Friends,

We have been subject to the sociopath for a year and a half — 18 months of the most loathsome, least competent, and most corrupt person ever to be president of the United States.

We’ve watched him take a meat-axe to every major institution of our democracy, draw the nation into a never-ending war, establish a murderous domestic police state, reject renewable energy in favor of the dirtiest possible fossil fuels, make billions off his presidency, and cause most Americans to become poorer and less economically secure.

But here’s the good news. The sleeping giant of America is finally awakening.

Trump’s poll numbers are plummeting. They’re now at record lows. Even many Republicans have had enough. Progressives are winning election after election around the country.

The sleeping giant has always remained asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, some acts so disrespectful of the common good, some brutalities so noisy, that the giant has no choice but to awaken — blinking both eyes and then roaring, “What the hell is going on here?”

The first time I saw him awaken was during the witch hunts of Senator Joe McCarthy. He awoke again when the Ku Klux Klan tried to stop the Civil Rights Movement. Again when the Vietnam War was taking the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese. And again when Richard Nixon threatened our system of government.

Each time the sleeping giant of America has awakened, the good sense of the American people has ended whatever it is that awakened him. Again and again, we’ve put the nation back on track toward democracy and social justice.

Trump isn’t gone yet, of course. He has another two and a half years. But he’s on his way out. He’ll soon be a cringeworthy irrelevance, a fat lame duck, excrement on the sidewalk of history.

In a few years, Trump’s gilded monuments will be razed, his name removed from every building and pediment, his pathetic attempts to glorify himself turned into bad jokes, his legacy object lessons in why big money must be banned from politics and dastardly dickheads like Elon Musk kept away from the levers of government power.

Trump will still cause a great deal of damage over the remainder of his term, the way a wild pig who’s been gored wreaks mayhem before it expires.

So this is no time to let down our guard or become overly confident about the coming midterm elections.

Quite the contrary. One hundred days from today must be a historic repudiation of Trump and his entire disgusting regime.

The blue wave must be a tsunami — inundating everything Trump may attempt to do to hold on to the House and Senate, overwhelming whatever lies he may tell about the election, and enveloping him in a rejection that’s so unmistakeable, a rebuke so unequivocal, a reproach so unambiguous as to cause the great giant of America to get up and dance.

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Friends,

Today, Heather and I take a dive into the muck of Trump, 101 days before the midterm elections. His war in Iran is worsening, with no end in sight. His economy is dropping, as gas and food prices soar and as his tariffs (import taxes) take their toll. His regime is descending into chaos, as public health is compromised, measles spreads, children aren’t getting nutrition assistance, and Medicaid is cut.

But how do we peacefully and legally get rid of him between now and the 2028 election? What’s our 2028 strategy for regaining the White House? And our 2029 strategy for cleaning up this horrific mess? Heather and I discuss these questions and more.

Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, and join the conversation.

RR

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Friends,

Here’s another video for you to share. Please do!

Friends,

A new Government Accountability Office study, released Wednesday, found that MacDonalds, Walmart, and Amazon — three of America’s largest employers, with billions in profits — are also among the top employers of workers who earn so little they have to rely on food stamps to put food on the table and Medicaid to obtain health coverage.

Yet according to the latest data, MacDonalds pays its CEO $18.2 million a year, Walmart pays its CEO $27.4 million, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the second-richest person in America.

American capitalism has run amuck.

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Friends,

The White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner will be held tonight (after being cut short in April by a gunman). Once again, Trump will be on the dais, and his speech will be the main event.

But the highlight of the evening will be the award for “the most fair, impartial, objective news reporting” by a member of the White House press corps, which will be going to The New York Times’ Tyler Pager.

Pager is one of the Times journalists subpoenaed by Trump’s FBI to force the paper to reveal confidential sources behind its story about Trump’s Qatari-donated jumbo replacement for Air Force One. (A district judge has delayed enforcing the subpoenas.)

The backstory is that since returning to the White House, Trump has complained about the “look” of Air Force One. He was upset that other countries have newer planes that are “bigger and sleeker and sharper,” he told Fox News. “It doesn’t look right.” Of course, Trump wants the biggest, sleekest, and sharpest.

So in May of 2025 he accepted Qatar’s “gift” of a Boeing 747-8 jetliner, reportedly worth some $400 million. Trump described it as a gift to the United States (the Constitution prohibits gifts from foreign powers to presidents), but that’s rubbish. Trump says he intends to keep it for his presidential library (it’s hard to imagine a giant jumbo jet in a library or as a library) and post-presidential plaything.

The Qatari jumbo jet is intimately tied to Trump’s jumbo ego. Trump boasts that it will be “a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody’s ever seen before,” adding, “Now when we land at airports in London and Germany and different places, nobody tops this one.”

He’s emphasized that it won’t cost taxpayers a dime, and would be easy to “bring it up to the presidential standards, meaning security wise.”

But the actual cost to taxpayers of retrofitting it to “presidential standards” has been between $400 million and $1 billion so far — more than the jet was worth in the first place. And it’s still not there, “security wise.”

Which brings us to the Times report, which drove Trump nuts. It said he had to fly out of Turkey (where the NATO summit was held) on the old Air Force One instead of his new Qatari-donated jumbo jet because the Qatari jet still didn’t have sufficient security, including antimissile capabilities.

According to CNN, Trump was “fuming,” “embarrassed and angry” by the Times story. It made him look bad, even stupid. What kind of a businessman would describe a $400 million jet as “free” and then charge taxpayers more than $400 million to have it ready to fly? Even now, it’s not ready.

Trying to make the story appear as a threat to national security, Trump instructed FBI director Kash Patel and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, to oversee a leak investigation. These are his top guns. Patel was even summoned to the White House and reportedly worked on it for eight hours.

Trump is paranoid that someone with knowledge that could embarrass him would be so disloyal as to leak it.

Subpoenas were sent to the homes of Times journalists who reported the story —including Tyler Pager. Other subpoenas went to the journalists’ phone service providers, seeking phone and text-messaging records for the journalists and their spouses. Rarely in history has the White House and FBI been mobilized like this.

But the threat here has nothing whatever to do with national security. Trump has even publicly admitted that the jet still has to be “maxed” for security.

No, the threat here is to Trump’s giant ego. His humongous ego is why he always has to fly in the biggest and the best plane — such as the Qatari jumbo jet. His ego is also why he hates to be the brunt of jokes by late night comedians, who’ve had a field day with Trump and his not-quite-ready Qatari jet.

And his paranoid ego is why Trump can’t stand the possibility that anyone in the White House, Pentagon, or Secret Service might have revealed to journalists his utter stupidity.

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Friends,

This daily letter to you doesn’t offer financial advice. And most of you have been so worried by the nation’s lurch toward dictatorship under loathsome Trump that it seems almost unfair to burden you with an alarm about the economy. But we’re facing a five-alarm fire that you need to know about.

Much of the United States economy is now based on A.I. — or, more specifically, expectations that A.I. will pay off very big in the near future. A.I.-related stocks have accounted for roughly half of the rise in the S&P 500 this year. And U.S. economic growth is dependent to a remarkable degree on A.I. infrastructure spending.

But it’s becoming a house of cards.

Yes, America now dominates A.I. with the most powerful systems and more data centers than any other nation. But that lead hasn’t come free of charge, and it’s eroding quickly.

The lead is based on colossal spending on data centers, especially by Oracle, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta. A stumble by any one of them would spill over to the rest of the economy.

It’s estimated that these five companies combined will account for more than $800 billion in A.I. investments this year. They plan to spend an additional $1.2 trillion in 2027 — more than Trump’s entire military budget request for 2027.

Where’s all this A.I. money coming from? Some from investors, but much of it is being borrowed.

One worry is their borrowing is outpacing their profits. Not surprisingly, the bond market has begun to charge premiums for what it considers a heightened risk that they won’t be able to repay.

Oracle’s debt now stands just a bit above junk bond status. Amazon’s bond prices have also been hard hit. So have those issued by SpaceX, which is also building A.I. data centers and whose bonds have been trading at junkish rates.

Here’s another worry. Chinese A.I. companies are now offering A.I. that’s almost as good as that emerging from Anthropic and OpenAI — but Chinese companies are offering it free of charge to companies anywhere in the world, including in the United States. This is likely to mean lower earnings for leading American A.I. corporations and less demand for data centers.

Last month, Chinese startup Z.ai released a model that’s been rapidly adopted by startups and independent developers across Silicon Valley.

What’s the consequence? So far this year, the stock prices of four of the five big data-center companies have trailed the overall S&P 500. Oracle’s shares have fallen more than 35 percent. Shares of SpaceX have fallen below their initial public offering price.

On Thursday, a Chinese startup called Moonshot AI released a new A.I. model called Kimi 3 that’s nearly as powerful as the leading American model, Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5. Moonshot said it would soon provide Kimi 3 as open source, essentially free. The news caused a sell-off of U.S. technology stocks on Friday.

The latest systems from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI still outperform Kimi and other Chinese models, but the top Chinese models are far cheaper — which is why Anthropic and OpenAI are now urging the Trump regime to block imports of Chinese A.I. Yet such blockage would competitively harm much of the rest of the tech sector and other big American companies that are using Chinese A.I.

The third worry is how much economic activity in the U.S. now depends on A.I. If investor confidence in A.I. crumbles, much of the economic activity built on it could come crashing down. The sell-off would make it more expensive for companies to raise and borrow the capital they need to fund further A.I. investments, causing companies to delay or cancel their plans for data centers and related infrastructure.

The drop would also push wealthy consumers to pare their spending. Much consumer demand in the U.S. now turns on spending by the richest 10 percent of Americans, who own over 90 percent of the value of all shares of stock traded on U.S. stock exchanges. They’re spending like mad now, largely because the ebullient stock market has made them feel far richer. If the market drops, they’ll pull back on their spending, which could lead to wider job losses and, ultimately, a recession.

Bank of America’s monthly global fund-manager survey for July reports that fund managers see the key risk to financial markets to be a bursting of the A.I. bubble. It’s also now the key risk to the economy.

I don’t want to rain on the A.I. parade. Maybe — just maybe — the extraordinary price-earnings ratios of A.I. companies will be justified by a torrent of A.I. buying by consumers and businesses in the next few years.

Even if it’s a bubble, it’s impossible to predict when it will burst. Maybe not for several years. And maybe not with a bang but with a whimper.

But the sobering reality is this: The U.S. economy has become so concentrated in a handful of giant A.I. corporations, so highly leveraged with A.I.-related debt, and so dependent on predictions about huge earnings flowing from A.I. in the foreseeable future, that the risks of a recession or even a crash are growing.

Yes, we have fiscal and monetary policy tools to counteract a sudden downturn. But will those tools will be powerful enough to respond if a significant portion of business and consumer demand suddenly shrinks, when investors and creditors are left holding nearly worthless pieces of paper, when the United States is already deep in debt, when the competence of government policymakers is highly questionable, and when trust in government has never been as low as it is today?

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Friends,

Here’s this week’s video. Please share.

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Friends,

Starting August 1, Trump Media and Technology Group will launch a new data feed aimed at high-frequency trading firms whose profits are made by making trades a fraction of a second faster than everyone else.

It will provide “licensed, real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.” In other words, the feed will let you know what Trump has said before anyone else knows, meaning it’s well worth the tab that Truth Social will charge to see Trump’s posts before the rest of the public sees them — up to $100,000 per month.

That’s a pittance relative to what could be made, because Trump’s words on Truth Social — about his war in Iran, about his latest tariffs, about the Fed — have caused the stock market to soar or drop. So, if you’re a trader on Wall Street, you’ll make millions if you know what he’s posting a fraction of a second before everyone else knows. Perhaps more to the point, if you’re behind on that news, “you’ll get crushed,” as one hedge-fund executive told the Financial Times.

No wonder Trump Media’s interim CEO Kevin McGurn is gloating that the feed will “become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders.” Trump Media has been unprofitable until now.

Trump, of course, is the company’s largest shareholder.

The scheme is Trump’s most brazen scheme so far to illegally profit off his presidency and enrich his Wall Street insider friends.

I say illegally because the Constitution lists “bribery” as a reason to remove a president from office, and the federal ban on bribing public officials also expressly applies to a president. (Whether these provisions can be enforced against a president who’s been given blanket immunity from “official acts” by the Supreme Court is another matter.)

The good news, though, is Americans are catching on to insider trading, and they hate it — so much so that House Republican leaders are now teeing up a vote this week on a bill that would create new guardrails for lawmakers trading stocks.

The “Stop Insider Trading Act” would bar members of Congress and their families from purchasing new shares of stock and require them to file a notice of their plans to sell shares at least seven days ahead of time.

Most Democrats say the measure doesn’t go far enough because it allows members to keep shares of stock they already own, in contrast with a competing bipartisan proposal that bars members from trading individual shares of stock altogether. And one provision Republicans have snuck into the measure —and that must be removed if they want any Democratic votes — is linked to Trump’s “Save America” voter suppression act.

My point is that at the same time Trump is rolling out a new tool to give traders more immediate access to his market-moving posts on Truth Social — if they’ll pay him up to $100,000 a month for it — Congress is limiting how members can profit from inside information they obtain through elected office.

The American public is so disgusted by corruption in Washington that even Republican lawmakers want something to show they’re not in the swamp.

Trump doesn’t give a damn about the public’s mounting revulsion at corruption. He’s not up for reelection. He doesn’t care that his polls are in the cellar. All he wants to do is make even more money, exert more power, and get even with people who have gotten in his way.

But the public wants his swamp drained.

Democrats, take note. Three months from now, ask Americans two related questions: Do they think they’re better off than they were before Trump became president again? Do they approve of the most corrupt White House in American history?

The answer to both will be a resounding no. And the best way for Americans to act on their disgust will be to kick the Republican bums out.

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Friends,

In response to public outrage following ICE’s recent murders in Houston and Maine, the Department of Homeland Security moved to pause vehicle stops. But the pause reportedly infuriated Trump, who ordered ICE to continue the stops. ICE’s arrests and aggression continue to escalate.

Trump’s war with Iran is also escalating, with the U.S. striking critical infrastructure sites including power stations and bridges, and Iran attacking a U.S. base in Jordan, killing two American troops (one is still missing).

I think the two killing fields are related, and the question I’ve been pondering is why Trump’s violence is growing both at home and abroad?

It can’t be because the violence is achieving Trump’s stated objectives. Illegal immigration was already down to a trickle before ICE’s recent violent resurgence. The escalating bombing of Iran is fortifying its militant leaders, causing even more Iranians to become anti-American, and widening the war.

Nor is Trump’s escalating violence popular with American voters. In fact, most Americans have turned against ICE and against Trump’s war in Iran. Strikingly, Trump has lost enthusiasm even among many fellow Republicans, a core source of his power for more than a decade.

So why is Trump escalating the violence, at home and abroad?

At first I thought it was to justify Trump’s use of emergency powers in the midterm elections — giving him trumped-up reasons to deploy troops at voting places, curtail times and places of voting, and confiscate voting lists and machines.

That may still be a motive, although his address to the nation last Thursday night focused on fake reports of fraudulent voting rather than Iranian aggression or a fake resurgence of immigration.

So, is there any other reason for Trump’s escalating violence at home and abroad?

As Americans and much of the rest of the world turn on Trump (and, by extension, Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, and Stephen Miller), I can’t help but wonder whether they feel their manhood to be under assault.

Remember, this is a president who staged a cage match on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday and incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

It’s also a secretary of defense who’s testing troops for their levels of testosterone.

A vice president who excoriates “childless cat ladies” and other “people without children” for allegedly having no stake in the nation’s future.

And a White House deputy chief of staff who’s taunting Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico for having “less testosterone” than his opponent and emitting “soy milk” when his blood is drawn.

In the Trump manosphere, violence is seen as a sign of virility. When that virility is challenged, the automatic response is to escalate the violence.

Hence, the growing mayhem in Trump’s two killing fields.

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Friends,

Trump on Monday signed orders to impose a 50 percent tariff on a wide range of Canadian imports.

The White House claims the tariffs are a “punishment” for Canadian discrimination against American cars, dairy, and alcohol.

But the tariffs will also punish us. Remember, tariffs are import taxes — paid for by you and me and everyone else in America. So, we’re about to pay more for everything we import from Canada: plywood, paper, furniture, hockey sticks, cement, et al. Canada is our second-largest trading partner, for chrissake.

Even if the Supreme Court finds that Trump lacks authority to invoke these tariffs and the government must refund American importers for the extra cost — as the high court did with his first round of tariffs — you and I won’t be reimbursed for the extra costs we’ve paid.

Corporations aren’t giving their customers any of the $80 billion in refunds they’ve received from the Treasury Department for the first round of tariffs, so don’t expect any reimbursement on this second round. Which means we’re doubly screwed.

Worse yet, the Treasury isn’t really bearing the cost of the $80 billion in refunds. The cost is being borne by you and me and all other American taxpayers, because our money funds the government. And as taxpayers we’ll also be paying for the second round of refunds, assuming the Supreme Court orders them. Which means we’re triply screwed.

Actually, we’re quadruply screwed because Trump is imposing the new tariffs under the Tariff Act of 1930 — the notorious Smoot-Hawley tariff that worsened the Great Depression by causing other countries to retaliate and impose tariffs on goods coming from the United States. It’s likely to have a similar effect in coming months.

If you hadn’t noticed, the American economy is already shaky. Prices are rising faster than wages, which means most of us are becoming poorer even before Trump’s next round of tariffs. His war in Iran is pushing up the price of gas and, indirectly, food.

The real reason for the new tariffs is that Trump is pissed off that Canada had the temerity (and the right) to retaliate against his first round of tariffs, and it has resisted Trump’s calls to be annexed as the 51st state.

Why would Canadians ever want to live in a nation that could elect Trump?

In any event, I believe I can speak for most Americans when I apologize to our Canadian friends. We’re sorry we elected him. He’s made our lives worse. He’s a continuing embarrassment to us. (Did you see him grandstand at the World Cup? We have to live with this crap every day.)

Believe me, we’re doing everything we can to put him back in his cage.

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Friends,

Trump’s war with Iran has resumed (it never really stopped). The U.S. is sending more warplanes to the Middle East. Two American service members were killed in an Iranian missile attack on Jordan, and a third is missing. The Strait of Hormuz is again closed. Meanwhile, Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement following his father’s funeral, saying “revenge is the will of our nation” and that Iran would act against “criminals whose names are known.” In response, Trump threatened to “completely decimate and destroy” Iran if assassination threats against him were acted upon.

How long can Iran continue the war? Its economy appears reasonably stable; it has exported oil sufficient to meet its needs. Its population has become used to sanctions and economic pain, and has no voice, in any event. As shown by its attack on Jordan, as well as those on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Syria, and Qatar, Iran has ample missile stocks and has also become more adept at evading U.S. air defense systems.

How long can the U.S. continue the war? America doesn’t have sufficient munitions to maintain the current bombing campaign indefinitely. World oil reserves are almost depleted, which means that continued blockage of the strait will cause even more economic pain. Oil has again topped $90 a barrel. Plus, there are midterm elections to think about.

So, what’s Trump’s likely next move? I’ve made the rounds of the foreign policy advisers and experts I consulted with in early March, asking what they believe Trump will do now.

Their responses are arrayed below. I’d appreciate hearing from you as well, about what you think Trump will do.

Read more

Friends,

Here’s you-know-who trying, as ever, to be the center of attention today, even though it was supposed to be about celebrating those who deserved it. Congratulations, Spain — along with apologies for our Malignant Narcissist-in-Chief.

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Friends,

Please submit your caption in the Comments section and, as before, please use the Comments section only for captions.

Winners will be announced next Sunday. For consideration, please post your caption by Monday at 9 pm PT, 12 midnight ET.

Leave a comment

Last week’s winner:

“If you were a Republican you would still be in the race.”

(Congratulations, Esther.)

Runners-up:

“You only have 2 women who are accusing you of sexual misconduct--come back when you can match me.”

(Congratulations, Donald Hodgins.)

“No, you can’t run as a Republican either. You were only accused of but not indicted for sexual abuse.”

(Congratulations, Steven Horowitz.)

“Now that we know, go register Republican!”

(Congratulations, Tom Hale.)

“They weren’t even underage. SHAME!”

(Congratulations, Victoria Sweet.)

“Nice try, but I’m the only one who can get away with doing that. Because when you’re MAGA they let you do it.”

(Congratulations, Rachel Brown.)

“Stop working my side of the street!”

(Congratulations, NatteringNayBob.)

“Out! You’re a godless lunatic Communist. Other than that, you seem like a nice enough guy.”

(Congratulations, Laurence Hoffmann.)

“Hey oyster man. Go shuck yourself!”

(Congratulations, Mike Hammer.)

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Friends,

There’s been a lot of discussion this past week about the meaning of integrity.

You didn’t hear the word used directly; it was alluded to indirectly — in wondering whether Lindsey Graham was an immoral opportunist or clever pragmatist; in suspecting Todd Blanche of being more loyal to Trump than to the nation; in distrusting Erica Schwartz, Trump’s latest pick to lead the CDC, when she said she’ll never compromise on the science; in doubting that Jay Clayton, his pick for director of national intelligence, will tell Trump anything he doesn’t want to hear.

The word integrity is rooted in the Latin word integer, meaning “whole” or “complete” — living by your principles, choosing honesty over opportunism, making ethical choices that may be inconvenient or unpopular, maintaining your moral compass.

Graham’s public record of denouncing Trump on the Senate floor after January 6, 2021, and then becoming Trump’s most loyal Senate apologist revealed someone who traded honesty for influence — a person with little or no integrity.

Blanche, in his hearing to be attorney general, said he wanted to bring trust back to the Justice Department but then accidentally referred to himself as Trump’s lawyer —before clarifying that he “was” — had been —Trump’s lawyer. Blanche’s momentary lapse revealed a deeper conflict, as evidenced by his unswerving loyalty to Trump. He lacks integrity.

Schwartz, in her confirmation hearing, undercut her pledge to be guided by science in saying she believed Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would “never” implement policies that aren’t scientifically sound. That’s enough to cast doubt on her integrity.

Clayton, in his confirmation hearing, repeatedly refused to say Biden won the 2020 election, causing Senator Jon Ossoff to ask Clayton: “You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election? But you ask to lead America’s intelligence community? Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question? To have to indulge the president’s delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question, why can you not give it?”

It is not possible to have integrity and be loyal to Trump. The two are in direct conflict.

No one can be honest in a regime based on big lies. As the poet, philosopher, and statesman Václav Havel put it, “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.”

So a choice must be made — personal integrity or loyalty to Trump.

In his book The Art of the Deal, Trump wrote that he preferred loyalty to integrity — as epitomized by his mentor, Roy Cohn.

History remembers Cohn for his ruthless bullying, profane braggadocio, opportunistic bigotry, lying, and more lying. Like Trump, Cohn was utterly without principle and prioritized personal power that could be leveraged for wealth, influence, and celebrity. In 1986, Cohn was disbarred by the New York State Bar for unethical conduct after attempting to defraud a dying client by forcing him to sign a will amendment leaving Cohn his fortune.

Yet in his book Trump praised Cohn for his loyalty, contrasting him with “all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty …. What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite.”

It is not possible for Blanche or Schwartz or Clayton or anyone else in Trump’s orbit — nor was it possible for Lindsey Graham — to be loyal to Trump and simultaneously maintain their own integrity. It must be one or the other.

Yet integrity is more important than loyalty. As Trump demonstrates time and again, someone lacking integrity is inherently untrustworthy. Such a person cannot serve the people of the United States.

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Friends,

Today, Michael and I take a close look at the sharp contrasts between artificial problems dreamed up by Trump (such as voter fraud) and real problems the nation is failing to deal with (such as big money poisoning our elections).

Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, and join the conversation.

RR

Friends,

An old friend of mine passed recently.

When an old friend passes, you can’t replace them with another old friend. You have only a limited number of people who have shared your history, moved through life with you, talked and laughed and pondered the universe and their lives with you.

It’s these cumulative understandings, the sweetness and depth of long familiarity, that give meaning to old friendships.

I spend most of my days now writing — much of it to you — and when I’m not writing, I’m in meetings with colleagues who are decades younger than I am.

My old friend’s passing makes me painfully aware of how little time I spend — and how little effort I’ve made — reaching out to old friends. I’ve taken them for granted, as if they’ll always be there. After all, they always have been there.

But old friendships don’t last forever because neither they nor we last forever. Old friendships have to be appreciated, preserved, and savored when we can.

Starting today, I'm going to invite them to join me for breakfast or lunch a few times a week. Or if they’re far away (years ago, I left most of my old friends on the East Coast), I’m going to phone them, maybe even FaceTime them, and make it a point to see them when I’m next on the other coast.

I remember my father telling me that the hardest part about growing old was losing his old friends.

I didn’t quite understand what he meant. I asked him: “Why can’t you just make new friends?” He explained that he had tried to make new friends, and had succeeded somewhat. But he couldn’t make an old friend, and there was a difference.

I didn’t understand him then. I do now.

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Friends,

The real message to be drawn from Trump’s address to the nation tonight is that he will call into question the votes of every state and city that chooses a Democratic senator or representative in the 2026 midterm elections. He’ll push Republican governors and mayors not to certify the results. He’ll demand recounts and audits.

We’ve been here before, but this time he’s even less restrained than he was in 2020 and is surrounded by people who will do his bidding.

His address tonight was absurd. It was riddled with so many lies that I’m reluctant to dignify them with rebuttals, but you should have them.

He mentioned a newly declassified investigation into a voter registration group in Muskegon, Michigan that apparently had invited fraudulent registrations in 2020 — but Trump didn’t mention that the applications had been caught and none of them had resulted in any ballots being sent out incorrectly. The FBI closed the investigation, stating “the investigation to date did not identify a criminal violation or a priority threat to national security.”

He alleged, once again, that foreign powers have hijacked votes, or that federal or state officials plotted to rig the 2020 election. But no evidence has ever emerged showing that vote counts have been manipulated or corrupted. Intelligence reports, state audits of vote tallies and lawsuits have repeatedly affirmed official results in 2020 and other years. Nothing suggests China manipulated votes. Instead, U.S. intelligence assessment says China “probably also continued longstanding efforts” to gather information on U.S. voters and public opinion and to use that information to influence U.S. policy “as it has during all election cycles since at least 2008.”

The most significant foreign influence operations occurred in the 2016 presidential election and were conducted by Russia, in favor of Trump, according to the Mueller report. To the extent that this and other reports appeared to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Trump’s victory, they have had the effect of fueling his distrust of U.S. intelligence agencies.

Despite his repeated assertions that U.S. elections are not secure, Trump during his second term has significantly cut the budget of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, including its election work. That’s because Trump grew contemptuous of the agency, and the government’s election security work generally, after it validated the integrity of the 2020 election.

So the entire performance tonight was fake — an extension of his Big Lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

It was also a commercial for the “Save America Act,” which would make it harder for many American citizens to vote. Voters would have to prove their citizenship in person upon registering to vote, with documents such as an enhanced form of REAL ID (a state ID card compliant with federal regulations) that indicates American citizenship; a birth certificate; a passport or military identification card.

An estimated 9 percent of eligible voters, or 21.3 million Americans, either do not have documents that prove their citizenship, such as passports and birth certificates, or cannot retrieve them in a day or less, according a study by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at University of Maryland and the Brennan Center for Justice. And 45 states do not issue the kind of enhanced driver’s license indicating citizenship status that would be needed to verify voting eligibility.

The point is that American democracy is acutely endangered by a sociopath who will stop at nothing to get the results he wants.

This means that you and I and every other patriotic American have to do whatever we can to ensure free and fair elections and fight Trump’s torrent of lies and authoritarian moves.

If you’re anything like me, you’re worn out by Trump. You’d like nothing better than to tune him out. I get it. But American democracy is seriously on the line here. We must keep up — and accelerate — the fight.

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Friends,

Trump’s economy is truly sh*tty for most Americans. Every time Trump or his lapdogs in Congress tell voters that the economy is terrific, they seem more out of touch.

A significant number of Democrats have won elections over the last several months — mayoral, gubernatorial, and special elections — by stressing affordability.

Democrats can show America that they can be better trusted than Republicans to bring prices down and real wages up by pledging 10 things.

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Pledge To Make America Affordable Again

1. We’ll eliminate Trump’s across-the-board tariffs. They’re import taxes that are raising the prices of just about everything American consumers buy. We’ll eliminate them where their costs to consumers are far higher than any potential benefits in the form of new jobs.

2. We’ll get energy prices down by ending Trump’s war in Iran and shifting to renewable sources of energy.

Trump’s war has increased gas prices by $1 a gallon over most of the country. It’s accomplished nothing but give Iran bargaining leverage to close the strait — which was open before the war. We’ll bring down energy prices by ending the war and then reduce energy prices by shifting to renewable sources that are cheaper than fossil fuels, such as solar, wind, and biomass.

3. We’ll bust up monopolies. Another major source of high prices is monopolies — especially in high tech, healthcare, food, and finance. We’ll vigorously enforce antitrust (anti-monopoly) laws so that corporations don’t have the power to raise prices. We’ll bust up giant corporations. We’ll bar large firms from merging or acquiring other firms.

4. We’ll fight for stronger unions. Workers need more bargaining power to get higher wages. Part of the answer is stronger unions. Democrats will make it easier for them to start or join them.

5. We’ll raise the national minimum wage to $20 an hour. No one who works full-time should be in poverty. And we’ll raise it even higher for employees of big corporations that pay their top executives more than 200 times the typical worker.

6. We’ll make housing more affordable. We’ll stop private equity firms from buying up large tracts of housing and colluding on prices. We’ll get rid of zoning laws that keep housing prices high. And we’ll raise taxes on big corporations that drive up housing prices where they’re headquartered or have major facilities and use the funds for more affordable housing there.

7. We’ll cut healthcare costs by making Medicare available to everyone. Giving everyone the option of buying into Medicare would bring healthcare costs down because it’s cheaper and more efficient than private for-profit health insurance.

8. We’ll get working families help with childcare and eldercare. Both are essential for working families who must now pay out large portions of their incomes to provide care for family members.

9. We’ll give working families paid family leave. Twelve weeks of unpaid leave has proven useful but not adequate. Every other advanced country provides paid leave; the richest country in the world should too.

10. We’ll raise taxes on the wealthiest to pay for this. Since Reagan, the rich have paid far lower taxes while accumulating a near-record portion of total income and wealth. It’s only fair that they pay more so that the rest of America can afford what Americans need. We’ll raise the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent — what it was before Reagan. We’ll also impose a 0.5 percent tax on wealth in excess of $100 million. We’ll also eliminate the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes, require that the ultra-rich pay annual capital gains taxes on unrealized income, and eliminate the stepped-up basis at death.

These 10 steps are crucial for making America affordable again.

***

Please share this with all Democrats who are running for office and ask them to make the pledge.

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Friends,

I’m sorry to say that several Democratic senators appear willing to support the CLARITY Act—a sweeping pro-crypto bill that will be voted on next week. All they’re demanding is that Republicans agree to a few cosmetic changes such as a slight toughening of ethics rules, a modest expansion of law-enforcement authority, and a tad bit of strengthening of financial regulators.

All worthwhile improvements, but they don’t cure the bill’s fundamental defects.

Let me get right to the point. Congress should not enact legislation that further legitimizes and expands an industry whose promised public benefits are zilch while its costs and risks are increasing by the day.

There’s simply no legitimate use for crypto. Its only practical uses are tax evasion, money laundering, fraud, speculation, and crime.

The crypto lobby is large and well-financed. It has already bought off many members of Congress including, sad to say, a number of Democrats. The Wall Street Journal reports that the parent company of Crypto.com has so far donated $35 million to MAGA Inc. — Trump’s giant PAC to support candidates who embrace Trump’s agenda — and is pushing for legislation freeing crypto from securities regulation.

There’s no lobby on the other side to guard small investors who are losing their shirts on crypto, or to guard the public against the crime, money laundering, and human trafficking that crypto facilitates.

The crypto lobby says blockchain technology and digital assets will foster innovative companies, create new payment systems, strengthen small businesses, generate wealth, and expand opportunities for younger Americans.

Bullsh*t. There’s no evidence of these benefits. Even if crypto did any of these things, crypto’s costs and risks significantly exceed them.

Aren’t Trump’s crypto conflicts of interest evidence enough? Isn’t the Ponzi scheme he created sufficient proof of how many people will get snookered?

The CLARITY Act would narrow the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission over digital assets and give authority over crypto to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

This means investors will be shafted and the public will be left in the dark because of the lack of disclosures, the absence of fiduciary obligations, and the deficiency of investor safeguards. All these would apply under federal securities law, but none of these exist under laws governing futures contracts.

In other words, the CLARITY Act would give crypto even more cover. It would make crypto even more opaque. It would allow even more tax evasion, more money laundering, more fraud, more speculation, more ripoffs, and more crime.

I have no hope for Republican politicians. They’ve already sold their souls to Trump and the crypto lobby. But shame on any Democratic senator or representative who votes for this abomination.

It’s well worth your time to phone your senators and representative and tell them NO to the CLARITY Act. The congressional switchboard is (202) 224-3121. You can call this number to be directly connected to the office of your specific senators or representative.

The vote is next week. Please phone now.

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Friends,

Quietly and without any fanfare, the Trump regime is becoming a shareholder or profit-sharer in an array of corporations thought to be critical to the nation’s security.

For example, in one of the most remarkable turnarounds in corporate history, the U.S. chipmaker Intel’s shares have more than quadrupled in value since March 2025. The stock has surged 464 percent in the past 12 months, with the company hitting a market cap of $608.7 billion.

A year ago, Intel was on life support. Many predicted its death. What happened?Intel’s rebirth is partly due to the AI boom, which requires huge quantities of computer chips known as CPUs, which are Intel’s specialty.

But a far larger factor in Intel’s stunning resurgence has been the Trump regime’s direct interventions — not only into Intel but also into other tech corporations: Apple and the giant super-chip maker Nvidia.

The Trump regime has justified this on grounds of national security. But it’s socialism because the downside risks are broadly shared by the public.

Yet the upside the benefits go to the U.S. government and to top corporate investors and executives.

And it further centralizes power and control over key industries in Trump’s hands.

Call it national socialism.

In August 2025 — in one of the most audacious moves by any administration — the U.S. government converted $9 billion in federal grants to Intel into a 10 percent stake in the company, thereby becoming Intel’s single largest shareholder.

Can you imagine if the Obama administration had converted its bailouts of Wall Street, GM, and Stellantis into equity stakes in the big banks and automakers? Republicans would have been on rooftops hollering: Socialism! Communism!

But the Trump regime did the deal without so much as a Republican peep.

At about the same time, Apple CEO Tim Cook came to Washington, seeking to persuade the Trump regime to abandon its plan to impose tariffs of 100 percent on all semiconductor imports. The tariffs would have dramatically increased the cost of Apple’s iPhone and other products, which relied on imported semiconductors.

Apple eventually won an exemption to the semiconductor tariff, on one condition: Apple would work with Intel — it would commit to buying from Intel certain chips used for iPhones and Macs, use Intel’s manufacturing plants (or fabs) to make some of Apple’s chips, and collaborate with Intel on chip design and production.

Then in January, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, came to Washington seeking the Trump regime’s approval for Nvidia’s sales to China of its H200 chip for artificial intelligence.

Huang was desperate to get access to China’s giant and potentially lucrative market, but the sale would require an exemption to America’s policy of not selling or licensing to the Chinese our advanced AI technology, to minimize any risk to U.S. security.

Huang got what he was after, after agreeing to two conditions. First, the United States government would get 25 percent of all profits from Nvidia’s sales in China. Second, Nvidia would invest $5 billion in Intel and buy its custom data center chips. Huang called the deal a “historic” partnership.

This isn’t capitalism, folks. It’s government becoming the major shareholder of the biggest chip-making in America, then giving a tariff exemption to another key tech corporation on condition it buy the products of and collaborate with the first, and giving a national-security exemption to a third key tech company on condition it also buy the products of the first and give the government a portion of its sales in China.

And who the hell knows what Trump and Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce who spearheaded these deals, grabbed for themselves or their families along the way?

Trump’s national socialism doesn’t stop here. Under Trump, the U.S. government has also become the largest shareholder of MP Materials, which operates the only mine for rare earth minerals in the United States, after sinking $400 million of taxpayer dollars into the corporation.

And when Nippon Steel acquired U.S. Steel in June of 2025, it was announced that Trump would personally control the so-called “golden share” that his regime forced U.S. Steel to accept as part of the deal.

It’s ironic that Trump is berating the Democrats for electing and nominating a group of young people who call themselves democratic socialists when he’s been shifting the United States to national socialism.

Doubly ironic because Trump’s national socialism is making fortunes for a small group of top executives who were already fabulously wealthy, while the democratic socialists in the Democratic Party want to tax the wealthy to provide funds for better schools, better wages, and healthcare for all.

And Trump’s national socialism is concentrating ever more power in Trump’s hands. A whole new range of decisions is being made about the U.S. economy but without any congressional oversight or public knowledge. Which corporations get major infusions of taxpayer dollars in return for partial government ownership? Which get tariff exemptions and under what conditions? Which get exemptions to trade with China and under what conditions?

It’s all up to Trump and his lapdogs in the White House and at the Commerce Department. And it helps explain why corporate America will do whatever Trump asks, say whatever he wants, and obey whatever he demands.

The result is not unlike the world’s last big experiment with national socialism — in the 1930s, in Germany.

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