Michelangelo Signorile

We still don't know who killed Alex Pretti. We do know who must pay

Days after the brutal execution of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, we still don’t know the identities of the masked ICE agents who shot him dead.

They fled the scene and are nowhere to be found. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is shrouding their whereabouts in secrecy.

After much video analysis by legal experts and major news organizations, it became very clear, very quickly, that Pretti was pinned down by a group of agents and disarmed. Then, posing a threat to no one, he was executed, shot 10 times.

An analysis by the New York Times identifies two agents as having shot all of those bullets. Shortly after agents had pinned Pretti down, an agent who had pepper-sprayed him is seen hitting Pretti’s head with the pepper spray canister.

The agents then discover Pretti has a gun and they can be heard yelling “he’s got a gun!” At that point one agent quickly disarms Pretti — who is immobilized — taking the gun and walking across the street. At the same time, another agent pulls out his gun and fires the first shot at Pretti. The shooter is not in any way threatened, as Pretti can’t move, and the shooter is at a vantage point to see Pretti’s gun holster empty.

That agent brutally then fires four more shots into Pretti’s back, for no explicable reason. Another agent, the one who first pepper-sprayed Pretti, then begins firing shots at Pretti, while the first shooter fires more. In total, these two men fired 10 shots, as Pretti is immobile and unarmed.

All the agents left the scene shortly after the execution in broad daylight.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, within minutes, claimed Pretti brandished a weapon, as did Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino. This was quickly proven false by video, as Pretti never had his gun out of his holster and only held a phone. He is a licensed gun owner in a state that allows open carry.

Noem dropped that claim but outrageously called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” — just as she slandered Renee Good, killed two weeks before by an ICE agent — with “intent” to do damage, while she offered no evidence. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino repeated this line even on CNN the next day. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, meanwhile, put a post on X, claiming that Pretti was a “would-be assassin,” which Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials instantly shared.

All of that followed Donald Trump posting a photo of Pretti’s gun within minutes after the shooting, commenting that this is “the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go — What is that all about?” as if Trump hasn’t defended his MAGA thugs bringing guns to protests, including his own “Stop the Steal” rally after which they attacked the Capitol at his command.

All of that has now fallen apart.

The NRA and other gun groups have expressed outrage at the rhetoric around the shooting coming from Trump officials. The far right’s worst nightmare is the federal government disarming a gun owner — and then executing that person. Republicans are speaking out, calling for hearings. A very scared Trump is backtracking, suddenly talking to Gov. Tim Walz and removing Bovino from Minnesota. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stunningly refused to endorse Miller’s claim calling Pretti an assassin — though she didn’t condemn it either, saying she was waiting for an investigation.

Yet right now we still don’t know who the shooters are — the killers who should be charged with murder — as they’re being protected by the Trump administration. More than that, the Trump officials also initially tried to cover up the crime, even if it has now unravelled.

As investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler reports, by lying about Pretti and calling him a “domestic terrorist,” Noem is a co-conspirator. So are Bovino and Stephen Miller. They’ve covered up and interfered in a state investigation. They should not only be fired — or, in the case of Noem, impeached, as some Democrats are calling for. They should be charged with crimes.

Democrats in the Senate have refused to fund ICE, which could trigger a partial government shutdown, unless we see changes to ICE, including making it mandatory that the federal government cooperate with states on investigations of violence by ICE agents. That needs to include investigations of Renee Good’s killer, the ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

And Trump, it goes without saying, must be held accountable. The first thing Democrats must do upon taking the House is to begin impeachment proceedings, no matter what the outcome. The American people need to see justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who died fighting for the rights of all of us.

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

Bully Trump just got battered

As I wrote this column, Donald Trump was speaking at the Davos Economic Summit. This event rightly has often been derided for pandering to elites and corporations while shallowly nodding to concerns about the environment, civil rights and economic inequality as the billionaires and world leaders fly in on their private jets.

But this year it was at the center of the fear and chaos over Trump’s war on NATO and Europe, his demand for a Nobel Peace Prize, and his desire to seize Greenland.

In his rambling speech, lying about his so-called accomplishments, Trump appeared to rule out using military force to take Greenland (after implying for days that he would seize it, as he put it, “the hard way” if he needed to do so). But, Trump said, he wants “immediate negotiations” to acquire Greenland because it is “undefended.” He’s made repeated false claims that it is being circled by Russian and Chinese ships.

Was this another Trump TACO? Possibly. But don’t think he won’t threaten World War III again, nor demand the Nobel Peace Prize again in return for not waging war as he continues to grab for Greenland. We’ve come to know the tired performance in which Trump demands the world’s attention, the media complies, and international relations are damaged.

Greenland, of course, is, always has been, and — barring any change in circumstances — always will be “defended” because it is part of NATO. That means the U.S. is defending it, along with the rest of the alliance. So everything that’s happened in the past few days around this issue is pure idiocy, and all about Trump’s ego and his desire to own land which I’m sure he’d like to rename “Trumpland.”

But that’s what we have come to expect from the debilitating dictator who is waging war on his own country, sending thousands of violent goons to terrorize Minneapolis while continuing to dodge the Epstein files.

The world, for its part, is moving on. The speech at Davos by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney was a powerful synthesis of this. There is a new world order, he said, as the U.S. not only cannot be relied upon for stability; it can’t be trusted in any agreements and will at any time lash out with punishing tariffs or threats of domination.

This new order will be a painful adjustment for the world and, in particular, those considered long-time allies of the U.S. But the people most hurt will be Americans, seeing Trump rip up trade agreements as the rest of the world makes new alliances. The very people who voted for Trump, hoping he was going to make life more affordable, will be more miserable than ever.

As Ryan Cooper reported at the American Prospect, Trump, in repealing the government investments in green energy in the Inflation Reduction Act, has already doomed the American car industry with his war on electric vehicles:

Now, thanks to that betrayal, plus Trump’s lunatic trade and foreign policy in general, the American auto industry is bleeding out.

Consider Canada, which has historically been one of the biggest markets for American cars, being quite similar culturally, already heavily integrated into the U.S. auto industry (along with Mexico), and also one of the few places that will buy our big stupid trucks.

America’s share of the Canadian auto market has been tumbling, down from about half in the previous decade to just 36 percent, because of Trump’s deranged trade war and threats of annexation, which has sparked a massive nationalist backlash and a mounting customer boycott of anything American.

And that brings me back to Carney’s speech. He urged world leaders not to continue to yearn for a past order whose presentation was pretty fictional anyway:

Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.

Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.

You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.

The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have relied — the WTO, the UN, the COP, the very architecture of collective problem-solving — are under threat. As a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions that they must develop greater strategic autonomy in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains. And this impulse is understandable.

A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.

Carney urged the “middle powers” of the world to unite — economically, militarily, and geopolitically — to become a force that can stand up to the great powers. It’s ambitious, but it’s the only thing that they can do, he said. As the European Union leaders described new trade deals with India, Brazil, China, and other countries, Carney also touted new trade agreements:

We’ve agreed to a comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, including joining SAFE, the European defence procurement arrangements. We have signed 12 other trade and security deals on four continents in six months.
In the past few days, we’ve concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar. We’re negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines and Mercosur.

The U.S. is pulling itself away while many of its spurned friends are making new alliances. As Carney noted, this is about survival and the inability to count on the U.S.:

The question for middle powers like Canada is not whether to adapt to the new reality — we must.

The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls or whether we can do something more ambitious.

Now, Canada was amongst the first to hear the wake-up call, leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture. Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumptions that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security, that assumption is no longer valid. And our new approach rests on what Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, has termed value-based realism.

Or, to put it another way, we aim to be both principled and pragmatic. Principled in our commitment to fundamental values, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter and respect for human rights.

And then this line:

Our view is the middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.

In the first Trump administration there was an idea that Trump was an aberration. The hope was that he or someone like him would never return. The U.S. would go back to the order of the last century, and, even with all its flaws — including the U.S. and other great powers continually exempting themselves from the rules — it would all work out. But now there’s the realization that it’s done. And Carney sees it as a moment of opportunity and even liberation.

We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy, but we believe that from the fracture we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just. This is the task of the middle powers, the countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from genuine co-operation.

The powerful have their power. But we have something too: the capacity to stop pretending, to name realities, to build our strength at home and to act together.

That is Canada’s path. We choose it openly and confidently, and it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us.

With that, Carney laid it out for the business and political leaders of the world, receiving a standing ovation.

Trump today ranted and lied at Davos, and he will continue to do so whenever he speaks. But he is making himself and the U.S. more and more irrelevant, as much of the world has no choice but to move on and find safety by joining together and making new friends.

In forcing that, Trump is making America weaker by the day. Can we bring the country back? That will depend on the 2026 elections — and all of us working hard to stop the GOP from enabling him — as well as on the 2028 elections. And, though it perhaps can be done, whoever becomes president will have an enormous task in gaining the trust of the world once again.

This victim demonization shows there's no depth to which Trumpism will not sink

It’s still early, as facts are coming in about the brutal killing on Wednesday of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was shot in the head by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, through the windshield of her car.

What we do know, as we all can see with our own eyes on the viral videos of the killing, is that Renee was shot in cold blood, unprovoked, not having put the ICE agent in any danger. This video analysis by the New York Times makes it clear.

We also know from reports that Renee, an American citizen originally from Colorado, was in a relationship with a woman who, in a gut-wrenching video, identified herself as her wife. In a video obtained by The Advocate:

“They killed my wife. I don’t know what to do,” the woman says through sobs in the footage, with a damaged SUV visible in the distance behind her. “We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head,” the woman cries.
“We have a 6-year-old at school,” she says, almost unable to breathe, as a chaotic scene in which federal officers prevented at least one doctor who was on the scene from assisting the shot victim unfolds. “We’re new here,” the distraught woman says in despair.

On Renee’s social media accounts, which included Pride emojis, she described herself as a “wife and mom,” according to the Associated Press, which noted that her six-year-old child is from a previous marriage to a man who died in 2023 — a second marriage — and that she had two teenage children with a first husband, from whom she was divorced.

Renee’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune Renee “was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving, and affectionate.”

Ganger said Renee lived with her “partner” a few blocks away from where she was killed. Some media aren’t reporting anything about Renee’s wife (or partner) and are even saying her six-year-old child is “orphaned.”

But Fox News is certainly on top of it, all to demonize her — dehumanize her — as a queer woman.

The demonization began, however, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who falsely claimed ice agents were under attack by protestors — “domestic terrorists” — while their cars were stuck in snow.

There was no snow event — hadn’t been a snowfall for days — in Minneapolis and the streets were clear, as we could see from the video, in which the ICE vehicle drove up to Renee’s car, at which points agents got out as she attempted to drive away while one tried to open her door and another shot her in the head through the windshield from just to the side of the front of the car. Again, the New York Times analysis of the video shows this, as do analyses of other news organizations.

Noem falsely claimed Renee tried to “ram” the agent, and that Renee was a “domestic terrorist” who caused the agent to have to go to the hospital — even though we can see in the video he was unharmed and walked away, then got in his car and drove off.

This vile dog-killing cretin of a Homeland Security Secretary is the epitome of all that is ugly and fraudulent in the Trump administration. The demonization of a mother, a wife, a daughter, an innocent woman, as a domestic terrorist is truly repugnant.

It only got worse as the hordes on social began defaming Renee. Then it hit Fox News. Jesse Watters, an odious presence who makes jokes out of brutality, made comments meant to dehumanize Renee.

Describing her as a “self-proclaimed poet,” he’s telegraphing to the MAGA masses, who have been nurtured by anti-intellectualism, that she’s one of those dangerous “elites” and thus must be guilty of something. And if that won’t convince them, well, she has the dreaded, “pronouns in her bio,” so she must be dangerous.

And she has a “lesbian partner,” so she’s not a real person, not like the rest of us, but one of them. (It takes me back to the Trump super PAC ad during the 2024 campaign showing Kamala Harris supporting trans rights and proclaiming, “Kamala is for they/them. Trump is for you.”).

This is how a fascist regime works. They kill people and then push propaganda, claiming the person deserved it. And on top of that, they demonize the victim as one of those “undesirable” people who deserved it anyway, someone less than human.

There were huge protests in Minneapolis last night and across the country, as there should be. This ICE thug must be prosecuted, though the Trump regime will do everything they can to protect him — and Trump will pardon him, as he’ll have to be convicted under federal charges.

But no matter, we must make the GOP pay for it, bringing the message to the American people, and organizing for the mid-terms to take our government back from the authoritarian regime. And we’ll do it in the name of all the thousands who’ve brutalized — many of them far out of sight — like Renee.

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

That sound you hear is MAGA cracking — but Trump faces an even bigger challenge

It’s wild how we’re watching Donald Trump losing his grip on MAGA as MAGA leaders, from Ben Shapiro and Erica Kirk to Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, are tearing themselves apart. They’re riven by outlandish debates like allowing Nazis such as Nick Fuentes into the party, while events like Charlie Kirk’s assassination are enmeshed in divisive, bonkers conspiracies rather than being the predicted rallying moment.

It may seem pretty crazy. But it’s actually making things a lot clearer.

The rebellion against Trump and the leaders in Congress subservient to him over everything from the Epstein files to the extension of Obamacare tax credits underscores that the masses in MAGA are lashing out because they have not gotten what was promised to them. And for most of them, what they didn’t get was their end of the Big Grift: money.

Trump, his family, many GOP leaders, and the billionaires supporting Trump have all been there for the grift, and it’s paying off lavishly as they’re making billions of dollars by commandeering — and often destroying — government. But the deal with the MAGA masses was that they’d be in on the grift too.

Sure, there are substantial pockets of Trump supporters who backed Trump based solely on their twisted one-issue obsessions, like banning abortion, terrorizing transgender people or eradicating immigrants. But the rest of them, many of them likely initially uncomfortable with those hate agendas but willing to rationalize them away, were there as long as they got the one thing they were promised.

It was the promise of a more affordable life that they’d been duped into believing was taken away by minorities and others, as they are paying more and getting less for their money. (Honestly, it isn’t an example of “greed” to want an affordable life. But to accept the promise of it from a bigoted charlatan, knowing that other people will be harmed, is certainly not moral.)

Much of the next few paragraphs has been tread over before, but it’s worth a recap for the sake of this discussion: Millions of Americans experienced a loss of faith in the government over many years, after suffering losses in the earlier part of the century. For many of them, government often was partly or mostly responsible, for many years creating incentives for companies that sent jobs overseas as whole communities in the Midwest decayed. Trump picked up on this in 2016, while people like Bernie Sanders tried to warn Democrats about it.

For many others, it wasn’t government that caused their problems, but their own bad decisions in life — whether about businesses they created, places they moved, jobs they took that weren’t a fit or for other reasons. For others, it was just fate, like facing a terrible illness or losing a loved one. That has, of course, been a constant, both in American life and in the human condition everywhere throughout time. And when a charlatan comes along and tells people that he and he alone can fix it all, many unfortunately will gravitate to the message.

So Trump’s base was built on grievance — and blaming others, like Black people, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women’s equality and others for their problems — and that’s an old story. What’s now becoming more clear to many of these people in the Trump base themselves, however, is that Trump is not fixing things for them even as he’s stripping the rights of all those other people (while further enriching himself and the wealthy).

You can end all the DEI programs, rip out the aid to impoverished foreign countries, declare, as JD Vance did at the Turning Point USA conference last weekend, that “We don’t apologize for being white anymore” — but you’re still left with high prices, rising unemployment, rents that are soaring and mortgages that are out of reach as tariffs surge.

Of course, what Vance really means is we don’t have to apologize for being racist. But what good is that, the MAGA supporters are realizing, when you still can’t pay the rent and buy groceries?

We’re seeing the markets continue to have surges and weather the tariffs. And we’re seeing GDP growing, including in a new report today, even in the face of inflation and rising unemployment. But that’s all because the wealthiest Americans are still spending, keeping the economy afloat. As the great economist Paul Krugman describes it, based in part on the research of other economists, we’re in a ‘K-shaped” economy, in which the wealthy are getting richer, and, for now, propping things up, while everyone else is struggling:

Talk of a “K-shaped economy,” in which incomes and wealth are rising only for those at the top, has become ubiquitous. And rightly so. For high-income Americans who own a lot of stock, the past year has treated them pretty well. But for those who don’t, not so much.

What Krugman further points out, however, is that those who say it’s been like that for a long time are wrong. It’s true that it was this way ten years ago, and that helped usher in Trump. HIs followers were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt to fix it until the pandemic hit and he saw a bleeding of support.

The pandemic, however, did a number on the economy — and our psyches. Joe Biden was able to break from the K-shaped economy, but people didn’t feel it amidst the pandemic-created surge in inflation worldwide because of supply-chain shortages. Couple that with Trump’s Big Lie and his ability to suck back in those people who truly wanted to believe him and give him another shot. He slithered his way back into power — and into destroying what Biden achieved.

These ludicrous exchanges show how Trump lies infect voters' minds

On my Sirius XM program, I discussed the almost comical hearing this month in which a top FBI official, flanked by dog-killing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, claimed antifa — short for anti-fascist — was the “number one terrorist” threat in the United States. Yet he couldn’t answer repeated questions from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) about where the group’s headquarters are, or how many people are actually in the group:

Michael Glasheen, operations director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said antifa was the agency’s “primary concern” and “the most immediate violent threat that we’re facing.”

Glasheen did not answer a question from the top Democrat at the hearing, U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, about the group’s location. When asked about the number of members, Glasheen said it was “very fluid” and that “investigations are active.”

“Sir, you wouldn’t come to this committee to say something that you can’t prove,” Thompson said to Glasheen. “I know you wouldn’t do that. But you did.”

Later, Glasheen was asked if the Proud Boys were still on the FBI’s list of domestic extremist organizations — after they were added in 2018, under Trump’s first term — but he didn’t answer, just saying, “We’re in the process right now of changing our categories for domestic terrorism.”

After I played the clips of the exchanges and commented on the ludicrousness of this — and the dangers — Steven from Los Angeles, clearly a MAGA supporter, called the program to disagree with me, claiming antifa is a terror threat he has witnessed firsthand.

Antifa of course doesn’t exist as any organized nationwide group. Some people engaging in protest call themselves ant-fascist, and often take on the name antifa — even carrying banners and other identifiers — but they mostly act independently of others who might use the term to to identify themselves.

The majority of those who call themselves antifa are opposed to violence, per the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration. Even if some people have called themselves antifa and have engaged in or inspired violent actions in one place or another during protests (which has happened), that doesn’t mean there’s an organized group engaged in actual organized terror plots.

But Steven didn’t get that, claiming vandalism in LA and elsewhere was “terrorism” which was coordinated by “Antifa”.

Steven: Okay, so I, um, I disagree with you, uh, living on the West Coast. Whether it’s antifa, whether you want to call it, whatever organization it is. But, I mean, they’ve ruined the streets of Los Angeles. San Francisco is a dump. Um, uh, Oregon is a dump. Uh, Seattle, Washington.

MS: Who who did this? Who ruined the streets? What did they do?

Steven: It was. Well, whatever organization you want to call it. Uh, the people that were protesting on the streets.

MS: You said antifa.

Steven: Well, that's who they're supposed to be, right?

After I pressed him on what they’re doing he said that in Portland and other places, “These people are on the streets every day. They're yelling at cars. The traffic is stopped.”

Yelling at cars? Yes, that’s what he said.

MS: Okay, Steven, that's not terrorism.

Steven: What is that? Terrorism. The stores are all closed.

MS: No, Stephen, that's not terrorism. You could tell me about vandalism. You could tell me about protests. You could even tell me about rioting, if you want, which we haven't seen.

But a terrorist and a terrorist organization are highly coordinated groups of people with plots and plans to take down the government or send a message to a group of people, and they engage in mass violence, bombings, mass shootings, kidnappings.

Why is our government spending all this money on this? You're telling me about what? Graffiti in Los Angeles?

He went on about how yelling at protests and throwing things — not explaining more — was terrorism.

But then when I brought up actual terrorism — January 6, police officers bludgeoned, the Proud Boys making threats, and the Oath Keepers, per law enforcement, stockpiling weapons at a hotel in Virginia, with a plan to bring them up the Potomac to take the Capitol — he had a very different answer.

Steven: You know what? I don't think we'll ever know the truth of that whole situation.

Oh yeah, it got a little hot from there before I ended the call! Listen in and let me know your thoughts!

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

Don't forget this Trump outrage — it came from the depths of his appalling soul

I first met actor, producer and director Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner some 15 years. I was on the road with my SiriusXM show, broadcasting from The Abbey, a legendary West Hollywood gay cafe and bar.

We were deep in the fight for marriage equality, and the Reiners were leading the charge against Proposition 8, the ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California in 2008. They had helped found the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which eventually took the case all the way to U.S. Supreme Court. They came on the show to talk about the fight.

It turned out that both of them were avid listeners of my program — Michele, in fact, listened for three hours a day — and they knew the regular guests and even some of the regular callers. This blew me away, of course. But it shouldn’t have. Rob Reiner’s commitment to civil rights was deep. It wasn’t just a cause that he and his wife threw some money at — though they donated millions to causes over their lifetimes.

They immersed themselves in the issues, soaking up as much news and information as they could, so that they’d be informed activists and could use their influence to pressure people in power. I was honored to be one place they were turning to for details on the fight they would help lead to victory.

Over the years Rob came on the program many times, including just last year when he produced the documentary, God and Country, based on Katherine Stewart’s book The Power Worshippers, warning of the dangers of Christian nationalism and how theocrats were cementing their relationship with Donald Trump. His and his wife’s deaths are simply gut-wrenching.

At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 2016

Reiner was a big voice, from his days as a sitcom star on the iconic All in the Family to his years as an actor, director, and producer of films that had a big impact on American culture. And he used that voice to speak fervently in defending democracy against Trump’s authoritarianism.

That’s why Trump, upon Reiner’s death, couldn’t help but try to defile Reiner, but only defiled himself, and in a much bigger way than usual. Trump wrote a really sick screed on Truth Social that even had his own fans and some GOP members of Congress lambasting him, another example of how he’s losing his grip.

Trump claimed that Reiner, found stabbed to death with Michele in their LA home, died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”

Trump wrote: “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.”

This was so appalling — and a new low — because besides being grotesquely callous, Trump was putting out the message that those who speak against him can and will pay a price. It was another call to violence and revenge, and it was also an attempt to force himself into the tragic story. (Law enforcement arrested the Reiners' 32-year-old son Nick, who suffered from drug addiction and mental illness, on murder charges. This had nothing to do with Rob Reiner’s political beliefs).

But the blowback was strong even from some in MAGA — on Truth Social itself, many in Trump’s own base responded to his post with disgust — and Trump in the end only let people see just how much his power is receding.

Robby Starbuck, a MAGA influencer and big Trump supporter, slammed him hard.

“What happened last night to Rob Reiner and his wife was a savage butchering of 2 human lives. I don’t care what their politics were or how they felt about Trump, no law abiding human deserves this. We should pray for + send condolences to his loved ones and NOT make it political,” Starbuck wrote on X.

Others pointed to the glaring double standard in the response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination — with MAGA lashing out at anyone who even criticized Kirk, calling for ramifications — and this horrible murder. That includes the spokesperson for Kirk’s Turning Point USA, who wrote: “Rob Reiner responded with grace and compassion to Charlie’s assassination. This video [of Reiner responding to Kirk’s death with sadness] makes it all the more painful to hear of he and his wife’s tragic end. May God be close to the broken hearted in this terrible story.”

Piers Morgan, Trump’s sensationalist buddy, said, “This is a dreadful thing to say about a man who just got murdered by his troubled son. Delete it, Mr President.” And Marjorie Taylor Greene excoriated Trump again.

Right wing Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie wrote: “Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it.”

Speaker Mike Johnson ran away from reporters — saying he doesn’t “do ongoing commentary about everything that’s said by everybody in government every day” — when he usually defends every vile statement Trump makes. (Senate Majority Leader John Thune also ducked the question about Trump’s screed while sending “sympathies and prayers” to the Reiner family.)

This may seem like the same few voices but rather than get universal defense of his statements, Trump found himself the target of a lot of disgust and anger from his own base, and yet more criticism from those GOP politicians who’ve been speaking up in recent weeks. He also didn’t get any support inside the White House, even off the record.

Reporter Asawin Suebsaeng, formerly of Rolling Stone and now at Zeteo, who has a lot of sources in the White House who often offer him comments on Trump, noted this:

We reached out to several Trump administration officials, advisers, and close allies immediately after the president posted that. Only a couple replied, and weren’t even willing to try to justify the comments, off the record or otherwise. The White House did not immediately respond to Zeteo’s request for comment.

Many Americans who don’t pay attention to politics pay attention in moments like this, when there’s a gruesome murder of a beloved Hollywood figure whose politics they may not have known but whose work they liked. And to see the president, who some of them supported, speaking in this way was probably jarring. It’s the kind of thing that wakes people up, like the Jimmy Kimmel saga. The entire attack backfired spectacularly on Trump.

And it also showed how effective Rob Reiner was as an activist. Even in his death he caused the insecure, narcissistic Trump to unravel, to face humiliation from his own supporters — and his own White House — and expose his loosening grip on MAGA. I think Reiner would see it as a badge of honor.

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

There's one voice that will finish Trump — and the GOP has no control

Donald Trump went out to give a rally for the first time in months, speaking in a swing district in Pennsylvania. The White House hyped it to be a speech on affordability, but Trump instead attacked “affordability” as a “hoax” and veered into his usual viciously racist attacks.

Democrats couldn’t wish for a better scenario.

Trump is reminding everyone, every day, that his presidency is a disaster. And Tuesday after Tuesday, in elections all across the country, people have been responding by voting against him and the GOP. This past Tuesday, Eileen Higgins became the first Democrat to win the Miami’ mayor’s race in 28 years.

She won by 19 points, while Kamala Harris won Miami only by a point in 2024, as Trump made inroad with Latinos, who make up a majority of registered voters in Miami. The Republican on the ticket was Latino, former city manager Emilio González, who was endorsed by Trump. But Trump’s support has crashed in the Latino community, driven by his economic chaos and his mass deportations.

Trump, who said in the Pennsylvania speech that “tariff” is his favorite word, just keeps giving people reasons to vote against him even if they previously supported him.

And as he stumbles, he’s bringing more attention to his mental decline and his physical health. The media haven’t nearly covered Trump’s health in the way they covered President Biden’s mental and physical competency.

But not to worry, Trump will remind you of it himself. He’s the one who blurted out on Air Force One that he’d had an MRI in his second physical in the summer, claiming it all was great. But that just raised a thousand questions, as no one gets an MRI as a routine screening. The speculation hasn’t died down, even as the White House has put out further very vague information. And it raises more questions about his swollen angles and bruised hands, which are there for all to see.

When the New York Times finally did a story on how Trump has slowed down, not doing rallies on the road and not having many events inside the White House — and raised his health — Trump went ballistic. He could have just let it be, but no, he had to write a massive Truth Social post that accused the paper of being “seditious” and “treasonous” because no one should be question Dear Leader.

Those are his favorite lines of attack, which only once again highlight his aspirations to be a dictator or a king. It’s outrageous and dangerous, but it also is yet another example of Trump bringing attention to the very thing he doesn’t want anyone paying attention to. We always hear about Trump trying to distract — and that’s true — but he also has a habit of making sure everyone’s laser-focused the thing he’s most afraid of. The rest of the media covered it for the next day, and the Times responded, getting more attention to the issue.

Trump couldn’t resist though because being seen as frail and weak is horrifying to him — and that’s because it’s true. For all the reasons I’ve written here about in recent weeks, Republicans are pushing back on him as MAGA is cracking up. So he can’t help but go on the attack, but then only brings more attention to the story rather than distracting from it.

And that’s what happened with his “affordability” speech, as he only underscored that he doesn’t understand the issue, couldn’t care less about people’s pain and has actually caused that pain with his tariffs.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, said in an interview a few days ago that they’d be putting Trump on the road in mega-rallies next year — though Trump, who seems exhausted, hasn’t been told yet.

“I haven’t quite broken it to him yet, but he’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again,” Wiles told The Mom VIEW, a MAGA show produced by the group Moms for America.

Then she literally said they’re going to “put him on the ballot” in the midterm elections for Congress all across the country:

Typically, in the midterms, it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House; you localize the election. And you keep the federal officials out of it. We’re actually going to turn that on its head and put him on the ballot.

Bring it on! Again, Democrats could not ask for more.

This overlooked exchange hints Trump is eyeing another appalling coup

I just want to put up top that this story is about what it sounds like, which is fantastical and like something out of a spy thriller, and yet there’s nothing we can put past this administration. But it’s also about how The New York Times missed — or chose to ignore — a story staring it right in the face.

When I read reports last weekend about how Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president who’d been sentenced to home confinement after being convicted in a notorious coup plot, had been arrested after an attempted escape, the first person I thought about was Donald Trump.

Trump, of course, is Bolsonaro’s best buddy and fellow authoritarian coup-plotter who, unfortunately for us, was indicted but never convicted because he became president again and killed the cases against himself. And since becoming president, Trump has spent months railing against Brazil and its Supreme Court — even imposing 50 percent tariffs on the country as retribution — demanding Brazil’s current president release Bolsonaro.

But that wasn’t the only reason I thought about Trump. Reports about Bolsonaro’s arrest focused on how his ankle monitor was breached after midnight, and security forces immediately detained him, putting him in a pretty cushy jail, under orders from a judge on the Brazilian Supreme Court who noted that Bolsonaro lives close to the U.S. embassy.

Bolsonaro had in early 2024 slept in the embassy of Hungary — where another authoritarian buddy, Victor Orbán, is president — in what authorities believe was an attempt to evade arrest.

I couldn’t help but think the judge and law enforcement might be aware of a plot involving the U.S., and I discussed it on my SiriusXM show on Monday, speculating that it could have been an attempt by Bolsonaro to get to the U.S. embassy and get asylum from the U.S., which, under Trump, would give it to him.

It wasn’t until Tuesday that I actually saw the video from later in the day on Saturday of Trump, heading to his chopper at the White House, being asked questions by reporters about Bolsonaro, which you can watch right here.

At first, Trump clearly seems not to catch that the reporter is asking about Bolsonaro being arrested the night before and instead thinks it’s just a general question of some sort about his dictator pal.

TRUMP: So I spoke last to the person you just referred to, and we’re going to be meeting, I believe, in the very near future.

Reporter: Sir, are you aware about the president being arrested today?

Trump responds with what is clearly shock, sticking his head out .

TRUMP: What?!

Reporter: I’m talking about the former Brazilian president being arrested today.

TRUMP: No, I don’t know anything about that.

Trump seems a bit stunned, and again says, “I don’t know anything about it,” before asking the reporter, “Is that what happened?”

Then he kind of grimaces, and says, “That’s too bad,” and repeats again, “I Just think it’s too bad.”

The Times published a story about the latest on Bolsonaro’s arrest, but it oddly focused up top on how Trump, supposedly learning the limits of his power, doesn’t have as much interest in Bolsonaro as he used to, and it quoted from the exchange with reporters — but only the part where he says “That’s too bad,” and not the part where he says he just spoke to Bolsonaro:

“That’s too bad.”

It was a telling response from President Trump on Saturday when he learned the news from reporters that his once close ally, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, had just been arrested.

Did he have any thoughts?

“No,” Mr. Trump replied. “I just think it’s too bad.”

What a difference a few months make.

In July, Mr. Trump sent an angry letter to the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, demanding that the authorities drop charges that Mr. Bolsonaro had attempted a coup. Mr. Trump slapped 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports and imposed sanctions on a Brazilian Supreme Court justice to try to keep Mr. Bolsonaro — a right-wing politician sometimes called the Trump of the Tropics — out of prison.

Five months later, Mr. Trump has all but admitted defeat.

This ia a very strange framing. It completely omits what Trump said before he said “That’s too bad.”

Trump said he’d just spoken with Bolsonaro the night before. And said he they were going to be meeting “very soon.”

How would Trump be able to meet Bolsonaro in home confinement in Brazil?

And how did the Times not catch what would otherwise throw cold water on the framing of its story? After all, far from forgetting about Bolsonaro, Trump was very much thinking about Bolsonaro, having just spoken to him and planning to see him “soon.”

Thankfully, the always sharp Rachel Maddow proved I was not crazy and being conspiratorial. Because when I did a search this morning, after seeing the video, I found that she indeed covered this on her MS Now program, raising all the right questions even as she pointed to what fantastical plot this would be if true.

But where is the rest of the media, and why did the Times not home in on Trump’s highly interesting comments, instead making it appear as if Trump had been giving up on Bolsonaro?

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

This unlikely messenger is exposing Trump's killer weakness

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), according to reporting in Axios, is setting his sights on a 2028 run for the presidency. The report forced Donald Trump to respond to it, and thus to talk about life without him as the leader of MAGA, much less America.

No, Cruz will not be elected president in ‘28 — and we certainly don’t want that to happen — but we should encourage the talk nonetheless, and media should to bring it up more. Apparently, the White House is angry with Cruz for putting it out there, seeing it as undermining Trump — and JD Vance. As NOTUS reports:

The White House and its allies believe Sen. Ted Cruz is taking positions antithetical to President Donald Trump from his perch as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee as a way to position himself against Vice President JD Vance ahead of 2028.

And they’re not happy about it. Cruz has been making life difficult for the White House behind the scenes.

And that’s why it’s a good thing. This week’s outcome of the months-long debacle in Congress over the Epstein files, coming to a head after Republicans saw a Democratic blowout at the polls two weeks ago, underscores that Trump is a lame duck.

The dam burst, as Republicans rushed to vote to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. We have not seen a president rebuked like this in ions, with a veto-proof majority that was nearly unanimous in the House and Senate.

Sure, Trump jumped on the bandwagon and told Republicans to vote for it, but only after he saw he was going to lose big. He could release the files at any time, and didn’t need a bill. He signed the bill — which he had to do, or face that veto-proof majority — with no cameras, nor with the victims by his side, announcing it on Truth Social in the dead of night.

Trump was forced to do something he was loath to do. It doesn’t mean the files will be released, as he’ll go to Plan B or Plan C, working with the DOJ to block them or strip out anything in them about him. While that’s not good for the victims who want justice, any further stonewalling will just keep the story out there. It will never go away, and will continue to bring Trump down.

Trump is the lamest of ducks, as Republicans in states like Indiana now defy his orders to redistrict and further gerrymander. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (D-GA) went for broke and created a huge clash with Trump. She was the most high-profile deep, dark MAGA figure to break with him, taking a gamble that it would work for her. And it did.

Trump finally exploded and called her a “traitor” — which is rich for so many reasons, including that she’s used that word against so many others — inspiring violent threats against her. None of us knows MTG’s true motives. On Friday, she dropped the stunning news that she would resign from Congress in January. There’s been lots of talk about her positioning herself to run for president too.

Bring it on!

No, MTG will not be elected president. But the more the MAGA base talks about this rift and about other Republicans running for president, the more they show that they’re dividing and also looking at life beyond Trump, who’s dropped his threats — for now — of running for a third term.

Trump’s power over the GOP is slipping, and the Jeffrey Epstein debacle was really a massive exposure of that. NBC News reports that Greene’s voters, while they still support Trump in her blood-red, gerrymandered district in Georgia, also continue to support her.

Before Greene announced her resignation, NBC interviewed voters in her district. Trump had pulled his endorsement of Greene and threatened to back a candidate to primary her. But it doesn’t seem to be working:

“That’s not right. It’s not right,” Debbie Dyer, 60, said of Trump’s accusation. “She should not be seen as a traitor. She’s trying to do the best for the American people and I think Donald Trump should accommodate her and work for America.”

“She has a lot of courage and tells it like it is,” added Dyer, who lives in Dalton, near the Tennessee border, and works at a carpet company.

Trump was hoping the voters would choose between him and Greene, and choose him — his black-and-white world in which you’re either with him or you’re against him — but that doesn’t appear to be happening. This tactic always worked for Trump, but it’s now deflating.

“Some people are struggling with it. Some are choosing Team Marjorie, and some are Team Trump,” said Angela Dollar, a local Republican official in Floyd County, part of Greene’s district.

As for Dollar: “I can like two people who don’t like each other. My hope is they’ll reconcile.”

It seems highly doubtful that Trump is going to destroy Greene. And that’s a big deal.

Of course, none of us should trust or root for Greene, who’s been a vile force in politics, her recent pushback on Trump notwithstanding.

But if Trump no longer has the power to destroy Republicans by backing primaries against them — and as more of them learn that that’s true — we could see the GOP bucking him on a number of issues as we head toward the mid-terms, where Democrats have opened up a big lead in the generic ballot.(A whopping 14 points in one poll, and high single digits in others.)

Republicans are in disarray, with a civil war under way over everything from welcoming holocaust denier Nick Fuentes into the party to fears about the impact of Obamacare subsidies expiring.

The only thing uniting the GOP for years has been a fear of Trump.

But if that fear dissipates, the splits just widen, as they fight one another more and facilitate the MAGA crack up. And that is definitely something to root for.

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

This triple Trump voter has finally had enough. You need to hear him

“I’ve had enough,” Adam from Michigan told me in a call to my SiriusXM show last Friday, after identifying as someone who voted for Donald Trump three times.

He plans to vote “against him, up and down the ballot,” next year.

He said it’s not just him — it’s his entire family, and colleagues at work.

“We don’t want to hear any of it — we just turn it off,” Adam said, referring to TV at the office, where most of his colleagues are Republicans who supported Trump.

As we see MAGA Republicans in the House defying Trump on the Jeffrey Epstein files, and Republicans in states like Indiana ignoring Trump’s demands for redistricting and gerrymandering — an attempt to rig the midterms — there’s a clear sign that many GOP officeholders see Trump as a lame duck. They’re not following his every command.

They’re emboldened — and frightened — by the blowout elections for Democrats two weeks ago, which proved Trump is tanking and Democrats are soaring. And they’re looking at the polls where Trump is sinking, not just with a substantial majority of Americans but among Republicans and MAGA too.

It’s on every issue, including immigration and the economy, where Trump is doing the worst.

Adam is one of them. As I told him, I could argue with him for hours about why he voted for Trump three times, and about his claims that Trump’s first term saw a great stewardship of the economy and the handling of the pandemic. But that would get us off course — there’s always time for that.

I wanted him to just explain what had him dumping Trump now and what he planned to do moving forward. A transcript of our conversation follows.

MS: Adam is in Michigan. Hi Adam. Thanks for calling.

Adam: Oh, hey Michelangelo. I am a, I voted for Trump three times, and he is just like, he just right now, it’s amazing how he is not at a 10 percent approval rating. With the Epstein stuff, the tariffs, the economic destruction, the alienation of our allies. Telling Ukraine, you’re on your own. Destroys everything, saying he’s gonna fix things by lowering the tariffs with a mess he created.

Then you have the Epstein files and then he’s in the emails. I think right now is the time every Republican voters should say, “This our chance to dump him, impeach him, remove him, and get back to business.” That’s how I feel like — I’ve had enough.

MS: Tell me a little bit about how, ‘cause you seem very passionately opposed to him, but to vote for him three times, you had to be very passionately in favor of him and supporting him and certainly by that third time. So what is it that really did it for you after he was elected this time?

Adam: Well, the first time was a wild card, like a lot of people, right.

The second time was kind of like, I remember how the economy was pre-COVID, kind of anchored to that. Okay. Like 2020 happened, and then kind of like, this time, I was kind of thinking, Will things be like 2019 again?

I didn’t take him as serious on the tariffs because he talked about in 2015, 2016, but he never actually did it. But then when he did the tariffs this time, it’s like so reckless. With that “liberation day” and like he destroyed our standing in the world. Canada is gonna hate us for like 50 years. I mean, it’s really sad, but I’m just, I did not—

MS: So it was the tariffs first, but then what? The Epstein files? You mentioned a whole bunch of stuff.

Adam: I know, I’m just kind of sick of him, but you know, just, he’s just not the same person, I can’t explain it. He’s just not who he was the first time. Like the first time he cared about the economy more than anything. Like we saw that during COVID, right?

But then this time it’s like.He’s purposely trying to destroy the economy, then trying to act like he’s fixing it. Like I think he’s lost officially lost his mind — well, not officially, but just, he’s just not — he’s a different monster this time. He’s just reckless.

MS: I will, I will agree with you on that. He’s a different monster. Where we will disagree, and I could argue with you about COVID and the economy in the first administration and, you know what he was, but I’m not going to because I’m very happy that you’re now, you know, deciding you don’t support him.

And I do believe he’s a different kind of monster. He wasn’t like this in the first term, but a lot of us saw this coming with Project 2025. He just completely and totally, I think, is captive to these people. He’s kind of checked out.

Are you now going to do what you can in the midterm elections to vote against Republicans to make sure there’s a check on him?

Adam:I thought about the today out on my walk. I was kind of thinking for next election, I think I just have to maybe vote against him up and down the ballot.

I hate to talk about the people who have cancer, but kind of like as a chemo to get rid of the cancer of Trump. I can’t, I mean, no disrespect to people who have cancer. I hate using this analogy ‘cause it’s so disingenuous, but I just dunno how to explain or what to do, you know?

MS: Yeah, I hear you on that a Adam, thank you. I’m glad to hear that. I bet you represent some other people too. Maybe you can quickly tell me, are there other people you know who’ve also decided they don’t like him anymore?

Adam: Oh yeah. I have clients that work, you know, really like ‘hard in,’ said the same thing. They’re all done. All my siblings, my parents. I have colleagues, people at work who are all Republican voters, you know, like the Mitt Romney types, the John McCain types. We’re all done. Like when his staff comes on TV, we just hit the mute button at the office. We don’t wanna hear from any of them, like Peter Navarro or Scott Bessent or any of them.

Like, we don’t wanna hear any of it. We just turn it off.

MS: I’m, I’m glad to hear that. Make sure, do what you can to make sure they vote against Trump, and that means voting for the Democrat on the ticket, particularly in Congress, particularly for the Senate there in Michigan. Very important races in Michigan.

He has to be stopped. If the Republicans do not have the majority, everything stops. He won’t be able to do, what he’s been doing. So make sure you tell them all and organize. Thank you, Adam for the call.

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

This supposed GOP silver bullet doesn't work, and other lessons from Dem election wins

Within hours of the 2024 presidential election, we saw lots of blame being thrown on Democrats’ championing of LGBTQ rights and, in particular, trans rights, as a major reason for Kamala Harris’s loss.

This, even as Harris hardly discussed trans rights. Incessant attention was nonetheless paid to one anti-trans ad that research even showed didn’t actually effectively sway many voters.

Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts was among the first of the critics, telling the New York Times days after the election, “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

His comments rightly sparked backlash, but he doubled down. We then saw story after story for months throughout 2025 about the Democrats’ supposed “trans problem.”

But now, as he pursues a primary challenge against Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Moulton is singing a completely different tune, promising to “support and lead legislation like the Transgender Bill of Rights.” Moulton says he’s, “spoken with many in the trans community. I’ve listened, I’ve learned, and I understand why those words hurt people. I take responsibility for that.”

What happened?

Certainly there’s political opportunism here, as Moulton is taking on a liberal champion of LGBTQ rights. But there’s also the realization in the past few months, as Republicans blitzed the airwaves in election campaigns with anti-trans ads but saw their polling unmoved, that this issue was blown way out of proportion. When a candidate like Harris loses by 1.4 percent in the popular vote, you can try to blame it on anything.

But the election results last week have now proved it. We saw landslide elections in New Jersey and Virginia, where Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears basically used opposition to trans rights as her platform, as Republicans believed their own hype and thought it was the ticket to winning after 2024, pouring money into anti-trans ads. But Sears lost by a larger margin — almost 15 points — than any Republican in Virginia since 1961, when a segregationist candidate was on the GOP ticket.Anti-trans attacks didn’t work anywhere, as trans candidates even won re-election and a transgender mayor was elected in Pennsylvania, along with other historic firsts for gay candidates in the state. As we saw in Zorhan Mamdani’s stunning win in the New York mayor’s race — as he championed trans rights and funding for gender-affirming care — affordability and the economy were the issues Americans cared about, just as they were in 2024.

This played out in race after race last week, in state after state, and in local races for city council and town council. People were horrified by Trump’s attack on democracy and his broken promises on the economy. That did in the GOP.

The GOP thought they had magic in a bottle after 2024 and spent millions on anti-LGBTQ ads that didn’t work in 2025.

We expect Republicans to push hate and glom onto desperate lines of attack. But we should not accept it when Democrats impulsively buy it as well, and then cast blame, throwing marginalized groups under the bus.

We saw this from Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Democrats early this year, and from centrist groups like Third Way. Like Moulton, Newsom now seems to have dropped the anti-trans stuff, realizing there’s more electoral gold in hitting Trump hard on his attacks on democracy and his broken promises on the economy.

In countering the misguided claims, I wrote after the election about how the LGBTQ vote grew in 2024 to a substantial 8 percent of the electorate, and voted for Harris by 86 percent, a big increase over Joe Biden. That’s a powerful voting block, and, politically, it’s smart for Democrats to court it rather than jettison it based on impulse. It’s also the right thing to do.

The shutdown cave in, and the future

On Monday on my SiriusXM program, the phones were flooded with callers angry about the Senate Democrats cowardly caving in on the shutdown and not getting the Obamacare subsidies extended. There’s been a lot written about it, and about the eight Democrats who voted with the GOP, two of whom are retiring, and others not up for re-election for years — and how it all looked orchestrated by leadership (Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)) to protect incumbents up for re-election this year from angering the base. So I will not belabor that.

I want to say that the discussion yesterday on the show was nuanced, with some people seeing the Democrats as having made their point and using the shutdown to their advantage, and some even said they won it. Republicans will now own the rising Obamacare premiums as there either won’t be a promised vote or they will vote it down. Democrats, in their demand, were always giving Republicans something they needed, and many of the vulnerable GOP House members will be done in by this and everything else they’ve voted for with a gun to their heads by Trump and Mike Johnson.

We also saw Democrats listen to the base longer than they have in the past, keeping the shutdown going for long enough to raise awareness about the healthcare issue. It means they are responding to the base. Even if they collapsed, they’re collapsing less quickly, and that’s a good thing. We need to hash this out, certainly talk about new leadership, and then move on to bigger and dangerous fish to fry — Trump and the GOP. The Washington Post has a story about how, on balance, Democrats have actually learned to fight back over the course of this year, listening to the base. Let’s make sure they listen a lot more.

Please go read….

… Mark Joseph Stern’s piece on the Supreme Court, and Kim Davis’s idiotic attempt to overturn marriage equality. It annoyed me that her long-shot challenge got the attention it did. Thousands of people unsuccessfully appeal to the Supreme Court each year. Too much of the media is portraying the court not taking the case as an example of the Supreme Court defending marriage equality. But Davis’ case was never the case they were going to use to overturn Obergefell, and, more so, they are harming LGBTQ rights and gay and lesbian couples in so many other ways, and we can’t lose sight of that.

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

Republicans are now deathly afraid of Trump — but just as scared of dumping him

Election night was exactly what we all needed.

Following the returns coming in, it was exhilarating, an experience that helped counter what we felt in 2024.

So yes, on a personal, psychological level, this will fuel us for the enormous work ahead. And this built on No Kings, which again points to the importance of organizing.

But we also surely needed this politically, to counter Trump and the GOP—and the corporate media, which is always pandering to the GOP.

Mikie Sherrill, winning by double digits in the New Jersey race for governor, killed the narrative of New Jersey as drifting toward the GOP. The pollsters and the pundits had a big upset, telling us it was going to be single digits and MAGA Jack Ciatterelli could win. Black and Latino voters, who the media told us had strayed to Trump, voted in big percentages for Sherrill.

In the Virginia gubernatorial race, the spread for Abigail Spanberger’s trouncing was also bigger than predicted, and the GOP harping on a texting scandal didn’t stop Jay Jones from becoming attorney general. The House of Delegates is seeing double-digit pickups for Democrats. Virginia, a true bellwether, is a massive blow to the GOP.

Californian organized fiercely within a matter of two months, led by Governor Gavin Newsom, and voted to fight Trump and Texas by redistricting their congressional map. It was a stunning turnaround—so rapidly—and an understanding of the stakes.

Newsom gave a powerful speech, letting Trump know we will not accept his authoritarian rule. And Newsom implored other Democratic states to follow suit with redistricting — and I think they will.

And in New York, Zorhan Mamdani brings a whole new generation to City Hall, as voters decided it was no more business as usual with the same old corrupt politicians. He ran on affordability, as the other Democrats did, hitting the GOP and Trump for only continuing to enrich the billionaires. Mamdani is also a model for Democrats across the country in how to engage with voters, and he sent a message to Democratic leadership: It’s time for change. Much will be written on that.

Mamdani’s acceptance speech, rather than being conciliatory, was fiery and defiant—the right stance for this moment—as he spoke directly to Trump, telling him to “turn up the volume” to listen, and then letting him know he will have a big fight on his hands if he comes for us. Pitch perfect.

So, let’s celebrate these big wins, and the fact that two women elected as governor, and an immigrant—the first Muslim and South Asian elected to be New York’s mayor—won the marquee races.

We needed it. And the GOP, Trump and the media needed to see it. Our opponents are now on the defensive. Republicans will fret, deathly afraid of what Trump will do to their chances—but also deathly afraid of what he’ll do if they pull away from him. That’s exactly where we want them moving into the 2026 midterm elections.

Michelangelo Signorile writes The Signorile Report, a free and reader-supported Substack. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism.

The GOP civil war is apparently now cleaning out closets

Last week, Tim Miller, the gay Bulwark writer who was communications director for Jeb Bush’s campaign in 2016 but left the GOP, tweeted out that Matt Gaetz appeared to be “outing” the GOP Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Missouri Congressman Jason Smith.

You can watch the clip from Gaetz’s podcast here. Gaetz is extremely peeved that Smith attacked him for triggering the removal of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Gaetz played a clip of Smith saying, “Let me just tell you, if Matt Gaetz’s lips are moving, it’s only lies that’s coming out of it,” and calling Gaetz a “foolish liar.”

The vengeful Gaetz responded by saying Smith is the one who is “living a lie” and that every Republican in Congress knows about it:

Jason Smith says if my lips are moving, I’m lying. Well, you know what? If Jason Smith is breathing, he is living a lie. There might not be another member of Congress who lives a lie every day more than Jason Smith. And Jason Smith knows exactly what I’m talking about. And by the way, so does almost every member of the House Republican caucus.

So, there’s a good deal of projection in Jason Smith calling me a liar when it’s Jason Smith who literally has to live a lie. And I honestly pity him for that because you know, it wouldn’t be something that– I wouldn’t live that way. I’ll just put it that way. So, Jason, I would check yourself before you come at me with any accusations of being dishonest about what I say, when you’re dishonest about how you live and what you do.

So what do we know about Smith?

He has voted anti-LGBTQ for years—in office since 2013—with a score of zero from the Human Rights Campaign. He condemned the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision in 2015, saying he has “never wavered in my commitment to the biblical definition of marriage.”

Like most Republicans in the House, Smith voted against the Respect for Marriage last year, which protects same-sex marriage, and voted for the spending bills this year that added dozens of anti-LGBTQ provisions.

But unlike most Republicans in the House, Smith is 44 and single. And one of his closest friends in Congress for years—someone he traveled with on lavish trips—was none other than Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock, the closeted gay House member who resigned in 2015 amid a scandal that focused on his outrageous misuse of government funds, and eventually was indicted in 2016 for fraud and theft of government funds, among other charges.

Schock finally came out of the closet, announcing, “I am gay” in 2020.

Schock voted anti-gay throughout his time as a member of Congress—including against the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell"—even as rumors swirled about his sexual orientation. In earlier years, before becoming a House member, he flat-out denied he was gay, but during his time in Congress, he did everything to deflect from directly answering the question when asked.

When I approached him at the Republican National Convention in 2012 and asked if the rumors were true, he expressed outrage that I could even ask the question—but didn’t outright say no.

Asked on the floor of the RNC…to respond to those who’ve believed that Schock is gay and also view his vote against “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal was a vote against members of his own group, Schock responded, “Those questions are completely ridiculous and inappropriate.” He added, when asked if he is confirming that he is not gay, “I’ve said that before and I don’t think it’s worthy of further response. I think you can look it up.” Schock then walked off, abruptly ending the interview.

Of course, Schock was totally gay, as he would later confirm—and voting against LGBTQ people. And during that time, one of his closest friends in Congress was Jason Smith.

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Attention was brought to their relationship when the spotlight focused on the luxurious trips Schock was taking, often spending taxpayer dollars. As reported by The Hill in 2018:

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) joined his close friend Aaron Schock on campaign and government trips and exotic vacations in 2014 that are being scrutinized by federal investigators looking into alleged spending abuses by the former congressman, who resigned in March.

Revelations that Smith, 35, accompanied Schock on the campaign trip come the same week The Hill reported that Smith has hired Schock’s former chief of staff, Mark Roman, who managed the congressman’s office at the time of his spending scandal.
There’s no indication that federal prosecutors have questioned or sought records from Smith, but his participation on trips now under criminal investigation could drag one of Schock’s closest friends in Congress into his legal mess and undermine Smith’s political image as a humble, salt-of-the-earth fiscal conservative. The news has also led to chatter on Capitol Hill, where Roman’s hiring by Smith surprised many.

That story also reported on a trip that Smith took with Schock to Brazil along with two other House members, most of which was paid for by the Brazilian government.

But after the official business, the Hill reports, Schock, Smith, and several of their male aides headed to the Brazilian beach town of Canoa Quebrada, a gay-friendly resort spot.

Smith and Shock also went to Argentina with their aides, and the Hill reported on how unusual it was for members to take their aides on lavish vacations:

Later that December, Schock posted Instagram photos of himself, Smith, Roman, and Schock’s photographer, Jonathon Link, hanging out at a vineyard in the famed Mendoza wine region of Argentina and whitewater rafting the Andes rivers of Potrerillos. Schock paid Link thousands of dollars in taxpayer and campaign money to snap dramatic photos of him around the country and around the world.
Many of those photos ended up on Schock’s Instagram account. Some GOP aides said it was odd for lawmakers to be taking their staffers on exotic vacations.

As noted, one of the aides on both the Brazil trip and the Argentina trip was Roman, who, as the Hill reports, many were surprised Smith hired as his chief of staff, since he was managing Schock’s during the time of the spending scandal. Roman has now moved up from being Smith’s chief of staff to being staff director of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which Smith chairs.

All of this makes Gaetz’s podcast that much more interesting. Gaetz has been a MAGA supervillain doing what he can to take down the GOP establishment, causing complete chaos. And information is power, especially if it’s being used as a weapon.

I have no problem with the truth being reported about a public figure when it’s relevant—such as if that person is voting anti-LGBTQ. And Gaetz is actually outing the entire GOP here, noting that every Republican knows about Smith’s alleged closet—while most of them rail against LGBTQ people. I’d just rather see solid facts than innuendo used as a threat.

So please, Matt Gaetz, flesh out all the details, and let’s hear about all the other GOP hypocrites. We’re all here for it!

Trump supporter gets schooled after claiming the president didn't incite the Capitol insurrection

Marty from Wisconsin called in to my SiriusXM radio program as I discussed the insurrection at the Capitol. He started out weirdly referring to Princess Leia from "Star Wars," and saying "we're gonna be stronger."

This article was originally published at The Signorile Report

Obviously living in an intergalactic fantasy, Marty claimed that Trump "got 80 million votes," which is completely false. When I went on to correct him and tell him that Trump received 74.2 million votes and Joe Biden got 81.3 million votes he shot back at me like I was nitpicking, and said, "You guys are doing all this stuff, you're pulling all this shit."

Marty offers a window into the minds of Trump supporters who are still slavishly devoted to Trump even as they claim to oppose the violence that occurred at the Capitol. They tell themselves that it was just a few people and that Trump doesn't support it nor did he incite it. And they believe Trump when he says, as he did today, that his speech was "totally appropriate."

Marty claimed that "we're not like that," pointing to the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol — even though there were thousands of people there, including leaders of groups Trump has condoned and which are violent white supremacist groups, like the Proud Boys.

When I pointed that out, Marty began defending the Proud Boys, saying they were started as a "joke."

He denied that Trump incited the mob, condoning his speech, and said I was taking it "out of context" when I quoted Trump's video which he tweeted out during the siege, in which he said we "love you" to the insurrectionists and that they are "special people" and "patriots."

I really had to break everything to Marty very gently because he was truly losing it.

Listen in and let me know your thoughts!

Inside the GOP's coming Jan 6 assault on democracy

Last week I wrote about "the GOP's January 6th assault on democracy," warning that GOP senators had to be called, pressured, hounded by their constituents to not cave into Trump's demands during the normally routine Congressional certification of the election next week, on January 6th.

This story first appeared at The Signorile Report.

Trump-supporting GOP House members have vowed to formally challenge the Electoral College results, and under the rules they need one senator to join — something which now seems likely — in order to force what could be two days of full-blown debate on throwing out all the votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin, and then having a vote in both the House and the Senate on it.

As I noted, this reckless, seditious action is doomed to failure — and Mitch McConnell has apparently begged GOP senators not to do it — since Democrats have a majority in the House and enough Republicans in the Senate would join Democrats in voting it down.

But the action, even as it would blow up in the GOP's face, would further attack the integrity of the election and President-elect Joe Biden's legitimacy, which seems to be one of Trump's goals.

Now, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who is plugged in to many in the government, sounded the alarm over the weekend — and appears to be warning the GOP leadership — on possible violence Trump might incite which would, in Trump's twisted mind, give him the impetus to engage in more extreme actions:

Trump's last-ditch campaign will almost certainly fail in Congress. The greater danger is on the streets, where pro-Trump forces are already threatening chaos. A pro-Trump group called "Women for America First" has requested a permit for a Jan. 6 rally in Washington, and Trump is already beating the drum: "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"
Government officials fear that if violence spreads, Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military. Then Trump might use "military capabilities" to rerun the Nov. 3 election in swing states, as suggested by Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser. Trump "could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election," Flynn told Newsmax in a Dec. 17 interview.

Ignatius, in his column, looks at the highly concerning, abrupt changes Trump made at the Pentagon in recent weeks — firing top officials, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and replacing them with his staunchest supporters — as perhaps a clue to what he might have planned. Ignatius also details current tensions with Iran amid Trump's threats, shining a light on the possibility that Trump would engage in military action overseas in these last weeks.

Enraged and out of control, Trump might do anything, as we've seen just in recent days, from pardoning murderers to holding up relief for millions (only to reverse himself after causing many to needlessly suffer further, including millions who saw unemployment benefits disrupted). John Nichols of The Nation first discussed the planned January 6th assault on democracy by Republicans two weeks ago, and how Trump has been at the forefront of it. Nichols came on my SiriusXM show last week — as he does every Monday — and talked as well about the Trump-supporting groups that were heading to Washington, where they might cause chaos and engage in violent actions, as we saw the Proud Boys do several weeks ago.

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But Nichols also made the point on my program that the protests were meant to pressure those GOP senators who will be voting to certify the Electoral College vote, some or all of whom will be intimidated by people amassing outside in the streets. I noted in my piece last week that, while some senators signaled support for Trump in this effort to overturn the election at the Congressional certification, many GOP senators had already said outright or signaled that they accepted the election results and/or that Joe Biden is the president-elect (and I went through the names, which you can check out).

And some of them, like Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota, got slammed by Trump as "Mitch's boy," for saying it was time to move on. Trump continued hitting GOP senators over the weekend, viewing them as abandoning him.

That was on Christmas Eve. Then he slammed them again on Saturday.

So, while many GOP senators and even many GOP House members haven't publicly joined in overturning the election, it's not just Trump's threats of destroying them or backing a primary challenger that might make them weak-kneed; it's the very real threat of protests from people who, like it or not, are the base of their party and whose message could spread to their constituents back home.

And Trump is continuing to stoke that fear, make no mistake, tweeting last night about January 6th — just before he sent out a tweet hinting he'd be signing the relief bill. One wonders if any Republican senators assured him they'd be with him on January 6th in return for signing the relief bill and spending bill to be keep the government from shutting down. We all know how Trump works the quid pro quo.

While Trump and his GOP accomplices will fail at overturning the election, we can't let any vote that might take place on January 6th be even close. Ignatius seems to be warning GOP leaders of the dangers of that day, including those in the Senate, and those same senators need to hear from people across America loudly and clearly — who should also be pressuring their donors, including their corporate donors — that this is a horrendous attempt to completely subvert of democracy.