Letters from an American - September 25, 2025

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

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September 25th, 2025. Today, with the popularity of President Donald J. Trump and his administration dropping, Trump's disastrous performance at the United Nations, the return of comedian Jimmy Kimmel to the airwaves, and the Tuesday's election in Arizona of Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva, who will provide the final signal. on a discharge petition to demand a floor vote in the House over releasing all the government files on convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the administration appears to be making a dramatic push to seize complete control of the government. Last night, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vote tried to jam the Democrats into passing the Republicans' continuing resolution to fund the government.

officials leaked a memo to Politico, Punch Bowl News, and Axios, publications that focus on events concerning Capitol Hill, saying that if the Democrats refuse to pass the Republicans' measure, the administration will try to fire, rather than furlough, large numbers of federal employees. Such a move would be challenged in the courts, and the government has been forced to rehire many of the people it forced out earlier this year, after those firings left agencies badly understaffed.

But the threat is not idle. Vote is a Christian nationalist who has called for a radical constitutionalism that demolishes the modern American state and replaces it with a powerful executive. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat of New York, responded, listen, Ross, you are a malignant political hack. We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings. Get lost. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said in a statement, Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one, not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court, or the administration will end up hiring the

workers back just like they did as recently as today. Trump appears focused on September 30th when the government funding crisis will hit and the days after it. Although courts have ruled that he does not have the power to impose tariffs willy-nilly, today Trump announced new tariffs of 100% on pharmaceuticals, 50% on kitchen and bathroom cabinets, 30% on upholstered furniture, and 25% on heavy, big, trucks beginning on October 1st. On social media, he claimed such tariffs were necessary for national security and other reasons. Today, James Laporta of CBS News reported that the National Archives and Records Administration improperly released Democratic Representative Mikey Sherrill's full military records to an ally of her Republican opponent, Jack Chittarelli, in the New Jersey

governor's race. The two candidates are tied and Chittarelli appears to be trying to link Cheryl to the 1994 Naval Academy cheating scandal involving more than 100 midshipmen. Cheryl had an unblemished career in the Navy and as a midshipman, Laporta notes. She did not turn in her cheating classmates, but she was never accused of cheating herself. The unredacted release of Cheryl's records appears to violate the 1974 privacy. Act. Cheryl said that Jack Chittarelli and the Trump administration are illegally weaponizing my records for political gain is a violation of anyone who has ever served our country. No veteran's record is safe. While the National Archives maintained the release was a mistake and apologized for it, the administration's influence in the Department of Justice tonight could not be

explained away. Days after Trump demanded that the Department of of justice move now to prosecute those he perceives to be his enemies, a federal grand jury has indicted former FBI director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and obstructing an investigation. Comey was an early casualty of Trump's first administration, fired after he refused to kill the FBI investigation of the ties between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian operatives. Over last weekend, Trump exploded at then-acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Eric Siebert, a career prosecutor. After Seabert concluded, there was not enough evidence of a crime to charge Comey for allegedly lying to Congress or New York Attorney General Letitia James

for alleged mortgage fraud. On Monday, Trump replaced Seabert with White House aid and Trump's former personal lawyer, Lindsay Halligan. And yesterday, three sources told Ken Delanian and Carol Lening of MSNBC that they expected Halligan to try to get a grand jury to indict Comey before the five-year statute of limitations on lying to Congress runs out next Tuesday. Tonight, the DOJ delivered an indictment against Comey. My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, Comey said tonight in a video. But we will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either.

Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of the tyrant, and she's right. But I'm not afraid, and I hope you're not either. I hope instead you are engaged. You are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system. I'm innocent, so let's have a trial and keep the faith. The DOJ was busy today. It also sued six states, California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania

to force them to hand over their voter rolls and information identifying those voters. Matt Cohen, of Democracy Docket, notes that state officials from both Democratic and Republican governments have questioned why the government wants that information. This lawsuit comes after a nearly identical lawsuit the DOJ filed last week against Maine and Oregon. Democratic Secretary of State Tobias Reed of Oregon called the lawsuits an attempt by President Donald Trump to use the DOJ to go after his political opponents and undermine our elections. Tara Kopp, Dan Lamoth, Alex Horton, Ellen Nakashima, and Noah Robertson of the Washington, Post reported today that Defense Secretary Pete Hegesith has ordered about 800 of the military's

top generals and admirals, along with their senior enlisted advisors, to come to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia next week. Such a demand is highly unusual, and no one knows why Hegseth has made it. In the bulwark, Mark Hurtling, who was commander of U.S. Army Europe from 2011 to 2012 noted that the demand is baffling and the cost will be staggering. Instead of using the Pentagon's secure video teleconferencing system, the personnel will require flights and accommodations that will cost millions, while the lost focus and readiness will affect their mission. Hurtling points out that adversaries and allies are watching. This sudden, global, emergency recall of America's top brass is a flashing red light to them. Something must be wrong inside

the Pentagon. Both Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance tried to downplay the meeting. Why is that such a big deal? Trump asked reporters. Vance incorrectly said the meeting is not particularly unusual and said, I think it's odd that you guys have made it into such a big story. This evening, Trump signed a memorandum, targeting activists and nonprofits as part of what he called a terror network that he claims is fueling violence, especially against immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE agents. He and his allies claim that radical left Democrats or radical left terrorists are behind that violence. Although, as scholar of authoritarianism, Timothy Snyder, notes, the majority of political violence in the U.S. comes from the right.

Titled, Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence, the memo alleges that common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity, support for the overthrow of the United States government, extremism on migration, race, and gender, and hostility towards those who hold traditional American values on family, religion, and morality. The document gives law enforcement wide latitude to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in

behavior the administration opposes, as well as non-profit organizations that fund them. It also orders law enforcement to question and interrogate people regarding the entity or individual organizing such actions and any related financial sponsorship of those actions prior to adjudication or initiation of a plea agreement. Former federal prosecutor Daniel Richmond, who teaches at Columbia Law School, told Robert Tate and Aram Rauston of The Guardian that an executive order cannot create new crimes. And Timothy Snyder noted that the memo nonetheless undoes the basic tradition of American liberty and law, which is that we are individuals to be judged on the basis of what we do

as such. This memo, quite to the contrary, begins from the premise that the world is governed by mysterious invisible entities to which individuals can be arbitrarily associated by the power of the government, thereby making those individuals guilty and subject to prosecution and punishment. It makes responsibility collective, thus enabling the government to target everybody. The groups that will be targeted will be groups that are concerned with things like counting the votes, human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. All this, said Snyder, is both a big lie and a cliché. Authoritarians always say the country is facing an emergency and that their opponents are terrorists. It's a cliche to say there's a mysterious, bottomless organization that we have to chase

to the ends of the earth and break all the rules to find. That's what they always say. Snyder noted that Congress can pass laws to rule such behavior illegal. Courts can find actions illegal and protect victims. Commentators can describe reality, and citizens can say they don't want to be subject to an imagined emergency based on a big lie

that does away with the essence of American liberty and law. He concluded, this has been done before. It can be stopped. Letters from, 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.