Robert Reich

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” —FDR, 1944

Robert Reich Trump’s Police State Propaganda

ICE and other federal agents conducted a violent, middle-of-the-night raid on an apartment building in Chicago — just days after Trump said the military should go after “the enemy within.” He and his cronies are building a police state piece by piece. https://youtu.be/5zrye_p-EPI?si=VinP3uxFa9_JiN8X

Friends — I’d like to talk with you about a difficult subject. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-a-national-trauma

Robert Reich Trump's Extremely Unhinged Week | The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

Donald Trump thinks he’s all powerful.

But this was another week where he displayed just how vulnerable he is.

We break it all down on the latest Coffee Klatch.

Free Greta Thunberg and the rest of the illegally detained flotilla activists.

Just an FYI: We’re not facing a “government shutdown.” This is a Trump-MAGA Republican shutdown. Call it what it is.

Trump hates to be the object of humor. He understands that humor can be a more powerful antidote to tyranny than any other form of criticism.

I'm sure he'd hate it if you shared this cartoon. [Cartoon by Jon Adams/The New Yorker]

I don’t have a crystal ball, but I have a good idea how this shutdown ends. Trump and Republicans will cave (he won’t admit he’s caving, of course, but he will cave).

Here’s why: Air traffic controllers.

The wealth of the richest 1% in America just hit a record $52 trillion. These are the people getting huge tax cuts — paid for by cuts to health care for millions of Americans. Every lie Trump and Republicans are telling right now about the shutdown is meant to distract you from this.

Robert Reich Trump's Extremely Unhinged Week | The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

Donald Trump thinks he’s all powerful.

But this was another week where he displayed just how vulnerable he is.

We break it all down on the latest Coffee Klatch.

Presidents? SCOTUS gives them immunity.

Corporations? SCOTUS makes it easier for them to pollute.

Billionaires? SCOTUS says they can buy elections.

But if you look Latino, speak Spanish, or work at a low wage job, SCOTUS says you can be abducted by masked agents.

The legacy of the Roberts court.

Robert Reich is a national treasure. Read his new book, Coming Up Short.

If the ongoing dysfunction in D.C. has taught us anything it’s that the Republican Party can’t even govern itself, much less the country.

But the chaos isn't happening randomly.

It's part of a manufactured plot to sew cynicism and get you to check out. Don't fall for it.

Remember when Trump denied knowing about Project 2025 and many pundits and politicians gave him a pass?

Now he’s openly embracing it.

Trump says the US is in "armed conflict" with drug cartels.

Meanwhile, his DOJ is disbanding a task force that took on cartels.

Trump doesn't care about stopping drug trafficking — he wants to be able to declare war on anyone he labels an enemy.

This is a power grab.

BlackRock will buy AES, one of the largest publicly traded utility companies in the U.S.

AES is a major power provider for Big Tech companies building out data centers.

Yes: while these data centers drive up your electricity costs, wealthy financiers are going to make a killing.

Apple has removed an ICE tracking app that allows users to report ICE activity nearby from its App Store.

The removal came after a direct demand from Trump’s DOJ.

Once again, Big Tech is bending the knee to our tyrant-in-chief to protect its bottom line.

Furloughed Department of Education workers’ out-of-office emails were changed to blame Democrats for the shutdown without their permission.

Why is Trump resorting to such desperate, and likely illegal, tactics?

Because he knows that he’s the one to blame for this shutdown.

Trump is playing king, and Republicans in Congress are bowing down and letting him do it.

Republicans want Democrats to let Trump continue to shut down whatever he doesn’t like and destroy our democracy.

To play along with that farce is a betrayal of the American people.

This is due to a law signed by Ronald Reagan and has nothing to do with this shutdown fight.

But consider this...

Emergency Medicaid spending in 2023 cost $3.8 billion — just 0.4% of total Medicaid spending.

Now what about the $20 billion taxpayers are giving to Argentina?

These are the people getting huge tax cuts — paid for by cuts to health care for millions of Americans.

Every lie Trump and Republicans are telling right now is meant to distract you from this.

More Than 3 in 4 ACA Marketplace Enrollees Live in States Won by President Trump in 2024 As Democrats push for an extension of the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits, new data from KFF show the extent to which states won by Trump in 2024 have come to rely on the ACA Marketplaces and the t...

www.kff.org/quick-take/m...

The government has effectively been shut down for months as Trump has destroyed checks and balances, usurped the power of the purse from Congress, and unleashed an authoritarian nightmare throughout the country.

Why would any Democrat vote for any continuing resolution that allows this to continue?

80% (!) of the ACA subsidies that are about to expire go to people in states that Trump won in 2024.

Time and time again, Trump and MAGA Republicans will sell out their own voters — all to fund massive tax cuts for the super rich.

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated' The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

Naked children torn from their mothers and tossed into vans.

U.S. citizens detained for hours in zip ties.

Doors kicked in and belongings stolen or destroyed.

This is the reality of Trump’s deportation agenda.

It was always about cruelty.

YouTube video by MSNBC ‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

ACA Marketplace Premium Payments Would More than Double on Average Next Year if Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Expire | KFF KFF estimates that, if Congress allows the enhanced premium tax credits to expire at the end of this year, ACA Marketplace enrollees on average would see their premium payments more than double next y...

New data shows the cost of Republican plan to jack up health care prices:

– Premiums will more than double
– A 60 year old couple would have to pay $22,600 more a year

My sense is that Trump and Republicans will cave in this shutdown fight (he won’t admit he’s caving, of course, but he will cave).

Why? Air traffic controllers.

Let me explain: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-the-shutdown-ends

Hard to tell the real illegal militia from the fake illegal militia

South Shore Residents Return To Ransacked Apartments After ICE Raid: 'It Looks Like Hell' A "now renting" sign outside touts granite countertops. Inside, residents are trying to make sense of the raid that made their already neglected building even worse.

ICE is running around Chicago harassing people for not being white.

Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States and now it’s commonplace.

That’s not making America great again.