Letters from an American - September 18, 2025

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

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September 18th, 2025. Since he took office in 2017, President Donald J. Trump has worked hard to convince Americans that they are divided into two partisan camps, Republicans, whom he defines as those people loyal to him, and Democrats, a group made up of everyone else. In his first term, when actual Republicans, some of whom he appointed himself, challenged him. He simply redefined them as Democrats. In his telling, major figures in the investigation

of the 2016 Trump Campaign's Association with Russian Operatives, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his staff, FBI Director James Comey, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, were all Democrats. In 2020, when Utah Senator Mitt Romney voted to convict Trump on one of the charges on which the House impeached him, Trump tweeted a video calling him a Democrat's secret asset who tried to infiltrate Trump's administration while posing as a Republican. Romney was the Republican Party's

2012 presidential nominee. In Trump's worldview, it appears, those who oppose him, those he calls Democrats, are anti-American and dangerous. In his first term, he insisted those people were organized as Antifa for anti-fascist. In summer 2020, in the midst of protests after the murder of George Floyd, Trump threatened to designate Antifa as a major terrorist organization. When FBI director Chris Ray, whom Trump appointed himself, said Antifa is an ideology, not an organization, Trump posted, I look at them as a bunch of well-funded anarchists and thugs who are protected because the Comey, inspired FBI is simply unable or unwilling to find their funding source and allows them to get away with murder. Law and order. Dividing a population into friends and enemies is a tool of authoritarian

clearly articulated by Nazi political theorist Carl Schmidt, who is enjoying a burst of popularity right now in the American right wing. Aga figures have pushed the idea that the murder of right wing activist Charlie Kirk last week, apparently by a lone gunman, could be blamed on Democrats or them. Last night, after news broke that ABC was suspending comedian Jimmy Kimmel's television show, the Trump administration announced it was putting the teeth of the government into this division of the world. His social media account posted, I am pleased to inform our many USA patriots that I am designating Antifa, a sick, dangerous, radical left disaster as a major terrorist organization. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding Antifa be thoroughly investigated

in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Legal experts point out that government officials can designate foreign terrorist organizations, but that there is no legal ground. for designating any domestic organization, a terrorist organization, especially in light of the First Amendment that protects free speech and the right of Americans to assemble peacefully. Even if the designation can't actually be made, though, the rhetorical division of the country into Americans and Antifa

serves to divide the country into friends and enemies. But the uproar over the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel brought to light a different, far more American, division in this country. Americans could divide along partisan lines so long as the guardrails of a secular, evidenced-based liberal democracy remained in place. But as the Trump administration smashes through those guidelines, it appears that rather than being divided along partisan lines, Americans are beginning to realign as we the people against a wannabe authoritarian. Yesterday, Republican political strategist Carl Rove, who was a key member of President George

W. Bush's administration, pushed back against the Friends and Enemies distinction in the Wall Street Journal. No, he wrote, Charlie Kirk wasn't killed by them. They didn't pull the trigger. One person did, apparently a young man driven by impulse and a terrible hate. If there were a they involved, law enforcement. would find them and the justice system would hold them accountable. But he and him are the correct pronouns for this horrendous act. Using Charlie's murder to justify retaliation against

political rivals is wrong and dangerous. It will further divide and embitter our country. No good thing will come of it. As Trump's popularity continues to plummet, the economist today has his approval rating at negative 17 percent, down 2.6 points since last week. It's becoming clearer every day that opposition to the president is not partisan. Yesterday, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Menares, testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, where she explained that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is operating, according to his ideology, without regard for science. Kennedy fired her after she refused to rubber stamp his plans to

change the childhood vaccination schedule without research supporting such a change. Trump appointed Menares. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican of Louisiana, warned yesterday, against the panelists Kennedy appointed to the advisory committee on immunization practices after he purged the panel, making changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. schedule. Not only Cassidy, but also insurance companies, appear to have little confidence in the decision of Kennedy's panel. They say they will disregard any changes and continue covering the cost of vaccines, a clear sign they consider vaccines beneficial to helping people stay healthy. John Yu, the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President George W. Bush, who wrote

the legal justification for torture during the war on terror, pushed back on the extreme powers Trump is claiming to kill those he labels terrorists. There has to be a line between crime and war, you said. We can't just consider anything

that harms the country to be a matter for the military, because that could potentially include every crime. Some voices on the right, who in the past were protected by the laws and norms of democracy, are now calling out its loss. Last night, after the administration pressured ABC to suspend Kimmel's show,

right-wing media host Tucker Carlson explained why a government must not be able to limit speech. You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we're seeing in the aftermath of his murder, won't be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And trust me, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that, ever. And there never will be, because if they can tell you what to say, they're telling you what to think. There's nothing they can't do to you because they don't consider you human. They don't believe you have a soul. A human being with a soul, a free man, has a right to say what he believes, not to hurt other people, but to express his views.

Today, agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested New York City comptroller Brad Lander and public advocate Jumane Williams, along with 10 other city and state elected officials near federal immigration courts when they tried to conduct oversight of people detained by immigration and customs enforcement in the building. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead of Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.