It Ain't Just About Trump

Hey Friends,

On Thursday, Americans all across the country showed up. In over 1,500 cities and towns, folks took to the streets for what were called the “Good Trouble Lives On” protests—so named to honor the late John Lewis, the civil rights legend who reminded us that sometimes we need to get into some trouble to make a difference. The right kind of trouble. Good trouble.

These protests weren’t just about honoring Lewis’s legacy—though that alone is worth marching for. They were a loud, clear, nationwide rebuke of Donald Trump and what his administration is doing to this country right now. But not just Trump. Over the past two weeks, the Republican-majority Congress slashed billions in funding for healthcare, food assistance, and services that support veterans, seniors, and school kids. MAGA has metastasized throughout the GOP.

But on Thursday, Americans once again said, “Enough.” Enough of the attacks on immigrants, on the poor, on basic civil rights. Enough of the lies. Enough of the fear. People came together peacefully, with purpose, to say that we’re not going to stand by while Trump dismantles everything we’ve fought for. Civil rights. Equal opportunity. The basic promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve a fair shot.

John Lewis believed in that promise. He risked his life for it. And now it’s on us to carry that forward—to keep making good trouble. Because the fight for freedom and justice didn’t end in the 1960s, and it sure as hell isn’t over today.

So here’s the truth: MAGA may have power right now. But we’ve got people. We’ve got conviction. And we’ve got our voices. Let’s keep using them.

Enjoy your weekend,
Joe

In Today’s Issue

• The Social Briefing: Heroes of the Week

• Good Reads for This Week

• What Can You Do?

• The Social Share

• The Social Soundboard

This Week

• This Week

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Amid all the bad, awful, dumb, stupid, absurd, insane, sickening, despicable, embarrassing, irresponsible, demoralizing, infuriating, outrageous, terrible, horrible, Constitution-defying news of the past week, we have to acknowledge the heroes among us. The list is growing, as more and more of us are standing up to the tyrant. Courage is infectious. Be brave!

• TEXAS FLOOD RESCUERS. There was the incredibly brave young man who saved 165 people (and a few stuffed animals) at Camp Mystic. The young women who saved lives through their calm resourcefulness and age-defying leadership. And so many more who stepped up in the face of tragedy. God bless them all.

• ADAM BOYD. Adam Boyd, a government attorney, resigned in protest of the shift in ICE’s mission from safeguarding the nation to chasing deportation numbers. Boyd said he felt he “had to make a moral decision” to leave after watching the agency’s priorities change. “It became a contest of how many deportations could be reported to Stephen Miller by December,” he added.

• MICCOSUKEE TRIBE. The Miccosukee Tribe in Florida has joined with several nonprofits to sue the state and federal governments over the migrant detention facility “Alligator Alcatraz.” The tribe makes their home in the Everglades, where the hastily assembled facility is located. “The Miccosukee Tribe is committed to ensuring that our ancestral lands in Big Cypress will not become a permanent detention facility,” Talbert Cypress, the Miccosukee chairman, said in a statement.

• HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Harvard announced this week that it has created new scholarships for at least 50 military veterans and public servants to earn master's degrees at its Kennedy School of Government. Under the American Service Fellowship program, students will receive $100,000 to cover tuition, fees, and an additional stipend. The school plans to recruit for the one-year master's degree program in all 50 states, with classwork beginning in fall 2026.

• HOUSE DEMOCRATS. Last week, in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Democrats hosted a science fair for scientists whose grants were canceled by the Trump Administration. Sadly, their research will go unfinished.

• HONORABLE MENTION. No one who supports Donald Trump is a hero. Period. But when a Republican shows some spine, it should be recognized. Kudos to Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, the only House Republican to vote against both the big ugly bill and this week’s DOGE bill defunding foreign aid and public media.

Did we miss anyone? Send your heroes our way!

Good Reads for This Week

• The Emergency Ethics of Democratic Defense: Gavin Newsom Is Right to Fight Fire with Fire —Notes from the Circus

• The Purge, the Threats, and the Price: Trump’s Regime Just Declared War on Diplomacy, Decency, and Democracy —We the People United!

• JD Vance’s Un-American Strawmen —The Dispatch

• The American Police State Is Here —The xxxxxx

• The Escalation of Hate Is Coming —America, America

• You Voted for This —The Banter Newsletter

• Why Do So Many People Think That Trump Is Good? —The Atlantic

• A Massive Trump Scandal. Minuscule Media Attention. —Popular Information

• It’s Not Business, It’s Personal —The Dispatch

• How Trump Primed His Base to Turn Against Him —The Atlantic

• WATCH: We Need to Talk About Jeffrey Epstein —The Schiff Notes

What Can You Do?

JOIN THE #NOKINGS COMMUNITY! Let’s build a community of Americans who rally around and identify with this basic truth: we don’t have kings in America. I’ve changed all my profile pictures to #NOKINGS, and you can too. Grab a #NOKINGS graphic at www.oneflaginitiative.org for instructions on how to change your profile pics.

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#NOKINGS merchandise sales directly support Conversations with Joe, my personal effort to restore the social contract across America.

From Social Contract reader Steven McCormick:

Carpinteria, CA is a small peaceful town of 12,500 people that depends on agriculture and tourism. My wife and I lived there for 20 years. It is a diverse community of warm-hearted families. We talked to friends who still live there. People are scared.

I am also hoping that you can bring attention to this situation. There are four children being held in Bellingham, WA. CBP goons kidnapped four children all under the age of 10. All four children have been held for two weeks with no representation or charges. THEY ARE ALL U.S. CITIZENS.

From Social Contract reader Jill Baer:

• ICE Agents Detain Landscaper Inside Ontario Surgical Center —ABC7

Other Links:

• Why the ICE Raids Feel So Intrusive —The Los Angeles Times

• Inside ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ Detainees Report Relentless Mosquitoes, Limited Water —The Washington Post

Here’s what some of you are thinking about this week…

It is not so much that Epstein himself was a criminal as it is that 1,000 (more or less) young girls were victims because of him.

When I think about what their experience must have been, I never want another child in that situation. The cruelty. The inhumanity. The trauma and scars.

Sound like anyone else we all know?

The bad guys have to be stopped. —Patty Miller

Hey Joe,

I am a Vietnam vet, and have hated Trump since his 'Cadet Bone Spur' days. He is a despicable human, and he surrounds himself with equally damaged people.

I have lived my 77+ years watching the money and watching those who covet wealth more than anything else.

So while all your subject matter on the podcast is very important, let us not forget how the man is setting himself up with laws that favor the rich. He is NOT supposed to personally profit from his office, but a quick look will tell you he is doing just that. Let’s also not forget his sons and daughter, who are all personally benefitting from the way the government is run.

I used to be proud to be called an AMERICAN...now, along with a great sadness, I am ashamed of the 'New America’. —Steve Gibbs

Thank you for being loud and in the face of Democrats! Every single day I wake up and think WTF?! I'm a 66-year-old woman and never, ever, thought (until the last several years) that things would get this crazy. I don't even know what to do about it because talking to people (who want me to shut up about this stuff), contacting my representatives here AZ, etc., just isn't doing anything.

I am a tiny blue speck in a red part of Arizona. A very small ranching community. Many of these people talk about violence against anyone not realizing that “This is Trump Country.” It is a living nightmare every single day. I live only 20 miles from the border. The people who are native to this area are families that have been here since before Arizona was even a state.

I am non-Hispanic, but my husband and his family are native to southern AZ and have been here since before it was a state. I have concerns for my in-laws, some of whom look Mexican. I can't help but worry that ICE could just pick up some of them with no care that they have always been U.S. citizens.

My paternal side of my family has been in this country since they arrived with the Plymouth Colony, and my 5th great-grandfather was a lieutenant in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. I feel like I have the DNA of these people raging in my blood.

Sorry to be so long-winded here. Current events are driving me nuts. Thanks for being loud and trying to get people to pay attention to what is actually important. —Susan Moreno

Hi Joe. First, let me just say that I appreciate what you do as well as your outspokenness and courage. We need more people like you (a whole lot more). BTW, I’m a lifelong liberal Democrat!

I wanted to share a few thoughts about your use of “this is not who we are”—because I respectfully disagree with you. (I know you recently veered to “this must not be who we are,” which perhaps comes a wee bit closer to my thinking.)

Joe, 77 million Americans KNOWINGLY voted for a convicted felon, sexual offender, insurrectionist, racist, bully, xenophobe, etc. In essence, they also voted for Project 2025, the playbook that’s been guiding the Trump crew. And MANY of those same people are still cheering for the cruelty, the bigotry, the authoritarianism. MAGA-ism *IS* who they are! Either that, or they were too ignorant to understand what they were voting for—and that ain’t good either! Adults (even kids) need to be accountable for our decisions and actions. I don’t buy into this crap that they were duped by Trump. Gimme a break. Every MAGA voter (including those who are now crying “I didn’t vote for this") needs to understand that they've actually played a key role in what’s now occurring.

It’s not a question of punishment. What I’m saying is essential is a call to consciousness and conscience. Think Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or at least the spirit of that endeavor. We have to call upon people to raise their level of awareness, take responsibility for helping to put an authoritarian into office, and make more enlightened decisions in the future. Denialism never works. It simply leads to the same pattern of poor decision-making (and sadly, Americans are often quite good at making excuses rather than taking responsibility).

There’s room for everyone to join the fight against authoritarianism and bigotry. But in all candor, I don’t have it in me to forgive any MAGA voter unless and until they acknowledge and apologize for their role in the cruelty, their role in the dramatic decline of our democracy.

And that’s my two cents! Thanks again. —Robin Swett

Hey Joe,

We’ve had concentration camps in America for a very long time. We just call them “reservations.” We took the natives of this land, destroyed their means of survival, and forced them onto the worst land we could find until we discovered minerals and oil on the land, so we moved them again. Those reservations are nothing more than concentration camps, and I say this as a white guy.

Admittedly, Alligator Auschwitz is worse and a disgusting disgrace, but we've had concentration camps here for a very long time. —Greatest American Zero

The presence of ICE in McArthur Park in L.A. was a dress rehearsal for October and November 2026. The surge in their budget makes it possible for the declaration of a state emergency prior to the election. —Don Burnau

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