Good morning. I’m Thom Hartmann, and you’re watching Raw America.
The guardrails of American democracy are being tested in ways not seen since Watergate, and perhaps even more brazenly. From constitutional violations to the corruption of federal agencies, the Trump administration is following the authoritarian playbook to the letter while Republicans in Congress and billionaire-controlled media outlets look the other way.
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Trump Extorting Taxpayers for Self-Glorification
Donald Trump has found a new way to shake down American cities, and it’s both unconstitutional and breathtakingly corrupt. Punchbowl News reported that the president told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would only release $16 billion in Congressionally appropriated funds for a critical railway project connecting New York and New Jersey under one condition: That the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia and Penn Station in New York be renamed after him.
Think about what’s happening here. Trump is holding hostage billions of dollars that Congress, exercising its constitutional authority, has already allocated. He’s demanding that major public infrastructure be branded with his name as the price for releasing money that legally should already be flowing. This isn’t governance; it’s a protection racket.
Schumer reportedly rejected this absurd demand immediately, reminding Trump that the president lacks the authority to unilaterally rename airports and train stations. But the very fact that Trump made such a proposal reveals everything Americans need to know about how this administration views public service: As an opportunity for self-aggrandizement.
This financial hostage-taking extends far beyond New York. The administration is currently blocking another $8 billion in clean energy projects across 18 blue states. The pattern is unmistakable: States that didn’t vote for Trump in 2024 are being punished. This violates Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which explicitly grants Congress, not the president, the power of the purse. It also flagrantly violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, legislation passed after Richard Nixon tried similar stunts.
Both New York and New Jersey have filed lawsuits challenging this unconstitutional withholding of federal funds. The question now is whether the courts will act swiftly enough to prevent Trump from using taxpayer money as a tool for political revenge and personal glorification.
Bari Weiss’ Epstein Problem at CBS Gets Even Worse
Over at CBS News, editor-in-chief Bari Weiss faces a defining moment that reveals the moral bankruptcy of elevating corporate stooges to positions of power and influence. Dr. Peter Attia, Weiss’s high-profile recruit to help rebrand CBS News for a MAGA-friendly audience, appears more than 1,500 times in the latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein documents.
The emails are damning. In one 2016 message, Attia made crude jokes about women to Epstein. In another, he told the convicted child predator: “The biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul.” That message came seven years after Epstein’s first arrest for procuring a child for prostitution.
The documents also revealed that in 2017, Attia prioritized meeting with Epstein in New York over visiting his wife in the hospital while their infant son was being treated. This isn’t about political correctness or cancel culture. This is about judgment, character, and whether someone who maintained a close relationship with a notorious child sex trafficker should be dispensing health advice on national television.
According to reporting from the New York Post and The Wrap, Weiss is hesitating to fire Attia because she views it as “giving in to the mob.” She’s framing basic accountability as a free speech issue. This controversy illuminates a broader problem with the new ownership’s vision for CBS News. Will Bari Weiss’ pursuit of a conservative audience trump basic journalistic ethics?
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Trump Has Midnight Meltdown Against His Political Opponents
Between 10:36 PM and 12:25 AM Thursday night, Donald Trump fired off 66 posts on Truth Social in what can only be described as a digital meltdown that laid bare an authoritarian strategy playing out in real time. Among the barrage of recycled TikTok dog videos and attacks on political opponents came a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama with their faces superimposed onto animated apes, dancing to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
But the broader context is even more alarming. This same posting spree included references to Jeffrey Epstein, conspiracy theories about rigged elections, and attacks on everyone from Kamala Harris to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. What Americans are witnessing is not merely unpresidential behavior. This is the deliberate cultivation of chaos, where outrage becomes engagement, engagement cements tribal loyalty, and loyalty transforms into political power immune to democratic accountability.
Republicans Start To Sour On Noem
While Republicans typically function as willing accomplices to Trump’s excesses, cracks are forming around Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Her repeated failures are generating fury even from Republicans whose constituents are suffering the consequences.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said bluntly that DHS needs “adults in the room.” And he told Politico that “something is seriously wrong” with the DHS secretary.
The problems span Noem’s entire sprawling department. ICE agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. FEMA’s responses to hurricanes have been catastrophically slow. Many affected communities are ruby-red Trump strongholds whose residents expected better treatment.
At the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Noem’s handpicked acting chief faces allegations of dumping sensitive information into ChatGPT and failing a polygraph test. Former CISA officials describe plummeting morale and constant setbacks.
Even House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino, a Republican, has publicly blasted Noem for insufficient transparency and absurd requirements, like demanding seven days’ notice before lawmakers can visit ICE facilities in their own districts. The question isn’t whether Noem is failing. The question is how long Trump’s loyalty will outweigh the mounting political cost of her incompetence.
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I’m Thom Hartmann for Raw America. Keep fighting, and we’ll see you next time.
