Sam Gustin

Trump’s FCC Chief Brendan Carr Is Acting More Like a Mob Enforcer Than a Federal Regulator With a new GOP majority, the incoming FCC boss aims to punish criticism, reward obedience—and screw the public.

Trump’s FCC chief Brendan Carr has weaponized the agency to intimidate news organizations and media companies by threatening their broadcast licenses. @thenation.com (from June) www.thenation.com/article/soci...

How Trump Plans to Manipulate US Economic Data to Gaslight the Public The president and his GOP cronies want to tamper with government statistics and use deceptive budget gimmicks to lie about the impact of their massive tax and budget cuts.

How Trump Plans to Manipulate US Economic Data to Gaslight the Public @thenation.com [from March] www.thenation.com/article/econ...

The Media’s Profits Trump Democracy, Once Again Paramount’s settlement with Trump is a symptom of deep structural rot in our corporate media system.

I write in @thenation.com that Paramount’s recent settlement with Trump is a symptom of deep structural rot in our hyper-capitalistic media system. I argue that we should be thinking now about the structural media reforms we need for the post-Trump era as we rebuild journalism from the ground up.

Trump’s FCC Chief Brendan Carr Is Acting More Like a Mob Enforcer Than a Federal Regulator With a new GOP majority, the incoming FCC boss aims to punish criticism, reward obedience—and screw the public.

Trump’s FCC Chief Brendan Carr Is Acting More Like a Mob Enforcer Than a Federal Regulator
@thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Robert McChesney, the Great Champion of Journalism and Democracy, Has Died The academic and activist inspired generations of people to challenge corporate power and support a media reform movement that lives on.

Robert McChesney, the Great Champion of Journalism and Democracy, Has Died. Tribute from @nicholsuprising.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/soci...

congestion pricing is one of the most comprehensively successful policies NYC has ever seen, so of course all the worst people want to get rid of it

Fodder for novels about our times:

1) Trump Commerce Sec H Lutnick says people won't really notice if SocSec misses a payment cycle: www.axios.com/2025/03/21/s...

2) Lutnick just bought house in DC for $25 million, all cash

3) Seller: Bret Baier of Fox
www.washingtonian.com/2024/12/20/b...

How FCC Chairman Carr Has Fueled Trump's Authoritarian Takeover Carr has undermined free speech and press freedom as he carries out Trump’s promises of retribution for those who report critically on his actions.

As FCC chair, Brendan Carr has launched multiple attacks on freedom of the press.

He’s demonstrated a clear pattern of supporting Trump’s authoritarian takeover by using his government perch to quash dissent.

My latest piece dissects his seven most chilling attacks on free speech.

Federal Reserve table showing expected macroeconomic indicators

The Federal Reserve has significantly revised down expected growth for this year and meaningfully revised up expected inflation for this year.

Trump’s chaotic and harmful approach to the economy is already showing up.

Illustrative Distributional Effects of Policies Consistent with the House Concurrent Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2025

budgetlab.yale.edu/news/250319/...

Justice Department Announces Actions to Combat Cost-of-Living Crisis, Including Rescinding 11 Pieces of Guidance The Justice Department today announced that it is taking action in response to President Trump’s Presidential Memorandum “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost...

DOJ is ditching a bunch of guidelines on how businesses can accommodate people with disabilities. It's supposedly about combating high prices.

Redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top.

www.thenation.com/article/econ...

Trade War Retaliation Will Hit Trump Voters Hardest Nearly 8 million Americans work in industries targeted by the levies and the majority are Trump voters, a New York Times analysis shows

Trump's trade war will hit Trump voters hardest. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Bar graph showing distributional analysis of the House budget resolution. The poor would be hurt while the rich would be helped.

Yale Budget is out w/ illustrative analysis of what following the House budget plan could look like - of what cutting Medicaid & SNAP while extending the Trump tax cuts could look like.

It’d hurt the poor, be roughly neutral for the middle class, & help the rich.
budgetlab.yale.edu/news/250319/...

Important new work from my @budgetlab.bsky.social colleagues Harris Eppsteiner & John Ricco on the House budget resolution. Neutral illustrative policies consistent w/ committee deficit targets suggest the proposed tax + spending cuts are regressive: they benefit the top & hurt the bottom.
1/3

Wrote about "current policy baseline" earlier this week. www.thenation.com/article/econ...

A lot can happen in five months. 🇺🇸

How Trump Plans to Manipulate US Economic Data to Gaslight the Public The president and his GOP cronies want to tamper with government statistics and use deceptive budget gimmicks to lie about the impact of their massive tax and budget cuts.

Trump and his GOP allies are plotting a massive budgetary gimmick designed to conceal the fact that their budget numbers don’t add up—and they know it. @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/econ...

How Trump Plans to Manipulate US Economic Data to Gaslight the Public The president and his GOP cronies want to tamper with government statistics and use deceptive budget gimmicks to lie about the impact of their massive tax and budget cuts.

The Trump administration is looking for ways to obscure the true cost of its economic plans at a time when the US economy is already flashing warning signs of a recession. @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/econ...

Trump downplays business concerns about uncertainty from his tariffs and prospect of higher prices President Donald Trump is dismissing business concerns over the uncertainty caused by his planned tariffs on a range of American trading partners and the prospect of higher prices.

AP: Trump downplays business concerns about uncertainty from his tariffs and prospect of higher prices apnews.com/article/trum...

Army Corps knew Trump order would waste California water, memo shows The Army Corps colonel responsible for releasing reservoir water at Trump’s direction knew it wouldn’t reach Southern California as he promised, a memo obtained by The Post shows.

wapo.st/3Def9KV

US economic worries mount as Trump implements tariffs, cuts workforce and freezes spending President Donald Trump's flurry of tariffs, government layoffs and spending freezes may be doing more to harm the U.S. economy than to fix it.

AP: US economic worries mount as Trump implements tariffs, cuts workforce and freezes spending apnews.com/article/trum...

Basically, a highly regressive consumption tax that would transfer huge amounts of wealth upward. Which I suppose is the point.

Trump and His Crypto Cronies Have Big Plans. Be Afraid. The incoming president and his Bitcoin-loving acolytes want to turn the government into their personal ATM.

Trump and his Bitcoin-loving acolytes want to turn the government into their personal ATM. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Opinion | The GOP’s budget plan makes it hard to conceal its lies about Medicaid and SNAP House Republicans aim to use a procedure known as budget reconciliation, which allows the Senate to pass legislation with only 51 votes rather than the usual 60 required.

New op-ed from me: yes, House Republicans really are coming for your Medicaid and SNAP.

In this piece, I explain why the Republicans who say, "oh, we're not actually going for Medicaid and SNAP" are bullshitting you.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

GOP Wants $4 Trillion Tax Cut to Look Like Nothing Republicans are mulling an aggressive move that critics call a blatant gimmick.

🧵 (1/4) Critics aren't the only ones that call this a gimmick. It simply is so. @bbkogan.bsky.social and Congressman Schweikert have it right; fiscal costs vanish.

www.wsj.com/politics/rep... from @richardrubindc.bsky.social

Wapo HP on house vote

The DC press turns every story into a win or loss for the president. That's particularly nuts on a night like tonight when the House just voted to take food from millions of kids.

Nearly 40% of contracts canceled by Musk's DOGE are expected to produce no savings Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that President Donald Trump’s administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money,...

apnews.com/article/doge...