Letters from an American - November 13, 2025

Episode Date: November 15, 2025

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Hi, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is unable to read the letter today, so I will be reading it in her place. November 13, 2025. We are watching the ideology of the far-right MAGAs smash against reality, with President Donald J. Trump and his cronies madly trying to convince voters to believe in their false world rather than the real one. That spin has been hard at work in the past few days over the economy. Trump is clearly worried that the Supreme Court is going to find that much of his tariff war is unconstitutional, as the direction of the judge's questioning in its November

5th hearing suggested. On Monday, he claimed that the U.S. would have to pay back in excess of $2 trillion if the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs unconstitutional. and that would be a national security catastrophe. He blamed anarchists and thugs for putting the U.S. into a terrible situation by challenging his tariffs. Hours later, he increased the number to $3 trillion. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says the number was actually about $195 billion. Yesterday, White House officials,

suggested they would never be able to release October's jobs report or inflation numbers, blaming the Democrats. They did, however, claim that prices are beginning to drop, citing DoorDash the delivery platform as their source. The administration has justified its violence against undocumented immigrants by insisting those they round up are violent criminals, the worst of the worst. That claim is increasingly exposed as a lie, and Americans are pushing back. Melissa Sanchez, Jody S. Cohen, T. Christian Miller, Sebastian Rotea, and Miriam Elba of ProPublica, reported on the September 30th raid on an apartment complex in Chicago,

in which federal agents stormed the complex in a helicopter and military-style vehicles, broke into apartments and marched individuals outside, claiming they were Trenda-Iragua gang members and filming them for a video the administration circulated that portrayed them as criminals. Government agents arrested 37 people in the raid, but ultimately claimed that only two of them were gang members. The journalist spoke to one and found he had no criminal record.

Federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges, against anyone arrested in the raid. Instead, the journalists observed in immigration court that government lawyers never mentioned criminal charges or gang membership. Judges simply ordered them deported or let them leave voluntarily, which would enable them to apply to return to the U.S., a sign they are not actually seen as a threat to the country. On Tuesday, Isabella Diaz of Mother Jones reported on the administration's targeting of individuals who, until now, were protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. President Barack Obama established DACA for those brought to the U.S. as children

until Congress could pass legislation to give those Dreamers a path to legal residence. Thanks to the program, Dreamers by the hundreds of thousands gave the U.S. government their personal information in exchange for a promise they would not be deported. But Congress never acted, and now, in its quest to reach 3,000 deportations a day, the administration is targeting DACA recipients, whose adherence to the rules the government established makes them easy to find and target. Yesterday, Robert Tate of the Guardian noted that Human Rights Watch and Christosal, a group that monitoring, human rights in Latin America, report that the Venezuelans the Trump administration sent to the

infamous Seacot terrorist prison in El Salvador endured systematic torture, including beatings and sexual violence. Only 3% of those the U.S. rendered to El Salvador had been convicted of a violent crime in the U.S. As immigration advocate Aaron Reikland-Melanick wrote, We paid El Salvador to torture, abuse, and rape, completely innocent Venezuelans, so that Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Donald Trump could claim they were tough on immigrants.

The Executive Director of Christosal, Noah Bullock, accused the administration of wanting to demonstrate and send a message of brutality. A White House spokesperson, said, President Trump is committed to keeping his promises to the American people by removing dangerous criminal and terrorist illegal aliens who pose a threat to the American public. Today, retired Chicago broadcast journalists published a letter to people in the Chicago area saying what the government is doing to Chicago is wrong. It is a brutal and illegal campaign against

fellow Chicagoans, mainly Latinos, violent abductions, gutting families, using tear gas around children, roughing up witnesses, ramming cars, and even taking a daycare teacher from her school. This is not law enforcement, they wrote, it is terror. For the first time in 12 years, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a special message yesterday. Addressing the administration's immigration enforcement policies, the bishop said they were saddened by the vilification of immigrants, concerned about the conditions in detention centers, troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship, and hospitals and schools, and grieved over the damage the immigration raids have done to families. We oppose that indiscriminate mass deportation of people. They

wrote, we pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. But the administration's attempt to convince the Americans to believe them, rather than their lion eyes, doesn't appear to be succeeding very well. Maga has been at least partly demoralized by the information coming out of the Epstein documents. With right-wing influencer Dinesh D'Souza, for example, defending Trump by saying, Right now, we don't have anyone else. Trump media ally, Stephen Bannon, told supporters, Trump's an imperfect instrument, but one infused by divine providence.

Without him, we'd have nothing. Bloomberg reports that 62% of the Americans they polled say the cost of everyday items has climbed over the past month, and that 55% of employed Americans say they're worried about losing their job. It also notes, as CNBC Economic Commentator Carl Quintanilla pointed out, that international stocks are outperforming the U.S. S&P Stock Index by the widest margin in 16 years. Yesterday, the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Survey hit its lowest reading in 16. years. Tonight, Anna Swanson, Maggie Haberman, and Tyler Pager of the New York Times reported that

the administration is attempting to lower food prices by preparing exemptions to tariffs, suggesting that some members of the administration are finally facing the fact that Trump's fantasy ideology cannot defy reality forever. Other administration officials are still clinging to their ideology. Although Colombia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have stopped sharing certain intelligence information with the U.S., because they consider the administration's strikes on small boats illegal, Jennifer Jacobs and James Laporta of CBS News reported today that senior military officials have presented Trump with options for land strikes in Venezuela.

Tonight, Defense Secretary Pete Higgseth posted on social media, President Trump ordered action, and the Department of War is delivering. Today, I'm announcing Operation Southern Spear. This mission defends our homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our hemisphere, and secures our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America's neighborhood. and we will protect it. It appears that the administration is considering attacking another country

under the pretext of stopping drug trafficking, in an echo of 19th century imperial power that mimics the territorial ambitions of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. Political strategist Simon Rosenberg commented, If Trump wags the dog in Venezuela, it is going to do enormous damage to his already degraded brand, here in the US. Zero support for this in the public. We'll be seen for what it is, a transparent attempt to rescue his flailing presidency.

Letters from an American was written by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead of Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss. This is the world.