By Robert Reich

The Trump regime is using the specter of socialism to make America even more authoritarian. The regime will lose.

Friends,

When Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem unleashed her ICE shock troops on Los Angeles last month, she said: “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist” leaders.

Minutes later, California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from the press conference and put in …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

credit: Getty Images

Dolly Parton is a national treasure, no question. Or as they say these days, “full stop.” She is this week’s reason to smile. Honestly, I smile every time I hear one of her songs.

Parton is a singer, actor, musician, and songwriter, but it is songwriting that she professes to be her true “joy.” She has written upward of 3,000 songs during her 60-plus year career.

…

By Robert Reich

Friends,

I’m old enough to remember when corporate lobbyists swarmed Capitol Hill. I also remember when half the members of Congress who retired got lucrative lobbying jobs taking their old chums out for meals or drinks and selling them on whatever the corporate backers wanted.

No longer. Now, the lobbying business is all about sucking up to Trump.

Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol calls it “competitive sycophancy,” in which

“competing sets of people …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

(credit: Getty Images).

It comes as no surprise that Donald Trump doesn’t think a special prosecutor is needed for the Jeffrey Epstein case. That announcement on Thursday is the latest Trump tactic to kill this story. But with every move to explain away his lack of action in releasing the files of a child sexual predator, who once was a close friend of Trump, his base grows more enraged. …

By Robert Reich

Friends,

Anyone wanting to understand the brouhaha over Pam Bondi’s refusal to turnover (or even acknowledge) the Epstein files need look no further than what the Supreme Court just did.

In McMahon v. New York the Supremes gave Trump a simple way to revoke federal spending authorized by Congress: just fire everyone responsible for implementing that spending.

The high court is allowing Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to fire over half …

Who are these ICE creeps wearing masks? When did officers of the law stop showing badges? Why are we letting this un-american activity continue? Because our president is un-american? That’s who we are today. We are un-american. We are too good to do something bad.

By Robert Reich

When do he and his followers think America was "great?"

Friends,

The question is no longer whether Trump wants to roll back America to an earlier time. The question I hear debated is when? What period of American history is he trying to recapture? When was America “great?” in his and his followers’ view?

I’ve spoken to a variety of American historians, political scientists, and social psychologists about this and received several …

By Robert Reich

Friends,

I’m receiving an increasing number of messages from some of you who are concerned about me. Please don’t be.

Some are concerned about my safety. “You’re speaking out so much and so visibly that they’ll try to get rid of you,” one of you warns.

I assure you I won’t take unnecessary risks. But I’m not going to stop speaking out.

Others of you are concerned about my health. “You’re writing …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

L-R: George Michael of Wham, promoter Harvey Goldsmith, Bono of U2, Paul McCartney, and Queen’s Freddie Mercury (credit: Getty Images).

Today we celebrate a once-in-a-lifetime concert that took place 40 years ago this weekend. It was all in the name of helping people on the other side of the world simply because it was the right thing to do.

The concert was Live Aid, a two-venue, 16-hour event that …

By Robert Reich

Why Miller, Vought, Bondi, Patel, Noem, Vance, Kennedy Jr., Rubio, and Hegseth are amplifying his cruelty

Friends,

The conventional explanation for why Trump’s second term is far more extreme than his first (which was extreme enough) is that the guardrails are now gone.

The people who occupied significant roles in the White House and Cabinet during his first administration — who talked him out of (or subverted) his illegal and unconstitutional cravings …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

(credit: Getty Images).

The “Big Ugly Bill” that just passed by Congress should be a big red flag for the Democratic Party and those who want to see Donald Trump taken down a notch in the midterm elections.

It’s not just the price of the bill or the damage it will do, but Republican voters, infrequent voters, and those who aren’t big news consumers are intentionally being left in …

By Robert Reich

Not to reduce the federal debt.

Friends,

“The America Party is needed to fight the Republican/Democrat Uniparty,” Elon Musk posted on X, announcing that he’s forming a third party.

Does America need a third party? Possibly, for a reason I’ll get to in a moment.

But America doesn’t need a third party financed by the richest person in the world, who sank a quarter of a billion dollars into making Trump president …

By Robert Reich

What will it take for most Americans to demand an end to Trump’s dictatorship?

Friends,

I keep asking myself when Trump’s authoritarian fascism will become so intolerable to the vast majority of Americans that they rise up against it — not only massively protest but put enough pressure on Republicans in Congress that they join with Democrats in impeaching and convicting him.

In other words, what’s the tipping point for ridding us …

By Robert Reich

He can be stopped only with people power

Friends,

Never before in American history, not even in wartime, has one man exercised such unbridled discretion affecting the lives of so many of us, while simultaneously preventing others — Congress, the courts, the American people — from having a say or even knowing what he’s going to do next.

Yesterday he sent ICE agents and National Guard troops into Los Angeles, over the …

By Robert Reich

It’s part of the Big Ugly Bill just signed into law, and it will be evident very soon.

Friends,

Trump’s Big Ugly Bill delivers $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement.

This is on the scale of supplemental budgets passed by the United States when we enter war.

ICE will add 10,000 agents to the 20,000 already on the streets.

Its annual budget for detentions will skyrocket from $3.4 billion in the …

By Robert Reich

As we slide further into a dysfunctional police state

Friends,

The United States government is no longer able to protect us from real hazards, such as flash floods, because it’s shifting funds to fake hazards, such as a non-existent immigrant crime wave.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been stripped down so much it can barely respond to emergencies, yet it’s funding detention centers such as “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades.

…

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

Donald Trump tours a new immigrant detention facility in South Florida (credit: Getty Images).

While still a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle, Elon Musk said out loud what would become a mantra for the new administration: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”

That sentence perfectly and horrifically captures the ethos of Trump and most of today’s Republican Party.

Look no further than the “big beautiful bill,” …

Tom Joad

How Cruelty Became the Default

It began with petty refusals. A man claimed the last empty chair with his laptop bag, as if he’d already decided the room was his. An old woman stood beside him,waiting, patient, unseen. No one moved. That small withholding, the fixed stare at a screen, the practiced indifference, was more than discourtesy. It was structure. A kind of syntax. A moral grammar made not of what is said, …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

credit: Getty Images

This is one of the times in our nation's history when patriotism is essential. Not the hot-dog-and-fireworks kind of patriotism, but, on this Fourth of July, patriotism that calls on all of us to vigorously defend the right to question authority.

On this revered American holiday, which celebrates a rebellion for freedom, we must pay close attention to an authoritarian leader hell-bent on destroying a bedrock …

By Robert Reich

What Trump, Vance, Stefanik, and Viktor Orban have in common

Friends,

Under pressure from the Trump administration, the University of Virginia’s president of nearly seven years, James Ryan, stepped down Friday, declaring that while he was committed to the university and inclined to fight, he could not in good conscience push back just to save his job.

The Department of Justice demanded that Ryan resign in order to resolve an investigation into …

By Robert Reich

The real crisis we are living through

Friends,

During a three-hour interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan some months ago, Elon Musk revealed the core of the ideology animating the richest person in the world.

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,” Musk said, adding that liberals and progressives are “exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”

Musk pointed to California’s move to provide medical insurance even …

By Robert Reich

Trump’s giant budget-busting, Medicaid-shattering, shafting-the-poor-and-working-class, making-the-rich-even richer bill is a travesty.

Friends,

One of my objectives in this daily letter is to equip you with the facts you need. As the Senate approaches a vote on Trump’s giant “big beautiful” tax and budget bill, I want to be as clear as possible about it.

First, it will cost a budget-busting $3.3 trillion. According to new estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

Credit: Getty Images

This song was written almost 60 years ago, but “God Only Knows” seems an appropriate title for our current state of affairs, doesn’t it?

On this Sunday, we’d like to celebrate the extraordinary life of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, who wrote the song. Wilson passed away earlier this month, but what an extraordinary library of great music he left for us. Please take a few …

By Sarah Kendzior

A spark of hope in a limbo that feels like hell.

We are at war with Iran, we are not at war with Iran. Federal lands are for sale, the sale of federal lands is prohibited. The tariffs are back, the tariffs are over. Foreign students are banned, foreign students can stay. Trump rebuffs Israel, Trump will defend Israel to the death.

To the death, to our death: the threat of death …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

credit: Getty Images.

You might not think a Democratic primary for New York City mayor would hold much national import. In most election cycles, you would be right. In 2025, you would be mistaken.

No doubt New Yorkers have a mind of their own when it comes to their politics and politicians, but when a democratic socialist wins the Democratic mayoral nomination in the world capital of capitalism, it’s …

By Robert Reich

He’s on the way to becoming mayor of New York City

Friends,

Leave it to the Democratic Party to snatch existential crisis from the jaws of electoral victory.

The stunning success of 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, in the race for New York City mayor is causing anguish in the Democratic Party.

It’s one thing for Trump to call Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic.” That’s to be expected from the …

NYA Thanks @forbesnotes!

By Robert Reich

What's really going on

Friends,

Trump’s decision to strike Iran without congressional authorization has renewed debate over Congress’s constitutional role in the use of American forces.

At almost every turn, Trump is usurping powers that the Constitution reserves to Congress — not just the power to go to war but also the power to set tariffs, the power to appropriate and spend public funds, and the power to create and oversee the …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

credit: Getty Images.

Watching Donald Trump deliver the news of an American attack on Iran Saturday night, I wondered how many viewers had the same reaction I did: How can the United States be going to war — and that’s exactly what it is — with advisers whose collective experience managing international conflict is see-through thin?

There was Trump, a draft dodger who has long derided the military, surrounded …

By Robert Reich

What's really going on

Friends,

One of my goals in writing this letter to you every day is to alert you to dangers to our democracy so you can alert others, who then alert others, and by this means we enlarge and strengthen our bulwark against the tide of fascism.

Wars pose particular challenges to democracy because nations at war often become more xenophobic and willing to give those in power extra …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

Credit: Getty Images

It is graduation season, which means the internet is chock-a-block with funny, inspiring, and moving clips of commencement addresses from around the country. These speeches, often given by celebrities, politicians, and/or alumni, always offer advice, much of which will soon be forgotten.

That won’t be the case for graduates of Northwestern University.

Actor and comedian Steve Carell, who is the parent of both a current Northwestern …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

Credit: Getty Images

How did we go from zero to the brink of war in one week?

Wasn’t Trump the candidate who promised to make America great again by ending “endless wars?” Yes, he was. And didn’t he claim he would settle the Russia-Ukraine war in “24-hours” upon assuming office. Yes, again. Just yesterday a Russian missile attack flattened a civilian apartment block in Kyiv, 150 days after Trump …

By Robert Reich

A reflection on Juneteenth

Friends,

The Supreme Court recent unanimous ruling in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services hasn’t got nearly the attention it deserves.

On the surface, the ruling seems innocent enough. The Court merely decided that white and straight employees who allege they’ve been discriminated against don't need to meet a higher standard of proof than do Black or LGBTQ+ employees who sue for discrimination under Title VII of …

By Robert Reich

Democrats should not play on Republican turf

Friends,

Apologies for the length of today’s letter, but this is vitally important.

Some leading Democrats are now engaged in what’s being called the “Great Un-awokening.”

Former Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel calls Democrats “weak and woke.”

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who is Black, vetoes a bill passed by his Democratic-dominated state legislature that took steps toward reparations.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom calls …

BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

Credit: Getty Images

Yesterday millions of you got off your couches and into your communities to rally for democracy and protest the presidency of Donald Trump. The mass mobilization “No Kings” was dubbed “a nationwide day of defiance.” That alone is a big reason to smile. But we have another.

“No Kings” is a double entendre: First, many of Trump’s unilateral and dubious actions are more king-like than president-like. …

By Robert Reich

Trump is trying to turn our army into a domestic army of occupation — into neo-redcoats.

Friends,

“No Kings” Day tomorrow rightly connects Trump’s rule with George III’s monarchical rule, against which the patriots of 1775 rebelled.

Trump’s attack on immigrants has metastasized into the start of a monarchical police state.

He has deployed over 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to patrol Los Angeles, although the state’s governor and the …