Turning Point
Week of September 5-11, 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
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk killed by sniper at Utah campus event, escalating specter of political violence as Trump and MAGA vow crackdown on the Left. Charlie Kirk, a prominent MAGA influencer, key Trump ally and co-founder of Turning Point USA, a controversial far-right organization focused on college campuses, was shot in the neck and killed by a sniper during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, September 10. As of this writing, a suspect has been apprehended and identified by state authorities as Tyler Robinson, 22, of St. George, Utah. The arrest came after a chaotic initial response to the assassination in which university police and the FBI detained and interrogated two initial suspects on Wednesday, including a 71-year old man, both of whom were released after authorities failed to find any connection to the shooting. On Thursday morning, the FBI shared video footage showing the alleged shooter running across the rooftop of a nearby building and announced that a .30-caliber ‘high-powered bolt-action rifle’ found near the area to which the shooter fled was believed to be the murder weapon; they also released photographs of a young man ‘of college age’ in a black hat and sunglasses and asked for the public’s help in identifying this ‘person of interest’. Politicians across party lines condemned the shooting as an act of political violence, as experts raised fears of a ‘vicious spiral’ amid an escalating surge in political violence in response to deepening polarization within the United States. Critics of Kirk claim that his work with TPUSA contributed to that divisiveness through his controversial promotion of far-right, white supremacist and anti-semitic views at colleges and targeting of left-wing academics through the ‘Professor Watchlist’ he created, which often provoked harassment campaigns against college faculty and students.
Trump, who appeared to take the loss of one of his closest allies very personally, ordered flags to be flown at half-staff and announced he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. Addressing the public in a video message from the Oval Office on Wednesday night, Trump called Kirk a “martyr for truth and freedom” and declared the ‘radical Left’ to be ‘directly responsible’ for the killing, despite the lack of information as to the shooter’s motive or political inclination. Statistics show that the vast majority of acts of political violence since 9/11 have been committed by the far right, including the assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman in June, whom Trump conspicuously failed to mention in his remarks. MAGA politicians and pundits immediately weaponized Trump’s message blaming leftists for the violence to demand retribution against their political opponents; some, including recently pardoned January 6 insurrectionists, invoked “civil war,” while influencers like Laura Loomer called for Democrats and the Left to be “crushed with the power of the state,” demanding that the Trump Administration “shut down, defund, and prosecute every single Leftist organization.” House Speaker Mike Johnson’s request for a moment of silence to honor Kirk devolved into a chaotic partisan shouting match on the House floor, while moderate GOP lawmakers condemned Trump and MAGA’s divisive response and called for calm. WIRED reports that some of Kirk’s critics are receiving death threats after a right-wing website exposed personal details of people they accused of mocking Kirk’s death online. MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd lost his job after making a comment about Kirk and hate speech on air, as reports grow of teachers, reporters and other professionals who have also been fired after making critical comments. #AltGov activists are warning federal employees that their social media is being scanned for criticism, and the State Department indicated on Thursday it would review the legal status of any immigrants they see as ‘rationalizing or making light of’ Kirk’s assassination. A 77-year-old retired banker in Toronto who resembled the man briefly detained by university police on Wednesday was falsely identified as the suspect online and said he woke up to threatening messages and had to scrub his social media accounts. Amid escalating calls for revenge from Kirk supporters, the Wall Street Journal called on Trump to use his leadership to restore civil discourse, as Johnathan Chait of the Atlantic condemned Trump for escalating the ‘polarizing rhetoric’ he claimed led to Kirk’s death.While media focuses on Kirk, ‘radicalized’ far-right shooter targets Colorado high school, HBCUs across the South hit with terror threats as Trump rescinds grant funding for minority-serving colleges. The same day that Charlie Kirk was killed in Utah, a student at Evergreen High School outside Denver, Colorado opened fire on his schoolmates, critically injuring two before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. The incident marked the 47th school shooting in the United States so far this year, out of a total of 301 mass shooting incidents in 2025. Colorado governor Jared Polis said the community was ‘devastated’ by the attack, which took place in the same county as the Columbine school massacre 25 years ago. The gunman was identified by authorities on Thursday as 16-year-old Desmond Holly, a student at the school whom officials say “appear to have been radicalized by some extremist network”. A report from the Denver Post on Holly’s social media accounts show that he “appeared to espouse white supremacist” and “antisemitic” views and made posts referencing “mass shooters” including Columbine in the days before the attack. Police in Seattle this week arrested a 13-year-old boy and seized 23 guns from his home after he made threats to kill online. ProPublica and other investigative media outlets have recently raised awareness of the global far-right and Neo-Nazi extremist networks that have been grooming disaffected youth to commit mass shootings in order to sow chaos, deepen political divides and destabilize governments. The Trump Administration recently gutted the Justice Department’s counterterrorism office dedicated to fighting extremist violence as part of DOGE’s government overhaul effort, leaving states to deal with extremist threats largely on their own.
The next day, as national media focused on the Kirk shooting, at least seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) received terror threats, forcing campuses into lockdown. Hampton University, Virginia State University, Bethune-Cookman University, Alabama State University, and Southern University’s Baton Rouge campus have cancelled operations through the weekend; shelter-in-place orders were issued and later lifted at Spelman and Morehouse colleges after the nearby Clark Atlanta University campus received threats. The FBI issued a statement Thursday saying they were aware of “hoax threats” against HBCUs, following a wave of ‘swatting’-type hoaxes that targeted over a dozen U.S. universities during the first week of the fall semester. HBCUs were previously targeted by a wave of bomb threats in 2022, which the FBI traced to a juvenile prank caller. Virginia State president Makola Abdullah issued a pointed statement on the threat “intended to disrupt, intimidate, and instill fear” in his campus community, saying: “Let us be clear: these threats are not random. They are targeted attacks on institutions that have long stood as pillars of excellence, empowerment, and progress.” The Congressional Black Caucus called on the Justice Department to launch a serious investigation into the threats, which chair Rep. Yvette Clarke called “a chilling reminder of the relentless racism and extremism that continues to target and terrorize Black communities in this country.” The threats also come a day after the Trump Administration stepped up its campaign against ‘wokeness’ in U.S. universities by canceling $350 million in grants for hundreds of minority-serving institutions across the country, claiming that the programs established by Congress to address racial disparities in education amounted to ‘unconstitutional’ discrimination.Israel strikes Qatar in assassination attempt on Hamas leadership, blowing up ceasefire hopes and fraying diplomatic ties in quandary for United States. On Tuesday, September 9, Israel bombed Hamas offices inside Doha, Qatar in an unprecedented strike that targeted top leaders of Hamas as they gathered to review the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal. Hamas senior leaders survived the attack but said six others were killed, including a negotiator’s son and a Qatari security officer. Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani appeared visibly angry as he denounced the Israeli attack as “state terrorism” and a “flagrant violation of all international laws and norms.” The attack on Qatari soil created a diplomatic dilemma for Trump, for whom Israel and Qatar are both important allies; Trump told reporters he “wasn’t thrilled” about the attack but stopped short of censuring Israel in a later statement on Truth Social, simply saying that Netanyahu made the decision without him and that “unilaterally bombing Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States… does not advance Israel or America’s goals.” Israel claimed it informed the United States once Netanyahu greenlighted the attack early Tuesday; White House officials claimed Steve Witkoff informed the Qataris of the impending strike, which the Qatari foreign ministry slammed as a lie; later, U.S. officials said that Witkoff was unable to reach the Qataris in time. The attack sent shock waves throughout the region as the other Gulf states, normally at odds with Qatar and Hamas on ideological grounds, stood “heart and soul with the sisterly Qatar” to condemn Israel’s growing belligerence. Knesset leader Amir Ohana confirmed the region’s fears by posting a video of the strike on X with the caption “This is a message for the entire Middle East,” while Defence Minister Israel Katz tweeted on Wednesday that Israel’s “long arm will act against its enemies everywhere.” Trump reportedly had a ‘heated call’ with Netanyahu after the strike, which was widely perceived as a personal embarrassment that challenged his self-image as a ‘peacemaker’ in the region and undermined his credibility as a reliable partner to Arab states with whom he has cultivated deep personal and business ties.
The attack, perhaps intentionally, has ground ceasefire negotiations to a halt as Qatar suspended its role as mediator; Qatari prime minister al-Thani told CNN on Wednesday that he had met with Israeli hostages last week, carrying a message from their families who were counting on the negotiations to move forward, but with the attack, al-Thani said Netanyahu “killed any hope” for the hostages. Israeli forces pushed ahead with their invasion of Gaza City on Tuesday, issuing a sweeping evacuation order for the city and triggering panic among residents who have nowhere else to go; it also bombed the headquarters of a U.S.-sanctioned human rights group while Netanyahu broke ground on a beachfront ‘Trump Promenade’ development, calling Trump “Israel’s best friend ever.” As protests in Jerusalem call for an end to the war and a hostage deal, and ordinary Israelis grow weary of being treated as pariahs by the rest of the world, activists installed a message to Trump on a Tel Aviv beach saying “the hostages are dying before our eyes” and imploring Trump not to “let Netanyahu keep you from that Nobel Prize!” Members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum who met with Trump on Wednesday issued a public demand to meet with Netanyahu on Friday morning, condemning the prime minister for “needlessly” putting their relatives and soldiers’ lives at risk “without any clear purpose or strategic goal.” Marco Rubio announced he will travel to Israel on Saturday to meet with hostage families and Israeli leadership in an attempt to resume talks.NATO-backed jets shoot down Russian drones inside Polish airspace, putting Europe on high alert; Trump stays ambiguous as Congress pushes for Russia sanctions. In the early hours of Wednesday, September 10, NATO fighter jets scrambled to intercept at least 19 Russian drones that crossed into Poland’s airspace, shooting down at least three; marking the first time in NATO history that the alliance’s fighter planes have directly engaged enemy forces inside allied airspace. Shortly thereafter, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty to begin a formal consultation with the alliance about security threats, calling the incursion a “large-scale provocation” that brought his country closer to military conflict “than at any time since the Second World War.” Russian officials said that drones were part of an overnight attack on Ukraine and there were “no intentions to engage any targets” inside Polish territory, and officials in Belarus suggested the incursion may have been accidental due to “jammed” communications. German defence officials retorted that Russian drones ‘did not have to take this route to reach Ukraine’, suggesting Putin was deliberately testing NATO’s defense capabilities. Other European leaders joined Tusk in denouncing the incursions as an “unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace” and a “reckless escalation” of heightened tensions over Ukraine; the UK said it was “looking at options” to bolster Poland’s air defenses. Trump responded cryptically to the situation with a post saying “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” Trump also repeated the suggestion Thursday that the drone incursions could have “been a mistake,” which Tusk and other NATO leaders roundly rejected. Senate Republicans urged Trump to take an aggressive stance against Russia, saying they are ready to pass a “bone-crushing” sanctions package with bipartisan support. Early Friday, NATO announced a new initiative to beef up defenses on the alliance’s eastern flank and provide public reassurance against ‘spillover’ from the Ukraine conflict.
Trump threatens Chicago with ‘Apocalypse Now’ meme as ICE begins ‘Midway Blitz’ in Chicago and Boston, with more incursions planned against sanctuary cities. As ICE agents prepared to enter Chicago amid massive protests, Trump amped up his rhetoric against the city last weekend, posting a parody image from “Apocalypse Now” captioned with a modified version of the film’s iconic line, saying “I love the smell of deportations in the morning… Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” Governor JB Pritzker responded by saying Trump’s threats to “go to war with an American city” are “not a joke” and calling Trump a “wannabe dictator.” Senator Tammy Duckworth said that when she and other Illinois representatives showed up at the Great Lakes Naval Station where ICE agents were supposedly staging, they found that the Department of Homeland Security had given everyone the day off, “locked the doors and left the base.” On Monday, September 8, DHS announced the launch of “Operation Midway Blitz,” an immigration enforcement operation that appeared to be designed to confront Chicago’s sanctuary policies as it alleged undocumented immigrants had “flocked” to the city because they “knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would… allow them to roam free on American streets.” Immigration advocates and community volunteers began responding to increased reports of ICE raids as DHS announced several arrests and accused Cook County Jail of “not cooperating” after it released people DHS had specifically listed as “wanted” during the operation’s launch announcement. Pritzker said in a Tuesday press conference that the Trump Administration informed him that there were “more than 200 agents” and “over 100 vehicles” on the ground and warned that they were “gathering steam.” Streets were nearly empty in Latino neighborhoods like Pilsen as immigrant communities hunkered down and changed their daily routines to avoid raids, as area businesses and schools reported being impacted as more people stayed home. DHS also launched a new immigration enforcement operation named “Patriot 2.0” in Massachusetts this week in a confrontation with Boston mayor Michelle Wu’s sanctuary policies; Wu reiterated that “no Boston police or local resources will be co-opted into federal immigration enforcement and their mass deportation agenda,” noting that ICE’s previous attempts to take “parents as they dropped their kids off” at school “did not make the city any safer.” Border czar Tom Homan warned sanctuary cities nationwide to “expect action” in the coming weeks and months, saying the Trump Administration is prioritizing these cities for federal action.
D.C. mayor allows feds, National Guard to stay past legal 30-day limit as GOP advances bills to effectively dismantle home rule. In Washington D.C., the 30-day legal limit to the city’s federal takeover officially expired at midnight on Thursday, September 11 as Congress declined to extend Trump’s authority to federalize D.C. police; nevertheless, federal agents and National Guard troops will remain in the city, thanks to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s executive order pledging indefinite cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies. Bowser was heavily criticized by community organizations and D.C. lawmakers for capitulating to Trump’s demands; some commentators dubbed her a “Vichy mayor” for her quick embrace of appeasement, a stark contrast to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s opposing stance to resist federal incursion in the streets if necessary. Bowser defended her choices by saying her order appeared to have stopped Congress from extending Trump’s authority and reiterated her commitment to “preserving home rule and autonomy” for the city. However, as the federal mandate expired on Wednesday, September 10, House Republicans voted along party lines to advance a set of 16 bills that would effectively roll back home rule, including a measure to remove D.C.’s elected attorney general Brian Schwalb, who chose to fight the federal takeover by filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration. Other bills in the package included proposals to change the way the city passes laws as well as change its handling of crime, including lowering the age limit for adult prosecution to 14, reinstating cash bail, and criminalizing homelessness in the District, including sleeping in cars. Residents continued to resist the federal presence in the city by protesting and documenting abuses such as the mass detention of high school children in Union Station to check their papers. Internal National Guard documents obtained by the Washington Post showed results of a public sentiment survey showing that their mission in the city is widely perceived as “leveraging fear,” driving a “wedge between citizens and the military,” and promoting a sense of “shame” among some troops and veterans. AP reported that federal data revealed over 40% of arrests in D.C. to be immigration-related, belying Trump’s narrative of a crackdown on crime. Despite the evidence of its overwhelming unpopularity among the public, Trump is pushing ahead with his urban militarization agenda, buoyed by a chorus of Republican backers in Congress as well as Red state governors who are adopting Trump’s tactics and using state forces to initiate crackdowns on their own Blue cities.
Immigration updates: SCOTUS rules ICE can resume racial profiling in California; ICE opens new detention centers. In a significant setback for immigrant communities and civil liberties advocates, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, September 8 to overturn a lower court ruling barring ICE from conducting ‘roving patrols’ that use racial profiling to identify and detain people suspected of being undocumented migrants in Southern California. Like its other controversial rulings on its ‘emergency’ docket, the Court offered no explanation for its 6-3 majority decision, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote briefly that it “seemed reasonable to question people based on ‘common sense criteria’ for possible illegal presence.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor used her dissenting opinion as a blistering condemnation of her colleagues, calling their decision “unconscionably irreconcilable” with the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment guarantees; citing the numerous stories of brutal arrests in Los Angeles, she concluded that the majority ruling “all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time.” Mother Jones writer Pima Levy calls out the Supreme Court’s hypocrisy by contrasting two SCOTUS rulings, determining that colleges cannot decide admissions based on race, but ICE can now use race to determine who can be detained. California officials blasted the ruling as “dangerous” and “un-American”; Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass warned that it was “an attack on every person in every city in this country” and “threatens the fabric of personal freedom in the U.S.”
The Trump Administration announced plans this week to reopen some of the country’s most notorious prisons – many of which were closed due to abuses, neglect and riots over poor conditions – as ICE detention centers. Critics note that reopening these facilities, especially under private contractors who now run 90% of ICE detention centers, will inevitably expose detainees to the same inhuman conditions that prompted their shutdown. ICE began housing its first detainees this week at the infamous Angola state prison in Louisiana, a former slave plantation with a history of human rights abuses including a 2023 court ruling finding that inmates were being subjected to “medical mistreatment.” DHS officials touted its notoriety in several intimidating statements suggesting undocumented immigrants may avoid a brutal fate by choosing to self-deport. The New York Times reports that local sheriffs are turning their jails into ICE detention centers as the Justice Department issued guidance allowing migrants undergoing legal proceedings to be incarcerated, forcing millions of immigrants to potentially stay in detention for years as they litigate their cases. CNN investigates ICE’s abuse of ‘hold rooms,’ temporary waiting spaces meant for holding detainees for only a few hours before they are transferred; data showed that nearly 1 in 5 detainees were kept in hold rooms for over 12 hours, with some being held without access to beds or hygienic facilities for days or even weeks. The Washington Post Editorial Board argued that with its outsized budget, ICE could ‘afford to be humane’.300+ legal South Korean workers detained in Hyundai factory raid, inflaming diplomatic tensions as the U.S. negotiates trade deal for Korean investment. Multiple federal agencies collaborated last week to conduct the largest single workplace raid in United States history to date, arresting nearly 500 people, including over 300 South Korean workers, at a Hyundai factory in Georgia. DHS videos of the raid, showing workers in shackles and chains being loaded onto a bus as helicopters and armored vehicles flanked them, sparked widespread outrage among people in South Korea, who bristled at seeing their countrymen treated like “prisoners of war” by a supposed ally and inflamed diplomatic tensions between the two countries as they struggled to strike a trade deal that Trump hoped would include over $300 billion of South Korean investment in the United States. Lawyers said that the ‘vast majority’ of the workers at the plant were working under valid B-1 temporary visas that allowed specialized skilled workers, such as engineers and equipment installers, to work legally in the United States for a short time. South Korean president Lee Jae Myung noted that the raid was creating “confusion” among Korean companies who were questioning whether they should be doing business in the United States. On Monday, South Korean officials announced that they had concluded negotiations with the United States to allow the workers to be released and flown home; though it took another day of meetings between South Korean foreign minister Cho Hyun and Marco Rubio to ensure that workers would not be restrained as they boarded their flight.
Tracking the Money: Corporate profiteers ride high on AI, deregulation, and authoritarian police state. Washington insider media was abuzz this week with the tabloid-like story of the feud between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who threatened to punch Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte “in the f**king face” after hearing that Pulte had been ‘badmouthing’ him to the president at an exclusive dinner hosted at Trump’s new ‘Executive Branch’ club for MAGA-aligned elites in Georgetown. Columnist Jennifer Rubin points out how the story “provides an even more disturbing picture of the world in which MAGA oligarchs operate,” focusing on the setting of the Executive Branch club itself as a kind of ‘Mar-A-Lago North’ where the Trump team mingles with the uberrich in a “world of their own,” far removed from the experience of most Americans, including their own constituents. The Revolving Door Project fills out this picture with even worse implications: in what is ‘by far’ the most corrupt presidency in American history, the report shows how the Trump Administration collaborates with corporate profiteers, oligarchs and grifters to make their wildest dreams come true in ways that increase average Americans’ risk of premature death. As a new report from Community Catalystoutlines how the private health insurance industry raked in $34 billion in tax breaks while denying coverage and delivering substandard services for its patients, a practice that was spotlighted in the high-profile assassination of UnitedHealth’s CEO last year, the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid services now plans to roll out the same type of AI-based review processes to determine whether traditional Medicare/Medicaid patients can be covered for certain procedures. Last week, Trump hosted two dozen Big Tech executives at the White House, many of whom invested millions in Trump’s campaign and inauguration funds and also had federal enforcement and antitrust actions against them dropped by the Trump Administration within the first six months of his presidency. Silicon Valley firms recently announced the creation of a new superPAC focused on supporting candidates at the state and local levels who will oppose any AI regulation that would hinder the technology’s development, including a buildout of massive data centers across the nation free of concerns about the physical, environmental and economic health of the communities in which they locate. Melania Trump, who also attended the tech dinner, announced a bizarre new venture to push AI education ‘for the children,’ which offers few details explaining its actual function or purpose.
The Wall Street Journal reports on the coming “payoff” for the fossil fuel industry’s ‘big bet’ on Trump, who not only got rid of restrictive climate laws but also gave the industry massive new subsidies through the Big Beautiful Budget Bill. The American Prospect reports on Trump’s Federal Trade Commission – which just fired watchdog Rebecca Slaughter from the FTC twice – and its recent decision to allow noncompete clauses in employment contracts for workers even in low-wage sectors like food service and janitorial, restricting the free movement of labor and making it easier to suppress wages, saving employers up to an estimated $400 billion in labor costs over the next decade. Last week, the airline industry celebrated a quiet victory as the Trump Administration rolled back a Biden-era rule requiring airlines to issue refunds to passengers in the case of cancelled flights. As commentators decry the onset of authoritarianism in the United States, the Associated Press released a monumental three-part report on how Silicon Valley cut their teeth on developing technology for China’s authoritarian surveillance and carceral infrastructure. Matt Stoller, reflecting on the political violence that came to a head this week, traces the roots of MAGA and Big Tech’s indifference to human suffering to the orgy of corporate profiteering in the wake of 9/11.
MOVEMENT TRACKER
Thousands turn out in DC, Chicago as protests intensify against ICE, federal occupation. Protests against Trump’s federal takeover of Washington D.C. and threats against Chicago grew massive this week as tens of thousands took to the streets in both cities over the weekend to reject Trump’s ‘crime’ and immigration crackdowns. In D.C., thousands of participants in the “We are all D.C.” action marched to the White House in solidarity with targeted communities, to defend home rule and demand the National Guard leave the city, as others trolled the White House with Epstein-themed slogans. Associated Press has published a photo gallery of diverse widespread protest actions across D.C. in its fourth week of occupation, as local churches rang their bells in support of protestors. The Washington Post reviews the plethora of local protest that has taken shape over the last four weeks; even Trump’s brief excursion to a D.C. restaurant to prove he had beaten crime did not go unanswered, as Code Pink protestors crashed his victory party to heckle him over Gaza and the federal takeover, calling him “the Hitler of our time” to his face. On Tuesday, September 9, over a thousand students walked out of classes at Georgetown, Howard, American and George Washington universities, demanding that their city leadership and university administrations stop capitulating to the Trump regime. The students were joined by Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who said the students are “showing the entire nation what it means to resist authoritarianism with strength and solidarity.” Veterans from D.C. announced on Bluesky that they are mobilizing to travel to Chicago, Baltimore and other cities to stand with communities facing Trump’s next crackdowns.
Chicago staged two massive protests in the course of four days; the first on Saturday, September 6, in a “No Trump No Troops” action organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and again on Tuesday night in response to DHS’ announcement of “Operation Blitz.” Church leaders used their pulpits to help their congregations to prepare for the crackdown, urging community members to carry identification, take care of each other and protest at every opportunity. Organizers from Texas traveled to Chicago in a show of solidarity, sharing their experiences from the fight against redistricting and urging folks to stand together because “it’s not just happening in one city.”Community defense actions against ICE. Reuters reports this week on the many ways that anti-ICE activists in cities across the country have built technological and organizational infrastructures to track ICE activity in real time and alert their neighbors. One activist with Union del Barrio in Los Angeles explained how "with minimal resources, we've been able to confront, challenge and expose a billion-dollar repressive state apparatus that is attacking and kidnapping our people." A viral social media trend is inspiring white women to put Mexican flag stickers on their cars as a way to turn ICE’s racial profiling against them, drawing attention away from vulnerable neighbors and wasting agents’ time. Activists are also rallying around Afghanistan vet Bajun Malvalwalla II, who was arrested at his home days after a contentious ICE protest in Spokane and faces federal charges for “conspiracy to impede and/or injure officers” in what is shaping up to be a landmark showdown to defend the First Amendment against the Trump DOJ’s legal overreach. The New Republic profiles Betty Osceola, the Miccosukee Tribal member who refuses to give up defending her ancestral lands against Alligator Alcatraz. As ICE increasingly targets schools, parents and teachers are fighting back in novel ways to protect the children in their care and demand that local school boards do more to protect students and their families. In California, healthcare workers at Stanford Hospital are protesting their administration’s complicity with ICE that allows agents to snatch nurses and patients off hospital grounds; activists with Stanford Healthcare Workers for Palestine are calling for hospital administrators to face the public at a town hall by September 23; if they do not agree to a dialogue by that time, organizers will hold their own public forum. A raucous community protest in Rochester, New York successfully foiled an ICE raid on roofing workers in the city’s Park Avenue neighborhood, forcing agents to limp away on slashed tires as people yelled “Shame” and “Gestapo” at them. Bolts Magazine reports on a community in deep-red Franklin County, Arkansas who found out about a secretive ICE detention facility being built outside their town, and how resistance to the project helped conservative residents think differently about incarceration.
International and domestic pressure building to end the war in Gaza. In the wake of Israel’s bombing of Qatar this week, pressure is building within the halls of power in the European Union and United States to do more to end the West’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza. The Economist profiles Pedro Sanchez, the socialist prime minister of Spain who has stood out as a bulwark against Trump and Netanyahu’s agendas within the EU. This week, Spain announced nine measures passed by the government to sanction the state of Israel, including a “legal and permanent” arms embargo, denial of Spanish airspace and ports of entry to any vessel carrying weapons, equipment or supplies for Israel’s military, and a significant increase in foreign aid spending for Gaza’s humanitarian aid and recovery. On Thursday, September 11, members of the European Parliament wore red shirts in protest of the European Commission’s complicity in the genocide and urged the body to take stronger measures against Israel. Lush Cosmetics closed all their stores in Ireland Tuesday to protest the genocide”; on Wednesday, they closed all 100 of their stores in the UK, and on Thursday closed their stores in both countries, lining their windows with posters saying “Stop Starving Gaza.” In Genoa, dockworkers have held the line for over a year, refusing and/or blocking the loading of arms on ships in their port; recently, a contingent of workers joined the global Sumud Flotilla that set sail last week to break the Gaza blockade. The Global Sumud Flotilla is a fleet of 50 ships from around the world that set sail for Gaza from Barcelona last week in a mass attempt to break the blockade, after two previous attempts were aggressively turned back and captured by Israeli forces. Early on Tuesday, September 9, one of the ships was struck by a drone attack while in the harbor in Tunis, prompting local protests. A second boat at the Tunisian port was attacked on Wednesday, September 10; video footage shows a projectile hitting the boat, undermining the Tunisian government’s narrative that a simple fire had broken out. Undaunted, the flotilla plans to set sail for Gaza at the end of this week. In the United States, progressive lawmakers renewed calls for an arms embargo on Israel after the Qatari attack showed Netanyahu’s willingness to defy Washington to pursue the Israeli state’s unilateral ambitions; and on Thursday, September 11, Senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen released a 19-page report on their trip to Gaza, concluding that what they saw made it clear that Israel is carrying out a “two-pronged” campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians of the region, through destroying infrastructure on the one hand and “using food and humanitarian assistance as a weapon of war” on the other. Within Israel, the ranks of ‘refusenik’ conscientious objectors are growing rapidly as young people of conscience refuse to show up for military duty, despite the Israeli government instituting harsher punitive measures, including longer prison terms, against resisters. Over 3,500 actors, directors, and other artists in the global film industry have signed on to an international boycott of the Israeli film industry, spurring debate and discussion amongst Israeli filmmakers who find themselves shut out of opportunities in their profession because of the actions of their government. While some, including the Israeli Producers’ Association, oppose the boycott, other artists reflect on their responsibility as atrocities are being carried out in their name; one filmmaker admitted “we aren’t doing enough,” recognizing that the price they are paying with their careers is “worth the chance of bringing an end to the bloodshed and beginning to heal this bloody region.”
House committee releases documents from Epstein estate as bipartisan discharge petition nears passage; Britain’s ambassador to United States fired over Epstein ties. On Monday, September 8, the House Oversight Committee released hundreds of pages of documents it received from the Epstein estate, including the infamous “birthday book” that contained a lewd message signed by Trump. The disclosure, which included new pictures and emails from Epstein’s personal account referencing Trump, appeared to confirm Trump’s close relationship to the sex offender, though Trump continued to deny his involvement. While Senate Republicans blocked Chuck Schumer’s attempt to force a Senate vote to disclose all the files, the addition of new House Democrat James Walkinshaw, who won Virginia’s special election last week in a landslide, edged Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s discharge petition to just one short of the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the House floor. Democrats are hopeful that Adelita Grijalva will win the race for her late father’s seat in the special election on September 23, at which time they will have all the votes they need to confront Mike Johnson with the petition.
The new disclosures had a much bigger impact across the Atlantic, where the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, was sacked by the British government after new emails revealed the ‘depth and extent’ of his ties to Epstein. Documents from the new disclosure revealed a letter written by Mandelson in Epstein’s ‘birthday book’ calling the paedophile “my best pal,” and some of Epstein’s emails from 2008 showed Mandelson urging the child sex trafficker to fight for ‘early release’ as Epstein faced a 18-month sentence for soliciting a minor, including offers to lobby his political contacts in the United States to help Epstein’s case. In addition, financial documents revealed Epstein paid for Mandelson’s travel on at least two occasions in 2003, and emails from 2006 revealed Mandelson had turned to Epstein for help with a “terrible situation” in his personal life; the letter reveals the ambassador pleading with Epstein to “please stick with me” through his predicament. A spokesperson for British PM Keir Starmer said that after reviewing the information, Starmer took “prompt and decisive action” to fire Mandelson from his post, and said the prime minister reportedly found the emails “reprehensible.” The Guardian also reported that Global Counsel, the advisory firm co-founded by Mandelson, is also cutting ties with the disgraced diplomat and selling off Mandelson’s “multimillion-pound stake” in the company.Latest Polls: Trump’s approval woes deepen as polls show public opinion swinging away from authoritarianism towards economic and social justice.
Approval Rating: The New York Times’ daily average shows Trump’s approval rating at 44%, slightly higher than his all-time low posted two weeks ago, possibly lifted by the Charlie Kirk assassination. The Economist’s poll tracker has Trump at an average of 41%, fractionally higher than his mid-August low but still 13 points underwater. G. Elliot Morris points out that not only is Trump’s approval hovering at historic lows, the proportion of voters who “strongly disapprove” of Trump has grown to nearly half of Americans; and the gap between those who “strongly approve” and “strongly disapprove” has dramatically widened, from 2 points at his inauguration to -22 points today. CNN data guru Harry Enten notes that Trump’s approval rating has been underwater for 181 days and counting, and his net approval among two constituencies key to his re-election – Latinos and youth – has dropped by a staggering 30 points since February.
Economy: Paul Krugman points out that much of Hitler’s early success came from his willingness to embrace heterodox methods to spur widespread economic recovery; Trump today is doing the exact opposite, as his tariff regime and historically epic corruption is making life harder for the average American. New polling from the New Republic and Senate Majority PAC finds that 56% of likely voters and 57% of swing voters say Trump’s tariffs are hurting the economy, with 44% saying that the tariffs are hurting a lot. The poll also found that 48% of Americans say tariffs are hurting their personal economic situation, with a paltry 8% saying that it is helping.
Socialism: An AP poll released this week showed that a remarkable 66% of registered Democrats have a positive view of socialism, as opposed to only 44% who see capitalism favorably. Younger Democrats under 30 have emphatically soured on capitalism, with positive views on capitalism falling nearly 20 points since 2021 to an all-time low of 31%. The poll also found that only 37% of all adults have a positive view of big business, down from 49% in 2010. As the Democratic Party faces deep divides over its direction, Zohran Mamdani’s runaway success in polling for the New York mayoral race is perhaps a telling, or as Harold Meyerson opines, “screaming” sign to the party mainstream.
Presidential Power: A Reuters poll this week shows that a substantial majority of the public favors limits on presidential power and disapproves of Trump’s efforts to shatter longstanding norms. Voters “overwhelmingly” want Trump to abide by court rulings, with 90% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans saying Trump should respect judicial decisions even if he disagrees with them. A CBS News poll on Trump’s deployment of the military to cities found that though the numbers varied widely between the parties on whether the federal government should be occupying Washington D.C., 61% of all voters would oppose a federal military takeover of their city. 67% believe Trump is trying to increase his presidential powers, while only 18% believe it is good for the country.
Upcoming Protests.
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.
Sunday, September 14: Portland anti-ICE activists will be throwing an all-day block party to celebrate 100 days of continuous protest against ICE at the local ICE headquarters at 4310 S. Macadam Avenue in Portland. More information can be found on Bluesky.
Monday, September 15: #TeslaTakedown activists in California are urging CalPERS pension fund holders as well as the general public to attend the CalPERS Board Meeting online or in-person in Sacramento to make a public comment urging the Board to divest from Tesla. More information on the event can be found at this link on Indybay.
Monday, September 15: Activists in San Francisco will be protesting against Palantir co-founder and technofascist Peter Thiel’s 4-part speaking engagement on the Antichrist at the Commonwealth Club at the Embarcadero starting on September 15. Organizers are also urging the public to send a letter to the Commonwealth Club urging them to give no platform to Thiel’s extreme right-wing views. More information on the protest and letter campaign can be found at Bay Resistance.
September 9-16: The “We Are America” march will be taking a 160-mile journey with a copy of the U.S. Constitution from Independence Hall in Philadelphia to the steps of the Capitol in Washington D.C. Neighbors along the way are invited to join for a rally, a family picnic, a teach-in, a mile, a day, or all the way to Washington, to send a strong message to the administration that communities will stand together and fight together for our democracy. More information and a signup form can be found at WeAreAmericaMarch.com .
Thursday, September 18: The No Kings Coalition will be holding a Mass Mobilization Kick-Off Call for people who are interested in helping to organize the next No Kings 2 protest scheduled for October 18. More information and a Zoom signup can be found at this link.
Saturday, September 20: 350.org, the Women’s March, and over 100 endorsing organizations are organizing a national Day of Action to Make Billionaires Pay, to coincide with the U.N. General Assembly meeting and Climate Action Week in New York City. More information on local actions can be found at MakeBillionairesPay.US.
Thursday, September 25: The Democracy Collaborative, the People’s Network for Land and Liberation, Glór na Móna, and Trademark Belfast will present a transatlantic 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 Irish Republican and civil rights movements 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. To register, 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.
