Sunday Wrapup: The Dam is Breaking on Trump

Even Trump's lackeys are begging to speak out

Hi, Raw America family. It’s John Byrne here with your Sunday Wrapup. For those of you who are new, I pen this column each Sunday. I’m writing this while having my morning coffee, and I’ll be honest—it’s been one hell of a week.

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This week, we witnessed something I never thought I’d see: a sitting American president posting a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, then scrambling to delete it when his own party revolted.

The clip was spliced into election conspiracy content, set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” It showed the former First Family using the same dehumanizing imagery that slave traders and segregationists used to justify lynchings. One civil rights leader called it a “digital minstrel show.”

But here’s what gives me hope: even Trump’s own people said no. Senator Tim Scott called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Rep. Mike Lawler called it “incredibly offensive.” Mark Burns from “Pastors for Trump” personally called the president and demanded he fire whoever posted it.

Trump’s response? Suddenly it was all a “staffer’s” fault. The same president who takes credit for everything good claims he knew nothing about the most racist post in presidential history.

The walls are closing in, and it shows. Trump’s approval has collapsed to 39%, with two-thirds of Americans saying his immigration enforcers have “gone too far.” Even his border thug Greg Bovino got kicked out of a Las Vegas bar this week for being too toxic for their customers. Think about that—a Vegas bar found him unfit to drink.

Then there’s the bombshell revelation from Jeffrey Epstein’s cellmate, who claims the Trump administration wanted the convicted child trafficker dead. Nicholas Tartaglione filed a pardon petition alleging Epstein was “deliberately exposed to violence in the hope that he would not survive long enough to stand trial.”

This comes as newly released emails show Epstein bragging on Christmas 2016 about hanging “with all the trump boys”—destroying Trump’s timeline about cutting ties years earlier. The timeline is damning: Epstein had dirt on Trump, Trump becomes president, Epstein gets a violent cellmate, and Epstein winds up dead.

Meanwhile, corporate media treats these as separate scandals. They won’t connect the dots because they’re afraid of appearing “partisan.” Raw America connects the dots because that’s what journalism is supposed to do.

What we’re witnessing isn’t random chaos—it’s the systematic behavior of a movement that’s crumbling. When your approval rating collapses, when your own party calls out your racism, when Vegas bars won’t serve your enforcers, you’re not winning. You’re trying to hold power through increasingly desperate acts.

Even Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito may be jumping ship. His new book drops October 6th—the day after the Supreme Court’s new term begins. At 76, having accomplished his goal of overturning Roe, Alito may want out before Republicans potentially lose the Senate in November.

Here’s what keeps me fighting: Americans are rejecting this in real time. The protests aren’t stopping. Even “Pastors for Trump” members are demanding accountability. This isn’t the invincible movement of 2016.

I like to add in a little humor and hope in each of my weekly columns. You can see that hope on our Notes page on RawAmerica.com, which we update 10-12 times a day. This week, protesters projected a PEDO Bowl video on a downtown building outside the Super Bowl, with “Epstein Files Leaders.” Trump: 5,300 mentions. Elon Musk 1,465 mentions. Steve Bannon 2,901 mentions. Check it out!

I’ve been doing this for 22 years, and I’ve never seen anything like the backlash we’re witnessing in the wake of ICE executions in Minnesota. When your own party calls out your racism and even bars in Sin City refuse your business, you’re not dealing with normal political opposition. You’re dealing with a democracy that’s finally saying “enough.”

That’s why Raw America matters more than ever. While corporate outlets hedge and equivocate, we call racism what it is. While billionaire owners gut newsrooms, we’re hiring. While oligarch-controlled media serves power, we serve you.

Every subscription, every share, every person who refuses to normalize this behavior helps build the resistance. This is what accountability looks like. This is what hope in action achieves.

Thanks for joining me for my Sunday coffee. If you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. But whether you can or not, thank you for refusing to look away.

Democracy’s immune system is finally kicking in. Let’s fire it up.

Until next week,

—John Byrne
Founder, Raw America

P.S. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them. This week proved it!