Letters from an American - October 1, 2025

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

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October 1st, 2025. Last night, as the government barreled toward a shutdown, President Donald J. Trump posted yet another doctored video on social media. This one showed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat of New York, reacting to Trump's deep fake video of September 29th that faked Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, attacking Democrats and racial minorities, and showed Jeffries sporting a Mexican sombrero and waxed mustache while Mexican music played. On September 29th, Jeffries told MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, it's a disgusting video, and we're going to continue to make clear, bigotry will get you nowhere.

We are fighting to protect the health care of the American people. in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault. Trump's video from last night replayed Jeffrey's statement up to, Bigotry will get you nowhere. Then, four images of Trump, each wearing a sombrero and playing an instrument and a mariachi band, popped up behind Jeffreys, whose image suddenly had a sombrero and a mustache again. The president does not appear to be taking the government shutdown very soon. seriously. Republicans are, though, not to resolve it, but to use it to attack Democrats. Republicans

control the Senate and could end the filibuster for the continuing resolution that would fund the government, thus enabling them to pass it through the Senate with a simple majority, if they wanted to. Instead, they want Democratic votes for it, evidently wanting to make sure Republicans alone do not take the blame for their budget reconciliation bill of July, as it's deeply unpopular measures are becoming clear. That measure cut Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, as well as a slew of other programs. While it extended tax cuts for the wealthy corporations, Republicans permitted the premium tax credit for purchasing health insurance under the Affordable Health Care Act to lapse at the end of this year. The end of that

program is already sending health care insurance premiums skyrocketing. Democrats say they will not agree to a continuing resolution to fund the government until the premium tax credits are extended past their end date of 2025. Republicans want to force Democrats to abandon this demand, thus getting at least a semblance of a buy-in to the dramatic cuts that are already hitting Americans hard. administration officials are making sure the shutdown doesn't affect their own priorities. They have prioritized the $20 billion bailout of Argentina's failing economy as essential, so it will proceed. The bailout will help right-wing leader Javier Malay, a Trump ally.

Jud Legum of Popular Information reported Monday that the bailout will also help billionaire hedge fund manager Rob Citrone, an associate of Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, who has invested heavily in Argentine companies and in Argentine debt. The White House says construction of Trump's ballroom in place of the east wing of the White House will also continue during the shutdown. Director of the Office of Management and Budget,

Russell Vote, has weaponized the shutdown by continuing his illegal impoundments of congressionally approved funding, but this time using them solely against states with Democratic senators. Today, he said he is canceling $8 billion in funding for programs that he claims fuel the left's climate agenda. The projects are in the following states. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

vote posted on social media. Amelia Benevides-Colon of notice reports that states have not yet been notified of the plan. Vote also announced on social media, roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles. He said he was referring to funding for the Hudson River Tunnel Project, known as Gateway, and the Second Avenue Subway Project. The publication of a new document today shows that the administration has launched another

power grab, this one in foreign affairs. On September 29th, Trump signed an executive order giving to Cutter's security guarantees that are much like those guaranteed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. The order says, the United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the state of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States. In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures, including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military, to defend the interests of the United States and the state of Qatar and to restore peace and stability. An executive order is not a treaty and can be overturned by another president,

but the declaration of a military commitment to a foreign nation without ratification by the Senate, as the Constitution requires, shows the belief of administration officials that they can act as they wish without consulting Congress. The agreement appeared to come to pass during the Monday visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House and likely reflects Cutter's demand for a guarantee that Israel's recent strike on Qatar would not be repeated. But the deal shows just how ill-advised Trump's illegal demand for and then receipt of a $400 million luxury 747-8 from Qatar turned out to be, for it now certainly looks as if Qatar received U.S. military commitments in exchange for a used plane. Usually administrations asserting authoritarian power make gains

because they are popular. The Trump administration, though, is neither popular nor likely to become more popular as its policies hurt ordinary Americans. Today, the National Employment Report of the payroll processing company ADP said that the U.S. lost 32,000 jobs in the private sector. in September. The ADP National Employment Report measures the labor market based on weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private sector employees. ADP also revised August's employment growth, which had been recorded as 54,000 jobs, down to a loss of 3,000. The independent ADP report has taken on additional significance since Trump has undermined the U.S. government, Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS.

In August, he fired the commissioner of the BLS, Erica McIntyrefer, complaining that she had rigged jobs figures to make the Republicans and me look bad. To replace her, he nominated right-wing economist E.J. Antony, whose scholarship was not nearly as strong as his support for Trump. Then, M.SEC and Andrew Kaczynski of CNN uncovered a racist, sexist,

an anti-LGB-Q Twitter account of Antony's. Today, Trump withdrew Anthony's nomination after Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska refused to meet with him, suggesting he could not be confirmed. Also today, Leonardo Garcia Venegis, an American citizen born in Florida, but currently living in Baldwin, Alabama,

and working in construction, filed a lawsuit, against the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, and officials, including Trump's border czar Tom Homan, Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Knoem, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. The complaint says that twice in the past few months, federal immigration officers have raided private construction sites

without a warrant and detained Leo simply for being at work. Both times Leo told the officers he was a citizen, and showed him his real ID, an identification card issued only to citizens and lawful residents. But the officers still wouldn't let him go. Once immigration officers are on a site, the suit alleges, they preemptively sees everybody they think looks undocumented. And they detain these workers indefinitely,

even those who have a real ID, until the officers eventually check the legal status of the people they've detained. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes, sometimes it takes days. On September 8th, in a case that permits immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, to use racial profiling, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that such profiling is acceptable because if the officers learn that the individual they stopped as a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go. In practice, though, reports of abuses have become so commonplace that such encounters have been dubbed Kavanaugh stops. The suit lists similar detentions of U.S. citizens. For example, Jorge Luis Hernandez-Viramantes, a U.S. citizen, was arrested while working at a car wash.

Immigration agents took him to a nearby warehouse for questioning, even though he had shown them, his state-issued identification. Javier Ramirez, a U.S. citizen, was handcuffed during a workplace raid at a towyard where he worked, despite screaming, I have my passport, I have my ID, I'm a U.S. citizen. Jonathan Guerrero, a U.S. citizen, was handcuffed at gunpoint by immigration officers

while working at a car wash in his hometown. Julio Noriega, a U.S. citizen, was detained after he handed out his resume at a jiffy lube and put in the back of a van without the chance to tell the officers he's a citizen. The officers drove Mr. Noriega around for four hours and then held him in a detention center for six more hours before someone checked his wallet and realized he was a citizen. Andrea Vallez, a U.S. citizen, was tackled by immigration officers on the sidewalk between her mom's car and her office door. Hedaberto Ramirez Perez was arrested during a workplace raid at a nutrition bar factory, despite carrying his employment verification ID card.

Immigration officers told him, we don't care about that for the moment. Such detentions, the lawsuit alleges, violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Vanegas hopes to make this a class action suit to stop the government from continuing its abusive policies. 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. Thank you.