Letters from an American - July 1, 2025

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

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Music July 1st, 2025. Just after noon today, the Senate passed its version of the budget reconciliation bill. All Democrats and independents voted no. Three Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Tom Tillis of North Carolina, joined the Democrats in voting no. That left the bill at 50-50. Vice President J.D. Vance cast the deciding vote, pushing the measure through the Senate

and sending it back to the House to vote on the changes made by the Senate. From the Reporters' Gallery above the floor, CNN's Sarah Farris heard Senator Angus King, an independent of Maine, yell to his Republican colleagues, shame on you guys. That was the most disgusting vote I've ever seen in my life. The measure cuts taxes for the wealthy and corporations

and offsets those cuts, in part, by slashing Medicaid and food security programs for low-income Americans. But there is at least one aspect of American life on which the bill is lavishing money. While the measure slashes public welfare programs, it pours $170.7 billion into immigration enforcement. The American Immigration Council broke out the numbers today. The Senate bill provides $51.6 billion to build a wall on the border, more than three times what Trump spent on the wall in his first term. It provides $45 billion for detention facilities for immigration and customs enforcement, an increase of 265% in ICE's annual detention budget. It provides

$29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, a threefold increase in ICE's annual budget. When Trump talks about undocumented migrants as being dangerous criminals, he appears to have bought into the fantasy that the U.S. is a hellscape. In fact, about 8% of arrested migrants have been convicted of violent crimes. The administration defines anyone who breaks immigration law, which is a misdemeanor, not a felony, as a criminal. One of the reasons for the push to get the bill passed before July 4th is that the Department of Homeland Security has blown through its budget and needs the bill's additional funding to operate.

While the Senate considered the budget reconciliation bill today, President Donald J. Trump visited the new detention facility in the Florida Everglades designed to hold 5,000 undocumented immigrants. The facility will cost $450 million a year, which will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The Florida Attorney General who came up with the plan gave it the name Alligator Alcatraz, a cutesy name for tents filled with cages for undocumented immigrants. Standing in front of the cages

with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem laughing, Trump told reporters, Biden wanted me in here. It didn't work out that way, but he wanted me in here, that son of a bitch. This is nonsense, but it reveals Trump's conviction that he is always a victim, his determination to destroy the rule of law that threatened to hold him accountable for his actions, and his own drive to imprison and destroy his political opponents. It was exactly a year ago today, on July 1, 2024, that the United States Supreme Court decided Donald J. Trump v. United States. The Court's majority overthrew the central premise of American

democracy—that no one is above the law. It decided that the President of the United States, possibly the most powerful person on earth, has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for crimes committed as part of the official acts at the core of presidential powers. The court also said it should be presumed that the president also has immunity for other official acts as well, unless that prosecution would not intrude on the authority of the executive branch. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that a president needs such

immunity to make sure the president is willing to take bold and unhesitating action and make unpopular decisions, although no previous president ever asserted that he was above the law or that he needed such immunity to fulfill his role. Robert's decision didn't focus at all on the interest of the American people in guaranteeing that presidents carry out their duties within the guardrails of the law. The Supreme Court had delayed issuing its decision in that case until the last possible moment,

guaranteeing that Trump would not face trial in the two federal criminal cases pending against him, one charging him with willfully retaining national defense information by taking classified information with him when he left office, and the other for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. A year later, Today provided a snapshot of what happens to a democracy when a president feels he can disregard the law. Trump's Education Department announced today it is withholding $6.8 billion in funding for K-12 schools

that, by law, was supposed to be dispersed starting today. By law, the Executive Branch must disperse appropriations Congress has passed, but Trump and his officers have simply ignored the law, saying they believe it is unconstitutional. The Constitution provides that Congress alone has the power to write laws and charges the President with taking care that the laws be faithfully executed. Yesterday, Trump announced new Trump fragrances, perfumes, and colognes for which he has licensed the use of his name. They retail for hundreds of dollars per 3.3-ounce bottle.

Today, Zach Everson of Forbes reported that Trump Media and Technology Group is testing an international rollout of its streaming platform. The chief executive officer of Trump Media, former Republican Congress member Devin Nunes, said in a statement, international viewers who want to get the other side of the story will soon have an easy opportunity to do so. Everson points out that Trump has slashed Voice of America, the largest international broadcaster in the U.S., raising questions about whether Trump's business interests

played a role in his decisions about the congressionally funded US news source. But it was at a press conference in Ochopee, Florida today that Trump showed just how profoundly the immunity conferred on him a year ago is undermining democracy. Trump continues to say he will arrest and deport US citizens to third countries. On April 14th, a microphone picked up Trump's comment to President Naib Buckeye of El Salvador

that homegrowns are next, after the undocumented immigrants Buckeye was imprisoning for Trump. Today, Trump told reporters that bad criminals have migrated to the U.S., but we also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time. People that whacked people over the head with a baseball bat from behind when they're not looking and kill them. People that knife you when you're walking down the street.

They're not new to our country, they're old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too. You wanna know the truth? So maybe that'll be the next job that we work on together. He is also continuing to push the idea of attacking his political opponents. Today, Trump called for an investigation

into Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary under President Joe Biden. He also threatened to arrest the Democratic nominee for New York Mayor, Zoran Mamdani, if he doesn't work with ICE agents to arrest migrants, although local and state governments have no legal obligation to work with federal immigration enforcement. Trump claimed, incorrectly, that Mamdani is a communist and said that a lot of people are saying he's here illegally. In fact, Mamdani is a naturalized citizen. Today, Alan Farr and Adam Goldman of the New York Times reported that a former FBI agent, Jared Wise, who was charged with telling the January 6, 2021 rioters storming

the Capitol to kill police officers, is working with a task force in the Justice Department set up as a way for President Trump to seek retribution against his political enemies. Once a new system of detention facilities and ICE agents is established, and the idea that a Republican president can legitimately attack his political opponents is accepted, a police state will be in place. In answer to the question, how many more facilities like this do you feel that the country needs in order to enact your agenda of mass deportations, Trump said today, well I think we'd like to see them in many states, really many states. This

one, I know Ron's doing a second one, at least a second one, and probably a couple of more. And you know at some point they might morph into a system where you're going to keep it for a long time. Once that system is in place, it will not matter if Trump is able to do the work of the presidency. Today, a reporter from the Fox News Channel asked Trump about the new detention facility in the Everglades. Mr. President, is there an expected timeframe that detainees will spend here? Days? Weeks? Months? Trump answered, In Florida? I'm going to spend a lot. Look, this is my home state. I love it. I love your government. I love all the people around. These are all friends of mine. They know very

well. I mean, I'm not surprised that they do so well. They're great people. Rod has been a friend of mine for a long time. I feel very comfortable in this state. I'll spend a lot of time here. I want to, you know, for four years I've got to be in Washington and I'm okay with it because I love the White House. I even fixed up the little Oval Office.

I make it, it's like a diamond, it's beautiful. It's so beautiful. It wasn't maintained properly, I'll tell you that. But even when it wasn't, it was still the Oval Office, so it meant a lot. But I'll spend as much time as I can here. You know, my vacation is generally here because it's convenient.

I live in Palm Beach, it's my home. And I have a very nice little place, nice little cottage to stay at, right? But we have a lot of fun, and I'm a big contributor to Florida. You know, pay a lot of tax, and a lot of people moved from New York, and I don't know what New York is going to do.

A lot of people moved to Florida from New York, and it was for a lot of reasons, but one of them was taxes. The taxes are so high in New York, they're leaving. I don't know what New York's going to do about that, because some of the biggest, wealthiest people, and some of the people that pay the most taxes of any people anywhere in the world, for that matter,

they're moving to Florida and other places. So we're going to have to help some of these states out, I think. But thank you very much. I'll be here as much as I can. Very nice question. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.