the latest look at extreme wealth inequality in the US, with the the 10 wealthiest Americans gaining nearly $700 billion so far this year—and as millions of people have lost crucial federal food assistance due to the government shutdown and the Trump administration’s refusal to release full benefits.

Independent New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo does not appear to want President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

During a Monday interview flagged by MeidasTouch, Cuomo was asked by WQHT morning show host Ebro Darden about Trump giving the former New York governor a backhanded endorsement over his top rival, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“Your boy was just on ‘60 Minutes,’ Cuomo, saying you’re his guy,” Darden informed Cuomo.

“No,” Cuomo responded.

Darden, however, pressed the issue.

“Trump said you’re his candidate!” he said. “If he had to pick a bad Democrat or a... communist, he’s picking you!”

There were then several seconds of silence after this before Darden’s co-host, Peter Rosenberg, concluded that he had left the interview.

Co-host Laura Stylez lamented that Cuomo never answered Darden’s question about the Trump endorsement.

“I really wanted to hear that answer!” she said.

Rosenberg then said that he heard a “click” on Cuomo’s end, which indicated that he had apparently ended the call.

“Wow!” exclaimed Stylez. “OK!”

“Oh well!” said Darden.

During an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said that he was “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other,” before adding that he would nonetheless prefer him to Mamdani.

Mamdani, a Democratic state Assembly member who has represented District 36 since 2021, immediately pounced on Trump’s remarks and sarcastically congratulated his rival for winning the endorsement of a Republican president who is deeply unpopular in New York City.

“Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo!” he wrote in a social media post. “I know how hard you worked for this.”

A leaked audio recording from a Cuomo fundraiser in the Hamptons in August included comments from the former governor about help he expected to receive from Trump as he ran as an independent in the mayoral race, following his loss to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Cuomo and Trump have reportedly spoken about the race, which will be decided at the ballot box on Tuesday.

Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Monday taunted top rival Andrew Cuomo for receiving a decidedly backhanded endorsement from President Donald Trump.

During an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, Trump criticized both Cuomo and Mamdani, but said that he would pick the former New York governor to be New York City’s next mayor if forced to choose.

“I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other,” the president said. “But if it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.”

Mamdani, a Democratic state Assembly member who has represented District 36 since 2021, immediately pounced on Trump’s remarks and sarcastically congratulated his rival for winning the endorsement of a president who is deeply unpopular in New York City.

“Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo!” he wrote in a social media post. “I know how hard you worked for this.”

A leaked audio recording from a Cuomo fundraiser in the Hamptons in August included comments from the former governor about help he expected to receive from Trump as he ran as an independent in the mayoral race, following his loss to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Cuomo and Trump have reportedly spoken about the race.

The former governor has also suggested that protests against Trump’s deployment of federal immigration agents are an “overreaction,” and has declined to forcefully condemn the president’s weaponization of the justice system against his political opponents.

The New York City mayoral election will conclude on Tuesday night, and polls currently show Mamdani with a commanding lead over Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that New Yorkers cast 735,000 early ballots this year, which the paper notes is “the highest early in-person turnout ever for a non-presidential election in New York.”

The Times also noted that more than 150,000 early ballots were cast on the final day of early voting, driven by a surge in young voters flocking to the polls.

“Turnout among younger age groups lagged early in the week, with about 80,000 people under 35 voting from Sunday to Thursday,” the Times explained. “That number jumped from Friday to Sunday, with over 100,000 voters under the age of 35 casting ballots, including more than 45,000 on Sunday.”

Laura Tamman, a political scientist at Pace University, told Gothamist on Monday that the surge in youth turnout in the last days of early voting was a “meaningful shift,” and likely good news for Mamdani’s chances on Tuesday.

In the closing days of the campaign, Cuomo has been accused of employing racist tactics as he has tried portraying Mamdani as an outsider who does not share New York’s cultural values, and he pointed to the fact that Mamdani has dual citizenship with the US and Uganda as evidence.

“His parents own a mansion in Uganda, he spent a lot of time there,” Cuomo said during an interview on Fox Business. “He just doesn’t understand the New York culture, the New York values, what 9/11 meant, what entrepreneurial growth means, what opportunity means, why people came here.”

Cuomo also appeared to agree with a recent comment from radio host Sid Rosenberg, who said Mamdani would “be cheering” if “another 9/11” took place.

“This is Andrew Cuomo’a final moments in public life,” said Mamdani in response to the remark, “and he’s choosing to spend them making racist attacks.”

As millions of families across the U.S. face loss of food aid over the weekend, President Donald Trump on Friday decided to show off photos of a White House bathroom that he boasted had been refurbished in “highly polished, statuary marble.”

Trump posted photos of the bathroom on his Truth Social platform, and explained that he decided to remodel it because he was dissatisfied with the “art deco green tile style” that had been implemented during a previous renovation — which he described as “totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era.”

“I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble,” Trump continued. “This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!”

Trump’s critics were quick to pan the remodeled bathroom, especially since it came at a time when Americans are suffering from numerous policies the president and the Republican Party are enacting, including tariffs that are raising the cost of food and clothing; expiring subsidies for Americans who buy health insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges; and cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) programs in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Sure, you might not be able to eat or go to the doctor, but check out how nice Trump’s new marble s----er is,” remarked independent journalist Aaron Rupar on Bluesky.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who has become a critic of Trump, ripped the president for displaying such tone deafness in the middle of a federal government shutdown.

“Government still shutdown, Americans not getting paid, food assistance for low-income families and children about to be cut off, and this is what he cares about,” he wrote on X. “He’s a psychopath, humanly incapable of caring about anyone or anything but himself.”

Don Moynihan, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, expressed extreme skepticism that the White House bathroom during Abraham Lincoln’s tenure was decked out in marble and gold.

“Fact check based on no research but with a high degree of confidence: This is not the marble that was originally in the Lincoln Bedroom,” he wrote. “It is more likely to be retrieved from a Trump casino before it was demolished.”

Fashion critic Derek Guy, meanwhile, mostly left politics out of his criticisms of the remodeled bathroom, instead simply observing that “White House renovations are currently being spearheaded by someone with famously bad interior design taste.”

Earlier this month, Trump sparked outrage when he demolished the entire East Wing of the White House to make way for a massive White House ballroom financed by donations from some of America’s wealthiest corporations—including several with government contracts and interests in deregulation—such as Apple, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Palantir.

Officials in Evanston, Illinois, are accusing federal immigration officials of “deliberately causing chaos” in their city during a Friday operation that led to angry protests from local residents.

As reported by Fox 32 Chicago, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and other local leaders held a news conference on Friday afternoon to denounce actions earlier in the day by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials.

“Our message for ICE is simple: Get the hell out of Evanston,” Biss said during the conference.

In a social media post ahead of the press conference, Biss, who is currently a candidate for US Senate, described the agents’ actions as “monstrous” and vowed that he would “continue to track the movement of federal agents in and around Evanston and ensure that the Evanston Police Department is responding in the appropriate fashion.”

As of this writing, it is unclear how the incident involving the immigration officials in Evanston began, although witness Jose Marin told local publication Evanston Now that agents on Friday morning had deliberately caused a car crash in the area near the Chute Elementary School, and then proceeded to detain the vehicle’s passengers.

Videos taken after the crash posted by Chicago Tribune investigative reporter Gregory Royal Pratt and by Evanston Now reporter Matthew Eadie show several people in the area angrily confronting law enforcement officials as they were in the process of detaining the passengers.

The operation in Evanston came on the same day that Bellingcat published a report documenting what has been described as “a pattern of extreme brutality” being carried out by immigration enforcement officials in Illinois.

Specifically, the publication examined social media videos of immigration enforcement actions taken between October 9 to October 27, and found “multiple examples of force and riot control weapons being used” in apparent violation of a judge’s temporary restraining order that banned such weapons except in cases where federal officers are in immediate danger.

“In total, we found seven [instances] that appeared to show the use of riot control weapons when there was seemingly no apparent immediate threat by protesters and no audible warnings given,” Bellingcat reported. “Nineteen showed use of force, such as tackling people to the ground when they were not visibly resisting. Another seven showed agents ordering or threatening people to leave public places. Some of the events identified showed incidents that appeared to fall into more than one of these categories.”

President Donald Trump’s surprise order to resume nuclear weapons testing has set off concerns about a potential global arms race, but one Democratic senator is working to stop it from happening.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Thursday introduced emergency legislation to prevent the president from resuming nuclear weapons tests, which experts have warned could undermine global geopolitical stability as more nations could respond by ramping up weapons tests of their own.

The text of Markey’s bill is just two pages and it states that “none of the funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2026, or authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for any fiscal year before fiscal year 2026, and available for obligation as of the date of the enactment of this act, may be obligated or expended to conduct or make preparations for any explosive nuclear weapons test that produces any yield.”

In a statement promoting the bill, Markey warned that restarting nuclear weapons tests would be “a mistake of radioactive proportions,” which Congress should intervene to block.

“The United States has not conducted a nuclear test since 1992, and there is absolutely no need to resume,” Markey said. “A Trumpatomics plan would provoke Russia and China to resume nuclear testing, and China in particular has much more to gain from this than does the United States. This is a reckless directive from Trump that will only make the country and the world less safe and lead to a terrible new nuclear arms race.”

Markey, who co-chairs the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, also urged the US Senate to finally ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was first adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996 and which has been ratified by 178 other nations.

The UK-based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) on Thursday put out a statement condemning Trump’s weapons testing announcement, which it described as “a wake-up call that the threat of nuclear war is real and accelerating.”

The organization also pointed out that resuming nuclear tests was not the only way that the US under the leadership of both Trump and former President Joe Biden is increasing the risks of nuclear war. Among other things, CND pointed to risks posed by the “Golden Dome” missile shield being pushed by Trump, as well as the AUKUS Agreement signed during Biden’s tenure that gives Australia access to nuclear-powered submarines.

CND general secretary Sophie Bol warned of the dire consequences of a global nuclear arms race and said “it is absolutely critical that we rachet up the political pressure to make these world leaders—including the British government—step back from this nuclear escalation.”

In an editorial published by Common Dreams on Thursday, Pavel Devyatkin, nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, argued that the resumption of nuclear weapons tests “marks a dangerous turning point in international security.”

In particular, Devyatkin argued that resuming such tests would imperil chances of extending the nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia that has been in effect since 2011.

“The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the last agreement limiting US and Russian nuclear weapons, expires in February 2026,” he explained. “For over a decade, New START has kept a cap on deployed warheads and compelled both sides to transparency through data exchanges and inspections. If this agreement expires, there would be no binding limits on the two countries’ nuclear arsenals.”

President Donald Trump’s family has long generated controversy and criticism for running a cryptocurrency business during his second term in office, and now they’re adding an online betting business to their portfolio.

The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that the president’s Truth Social platform is getting into the prediction market business to allow bettors to place wagers on the outcomes of elections, sports games, and other events.

The new “Truth Predict” betting market platform will be a partnership between the Trump Media and Technology Group and Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency trading platform that in the past has donated millions to Trump causes.

According to the Financial Times, the Trump family in recent months has become more intertwined with the online betting industry, as Donald Trump Jr. has taken on “advisory roles at the two industry-leading prediction market companies, Kalshi and Polymarket.”

Additionally, Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm has invested in Polymarket, which Wired reports has not operated in the US since 2022 when it reached an agreement with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission to settle allegations that it operated an unregistered derivatives trading market.

Mike Masnick, a journalist at Techdirt, pointed out the glaring conflict of interest posed by the most powerful person in the world owning his own prediction market platform.

“So the company the president currently owns is teaming up with a cryptocurrency company to create a prediction market, which will take bets... on things the president himself has quite a lot of control over?” he wrote in a post on Bluesky. “Gosh, I’m sure nothing bad will happen.”

The Trump family’s entrance into the online betting market came on the same day that Reuters published an extensive report showing how the Trump family has used its cryptocurrency business to generate a massive increase in wealth in a matter of mere months.

According to Reuters' calculations, “the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier,” with more than 90% of this income coming from the Trump-backed cryptocurrency venture. Reuters also reported that the $800 million is just the actual income the Trump Organization has taken in so far, and that it has billions more in unrealized gains from the crypto venture.

Washington University law professor Kathleen Clark, who specializes in teaching government ethics, told Reuters it was obvious that investors in the Trump crypto venture were hoping to get some kind of favor from the government in exchange.

“These people are not pouring money into coffers of the Trump family business because of the brothers’ acumen,” she said. “They are doing it because they want freedom from legal constraints and impunity that only the president can deliver.”

Trump last week sparked corruption accusations when he pardoned cryptocurrency magnate Changpeng Zhao, whose company Binance has been a major booster to the Trump family’s crypto business.

“Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1,”The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. “It delivered World Liberty’s first big break this spring when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance has also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controls.”

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Tenn.), who for years investigated former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for his foreign business dealings, was asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if he would investigate the Trump family’s crypto venture.

Comer indicated that he was fine with the Trump family’s potentially corrupt money-making schemes because they were being done out in the open.

“We... are reading about this, we’re trying to digest it,” he said. “The difference between the way the Trump family’s operating and the Biden family, is they’re admitting they’re doing this. The president campaigned as a business guy... as long as you disclose the income and disclose the sources, I think that’s acceptable.”

Critics of the president, however, said this hands-off approach to investigating the Trump family’s business dealings was unacceptable.

Democratic operative David Axelrod wrote in a post on X that it is “kind of incredible that the House Oversight Committee is spending its time on Biden’s auto pen but they won’t touch how Trump has doubled his wealth in a year.”

Axelrod also thought congressional investigators should be asking about “who’s buying his meme coins,” “the deals his kids are cutting all over the world,” and “the gifted jet from Qatar.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued that no president in US history has engaged in this level of corruption.

“Trump and his family’s crypto ventures are selling out our national security through sweetheart deals with money launderers, fraudsters, and foreign governments,” he wrote on X. “The scale of this corruption—reaping more than $800 million and pardons for business partners—is unprecedented.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted on Tuesday that Binance this week promoted sales of the Trump family’s meme coin mere days after the president pardoned its founder.

“The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine,” he said.