Letters from an American - September 27, 2025

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

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September 27, 2025. Yesterday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released items from a third batch of documents associated with the criminal investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Republicans have been slow-walking the release of those files since news broke that they mentioned President Donald J. Trump, a close friend of Epstein during the years of his sex trafficking.

The batch of documents includes phone message logs, flight logs, and manifests, and Epstein's daily schedule. Those documents show that billionaire Peter Thiel, who financially supported Vice President J.D. Vance's Senate campaign, and Trump allies Steve Bannon, had scheduled meetings with Epstein. And they show that Elon Musk had a pending trip to Epstein's private island. Trump responded, hours later, by ordering his administration to declassify and release all government records related to Amelia Earhart. Earhart was an early American aviator, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. On July 2nd, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

Her disappearance in presumed death have fascinated people ever since. But these are not the files most Americans are seeking right now. Since yesterday, Trump has been active on social media. He has worn pregnant women in all caps. Don't use Tylenol unless absolutely necessary. Don't give Tylenol to your young child for virtually any reason. Break up the MMR shot into three totally separate shots, not mixed. Take chicken pea shot separately.

take hepatitis be shot at 12 years old or older, and importantly, take vaccines in five separate medical visits. Trump is not a doctor. His recommendations appear to come from the Secretary of Health and Human Services he appointed, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is neither a doctor nor a scientist. The danger of giving medical advice without expertise shows, among other things, the MMR, or measles, mumps, and rebella vaccine is not available in three separate shots. Trump has demanded that Microsoft fire its global affairs president, Lisa Monaco, who is Deputy Attorney General in the Biden administration, helped coordinate the response of the Department of Justice to the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

Trump posted on social media that Monaco is a menace to U.S. national security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States government. Trump has claimed the FBI placed 274 FBI agents into the crowd just prior to and during the January 6th hoax, probably acting as agitators and insurrectionists, noting that this is different from what director Christopher Ray stated over and over again. He went on. Christopher Ray, the then director of the FBI has some major explaining to do. That's two in a row

Comey and Ray who got caught lying. In fact, a report from the Department of Justice Inspector General shows that there were no undercover FBI agents at the January 6th riots. There were 26 confidential human sources who worked with the FBI during the events, but the inspector general found that none were authorized by the FBI

to enter the cap of, or a restricted area, or to otherwise break the law on January 6th, nor was any confidential human source directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6th. When people pointed out that Trump himself appointed Ray, he posted, For those who are interested and there aren't many of you, Christopher Ray was recommended to me by sloppy Chris Christie when Chris was in my good graces, which was a very long time ago. Trump posted a cartoon today of an angry version of himself telling a sad version of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, yet another Trump appointee, you're fired. Trump is eager to get rid of Powell who is

not lowering interest rates to pump up the economy as fast as Trump wants. Trump also posted, at the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Noem, I am directing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to provide all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland and any of our ice facilities under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing full force if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Zane Sparling, Fador Zarkin, and Zayem Sheikh of the Oregonian Oregon Live compiled a timeline of protests against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Building in Portland. They noted that the last arrest of protesters by Portland Police was on June 19th, bringing the total

to 25, and the last arrest by federal officers was on July 4th, bringing the total to 22. After a Labor Day protest downtown, more than 100 people marched to the ICE building and set up a makeshift guillotine. Federal officers responded with tear gas and pepper balls. On September 4th, the Fox News Channel aired a story about the Labor Day protests, but mixed in clips from 2020, showing protesters burning the base of the Thompson Elk Fountain, and a federal officer pepper spraying a protester. The next day, Trump said he was considering federal intervention. They've ruined that city, he said. It's like living in hell. On September 17th, Portland officials said ICE had violated its land use agreement

by holding detainees for longer than 12 hours, opening the door for the city to force ICE to move. Two days later, the Oregonian Oregon Live published a video of federal agents hitting nonviolent protesters and using chemical spray on them. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson called for a full investigation. Trump said people in Portland are out of control and crazy and vowed to stop that pretty soon. On September 22nd, the president signed an executive order designating Antifa as a major terrorist organization.

And three days later, he called demonstrators in Portland professional agitators and anarchists. The day after that, September 26th, yesterday, Democratic members of Oregon's congressional delegation, including Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Representative Suzanne Bonamichi, Maxine Dexter, and Andrea Salinas visited the ICE facility. They called out the violence against protesters and said they were not at all satisfied with the answers and the evasion they got from ICE agents about their treatment of detainees. In response to Trump's announcement

that he was directing Secretary Hegesith to send troops authorized to use full force to Portland, Senator Wyden, who has led the push to force the Treasury to turn over Epstein-related Treasury records of at least $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions to Senate investigators, posted a video of the ICE facility Trump claims is under siege.

There were no people there at all. My message to Donald Trump is this, Wyden posted, We don't need you here. Stay the hell out of our city. 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.