President Donald Trump participates in a reenlistment ceremony for Army soldiers during a military parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
BIRTHDAY BASHED
Political violence and grandiose displays of military might show that America is in a dark place. But there are powerful signs of hope.
- President Donald Trump’s highly hyped military parade this weekend was hardly a birthday party fit for a king: Noticeably sparse stands, a squeaky tank rolling down Constitution Avenue, Russians trolling Trump on social media for throwing a lackluster celebration of the Army. Even Trump was seemingly bored to death, sneaking in a quick snooze. Who can blame him!
- Sure, the birthday party may have been a dud. But tanks rolling through the streets of the nation’s capital provided a bleak backdrop to the dire political situation the country is facing: Authorities arrested Vance Boelter, 57, who allegedly murdered a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband at their home in Minnesota this weekend. He also allegedly attempted to kill another lawmaker and his wife, both of whom survived, and had a notebook that listed 45 state and federal officials. The killings appear to be “politically motivated,” Gov. Tim Walz said. Boelter voted for Donald Trump last year and staunchly opposes abortion, according to his friend.
- Adding to the bleak atmosphere, ICE agents have arrested more than 100,000 people since Trump took office — few of whom have serious criminal convictions. Innocent people, including sick children, have been deported. The Trump administration is ignoring court orders and threatening its perceived enemies.
- Is American democracy in trouble? “I think we are in an acute backsliding episode,” Erica Chenoweth, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who studies political violence, told Crooked’s Jon Favreau. “There’s not usually a bright line that you cross. It’s more that a lot of things go on at the same time. There’s sort of an unraveling — we’re in the unraveling.”
But Americans are hitting the streets in record numbers compared to Trump’s first term.
- Trump’s team claimed that 250,000 people turned out for his parade, a number that (shockingly) was much more generous than other estimates. On the same day, around 5 million people took part in more than 2,000 “No Kings” protests against Trump’s authoritarian moves, organizers said. It may have been the largest single day of demonstrations in American history, according to a prominent data scientist.
- It’s encouraging to look at this turnout in the context of the 3.5 percent rule. Research shows that nonviolent protests that engage at least 3.5 percent of the country’s population have never failed to bring change — and they’re twice as likely to succeed than armed conflict. (Twelve million is roughly that percentage of the U.S. population. Organizers brought out 5 million people in one day.)
- “It’s not exactly a magic number,” said Chenoweth, who conducted the 3.5 percent rule research, on the podcast. But it’s helpful with understanding how the rule works: When enough people are actively engaged in civil disobedience, it creates economic and cultural influence that causes people from the opponent’s camp to defect. Protests could become so large that Trump supporters begin to question their support for him.
- Anti-Trump protestors are off to a very strong start. There have been three times as many people taking part in protests during the first four months of Trump’s term, compared to the same period in 2017, according to Harvard’s Crowd Counting Consortium. Turns out the resistance ain’t dead!
“We are in historical levels of mobilization,” Chenoweth said, “even if the muzzle velocity of the news coming out of Washington obscures the fact.”
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— Eric Trump, touting the Trump Mobile smartphones… which are marketed as being made in America.
NEWS NEWS NEWS
Iran and Israel traded missile fire for a fourth straight day. The conflict has already killed two dozen people in Israel and over 200 in Iran. Tehran called on Donald Trump to force a ceasefire. His response? “They’d like to talk, but they should have done that before,” Trump told reporters at the G7 summit in Canada today.
ICE is spending so much money to accomplish Trump’s radical deportation agenda that the agency might run out of cash next month, Axios reports. ICE is already $1 billion over budget with three months left in the fiscal year. If Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” isn’t passed soon, he could declare a national emergency to redirect funds from other agencies to fund immigration enforcement. “Trump’s DHS is spending like drunken sailors,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told the outlet.
Doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs could refuse treatments based on patients’ political leanings or marriage status under new guidelines implemented by the Trump administration, according to the Guardian. The White House blasted the report on social media: “This is complete trash — a repulsive, vicious lie. All eligible veterans are now, and will always be, welcomed for care at the VA.”
Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration claimed to have a commercial pilot’s license — but he doesn’t, according to records reviewed by Politico. After the outlet inquired about its findings, his online biography was altered to remove the word “commercial.” The Department of Transportation suggested that it was “an administrative error that was immediately corrected.” Suuuuuuuure. Paging Frank Abegnale! Or Nathan Fielder!
Elon Musk and his allies built a false narrative about widespread Social Security fraud to justify cuts to the agency… after DOGE members misread government spending data, according to a New York Times investigation. We were trying to warn you! This is what you get when you hire 19-year-olds named “Big Balls.”
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is showing signs of a leftward shift in her decisions lately, according to a New York Times analysis. She’s the most likely of the Republican supermajority to oppose the president in Trump-related disputes. She’s also most likely to be in the majority on decisions that have a liberal outcome. “We had too much hope for her,” a right-wing legal activist told the outlet. And we had too little, I guess?!
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Listen to today's episode
https://what-a-day.simplecast.com/episodes/asking-a-question-got-a-us-senator-padilla-handcuffed
