Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-07-08 Tuesday

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Headlines for July 08, 2025; Hold GOP Accountable: Youngest Dem. Congresswoman on Medicaid, Climate Cuts & Her Visit to ICE Jail; “Freedom to Choose”?: Peter Beinart Slams Trump-Netanyahu Plan for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza; Peter Beinart on Zohran Mamdani & Why Democratic Voters Are Increasingly Skeptical of Israel; What Is the Trump Doctrine? John Bellamy Foster on U.S. Foreign Policy & the “New MAGA Imperialism”

From New York, this is Democracy Now. I think there's a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the week, during the coming week, pertaining to quite a few of the hostings. You know, we've gotten a lot of the hostages out, but pertaining to the remaining hostages, quite a few of them will be coming out. We think we'll have that done this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington for his third visit with President Trump this year. Netanyahu tells Trump, Israel's nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize and applauds what he calls Trump's vision for the relocation of Palestinians out of Gaza, what he calls their freedom of choice, with no mention of a Palestinian state. We'll speak to Peter Beinerd of Jewish currents,

but first to Congress. Trump's new budget law includes a massive expansion of immigration enforcement and may kick 17 million Americans off Medicaid. We'll speak to Arizona Congress member Yasmin Ansari elected last year. She's the first Iranian American in Congress. She led a read-in of students, union members, and others, the 1,000-page bill. We have to push back against this.

We have to hold these Republicans accountable for their votes. We can't let them get away with it. I'm not going to let them get away with it because they're ruining lives. We'll also speak with Professor John Bellamy Foster on the Trump doctrine and the new MAGA imperialism. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace report. I'm Amy Goodman.

President Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House Monday, where the two leaders promoted a plan to expel thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Over dinner with Trump, his Mideast envoy and top cabinet members, Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter nominating Trump. for a Nobel Peace Prize. Netanyahu also said he's working with the U.S. to find countries willing to receive Palestinians, claiming they would be free to leave Gaza voluntarily. I think President Trump had a brilliant vision. It's called free choice. You know, if people want to stay, they can stay. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. It shouldn't be, you know, prison.

Netanyahu's White House visit came as Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, said he'd instructed his forces to establish what he called a humanitarian city on the ruins of Rafa in southern Gaza, where Israel would forcibly relocate some 600,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, Trump's expressed confidence that Hamas would soon agree to a proposed 60-day ceasefire with Israel, even though indirect talks on Qatar on Monday once again failed to reach a breakthrough. Outside the White House, protesters rallied to demand an end to Israel's slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. I can't stand the fact that people are suffering and being killed the way they are. It's unbelievable that this is happening in this day and age, and I feel helpless.

And I feel like our country is hijacked by people who want this to continue and are making it possible. And that's not what I want my tax dollars to go to. In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 41 Palestinians since dawn. Victims include nine people killed an Israeli drone strike on a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians near Han Yunus and at least four people killed when Israel bombed a school sheltering displaced families in Central Gaza's Burrage refugee camp. Tuesday's attacks follow Israeli strikes that killed more than 60 Palestinians Monday. Among them, civilians shot while trying to get food from a militarized Israeli-U.S.-backed distribution site in Rafa.

And children killed and injured in Israeli strike on a Gaza city neighborhood. There were injuries inside the house caused by falling debris from the walls and doors, which landed on the children. Then we heard screaming from our neighbors. So we ran over and found many bodies torn apart, including an infant baby girl, no older than four months. We'll have more on Gaza and Netanyahu's meeting with Trump later in the broadcast with Peter Beinart of Jewish currents. He'll also talk about the New York Times and the mayoral candidate in New York. Mamdani in Texas, the death toll from catastrophic July 4th floods has reached 104 people. That includes 27 victims from an all-girls summer camp located on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

Ten children and one teenage counselor from Camp Mystic are still missing a search and rescue efforts enter their fifth day. Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick Monday admitted local officials failed to place flood warning sirens along the Guadalupe River years ago due to cost. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for an investigation into weather federal staffing cuts to the National Weather Service or a factor in the devastating death toll. See Democracy Now segment on the flooding yesterday at Democracy Now.org. The Trump administration said it's terminating deportation protections for some 76,000 immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua. Many of those affected have been living and working in the U.S. for over quarter of a century after receiving temporary protected status in 1999 following Hurricane Mitch. Some have since obtained permanent residency, but the move could mean some 50,000 others face deportation as soon as September. The National TPS Alliance on Monday announced it suing the Trump administration on behalf of immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras, and Nepal.

In Los Angeles, heavily armed federal immigration agents, some on horseback, staged a dramatic sweep of a public park Monday. inflaming tensions in a city already on edge from the Trump administration's mass raids. Mayor Karen Bass arrived on the scene where she told agents to leave MacArthur Park, a popular public space in a largely immigrant and working class neighborhood, where many children were playing. Activists and community members, some who'd been tipped off about the sweep, were seen repelling the agents, yelling insults at the armed and mass. men, some hurling fruit towards them. Mayor Bass later condemned the incident.

Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks. It's outrageous and un-American that the federal government seized our state's National Guard. It's outrageous and un-American that we have U.S. Marines who are trained to kill foreign soldiers overseas deployed in our American city. Meanwhile, the community self-defense coalition, L.A., held a separate news conference Monday, marking 30 days of resistance against the assault by federal authorities on L.A. communities. This is organizer Hector Rivera. Stand up and organizing your communities. This is the cutting edge of the authoritarian

fascist takeover of America. This is it. Now, do you stand and fight for what you believe? Your silence will not save you. Pretending like nothing's going on will not save you. In Kenya, at least 11 people were killed and over 500 arrested Monday. As police cracked down on protests marking the 35th anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising, July 7, 1990. Authorities block major roads leading into Nairobi and businesses shuttered in

response to the unrest. This comes amidst ongoing protests in Kenya over police brutality and corruption. As demonstrators demand President William Ruto resign. This is a protester speaking from Nairobi. This is our country. If we destroy it, all of us will be affected. Police officers should not think that if the country is destroyed, they will be safe. They will also be affected together with their families. Russian drones struck military recruitment centers in Ukraine Monday, killing a person wounding over 70 others in Kharkiv. Elsewhere, one person was killed by a Russian strike in Odessa,

while in Zaporisha. At least 20 people were injured when Russian drones struck a military draft center. Nearby residents said their homes were destroyed or damaged by Russia's assault. There's a draft center office over there, and there's a private residential. area here. I want to tell those idiots who are glad that draft offices are being attacked to come and see for themselves. They can tell the people who have lost their homes or whose houses are now without doors and windows, how happy they are. On Monday, President Trump said the United States

would send more weapons to Ukraine declaring, quote, I'm not happy with President Putin at all, unquote. It was a sudden about face for the Trump administration, which just last week ordered a halt to ship missiles and ammunition to Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Higgs said at the time it was due to concerns over the Pentagon stockpiles. Congress approved the arms transfers last year as part of a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine. President Trump said he wasn't aware that the weapon shipments were stopped. Meanwhile, the British government has brought new sanctions against Russian officials accusing them of deploying chemical weapons to Ukraine's front lines, Dutch and German intelligence agencies said last week they'd gathered evidence of Russian drones

dropping a choking agent on Ukrainian troops to drive them out of trenches and into the line of fire. President Trump's threatened to impose tariffs of 25 to 40 percent on imports from 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. On Monday, Trump used his social media platform Truth Social to publish letters to leaders of nations targeted by the tariffs, which Trump said would take effect on August 1st unless countries negotiate new trade deals with the U.S. That amounts to a three-week extension of Trump's original July 9th deadline to strike a deal or face higher tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on countries that align themselves with the BRICS group of nations, led by

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Trump cited the groups, quote, anti-American policies unquote. The threat came as Brazilian president, Luis Anasia Lula de Silva, kicked off a two-day brick summit in Rio de Janeiro. I think it's not responsible for a president from a country like the United States to threaten the world with tariffs on social media. Honestly, there are other forums for the president of a country, the size of the United States, to talk to other countries. For the first time, since he took power in 2012,

Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped this year's BRIC summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces an international criminal court arrest warrant for war crimes committed in Ukraine, appeared by VideoLink. And in Boston, a federal judge has temporarily blocked part of the newly passed Republican budget reconciliation bill that bars Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics. Monday's injunction came just hours after Planned Parenthood sued to block the prohibition, arguing it unconstitutionally, targets workers for their advocacy. work and speech promoting reproductive rights. Advocates warrant enforcement of the cuts would result in more than half of Planned Parenthood's 2.1 million patients losing access to reproductive care and the closure of hundreds of clinics across the United States.

And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. With President Trump's massive new tax and spending law now in effect, states are preparing for its devastating impacts on health care. With nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid as well as cuts to food assistance, housing and education.

At the same time, the bill supercharges Trump's budget for immigration and border enforcement by more than 300%. Democrats like Congressmember Yassimine Ansari on the border state of Arizona hosted a read-in of a thousand pages of the bill at the Capitol last week before the Senate narrowly passed it the same morning and Trump signed it into law on July 4th. This is Congressmember Ansari. To my Republican colleagues, I have a genuine question for you. I'm sure all of your constituents would like to know, have you read this bill? Letting this bill pass will be a death sentence for many in this country. And the fact that you can all sit here so callously, not caring at all and doing whatever it is that Donald Trump tells you to do is disgusting. Arizona Congressmember Ansari District includes Phoenix, the larger Phoenix area, has the largest number of constituents in Arizona who receive Medicaid and will be impacted by the cuts.

She's joining us now from Washington, D.C. She's a member of the House Oversight Committee and Natural Resources Committee. Was elected to Congress last year. Before that, she served as vice mayor of Phoenix was the youngest woman ever elected to the Phoenix City Council, a climate activist. She's the first Iranian-American Democrat in Congress and the youngest female member. Congress member Yasimina Ansari, welcome to democracy now. There's so much to talk to you about from the U.S. bombing Iran, two, you going into the detention centers to talk to women who are jailed there.

But let's begin with the budget. The budget's been passed. You read a lead-in. It was read by union activists, by students. It went on for, well, it's a thousand pages. But it's been passed. What's your plan now? The most important thing that we have to do,

right now is hold the Republicans that voted for this bill accountable for the devastation that they are causing and the lives that will be impacted by the passage of this bill. In Arizona in particular, there will be hundreds of thousands of people impacted by the Medicaid cuts. There are tens of thousands of jobs that are lost because of the rollbacks in clean energy tax credits. And I have spoken with conservative labor union leaders. I have spoken with physician owners of hospitals who are extremely concerned about what's coming next and the fact that we have members of Congress in Arizona who for four months and let's say years, one of them, David Schweiker talked about how he's concerned about the deficit going up. That is the number one thing that

he has been talking about as a member. This raises our deficit by $3.3 trillion. Then you have another member of Congress, Juan Siscomani, who had said very vocally that he doesn't support. cuts to Medicaid, that he doesn't support ruling back investments in clean energy. These two members of Congress happily voted for this bill because that's what Trump asked them to do. So accountability is going to be extremely important. I'm going to be doing town halls, not just in my district, but across Arizona to make sure people know, because we do know that still the majority of Americans are unaware of this budget bill and what it entails. And Congresswoman, at the same time, the bill,

also has increases for both the Defense Department and extraordinary increases for immigration enforcement, $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security. Your concerns about these priorities? Look, there are two themes that I think describe this administration thus far. It's corruption and authoritarianism. And both of those apply when you look at the budget increases for the Department of Homeland Security, the corruption, first and foremost. The private prison industry gave significant amounts of funding to Donald Trump and to helping him secure the presidency this time around. They have already made billions of dollars in profits because this administration is trying

to quadruple detention center capacity across the United States. I visited a center in Eloy, which is about an hour outside of Phoenix. the conditions were devastating. And let's be very clear, this administration is not going after serious criminals, as they say. They are going after everyday, hardworking people who are powering this country, especially in Arizona. Second, authoritarianism. Look at what is happening. While they're ripping away health care from 17 million Americans, they want to increase the funding for ICE and DHS by billions of dollars so that they can continue to terrorize communities.

Why is the National Guard in Los Angeles? Why are massed ice agents parading around parks in Los Angeles, raiding farms and small businesses and going into schools and snatching people, kidnapping people off of the streets? This is outrageous and this should not be the United States of America in the year 2025. I'm the daughter of two immigrants who fled authoritarianism and Iran growing up, learning about the fact that you cannot take democracy for granted. And before my eyes, we are saying this happen in the United States of America with the state-sponsored violence that the Trump administration is leading.

And in terms of the Medicaid and snap cuts, are there any possibilities at the state level to mitigate or fend off some of the worst of these cuts? It's extremely difficult because the states are already suffering. In Arizona, we, you know, have a, you know, a Democratic governor, a Republican legislature. rely on federal support for Medicaid, we already have a lack of access to health care, especially in rural communities. When I visited community health centers, for example, in my district, they made very clear many months ago that with these cuts to Medicaid, there's not just the direct impact of the people who will lose their insurance. There's also the hospitals and the community health centers that will be forced to shut down because they will not have as many patients coming

to them. So when you lose access to community health centers in a place like South Phoenix, for example, in my community, that will make it extremely difficult for many to be able to seek health care to afford health care. And it's going to continue to worsen the divide and the wealth and equality and just the health disparities that we are saying in Phoenix and across the country. You know, I don't see the states and municipalities. We rely on federal support, and this was the bare minimum that we were doing in the United States. Before we talk about Iran, I wanted to ask you to expand more on the Eloy Detention Center, the ICE jail you went to in central Arizona. You said of the visit, and I want to quote you, what I encountered today was sickening.

So many of the detainees shared that they do not have reliable access to basics like food and water or central medical care when they're in crisis. Detainees described overcrowded, moldy cells, forced and dehumanizing marches outside in Arizona heat, constant berating from guards' conditions worse than prison. And you particularly talk to women detainees. You know, a lot of Congress members are going to these ICE jails and being turned away. You got in, and these are people you're talking to. So if you can share them with the world right now in this global broadcast. Yes, and you're absolutely right.

There are members of Congress being turned away, and that is against the law. I got lucky. I went to the detention center, and I will say that getting in was relatively smooth and was given a tour for about three hours of the entirety of the detention center. I was definitely given talking points. And then when we got to the portion about halfway through of being in the cafeteria where women were having a lunch, I asked the man who was giving me a tour, whether I could speak with the woman. And at first, you know, he happily agreed. So myself and my

staff member who was with me went to speak with the woman. And when I say to you that they were extremely eager to come tell me their stories, when some saw me sitting down, others rushed to me to very quickly tell me what was going on. I'm not even slightly exaggerating. The women described specific stories. Many of them told me the exact same story of how they were forced outside, they pointed to the man who forced them outside, who was in the cafeteria and said he regularly dehumanizes us. He forces outside in the heat to march around in circles over and over and over again until one woman fainted. They told me that he was screaming and yelling things like, quote, this is the price of the American dream. I have never heard something more dehumanizing

in my life. Arizona is deadly in the summer, by the way. So any sort of forced march, in the heat can lead to health issues. And it did. Others described issues with the AC purposeful shutting down of air conditioning. Then they would say that when they would ask for more air conditioning or to turn on the air conditioning, then the staff would turn on the AC so high and so cold that people would freeze and get sick. And the rooms are very much like prison cells. You don't have a lot in there. There were women in there who were Docker recipients. One of them, you know, was married to a U.S. citizen in Chandler, which is another city in Arizona. These were not criminals. This is what I want to emphasize. The administration is lying. They are going after

immigrants across the board. I saw in your headlines. You mentioned the, you know, the getting rid of TPS status for so many individuals from from a variety of countries. This is happening. We have a travel ban. We have the stopping of the refugee admissions program, going after Afghan refugees who have, you know, supported the U.S. military. When you have for domestic national security policy and immigration policy being led by somebody like Stephen Miller, this is what you're going to get. And it's devastating. Congresswoman, I wanted to ask you on another note, situation in Iran. Last month, the U.S. joined Israel's war on Iran using a bunker buster bombs, 30,000 pound bombs, 14 of them, as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles. You condemned this

attack. Could you talk about why you took this stand and called for an emergency session of Congress? Absolutely. First and foremost, I condemn the attack because I do not believe. believe that the president of the United States should be conducting unilateral military action without authorization from Congress. At the bare minimum, a briefing to Congress or, you know, an explanation to the American public of why this is essential. Donald Trump conducted and is still conducting the entirety of his foreign policy decision making as it pertains to this issue via post-truth social. He has caused significant chaos. within the country and devastation in terms of civilian lives lost on both sides.

And then second, now that some time has passed, I think another very important point is we still do not know the effectiveness of this strike. There are misleading and oftentimes conflicting talking points coming out of the administration. You'll have the intelligence agency led by Tulsi Gabbard saying, one thing, and then the Department of Defense, led by Pete Heggseth, saying another, that's extremely concerning. And when it comes to policy pertaining to a country's potential nuclear ambitions, it is very possible that what the United States' unilateral action has now caused is an Islamic Republic regime in Iran, perhaps even more in Bolton, perhaps even more intent

on building a nuclear weapon because they see that even negotiations, when you know, you're in the midst of negotiations, you may get bombed by your adversary. So that's what I'm concerned about. We also know that reports from inside Iran demonstrate that the regime is cracking down in a big way on the civilian population. The regime is not the people. The people of Iran are vehemently against their regime. They have tried to protest and demand freedom from this regime. And it's so difficult because this regime is entrenched across many facets. of society. So there are layers of issues to this. But again, from a U.S. national security perspective, I always think congressional authorization is vital. And then a clear plan and a

clear outcome and defined outcome. And that did not exist in this case. Congress member, we just have 30 seconds. You are known as a young climate activist before even you got into the Phoenix City Council, not to mention Congress. Can't end this without talking about the horrific flooding in Texas. Over 100 people are now dead. People are saying, who could have predicted this? But isn't that the definition of climate change? Unpredictability. Yes. The climate crisis is very much here. And what we have to understand is that we are locked into devastating impacts in climate catastrophe. And people are going to be seeing this across the world. It is imperative that at all levels of government, at the local level, county, state

and federal, we significantly ramp up our resilience efforts, our proactive emergency management plans. And that's why I'm so concerned to see that President Trump is continuing to mess around with FEMA because not only do we need FEMA at its current capacity, we need to ramp up FEMA because climate change will continue to affect us in the United States. And we're going to continue to see climate refugees in the United States when you have extreme floods, extreme heat killing people, tornadoes, sea level rise. This is going to be an issue not just internationally, but here for us domestically. And of course, speaking of climate refugees, the Honduran refugees from Hurricane Mitch in 1999, a quarter of a century ago, now could lose their status to remain

in this country. Yes, Minansari, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Democratic Congress member from Arizona. Next up, Trump and the Israeli prime minister had dinner last night at the White House. Netanyahu promised President Trump or presented him with a document that Israel's nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize and talked about the Palestinians' free choice to leave Gaza. We'll speak to Peter Pynard of Jewish currents back in 20 seconds. And the hog of thee forsaken, he'd be taking all your deuce boy. Standing on the corner with the hip-shaking blues bar.

That old old old mozai de co. It don't go so far. But the hog of thee forsaken got a boogie, boogie blues ball. Of The Forsaken by the late folk singer Michael Hurley, performing in our Democracy Now studio a few years. ago. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is in Washington this week. On Monday, he met with President Trump and other officials at the White House for their third face-to-face meeting since Trump's new term. Ahead of dinner, Prime Minister Netanyahu told a reporter, Israel and the U.S.

are speaking to third countries about relocating Palestinians from Gaza. Netanyahu said it would give Palestinians free choice. I think President Trump had a brilliant division. It's called free choice. You know, if people want to stay, they can stay. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. It shouldn't be

a prison. It should be an open place and give people a free choice. We're working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realize what they always say that. They want to give the Palestinians

a better future, and those who, and I think we're getting close to finding several countries, and I think this will do, again, the freedom to choose Palestinians should have it. And I hope that we can secure it. That's Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, saying Palestinians should have the freedom to choose. He wasn't talking about a two-state solution or a one-state solution. He was talking about leaving. Netanyahu also took the opportunity to announce he has nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize and presented him with a nominating letter. The audio is a little hard to hear, so listen carefully.

That was Prime Minister Netanyahu presenting President Trump with a letter he sent to the Nobel Prize Committee nominating him for the Peace Prize. Hopes around the world are high. A ceasefire in Gaza could come out of this week's talks. Outside the White House, though, demonstrators gathered to protest the visit of Netanyahu who's been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court as well as U.S. support for the war in Gaza. The justice is no peace. Get this war criminal out of our streets. Get this war criminal out of our streets. Say it loud and say it clear. Say it loud and say it clear.

Beebe, you're not welcome here. I can't stand the fact that people are suffering and being killed the way they are. It's unbelievable that this is happening in this day and age. And I feel helpless. And I feel like our country is hijacked by people who want the, to continue and are making it possible, and that's not what I want my tax dollars to go to. To discuss U.S. Israel Relations and more, we're joined by Peter Bynard. He is an editor at large at Jewish Currents, his most recent book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza.

He's also a professor at the New Mark School of Journalism at the City University of New York. His new opinion piece for the New York Times is headlined, Democrats need to understand that opinions on Israel are changing fast. He joins us here in our New York studio. So first, Peter, if you can start off by responding to this third little summit in Washington between Trump and Netanyahu, where Trump is saying that with the negotiators in Doha, Hamas, and Israel, and his meetings with Netanyahu, that they are close to a 60-day ceasefire. or what this means, and Netanyahu talking about finding the third country where they will relocate

Palestinians too, and assuring people that they have freedom to choose. This phrase freedom to choose is so Orwellian, first of all, what kind of freedom is it when you have a territory where most of the buildings and the hospitals and the schools and the bakeries and the agriculture have all been destroyed, where you have more child amputees than any other place on earth. And now you're talking about people's freedom to choose. The deeper irony is that Palestinians have actually been in Gaza and beyond have been asking for the freedom to choose, the real freedom to choose, since 1948, because the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza are not from Gaza. They were expelled from their homes in what's now Israel. Many of them can see

the lands from which their families were expelled in 1948. So they do want the freedom to choose. They want the freedom to return to the places from which their families were expelled. But that's, of course, not the freedom they're being offered. The freedom they're being offered is to be made refugees again because Gaza has been utterly destroyed to go to some other place around the world so Israel can continue this process of ethnic cleansing. And Peter, the fact that here we see that Tanyau for the third time, this week coming to the United States. The idea that even Democrats would meet with a leader who the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for, your reaction.

It is really remarkable. I mean, the line from the Biden administration was that the Democratic Party believed in the rules-based international order. The United States actually worked with the international criminal court on the indictment of Vladimir Putin. So here you have Benjamin Netanyahu, having been indicted by the international criminal court, even some of America's partners in Europe have said that because they believe in international law, they would carry out that arrest warrant. In the United States instead, Netanyahu is celebrated

in a largely bipartisan way, including by Democrats, even though the man has been indicted as a war criminal by the International Criminal Court. What does it say about the Democratic Party's stated belief in the rules-based international order and human rights that they would do such a thing? And could you talk about the growing opposition to Netanyahu's government within Israel and many believing that he's continuing these armed conflicts precisely to prevent his day

of reckoning in the Israeli courts and among the Israeli people? Well, I think something may have changed here now. I think it is widely believed in Israel that he was continuing this assault on Gaza because if it ended, it would be clear that Israel had not achieved its goals. It had not destroyed Hamas, and then his government would fall apart and he would go to elections, which many thought he would lose. I think what is shifted is since Israel's bombing of Lebanon and Syria and Iran, Netanyahu's popularity has increased.

He may now believe that he can agree to a ceasefire, even though it will be clear that the war has failed that Hamas is not actually destroyed and defeated, but because what he did in Iran and Lebanon and Syria is popular, that he may be able to go to. an election and think he can win. That, I think, is the reason that there could be a ceasefire now. Peter, you did a guest essay for the New York Times. It's headline, Democrats need to understand that opinions on Israel are changing fast. And the image that accompanies the essay is a photograph of Zoran Mandani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York. If elected, he would be the first South Asian and Muslim mayor of New York City. He calls himself,

a Democratic Socialist was a former State Assemblyman. I want to ask you about Zoran Mamdani and particularly coverage in the New York Times. We'll get to that coverage in a minute, who they wrote a piece against him when they said they weren't going to endorse anyone in the Democratic primary and then have written another piece. But I first want to talk about the significance of his win and how it is tied to that changing opinion on Israel around the country, why it's sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party throughout the United States. Right. I think one of the reasons people thought Mamdani couldn't win was they had a set of assumptions about what was politically possible on the question of Israel-Palestine that are just

really out of date if you look at public opinion. I'm not sure there's any political issue in the United States, perhaps other than gay marriage over the last couple of decades, where public opinion has shifted as fast as it is shifting on Israel-Palestine. Just to give an example, in 2013, Democrats favored Israel over the Palestinians by 36 points. Today, they favor the Palestinians over Israel by 38 points. Even young Republicans, even Republicans under the age of 50, now a majority of them have a negative view of Israel. So what Mamdani is doing is revealing a dramatic shift that's taking place, being led by young people, but not only among young people that's happening in New York and across the country.

My article, what I was suggesting in the Times is Democrats running for president in 2028 should look at what has happened with Mamdani because he has revealed that the politics on Israel in the Democratic Party and beyond have radically shifted in terms of public opinion. And let me ask you about the Times coverage and what exactly they are doing. I wanted to go to a piece that Margaret Sullivan wrote. She used to be the public editor of the New York Times. It's been widely criticized the Times because it has relied on widespread information that was hacked on Columbia University. databases. The information reached the New York Times through an intermediary, who the Times didn't identify,

but it was later revealed to be Jordan Lasker, a well-known eugenicist and criticized white supremacist. The former public editor of the Times, who I was talking about, known as the ombudsman, Margaret Sullivan, called the decision to publish the piece based on stolen information on wise, and that it fell far short of the newsworthiness bar. During the primary, the paper officially doesn't make endorsements. They published an editorial urging voters not to even rank Mamdani in New York's ranked choice voting system. Sullivan writes, quote, the incident raises a larger issue. The Times apparent opposition to Mamdani's candidacy. She writes, quote, the opinion side of the Times is entitled to its opinion, however misguided, but straight news articles by contrast

aren't supposed to go to bat for or against candidates with this made-up scandal combined with the pre-election editorial. The Times looks like it's on a crusade against Mamdani. And she was also referring to the fact that the documents that were gotten from a Columbia database show that when Zeran Mamdani applied as an 18-year-old to college, he applied to Columbia. He wasn't accepted. But he checked the box African-American, among others, also South Asian.

And under it wrote Ugandan, where he was born, where his family, his father's family, had lived for 100 years. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that's really important to understand about Zoroamamdani and about his father, who's a very, very distinguished political sciences, Mahmoud Mahmdani, is that their identity was as Africans, right? And that the vision they had of Uganda was of a country that was multiracial, an African country that was multiracial that included people like, their families who came from South Asia and people who were black.

In fact, in some ways, this was the struggle against Idi Amin. I mean, not to get into the weeds here, but Idi Amin had expelled Asians from Uganda, precisely because of his racist view that South Asians were not truly Africans. And so for Mamm Dan, it was an important statement to say, I am an African. And this is actually important. My family are South Africans, right? Obviously, my family are South Africans, Jews who came to South Africa. But it was very important.

and for many of those Jews to say that we are also part of this country. And I think when you see what the, when you understand it in that context, it's not the case that Zoroam Dani was trying to pull some sleight of hand to try to take advantage of a front of action. This was a very deep statement about what he believed it was to have grown up in Uganda. And I think that's what perhaps not really understood about the context of this story. you're going back to this uh the race for mayor in new york uh there are news reports now that the financially lead of new of new york are trying to convince all other candidates

to eventually drop out behind one whether that's quomo or eric adams uh and uh and even convincing uh curtis lee while the republican to drop out they're trying to make a pact uh to all all unite against Mamdani. I can't remember anything like that happening. You'd have to go back to 1950 when Vito Mark Antonio was the East Harlem congressman and the Democratic, the Republican Party, the Liberal Party, all united behind one candidate to defeat Mark Antonio, who was the American Labor Party candidate and a socialist. wondering your thoughts about this incredible attempt

and an unholy alliance? Well, in many ways it kind of illustrates Mamdani's whole point, right? Which is that this is a city that is not working, that is really unaffordable for so many working class New Yorkers. But it's a city that in some ways is politically only working and so many ways controlled by people who have vast amounts of wealth. And, you know, if people have vast amounts of wealth, fine. but they should think about the people who live in their city who don't live in

multi, multi-million dollar apartments and go off to houses in the Hamptons and have a little bit of empathy and concern for the fact that there's so many New Yorkers who would really benefit from having free buses or not having to pay so much for rent. Like have some human concern and empathy. These people don't care at all about that. All they care about is making sure that they don't have to pay a little bit more in taxes, even though they would not even notice it, given the scale of their wealth. And they're threatened by Zoroamamandani's support for the idea of equality between

Israeli Jews and Palestinians, right? It's extraordinary that they would be so afraid and so angry at a man who is simply talking about the basic idea that Israeli Jews and Palestinians deserve to be treated equally, which I thought was the principle that we were supposed to believe in in the United States. I want to thank you so much, Peter, for joining us. Peter Beiner, editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents. His most recent book is Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza. He's also a professor at the New Mark School of Journalism at the City University of New York. And we'll link to your opinion piece in the New York Times. Democrats need to understand that opinions on Israel are changing fast. Next up, we speak with Professor John Bellamy Foster. on the Trump Doctrine and the new MAGA imperialism. Back in 20 seconds. It's 1159 and 59 seconds.

If I'm going to die tonight, I won't heaven. Hey, eh, with you. It's 1159 and 59 seconds. If I'm going to die tonight, I won't heaven. Hey, eh, with you. It was 11.59 and 59 clicks. The whole world's burning, but the clock just ticks over and over every single day. Some people steal while.

Other people pray to God, to man, machines or whatever. Some of us just lost faith all together. No way, they say, we can't live this way. That's why so many people stand up and say. One love, one blood, one heart, one soul, and one drum and only one rhythm. One tribe and all of us singing, it's 1159 and 59 seconds. Michael Franti in our Democracy Now studios a decade ago. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Mimi Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. President Trump announced on social media Monday a new round of threatened tariffs ranging from 25 to 45% on imports from 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, set to take effect August 1st, barring new deals. Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on countries that align themselves with the BRICS group of nations, led by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Trump cited the groups, quote, anti-American policies. The threat came as Brazilian President, Luis Anasio Lula de Silva, kicked off a two-day brick summit in Rio de Janeiro.

So we don't want an emperor. Our countries are sovereign. If Trump issues tariffs, other countries have the right to do the same. There is the reciprocity law. I think it's not responsible for a president from a country like the United States to threaten the world with tariffs on social media. Honestly, there are other forums for the president of a country, the size of the United States, to talk to other countries.

This comes as Vice President, Jay, Vance has been promoting Trump's new foreign policy approach. Vance addressed the Ohio Republican Party last month. What I call the Trump doctrine is quite simple. Number one, you articulate a clear American interest, and that's, in this case, that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. Number two, you try to aggressively, diplomatically solve that problem. And number three, when you can't solve it diplomatically,

you use overwhelming military power to solve it, and then you get the hell out of there before it ever becomes a protracted conflict. For more, we're joined by John Bellamy Foster, Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon, editor of the Monthly Review, where his new article is headlined, the Trump Doctrine and the New MAGA imperialism. Well, why don't you lay out your thesis for us, Professor John Bellamy Foster, and welcome to Democracy Now. Well, thank you.

The Trump Doctrine was articulated in the first Trump administration. Normally, the presidential doctrines are determined by the press who see the administrations operating in a certain way, according to a certain principle, and they designate that as a doctrine. The Trump administration has been different. there was a lot of confusion about Trump foreign policy. Was it isolationist? Was it anti-imperialist? In the first Trump administration, Michael Anton, who was one of the main mega ideologues

and came from the Claremont Institute, which is one of the primary mega institutions, was in the National Security Council, and they basically had him leave the National Security Council in order to formally articulate a Trump doctrine that the media would take seriously, and foreign policy experts would take seriously. So he gave a lecture. He was appointed at Hillsdale College,

which is a MAGA institution, and he gave a lecture at Princeton University, where he articulated the Trump Doctrine, and then that was published in foreign policy, the leading Foreign Policy Journal in the United States. And the Trump Doctrine is said, and now Michael Anton is the deputy, well, he's the director of policy planning for the State Department. So he's the main idea man, essentially, assistant secretary of state. He's the main idea man in the state department. And he articulated

on behalf of Trump, a doctrine, a Trump doctrine with four pillars. The first one was national populism, which is the way in which the mega movement designates itself. Sort of the neo-fascist designation, it resonates with the national socialism of the Nazi movement. But national populism is the first pillar. The second pillar is that all nations should be primarily nationalistic in their orientation. The third one is the opposition to liberal internationalism and to the liberal liberal hegemony of the United States over the world order that was established after the Second World War and is continued to this day. Instead, what is defined is a hyper-nationalist

America First Imperium, where the United States essentially rules the world on its own. But the fourth pillar is the most important, and Anton went back to Aristotle, who said there were two, three forms of political organization, the tribe or ethnicity, the city, state, or state, and the empire, and empires are defined as multi-ethnic. And the Trump doctrine is opposed to multi-ethnic empires and multi-ethnic nations. and argues that we should determine our foreign policy by ethnicity and essentially the tribe. In fact, it's a racial definition of foreign policy with the notion that the United States is a white country and other ethnicities don't belong, and we're going to organize our foreign policy as well as our domestic policy on that. basis. So the Trump Doctrine was very important. Remember, Anton is now the number one policymaker within the State Department, so this is not a secondary matter.

Professor, I wanted to ask you, in your analysis, which I found to be among the clearest I've seen anywhere about this new fascist movement, you, You contradict the perspective of a lot of people that the Trump neo-fascism has a working-class base. In fact, you say that there were three sectors of the monopoly capitalist class, the tech sector, the oil and gas sector, and private equity sector, that have basically united with the lower middle class, a huge portion of the lower middle class and privileged workers who formed the base of the, of the MAGA movement. Could you talk about that a little more? Well, sociologically, we often talk about the lower middle class, which is a very clear political, cultural designation in U.S. society.

These are small property owners, small landowners, lower-level managers within corporations, rural populations, The evangelical movement is tied to this, and the population within the lower middle class is predominantly white and is above the, in terms of income and property ownership is well above the working class, which we could say is the bottom 60% of the population. and the lower middle class also votes much more heavily than the working class. So this has actually been Trump's political base. The lower middle class is very nationalistic, a tendency to be nationalistic, what we call revanchist that is arguing that we have to return to an earlier age, make America great again.

They tend to be very racist and anti-immigrant, misogynist, very patriarchal in their orientations. So the populations of the lower middle class are very heavily located in the excerpts. So this is the base, the sociological base and political base of Trump. And as soon as Trump phenomenon came into being, the New York Times, which hadn't talked about the working class for decades, started to refer to the white working class. But really, it's about the lower middle class. And the lower middle class is traditionally, they used to be called the petty bourgeoisie, is traditionally the base for all movements in the fascist genesis. If you go back to the 1930s to Italy and Germany, it's the same constituency that drove the fascist movement. But it's a result of an alliance between big capital for the billionaire's monopoly finance capital at the very top of the society and the lower middle class.

The lower middle class is not anti-capitalist. They're basically opposed to what they see are what in the mega ideology is called the ruling class, which is the professional managerial class, which is seen as controlling government. And they're also opposed to the working class, which they see as multi-eastern, ethnic and diverse and poverty-stricken and a population that they don't want to fall into. So the lower middle class is sort of the rear guard of the system that billionaires have basically mobilized them, beginning with the Tea Party and then the Trump phenomenon to turn the entire political system to the hard right, turn to developing a neo-fascist movement of this kind.

which has, of course, all sorts of contradictions. John Bellamy Foster, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon, editor of the Monthly Review, speaking to us from Washington State. His most recent piece will link to it at DemocracyNow.org called the Trump Doctrine and the new MAGA imperialism. Happy birthday to Christine Marr. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.