David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Robert Reich, a former Secretary of Labor and a professor of public policy, is sounding the alarm — warning that President Donald Trump plans to invoke the Insurrection Act, and detailing the steps he may take to make it happen.

Reich, the author of 20 books, said on Thursday: “Trump wants to invoke the Insurrection Act, to punish anyone who opposes him.”

In his video, he played a clip of the President saying recently, “If you take a look at what’s been going on in Portland, it’s been going on for a long time and that’s insurrection. I mean, that’s pure insurrection.”

Military, legal, and political experts this week warned after Trump vowed to invoke the Insurrection Act if he deems it necessary — a move some see as the culmination of an authoritarian trajectory he has been telegraphing since taking office. No president has used the law in more than three decades, and then only in limited, localized crises.

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Reich went on to say, “I know all of this is frightening, and I don’t want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of this imminent danger. It’s unfolding very, very rapidly.”

Explaining what he described as Trump’s four-point plan, Reich said step one “is to deploy ICE into so-called blue cities, run by Democrats. These masked and armed ICE agents are wreaking havoc on American cities and violating due process. They’re arresting people outside immigration courtrooms. They’re raiding homes in the middle of the night, and detaining children and adults, including American citizens. They admit to using racial profiling.”

Step two, he said, is “exaggerate the scale and severity of the protests.”

Step three: “Deploy National Guard troops.”

“Trump is deploying hundreds of National Guard troops from red states, like Texas, into blue states like Oregon, and Illinois, against the wishes of Democratic governors,” Reich said. “This is continuing to enrage an already outraged public — which is the whole point.”

“Trump wants to stoke actual violence, which would make it easier for him to unleash the final step in his plan, which is step four, invoke the Insurrection Act.”

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“The Insurrection Act empowers a president to federalize the National Guard and use the U.S. military to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or armed rebellion against the government,” Reich explained. “Everything done by Trump has been a preamble to invoking this act, and being able to unleash troops against his perceived political enemies who oppose his regime in advance of the 2026 midterms. It would be the ultimate step in Trump’s authoritarian power grab.”

He said that “Trump and his enablers want violent confrontations in order to justify their moves. So, please, remain peaceful if you protest, or if you encounter ICE agents, or National Guard troops where you live. Do not give Trump what he wants.”

On Wednesday on Substack, Professor Reich wrote: “The direction we’re going is either martial law or civil war.”

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, one of the most outspoken members of the Democratic Party, took to the Senate floor to explain what he said is President Trump “enacting a well thought out plan so he and his allies can rule forever.”

“We aren’t on the verge of an authoritarian takeover,” the Connecticut Democrat declared. “We are in the middle of it.”

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U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, one of the most outspoken members of the Democratic Party, took to the Senate floor to explain what he says is President Donald Trump “enacting a well thought out plan so he and his allies can rule forever.”

“We aren’t on the verge of an authoritarian takeover,” the Connecticut Democrat declared. “We are in the middle of it. But I worry people don’t see the whole scheme. They just pay attention to each new daily outrage.”

He detailed what he says is the Trump administration’s five-point plan.

Step one: “Turn the justice system into a political witch hunt operation that punishes critics for free speech and immunizes loyalists for actual criminality.”

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“We are seeing this at scale right now,” he said. “The indictment of James Comey, for no crime.” Murphy explained that no prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia would sign the indictment.

“President Trump sent his personal lawyer to take over that office. Because only she would sign that indictment.”

Murphy explained that the goal is not to arrest everyone who opposes the President, but rather to “just put enough fear into the ranks of those who might speak truth to power,” so that they might “stay quiet.”

Step two: “Use government power to compel the media to tell only the regime’s narrative and to silence critics.”

He explained that that would include eliminating the free press and replacing it with state media.

“I don’t know that I’d go so far to say that we have state run media in the United States yet, but there is an attempt underway to try to use the vast regulatory powers of the administration to censor media.”

That includes threatening to pull TV station licenses, as well as the “consolidation of media into the hands of allies of the president.”

READ MORE: ‘The Ground Has Shifted’: Experts Warn After Trump’s ‘Gnat’ Speech to U.S. Navy

“One family that has just taken control of a major media group that owns, amongst other properties, CBS, is looking to also take control of CNN, and may have an ownership stake and a control stake in TikTok,” Murphy said. “That family has shown a willingness to censor contents. Pulling Stephen Colbert off the air, and to put in place, essentially, Trump approved sensors for their future news content.”

Step three: “Use the military to perform political intimidation in places with high levels of opposition to the regime.”

He said sending the military to blue cities is “illegal.”

“But it is designed to once again quell dissent and protest. This isn’t about public safety, this is about political intimidation,” Murphy alleged. “And you’re just naive if you think that folks aren’t going to be a little less interested in showing up at a protest if they are worried about getting roughed up by law enforcement.”

Step 4: “Seize control of Congress’s spending and tax powers to use those powers to reward loyalists and punish opponents.”

He said he cannot understand why there is not “bipartisan agreement” among Democratic and Republican lawmakers to oppose Trump “seizing” Congress’s power to tax and spend.

Step 5: “Rig the rules and the information. Tilt the election playing field your way and destroy the idea of truth.”

This includes, Murphy said, Trump demanding red states redraw congressional districts to allow the GOP to add more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Totalitarian states can’t accept truth, so they try to destroy truth,” Murphy explained. “That’s what Donald Trump is doing.”

“I know this sounds extreme,” Murphy wrote. “It is.”

“I know I sound overly alarmist,” he continued. “I don’t think I am. Trump is enacting a well thought out plan so he and his allies can rule forever. But it’s not too late to stop them.”

“If you allow yourself to connect the dots. If you allow yourself to see the whole story — the totality of this story — you will see the grave danger that we are in.”

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The White House appears to be telegraphing President Donald Trump’s plans to expand the domestic deployment of military forces across U.S. cities — defying opposition from local leaders — while attacking the press for reporting it.

Describing the President’s deployment of the National Guard and U.S. military, ostensibly to protect ICE agents, federal buildings, and patrol city streets, as a “proven formula” to curb crime — which FBI data show was already declining nationwide — Leavitt rebuked the press for “framing this like the president wants to take over the American cities with the military.”

Asked at Monday’s briefing if Democrats have “reason to be concerned that there are long-term plans by this administration to keep U.S. military or the National Guard in American cities, like what we’re seeing here in Washington,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “Why should they be concerned about the federal government offering help to make their cities a safer place?”

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Aside from Washington, D.C., no mayor who has been notified of possible federal troops on their streets has supported the idea. Mayor Bowser has taken a reserved stance, given the District’s federal constraints. Federal law, in most cases, requires the governor to ask the President for troops.

“They should be concerned about the fact that people in their cities right now are being gunned down every single night, and the president, all he’s trying to do is fix it,” Leavitt insisted, despite troops largely being unwelcome.

She decried what she alleged was a “complete smear campaign by the Democrats and the media, quite frankly.”

“I was reading Politico Playbook this morning — one of the most inside the Beltway newsletters you can find — and you guys are framing this, like the president wants to take over the American cities with the military. The president wants to help these local leaders who have been completely ineffective in securing their own cities,” Leavitt claimed, before suggesting plans for further militarization.

“And we have already seen, there’s a positive formula for that. Look at Washington, D.C. The murder rate has declined significantly. Our streets are safer. People who live here feel safer. All of you in this room, I know you do. You just won’t admit it.”

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“And it’s a proven system that works, and the president wants to make America’s cities safe again,” Leavitt added. “And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

Critics blasted Leavitt’s remarks.

“Troops are being deployed to US cities where the crime rate has plummeted—against the wishes of states, cities, and local residents. It IS a takeover. No other way to frame it,” wrote political strategist Sawyer Hackett.

Democratic activist and strategist Olivia Julianna pointed to a headline that read: “Trump says military should use U.S. cities as ‘training grounds’.” She commented, “This was LAST WEEK btw.”

Author and political commentator Brian Tylor Cohen remarked: “Probably because that is *quite literally* what’s happening.”

READ MORE: ‘Intolerable Abuse of Power’: Top Democrat Rages at Trump’s ‘MAGA Propaganda’ Scheme

National security, military, legal, and political experts are warning that President Donald Trump crossed a dangerous line in his latest speech — a televised, rally-style address to more than 10,000 U.S. Navy service members in which the commander in chief urged the troops to “take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats,” a statement many view as an authoritarian abuse of the military’s apolitical role.

“But we have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder, called the Democrats,” Trump told the cheering Navy crowd in Norfolk, Virginia, that included sailors, SEALs, and Marines. “They want to give all of our money to illegal aliens that pour into the country.”

The late Sunday afternoon event was slated as a celebration of the Navy’s 250th anniversary.

READ MORE: ‘Intolerable Abuse of Power’: Top Democrat Rages at Trump’s ‘MAGA Propaganda’ Scheme

Juliette Kayyem is a senior public policy lecturer and the faculty director of the Homeland Security Project and the Security and Global Health Project at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as a CNN senior national security analyst and a contributor to The Atlantic, according to her bio.

She wrote: “‘Take care of’ is not subtle. This weekend the ground has shifted and no person can deny what the president, unpopular and unfit, intends. To remain silent is to welcome this. They can both sides or claim they didn’t hear, but there is no wiggle room about his plans now.”

Political and national security analyst, and well-known veterans advocate Paul Rieckhoff called the President’s “gnat” remark “wrong, outrageous, shameful and disgusting.”

“These are lines that should never been crossed,” he warned. “And have never been crossed. But he keeps crossing them.”

“Never let them normalize how wrong it is to attack political opponents when speaking to a military audience,” Rieckhoff added. “This is impeachable behavior. But not a single member of Congress has the courage to make the case. And it’s getting worse fast.”

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Stanford Professor of International Studies in Political Science Michael McFaul, a former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, remarked: “In front of this audience, this statement is wrong… and scary. He is supposed to be the president of the United States of ALL Americans, not just his party. Polarization is destroying our country at home and making us weaker abroad.”

Political and communications consultant Jesse C. Lee, a former Biden and Obama official, observed: “Trump is on a tour of speeches to our active military, telling them that the new focus is going to be on wars against the ‘enemy within’ and that Dems are bugs that need to be exterminated, while sending the National Guard to occupy ‘Democrat run cities.’ Textbook fascism.”

U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) wrote: “Donald Trump keeps blurring the line between law enforcement and the military to go after political opponents. It’s unacceptable, and it’s how authoritarians consolidate power. We must name and resist every attempt to use government power to silence dissent.”

Gregg Nunziata is the executive director, Society for the Rule of Law, a Federalist Society member, and a former attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

He wrote: “‘We have to take care of this little gnat on our shoulder called the Democrats,’ says the American President to cheering servicemembers. This is so incredibly repugnant and un-American, on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin.”

Dave Cavell, a former speechwriter for President and First Lady Obama and Vice President Harris, remarked: “I’m a former WH speechwriter who has written many speeches to those who serve. I can barely describe the rage and shock I feel seeing this lunatic spew vile, fascist style garbage at our troops, whose mission is to serve us all, not a party — or this bozo.”

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In a late-night social media posting spree, President Donald Trump promoted a meme that declared Democrats are the “party of hate, evil, and Satan.” The attack on his political opposition comes just weeks after the President and his allies blamed Democratic rhetoric for the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, despite providing no evidence to support their claims.

The meme the President posted also stated that the Democratic Party is “dead,” and has “no leadership,” “no message,” “no hope,” and, “their only message for America is to hate Trump.”

In an Oval Office address just after Kirk’s assassination, Trump declared:

“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.”

READ MORE: ‘Intolerable Abuse of Power’: Top Democrat Rages at Trump’s ‘MAGA Propaganda’ Scheme

“For years,” he continued, “those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

HuffPost reported on Friday that Trump “presumably” had been in “a snit over the continued partial government shutdown,” and “literally demonized his political opponents while his allies promote lies about Democrats wanting to give health insurance to undocumented migrants.”

Overnight, the President also posted several other memes and videos, including one that The Daily Beast on Friday described as “presumably an AI-generated cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s 1976 hit ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,’ portrays … OMB director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought as the reaper in question.”

“The visuals, which are also AI-generated, show Vought as the Grim Reaper, cavorting around Washington, D.C., while wielding his scythe. Interspersed throughout are shots of a band led by Trump playing a cowbell—one is famously used on the original track—accompanied by Vance on the drums.”

Trump, who had disavowed any knowledge of Project 2025 throughout his 2024 campaign, on Thursday announced he was meeting “with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”

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Political scientist Larry Sabato is warning that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party may exploit the likely federal government shutdown, saying that the GOP, as the “anti-government party,” is “perfectly happy” when the government shuts down and “perfectly happy to eliminate quite a number of domestic policy programs.”

Republicans will “go after anything that Democrats normally favor, and they’ll probably try to do it in a way that will not be repairable once this shutdown ends,” warned Professor Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He noted that the Trump administration’s goals include shrinking or eliminating large parts of the federal government.

Calling it “a very real threat,” Sabato told CNN that the White House has already warned that a shutdown could provide “a pretext for laying off many more federal workers.”

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“They’re going to use this as best they can. Never let a crisis go to waste — that’s their theory.”

Sabato said it “would take a pocket full of miracles to stop what’s likely to happen at midnight,” and warned that “Trump is not bluffing.”

“The reason the implications are serious is because so much of what the U.S. government does grinds to a halt,” Sabato also said.

“Probably the most serious part of it is that the troops and the TSA officers and lots of other people, including air traffic controllers, while they have to show up, are not paid. So if this goes on for 35 days, there are a lot of families who are without food.”

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“But, look,” he added, “the only thing that could break this and keep it relatively short is if you had mass protests from, say, the TSA workers and the air traffic controllers.”

“Oh, and by the way, the military — none of them are paid during a government shutdown, yet they are mandated to attend work.”

“Well, you know, that tends to wear on people, especially if they can’t pay their weekly or monthly bills.”

America, Sabato said, is “headed for another disaster and another advertisement to the world that the American system no longer works.”

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U.S. Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) called for President Donald Trump and his senior administration officials to treat House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in the same manner they treated Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this year when they appeared to gang up on and berate the Ukrainian president.

Trump has not met with the Democratic leaders since he took office in January, and canceled a meeting with them slated for last week. They will be meeting in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon to discuss ways to avert a federal government shutdown at midnight on Tuesday.

Alford, a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, told NewsNation on Monday, “Let’s give them a little taste of what we gave Zelenskyy back in the spring.”

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Trump has falsely claimed that Democrats are “threatening” to shut down the government “unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens.”

He, also wrongly, has claimed Democrats want to “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”

Alford echoed some of those allegations in his Monday remarks.

“So, this is what they wanted, all this crazy spending, going back to the woke policies and giving illegal aliens health care. Trump said, ‘There’s no way, why should I meet with them?'” Alford said.

“I think, over the last couple of days, he’s rethought that. Let’s bring them into the Oval Office. Let’s give them a little taste of what we gave Zelenskyy back in the spring,” the Missouri Republican declared.

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“This is going to be live viewing, I believe, in the Oval Office,” Alford said, “like you’ve never seen before, maybe an hour-long meeting, and the American people can see for themselves the ridiculous request and demands as the Democrats hold them hostage.”

Jeffries on Monday told reporters, “We’re headed into the meeting [with Trump] to have a good faith negotiation about landing the plane in a way that avoids a government shutdown but does not continue the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people.”

Democrats are “using one of their few points of leverage to demand Congress take up legislation to extend health care benefits,” PBS News reported. “Trump has shown little interest in entertaining Democrats’ demands on health care, even as he agreed to hold a sit-down meeting Monday with Schumer, along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. The Republican president has said repeatedly he fully expects the government to enter a shutdown this week.”

READ MORE: Shutdown Meltdown: Trump Hits Democrats With ‘Transgender for Everybody’ Charge

With just days to go before the federal government could shut down, President Donald Trump appeared to welcome the crisis, blaming Democrats who refused to support his policies for the impending calamity while charging them with wanting “transgender for everybody.”

The president did not explain his allegation.

“They want to have transgender for everybody. These people are crazy — the Democrats,” the president declared. “So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting down the government.”

Speaker Mike Johnson has already sent members of the House home, and “may not bring the House back at all next week,” according to Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman. “They think the ball is in the Senate’s court," he said, "and they will return when they have a bill to pass,” to keep the government open.

READ MORE: ‘They’ll Be Others’: Trump Says More Indictments — of Democrats — to Come

Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.

Trump has told Republican House and Senate leaders not to negotiate with Democrats and canceled a meeting with the top Democratic leaders earlier this week.

Trump this week has also alleged that Democrats are “threatening” to shut down the government “unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens.”

He, also wrongly, claimed Democrats want to “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”

On Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why he would fire or lay off federal workers — which his administration has threatened to do — rather than furlough them, as is the norm during government shutdowns.

“Well, this is all caused by the Democrats,” Trump replied.

READ MORE: ‘Ridiculous and Weak’: Trump’s ‘Triple Sabotage’ Mocked as Fox Hypes Escalatorgate

President Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for his administration’s plan not to furlough federal workers if the government shuts down on October 1, but to instead conduct mass firings.

Trump has ordered House and Senate Republicans not to negotiate with Democrats on legislation to fund the federal government, keeping it open after funds run out at midnight on September 30. He canceled a meeting with Democratic House and Senate Minority Leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer on ways to fund the government. And he has repeatedly made false and extreme accusations of what Democrats are asking for in exchange for their votes, calling them “unserious and ridiculous demands.”

The president earlier this week wrongly claimed that Democrats are “threatening” to shut down the government “unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens.”

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He also, wrongly, claimed Democrats want to “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”

On Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why he would fire or lay off federal workers, rather than furlough them, as is the norm during government shutdowns.

“Well, this is all caused by the Democrats,” was the President’s response. “They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable. They never change. They want to give money away to illegals, illegally, people that entered our country illegally. They want to give them massive federal money. And we don’t want to do that.”

Trump continued to talk about borders, declaring, “we have absolutely perfect borders, like you haven’t seen in many years,” Democrats, he insisted “want to open up the borders,” “this is what [Chuck] Schumer wants, this is what the Democrats want. They want to have, and they want to take our money,” he added, referring to tariffs.

READ MORE: ‘Ridiculous and Weak’: Trump’s ‘Triple Sabotage’ Mocked as Fox Hypes Escalatorgate

In a 358-word early Wednesday evening diatribe, President Donald Trump lashed out at the United Nations once again, attacking the 80-year-old institution for three issues — two of which it has said were the result of his own team’s actions.

These were not matters of the august body’s mission to end world hunger or foster global peace. Instead, the President of the United States fumed because the escalator stalled as he and the First Lady stepped on to ride toward the blue, green, and gold General Assembly Hall — where he would soon deliver a speech derided by the foreign press as “deranged,” “staggering,” and “incoherent,” meticulously fact-checked and debunked by U.S. reporters, yet lauded by Fox News, right-wing media, and Republican allies.

President Trump also expressed anger that his teleprompter stopped in mid-sentence, forcing him to deliver his remarks from paper.

On Wednesday, in his Truth Social rant, the president added a grievance to his list: he claimed his speech could only be heard in the great hall if attendees were wearing the ubiquitous earpiece interpreter translation devices.

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Calling these three issues “sinister,” “a real disgrace,” “sabotage,” and even “triple sabotage,” Trump described the escalator ride, declaring that it “came to a screeching halt.”

“It stopped on a dime. It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first. It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster.”

As video showed, and Fox Business noted, the first lady appeared unfazed. Pausing and looking back at her husband, she simply walked up the escalator.

Trump pointed to a piece in The Times of London that claimed some UN workers had joked about turning the escalator off for Trump, but according to multiple reports, the culprit was a member of Trump’s own team.

Nevertheless, Trump called for the perpetrators to be “arrested!”

He then complained about his teleprompter, explaining, “as I stood before a Television crowd of millions of people all over the World, and important Leaders in the Hall, my teleprompter didn’t work. It was stone cold dark. I immediately thought to myself, ‘Wow, first the escalator event, and now a bad teleprompter. What kind of a place is this?'”

Telling his supporters, “I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation,” Trump lashed out again at the UN: “No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do.”

Fox Business once again jumped on the bandwagon on Thursday morning, declaring the escalator stopping put the President in danger.

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Host Maria Bartiromo told viewers that Trump “wants answers after the escalator stopped as soon as he and the First Lady stepped on it.”

In contrast to Trump’s diatribe, Bartiromo remarked, “Look how great Melania was. She’s unfazed. She walks on it, it stops, she turns around to the president, and she just leads the president up and walks.”

Bartiromo then declared, “this could have been a massive, massive issue,” with “the president being frozen there in one place, makes him vulnerable.”

She appeared to be suggesting he could have been a sitting (or standing) target.

“The UN reports,” Bartiromo continued, “that they’ve had, they ordered a thorough investigation, and are, quote, ready to cooperate in full transparency, with relevant U.S. Authorities.”

But the UN has also stated that the escalator being stopped happened after a member of Trump’s team, a videographer, at the top of the escalator may have accidentally tripped a safety device.

“The escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator,” UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, according to NBC News. “The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above.”

NBC added that a United Nations official “told NBC News that the White House was responsible for operating Trump’s teleprompter.”

Sarah Longwell, founder and publisher of The Bulwark, remarked, “Trump not being able to go up an escalator is definitely more important than the things going up in voter’s lives: grocery prices, insurance premiums, inflation, consumer goods impacted by tariffs, etc. But sure, Escalator-gate!”

Former Obama official Tommy Vietor asked, “Do the Trump stooges pushing this line not realize that it makes him look ridiculous and weak?”

Former Hillary Clinton advisor Zac Petkanas observed: “People can’t afford to pay for groceries and small businesses are failing thanks to the Republican tariffs. But Fox News is focused on Trump having to walk up some stairs and the White House is focused on building a $200 million ballroom. They just have the wrong priorities.”

The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist, snarked: “Wow, walking up an escalator! That alone is worth a Nobel prize!”

In a video posted to social media, Katherine Clark, the Democratic Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, remarked: “I’ll tell you what triple sabotage is. One, it is making life harder and more expensive with his policies on the American people. Two, it is his attitude of the beatings will continue on working people until their morale improves. And three, he is now threatening to shut down government in order to take away your healthcare. Think about that.”

READ MORE: ‘Stark Raving Mad’: Trump Declares UN Speech ‘Very Well Received’ — Diplomats Disagree

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, now a political commentator and podcaster, responded strongly to JD Vance with a searing set of factchecks after the Vice President used a vulgar remark to insult him.

Shortly after news broke that a gunman had shot three people at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas, the Vice President quickly framed the story as an attack on law enforcement, despite the victims being detainees — a fact he neglected to mention. Two of the three have died. All were detainees, not ICE agents or law enforcement.

“The obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop. I’m praying for everyone hurt in this attack and for their families,” Vance wrote on social media.

Later, the FBI claimed a bullet casing found had the words “Anti-ICE” written on it.

Vance then countered: “The gunman had anti-ICE messaging carved on the bullets he used. What, precisely, did I get wrong, dips–?”

That’s when Favreau unleashed his lengthy response, noting some of the instances when Vance rushed to judgment rather than wait for a more full set of facts.

“Not sure why it’s so difficult to give people the full story,” Favreau wrote, “detainees were murdered by a sniper, and “anti-ICE” was found on a bullet. This seems to happen quite a bit with you.

He quoting Vance saying: “It is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far-Left.”

“Not a statistical fact,” Favreau explained, “not even what the single online poll you cited says.”

He continued, writing: “You threatened George Soros’ Open Society Foundation based on a lie that they funded a Nation article you didn’t like. They did no such thing.”

“You got another community note after accusing the Wall Street Journal of fabricating the existence of Trump’s birthday note to Epstein…because Congress obtained the letter.”

“You accused me of not reading a court document that you cited as proof that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a ‘convicted MS-13 gang member.’ He is not, the document didn’t say that, and your tweet ended up as evidence in a trial the government lost.”

“I could go on, but you get the point. Have a blessed day.”

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) blasted President Donald Trump and his administration, decrying a lack of “moral clarity” from the White House while denouncing the “populist” President as “not unifying.”

Congressman Bacon said “absolutely” that President Trump should tone down his rhetoric.

“He’s a populist. He centers on anger and opposition. That’s what he does. But he had a chance to be more Ronald Reagan and try to unify both sides on this,” Bacon said of the Charlie Kirk assassination. “It would be one thing that was old Republicans being murdered, but it’s not.”

He also said he hopes the Trump makeover of the Republican Party is “not a permanent remaking.”

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Hate Speech and Threatening the Media

“There have been some wrong statements made, to say the least. When Attorney General [Bondi] said that they were gonna go after hate speech — she backed off of that. But it was wrong,” Congressman Bacon, who is retiring at the end of his term, told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday. “And I think the president doing threats against media is also wrong. We don’t threaten the media.”

“To threaten media, and so you’re gonna pull their license, that’s not what America’s about. And we do have a freedom of speech, freedom of the press. We should defend that.”

“We have to acknowledge, Republicans and Democrats have been murdered in the last year. And someone tried to burn the house down of the governor of Pennsylvania — wasn’t a guy from the right, it was a antisemitic guy, going after Governor Shapiro, because he’s Jewish.”

“From the White House, we’re hearing, this is just a liberal problem,” Raju said.

“That’s… Not very unifying,” Bacon said. “I don’t think it’s accurate, for one, and it’s not unifying. He had the opportunity here to say, to acknowledge a couple of Democrats were murdered in Minneapolis. Right? By a guy who called himself pro-life. We don’t really know his motive, but still, he surely was more on the conservative side, it seems, from what we know.”

READ MORE: ‘Red Flag’: Stephen Miller Accused of ‘Reviving Fascist Rhetoric’ at Kirk Memorial

“I do think that we, as officeholders, though, should there should be a line we draw.”

Bacon denounced both Democrats and Republicans using extremist words to characterize each other.

“My point is, we’ve overdone it,” he said, while warning that “there’s a small part of our population that, yeah, they take it serious, and they’re radicalized. So I think we owe ourselves better at how we treat each other.”

Tariffs

“I think he is, by far,” overreaching on tariffs, Bacon continued.

“Article I of the Constitution clearly gives us, the Congress,” he said, power over tariffs.

“Iowa and Nebraska are really struggling right now with our farm economy. We are not growing markets for corn and soybeans. The president’s making trade deals, but not a single country that I can see has bought more corn soybeans. That’s what we really need right now.”

Russia

“Reagan stood up to Gorbachev,” Bacon said of the late GOP and Soviet Union Presidents.

“I don’t I don’t see the moral clarity right now out of the White House. Ronald Reagan had moral clarity.”

“Now, he also was willing to negotiate and try to lower the tensions, but he knew that communism was evil, and he, and he, it was clear that he stood steadfast with our NATO allies. And the president sends out such mixed messages on NATO, and totally moral, ambiguous messages about Ukraine and Russia.”

When asked about the President’s “moral character,” Bacon refused to answer directly.

READ MORE: Grocery Price Surges Are Relative Says New Trump Fed Official

The Trump Social Security Administration Commissioner says raising the retirement eligibility age for Social Security recipients is being considered by the administration. Democratic lawmakers responded defiantly.

“I think everything’s being considered, will be, will be considered,” Commissioner Frank Bisignano told Fox Business on Friday when asked.

Bisignano insisted that the White House “is completely committed to protect and preserve” Social Security, but that “the generations that are coming in will probably have a difference set of rules than we had.”

Frank Bisignano is a former CEO of a U.S. multinational financial technology company, and appeared on a list of the highest-paid CEOs in the country, according to the AFL-CIO.

READ MORE: Grocery Price Surges Are Relative Says New Trump Fed Official

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed, “I will not cut one penny from Social Security or Medicare and I will not raise the retirement age by one day. Not for one day.”

Critics blasted the development.

“Republicans gave away trillions In tax cuts for the wealthy. Now they are asking Americans to work longer. We won’t stand for it,” wrote U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA).

“Trump’s cronies let the cat out of the bag. They’re ready to raise the retirement age. NOT ON MY WATCH! They want to cut your benefits and hand them over to Wall Street. We’re in a fight to save Social Security, and I’m not backing down. That’s a promise,” declared U.S. Rep. John Larson (D-CT).

Warren Gunnels, Minority Staff Director for the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), wrote: “If Bernie’s Social Security bill was signed into law, Social Security would be solvent for the next 75 years, benefits would go up by $2,400 & the bottom 91% of Americans would not pay a penny more in taxes. Instead, Republicans want you to work until you drop dead.”

READ MORE: White House Links Kimmel’s Comments to ‘Dangerous Rhetoric’ It Says ‘Drove’ Kirk’s Killer

Former Secretary of Labor, Professor Robert Reich, added: “A worker making $50,000 a year contributes to Social Security on 100% of their income. A CEO making $20 million a year contributes to Social Security on less than 1% of their income. Instead of raising the retirement age, we should scrap the Social Security tax cap.”

The Social Security tax cap, the amount that is subject to the Social Security tax, is $176,100.

According to Data for Progress, a progressive policy and polling organization, more Americans support lowering the Social Security retirement age than raising it or keeping it the same.

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President Donald Trump’s new addition to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, Stephen Miran, appeared to try to downplay the significant price increases Americans are seeing at grocery store checkout lines.

“Last month saw the biggest jump in grocery prices in almost three years,” NPR reported on Friday. “A survey this summer by The Associated Press and NORC found the cost of groceries has become a major source of stress for just over half of all Americans — outpacing rent, health care and student debt.”

Last week, Axios reported that grocery inflation is at the highest point “since 2022 as Trump tariffs pile up.”

“Virtually all major grocery categories are now more expensive than they were a year ago, some substantially so,” the news outlet reported. “Coffee is up 20.9% year-over-year, with a 3.1% monthly increase, per CPI. Uncooked beef steaks are up 16.6% year-over-year with a 3.3% monthly bump. While fruits and vegetable overall were up 2.3% year over year, apples rose 9.6% and bananas, 6.6%.”

READ MORE: White House Links Kimmel’s Comments to ‘Dangerous Rhetoric’ It Says ‘Drove’ Kirk’s Killer

NPR also noted that despite “Trump’s promise to lower prices, the overall cost of groceries is higher now than when he was sworn in. The president’s crackdown on illegal immigration — including targeting people who pick and process our food — could add to upward pressure on prices. Trump’s tariffs are also contributing to higher prices for imported staples like bananas and coffee.”

Miran was asked about the price of bananas and coffee, specifically, on Friday during an interview with CNBC.

“But we are seeing prices move up for things like food at the grocery,” the host stated. “I mean, you can’t deny that the rising price of tomatoes or coffee or bananas, the things that we don’t grow here, are going up for consumers.”

Miran’s response: “Oh, there will always be relative price changes.”

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“Relative price changes” is an economic term having to do with supply and demand and other factors.

“There will always be relative price changes, but whether or not it’s inflation that’s macroeconomically significant of the type that monetary policy should respond to is a different question,” Miran concluded.

CNBC reported that Miran told the network “that he doesn’t anticipate President Donald Trump’s tariffs will cause inflation,” and that he “also said he believes Trump’s border policies will give rise to disinflation.”

In a fiery declaration, President Donald Trump announced he is designating Antifa a terrorist organization. Some experts say he lacks the authority to do so and will struggle to enforce such a move, while others warn it could give him sweeping license to target groups or individuals he disfavors.

“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday evening. “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

As many have noted, Antifa is not an organized group. It simply means “anti-fascist,” or “anti-fascism.”

But Trump has taken the step anyway. Here’s what some experts say.

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BBC News reports that some legal experts have called into question Trump’s legal authority to declare Antifa a terrorist organization.

“The existing rules do allow the government, specifically the State Department, to make a list of ‘foreign terrorist organizations’ which makes it a crime to give funds or other ‘material support’ to those groups.”

“But the key word here is ‘foreign,'” BBC notes, “and those experts we have spoken to pointed out that free speech rights under the US constitution’s first amendment would limit Trump’s ability to ban – or restrict funding for – domestic movements like antifa.”

Rumen Cholakov, an expert in US constitutional law at King’s College London, “told us that if the government were to use its powers against them in the US their actions would be ‘potentially susceptible to constitutional challenges’ in court for violating these rights.”

Professor David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University, told BBC Verify, “Under the First Amendment, no one can be punished for joining a group or giving money to a group.”

Meanwhile, other experts have also weighed in.

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Attorney and MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski observed, “Since Antifa is now designed as a terrorist organization it will be interesting to see how they determine who is a member and how they prove it is an organization.”

Politico senior legal affairs correspondent Kyle Cheney noted, “Trump says he’s designating ‘antifa’ a terrorist group and launching a probe into finding of antifa activities. The FBI has long said antifa doesn’t really have a centralized structure or leadership.”

U.S. Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY), an attorney, told CNN Wednesday night that “there is no Antifa organization.”

He added, “the point” is that Trump is “using the Charlie Kirk murder as a pretext to go after people that he disagrees with. He, on the very night of Kirk’s murder, you will remember, accused the left of committing the murder — when the murderer had not even been caught or identified. This is all a pretext, and it’s a shame, I think … that Charlie Kirk actually stood for free speech. And instead, they’re using his memory to attack free speech.”

Political scholar Dr. Michael Mackey issued this warning: “‘Antifa’ is an artifact of Russian information warfare and the Kremlin-sponsored MAGA cult. No such entity exists in American civil society. Trump is owned by Putin.”

Intelligence and foreign policy analyst Malcolm Nance, a terrorism expert, said, “You cannot designate an idea as a terrorist group.There is no organization called ANTIFA. There is no leadership or funding path. There is no membership.”

“What he is doing is setting the stage to designate ANY American as a terrorist,” Nance alleged. “That’s Fascism.”

CBS News national security coordinating producer Jim LaPorta, an award-winning journalist, wrote: “It’s unclear how Pres. Trump could designate a group inside the U.S. as a domestic terrorist group. The U.S. does not have a federal crime of domestic terrorism. Additionally, it’s been understood that the Govt. would run into 1st and 4th Amendment issues.”

But those hurdles aside, experts are still issuing warnings.

Olga Lautman, a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), an expert on Russia, and creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast series, expressed concern.

“So Trump is designating Antifa as a terrorist organization,” she wrote. “Problem is he thinks all Democrats are this so called antifa. He is following Russia’s playbook step by step to crush opposition. Hope everyone wakes up.”

On Substack, Lautman expanded her warning.

She pointed to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s remarks on Monday, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Calling the “radical left” a “vast domestic terror movement,” Miller said: “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.”

“It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name,” he vowed.

“Where have I heard this before?” Lautman said of Miller’s statement. “In Russia, where the Kremlin seizes upon every terrorist attack, bombing, protest, or act of violence (some of which they carry out in false flag operations) to justify new crackdowns, laws, and the systematic destruction of any semblance of independent opposition.”

Lautman continued her stark warning, writing, “what makes the current moment in America so perilous is how closely it now echoes this Soviet/Russian script, with the killing of Charlie Kirk already being transformed from an individual crime into the cornerstone of a supposed vast conspiracy of leftist violence — again, without evidence — a pretext for sweeping crackdowns that will not stop at violent actors but extend to protesters, grassroots organizers, and the infrastructure that sustains them.”

“Groups like Indivisible and MoveOn, platforms like ActBlue, that fund Democratic candidates,” she predicted, “will all be recast as pipelines of extremism, stripped of their democratic role.”

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