He Doesn’t Know What TF He’s Doing

Before we get into what’s happening this week, I wanted to bring your attention to an X/Twitter post from Will Stancil that I think deserves to be read and understood far and wide. I speak with regular folks every day from across the political spectrum, and what Will describes here is one of the biggest obstacles I encounter, regardless of party or ideology. The way I see it, figuring our way out of this is the first step to renewing our social contract in America. Here’s Will’s post:

I am increasingly convinced that the thing that has driven politics insane is the growing ability of people to find ways to validate their beliefs, no matter how incorrect and irrational. It started in right-wing media but has become central to all political discussion.

Anyone can believe whatever they like and for the most part will never be confronted or challenged. Instead they’re likely to be funneled into or self-select into a social environment where those views are supported, treated as obvious, and new facts are invented to support them.

You are encouraged to lie to yourself, and endless resources will be provided to ensure that you can. Challenging other people’s false beliefs is deemed elitist. As a result everyone’s politics ends up mirroring whatever assumptions or resentments are lurking in their heart.

Whatever facts need to be true for you to feel strong or triumphant, or to justify violence or contempt towards whichever groups you find annoying, or to rationalize obedience to your leader of choice—you will be presented with countless opportunities to believe those facts.

The deranged left, the deranged right, the increasingly reactionary center—this is what they all have in common. Their beliefs are impossible to challenge because they can take refuge in so many communities and channels explicitly designed to backstop those beliefs.

We have invented a world where it is increasingly difficult to be wrong and know you are wrong, and the consequence is political madness.

How true that is. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Write me and let me know.

Now let’s take a closer look at this week’s madness in the Social Briefing below. Then let’s shift gears and talk voting with a young man from Philadelphia with a special perspective on elections in America. Check out today’s Social Spotlight for more.

In Today’s Issue

• The Social Briefing (skip this if you don’t want to read about Trump!)

• The Social Spotlight: A Conversation with Rotimi Adeoye

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‘THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THE F*CK THEY’RE DOING.’ Donald Trump may have been referring to Israel and Iran, but he should have been talking about himself. That was exactly the problem with the ceasefire he claims to have brokered: you can’t believe a word he says, because he lies as he breathes. He’s a reckless, dangerous, and frankly lazy pathological liar, surrounded by incompetent sycophants and living in a fantasy world of his own making—one in which he can bring about peace in the Middle East by tweet.

The very night of the U.S. attack on Iran, he claimed Iran’s nuclear facilities were “totally obliterated” before he could’ve possibly known that—because facts don’t matter to him. Turns out, the strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, meaning Iran’s nuclear program was only set back a few months. Iran remains the Middle East’s greatest source of terror, but Trump can’t be trusted with a single classified detail. The Pentagon knows this. Our allies know this. Now we just need the rest of America to wake up.

GRANDPA REALLY SHOULDN’T BE DRIVING ANYMORE. Could someone right now write a book about Trump’s cognitive decline and how the people around him know about it but are covering it up? Could someone please write that book right now, instead of waiting four years? Need sources? Just take a look at his Truth Social feed. It’s all over the place. One minute he’s talking about regime change and “MIGA,” next he’s congratulating everyone on a ceasefire no one else knew anything about, now he’s tweeting out a “Bomb Iran” video. And let’s not forget that he’s taken to “signing” his social media posts. Paging Jake Tapper.

THIS IS NOT WHO WE ARE. Meanwhile, ICE is continuing its campaign of fear across the country. This is what happens when cruelty becomes policy. The headlines speak for themselves…

• Father of three Marines punched in head, detained by ICE in California

• Devastated Marine Corps Veteran Adrian Clouatre slams ‘ploy’ used in his wife’s ICE arrest

• ‘They’re taking Shirly’: An Army Sergeant thought his family was safe. Then, ICE deported his wife

• ICE holding a record 59,000 immigrant detainees, nearly half with no criminal record, internal data show

• ICE is using no-bid contracts, boosting big firms, to get more detention beds

• Judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release from jail before trial, but ICE plans to detain him

• Trump administration ordered to return wrongly deported man from El Salvador

• Supreme Court allows Trump to remove migrants to South Sudan and other turmoil-filled countries

Immigration is such a great thing for this country. Immigrants add so much to American life and to our economy. We need to greatly expand the number of immigrants we take in every year. And we need to make it a hell of a lot easier and faster for immigrants to become American citizens. Yes, deport criminals. But don’t blame migrants who are just trying to build a decent life here for this mess. Hold accountable the lawmakers who’ve given us this shitty system.

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID. If the fascism isn’t enough for some people, maybe the economy is. Thanks to Trump’s tariffs, the Fed won’t reduce its key interest rate until we “learn more about the likely course of the economy,” according to Chair Jerome Powell. That decision was in direct opposition to Trump’s calls for immediate cuts. Ahead of Powell’s hearing with the House Financial Services Committee, Trump lashed out at him, saying, “I hope Congress really works this very dumb, hardheaded person, over. We will be paying for his incompetence for many years to come.” Talk about projection.

JD THE JERK. When JD Vance recently called Sen. Alex Padilla, with whom he served in the Senate, “Jose Padilla,” it was clearly on purpose. Why? Because casual disrespect is the point. Cruelty is the point. Bigotry is the point. Indifference is the point. Being an asshole is the point. It all sells with JD’s base. And JD knows that. So JD will dutifully be an ass. But one of his own just called him out. Rep. Thomas Massie is as conservative as they come. Yet recently, he’s been feuding with Trump over the Iran bombings, which he says were unconstitutional, and his opposition to Trump’s debt-laden budget bill. In response to a tweet by Vance saying, “I wonder if other VPs had as much excitement as I do,” Massie replied, “Ask Mike Pence about his last month.” Hmm, maybe the MAGA damn really is breaking? Let’s hope more Americans defy Will Stancil’s theory.

Spotlight on Rotimi Adeoye

My “face-to-face conversations” tour continues this week in Philly with Rotimi Adeoye, a Black voting rights advocate who’s accomplished a lot in his young life. He’s a political writer who has published stories on various topics, including immigration, American history, voting rights, and the Constitution. He’s also an advisor for the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project. He’s worked on Capitol Hill as a Press Secretary and Speechwriter to former Congressman Dan Kildee, Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And he worked as an aide to former Senator Bob Casey and a battleground-state volunteer on the Obama campaign in 2012. He’s an impressive guy.

A lot of Americans are frustrated with voting right now. Some feel like their vote doesn’t matter. Some are angry at how hard it’s become just to cast a ballot. And some have checked out altogether. Rotimi and I talked honestly about all of it—what’s broken, why it matters, and how we fix it. We also talk about something bigger: what it really means to be civically engaged. Because voting is just one part of it, and if we want to save this democracy, we’ve all got to show up.

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