Letters from an American - September 19, 2025

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

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September 19th, 2025. Today, U.S. District Judge Stephen Mary Day threw out the $15 billion lawsuit President Donald J. Trump filed on September 15th against the New York Times for defamation. The judge, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, called the complaint, decidedly improper and impermissible and took Trump's lawyers to task for using a legal complaint as a public forum for abusive language.

Noting that the two defamation counts followed 80 pages of praise for Trump and allegations against the hopelessly compromised and tarnished gray lady, an old nickname for the New York Times, he set a 40-page limit on any amended complaint. The administration's pressure on ABC to fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel is very unpopular, as G. Eliot Morris of Strength and Numbers

notes, with people polled by YouGov on September 18th, seeing it as an attack on free speech. That unpopularity showed today when podcaster and Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, celebrated Kimmel's firing, but called the threat of Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to retaliate against ABC. unbelievably dangerous. Cruise called cars threats right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, Nice bar you have here. It'd be a shame if something happened to it. He explained, I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, we're going to decide what speech we like and what we don't, and we're going to threaten to take you

off the air if we don't like what you're saying. Democratic political strategist Simon Rosenberg noted that three new polls out this week show Trump's approval rating dropping and commented that voters don't like this dictator. A. P. Nork observed that Republicans are growing pessimistic about the direction of the country. While the share of all American adults who say the country is off track has increased 13 percentage points since June from 62% to 75%. The biggest change has been among Republicans. In June, 29% of Republicans were concerned about the direction of the country. Now that number is 51%. Most American adults think Trump has gone too far with his tariffs, his use of presidential power, and sending troops into U.S. cities. Democratic lawmakers this

week have reflected the growing opposition to Trump and his administration. Today, in the Contrarian, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker wrote that Trump's attacks on Chicago aren't really about stopping crime. Instead, Trump is creating chaos and destabilizing the country in order to erode our democratic institutions and cement his power. Pritzker warned that Trump has become increasingly brazen and deranged in his rhetoric and his actions, and that the things he is doing and saying are un-American. In contrast, Prisker held up as a model our collective Midwestern values of hard work, kindness, honesty, and caring for our neighbors, and urged people to be loud for America. Yesterday, Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat of California, spoke at the Center for American Progress.

He, too, outlined the administration's attacks on the rule of law and blamed billionaires patting their stock portfolios and buying up politicians, self-interested CEOs cynically dialing up the outrage and disinformation on their social media platforms, and politicians who saw more value in stoking grievance than solving problems for creating the conditions that ushered Trump into the presidency. Schiff called for restoring American democracy through legislation, litigation, and mobilization. He noted that Democrats have just introduced a package of reforms to put into law the norms Trump has violated. Democrats have also introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn

the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United versus Federal Election Commission decision, permitting unlimited corporate money to flow into elections. While this legislation almost certainly won't pass in a Republican-dominated Congress, he noted, it would force a debate. He also noted that Democrats are conducting oversight, demanding accountability for wrongdoing and attacks on the rule of law, and are creating a record.

The most powerful check on Trump's authoritarianism is not Congress, it is not the courts, it is the American people. And that was the rallying cry of Representative Jason Crow, a Democrat of Colorado, in Congress yesterday. Crow, who entered Congress in 2019, is a former Army Ranger who completed three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 75th Ranger Regiment. In his speech, Crow warned that Trump is tearing down the walls of our democracy and called out some of our most elite and powerful individuals and institutions for failing to defend our democracy.

He noted that some of our nation's most powerful law firms have bent the knee. Some of our finest universities are buckling. Some of the most powerful CEOs have capitulated. And some of the largest media companies are simply surrendering. If those with power and influence want to sell off our rights and freedoms to enrich themselves, then Americans should make it clear that cowardice and greed will fail them, he said. not shop at your stores. We will not tune into your TV and radio stations. We will not send our kids and our money to your universities or use your services if you are going to enable

our slide to authoritarianism. Crow contrasted those elite failures with the courage we've seen from everyday citizens. Coach Newman Wilder, who stood up to ice agents when they started interrogating kids on a baseball diamond in Harlem. A schoolteacher in Twisp, Washington, who joins protests against cuts to Medicaid and snap every Saturday because, she says, democracy only works if we work it. Massive demonstrations across the nation in April. Parents in Washington, D.C., patrolling schoolyards

to protect the rights of students and other parents as ICE agents are raiding and the National Guard is on the streets. journalists around the country reporting the truth despite threats to them and their family. There is courage everywhere we look, Crow said. We have not yet lost our power. He continued, now is the time for us to stand with all those defending democracy. Defending free speech, defending freedom of religion, defending due process, defending the rule of law, defending the right of schoolchildren to learn without fear of being shot,

defending government of the people, by the people, and for the people. As a young paratrooper, leading an infantry platoon in the invasion of Iraq, he said, he was responsible for young men, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, from the north, from the south, east, and west, from farm. arms and from cities, rich and poor. When I think of America, I still think of those young paratroopers, how we came together despite our differences. We served together. We fought together. We found great strength in one another. That is America. There's a tradition in the paratroopers, he said, that the leader of the unit jumps out of the plane first, and then

the others follow. He concluded, I'm ready to jump. 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.