Letters from an American - October 2, 2025

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

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October 2nd, 2025, at about 1 o'clock on Tuesday morning, federal agents from Border Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and explosives, or ATF, raided an apartment building on Chicago's South Shore Drive. Using helicopters and large vehicles, as well as flashbang grenades, and dressed in military fatigues, agents broke down the doors of the residents of the five-story building and pulled them from their homes in zip ties, some of them naked. Agents left the people tied up outside for hours before letting all but 37 of them go. The apartment's residents returned to were trashed. Cindy Hernandez of the Chicago Sun Times reported on the raid, noting that DHS said some of those arrested are believed to be

involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes, and immigration violators. It also said the neighborhood was a location known to be frequented by Trenda Aragua members and their associates. But, as Hernandez reports, DHS did not offer any evidence to support its assertions. Some of the people detained during the raid are U.S. citizens. I witness Ebony Watson told Kate Kogierin, Craig Wall, Trey Ward, and Lissette Nunez of ABC News 7 that the people was terrified, the kids was crying, people was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner because they was bringing the kids down too, had them zip tied to each other. That's all I kept asking. What is the

morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said them kids. I witnessed Daryl Ballard told the reporters, we're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military. Today, Charlie Savage and Eric Schmidt of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration informed congressional committees that the president has decided the U.S. is in a formal armed conflict with the drug cartels the administration has labeled terrorist organizations. If the U.S. is engaged in such an armed conflict, the administration said, those suspected of smuggling drugs for the cartels are unlawful combatants. This declaration backfills the administration's justification for striking three boats in the

Caribbean in September, killing 17. According to international law, Savage and Schmidt explain, in an armed conflict, it's lawful for a country to kill enemy fighters, even when they don't pose a direct threat. This redefinition is problematic, not just because most overdose deaths in the U.S. come from fentanyl from Mexico, not drugs from Venezuela, the home base of the boats the administration struck. Legal experts say that trafficking and illicit consumer product is not the same as armed conflict. It is problematic also because the administration did not identify any of the drug cartels it claims it is engaging in armed conflict, who must be engaged in organized armed combat to be part of an armed conflict. Even more problematic, as retired judge advocate or

JAG lawyer Jeffrey S. Korn, who was the Army's senior advisor for interpreting the laws of war, told Savage and Schmidt, the administration's declaration is an abuse that crosses a major legal line. This is not stretching the envelope, he said. This is shredding it. This is tearing it apart. Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat of Rhode Island, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, posted, every American should be alarmed that President Trump has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he labels an enemy. Drug cartels must be stopped, but declaring war and ordering lethal military force without Congress or public knowledge nor legal justification is unacceptable. The declaration means that the administration is laying

claim that the U.S. is in an active armed conflict, which would give the President extraordinary wartime powers. This dovetails with the September 17th demand of DHS that the media and the far less left must stop the demonization of President Trump, his supporters, and DHS law enforcement. It also supports Trump's warning to military leaders on Tuesday that were under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy, followed by complaints that Venezuela emptied its prison population into our country and a vow to straighten out the cities run by the radical left Democrats. That assault is underway now, not only through raids like the one in Chicago on Tuesday, but also by administration figures who are using the government shutdown to hurt Democrats and

their constituencies. Independent journalist Marissa Cabus reported this morning that the Department of Education changed out-of-office email replies for furloughed employees from generic messages to one's blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. Leah Figer and Victoria Elliott of Wired reported that when employees changed their out-of-office responses back to neutral language, the message changed back to blaming the Democrats. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell

vote has vowed to cut $26 billion from projects in New York City that Congress approved, despite the illegality of such impoundments, and has vowed to some slash the federal government, again without a lawful basis for such cuts. A shutdown gives vote no more legal authority than he ever had. Jordane Carney of Politico reports that even Republicans are concerned about the damage vote is doing to their own constituents as he attempts to weaponize the government against Democrats. But as Carney reports, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican of South

Dakota, says the Republicans have no control over what vote might do. The nation's rapid advance toward authoritarianism is one story right now, but there is another. The administration is rotting from inside. Josh Marshall at Talking Points memo reports that the groundwork required for the mass layoffs vote has threatened is not apparent, suggesting the administration is trying to project power it does not have. The Republicans are trying to pin the blame for the shutdown on the Democrats, but Trump is apparently so unstable he is hurting their cause. The Democrats are insisting they will not be complicit in slashing through Americans' health care. The law the Republicans

passed in July, the one they call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, extended tax cuts for the wealthy in corporations, but permitted the premium tax credits that subsidized the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, or Obamacare, to expire at the end of 2025, and people are already seeing dramatic increases in their health care premiums. On Tuesday, after his 70-minute incoherent speech to the nation's top military leaders, Trump proved Democrats' point when he told White House reporters that the administration intends to use the shutdown to cut programs the American people want, including ones that give them access to medical care. Trump said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for Democrats and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people

out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like. And you all know Russell vote, he's become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn't do any other way. So they're taking a risk by having a shutdown because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people out. Then, as if recognizing that he had just proved the Democrats' point, he added a non-sequitur. We don't want to do that, but we don't want fraud, waste, and abuse, and you know we're cutting that. Trump reiterated his support for votes program today, posting, I have a meeting today with Russ Vote, he of Project 2025 fame, to determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political

scam, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can't believe the radical left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. This is another unforced error, with Trump tying himself to Project 2025 after assuring voters before the 2024 election that he had nothing to do with it and knew nothing about it. An NBC news poll from late September 2024 showed that voters who knew about Project 2025 hated it. Only 4% of voters said they liked the plan. It was unpopular even among voters identifying as MAGA Republicans. Only 9% of them liked it.

As the administration has put Project 2025 into place, it's unlikely people like it more than they did before. Government agencies are not Democrat agencies. They are agencies that provide services and protections for all Americans. Americans. Cuts to them have been widely unpopular. Yesterday, the day after Trump's 70-minute rambling talk in front of the nation's top military leaders, Representative Madeline Dean, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana. A camera caught the exchange. Dean said, The president is unhinged. He is unwell.

Johnson answered, a lot of folks on your side are too. I don't control him. Dean said, Oh my God, please. That performance in front of the generals? Johnson replied, I didn't see it. Dean said, that is so dangerous. You know I serve on foreign affairs and appropriations. This is a collision of those two things. Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a president who is unwell. Johnson answered, I just left the Speaker's apartment. Trump has been posting on social media often since Tuesday, but has not appeared in public. Vice President J.D. Vance took the White House press briefing today to answer questions about the government shutdown.

Letters from an American was written. Written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Mawes.