Letters from an American - October 10, 2025

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

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October 10th, 2025, all of President Donald J. Trump's lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize came to naught today as the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year's prize to Maria Karina Mahato of Venezuela. Mahato has led a movement to challenge Venezuela's authoritarian leader, President Nicola Maduro. The committee cited her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. When she learned of the award, Ms. Machado responded, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this. White House communications director Stephen Cheung responded,

the Nobel Committee proved they placed politics over peace. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the committee's credibility has largely been lost, prompting Trump to thank him on social media. That Trump and his loyalists are standing with the autocrat Putin rather than democracy is clearer every day. Federal agents in Chicago have been targeting journalists, and yesterday U.S. District Judge Sarah L. Ellis granted a two-week temporary restraining order

prohibiting federal agents in Chicago from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, threatening or using physical force against any person whom they know or reasonably should know is a journalist, unless defendants have probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a crime. Today, masked Border Patrol

agents pinned WGN TV producer Debbie Brockman to the ground and arrested her after she recorded agents detaining a Latino man. The agent said she had been detained for obstruction. Later, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin accused Brockman of throwing objects at a Border Patrol vehicle and said she was arrested for assault on a federal law enforcement officer. According to WGN, Brockman was later released without charges against her. But the agents accomplished their goal of terrorizing a journalist as a warning to others. Yesterday, a second Republican governor, Phil Scott of Vermont, opposed the administration's deployment of federalized National Guard troops to Chicago and to Portland, Oregon. I don't think our guard should be used

against our own people. I don't think the military should be used against our own people. In fact, it's unconstitutional, Scott said, unless, of course, there's an insurrection, much like we saw January 6th a few years ago. Ice agents denied Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, access to the Broadview Illinois Ice Facility today, although Congress members have the right to conduct oversight. Durbin noted that this was their fourth attempt to access ice facilities. I've never had this kind of stonewalling by any presidential administration. Something's going on in there that they don't want us to see.

I don't know what it is, but all Americans should be asking the same question. What is it? Can you justify it under the Constitution? Nandita Bose, Jana Winter, Jeff Mason, Tim Reed, and Ted Heson of Reuters reported on Thursday that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is playing a central role in the administration's crackdown on opponents. The administration is threatening to target funding behind what the administration calls domestic terror networks. Those it claims embrace anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianism. Christianity. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, got into the act of attacking the administration's opponents today, claiming that the Democratic senators holding out for the extension of the premium tax credits so that health care premiums don't skyrocket, a position supported by 78% of Americans, are taking that position only because they're afraid of anti-Trumpers. Johnson called the October 18th No Kings rally a hate America rally of the Antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists. It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes,

he said. Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Republican of Minnesota, joined in, calling those who are taking a stand against Trump's destruction of the nation's constitutional checks and balances, the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party, saying it is set to hold a hate rally in Washington, D.C. next week. Legal scholar David Knoll noted that it's interesting that if you say the Constitution creates a separation of powers systems in which there are no kings, they think you hate America. Josh Dawsey reported in the Wall Street Journal today

that administrative officials joke about ruling Congress with an iron fist, and that Trump allies Steve Bannon has compared Congress to Russia's largely ceremonial, Duma. Today, House Speaker Johnson announced he would cancel another week's session, making four weeks he has kept House members from their jobs. Johnson first sent the members home on September 19th. Staying out of session means not working on the budget that is overdue, or hammering out the necessary appropriations bills. It means not working on figuring out a way to extend the health care premium tax credits that Democrats are demanding.

It also means not swearing in Representative Adelaide Grijalva, a Democrat of Arizona, who won election on September 23rd and who will provide the 218 vote on a discharge petition to trigger a vote on a measure requiring the release of the files the government has on the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The administration is trying to ram its will through Congress. Republicans have tried to pin the blame for the shutdown on Democrats, sending automatic out-of-office email replies that blame Democrats for the shutdown, for example, in violation of the Hatch Act that prohibits using government resources for partisan purposes. As the shutdown drags on and most Americans blame Republicans, their efforts to shift the blame are ratcheting up. Now the administration has posted a video at

Airport Transportation Security Administration or TSA lines featuring Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem, saying that the operations are impacted because Democrats in Congress refused to fund the federal government. Immigration lawyer Aaron Reikland Melnick commented, can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents, playing on a loop in public spaces, in which that government was the good guy? Natalie Allison and Riley Began of the Washington Post

reported yesterday that members of the administration have not engaged with Democrats at all to negotiate an end of the shutdown. Tonight, the Washington Post's Hannah Natanson, Merrill Cornfield, and Jacob Bogage, reported that the administration has begun another round of firings to put more pressure on the Democrats, although legal analysts say such layoffs are illegal.

Trump told reporters they were laying off people that the Democrats want. Labor unions sued preemptively to prevent the layoffs after Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vote threatened he would use a shutdown to slash more of the government. Among the duties of Congress, Trump has taken into his own hands are tariff duties, authority for which the Constitution gives solely to Congress. Nonetheless, Trump is continuing to monkey with tariff rates. This morning, he posted on social media that some very strange things are happening in China.

China is the world's largest producer of the rare earth minerals necessary for a wide range of manufacturing, including robotics, electric vehicles, and electronics. Yesterday, Chinese officials restricted exports of the minerals. In his post, Trump threatened to retaliate against China and suggested that there was no reason to go through with an upcoming meeting with China's president, Xi Jinping. Trump's threat sent stock prices tumbling. After the stock market closed for the day,

Trump posted on social media again, saying he would impose tariffs of 100% on products from China beginning on November 1st. This levy is on top of current tariffs. Stocks fell further in aftermarket trading. 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.