Drug Wars
Week of August 29-September 4, 2025
Welcome to TRACKING THE CRISIS, a weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political, and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.
TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions
Trump revives Latin American drug war with strike on Venezuelan ‘drug boat,’ eyeing regime change against Maduro, as Rubio goes to Ecuador and Mexico. As Trump prepares to sign an executive order to rename the Department of Defense to the ‘Department of War’, the Trump Administration is overtly reviving military intervention in Latin America under the premise of fighting drug traffickers, a strategy that even those who backed the original War on Drugs admit has been a miserable failure. Last week, the Trump Administration deployed U.S. warships to the southern Caribbean near the coast of Venezuela in order to ‘address threats from Latin American drug cartels’. The deployment was soundly denounced by the Bolivarian Alliance of 11 Latin American and Caribbean states as a “direct attack on Venezuela’s independence” and a “threat to the stability and self-determination” of all peoples in the region, a statement echoed by China’s Foreign Ministry, which stated its opposition to “the use or threat of use of force in international relations,” denouncing interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs “under any pretext.” On Tuesday, September 2, Trump announced that the United States had carried out a military strike, killing 11 people, on what he alleged was a drug-carrying boat tied to the Tren de Agua gang while presenting no legal authority or justifying evidence to back the claim; and on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Hegseth called the strike just the start of a new military campaign against Venezuelan cartels. Marco Rubio has previously accused Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro of leading the drug cartels without evidence; and in May, top intelligence officials were ousted over a report that found Maduro’s involvement ‘highly unlikely’. Many observers point to regime change as the ultimate objective in Venezuela, a pursuit long desired by Trump and Rubio and all but confirmed by an anonymous Pentagon official who likened the military offensive to “Noriega part 2”. Maduro said on Monday that the United States was “pointing 1,200 missiles” at Venezuela in the “greatest threat to the continent in 100 years” and declared that Venezuela was at “maximum preparedness” for an armed response to strikes against his country, warning Trump that Rubio “wants to stain your hands with blood.” Late Thursday, a pair of Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets were spotted flying over a U.S. aircraft carrier in Caribbean international waters. Experts, including Noriega’s former prosecutor and neoconservatives who have traditionally supported interventionism in the region, denounced the extrajudicial killings as an ‘act of war’ of dubious legality as the Trump Administration did not notify Congress of its military plans ahead of the strike; one former Pentagon analyst and Special Forces veteran warned of ‘mission creep’ that could have domestic repercussions given Trump’s military occupation of U.S. cities. This week Rubio announced that the U.S. and Mexico were ‘strengthening’ security collaborations to target cartels transporting drugs over the southern border, and designated two Ecuadorian gangs as foreign terrorist groups which he said brought “all sorts of options” for a crackdown; the U.S. and Panama are also seeking U.N. authorization to deploy a strike force to Haiti with the power to detain gang members.
China hosts Putin, Modi and Global South leaders for SCO summit and military parade commemorating WWII anniversary, signaling a new geopolitical order as post-war consensus crumbles. Eighty years after the end of World War II, Chinese president Xi Jinping cautioned that the world is “again faced with the choice of peace or war” as China hosted more than 20 non-Western leaders for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization this week in a show of unity that posed a challenge to the U.S. dominance that had defined the post-war geopolitical consensus, demonstrating a shift towards a new multi-polar world order. On Monday, September 1, Xi was seen trading friendly greetings and exchanges with Russia’s Putin and Indian prime minister Nandendra Modi – whose relationship with Trump unraveled months ago leading to Trump’s imposition of punitive tariffs against India over its imports of Russian oil – reflecting the warming ties between their countries and sending a pointed message to Trump. On Wednesday, Xi stood with Putin and Kim Jong Un as they presided over a huge military parade in Tiananmen Square to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII and China’s role in the fight against Japanese imperialism. The spectacle showcased China’s development of new weaponry and equipment – including hypersonic missiles capable of destroying U.S. warships – which military analysts say sent another pointed message touting China’s military strength as a deterrent against Trump’s imperialist ambitions and interventionist threats. Trump reacted to the parade’s message in a social media tirade accusing Xi of ‘conspiring’ with Kim and Putin against the United States; a top Putin aide responded that while “no one organized any conspiracies,” he also said, "Everyone understands the role that… the current administration of President Trump and President Trump personally play in the current international arrangements." More nations seek realignment to reduce dependence on U.S. trade and consider China as an alternative economic center of gravity in the wake of Trump’s tariff wars. While Western pundits struggle to make sense of the shifting geopolitical reality and remain wary of China’s bid to ‘claim the mantle’ of a new world order, most acknowledge Trump’s actions as a driving force changing geopolitical realignments, as well as the potential economic and military weight of a bloc anchored by China, Russia, and India.
Questions of Europe’s geopolitical future were also highlighted this week as European leaders considered a massive trade deal with Mercosur to offset U.S. tariffs and met in Paris on Thursday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine following months of Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to secure a ceasefire in the war with Russia. Trump, joining the summit by phone, stepped up calls for Europe to boycott Russian oil and ‘pressure China’ to end the war. French president Macron announced that 26 nations have agreed to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine; the New York Times reports on Ukraine’s pursuit of a massive arms buildup funded by European purchases of U.S. weaponry and equipment, a plan that could cost the EU up to $1 trillion. As the Trump Administration phases out security aid programs for NATO countries, Europe is shifting from economic austerity to pinning its hopes on stimulating growth through a ‘blitz’ in defense spending at a pace not seen since the Cold War, with Germany on track to build the fourth-biggest army in the world. Politico interviews experts on five potential wars they fear could start in the next five years as geopolitical tensions escalate.
Labor Day marked by hardships for working people amid Trump Administration’s assault on federal unions, NLRB, and worker protections. Despite Trump’s many campaign-trail promises to ‘make America great again’ for working people, this year’s Labor Day hit an especially somber note for U.S. workers, who face a more hostile work environment than ever in the wake of the Trump Administration’s systematic assault on workers’ rights. In the seven months since Trump’s inauguration, the Administration has gutted environmental protections for miners, announced plans at OSHA to undermine more than 40 worker safety regulations, moved to end minimum wage requirements for federal contractors and plans the same for over 3 million home care providers and disabled workers, and fired a majority of members from the National Labor Relations Board, leaving the top labor watchdog effectively non-functional without a quorum for months as Elon Musk’s legal challenges set up a key judicial ruling that has left the agency ‘hanging by a thread’ and puts the National Labor Relations Act itself at risk of being repealed entirely. Last week, as a massive portrait of Trump was draped over the Department of Labor headquarters, Trump cemented his role as the most union-busting president in history by signing a second executive order expanding his push to strip collective bargaining rights from federal workers at dozens of agencies, potentially affecting over 1 million workers as 440,000 federal employees lost union protections in August alone. Experts and labor leaders warn that Trump’s decimation of federal public-sector unions is just the beginning, as the precedent will inexorably ‘spill over’ into the private sector and threaten the rights of every organized worker in the nation; anti-union law firms are already advising their clients to proceed with illegal union-busting tactics given the crippled state of labor law enforcement. The American Prospect explores the cascading consequences of ending federal unions; in this week alone, workers at the EPA who publicly criticized EPA head Lee Zeldin were fired in retaliation, while Kristi Noem moved to fire two dozen FEMA employees for an unspecified ‘IT breach’ one week after FEMA workers signed an open letter of dissent warning Congress that the ineptness of the agency’s appointed leadership could result in catastrophe. The New York Times reports that Black women have been among the hardest hit by the Trump Administration’s gutting of the federal workforce, and transgender federal workers describe living in fear as they experience more workplace discrimination and harassment under Trump policies. Economist Dean Baker notes the dismal effects of Trump’s immigration crackdown on employment and economic growth, as the Wall Street Journal reports that more workers than ever are ‘job hugging’ – hanging on to ‘bad’ jobs despite burnout and adverse experiences rather than taking the risk of seeking better employment. Private sector jobs data released this week both confirmed and deepened the dismal state of the labor market indicated by the July BLS report that led Trump to fire the nation’s top labor statistician; U.S. companies only planned to add a mere 1,500 jobs in August, the lowest level of job growth since the Great Recession in 2009, a statistic Rep. Pramila Jayapal blasted as “the direct result of policies that only work for billionaires and corporations while leaving working families in the dust."
Immigration updates: Military lawyers as immigration judges edges toward martial law; Trump clashes with courts over midnight deportation of children; Alligator Alcatraz re-opens; Noem touts ICE facility at notorious Angola prison. This week, Pete Hegseth authorized up to 600 military lawyers to serve as immigration judges under the Justice Department as immigration courts strain under a huge backlog of enforcement cases. Legal experts denounced the illegal move as a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, warning that “the use of military courts to hear civilian cases is the essential component of martial law.” At the same time, the Justice Department fired a career immigration judge from a San Francisco court this week, the sixth to be fired from the same court since January; five out of the six had granted asylum at rates higher than the national average, lending credence to suspicions that the DOJ is targeting judges who are sympathetic to immigrants. Over 100 out of the 700 trained & certified immigration judges serving in the U.S. have been dismissed by the Trump Administration in its second term, one of whom expressed fears that the court system is being set up to fail. Meanwhile, about a dozen top Justice Department lawyers assigned to the DOJ’s new Sanctuary Cities Enforcement working group have all resigned; several of them told the Washington Post they felt the task force was a ‘sham’ designed to do nothing but frustrate and force out career DOJ lawyers the Trump Administration could replace with loyalists. DHS attempted to deport nearly a hundred Guatemalan children over the Labor Day holiday weekend, apparently pulling the frightened children from their beds in the middle of the night to rush them onto deportation planes as attorneys with the National Immigration Law Center scrambled to file legal challenges. A judge ordered a halt to the deportations at an emergency hearing around 4:00 AM on Sunday, stopping the planes on the tarmac just hours after lawyers launched a class-action suit. Several outlets reported this week on the DHS’s ‘desperate’ rush to recruit ICE officers, which former DHS officials warned could increase already troubling levels of misconduct within the agency as it lowers qualification standards and cuts training periods in a rush to put agents into the field. Washington Post reporters attended a hiring expo in Texas that attracted over 3000 people, including several Latinos, a retired police officer and an ex-MMA fighter who signed up to target Indian tech workers whom he blamed for holding back his IT career. On Thursday, an appeals court reversed last month’s ruling ordering the closure of the Alligator Alcatraz facility by October, allowing ICE to keep detainees there while the appeal process plays out; while it represents a setback to activists and the Miccosukee Tribe, who filed the suit on environmental grounds, plaintiffs say the case is ‘far from over’. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration announced the opening of a new detention facility called “Camp 57” on the grounds of Louisiana’s infamous Angola State Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison notorious for its “particularly dark history of abuse and repression.” Kristi Noem claims its reputation is precisely why DHS chose to house a detention center there, saying it will house the “worst of the worst” criminal migrants and that its infamous brutality would ‘send a message’ encouraging migrants to choose self-deportation.
Trump and Noem confirm plans to send military into Chicago, with Baltimore and New Orleans next in their sights, as D.C. occupation extended to December. On Tuesday, September 2, Trump confirmed plans to send National Guard troops to Chicago as well as Baltimore; he offered few details on the operations, simply saying “we’re going in… but I didn’t say when.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also confirmed ICE was preparing to send additional resources to Chicago for a ‘surge’ of immigration enforcement, which CNN reports could begin as early as Friday as the Pentagon approved use of a Chicago-area naval base on Thursday as a ‘staging hub’ for ICE operations. In preparation for the impending occupation, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson signed a sweeping executive order on Saturday, August 30 that bars local police from collaborating with federal agents on law enforcement or immigration operations, requires federal agents to unmask and wear clear identification, and directs city departments to “pursue all available legal and legislative mechanisms to resist coordinated efforts from the federal government” that violate Chicagoans’ civil liberties; a show of resistance that prompted one right-wing pundit to call for the mayor’s execution for ‘treason’. After a spate of shootings over Labor Day weekend that left 8 dead and 50 wounded, Trump called Chicago “the worst and most dangerous city in the world by far” and “the murder capital of the world” in a string of social media posts; according to FBI data there are 22 cities, mostly in Southern red states, with higher murder rates than Chicago, which also fails to make the top 50 in worldwide rankings of the most dangerous cities, and like D.C. police data shows homicide rates down 30% since last year, with WBEZ reporting this summer’s murder rate in the city at its lowest level since 1965. In response to criticisms that Trump is not targeting cities in red states with objectively higher crime rates, Trump signaled that he would be willing to send troops to New Orleans, a Democratic-controlled city in a Republican-controlled state; Gov. Jeff Landry and Louisiana’s two GOP senators backed Trump’s call for federal intervention, even though New Orleans has also experienced a significant drop in crime over recent years.
Meanwhile in Washington D.C., Trump boasted that there is “no more crime” in the city despite at least three shootings and dozens of other reported crimes. As the White House extended the National Guard’s deployment through at least December, troops report morale at an all-time low, separated from their families with no end in sight as they stand around being heckled by angry residents. D.C. courtrooms are strained beyond their limits, staying in session well past midnight to process federal charges for petty misdemeanors such as fare evasion, having an open alcohol container on the street or urinating in a park; nearly 90% of federal arrestees are Black, a higher proportion than those arrested by local police over the last two years. Critics blasted the hypocrisy of Jeanine Pirro’s order directing prosecutors to pursue maximum federal charges for all arrestees but made an exception for those violating open-carry gun laws. However, Trump’s use of the occupation as a political trap for Democrats on law-and-order issues appears to have had an effect on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who on Tuesday ordered the indefinite cooperation of city police with federal law enforcement.RFK Jr. grilled at raucous Senate hearing over vaccine policy, CDC upheaval as bipartisan calls grow for his ouster. Health Secretary RFK Jr. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, September 4 in a dramatic three-hour hearing that devolved into shouting matches several times. Senators from both parties grilled the Secretary on his controversial overhaul of public health and vaccination guidelines as well as the crisis at the CDC, which imploded last week after RFK Jr. fired CDC director Susan Monarez for refusing to implement his changes to vaccine policy, triggering the public resignations of four top CDC scientists and a mass walkout of CDC staff. Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders called for a bipartisan investigation into Monarez’s firing, which she described in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week as “one of the more public aspects of a deliberate effort to weaken America’s public-health system and vaccine protections.” Republican Senators expressed growing frustration that RFK Jr. is not holding to promises made during his confirmation to uphold vaccine standards and restore public trust in an institution that has endured literal terror attacks over COVID-19 conspiracy theories, as the FDA rolled out new COVID guidelines that restricted vaccine eligibility to older people and those with preexisting conditions, and Florida this week became the first state to eliminate childhood vaccine mandates. Associated Press fact-checked several false claims made by RFK Jr. during the hearing, including his comment that he didn’t “think anyone knows” how many people died from COVID, prompting a flabbergasted response from Sen. Mark Warner, who cited easily verifiable CDC and WHO data. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician whose vote was key to Kennedy’s confirmation, grilled the Secretary on his decision to cancel funding for mRNA vaccines key to the first Trump administration’s efforts during the early stages of the pandemic as members attempted to drive a wedge between RFK Jr. and Trump. Trump, who empowered RFK Jr. to ‘go wild’ on health policy upon his appointment, publicly defended the Secretary in a Truth Social post as Republican lawmakers sent clear signs demanding action from the Trump Administration to address the chaos RFK Jr.’s reforms have created for public health. While the Senate drama was unfolding, two prominent scientists recently fired from the NIH filed whistle-blower complaints claiming they had been removed from leadership after objecting to the Administration’s pressures to undermine vaccine research and politicize scientific research through the grant-making process, which they saw as part of the Administration’s broader attack on science; on the same day, Vox released a high-profile expose of RFK Jr. and the Trump Administration’s efforts to discredit and suppress a major study linking alcohol and cancer at the behest of the alcohol industry. In the Nation this week, Gregg Gonsalves reminds the public of the warning sent by RFK Jr.’s cousin Caroline Kennedy during his confirmation hearings, which he opines has been validated in various ways over the Health Secretary’s seven-month tenure.
Tracking the Money: Trump family’s $5 billion crypto windfall described as ‘the greatest corruption in Presidential history’. Corruption watchdogs are decrying the Trump family’s $5 billion Labor Day payout as cryptocurrency tokens held by World Liberty Financial, a company founded by Trump’s sons, began trading on the public market September 1st. Another Trump entity apparently “owns 60% of the company and is entitled to a 75% share of the revenue” from sales of ‘WLFI’ tokens, about 25% of which are held by the Trump family with approximately two-thirds of the family share personally held by Trump, who is listed as a ‘Co-founder Emeritus’ of World Liberty Financial. A study by Accountable.US last month showed that crypto now comprises the vast majority of Trump’s fortune, as he pushes industry legislation in a bid to make the United States the ‘crypto capital of the planet’ while courting investment from state-backed firms on diplomatic trips. The WLFI story becomes even more complicated as New York Magazine reported that the token actually lost 30% of its value after the first day of trading amid complaints from buyers who were targeted by hackers, prompting World Liberty Financial to implement a ‘buy-back and burn’ of the currency, basically selling it back to themselves and limiting the supply to boost the value of the tokens it already holds. Stocks for another Trump family-owned firm, crypto mining company American Bitcoin, debuted on NASDAQ on Wednesday, rising over 16% in the first day of trading to net another $1.5 billion windfall for the Trump sons; Eric Trump celebrated the debut as “a historic milestone in bringing bitcoin into the core of U.S. capital markets.” Axios reports on the unique nature of American Bitcoin as a company with the capacity to buy and hold bitcoins as well as mine them, making it a ‘hybrid’ producer and treasurer of the world’s most popular digital currency, with concerns for Trump’s political influence on both sides of the operation. As a producer, American Bitcoin will incur massive energy demands from an industry that Trump has pushed to deregulate, while its function as a treasury make it, like other crypto platforms, a concerning rival to the banking industry. While crypto treasuries cannot technically pay interest to patrons who use the crypto treasury to park their capital, Wired points to a loophole in the Trump-signed GENIUS Act that allows firms to pay financial ‘rewards’ to stablecoin holders who use their platform at higher rates than banks can pay out, potentially incentivizing investors to move their dollar-denominated assets out of traditional banks into highly unstable and far less regulated crypto holdings. Recent research from the Kansas City Fed warned of the potential impact to the wider economy; if Treasury projections of approximately $6.6 billion worth of transfers into the crypto market as a result of the GENIUS Act hold, banks will have less cash on hand, and their lending will be impacted, raising borrowing costs for traditional consumers and businesses. Congressional Democrats slammed the Trumps’ crypto schemes as Rep. Ayanna Pressley called the $5 billion windfall a “blatantly corrupt and brazen abuse of power,” while Rep. Greg Casar neatly summarized the stakes: "Your family gets higher energy prices and cuts to healthcare. [Trump's] family gets billions… corruption, plain and simple."
MOVEMENT TRACKER
Thousands take to the streets on Labor Day for ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ protests as threats to unions, workers’ rights put economic uncertainty for working people back in the spotlight. Thousands of protestors rallied in over 900 cities nationwide on Labor Day to protest the Trump Administration and the wealthy elite in its orbit as part of the ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ day of action organized by May Day Strong, a coalition of activist organizations and labor unions who had come together in the spring to organize nationwide protests on May 1. The mass action included demands for the protection and restoration of social safety nets such as Social Security, public education, healthcare, and housing. In Chicago, protests took on a sense of urgency as residents denounced Trump’s threats of imminent military occupation to ‘solve’ the city’s crime problem. Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a fiery speech at the rally, leading chants of “No Troops in Chicago” as he asserted that “We’re going to defend our democracy… we’re going to protect the humanity of every single person in the city of Chicago.” Protestors also marched to the Trump Tower in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, chanting “Lock him up!”, echoing parallel demonstrations at Trump Tower in New York. AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler delivered a fiery “State of the Unions” address ahead of the protests, reminding the American public that “rights workers enjoy today – from overtime pay to workplace safety – were fought for, not handed down.” Saqib Bhatti, executive director of Action Center on Race and the Economy, said the presence of over 1,000 protest events in towns and cities all over the country was more important than one big march in the nation’s capital, saying “It’s important to show that there is opposition to the Trump-billionaire agenda in every community, big and small; it’s not just cities that are united against what’s happening… it’s all towns, it’s small towns that voted overwhelmingly for Trump.” Sen. Bernie Sanders was joined by Rep. Ro Khanna at the rally in Concord, New Hampshire to spread the message of economic justice, as Sanders vowed to “create an economy and government that will work for all, not just the 1 percent.” Sanders later took his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour to Maine, where he was joined by Graham Platner, the progressive oyster farmer running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins in the 2026 midterms; Common Dreams reports that Platner got the largest applause of the night for railing against the war on Gaza, saying “taxpayer dollars could be better spent on schools and hospitals in America.” The overwhelming response to the economic messages pushed on Labor Day reflect national polling that shows over 70% of Americans believe that the core wisdom underpinning the ‘American Dream’ – that hard work leads to economic success – no longer holds true or never did. The poll’s reflection of a widespread sense of economic pessimism, especially prevalent among younger generations, is sparking calls for more Democrats to embrace an economic populist message a la Sanders and the progressive movement, as Trump falters on economic issues, leading many Trump voters to fall away disillusioned, while centrist Democrats in leadership face all-time low approval ratings and a voter registration crisis ahead of midterms.
West Coast states form ‘health alliance’ in defiance of Trump Administration’s politicization of CDC, taking public health into their own hands as 1,000 HHS staffers demand RFK Jr.’s resignation. As COVID-19 cases surge in the U.S. Southwest, Democratic governors of California, Oregon, and Washington announced on Wednesday, September 3 that the three states have created a new “West Coast Health Alliance” to establish and coordinate their own state-level vaccine guidelines, saying that the Trump Administration has put Americans’ lives at risk by politicizing the CDC. The state-level actions were announced on the same day that Florida became the first state to eliminate childhood vaccine mandates. The diverging state responses came as nine scientists representing nearly every living former director or acting director of the CDC penned an editorial in the New York Times rebuking RFK Jr. for "endangering every American’s health” through his actions to radically reform public health institutions and defund scientific research. Also on Wednesday, over 1,000 former and current HHS staffers released an open letter to Congress and HHS demanding RFK Jr.’s resignation, saying his leadership has “put the health of all Americans at risk.” Recent polling shows that 70-80% of Americans still broadly support childhood vaccine mandates, although support has slipped in recent years especially among registered Republicans. A court ruling this week in response to a lawsuit from physicians’ groups in Washington ordered federal health officials to restore government websites and data on a range of topics, including pregnancy risks, opioid-use disorder and the AIDS epidemic, that had been scrubbed shortly after Trump’s inauguration in compliance with an executive order directing federal agencies to end the use of the word ‘gender’ in government documents.
Epstein survivors hold joint press conference with Democratic and Republican members of Congress to demand disclosure of Epstein files. On Wednesday, September 3, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex trafficking ring appeared at an emotionally charged news conference on Capitol Hill to support Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s bipartisan discharge petition to demand full release of the Epstein files. Survivors, some of them speaking out for the first time, shared their stories of abuse at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell, recounting how they were lured as teenagers into the exploitation scheme that trapped them for years, and pushed back forcefully against Trump’s claims that the ‘Epstein list’ of clients, which may include Trump himself, was simply a ‘Democrat hoax.’ The Justice Department released over 30,000 pages relating to the Epstein investigation on Tuesday night, which many dismissed as a red herring since most of the pages were already in the public record. The survivors were joined by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who notably broke with the MAGA consensus over the Epstein scandal; Greene stood with survivors for over an hour, urging Trump to meet with the women and threatening to walk across the House floor, saying “every damn name” suspected to be on the list if it would help the victims. MAGA Rep. Lauren Boebert also joined Greene in support of the discharge petition, putting members of her own party on notice as she questioned why some of them were paying into a sexual misconduct ‘slush fund’ and demanded Congress release those details as well. Survivors also put Trump on notice, saying they were compiling their own list of Epstein clients based on their collective experiences; one of them, directly addressing Trump, called on him to “recognize that the victims are human beings” whose suffering should not be minimized. Another survivor, who disclosed that she voted for Trump, questioned what “he was hiding” as he continued to dismiss survivors and drag his feet on disclosure. As the discharge petition looked headed for defeat as GOP support for the measure eroded over the week, Rep. Massie said that he was facing an “immense pressure campaign” from the White House for co-sponsoring the bipartisan bill, which Trump characterized as a “very hostile act” against his administration.
Over 145 countries to recognize Palestinian statehood at UN General Assembly meeting, as IDF reservists refuse Gaza City invasion and thousands rally in Israel to demand acceptance of a deal to release the hostages. CNN reports that over 145 countries, including France, Canada, and the UK, plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly meeting being held in New York later this month amid escalating international and domestic pressure on Netanyahu to end the war and free the hostages. Ahead of the meeting, the Trump Administration suspended visas for all Palestinians in a bid to deny Palestinian officials the opportunity to address the UN meeting, which is prohibited as part of the United States’s agreement to host the United Nations. On Monday, the International Association of Genocide Scholars overwhelmingly passed a resolution to officially recognize that Israel’s war and siege of Gaza met the legal definition of genocide. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of Israelis rallied outside Netanyahu’s residence to demand an end to the war and release of the hostages, as Hamas indicated its willingness to release all hostages in exchange for a ‘comprehensive’ ceasefire deal. As the Israeli government rejected Hamas’ offer as ‘more empty spin’ and plunged ahead with plans to invade Gaza City, hundreds of IDF reservists signed a statement opposing the takeover, saying they will not show up for duty as the military is struggling to get the over 60,000 reservists they called for the mission to leave their jobs and families to report for duty. U.S. senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen shared a video over the weekend detailing their unsuccessful attempts to visit the Gaza Strip as they were denied entry into the country, as the Council on American-Islamic Relations applauded their effort and urged other lawmakers to do the same. The Telegraph reports that increasing numbers of Republicans are splitting with party consensus over Israel, warning Trump that his continued support for Netanyahu is a ‘liability’ as new polling indicates 60% of Americans now oppose continuing military aid for Israel, and 50% believe that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. North Carolina Rep. Deborah Ross became the latest member of Congress to pledge not to receive contributions from AIPAC in the upcoming midterm election, which pro-Palestine organizers hailed as indicative of a sea change within the party. As Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez rebuked his fellow European leaders for their “failure” to respond decisively to the genocide, former UN rights official Craig Mokhiber noted in an interview that the UN General Assembly possesses the mechanism to circumvent a U.S. veto from the Security Council and force “concrete action” in Gaza through passing a ‘United for Peace’ resolution at the upcoming meeting in September. Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi made a triumphant return to the Columbia campus this week, more than four months after he was arrested, detained and nearly deported by the Trump Administration for his pro-Palestine activism; in his first interview since returning to campus, Mahdawi told the Guardian: “They have failed to silence me, and in fact, now I am more outspoken than before… I feel victorious that the government has failed to strip me from my education.”
Spanish-language media reports a detainee uprising at Alligator Alcatraz as more communities resist ICE detention centers. Activist media collective Unicorn Riot translated and reproduced reports from Spanish-language news outlet Univision detailing accounts of a detainee uprising at Alligator Alcatraz that took place on or around Thursday, August 28. Univision reported that three detainees contacted them by phone to relay the incident as ‘fire alarms and helicopters could be heard in the background.’ The uprising supposedly began after a detainee received news that a relative had died, and began shouting for freedom, at which point detainees reported that a team of guards came in and ‘started beating everyone.’ Guards supposedly used tear gas and indiscriminate beatings to quell the revolt as an unknown number of detainees attempted to escape; at least four detainees were reportedly injured in the uprising, although media has not been able to verify the exact number of participants. Florida officials maintain a blanket denial that any such event took place, and the only major English-language outlet to report the story has been the Guardian, which released a report of the incident on August 29. Protestors who traveled to Philipsburg, Pennsylvania to protest the largest ICE detention center in the region have sparked a debate among community members who had hitherto only heard rumors of a detention facility near their town; while reactions were mixed, greater awareness of the facility has led to greater questioning of the operation, with local media covering reports of abuses and former guards coming forward to denounce conditions at the facility. Protestors in Los Angeles continue to protest ICE in small groups around the clock and throughout the city; the Intercept profiled Union del Barrio organizer Ron Gochez this week, who with other organizations in Los Angeles’ Self Defense Community Coalition helps lead daily community patrols to warn neighborhoods of possible ICE activity.
Upcoming Protests and Events.
The investigative journalism website ProPublica is soliciting tips from anyone who is a current or former federal worker at the Office of Management and Budget with information about Russell Vought and/or his tenure at the agency. ProPublica will protect informants’ privacy. Anyone wishing to come forward with information can contact ProPublica reporter Andy Kroll via Signal, phone or email listed in the outlet’s Instagram bio.
Thursday, September 25: The Democracy Collaborative, the People’s Network for Land and Liberation, Glór na Móna, and Trademark Belfast will present a webinar from 9:30-11:30 am Eastern Time titled “Trump, I Do Mind Dying: Lessons for U.S. Cities from the Military Occupation of the North of Ireland,” which brings together activists from U.S. cities and veterans of the Republican movement in the North of Ireland for a discussion of strategies to respond to Trump’s troops on U.S. streets and lessons from the military occupation of communities in the North of Ireland – an exercise in knowledge-sharing and international solidarity. More information, visit the Democracy Collaborative’s event page.
Thursday, September 25: The Chronicle of Higher Education will present the first of its monthly Fall Webinar Series on “Trump and Higher Ed: Understanding the Latest” as Chronicle journalists unpack the latest developments out of Washington and analyze the Trump Administration’s evolving impact on higher education. More information and an RSVP link can be found on their website.
Saturday, October 18: The No Kings Coalition has set the date for its next nationwide No Kings Protest and Day of Action on October 18, and are encouraging those interested to sign up for updates on actions in their local area, or to support the growing effort to bring millions of people into the streets.
Lawsuit Updates.
On Thursday, August 29, a panel of appellate court judges dealt the Trump Administration’s economic agenda a serious setback, ruling in a landmark 7-4 majority decision that Trump had no legal basis to unilaterally impose tariffs for trade partners under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act. The tariffs will remain in effect until October, giving the Trump Administration one month to bring the case to the Supreme Court; failing that, the ruling could undo most of Trump’s tariffs and end the trade war that has brought economic chaos and geopolitical uncertainty to most of the world. Lawyers representing the small businesses that brought one of the two lawsuits under consideration called the landmark ruling “a sweeping decision that unequivocally rebukes President Trump’s idea that he can impose tariffs on American consumers on his own without the approval of the Congress.” The Trump Administration plans to appeal to the Supreme Court for a quick reversal, claiming the U.S. could be brought to the “brink of economic catastrophe” unless justices rule his tariffs are legal; although legal experts say he faces a tough uphill battle to prove it in court.
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday, September 2, that the Trump Administration ‘willfully’ violated the Posse Comitatus Act by ordering National Guard troops into Los Angeles in June amid protests over ICE raids in the city. In his “scathing opinion,” Judge Charles Breyer struck down Trump Administration lawyers’ arguments that a “constitutional exception” grants Trump the authority “to do anything he construes as protecting federal property, personnel, or functions,” saying that “this assertion is not grounded in the history of the Act, Supreme Court jurisprudence on executive authority, or common sense.” While the ruling narrowly applies within California only and will not constitute a block on Trump’s occupation of Washington D.C. or plans for other cities, the ruling rejects the Trump Administration’s reasoning as well as the broadly expansive view of presidential power that has been used as justification for executive overreach. It is expected that Trump will take the case to the Supreme Court, where much of the Trump agenda will be decided over the coming weeks and months.
