Those cases and our over 300 other legal matters at Democracy Defenders Fund and Action are helping light the way, thanks to you. That’s because your paid subscriptions help fund my and my pro-democracy colleagues’ fights in the courts of law. Those paid subscriptions also support our award-winning Contrarian journalism in the court of public opinion. If you are not a paid subscriber, we welcome you to become one at only $7 a month and power our fight in both those courts.

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As I told Peter Baker for his top-of-the fold New York Times story pointing to our work, defiance is rising. There has been a decided thaw in the climate of fear of Trump over the past year and a half. To be sure, a minority of dissenters stood strong from the get go: independent media like The Contrarian, civil society groups such as Democracy Defenders and our numerous allies, the labor movement and other clients we have represented, state attorneys general who we have litigated with, the lower federal courts who answered the call, Never Trump conservative leaders, and others.

But in the first year of Trump’s return, that felt like the exception, not the rule. No longer. As we and our allies have won more and more and Trump has lost again and again, things have changed. Recent weeks have been an inflection point.

Just look at our docket this week alone. It kicked off on Monday with breaking news about one of the landmark First Amendment wins of the Trump era. Representing Attiah, a star journalist, we challenged the Washington Post’s attempt to characterize her commentary as a journalist and opinion editor as “gross misconduct.” An independent arbitrator ruled that Attiah was wrongly terminated and ordered that she be reinstated at the Post with full back pay.

You can’t have an authoritarian like Trump without enablers like Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post and the shameful act of anticipatory obedience represented by firing her in cowardice because she dared tackle the complexity surrounding the heinous killing of Charlie Kirk, daring to talk about how wrong that was but also who he was and the gun violence crisis in our country and who is responsible for it. To Baker’s point, Attiah was defiant, and so were we in representing her with her union, the Washington Post Newspaper Guild — and the arbitrator certainly called it as she saw it.

Building on that First Amendment win, this week we filed a lawsuit on behalf of Stars and Stripes journalists to stop the Department of Defense from unlawfully firing them. These journalists were simply defending the independence of this storied military newspaper and insisting that it remain free from political influence, particularly in the wake of Pentagon pressure to punish those responsible for reporting on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Hegseth is among Trump’s worst enablers in the Cabinet (which is really saying something), and our journalist clients are standing up to that. We are proud to represent them alongside our incredible partners at Lawyers for Good Government, the Government Accountability Project, and Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic.

Speaking of defiance in the face of Trump’s enablers, this was another big week in your and our fight to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. When we started our incredible, over-5,000-strong Block the Merger coalition, the mega mashup was viewed as a done deal even though it could cost over 15,000 jobs and threatens the First Amendment, media pluralism, and democracy itself. Then coalition helped build the momentum for state attorney generals to sue. And now we are supporting them in holding firm in enforcing antitrust law, going to trial, and winning structural remedies.

We were grateful to the leader of the AG’s group, Rob Bonta of California, for standing up to what he described as Paramount’s “leaking and lying” about settlement discussions that were supposed to start this past Monday, shutting them down because of those shenanigans, and hanging tough. To back him up, our Block the Merger coalition launched a major new “No Concessions“ campaign to thank and support him and the other 11 AGs who are suing. No unenforceable settlements will do.

Another example of unequivocally rejecting illegality is our work in the Kennedy Center case on behalf of our heroic client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), with our Democracy Defenders and Washington Litigation Group colleagues. As we explained last week, the Kennedy Center board jammed through a proposal to put Trump’s name back on the facade, adding “Restored and Renovated by Donald J. Trump” to the name of the building and renaming the grounds the Donald J. Trump Plaza — in defiance of the court’s order — and said it was going to start implementing this plan on September 8.

Then this week, Trump threatened to literally demolish the Kennedy Center if he can’t get his way. It’s more like a mob threat than a legitimate legal argument — and though it’s supremely childish, it’s also just the latest thuggish maneuver we’ve seen from Trump’s government.

We immediately raced to court, requesting an emergency hearing and an injunction to stop Trump before he could do more damage. That emergency hearing on Thursday was a doozy. Before the hearing, word traveled through the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — whose wife is on the board of the Kennedy Center — would attend the hearing and talk to the press. Though one would think the Commerce Secretary would be busy trying to salvage his collapsing trade talks with Canada, he apparently instead was more focused on boosting the president’s ego. And sure enough, Lutnick sat in the first row of the gallery behind the government.

But the real action began moments later, when the hearing began. The judge immediately indicated the first of many issues he had with the government: Why is the administration insisting on taking action on September 8? What’s the rush? The government had no answer. After our further prodding, the government finally conceded and filed notice right after the hearing ended that it would push back implementing its plan for at least another month — a crucial win to stop the government from wrecking the Kennedy Center before the court has a chance to rule.

The pummeling didn’t stop there. The judge continued hammering away, stopping the government lawyers in their tracks as they tried to pontificate about the dire straits of the Kennedy Center and the wonders of the president’s special powers. With a look of polite annoyance, Judge Christopher Cooper pointed out that this argument, which also took up pages of the government’s brief, had nothing to do with the question at hand: what Congress intended in the statutes governing the Kennedy Center.

When the government finally turned to the substance, Cooper appeared to find those arguments equally wanting. The Justice Department argued that it could name the plaza after Trump because that wasn’t technically part of the Kennedy Center (literally the building itself), so it didn’t violate the law expressly stating that the center is a memorial for President John F. Kennedy only. But Cooper asked if, under that theory, would it be legal for every sliver of the Kennedy Center complex to be named after other presidents or donors — a Barack Obama parking garage, a George W. Bush campus. As Cooper said, “The whole thing would be for sale, basically.” The government didn’t disagree.

That colloquy gave away the whole game. If a memorial center designed to commemorate one president is surrounded, on its own complex, by scores of parcels named after other people — including donors — that would necessarily dilute the tribute to Kennedy, contrary to Congress’s statutory mandate.

And on and on it went. One of Cooper’s sharp questions even drew laughs from the gallery, when he pointed out that if there is a fund named the “Trump Kennedy Center Fund” — another bone of contention, which we are challenging — that surely implies that there is something called the “Trump Kennedy Center,” which would seemingly be a direct violation of his earlier ruling. The government faltered yet again in providing a reasonable answer.

With the government’s concession that it will leave well enough alone in September, the judge will have time to digest our arguments and emerge with a carefully reasoned decision. We are confident that we will ultimately prevail, just as we did last time.

These victories, Contrarians, are yours — powered by your paid subscriptions. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we hope you will consider becoming one to support these legal matters and cases and the excellent journalism at the Contrarian, including the best from this week, as shown below.

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March on Washington 2026

We Marched for Freedom in 1963. In 2026, the Job Still Isn’t Finished.

To mark Friday’s March on Washington, Tianna Mays and Diamond Brown wrote on how the inequities driving the 1963 March on Washington are all too present today. “Sixty-three years later, we know that progress can be reversed, rights can be stripped away, and democracy can be weakened.”

Defend the Vote. Sustain the People.

Michael Franklin considered what events like the March on Washington — past and present — say about what works in the fight for democracy and civil rights, and what (or who) is sometimes left out of the conversation. “Marches like this can create a standard we should bring to our organizing.”

The Tea ft. LaTosha Brown, Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter Fund

April Ryan spoke with Latosha Brown about what the 63rd March on Washington means, mobilizing Black voters going forward, and new reports on ICE facilities. “We have to get beyond this idea of believing that our communities are separate. Understand: we have a common enemy and we’re going to have to use our power. We have people power.”

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we have coverage of Friday’s March as well as protests in Texas, Oregon, Tennessee, and more. See marchonwashington2026.com for more on Friday’s action and what we can do next to protect voting rights, civil rights, and fight for economic justice. And see this week’s

Calls to Action for more ways to keep democracy from being a spectator sport.

Elections & Voting

Democrats Bounce Back in the Heartland

Jen Rubin gave us a report on how the Trump show is playing for MAGA candidates nationwide. “Trump can insult voters by claiming affordability is a hoax, but rural voters … know that diesel and fertilizer prices have soared, rural hospitals are closing, and tariffs have decimated farm sales.”

Annie Andrews Wants to Flip South Carolina

On the podcast this week, Tim Dickinson spoke with Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee for Senate in South Carolina, about what’s driving her run to give voters a real choice against self-proclaimed policy non-expert Darline Graham. “This election, I believe, is going to come down to two issues: affordability and healthcare.”

Atlanta Was the Only Choice for the 2028 DNC. As Usual, Democrats Blew It

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the DNC’s missed opportunity to take the 2028 convention south as evidence of the party’s “organizational incompetence” — and worse. “The Democratic Party doesn’t deserve Abrams or Black voters in the South. The continued disregard for the backbone of its voting base shows how racism has hindered Democrats’ ceiling.”

Fear Tactics, Real Violence

The Federal Agent in the Pew Is the Point

Omar H. Noureldin wrote on the systematic surveillance-as-intimidation of Minnesotan immigration activists — which included, according to newly-unveiled court filings, undercover officers posing as protesters and monitoring meetings at churches, parks, libraries, and schools. “The agent in the pew does not have to arrest anyone if everyone becomes afraid to sit down.”

Strange Fruit, Still. Still.

Shalise Manza Young gave us a searing investigation of the persistence and resurgence of a national horror. “Reportedly, at least seven Black people have been discovered hanged this calendar year; in almost all of them, local law enforcement quickly ruled them suicides before an autopsy had been performed and without any real investigation into the circumstances.”

Make America Unhealthy

Heidi Overton and the Overton Window

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on Trump’s newly-announced plan to nominate Heidi Overton as head of the Food and Drug Administration. She’s an anti-abortion, anti-gender affirming care, anti-vax anti-expert who “indicates the administration’s further normalization of gutting healthcare and drug safety.”

We’re Preparing to Send Measles Back to Kindergarten

Jeff Nesbit wrote on a back-to-school season in which classrooms nationwide will be less than immune to once-rare diseases. “Across the country, roughly 280,000 children are entering school without documentation of completing their two-dose measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) series.”

Spoiled Systems

Child Labor Violations Are On The Rise. Some States Are Making It Worse.

Veronica Goodman wrote on the alarming, yet unsurprising, lax enforcement of child labor laws under the Trump administration — and how some states are responding better than others. “Between 2016 and 2025, the number of child labor violations spiked by 54 percent.”

Latinos Back Efforts to Block the Paramount-Warner Merger

Roman Palomares and Juan Proaño of LULAC wrote on how Latino and Hispanic communities — nearly 49 percent of Los Angeles — will disproportionately bear the consequences

of the proposed Paramount-Warner merger. “Every studio absorbed by a rival is one fewer buyer for a script, one fewer employer for a crew, and one fewer distributor willing to bet on a story its franchise slate does not need.”

The Trump Administration’s March to the Spoils System

Max Stier wrote on the White House’s efforts to dismantle the merit-based, nonpartisan system that has long managed the nation’s 2 million civil servants — subjecting us all to “diminished public services, weaker oversight, the likelihood of increased corruption, and a less effective and responsive government.”

Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on what no one asked for (Ballroom Dancing, Michael de Adder; What Are You Getting in Trump’s America?, Nick Anderson), what anyone could have predicted (Economic D-Day, Nick Anderson; Aim, Misfire, Ready, Michael de Adder; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling), and what everyone mourned (A Life of Many Colors, Michael de Adder; ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning’, RJ Matson).

Dolly Parton’s Greatest Legacy Was Her Giving

Meredith Blake remembered the country music icon through her lifelong dedication to using her wealth and status to make the world a better place, including donating over 300 million books to children, funding life-saving vaccines, uplifting LGBT activism, and much more. See also Meredith’s piece from October on the one American hero we can all agree on: We Will Always Love You, Dolly Parton.

Let’s start with the fight over the naming of the Kennedy Center. You will recall that our successful litigation to get Donald Trump’s name off that building was powered by you, Contrarians. Now he and his handpicked cronies on the board are defying the court’s decision by again saying they will add Trump’s name to the center. An Aug. 13 resolution “calls for (1) the inscription ‘Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump’ to be placed under President Kennedy’s name on the Center’s façade, (2) the inscription ‘Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund’ to be placed under the first inscription, and (3) the site of the Kennedy Center to be named the ‘President Donald J. Trump Plaza.’”

Congress created the Kennedy Center to honor John F. Kennedy — and no one else. And, with your support, Contrarians, we are going to keep it that way. Representing Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), my Democracy Defenders colleagues and our Washington Litigation group co-counsel immediately filed papers seeking an emergency stay, and the judge has just ordered a hearing for Thursday.

We already won on this issue, and we are confident of success again. That is, of course, thanks to you. Because the Contrarian is independent, all profits go to help support pro-democracy litigation like this. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one to help us win the Kennedy Center case and so many others.

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Another ongoing cultural matter your paid subscriptions are helping to support is blocking the Paramount-Warner merger being pushed by Trump cronies Larry and David Ellison. This week proved that California Attorney General Rob Bonta is not flinching, including in a remarkable and principled series of public comments. He and his AG colleagues should hang tough in talks with Paramount reportedly taking place next week — and every indication is that they will. Our democracy is on the line.

Let’s review how we got here. The Ellisons are seeking a mega mashup of two of the biggest players spanning movies and cable. They shamelessly cozied up to Trump before and during the approval process. DOJ antitrust experts reportedly had concerns with the deal, as well they should: It is bad for audiences and artists alike, and will cost thousands of jobs. Those are precisely the kind of harms from over-consolidation that antitrust law exists to prevent. Nevertheless, Trump DOJ higher-ups approved it.

That’s where you come in, Contrarians. Thanks to the support provided by your paid subscriptions, my pro-democracy colleagues and I helped lead the way in building the #BlockTheMerger movement.

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Together with wonderful partners, including the Committee for the First Amendment, we launched #BlockTheMerger. Thousands of entertainment and news industry leaders responded, from movie stars and news anchors to key grips and makeup artists. They called on state AGs to step in and enforce antitrust laws. Twelve AG heroes, led by Bonta, answered by filing suit and winning preliminary relief, delaying the merger pending a trial next year. The success the states have already had with Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín reflects the strength of their case.

Rocked by all this, the Ellisons are striking back with the tools at their disposal: money, special interest influence, and their fellow fat cats. Allied billionaires like Ari Emanuel, whose TKO has a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, argue that the lawsuit is rooted in partisan politics and is an affront to the First Amendment. But that’s sophistry. As Bonta’s office put it, this is a “clear-cut antitrust case.” The crux of the case is economic: who gets richer, who gets laid off, and whether a handful of plutocrats will be able to consolidate even more power over America’s entertainment and news industries.

Contrary to the propaganda that the Ellisons and their self-interested billionaire buddies like Emanuel are pushing, the merger would undoubtedly lead to further job losses. This would be devastating for an industry that has already lost roughly one-third of its workforce, about 42,000 jobs, over the past five years. A new analysis from Los Angeles County says that the merger could put at risk more than 10,000 jobs and result in $1.26 billion in lost wages for workers. And Ellison has already demonstrated that jobs are secondary to his desire to seize power for himself, after he threatened to rip the company out of California — even though Paramount and Warner have been a core part of that state for over a century — if the AGs refuses to negotiate, a move Bonta described as “blackmail.”

The money versus the many: It’s a terrible look for the Ellisons. Perhaps that is why in recent days, a nonprofit group called Neighbors for Strong Communities launched a campaign targeting Californians with messages supporting the merger and urging them to pressure Bonta to drop the lawsuit. Incorporated this summer, the group has no board, founders, and no staff, and it refuses to disclose its funders. As our colleagues at The Committee for the First Amendment succinctly put it, “These are classic hallmarks of a corporate-backed astroturf campaign designed to manufacture the appearance of grassroots opposition.”

I wouldn’t make too much of Friday’s news that the AGs and Paramount are meeting next week. Meetings between plaintiffs and defendants are routine across the life of a case. Though it is true that other California politicians — including Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass — have been urging a meeting, both have backtracked on any suggestion that they unconditionally support a weak settlement. Moreover, Bonta remains steadfast in his commitment to pursuing the legal challenge. When asked about the broader Ellison effort to pressure him, Bonta dismissed the attempts as “desperate” and said that “it seems like they are grasping at straws.” And here’s what he had to say in response to a request for comment on reports of his upcoming meeting with Paramount:

As I’ve said before, generally for all of my cases, I prefer to resolve disputes in the boardroom, not the courtroom. As I’ve also said, if the opposing party in litigation wants to meet in good faith to make a sincere effort to resolve the case, we’ll meet. And as I have further said, any potential discussions about the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger will be unproductive absent robust structural remedies on the table that address our concerns. As it stands today, the proposed Warner Bros./Paramount merger will mean higher costs, less competition, lower wages, job cuts, and fewer movies and TV shows. This merger violates long-standing federal antitrust law, and we are committed to enforcing the law.

Your paid subscriptions, Contrarians, help pay for these matters and more than 300 others. It’s the best bargain in journalism, because you also get all the great news and opinion from The Contrarian, as you can see with the best of the week’s coverage below.

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Elections & What Comes Next

Democrats Are Left with Two Primary Lessons

Jennifer Rubin wrote on what we should take away from a primary season that has seen no small amount of infighting between left and center Democrats and what it all says about our chances this fall and beyond. “It’s time to come together — and for others to plan to get out of the way.”

Four Things Democrats Can Do with a Majority in Congress

Tom Malinowski laid out an agenda for empowered Democrats to hit the ground running. “The mission … will be to keep things from getting worse and to restore checks and balances, so that the long process of renewal can begin.”

Dems Are Assembling a Big Tent in Florida

On the podcast this week, meet two candidates with real momentum to turn Florida blue. Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon’s $975k campaign beat a $16.2 million campaign to secure the U.S. Senate nomination, while David Jolly secured the gubernatorial nomination in a landslide. How did they do it? “Voters tell us what they want.”

ICE Watch

No One Can Keep ICE’s Escalating Abuses out of the News

Ciera Stone wrote on how, despite Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s best efforts to operate under the radar, ICE’s brutality is too plain to be ignored. “If the Trump administration really wants ICE out of the headlines, it needs to stop these Gestapo-style operations and heed demands for oversight, accountability, and reform. Or, maybe, just retire the agency altogether.”

Detention Deaths and Shock Gloves: ICE Violence Continues to Escalate

Tim Dickinson spoke with Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, about the new executive order on birthright citizenship, how ICE’s human rights abuses continue to escalate with recent deaths at the Delaney Detention Center in New Jersey, and much more.

Big Tech Trouble

Trump Just Gave Corporations a License to Hack

Brian O’Neill considered a new policy under which private companies can conduct cyber operations against foreign actors on the government’s behalf — opening up a dangerous new regulatory can of worms. “What happens when something designed for exceptional cases becomes routine?”

Children in the Machine

Reuben Steiger wrote on the outdated internet safety laws — drafted largely before the year 2000 — that no longer stand up to protecting children in an era in which a majority of teens report regular interaction with an AI “companion.” “The transition from [a bot] providing emotional support to encouraging self-harm can happen all too quickly.”

Memo to Democrats: Your Anti-Big Tech Majority Is There for the Taking

Ami Fields-Meyer wrote on the popular backlash against data centers as a golden opportunity for Democrats to become standard-bearers in demanding the Big Tech regulation most Americans want. “Moments when the public suddenly sees and feels the consequences of unchecked corporate power are rare.”

Fighting Back

March on Washington; Stop ICE Shock Gloves

In our latest Calls to Action: get ready for the next March on Washington, happening August 28; join the ACLU in Minnesota to protest the state surveillance of activists; contact your representatives to oppose ICE’s heinous new electric-shock gloves; stand up for better conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln; and more ways to get involved.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests in Washington, Mississippi, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, and elsewhere, with Americans standing up for Big Bend, Saying No to Flock, and much more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf gave us some much-needed glimmers of good news in the fight to protect reproductive rights — which, she says, looks a lot like the swell in activism before Roe v. Wade. “Nearly 50 years later, the Dobbs decision brought a devastating reversal. But it simultaneously ushered in a moment akin to 1972 — the opportunity to reimagine bodily autonomy and build something better.”

Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on confirmed cowards (The Negotiating Table, Nick Anderson), toxic lovers (Tunnel of Love, Nick Anderson), brutal hypocrites (The New Hands-On Policy, Nick Anderson; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling), and rank amateurs (At the Big Kids’ Table, Michael de Adder).

On the Ground with Doctors in Gaza

Meredith Blake wrote on the documentary American Doctor, which takes viewers inside a beleaguered hospital in Gaza where physicians from the United States treat Palestinians under harrowing conditions. Says one doctor: “I approach it as an American, as a humanitarian, as a doctor, as a witness.”

Like the Trump Administration, Adam Silver’s NBA Wants You to Disregard Journalism

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the NBA’s farcical recent investigation of Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, which both found no evidence of wrongdoing and managed to involve attacking multiple credible journalists.

It’s been a summer of profound discontent for Donald Trump. As his poll numbers keep dwindling and he flounders in his war of choice in Iran, he continues to suffer a series of bodyblows in the courts, hampering his attempts to break the law, weaponize his power to punish the innocent, and use the government as a personal piggybank. Every step of the way, Democracy Defenders Fund and Action — supported by you, our dear Contrarians — has been meeting him and delivering defeat after defeat. Now, staggering from the shellacking, Trump is trying to resuscitate many of these cases. But he will meet the same fate.

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Perhaps the most embarrassing flop has been right in Trump’s backyard, where the Reflecting Pool fiasco continues. We at Democracy Defenders Fund, along with our co-counsel Washington Litigation Group and Steptoe LLC, represent Davey Hearn, the decorated Olympian who was falsely blamed for damage at the Reflecting Pool. The Department of Justice charged Davey with a felony, threatening him with jail for doing nothing wrong. The case was finally dismissed last week, after Jeanine Pirro admitted they didn’t have evidence to support the charges and that the damage to the pool was because of contractor failure — a contractor selected by the Trump administration without the normal competitive bidding process.

But even after the case was dismissed, Trump and his acolytes, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, have continued to bash our client and promote the false narrative that vandalism, rather than shoddy construction work, is to blame for the mess. And this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice is looking into potentially bringing new charges against Davey. So, on Thursday night, we filed our latest brief, further demonstrating why the court needs to dismiss these charges with prejudice. If the case is dismissed without prejudice, as the government wants, that leaves open the possibility that the government could bring this case back, even after its damning admissions. As we said in our brief, “The record in this case demonstrates a substantial and specific risk that, if the indictment is dismissed without prejudice, Mr. Hearn will face renewed charges, however meritless, driven by political pressure rather than the evidence.”

That’s why Norm Eisen and I, along with our colleagues representing Davey, will be back in court in Washington, D.C., on September 4 fighting to make sure this case is closed for good.

This tussle comes on the heels of two other seminal victories that we, with our partners, secured against Trump at the Supreme Court this term: his unconstitutional attempt to outlaw birthright citizenship and his illegal endeavor to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Trump’s effort to unconstitutionally rewrite the 14th Amendment by fiat and eradicate our nation’s bedrock principle of birthright citizenship was one of the central missions of his administration. He signed an executive order purporting to outlaw birthright citizenship on day one of his second term. But, just minutes later, we were in court with our wonderful colleagues to defend this essential constitutional protection. We immediately secured an injunction to prevent the order from going into effect, and after a winding road, with Trump fighting vigorously for this cruel and unlawful policy, we argued the case before the Supreme Court — and won. The court affirmed that the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause puts “the question of citizenship ‘once and forever [to] rest.’”

But, failing to take the hint, Trump has come back with another EO targeting birthright citizenship. And within moments, we went right back to court to stop that dead in its tracks and ensure that the protections currently in place — which the Supreme Court just affirmed — continue to protect all our clients and babies born in the United States.

And finally, after our second Supreme Court victory against Donald Trump this term, in which the court ruled that Trump could not peremptorily fire Cook, a letter from the White House last week indicated that the president was “considering” trying to remove her from her role again. As Norm said in a statement with our co-counsel representing Cook, Abbe Lowell: “These allegations are as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve. No matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear under the facts and Supreme Court precedent — there is no valid cause for removing Governor Cook. As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed.”

All told, this paints a picture of a flailing president, unable to accept defeat, making futile attempts to revive his dead darlings. But his losses, which aren’t just limited to these three cases, continue to pile up. And no matter how often he tries to come back, with your support, we will be there to stop him. Your paid subscriptions help us fight these battles, Contrarians, and they also fund the all the great journalism at the Contrarian, which you can see for yourself in this roundup of the week’s best coverage.

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Elections & What Comes Next

How Democrats Win in 2026 and Beyond

Jennifer Rubin laid out our generational opportunity to reset politics. “When Democrats don’t mince words, and instead underscore realities such as ‘big corporations get massive tax breaks and then turn around and lay off American workers,’ voters take them seriously.”

Congress Needs a Succession Plan

“Congress does not reflect the country it serves,” wrote Daniella Ballou-Aares, her opening argument for a slate of reforms as necessary for Democrats on the Hill as for Republicans. “The practical path forward is clear: adopt chair term limits, establish a retirement standard, and support strong candidates from outside traditional political circles.”

To Save American Democracy, GTFO (Get the Feds Out)

Kim Rogers and Eric Ming wrote on how to protect voting in the face of Trump’s attacks on election integrity: minimize the federal presence at the polls. “Nearly 10,000 officials run our elections across 50 states and thousands of local jurisdictions. There’s no single lever to pull, no single office to pressure, and no single database to hack. That’s the whole point.”

How Progressive Economic Policy Can Win Over Voters and the Future of Tariff Refunds

On the podcast this week, economists Jared Bernstein and Devesh Kodnani talked about affordability, the cost-of-living crisis, and how progressive Democrats can build policy momentum. “I think you do need to zoom out and say there are fundamental imbalances around [the] economy. There are broken markets in our economy.”

Bigotry, Xenophobia, Cowardice

He Wants to “Round Up Every Muslim” — and Oversee the Oil Industry In Texas

Tim Dickinson went deep on Bo French, the Lone Star MAGA candidate running for statewide office who openly believes in the “great replacement theory,” has called Native Americans “third world savages,” and is now being backed by Gov. Greg Abbott and the rest of the Texas GOP. “Bo French is MAGA, unmasked.”

We Can Thank Brett Kavanagh for Trump’s Latest Attacks on Birthright Citizenship

Leah Litman wrote on Trump’s two new executive orders to restrict citizenship, which, she argued, were made possible by the Supreme Court’s loophole-inviting rejection the first time around. “The latest executive orders are a transparent effort to take the existing, extremely narrow exceptions to birthright citizenship and broaden them beyond recognition.

The Red Scare Returns to America

Katherine Stewart put the Trump administration’s favorite new scapegoat script in its all-too-obvious historical context. “Republicans are using the Red Scare tactics now for the same reasons as before. It’s not about promoting democratic debate; it’s about distracting from the current administration’s corruption and incompetence, criminalizing dissent, and laying the groundwork for authoritarianism.”

The Tea ft. Tara Setmayer, CEO

April Ryan was joined on The Tea this week by Tara Setmayer, CEO of The Seneca Project, to discuss the reigniting of Republican Islamophobic attacks and Trump’s great escape — from the journalists he was attempting to use as a human shield. “It is out of control that a president would use the people that he calls ‘the enemy of the people’ as decoys.”

Healthcare Threats

Todd Blanche’s Wishful Thinking on Abortion

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf advised voters that attacks on reproductive rights are going to keep happening under the newly-confirmed AG — however quietly he may try to get away with them. “The Trump administration would prefer abortion rights stay out of the public discourse…. Voters need to stay savvy, aware, and disciplined; this is an administration that thrives on distraction.”

Politicized ‘Common Sense’ Hyperbole Puts the Public’s Health at Risk

Dr. Julie Sweetland wrote on Trump’s new executive order on childhood vaccines, and how the administration’s rhetorical sense-washing has created new headwinds for true public health policy. “No amount of “clean living” can insulate a family from extreme heat, an unsafe food supply, or preventable disease outbreaks in shared spaces.”

Fighting Back

America Needs More Allies Who Look Like Cheryl Reeve

Carron J. Phillips shone a light on Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, an all-too-rare leading voice in sports on issues from Black Lives Matter to the trans community. “Though examples of white women championing causes that do not benefit them are rare, history demonstrates that when they do support minority causes, the potential for meaningful change increases significantly.”

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests against ICE barbarity and more in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri, California, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Say No to Flock, Stand Up for Big Bend

In our latest Contrarian Calls to Action, we featured ways to defend yourself against the rise of the Big-Brother-like surveillance of Flock and similar tech companies, whose cameras are used by police departments nationwide; how to Stand Up for Science and show your support for Dr. Anthony Fauci; an opportunity to register eligible high schoolers to vote; and how to say no to the Big Bend border wall.

Culture, Cartoons, & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on home and Cabinet “improvements” (A Botched Installation, Nick Anderson; On the Precipice, Michael de Adder; The Caterer Leaves, Michael de Adder), murky waters (Deflecting Pool, Nick Anderson), butterfly effects, and more (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America

Abraham Kenmore spoke with historian David S. Reynolds about his new book on two fateful American arrivals and their place in centuries of debate about what American society should be. “For many people today, the Mayflower is just a bunch of quaint pilgrims in hats…. No, they were the radicals of their era.”

This week, I revisit our Trump Top 10 Worst Criminal Allegations list. I survey where the cases stand today — and how you, Contrarians, have helped defeat many of Donald Trump’s worst attempts to weaponize prosecutorial power. The scorecard since our first edition: judges tossing charges, grand juries refusing to indict, and prosecutors slinking away.

1. Olympian Davey Hearn

After the rushed and costly Reflecting Pool renovation fell flat on its face, Trump went looking for a scapegoat and found my client, Olympian canoeist Davey Hearn. If the government can prosecute a man for touching the pool, no American is safe from this administration’s misuse of prosecutorial power. We are pleased the judge dismissed this meritless case after U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro conceded she could not prove it.

We filed motion after motion until the prosecution finally collapsed. But the case is not over; the judge has ordered briefing on whether or not the case will be dismissed “with prejudice” so it can never be brought again. We could not wage this battle without your help. Your paid Contrarian subscriptions help fuel this and all our over 300 legal cases and matters. If you are not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one.

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As I said in a statement with co-counsel Mary Dohrmann of the Washington Litigation Group and Steve Levin of Steptoe LLP after the charges were dropped, “The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought.” Davey was eloquent on what it all meant:

2. Former FBI Director James Comey

Prosecutors first charged Comey last year, alleging that he lied to Congress and obstructed congressional proceedings. A judge threw out that baseless prosecution because Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. Attorney who brought it, had been improperly appointed — a ruling that rested on a legal theory my colleagues and I developed in an earlier case.

Undeterred by that epic failure, the Department of Justice rolled out a second indictment against Comey, who Trump considers one of his main “political enemies.” The new case is based on Comey posting a picture of seashells and is every bit as absurd as the first. This week, Comey pushed back, moving to dismiss the case for selective and vindictive prosecution. It certainly is.

3. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook

Another example of repeat targeting came this week against Lisa Cook of the Fed, with Trump refreshing bogus claims of mortgage wrongdoing to again seek Cook’s removal from her job. Here, too, my colleagues and I are proud to be a part of the legal team. As I noted with co-counsel Abbe Lowell, “These allegations are as baseless now as they were a year ago when President Trump tried to remove Governor Cook and interfere with the independence of the Federal Reserve. No matter what President Trump tries to do next, this much is clear under the facts and Supreme Court precedent — there is no valid cause for removing Governor Cook. As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed.”

4. New York Attorney General Letitia James

James is another public servant whom Trump and his DOJ can’t seem to quit; Trump broadcast his desire to target her in an infamous social media post clearly directed at then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The same federal judge who dismissed the Comey case threw out the charges against James, ruling that Halligan had likewise brought them unlawfully. When the DOJ tried to re-indict her twice in quick succession last year, two separate Virginia grand juries rejected those efforts, a rare occurrence that dealt yet another embarrassing blow to this brazenly political prosecution.

5. Representative LaMonica McIver

Last year, the DOJ indicted a sitting member of Congress, New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver, charging her with impeding and interfering with federal officers as they attempted to make an arrest. In reality, McIver was carrying out her constitutional duty of congressional oversight at an ICE detention center in her district — and, as video evidence shows, she was trying to de-escalate the situation. A federal judge rejected her motion to dismiss last November; she appealed, and the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing that decision.

We are confident the courts will clear McIver of all charges. Until then, this baseless case keeps stealing time from her important work in Congress. As she expressed aptly, “The point of it all is cruelty.”

6. Southern Poverty Law Center

When Todd Blanche announced in April that legendary civil rights organization SPLC had been criminally indicted, I got together with ethics counsels for Republican and Democratic presidents alike to explain that “The Trump administration has unethically abused its power to indict the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its supposed crime involves paying informants to expose and prevent violence by the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups. This is core to counter-extremism work, and it’s exactly what the DOJ and FBI should be doing — not attacking legendary civil rights organizations. Indeed, that is what the DOJ and FBI used to do, including with this very information that SPLC provided to them.”

At the time, Blanche insisted “there is nothing political about this indictment.” In fact, these charges (like the rest of this Top 10 list) are reasons he never should’ve been confirmed. Though this week a court rejected SPLC’s vindictive prosecution motion, the fight against this unjust prosecution goes on, with trial set for October.

7. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith

Trump and his allies have attacked Smith for years, since well before his investigations produced two felony indictments against the president. Trump has explicitly called for Smith and other “thugs” to be “investigated and put in prison,” and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan dutifully answered the call, referring Smith to the Justice Department over supposed false statements in his congressional testimony. The basis for the referral is asinine. Smith was asked a series of questions about information he derived from search warrants. He did not include in his answers discussion of information he derived separately by making a different request to the National Archives. One is distinct from the other and in normal times never would be the basis for a false statements referral. The evidence says close the case; Trump’s animus suggests otherwise.

8. Don Lemon and Georgia Fort

These two independent journalists were charged with crimes simply for covering a protest in a church whose pastor was an ICE official. It came during the height of the public outcry over ICE behavior in Minneapolis. The journalists’ activity was protected by the First Amendment and, as I wrote at the time, “Be assured that neither we at The Contrarian nor our friends in the independent media and legal communities will be cowed by such an outrageous violation. Just the opposite: Independent journalism — and your support of it! — has never felt more essential.” This week, Lemon and Fort moved to dismiss the claims on various grounds, including vindictive prosecution. We should be protecting journalists for doing their jobs, not prosecuting them. Hopefully the court will do just that.

9. Former CIA Director John Brennan

Brennan is another figure Trump perceives as a political foe. His assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump’s campaign has haunted the president for a decade. The DOJ has reportedly been investigating Brennan for almost a year. Given the clear potential for the abuse of power, Brennan filed a lawsuit against the administration last month, asking the court to order officials to retain records connected to investigations involving him. With another potentially politically motivated indictment looming, he’s wise to go on offense.

10. SEIU California President David Huerta

Federal agents arrested Huerta last summer while he observed an ICE raid to help ensure the safety of the garment workers present; he suffered injury when agents pushed him to the ground, an assault that sent him to the hospital. Prosecutors first charged him with felony conspiracy but later downgraded it to misdemeanor obstruction. In November, Huerta pleaded not guilty, calling the charges “baseless” and “an attempt to silence anyone who dares to speak out.” My Democracy Defenders Fund colleagues and I are proud to serve on the counsel team representing him, and, with your support, he has stood firm. Prosecutors recently announced that they are moving to drop the case. Again, your paid subscriptions helped to make the difference.

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Plus Two Honorable Mentions

11. The “Ship Six” Members of Congress

After six sitting members of Congress, all veterans of the military or the intelligence community, released a video urging service members to refuse illegal orders, Trump lashed out on social media, branding it as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” “punishable by DEATH!” DOJ investigations soon followed, and federal prosecutors moved to indict the lawmakers.

As has often been the case, a grand jury rejected the charges, and prosecutors dropped the case shortly thereafter — an acknowledgement that no evidence supports it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, seemingly eager to appease his boss, sought to revoke Sen. Mark Kelly’s retired Navy captain status and slash his military pension. A judge granted Kelly a preliminary injunction, which Hegseth appealed. Kelly’s injunction is now under consideration at the D.C. Circuit, where we expect Hegseth’s vendetta to fare no better.

12. Kilmar Abrego Garcia

The administration unlawfully deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March 2025; a judge directed the government to facilitate his return, and even the Trump administration acknowledged that the deportation resulted from an “administrative error.” Soon after he returned to the U.S., the DOJ indicted him on federal human smuggling charges, and the administration kept pushing to deport him even as he pleaded not guilty. Fortunately, a judge dismissed the case, finding the prosecution vindictive and selective. The judge stated that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s conduct “taints the investigation with a vindictive motive” — yes, the same Todd Blanche just confirmed to lead the entire department. The criminal case is gone, but the administration remains determined to deport Abrego Garcia. This fight isn’t over.

There you have it, Contrarians — just a few of the worst examples of the administration’s abuses. We’ll continue to keep you updated on developments in these cases and much, much more, along with all the democracy news daily. To see what I mean, just take a look at the best of this week’s coverage at The Contrarian.

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Blanche & DOJ

Todd Blanche Failed Epstein Survivors Again

Rachel Foster wrote about how Blanche’s behavior in a hastily arranged meeting with survivors underscored just how little he deserves to head the Department of Justice. “He effectively admitted he had not even reviewed the Epstein files before meeting with the very women whose abuse those files document.”

What’s Next for Todd Blanche’s Attorney General Chances

On the podcast this week, Tim Dickinson spoke with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) about the “deep, deep mess” at the DOJ and why the climate crisis is a growing economic crisis, too. “It’s important to be able to go to a president and say, sir, you’re wrong about this. Here’s the evidence.”

Blanche Answers to Trump, Not to America

Tim also spoke this week to Justice Connection Founder Stacey Young, who warned that Blanche’s confirmation will cause irreparable harm to the American public. “If all of this is okay with senators, then they should know that history is going to judge them.”

Voting & Primaries

Michigan Nail-Biter

Jennifer Rubin wrote on how the Democratic Party should contextualize Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s hotly contested Senate primary. “While pundits and partisan axe-grinders told us for weeks the race turned on an ideological schism in the party, ordinary voters choose between real candidates, not partisan manifestos.”

Black Youth Will Decide the Future of Our Nation

Esosa Osa argued that to rebuild organized collective power, Democrats need to walk the walk of uplifting Black youth. “The next chapter of American democracy will be written by a generation that experiences civic engagement as a direct expression of the culture and community they are already building together.”

Vote Like a Black Woman

Former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes gave us an election strategy lesson: Candidates who win primaries should seek to understand fellow Democrats who voted against them rather than expect their votes by default. “There’s a general fatigue surrounding the phrase ‘vote blue no matter who,’ and for good reason.”

MAGA Healthcare

Let Them Eat Salmon Cakes

Meredith Blake was not impressed by RFK Jr.’s MAHA cooking show, an unsavory blend of misinformation, celebrity-mongering and wild ideas about affordability. “A grim yet fitting state of affairs for a presidency that owes its very existence to reality TV.”

The Real Cost of Ending Medicare’s Prescription Drug Subsidies

Jeff Nesbit wrote on the Trump administration’s newly announced plans to stop a federal subsidy program designed to hold down drug costs for millions of older Americans — “a horrendous decision that could have dangerous, even life-threatening implications … at a minimum, up to 25 million Americans who rely on Medicare will see the costs of their prescriptions go up.”

Why the Fauci Hearing Was Even More Harmful Than You Think

Megan Armstrong wrote on the farcical Senate hearing Anthony Fauci endured this week, a piece of political theater ostensibly on the origins of COVID-19. “As malicious and outlandish conspiracy theories rained down, Dr. Fauci had to invoke the Fifth Amendment over 100 times.”

When the Snake Oil Runs Out (or Causes Explosive Diarrhea)

Meghan Houser wrote on the chickens coming home to roost for RFK’s disastrous leadership of Health and Human Services. “Arguably the most toxic substance RFK Jr. has been selling is the lie of simplicity. The MAHA movement is a vision of health, government, and reality that trades interdependence for a fantasy of personal control and optimization.”

Iran

Trump’s Rare Feat in Iran

Tom Malinowski wrote on how Trump’s recent Saudi nuclear deal puts his use of the presidency for personal profit on full display — and creates an imperative for Congress. “The Trump administration recently achieved a rare feat: It announced an international deal that virtually everyone, Democrats and Republicans, hates.”

The War Trump Keeps Ending

Brian O’Neill wrote that Trump’s impulsiveness is playing into Tehran’s hands and doing anything but ending the war he started. “Iran does not need to defeat the United States on the battlefield. It needs only to keep presenting Trump with situations in which restraint can be portrayed as weakness.”

Fighting Back

When the Victim Can No Longer Speak, We Have To

Hera McLeod gave us a brave, searing essay from personal experience on the necessity of asking questions, again and again, in the face of justice not served — especially when authorities would rather you didn’t. “Nolan Wells deserves the advocacy he’s receiving from the public. Many public murder cases, including my own son’s, have taught us that people asking questions shouldn’t be dismissed as interfering.”

Honor the Voting Rights Act. Become a Poll Worker

In the latest Contrarian Calls to Action, we featured actions to help turn the South blue, oppose the Big Bend border wall, tell the FDA to keep our food safe, watch out for ICE at airports, and more ways to step up for democracy this week.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests in Ohio, Washington, Arkansas, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on murky waters (Anyone Can Fly, RJ Matson; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling), telling reflections (The Dealmaker, Nick Anderson), redacted truths (Any Remaining Objections?), and the worst music (Calling the Tune, Michael de Adder).

That was Vice President JD Vance, at the Nixon Presidential Library in June as part of his national book tour. Vance heaped praise on Nixon, favorably comparing himself to the disgraced former president. Vance downplayed the legitimacy of the Watergate scandal, arguing that the “deep state” went after Nixon just as it goes after Trump. “Like, the idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.”

No, it’s not. It’s more like wishful thinking, with Vance hoping that this administration can dodge accountability, as Trump reaches lows in public opinion polls that bring to mind Nixon’s depths at the bottom of his corruption crises. I have been tracking the ever-growing list of Trump world corruption scandals here at The Contrarian — and fighting against them through litigation. Your paid subscriptions make all that possible, including landmark court wins like stopping the Trump $1.8 billion slush fund, getting his name off the Kennedy Center, and Friday’s dismissal of the prosecution of Olympian Davey Hearn for touching the reflecting pool.

We will have much more to say about the Hearn case. For now, here’s my statement on behalf of Democracy Defenders Fund, together with my co-counsel Mary Dohrmann of Washington Litigation Group, and Steve Levin of Steptoe LLP:

The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should never have been brought. Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.

Thank you for helping get us here, Contrarians.

Since the third edition of our Trump Top 10 corruption scandals back in May, old schemes have metastasized, while new ones have muscled their way onto the list. We’ve periodically published updates to our original 2025 top 10 list, and the time has come for a fourth edition. This list is by no means a comprehensive account of the seemingly countless scandals surrounding this administration — but there is a value to capturing the most blatant incidents, and what we and the democracy movement are doing about them (a lot!)

1) Pickpocketing the Public

Trump’s own Justice Department settled his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and transformed it into a $1.776 billion so-called “Anti-Weaponization” Fund — a stain on the DOJ and an affront to the Constitution. This scheme sought to pick the American taxpayers’ pockets and hand off the loot to his political allies, including individuals charged in connection with the January 6th insurrection.

I served as co-counsel for thirty-five former judges who urged the court to reject this charade, and Judge Kathleen Williams did exactly that. She threw out the settlement in its entirety, found collusion rather than a genuine controversy, barred Trump from relying on the agreement, and referred his attorneys for disciplinary review. Her decision was a landmark one that I predict Trump will find hard to destroy.

This sham slush fund has led headlines this week because, despite repeated requests from Republican members of Congress, the DOJ has declined to formally kill the anti-weaponization fund in writing. That refusal has become a central reason Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general remains stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, with a couple of Republican senators withholding their support as of this writing — both they and Trump are digging in. So are we, thanks to help from your paid subscriptions.

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2) The Brothers Grift

Nobody cashes in on proximity to the president quite like Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Reports found that the brothers invested in more than a dozen defense-related startups, companies that went on to do $3.2 billion in government business — including a drone maker angling to sell its products to Gulf nations caught in the crossfire of their father’s Iran war. Then there’s Kazakhstan. After the administration helped a little-known U.S. company secure access to the country’s massive untapped tungsten reserve, valued at up to $80 billion, Don Jr. and Eric acquired a stake in the project shortly before the announcement. Federal agencies pledged $1.6 billion in financing for the company. Pretty lucky timing!

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm, 1789 Capital, grew from a few hundred million dollars in assets to more than $3 billion, with many of its investments in companies that may have benefited from administration policies. For example, “Last fall, 1789 invested in Vulcan Elements, a rare-earths magnet manufacturer, then valued at about $200 million. A few months later, the company landed a $620 million loan commitment from the Defense Department. The company is now worth roughly $2 billion.” Being a Trump remains the grift that keeps on giving (and taking).

3) The Crypto Cash Con

Trump was once one of crypto’s most vocal critics. Now, he’s one of the industry’s biggest hype men, the “crypto president.” Crypto accounts for the majority of the money he has made while in office: according to his recent financial disclosures, Trump pocketed more than $1.4 billion from crypto-related activities in 2025 alone. He’s managed this unprecedented earning spree through ventures like his $TRUMP memecoin (see #7), his company World Liberty Financial, and — especially — the World Liberty stablecoin USD1.

The American people have noticed: A CNN poll released Wednesday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe Trump has gone too far in using the presidency to further his business interests. At Democracy Defenders Fund, we have meticulously examined every layer of Trump’s massive crypto scheme, and we’ve provided Congress with several recommendations for establishing safeguards so that corruption on this scale cannot continue unchecked. Our fight continues, and we will not let up.

4) The Epstein Files Cover-Up

The cover-up of the Epstein files further traumatizes the brave survivors of his abuse, and haunts this administration. Trump and his allies desperately hope the issue will simply disappear into the corruption scandal black hole, but the survivors won’t let it — they and the American people remain committed to uncovering the truth and securing justice. DDF has worked tirelessly for them, helping build the case that the DOJ is openly violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act — and we’ve succeeded. On April 23, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General formally opened an audit in direct response to our complaints, and we’re keeping up the pressure by litigating to compel the administration to release more files. The scandal has also loomed over Blanche as he struggles to secure enough Senate support for his nomination as attorney general.

5) Trump’s Big Beautiful Qatari Boeing

The Qatari Boeing saga has only gotten uglier — and costlier for the American people. The administration forced the $400 million Boeing 747-8 that Qatar gifted Trump through an accelerated conversion process. By some estimates, the necessary upgrades and security modifications will cost us more than $1 billion. Shortly after he began flying the new Qatari jet, Trump returned to the older Air Force One. The Secret Service had, apparently, raised concerns that the replacement aircraft lacked some of the old plane’s capabilities. Naturally, to spare himself the embarrassment of having rushed the plane into service, Trump denied that the switch had anything to do with security. With the help of DOJ attorneys, he tried to use subpoenas to harass the journalists who revealed the whole mess, until it was smacked down by the courts. If anyone doubts that this flying emoluments clause violation is a personal gift, remember the giveaway: The plane will go to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office.

6) Trump’s Foreign Real Estate Explosion

According to analysis from our colleagues at CREW, Trump’s latest personal financial disclosure shows that his international business holdings generated more than $117 million in revenue last year — a record high. Twenty-four Trump-branded real estate projects are now in development overseas during his second term; thirteen of which first surfaced in his disclosures after he announced his candidacy for president in 2022. These include Trump towers and properties in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Vietnam, Georgia, Qatar, India. The list goes on. It’s a global feeding frenzy of foreign governments and business partners looking to curry favor with Trump. Are we really supposed to believe this explosion of deals has nothing to do with who sits in the White House? The American people can see right through it, as the poll we mentioned proves.

7) Meme Coin Madness

Trump’s annual financial disclosures show that a whopping $636 million of his 2025 crypto haul came from his worthless $TRUMP meme coin alone. Nearly one million people who bought the coin collectively lost about $3.81 billion as its value cratered by around 97% from its peak. Trump hawked the coin via social media, pocketing fees every time the tokens change hands, whether investors win or lose.

That devastating impact on investors is only the beginning of the problem. Trump has held multiple private events for the largest $TRUMP holders. The message is clear: anyone with the means and the desire to line his pockets can buy exclusive access to the president and his inner circle. Even if they lose, they win in this corruption lottery.

8) Kushner’s Profitable Diplomacy

Unlike in the first term, when Jared Kushner served as a senior adviser, Trump’s son-in-law held no official government position until Trump appointed him Special Envoy for Peace (!). That didn’t stop Kushner from playing a central role (often as a private citizen) in diplomatic negotiations with Israel, Russia, and Iran. But Kushner has not stepped away from his private equity and global investment firm while serving as a chief negotiator in the Middle East. Instead, he keeps looking to raise billions from investors with a direct interest in how many of these negotiations turn out.

As if that weren’t enough, Kushner is backing a proposed luxury resort on Albania’s Sazan Island. The Albanian government approved his firm’s plans, helping fuel massive anti-corruption protests some have dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution.” When America’s peace envoy moonlights as a global fundraiser, the conflicts of interest practically negotiate themselves.

9) Trump’s DC Renovation Racket

Trump’s commitment to remaking the nation’s capital in his image knows no bounds. Massive banners bearing his face hang from the facades of multiple federal agency headquarters. He has announced plans to build a new gilded arch that will stand 250 feet tall. He has torn down the White House’s East Wing to make way for an enormous, grotesque golden ballroom.

With your help, our partners and we have been able to put the brakes on some of his grandiose vanity projects. When Trump tried to stamp his name permanently on the Kennedy Center, Washington Litigation Group and we proudly represented Rep. Joyce Beatty in her bid to stop this unlawful renaming. The courts ordered the signage removed and stood by that ruling. The administration’s response? A temper tantrum. They’ve covered the facade with a tarp — so we’re litigating to have that taken down.

We’re also fighting to protect East Potomac Golf Links, D.C.’s busiest and oldest golf course, from a Trump takeover. Along with our co-counsel at Democracy Forward and Lowell & Associates, we’re representing the D.C. Preservation League and local residents in court. We’ll keep fighting to protect the history and character of the nation’s capital — with the help provided by your paid subscriptions.

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10) Pay for Play at Trump Properties

Trump has spent a remarkable share of his time in office at his own properties — more than a third of his second term, according to analyses from June. His presence at these venues doesn’t just generate revenue for his businesses; it also signals to anyone looking to curry favor with the president exactly where they can find him.

Just as you’d expect, all sorts of special interest groups, foreign officials, and Republican party entities have obliged. In the first year of his second term, foreign government officials reportedly visited Trump’s properties 60 times, while special interest groups hosted 57 events there. U.S. law does not require foreign governments and business groups to disclose this, which keeps it largely hidden from public view. But while the amounts may be concealed, the corruption is out in the open.

While Trump & Co. continue their greed spree, we continue to stand in their way, demanding receipts and accountability. You make this resistance possible, and provide us with the resources and resolve to shed light and throw a tarp over such unceasing acts of blatant corruption.

Of course, your subscriptions also make possible our vital democracy coverage at the Contrarian. That combination is the most unique bargain in American journalism. See for yourself in the highlights and hits of our pro-democracy coverage this week:

Special Coverage: Epstein Survivors, Todd Blanche’s Confirmation Debacle, and the Trump-Epstein Bookmobile

Epstein Survivors Take Message for Justice on the Road, Ciera Stone

Epstein Survivors To Tillis: ‘Vote No’ on Blanche, Epstein Survivor Sisters and Tim Dickinson

The Trump-Epstein Reading Room Bookmobile launched in Washington this week, bringing printed copies of the Epstein files to cities across the country to expose the truth about Epstein and his co-conspirators’ sordid crimes. We were live on the scene to speak to survivors and event organizers concerning Todd Blanche’s confirmation vote and the growing demand for transparency from Blanche and his DOJ. Later, survivors Lara Blume McGee and Sharlene Rochard sat down with Tim Dickinson to share their stories and further emphasize the importance of seeking accountability.

BREAKING NEWS: Trump Suggests He Will Pull Blanche Nomination, Jen Rubin

Votes Speak Louder than Words in Congress, Senator Jacky Rosen and Tim Dickinson

If you’ve been following the news, you’ve likely been inundated with Blanche’s hearings and Trump’s threats to withdraw the nomination because Blanche didn’t have the votes. Our Editor-in-Chief Jen Rubin broke the news on our page, while Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen joined the Contrarian to explain why Blanche is entirely unfit to hold the AG position.

Still Have Questions about Todd Blanche?, Norm Eisen and April Ryan

Digging deeper into the Blanche hearings, April Ryan and I unpacked the move to delay the confirmation vote.

Republicans’ Strategy and Stumbles

The Long Game, John Terzano

In this comprehensive retrospective of the Conservative movement, Terzano breaks down the evolution of the modern-day GOP and its desire for control of the three branches of government — probing a question that beguiles us all: How did we get here?

Republicans are Right to Panic, Jen Rubin

Jen affirmed the Republicans’ pulse…noting that they should fear the upcoming midterm elections. With Trump tanking in the polls and Americans waking up to the ugliness of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” Dems are emerging favorably among the populace.

The Answer Trump’s New Intelligence Chief Would Not Give, Brian O’Neill

O’Neill breaks down why newly-confirmed Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton’s refusal to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election is a huge red flag for our intelligence community.

The Death of the Federal Firewall, Jeff Nesbit

Nesbit exposes the quiet dismantling of privacy safeguards as an unprecedented consolidation of domestic surveillance power.

Sports and Money

A Decade After Kaepernick Kneeled, the Intersection of Sports, Race, and Politics Is a Mess, Carron Phillips

The past 10 years have seen the decline of activism among athletes, argues Phillips, along with a concerning cognitive regression in sports media.

Let’s Do Lunch! ft. Neale Mahoney, Jared Bernstein

Jared was joined by Neale Mahoney to discuss how Republicans failed to follow through on kitchen table issues that are essential for American families.

ICE Cruelty and Protecting Your Community

‘This Place is a Graveyard of Living People,’ Tim Dickinson

Tim Dickinson’s gutting analysis of the recent ICE detention centers’ human rights report is a must-read. He exposes the shocking, inhumane treatment of detainees, and reveals that DHS is no better — nor more transparent — under their new leadership.

For You: A List of Congress Members on the Ballot Who Voted to Fund ICE, Ben Sheehan

Finished reading Tim’s above report and ready to take action? Ben Sheehan lays out all the members of Congress responsible for funding these tragedies and how you can use your outrage to oust them from office.

Culture, Cartoons, and Lighter Fare

Tim Heidecker on Rebooting InfoWars for a Good Cause, Meredith Blake

Despite the drama of American politics, Tim Heidecker talked to our ace culture columnist Meredith Blake about the essential value of comedy in disarming bigotry and hatred.

Our cartoonists this week illustrated Trump’s disasters, both foreign (Warpath, Nick Anderson), and domestic (Lapdog, Michael de Adder).

Providing this week’s cherry on top, Jamie Schler shared a Special Chocolate Cake recipe with us, and Maura McDonough introduced us to Ezzie, a foster dog who found his forever home this week!

Thanks for all you do.

Warmly,

Norm

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Let’s start with the shock news about the Paramount-Warner delay. The merger is anti-consumer, anti-creator, and anti-competitive as I told The New York Times. I also explained in a snap statement when the news broke, “the Ellisons believed their relationship with Trump would help them rush through a disastrous deal that threatens democracy, creative freedom, and independent journalism. We in the #BlocktheMerger campaign helped prove them wrong.”

And so did you, Contrarians! Paramount has described me as the “ringleader” of their opposition. In fact, you are. That’s because the profits from your paid subscriptions helped fuel this matter and hundreds of others at Democracy Defenders Fund and Democracy Defenders Action.

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Paramount’s capitulation keeps two major media enterprises competing pending the trial, instead of handing one company even more power over what Americans watch, what they pay, and where entertainment workers can earn a living. The merger would have eliminated one of Hollywood’s largest buyers of scripts and productions while placing Paramount+, HBO Max, CBS News, CNN, and dozens of local stations under the management of one company. If you like what the Ellisons have done to CBS, you will love what they would do to CNN and the rest of the assets they seek to acquire.

This victory in putting the merger on hold belongs to the people who refused to treat the merger as inevitable. Artists, journalists, filmmakers, and consumer advocates spoke out despite the risk of retaliation, more than 5,500 people signed our open letter, and ultimately Attorneys General Rob Bonta and Letitia James, along with 10 other attorneys general, acted. This collective resistance turned the tide for now. We will see what happens next, starting with when a trial is scheduled, as I explained in a special Contrarian Substack live with my colleagues Tim Dickinson and Meredith Blake.

The tide also may be soon to turn in Congress. When I appeared there this week, the topic was Trump’s monumental corruption — both in terms of the national monuments that he is destroying and the vast scale of his wrongdoing. With likely the House and possibly the Senate about to flip, I was impressed with the intensity of the members who questioned me and with their staff, whom I chatted with on the margins. Led by ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) of the House Oversight Committee and ranking member Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) of the Senate Permanent Oversight subcommittee, an army of congressional investigators and overseers is ready to dig into all the wrongdoing.

And Contrarians, you are helping lay the foundation for that! Because we are owned by nobody, all profits from your paid subscriptions support my and my Democracy Defenders Action colleagues’ documentation of Trump-world wrongdoing that investigators can rely on — like our cutting-edge series of exposés of Trump’s crypto corruption. If you haven’t taken out a paid subscription, please do so to join the fight.

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As I testified, we are experiencing unprecedented corruption in plain sight — and we are fighting back in court and winning. I focused on three examples, beginning with the White House East Wing demolition and debris. The president tore down part of the people’s house to build himself a $600 million ballroom, and then he dumped the toxic wreckage on a public park. Now, more than 35,000 cubic yards of demolition debris has been hauled onto East Potomac Park, land Congress set aside in 1897 to be held “forever” for the recreation and pleasure of the people. Forever.

For over a century, that park has been home to the East Potomac Golf Links, D.C.’s busiest golf course. Trump dumped this waste with no environmental review. No historic preservation review. Months later, the National Park Service’s own testing found elevated lead, arsenic, and mercury in the park. And just this past week, the government admitted to a federal judge that it never finished testing that soil before declaring it safe. My colleagues and I at Democracy Defenders Fund are proud to join Democracy Forward and Lowell & Associates in representing the D.C. Preservation League and local residents in court.

And then there is the Kennedy Center. Congress created it. Congress named it: for President John F. Kennedy, who personally led the fundraising to build it. This president tried to attach his own name to the facade that Kennedy built and that carries his name. Democracy Defenders Fund is proud, with Washington Litigation Group, to represent Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) in her lawsuit to stop that unlawful renaming. On May 29, a court permanently halted it and ordered the signage taken down. The administration threw a temper tantrum and draped a tarp over the building’s facade. But the courts saw through that, and an appeals court this month upheld the order for Trump to remove his name. Now we are litigating to get that tarp removed. The Kennedy Center belongs to the American people; it’s not a self-promotional opportunity for Trump.

The third staggering case of vandalism that I have fought and that I testified about is the $1.776 billion so-called “Anti-Weaponization” Fund. It is a blemish on the Department of Justice and the Constitution itself. This is a Trump scheme to take money from American taxpayers and give it to his political allies — including individuals charged in connection with the January 6 insurrection.

And it is deeply illegal. The president sued agencies he controls. Contrary to the constitutional requirement of a case or controversy, Trump was the plaintiff, the defendant, and the beneficiary — and his Justice Department never appeared in court to defend the United States. The department even entered a release purporting to block the IRS from pursuing pending tax claims against the president, his family members, his trusts, and his businesses — dramatically expanding the deal beyond the parties who had actually sued.

We at DDA served as co-counsel with Platkin LLP and Susman Godfrey for 35 former judges who urged the court to reject this charade. Judge Kathleen Williams did exactly that. She threw out the settlement in its entirety, found collusion rather than a genuine controversy, barred the president from relying on the agreement, and referred the president’s attorneys for disciplinary review. Her decision was itself a landmark, one that I predict the president will not find easy to destroy.

Why focus on those examples out of the hundreds of other possibilities? As I explained to the members, when the House and perhaps the Senate are back in pro-democracy hands in just a few months’ time, it will be important to pick the most outrageous scandals and concentrate on going deep to squeeze out the truth, including unearthing whether any crimes were committed:

I think Congress should focus on a relatively short list of the worst corruption scandals, perhaps including those I testified about and those captured on the inventories we have published and updated at the Contrarian (see for example here, here and here). Our lists evolve over time, and Congress will similarly need to be fluid.

For example, this week we found out shocking revelations about Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm, 1789 Capital. This firm, which managed $200 million around when Trump took office, now oversees $3 billion in assets. Is that solely owing to Don Jr.’s business acumen? I tend to doubt it. As the New York Times reported, many of its investments are in companies affected by the administration’s policies or that have benefited from administration action. I explained on Nicolle Wallace’s MSNOW show — she has been having me on regularly to track the growing public outrage about these issues:

Congress will have plenty to work with if and when it gets back into pro-democracy hands. And the AGs already do in contesting the Paramount-Warner merger. Knowing those who will be leading the work, I think they are up to the job — and they will make good use of all of my and my colleagues’ work that your paid subscriptions have helped make possible. If you aren't yet a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one to be a part of all that.

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Of course, your subscriptions also make possible our incredible democracy coverage here at the Contrarian. That combination is the most unique bargain in American journalism. See for yourself in my round up of the highlights of our pro-democracy coverage this week.

Note: This column contains material I originally issued as my statement in response to the merger delay announcement on July 24 and as my remarks before Members of Congress on July 21.

The Worst Administration

Maggie Haberman on ‘Regime Change,’ the Definitive Account of Trump’s Second Term

I chatted with the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman about her latest book, co-authored with fellow White House reporter Jonathan Swan. It’s the most inside-the-room look yet at Trump’s willingness to use power unlike any other president in American history.

Blanche’s Sham Meeting with Epstein Victims Proves He’s Unfit

Mimi Rocah wrote on how acting Attorney General Todd Blanche continues to treat Epstein survivors as a political nuisance rather than crime victims deserving of respect and dignity. See also: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) talking with April this week about how Todd Blanche Made the DOJ Trump’s Playground.

Hegseth’s Testosterone Bit Isn’t About Health

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on Pete Hegseth’s bizarre obsession with a “High-T Department of War” — and how the better conversation to be had is about the need for testosterone access for women. “The Trump administration has gotten rather … hormonal.”

Spoiled System

How Big Business in America Gets What It Wants — and Lets Everyone Else Pay the Price

Katherine Stewart traced the links between Christian nationalism, big business, and the cyclospora outbreak targeting America’s intestines — and how it’s all flourishing under Trump. “At the core of the belief system … is the view that ‘Bible believers’ should seek to dominate government at all levels.”

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner Redo Is an Affront to a Free Press

April Ryan condemned the attempt at a rescheduled White House Correspondents’ dinner — directly in the wake of Trump’s unlawful subpoenas of New York Times journalists — in no uncertain terms. “When the president is attacking journalists, he shouldn’t be a guest of honor at media events.”

Sports Spotlight

We Told You It Would Get Worse

Shalise Manza Young sounded the alarm on Republicans’ escalating plans to take down Title IX — which is to say, to get women and girls out of sports and back into “traditional” gender roles. “As so many predicted, the cries of ‘protect women’s sports!’ weren’t going to end at banning trans girls and women.”

The Dodgers Made A Major Error By Accepting Trump’s White House Invite — Twice

Carron J. Phillips took the Dodgers to task for going from taking a stand against ICE to going to the White House to kiss Trump’s ring — for the second year in a row. “Jackie Robinson has to be tired of rolling over in his grave.”

Not Even Trump Could Kill the World Cup Buzz

Meredith Blake wrote on how the tournament gave weary Americans something to think about other than explosive diarrhea. See also: Megan Armstrong on the Unavoidable World Cup Culture Wars.

Elections & Dem strategy

How To Choose a Nominee

Jennifer Rubin gave us a playbook for choosing the 2028 ticket — including the argument that Democrats shouldn’t waste any energy in trying to dissuade candidates not to run.

We Cannot Dismiss Trump’s Speech on Election Conspiracy Theories

Susan Corke wrote on why we cannot ignore Trump’s primetime election conspiracy rant — because, paranoid and pathetic though it was, it also followed the authoritarian playbook to the letter.

The Number of Votes Needed to Change Everything Is Smaller Than You Think

Ben Wikler wrote on how to approach the electoral battlefield, adapted from his new book, This is the Plan. “If you can figure out a way to zero in on the most critical spots on the electoral map and then propel even a handful of people to vote who wouldn’t have voted otherwise or to switch their vote from one candidate to another, you can change everything.”

Beyond Biden and Brexit: Andy Burnham’s Path to Rebuilding the Center-Left

Johan Hassel advised U.S. Democrats to watch closely as Andy Burnham takes on the role of U.K.’s prime minister following a landslide Labour Party victory — because he, like Democratic hopefuls, will have to combine bold politics with proof that the party can do the same in government.

ICE Out & Fighting Back

ICE’s Shootings in Maine and Texas Aren’t Getting Enough Attention

And why DOGE is the reason lettuce is making us sick.

How We Fix Our Immigration Crisis

Money without supervision and power without consequences will only lead to more deaths. We can do better.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw ICE Out protests in Oregon, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Maine, data center protests in South Dakota and Georgia, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Demand Justice for ICE Victims, Protect Our Wildlife

Cities across America are mobilizing this weekend to mourn the lives of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastian Guerrero.

Cartoons, Culture & Fun Stuff

This week our cartoonists covered dubious battle plans (The Art of War, Trojan Horse: Nick Anderson) and exit plans (The Sand Trap of Hormuz, RJ Matson), and the Odyssey (The Republican Circus’s The Odyssey, Ruben Bolling).

Marissa Rothkopf Bates celebrated the apricot, whose sweet aroma once filled what is now California’s Silicon Valley. And Ciera Stone introduced us to Honey, a rescue dog.

Pay close attention: Trump didn’t claim that there was any actual interference in voting or election results. At no point did Trump say or point to any evidence that a single vote was changed or altered. Indeed, even White House conspiracy theorist John Solomon admitted as much to reporters afterwards. That’s because it did not happen. Audits, recounts, certifications, federal investigations, and more than 80 judges, including those appointed by Trump himself, have all uniformly rejected his attacks on the 2020 election.

What we got instead on Thursday was a rehash of four myths, all of which fall apart on close examination.

1. Myth: Purported Vulnerabilities in Electronic Voting and Ballot-Counting Systems

   Trump spoke broadly about vulnerabilities in voting machines, but he did not say there is evidence that voting machines or votes were breached. And that’s because they weren’t. He wants to scare you with the hypothetical, but truth is that our election officials put safeguards in place to minimize any vulnerabilities. Their dedicated work and vigilance ensure our elections work as intended, protected from technological exploitation.

2. Myth: China’s Acquisition of American Voter Data

   This is a scare tactic. Trump made wild claims about the compromise of election data, but let’s be clear: He did not say that votes were exploited or compromised. The voter registration data he is in a twist about actually consists of basic and publicly available data such as names and addresses — far less personal information than what the average American shares when ordering clothes on Temu.

3. Myth: Michigan Voter-Registration Investigation

   Again, there was zero evidence of voting fraud here. Trump didn’t point to any and can’t. Though there were isolated cases of irregularities in registration, local election officials flagged them in real time. Our elections systems worked as intended to unearth them. This is a backhanded endorsement, not a critique.

4. Myth: Noncitizens on State Voter Rolls

   Trump has made these wild claims of folks improperly registering over and over again using baseless allegations and wrong lists, such as the error-ridden and oft-abused Department of Homeland Security SAVE databases. The truth is that Americans follow voter registration laws and cast ballots in good faith, as we documented in our Democracy Defenders Action report with LULAC on The Big Lie.

Then there was the avalanche of documents Trump said would prove him right. They did just the opposite. For example, they show Russia, not China, was working to interfere in the 2020 election — to help Trump! If all of this is the best he and the election deniers have, they are in trouble.

Thursday was a flop — a predictable one. One of us (Norm) was asked by cable TV to do a curtain raiser for the speech. The forecast was for a comically loony mish-mash along the lines of other famous conspiracy theories, and boy did Trump deliver:

Trump lost in 2020. This will remain true no matter how many pieces of bogus evidence he invents or floats. The truth is Trump and his fellow election deniers are not just trying to prove bizarre counterfactuals about prior elections. They’re trying to fool us into doubting the next one.

But we will not let that happen. And with your help, Contrarians, we will call them out on their actions. In America, leaders do not choose their voters; voters choose their leaders. The American people will not let Trump and his cronies take our vote or our voice.

Thanks to you, we stand ready for whatever Trump and his administration may throw at us next. Your paid subscriptions help make our Democracy Defenders Fund and Action election protection work possible and also help power the rest of our over 300 legal cases and matters. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one.

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And of course, your paid support also makes possible our phenomenal daily democracy coverage. Take a look at the best of the Contrarian this week, assembled by our wonderful colleagues:

Dept. of Injustice

Trump’s Cronyism Signals a Chilling — and Familiar — Story

Brian Tyler Cohen analyzed how Trump’s corruption is following an all-too-familiar global playbook — Putin’s — and what we need to do to step out of Russia’s post-Soviet footsteps. “If the next Democratic administration doesn’t take note and prosecute the criminals of today to the fullest extent of the law, then that criminality is doomed to repeat itself.”

The Tea ft. Alphonso David

Global Black Economic Forum President Alphonso David joined April Ryan to talk about Lindsey Graham’s Senate replacement, Trump’s renewed attacks on Georgia’s senators, and what a Todd Blanche DOJ would mean for minority and underserved communities.

Trump DOJ’s NYT Subpoenas Are the Latest Encroachment on Press Freedom

Josh Levs wrote on the latest moves of an administration actively hostile to a free press and how coverage has fallen short by ignoring the history of reporter subpoenas. “It’s crucial information because it shows the media’s successful track record in fighting back.”

Trump’s Lawyers Should Be Sanctioned

Erwin Chemerinsky argued — apropos of a federal judge shutting down Trump’s outrageous IRS lawsuit this week — that all lawyers complicit in Trump’s abuses of power should expect repercussions for egregious misconduct. “Abuses of the legal system, even at the direction of the president, are unacceptable.”

Voting & Candidates

Who Will Replace Graham Platner in Maine?

Tim Dickinson wrote on the slow-then-fast fall of former progressive darling Graham Platner and the newly restarted race to challenge Susan Collins in one of the most important contests of 2026. “Two things are increasingly clear. Democrats dodged a major bullet in Platner. And as Maine goes — so goes the Senate in 2026.”

Diluting the Youth Vote

Diamond Brown and Amelia Letson wrote on how voter suppression tactics target young voter participation in the wake of Louisiana v. Callais and a slew of other Republican efforts to limit who is going to the polls. “These tactics do not operate in isolation.”

The Next Generation Rises

This week, The Contrarian spoke with several of the candidates working to turn the House blue this November: former federal scientist Kristin Hook in Texas’ 21^st District; Matt Maasdam in Michigan’s 7^th District, hoping to be the first Democratic Navy SEAL in Congress; and San Diego City Council and former Peace Corps member Marni von Wilpert in California’s 48th District.

The Global View

Lindsey Graham and the Limits of the Warhawk Imagination

Brian O’Neill wrote on Graham as one of Washington’s last unapologetic hawks and how “his death offers an opportunity to examine a worldview that dominated both political parties after the Cold War and survived … long after its underlying assumptions had ceased to match reality.”

Renewed Strikes on Iran, June Jobs Report, and AI’s Impact on the Workforce

On the podcast this week, economists Jared Bernstein and Aya Ibrahim looked at how the economy is processing new violence in Iran and more.

‘Aramco Is a Supervillain’: How the Saudis Weaponized Soccer

Sammy Roth wrote on Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s master plan to culture-wash Saudi Arabia — and how the irony of the World Cup’s sponsorship by oil-state companies is hard to ignore as the climate crisis affects players in real time. “For all their talk of diversification, the Saudis plan to pump oil for a long time.”

Fighting back

Undaunted

In this week’s Undaunted column, Jen Rubin celebrated the Epstein survivors and others tenaciously confronting acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during his confirmation hearings. “Survivor Dani Bensky’s gut-wrenching testimony put the blame directly on Blanche for releasing victims’ names and images.”

Create ‘Good Trouble’ and Fight Street-Camera Surveillance

In this week’s Calls to Action, we highlighted ongoing Freedom Summer events (including a large rally in Atlanta Saturday afternoon), ways to demand accountability from ICE in the wake of the killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a new way to oppose street-camera surveillance, and more.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests over ICE deaths in Houston and Maine, protests against AI data centers, and more events in North Carolina, Delaware, Wisconsin, Colorado, and elsewhere. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Culture, Cartoons & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on string pulling (Puppet Show, Nick Anderson; Operating at Arm’s Length, Michael de Adder), paper shredding (Redacted, RJ Matson), and yarn spinning (Tom the Dancing Bug, “Stigmatized!”; Digging Up Evidence, Michael de Adder).

Why the Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Should Scare Film and TV Lovers

Meredith Blake wrote on what’s at stake as 12 states sue to block the $110 billion merger that would bring two of Hollywood’s biggest studios under the control of Trump allies. It’s “something that should trouble anyone who cares about movies, TV, and American popular culture.”

This Chickpea Pasta Just Solved Airline Enshittification

Lol, not really, writes Emily Beyda. But she’s hoping it will make her 10-hour flight home more bearable (and it might work for your next trip, too!).

Contrarian Rescue of the Week

Last but never least: meet Duke!

But don’t just take my word for it. Instead, consider the evidence represented by the word of over 100 former judges. Their bar complaint asking the New York State Bar to investigate Blanche for multiple ethics issues is a shocking expose. We at Democracy Defenders Fund with Lawyers Defending American Democracy were proud to represent the judges — and to lay out what is in effect an epic indictment of the acting AG.

Like the rest of my over 300 legal matters and cases, your paid subscriptions helped make it possible. All profits go to support pro-democracy litigation like this complaint.

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Let’s start with Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund. As the judges’ complaint outlines, Blanche helped orchestrate an egregious settlement between Trump as a private citizen and the Trump administration. This sweetheart deal would have green-lit payouts to Trump allies, including Jan. 6 insurrectionists who attacked law enforcement, from a taxpayer-funded $1.776 billion fund. The terms of this settlement also purport to shield Trump, his family, and their businesses from all investigations by the IRS or other agencies for any past conduct — unheard-of treatment for any American president.

As we and the judges said in the complaint, “This extraordinary ‘sight unseen’ global release of liability not only violates longstanding norms established in the Justice Manual, but it could serve as the functional equivalent of a backdoor blanket pardon—inoculating President Trump, his family, and any ‘related or affiliated individuals’ from federal oversight to the overwhelming prejudice of the interests of Mr. Blanche’s client: the United States.”

In addition, Blanche oversaw a growing list of abusive and frivolous investigations against perceived opponents of the administration and personal foes of Trump. Our complaint highlights two examples: Kilmar Abrego Garcia and James Comey. A judge threw out the Abrego Garcia indictment, concluding that “[t]he evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power.” And both of Comey’s indictments, also on such limited grounds, suggest that Blanche and his Justice Department were seeking to punish one of Trump’s chief “political enemies.”

Last, and perhaps worst of all, we demonstrate that Blanche’s personal involvement in the bungled release of the Epstein files is also cause for investigation. Not only did he oversee the failure to properly redact the names of nearly 100 victims, but he also failed to release information required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. As if that were not bad enough, Blanche’s “communications and actions suggest that he may have been motivated to end inquiries into the Epstein files to protect Mr. Trump and himself in violation of his duty of loyalty to the United States,” the Bar complaint noted. As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) expressed in his recent Contrarian essay, “A government of laws is the opposite of what Blanche wants; he wants all the laws flat before Trump.”

Others also have been speaking out. This week, just days before his confirmation hearing, more than 1,200 former Department of Justice employees urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Blanche’s nomination, warning that he has compromised the DOJ’s independence and integrity. The Justice Connection deserves credit for organizing this extraordinary, unprecedented effort, bringing together DOJ alumni from 14 administrations with thousands of years of collective experience in defense of the Justice Department. Their letter aptly points out that under Blanche’s leadership, more than 16,000 employees have left the DOJ, including over a quarter of its attorneys — many of whom were forced to choose between keeping their jobs and carrying out vindictive prosecutions and other unethical assignments.

Former pardon attorney Liz Oyer wrote an extraordinary missive to the Judiciary Committee as well. She recounts that Blanche fired her after she refused to fulfill a request from his office to use her official position to advance a favor for a friend of the president — restoring federal firearms rights to an individual convicted of domestic abuse. And in an effort to prevent Oyer from informing Congress about his actions, Blanche directed U.S. Marshals to deliver an intimidating letter to her home and initiated an — in our view — unfounded professional misconduct complaint against her.

There you have it Contrarians. It’s a compelling case against Blanche, and you are a part of it — thanks to your paid subscriptions. If you are not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one.

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Of course, your paid subscriptions also help make possible our pro-democracy coverage every day. We think there is nothing quite like it. To see for yourself here, as usual, is the best of this week’s Contrarian.

Targeting Citizens

Are You Anti-Fascist? Then MAGA Would Call You a Domestic Terrorist

Lily Conway wrote on the outrageous sentencing of anti-ICE protesters and the criminalization of dissent. “The vagueness of the Justice Department’s definition of ‘anti-fascist’ is a purposeful obfuscation meant to grant wide permissions to the legal and criminal enforcement arms of the state to go after anyone they deem to be too critical.”

If All Lives Mattered, This Administration Would Seek Justice for Nolan Xavier Wells’ Death

Carron J. Philips wrote on the death of Nolan Xavier Wells and the all-too-revealing lack of federal law enforcement attention. “A Black boy among a large group of white teenagers in the Deep South disappeared and died, and suddenly nobody knows anything.”

The Spy List Washington Should Not Build

Brian O’Neill wrote on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s push for a consolidated list of intelligence targets — which, in the wrong hands (theirs), “becomes a tool for control, exposure, and political misuse.”

Supreme Court Shame

Reining in a Rogue Supreme Court

Norman Ornstein gave a blistering analysis of Slaughter v. Trump, in which the Supreme Court ruled last week that the president can fire independent regulators at will and called on Congress to exercise its constitutional authority to rein in a court bent on undermining democracy itself. The Founders “did not see the Supreme Court as all-powerful.”

The Supreme Court’s Extremists Continue to Attack Good Governance

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote on how the Supreme Court’s attack on independent regulation serves exclusively the corrupt interests of “billionaire polluters.” “The extremist wing on the Supreme Court apparently knows better [than] every federal and state government [and] decades of previous justices.”

An Authoritarian’s Dream

Nancy Gertner and John Shattuck wrote on the Supreme Court’s latest decisions as an exercise in propping up an otherwise flailing presidency with the tools of autocracy — which is, they point out, not always a winning long-term strategy. “Let us not forget that King George III was sacked by the American people.”

Revisionist Reality

The Clouds Are Warning Us

Mike Tidwell wrote on how disappearing clouds could be making extreme weather events like the July 4 heat wave worse, even as Republicans continue to reject the reality of climate change. “We could be heading for a world in which only by mimicking volcanic eruptions can we fend off hell on Earth.”

America’s Choice: Authoritarian Propaganda, or an Honest History?

Jeff Nesbit wrote on a recent White House “hit piece” on the Smithsonian: its latest authoritarian attempt to replace historical scholarship with state propaganda. “True patriotism does not require a country to lie to its children about its past to ensure their loyalty to its future.”

Split Screen: Building a Legacy by Destroying History

Azza Cohen analyzed Trump’s destructive, gonzo image-making, from Mar-a-Lago-ifying the White House to flooding social media with AI fever dreams, as a means of drowning institutional memory. “Let us not fall for all the gilded distractions.”

Fighting Back

Trump Has Blazed a Path to Midterm Victories — for Democrats

Jill Lawrence called on Democrats to get past inside skirmishes and back to the job of building the big tent required ahead of the midterms. “It’s time to make the best, most heartfelt, most relatable case you can to the people you want to represent.”

Undaunted

In this week’s Undaunted, Jennifer Rubin celebrated the lower-court judges continuing to hold the line against Trump’s attempts to undermine free and fair elections. “This crucial work is all the more critical given the slim thread by which election law sanity hangs at the Supreme Court.”

Demand ICE Accountability, Make ‘Good Trouble’

Our latest Calls to Action include ways to oppose Todd Blanche’s AG confirmation, stop Russ Vought’s takeover of science grants, support trans youth, and more routes to Good Trouble.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s fatal shooting by ICE agents, data center protests, No Kings on the 4^th of July, veterans marching for “Freedom over Fascism,” and more.

Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff

Our cartoonists took on the bang-wrapped whimper of Freedom 250 (‘It’s Gonna Be Forever, Or It’s Gonna Go Down In Flames’, Nick Anderson; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling), a better name for Trump’s crypto (Mine, Mine, Mine, Michael de Adder), and the administration’s strategic direction (Hey, Who’s Driving This Car?, Nick Anderson).

The Glorious Spectacle of John Oliver on ‘General Hospital’

Meredith Blake wrote on the real can’t-miss pop culture event of recent weeks, in which comedian — and genuine soap fan — John Oliver got the “juicy” role he always wanted and TV viewers got a crossover for the ages. Taylor and Travis could never.

So, Your Country Hosted the World Cup

Megan Armstrong wrote on the complexities of loving a grand global celebration of sport — that’s also yet another showcase for corruption. “FIFA President Gianni Infantino met his match in U.S. President Donald Trump.”

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On Monday, we won the Lisa Cook case. The Supreme Court, with a 5-4 majority, blocked Trump’s attempt to fire the first Black woman to serve as a Federal Reserve governor. Democracy Defenders Fund was counsel of record alongside Lowell & Associates, Cooley LLP, and Clement & Murphy PLLC. As Abbe Lowell and I said in our joint statement, Trump’s firing of Cook was always “a manufactured pretext to bend the Fed to his political will,” and the court didn’t buy it.

Also on Monday, we supported the win in Watson v. RNC — a victory for voters and a rejection of the Republican National Committee’s effort to throw out ballots postmarked by Election Day but received after. DDF filed an amicus brief in this case on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), our frequent partner; no voter should ever lose his or her voice because a political party wants to change the rules.

We followed that up 24 hours later with the birthright citizenship case — a win two years in the making for us and our great co-counsel, clients, and partners. We started planning for Donald Trump’s illegal overreach nearly two years ago, when Project 2025 flagged birthright citizenship as a target. Because of that preparation, we were able to file the original case that ultimately resulted in this victory with our partners on day one of the Trump administration. Our role included something I am especially proud of: working with our colleagues at LULAC to connect with brave expectant mothers who served as plaintiffs, taking necessary precautions to protect their identities while allowing them to share what this moment meant to them. My colleague Lica Porcile was on TV with one of our clients, translating her emotional reaction to a truly landmark day. It is worth a watch.

I also explained the meaning of this ruling on MSNow right after it came down. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that the men who drafted the 14th Amendment “extended that promise to every free-born person in this land.” Trump tried to rewrite who counted as an American, and the court said no.

Our win rate at the Supreme Court was about 80% this term — a striking figure given the court was so often bereft of law and logic. That was on display in Monday’s ruling in another case that was brought by friends of ours, Trump v. Slaughter. It gives Trump sweeping new power to fire members of independent federal agencies — a decision he immediately celebrated. The court also upheld state bans on transgender athletes and lifted Watergate-era caps on coordinated spending between political parties and their candidates, which will pump more dirty, dark, and corporate money into politics — the exact opposite of what we need.

Those decisions and many others demonstrate that the court is irreversibly broken. So do the bare 5-4 majorities in all three of our wins. (Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment with the five in the majority in birthright but on such different and wrong grounds that he cannot fully be counted; I agree with eminent constitutionalist Larry Tribe that it should essentially be viewed as a 5-4 decision.)

Demand is building for court reform, and I agree. That should start with serious consideration of term limits for justices. That would allow a more reasonable rotation of judicial appointments that would more closely track presidential terms and the will of the American people — a welcome infusion of democracy into the institution.

One more abuse of the courts broke while I was writing this column. My client, the Olympic canoeist Davey Hearn, was charged with a felony for touching the Reflecting Pool. We at Democracy Defenders Fund are proud to represent him with Mary Dohrmann at the Washington Litigation Group. As Mary and I said on Thursday when the charge was announced, Davey is innocent. These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American. This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for its own failures. As our nation celebrates Independence Day, Americans should be deeply concerned about the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative. The justice system exists to determine facts, not to provide political cover. We look forward to our day in court and to allowing the same court system that is being misused to vindicate itself — and Davey.

My mixed feelings about those court highs and lows are appropriate as we celebrate America’s 250th. Despite my American pride and patriotism, some ambivalence is in order this semiquincentennial. The mighty ideals of 1776 and the founding generation have inspired Americans and people around the world. But they have never been completely fulfilled. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That promissory note has never been fully honored, and in fact we have gone deeper into debt on it in the past 17 months.

Still, what could be more patriotic than fighting to turn that around — that is, fighting for the American idea? We will keep on doing that with the help of your paid subscriptions. It is the most unique bargain in American journalism. You not only support cases like birthright and Cook, but also our great coverage of how our democracy is doing. See for yourself in this week’s roundup, featuring the best of our coverage, including some truly brilliant essays about America’s 250th birthday.

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The Promise of America by Maria Cardona

Yes, the country has changed, hardened. But if anger is the spark, hope must be the fuel.

The Moral Test of a Republic by John F. Terzano

“Thank You For Your Service” is not enough.

Who Will Stand the Next Watch? By Brian O’Neill

Our republic still needs people willing to tell power what it needs to know, not what it wants to hear.

How Much Democracy Does America Really Have? By Ben Sheehan

Quite a bit, but it expands and contracts. How it does so depends on us.

Backsliding Toward 250: The Hijacking of Religion at the Semiquincentennial by Robert P. Jones

At 250, it’s time to celebrate the pluralistic nation we have organically become instead of a mythical white Christian nation we have allegedly lost.

The South Shows America How to Fight to Expand Democracy for All By Stacey Abrams and Genny Castillo

Democracy has never been more necessary or more at risk, but giving up on the South would doom us all.

America 250: Our Progress. Our Peril. Our Path Forward. By Tim Dickinson

To counter a MAGA “revolution,” we may need a new (OK, old) refresh of the bill of rights.

No One is Stealing My Fourth by Jamie Riley

Donald Trump destroys everything he touches, but he can’t touch our patriotism.

What Patriotism and Loving My Country Means This July 4th by Laleh Ispahani

250 years on, America’s promise lives in our actions toward bettering our country and supporting one another.

How Lincoln Changed Our Understanding of the Declaration by Ted Widmer

He believed we could make the Declaration whole by living up to its better sentences and refusing to give in to those who will try to weaken them.

Country Over Corporation: Reclaiming American Freedom

Professor Eddie Glaude, in conversation with April Ryan, reminds us of July Fourth’s true meaning and why Americans must fight back for freedom.

Not Dead Yet by Meghan Houser

America’s 250th is a day for celebrating the defiant pulse of the living.

We Need a Re-Founding by Janai Nelson

250 years into the American experiment, it’s time for the radical hope to imagine better.

Your Revolutionary Summer Reading List by Meredith Blake and contributors

From our Culture Columnist and other Contrarians, recommended fiction and nonfiction that illuminates where we are — and how we got here.

Limited Edition Screen Prints!

Celebrate America 250 with The Art of Resistance

This limited-edition collection of screen prints is created to honor the American tradition of leveraging creative expression to inspire change.

All proceeds from merch sales go towards funding critical litigation and resistance journalism to fight back against Trump and uphold democracy.

Click here to order yours!

A 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist, finishing a long bike ride on a sunny June morning, swings by the Lincoln Memorial. A concerned citizen, he wanted to see for himself what had happened to the nation’s cherished Reflecting Pool. Despite doing nothing wrong, within moments he was in handcuffs.

That is the story of Davey Hearn — and it is the newest of the over 300 legal cases and matters that your paid subscriptions help make possible, Contrarians.

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Few of those cases capture the absurdity of this moment quite like Davey’s. As a U.S. canoeist in three Olympics and eight World Championships, he was celebrated for representing his country on the water. Now he is being prosecuted for touching it.

As I told Chris Hayes when Davey and I appeared together on MSNow on Monday: There is no crime here. Instead what we have is, as The New York Times reported Tuesday, a White House that knew much earlier than it admitted that the pool was deteriorating — and was looking for others to blame.

The targeting of Davey is an example of what makes this such a dangerous moment for American democracy and the American people. We’ve seen what this administration does to Americans who dare to question ICE’s actions, or demand accountable government, or object when their rights are violated. By standing up and speaking out, Davey has demonstrated bravery. We at Democracy Defenders Fund are proud to represent him together with the Washington Litigation Group, and we will vigorously contest these charges.

Davey’s courage is also helping shine a light on corruption. The Reflecting Pool fiasco is of a piece with other major Trump corruption cases of the moment: the Kennedy Center renaming, the $1.8 billion slush fund, and the Epstein files. Each of these four breakthrough scandals follows the same autocratic playbook: abuse power, make a mess, then dodge accountability. And in each case, my colleagues and I are fighting back with the help of your paid subscriptions.

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On the slush fund, we at Democracy Defenders Action filed another brief last week with Platkin LLP on behalf of our 35 former federal judges, supporting the court’s inquiry into whether it was defrauded. At the Kennedy Center, we and the Washington Litigation Group got Trump’s name off the building — but the administration erected a tarp over the facade in what our client Rep. Joyce Beatty called a “petty act of defiance.” After we petitioned the court, the judge ordered the administration to explain itself.

On Epstein, we are so proud of our colleague Katie Phang, who just won a preliminary injunction in her case to enforce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, represented by Brendan Ballou and our other friends at the Public Integrity Project. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche now has one week to start producing critically important documents he has been withholding — or show cause why he should not do so. That includes disclosing documents or removing redactions on emails, FBI reports, and draft indictments revealing the identity of possible additional wrongdoers and co-conspirators — plus much more.

This week, my Democracy Defenders colleagues and I also filed a complaint to the New York State Bar on behalf of over 100 judges. Working with Lawyers Defending American Democracy, we are calling for a professional responsibility investigation into Blanche. He is the same Blanche who, as former DOJ Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer documented this week, broke prison rules to move Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security facility. She appears to be the only convicted sex offender ever to have received such an exemption. Blanche’s July confirmation hearing is going to be a doozy.

We, our wonderful clients and partners and the democracy coalition writ large are winning on the corruption front — as on so many others.

Take election protection. This week also saw a series of court triumphs on election issues in which the pro-voter coalition has been successfully fighting back against Trump since day one. That includes not only litigation breakthroughs by the coalition but also limiting the post-Callais damage in the South to just three stolen congressional seats this cycle. Any stolen seat is terrible, but this could’ve been so much worse.

And all of that is before decisions next week on two landmark Supreme Court cases in which we and our wonderful partners are hopeful of success: the Cook case upholding the independence of the Federal Reserve and the birthright citizenship case upholding the 14th Amendment guarantee of citizenship to all born in the United States.

You help make all that possible, Contrarians. It is the most unique bargain in American journalism. Your paid subscriptions help fund our over 300 legal cases and matters like representing Davey Hearn against wrongful criminal prosecution. And you also support our scintillating pro-democracy journalism, as you can see for yourself in our weekly roundup of the best of The Contrarian.

What Comes Next

America 250: Our Progress. Our Peril. Our Path Forward.

Tim Dickinson kicked off our America 250 coverage with a prescription to counter the MAGA “revolution”: a new (or, rather, old) refresh of the Bill of Rights.

America’s Best Kept Secret: Progressiveness Is Popular

Jennifer Rubin wrote on why Republicans, not Democrats, should be in a defensive crouch. “The cliché that we are a “divided” country is a dodge to avoid recognizing how badly MAGA is faring.”

Trump’s Troubling Health & Mamdani the Kingmaker?

On the podcast this week, Katie Phang and Simon Rosenberg discussed Tuesday’s primary results and the tea leaves around Donald Trump’s recent health reports. “As somebody who’s more of an establishment Democrat … I welcome all these debates. I’m not scared of them.”

Removing the Roadblocks to Political and Economic Change

Nat Kendall-Taylor shared new research on the rising demand for sweeping reforms in the face of an affordability crisis and still-encroaching authoritarianism: “71% of our research participants say our political system needs major changes or to be completely reformed.”

Iran & Israel

The Iran Deal’s Real Consequence

Brian O’Neill analyzed the settling dust on Trump’s Iran agreement: an attempt at closure from which China and other global players may take a very different lesson. “They watched Washington improvise its way from bombing to bargaining, and they’ll adjust accordingly.”

Words & Phrases

Jen wrote on attempts by MAGA pols and dark money groups to define who is pro-Israel— and how Trump, his white Christian nationalist allies, and AIPAC have done incalculable harm to Middle East stability, Israel’s security, and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Healthcare in Danger

On The Dobbs Anniversary, Taking Stock of Women’s Health

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Joyce Vance marked the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to roll back not just abortion rights but also women’s health and freedoms writ large by decades. “[This] is and always has been about amassing power and exerting control.”

The Algorithm Said No

Reuben Steiger wrote on the AI-automated processing systems that are now slashing Medicare coverage — and violating the fundamentals of due process. “We have a government that can refuse you anything and explain nothing.”

Public Health Is About to Get Sicker

Dr. Mariam Rashid and Dr. Perry N. Halikitis wrote on a new federal rule seeking to defund public health degrees, even as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-DEI, pro-“efficiency” crusade endangers care capacity. “The hantavirus does not check passports. Contaminated water does not stop at Zip code boundaries.”

Fighting Back

To Defeat Authoritarianism, Start Here

Ami Fields-Meyer drew on interviews with political dissidents across five continents to give us new answers on how any American can fight democratic backsliding. “Individual acts of courage matter more than you think.”

Speak Up For the First Amendment, Protect Peace

In this week’s Calls to Action, opportunities to tell off the Federal Communications Commission, defend voting rights, oppose Rick Perry’s proposed elimination of the Peace Corps, protect ICE protestors, mobilize for All of Us 250, and more. And if your state’s primary dates are still to come: VOTE!

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw continued celebrations of Juneteenth, protests in Oregon and Illinois, support for the Prairieland defendants, ongoing Albania protests, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on a money pit (Charity Case, RJ Matson), a cesspit (Color Guard, Michael de Adder; Crime and Punishment, Nick Anderson) and the pits in human form (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

A Sitcom’s Message of Tolerance 50 Years Ago

Frederic J. Frommer wrote on the groundbreaking episode of The Bob Newhart Show that featured an openly gay character in a storyline of dignity and acceptance. “Newhart, an actor known for his own sense of decency, certainly lived up to that reputation.”

“If It’s Too Loud, Turn It Up”

Alan Light spoke with the incomparable Tori Amos on In Times of Dragons, a fiery protest album by way of the saga of an imagined relationship with a “Lizard Demon” businessman. “I don’t believe that you can sit on the sidelines, not right now, not anymore.”

The Culture Wars Feel Inescapable. It Wasn’t Always This Way.

Meredith Blake wrote on Isaac Butler’s new book, The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars, which looks to the twilight of the Reagan years for the origin of a present in which “seemingly every choice we make — from the sports we enjoy to the music we listen to — feels like a political statement.”

Syrian-Inspired Lazy Girl Chickpeas and Rice

Emily Beyda gave us a quick-and-easy recipe perfect for keeping your cool in the hot, hot heat of summer.

As I told Nicolle, the artifact that hit me the hardest was the center’s original print of the Declaration of Independence.

That founding document kicks off the displays — spanning five floors — telling the story of the Obama presidency in the context of the past 250 years. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all … would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Obama presidency felt like a huge payment on that note, and the past 17 months like a massive debit. But the two-and-a-half century story the center tells is a reminder that together we can overcome this moment and restart progress. Or as Barack put it in his remarks at the opening on Thursday, quoting one of his and Dr. King’s favorite sayings, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Wednesday morning, I got to spend a few minutes with President Obama at the center at a gathering for administration veterans in the Sky Room at the pinnacle of the building. We caught up a little bit, reminisced about friends present and departed, and talked democracy.

Obama was trailed by his White House photographer, Pete Souza. We have gotten to be buddies over the years, and I turned the tables on him by taking a selfie of the two of us.

Like countless people I talked to in Chicago, Pete thanked me for the Kennedy Center case, the slush fund case, and the over 300 other pro-democracy litigation matters you help make possible through your paid subscriptions, Contrarians.

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After meeting with Barack, we were invited to spend the day exploring the center and talking to the people who helped create it. It was like a day-long house party (in an exceptionally fancy and large house). Here I am, still in the Sky Room, with the artist Idris Khan. He covered the ceiling in thousands of hand-stamped words from Obama’s Selma speech, layered and ascending toward a skylight — as if the words themselves are rising up to the heavens.

As I strolled the building, I also met Nicola Green, a British artist who has made art about Obama and what his rise meant to the U.S. and the world. The remarkable story of her work with him will be a subject of her book coming out in August — we will have her on The Contrarian to tell the tale! Three of her silkscreens from the series “In Seven Days...” are on display on the first floor of the center. They are inspired by thousands of drawings, photographs, and notes she gathered during the 2008 campaign.

I also got to visit with the great American artist Carrie Mae Weems, whose “The Cool Blue Wind” is a photographic collage on silver and gold metallic paper, washed in blue, with an original jazz soundtrack playing above.

The images and music evoke Obama’s 2008 campaign — I was there, and I can tell you that like a jazz ensemble, there were elements of improvisation and of everyone coming together in beautiful unison. She also reminded me that artists are foundational to resistance, a lesson (as she and I discussed) that I also learned from Vaclav Havel.

Speaking of resistance, the official opening ceremony the next day was a fascinating study in repudiating Donald Trump — without ever mentioning his name.

That began with every living presidential couple taking the stage, save one. (You can’t see Hillary and Bill, they were behind Sasha and Malia from my angle, but take my word for it — they were there!) The absence of that presence was loud.

Then there were the musical acts. Again, they never uttered the name of the current president — I’m sure they were asked to keep it classy. But it was a lineup of musical performers Trump could only dream of for his coming 250 event, and one that exemplified the talent, joy, and diversity that are his antithesis. This was the grand finale, with Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Common, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and Eddie Vedder:

Finally, the Obamas’ remarks were a moving affirmation of our American story and their role in it. But they did not pull punches on where we are now. Take this from Michelle:

I hope that when you walk through this campus and bring your children here…you fully absorb the elation of achieving something together…. And I know that can be hard to grasp right now, when everything feels so upside down, when fact and fiction run together, when folks seek to stifle speech, limit access to education, devalue diversity, erase the inconvenient parts of our history, when our phones constantly buzz with the latest outrage.

I hope that this place can offer a respite from all that, at least for a little while. I hope it can reignite the optimism and empathy and ambition that has always powered this country’s greatest change.

Barack’s challenge to Trump came when he celebrated our democracy, as he had said he would at our Wednesday morning gathering — including talking about that copy of the Declaration that had struck me so powerfully on my center walk-through:

Over more than two centuries, through petitions and protests, marches and strikes, moral appeals from the pulpit and conversations at the family dinner table, men and women from all walks of life of every color, every faith, every region took up the cause of democracy and made it their own, until “We the people” came to include not just some of us, but all of us.

And that’s why the story we tell in this building begins not with Michelle’s origins or my origins, but with our nation’s, with the founding era print of the Declaration of Independence, and a pen and ink stand used by Frederick Douglas, Lincoln’s bible and a pamphlet by Ida B. Wells, suffragists’ buttons and a hard hat worn by FDR’s labor secretary, Frances Perkins.

And it’s why the exhibits here focus not just on policies but on the shared values that make democracy possible. A belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection. A belief in checks and balances in our government and an accountability that comes with an independent judiciary and a robust, free press. A belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party but to the people and our Constitution. A belief in the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections, recognizing that in a large, complicated society like ours, no group or faction gets its way 100% of the time. And a belief that qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor, those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives.

These are the values and traditions I believe in, and they are not Republican or Democratic values. They’re American values we can all share, regardless of party, values every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold, values that John MacCain and Mitt Romney believed in, no less than I did.

It is our greatest inheritance, the story of America at its best, because it reflects a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens and the possibility that despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together.

Like a nesting doll, Obama’s words surround the petty evil of the current regime with the greatness of his presidency, embedded within the vastness of America’s past 250 years — and our next 250. Those remarks and my time at the center give hope.

When I traded notes with some of those sitting around me after the speech, they tended to agree. Here I am with a holy Trinity of late night — and a Jedi knight:

A lot of people are paying attention to our shared work, Contrarians. That includes both our unparalleled coverage of our democracy and our litigation to protect that democracy.

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See for yourself with our usual weekly roundup of the best of The Contrarian.

The Iran “Deal”

The Iran Deal is Worse Than the War

Jennifer Rubin wrote on the Versailles-signed agreement that will supposedly end Trump’s costly folly of a war. “Trump promised at the start of his illegal war to extract an unconditional surrender. Certainly, the document does read like a near total capitulation — but not by the Iranian regime.”

Did We Gain Anything From the Iran War?

I spoke with Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) on what — if anything — Trump has achieved in Iran besides global economic insecurity, death, and destruction. “We’re worse off than before.”

The Clock Is Tehran’s Friend

Brian O’Neill wrote on what’s likely to come next in Iran, and why Tehran’s aim is to make the dealmaker live with a deal that never closes. “Iran does not need collapse. Collapse would clarify things. Ambiguity is more useful.”

Policy Report Card

The Screwworm Is the Cost of RFK Jr. All But Killing Public Health

Jeff Nesbit wrote on how a cattle parasite is reaping the Trump regime’s anti-science agenda. “This isn’t a food safety crisis (at least not yet)…. But to the pocketbook of the typical American consumer, the return of the screwworm is a slow-burning catastrophe.”

Republicans Starved Social Security

Jen wrote on Republicans’ latest “solutions” to the Social Security solvency problem and the questions Trump refuses to address. “We anxiously await the answers — and for Democrats to raise the Social Security issue over and over again on the campaign trail and in every available oversight and budget hearing.”

It’s Impossible to Believe This Administration Likes Black People

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the Pentagon’s removal of a prominent portrait of America’s first Black four-star general, Chappie James, and the silence around a UFC fighter’s attack on Michelle Obama as the latest in an ongoing pattern of erasure and abuse. “The race to the bottom is being led by those who serve at the top.”

Voting

After Callais, Democrats Must Bet Big on the Black-led Organizing in the South

Pamela Shifman warned against the would-be pragmatic strategizing that would have Democrats focus voting efforts outside the South in the wake of Callais. “To abandon the South now would mean turning our backs on the very people who have consistently put everything on the line for American democracy.”

What ‘the Math’ Says About the Midterms

Tim Dickinson interviewed VoteHub data science guru Zachary Donnini to size up Democratic prospects for capturing Congress in 2026. “The Senate landscape is incredibly chaotic.”

Voters Reject the GOP’s Chaos, Corruption, and Rising Costs

Brooke Butler wrote on the special elections that have shown Trump and MAGA Republicans underwater in districts across the country. “Democrats know we need candidates who can articulate a clear contrast between their forward-looking vision … and [a] trail of broken promises.

Fighting Back

From FDR to the Obama Center

Lorraine Forte also wrote about the opening of the Obama Presidential Center this week and how the space makes clear that it is not intended as a grand monument to the former president but to the power of democracy. (Unlike, you know, certain more recent presidential constructions.)

Take Action for Juneteenth and Voting Rights

See the Contrarian Calls to Action this week for ways to keep the spirit of Juneteenth going into “Freedom Summer,” plus prep for “All of Us 250” and how to protest Trump’s renewed push of the anti-voting rights SAVE Act.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week we saw protesting around the G7 and corruption in the World Cup, Pride flags flying, a No Kings protest in Colorado, anti-ICE activism, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Culture, Cartoons, & Fun Stuff

This week found our cartoonists in a reflecting mood (Metamorphoses, Nick Anderson; Clean You Can See, RJ Matson) in the face of thwarted presidential ambitions (Renaming Rights, Michael de Adder; Speak Softly, Nick Anderson, Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

The New York Knicks Are the Perfect Antidote

Megan Armstrong invited all of us to bask in this New York minute at a time when collective joy has been in short supply. “Nothing compares to witnessing the end of a drought, the breakthrough of human spirit bucking against historical precedent.”

America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries

Abraham Kenmore spoke with historian Eddie S. Glaude Jr. about his new book, America, U.S.A., which traces the moments when the United States has marked its founding — and who has been left out of these commemorations. “My love of this place — not the abstraction of this place — is rooted in the people.”

‘Idiocracy’ Now!

Meredith Blake wrote on Mike Judge’s 2006 dystopian satire, which bombed at the box office 20 years ago but has since seemed all too prophetic to many viewers — especially after last past weekend’s corporate-sponsored blood sport at the White House.

Let’s start with the Kennedy Center, where this happened in the wee hours early on Saturday:

The removal of Trump’s name was thanks to our client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), to my colleagues at Democracy Defenders Action, to our co-counsel Washington Litigation Group — and to your paid subscriptions, which help fuel my and my colleagues’ pro-democracy litigation.

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Of course, Trump being Trump, he and his cronies did it in the stupidest and most unlawful way. Throughout the 24 hours before the Friday midnight deadline, Trump & Co. kept trying and failing to get a stay of the order to remove his name. We responded to his desperate gambits with snap filings of our own and defeated him at both the trial and appellate level.

Then Trump blew past the court-ordered midnight Friday deadline in order to erect a scaffold and then hang a tarp, clearly so he could attempt to hide the removal of the letters. It was a literal cover-up! But, true to form, he botched the attempt to hide the removal, allowing photographers to capture an iconic image.

The scale of Trump’s corruption makes Richard Nixon look like a piker — and Trump’s bumbling makes the Watergate burglars look slick. As we noted in response to the regime’s midnight motion to get another 12 hours, “Defendants had two weeks to comply with the order, and only need an extension because of their inexcusable delay.”

Meanwhile, the whole pathetic display only heightened already strong public attention across the nation. Why do people care so much about this case? Trump’s name on that building defaced the memory of a beloved, fallen president. We don’t need more than that to be horrified.

But there is more. The Trump administration has featured the most outrageous corruption of any president in American history. Like the $1.8 billion slush fund (more in a minute about that), the Kennedy Center renaming is a corruption scandal. The naming rights to the building are literally priceless. Congress mandated the name, and by law that is sacrosanct. For Trump to violate that by putting his own name on the structure is yet another theft from the American people.

And the removal of the name is visible, tangible proof that Trump’s corruption and Trump himself can be stopped — that the rule of law still reigns in America and we can take back the institutions of our democracy. And if Trump thinks he’s just gonna leave the tarp there indefinitely to cover up his shame, we have plans for that, too.

We could not fight Trump’s corruption without you Contrarians. We are capping off our week-long pledge drive for new paid subscriptions to support the Contrarian 1-2 punch. The first is our great weekly coverage. The second is the fact that all profits from those paid subscriptions go to help support my and colleagues’ pro-democracy litigation.

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Your support was on full display not only at the Kennedy Center but also earlier on Friday when we supported some folks who put the kibosh on Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund. A Virginia federal judge enjoined the fund at the request of a wonderful group of lawyers and their clients. She had this to say about a bipartisan brief that we filed in that case on behalf of a Republican and a Democratic senator:

Senators Booker and Cassidy’s timely brief is very useful by providing the unique perspective of current members of the U.S. Senate and explaining how the Anti-Weaponization Fund implicates significant legal and constitutional issues including the Appropriations and Appointments Clauses of the Constitution, as well as the separation of powers.

The judge also read the following passage from our brief aloud from the bench at the hearing where she granted the injunction:

A scheme deliberately designed to recast insurrectionists — including those who perpetrated violence against law enforcement officers — as victims and legitimate prosecutions as persecution does not merely rewrite history. It creates incentives for similar conduct in the future, with the explicit encouragement of the officials responsible for administering justice.

Kudos to our Democracy Defenders Action co-counsel at Platkin LLP and to our local counsel at WLG, plus the superb lawyers and their clients who brought the case in the first place.

But it’s not enough to stop the slush funds from flowing. We have to hold accountable the people responsible. That’s why we, with Platkin LLP and Susman Godfrey, represented a bipartisan group of 35 former judges who successfully petitioned a Florida federal judge to investigate the whole mess.

That case is important because it provides an additional vehicle to probe the $1.8B and the associated “settlements” purporting to wipe away vast liabilities from Trump and his family. Late Friday night, Trump’s lawyers filed their brief attempting to justify this outrage. It substantially consists of attacking the motives and acumen of our dozens of former federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties and with hundreds of years of collective experience on the bench.

Now it is our turn to file a response explaining why this scandalous behavior — unlike anything we have ever seen in our history — is unjustifiable. Stay tuned.

As I finished this column, the New York Knicks won their first championship in 53 years. Some spoke of the Curse of Donald when the Knicks’ 13-game playoff winning streak was broken on the very night Trump attended. The Curse seemed to persist like a hangover into the next game, with the team falling behind by 29 points. But Knicks fans who hung in there saw their team overcome the largest deficit in NBA Finals history that night and then come from behind again on Saturday to win it all. You Contrarians have hung in there with our democracy (and us) over the past 17 months. We Contrarians and we Americans will also shake off the Curse of Donald and prevail. Our work on the Kennedy Center and slush fund cases are a powerful reminder of that.

For more proof, enjoy our usual rundown of the best of the Contrarian this week:

Injustice at DOJ

Catch-1001: How Coordinated Investigations Have Made Congressional Testimony Dangerous

Former federal prosecutor Alexis Loeb wrote for us on the suspicious convergence of pressure happening as groups like the SPLC and ActBlue are made to testify before Congress while facing active DOJ criminal investigations. “The risks go beyond an unfortunate sound bite.”

Todd Blanche Is Still Donald Trump’s Personal Lawyer

Peter Carr wrote on the corruption driving Trump’s unfit attorney general choice. “His fealty appears to have no bounds — even saying that Americans should be ‘happy’ that Trump is so involved in Justice Department matters.”

The DOJ’s Assault on Civil Rights

Erwin Chemerinsky reported on how the Justice Department just made it much harder for employees to prove discrimination on the basis of sex and race and much easier for employers to avoid liability. “It is astounding to see [DOJ] disregard long-established Supreme Court precedent and nullify a federal statute.”

Foreign Affairs

Cuba Is the Distraction. Ukraine Is the Opportunity

Brian O’Neill analyzed why Trump keeps chasing spectacles of dominance in Cuba and Iran while overlooking the one conflict that could strengthen his position. “Trump could easily portray himself as the leader who finally forced Europe to shoulder more responsibility while pressuring Putin into negotiations … but the conflict carries too many fingerprints he dislikes. NATO. Biden. Zelensky. Institutional.”

Reality Defies Trump-Friendly Predictions

Jen Rubin wrote on how poorly both Trump and Netanyahu predicted both the course of war in Iran — and the extent of the American public’s support for it. “Netanyahu’s reliance on Trump … render[s] Israel more isolated and his coalition more precarious than ever.”

Anti-Civil Rights Cruelty

A Cop in North Carolina Beat a Woman on Video — and Nobody Cares

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the case of a white police officer’s violence against a Black woman in North Carolina — which, despite being caught on tape, “has received minimal attention, illustrating just how desensitized America has become to violence from law enforcement.”

ICE Air: Gulags in the Sky

Gillian Brockell spoke with Tim Dickinson about the airlines that profit from Trump’s ICE deportation machine while inflicting new cruelties. “This whole process is just designed to wear [immigrants] down so that they’ll give up on their cases and sign a voluntary removal order to agree to be deported, which … [is] basically submitting to torture.”

I Warned About the Young Republicans’ Racist Group Chat. They Got a Passport.

Michael Franklin wrote on how the same pipeline that produced racist chats and “edgy” fascist jokes is infiltrating more and more Republican immigration talk. “This is how extremist ideas become governing ideas: First they are laughed off as jokes, then defended as debate, then repeated as campaign language, then embedded into bureaucracy, then treated as if they were always legitimate.”

Fighting Back

This Is What an All-Out Redistricting War Looks Like

Tim Dickinson wrote on a redistricting strategy report that could help Democrats beat MAGA Republicans at their own game, scoring as many as 21 new House seats in 2028. “The aim here is not to replicate the GOP’s ambition for permanent power…. The idea is to punish the MAGA GOP for starting this fight.”

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests in Albania, Massachusetts, Arizona, Connecticut, Tennessee, Oregon, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Contrarian Calls to Action: Oppose Trump’s Arch, Visit the ‘Trumpsonian’

In this week’s Calls to Action, we featured ways to shatter the corporatization of “Pride,” defend human rights during the World Cup, and block the nomination of Trump toadies.

Cartoons, Culture & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists covered questionable logic (All the Cards, RJ Matson; Horse Sense, Nick Anderson), fickle pleasures (A Smooth Exit, Nick Anderson; Are You Not Entertained?

Michael de Adder), and alien invasion (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

What’s in a Name? For Drag Queens, a Lot.

Meredith Blake wrote on how the legal battle between Patagonia and Pattie Gonia shows the complexity of turning subversive art into a brand. “When progressives are squabbling over trademarks, the only people benefitting are the lawyers.”

Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives. Jamie Schler gave us a delicious weekend recipe and an ode to bridge-building.

Contrarian Pet of the Week

Last but never least, meet Sushi! This cat’s birthday suit is formal wear.

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But one of the fundamental lessons of the fight for democracy — indeed of any fight — is when you’re winning, pour it on. And that’s just what we did this week with two more major legal onslaughts against the slush fund plus much more (all covered here at the Contrarian, naturally).

First, we did not accept the Trump administration’s claim that it was backing away from the fund. In a sign that we had drawn blood, anonymous leaks that the fund was supposedly dead were followed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s testimony on the Hill. He declared that the fund was “not moving forward.”

With an administration that lies so much (just look at Trump’s flip-floppery on Iran, among countless other examples), we weren’t buying it. That’s why, a day after Blanche’s announcement, we sued to make sure that not a penny of this money is ever paid — and the associated “settlements” also are stopped.

Sure enough, after we filed, Trump apparently back-tracked, saying of the fund “I love it…. I think it’s so important” and “These are great people that were destroyed, their families have been destroyed.” Violent insurrections who attacked cops should be paid? We don’t think so. And who better than our clients — two January 6 prosecutors — to take that on?

But more was to come. On Thursday, we filed a rare bipartisan brief opposing the fund. We represent Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) in an amicus brief fighting this outrageous attempt to take $1.8 billion from taxpayers. They assert that it violates the Appropriations Clause by spending federal money without congressional authorization. Like hiding the Epstein files — which we are also litigating — Trump’s fund has unusual bipartisan opposition on the Hill. Experts say those kinds of defections are a sign of failing authoritarianism.

Now the Trump administration has filed legal briefs claiming that the fund is not going forward. Well, we are going forward. We won’t stop until we have not only guaranteed that no money will be paid, but also that Trump’s sweeping “settlement” absolving himself and his family from vast liabilities is also reversed.

But our corruption-fighting week wasn’t yet over. That’s because of a leaked internal Kennedy Center memorandum to staff in response to our win in the case. The good news was that it contained a very detailed rundown of all the steps being taken to remove Trump’s name from the center. I can’t wait to be there when his name is excised from the front of the building. The bad news was that the document mischaracterized what the judge ordered. The memo claimed “[t]he Court did not rule that the Center must stay open during the renovation.” That is false, and on Friday we filed a motion with the court saying so. We will not let this stand.

Of course, that was not the only anti-corruption activity that we undertook this week. We filed a bar complaint against former Attorney General Pam Bondi, brought a new lawsuit to expose FBI Director Kash Patel’s Olympics boondoggle on the taxpayer dime, and continued the discovery push in our DOGE cases as we march toward our deposition of Elon Musk.

So, as you can see, our response to Trump’s flooding the zone with corruption is rule of law shock and awe. And all of our over 300 legal cases and matters at Democracy Defenders Fund and Democracy Defenders Action are made possible by your paid Contrarian subscriptions. Because we are owned by nobody, profits go to support our litigation work.

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Of course, we don’t only fight in the courts but also in the court of public opinion. To see for yourself, just check out this week’s roundup of the best of the Contrarian.

Lives at Risk

‘Terrible and Inhumane’: Delaney Hall and the Grim Reality of ICE Detention

Tim Dickinson wrote on the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, run by a notorious for-profit jailer group, which has renewed a flashpoint as protesters rally outside for hunger strikers within. “Instead of improving conditions inside, DHS has chosen violence outside Delaney.”

The Voting Rights Act Is Gone. Our Nation’s Health Will Suffer the Consequences

Avenel Joseph wrote on the connection between the Supreme Court’s recent gutting of the VRA and the likely worsening of health outcomes in the states most affected — especially for Black Americans. “States where voting is more accessible report better mental health, fewer uninsured residents, and lower infant mortality.”

Primary Night & Voting Rights

Iowa May Go the Way of Texas

Jen Rubin wrote on how another red state, Iowa, entered play for the Senate in November — thanks to highly electable Democratic primary winner Josh Turek, who has “put the state’s long- and short-term economic woes in the context of a political system rigged by the oligarchy’s growing power and wealth.”

A Deeply Disturbing Decision in the Alabama Voting Case

Erwin Chemerinsky wrote on the Supreme Court’s ruling this week to allow Alabama to use voting maps found to be racially discriminatory, putting yet another nail in the coffin of the VRA. “The conservative justices seem to be following a single principle: Do whatever it takes to help the Republican Party.”

Voters Want Transformation, Not Restoration

Neera Tanden wrote on takeaways from CAP’s 2026 IDEAS Conference. “The fact is that people feel stuck — because they are stuck. They don’t believe the system works — because it doesn’t work for them…. The American people do not want to go back to a broken status quo.”

Pulte in as DNI

Trump’s New Intel Head Is Worse than Unqualified

Riley Pynnonen and I wrote on Trump’s pick to replace Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence: a man who is already a central figure in the president’s campaign of political retribution.

Bill Pulte Is Not Being Sent to Lead the Intelligence Community

Brian O’Neill wrote on how Trump’s acting DNI pick suggests the transformation of U.S. intelligence writ large. “Pulte’s selection does not break from the trajectory of outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s tenure. It suggests that trajectory is moving into more dangerous territory.”

Journalism Under Attack

The Tea ft. Jim Acosta & Isaiah Martin

On The Tea this week, April Ryan and guests spoke about ongoing attacks on journalism and Democrats fighting fire with fire. “The most egregious thing that we’ve seen all week is Bari Weiss and the Ellisons killing 60 Minutes.”

Of Course They’re Going After E. Jean Carroll

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf reported on Trump’s ongoing obsession with silencing the iconic journalist who has successfully sued him twice. “The Trump administration’s latest move to deploy Justice Department investigators against Carroll is not only an attempt to distort the rule of law to vilify her and her colleagues, but it also sends a clear signal to all of us. Go public, risk retaliation.”

When the Newsroom Becomes a Server Farm

Ruben Steiger wrote on the AI-based threats to substantive and local journalism, including “pink slime” sites, search decimation, and bailouts leading to industry dependency. “AI breaks the economics of investigative journalism.”

Racism in sports

Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend Hosted a Party. And the Haters Showed Up

Shalise Manza-Young wrote on the telling response to a celebration at the French Open. “Too many people loathe Black folk, but what they really hate is Black joy. To see that through it all … we are still here.”

The NAACP’s Sports Boycott Targets the Wrong Group of Black Americans

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the NAACP’s request for Black professional athletes to withhold support for predominantly white institutions in states affected by attacks on voting rights — and why this may be less effective than appealing to the college athletes on whom these institutions rely.

Fighting Back

How To Reclaim Power from the Right

Brian Tyler Cohen wrote on why this is a moment for Democrats to fight the administration’s law-changing, norm-bending fire with fire. “You could say that demonizing the opposition is bad for the country. But you can’t say it’s worse than Donald Trump’s presidency.”

In this week’s Contrarian Calls to Action: Mobilize for America’s 250th, Fight Pulte’s Noxious Nomination, plus more ways to stand up for democracy, ICE demonstrators, and voting rights. Also see Tim Dickinson’s conversation with Ezra Levin for more on the First Amendment Celebration Indivisible is planning with Jane Fonda (!) for June 14. I’ll be there!

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests in Oregon, Alabama, Kansas, Albanians against a Kushner resort, continuing ICE demonstrations, and Tesla takedowns. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Cartoons, Culture & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists covered narcissism (The Wart Stops Here, Michael de Adder), terrible choices (The Situation Room, Nick Anderson; No Experience Necessary, RJ Matson), and both at once (The Bari Weiss Fix at CBS, Nick Anderson).

How Trump’s Nostalgia-Fueled Concert Turned Into an Embarrassing Debacle

Meredith Blake wrote on the would-be star-filled lineup for “The Great American State Fair,” which has seen even Milli Vanilli sending regrets. “Instead of celebrating this milestone by showcasing the best in American culture, the Trump administration tried to resurrect some of the worst musical trends of the recent past.”

Emily Beyda encouraged readers to embrace comfort food when the election results are difficult to watch, and Ciera Stone introduced us to Vela, a rescue dog who needs a home.

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Just weeks after I was in court to help argue the case, a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to close the Kennedy Center and change its name. The court ordered that Donald Trump’s name be stripped from the building within two weeks, rightly declaring that only Congress has the power to change the name of this national cultural landmark. Hat tip to my colleagues at Democracy Defenders Action and the Washington Litigation Group and, of course, to our wonderful client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH).

And that was not our only major breakthrough Friday in the fight against Trump’s illegality. As a result of a motion we and our great partners filed for 35 bipartisan former federal judges, a Florida federal court has reopened Trump’s IRS case — the one he used to create that notorious $1.8 billion fund. In a sternly worded order, the judge launched an investigation at our request. In addition to the judges, I thank Platkin LLP and Susman Godfrey for partnering with Democracy Defenders Fund on this case.

And I thank all of the Contrarians who support the work through your paid subscriptions. I don’t think I have ever had two of my cases as the top two stories on both The New York Times and The Washington Post websites, but that happened Friday because these two wins were good news for democracy.

People often ask me if the public is paying attention to what Trump is doing. I think it is, and that is reflected in his historically low polling numbers. These two cases represent scandals that broke through and dominated the media and public attention. The public outrage over Trump’s settlement of his case against his own government and the establishment of his enormous $1.8 billion fund has been vast. It moved beyond the usual swirl of one controversy after another and dominated news coverage, with analysts calling it a “grift fund,” “a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies,” and “in a totally different solar system than any past government settlement on record.”

That’s why we swung into action for those 35 bipartisan former federal judges. They filed in federal court in Florida seeking an investigation of the events of the past two weeks. Our filing, before federal Judge Kathleen Williams, complemented a series of other lawsuits by our partners in the democracy movement addressing different aspects of the controversy.

Though Judge Williams previously accepted Trump’s voluntary dismissal of the case, she noted that no agency “submitted any settlement documents nor filed any documents ensuring that settlement was appropriate where there was an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed.”

Those circumstances have now changed — and dramatically so — with the $1.8 billion settlement agreement that occasioned such an explosion of public controversy. As we noted in our motion (your motion), “The purported ‘settlement’ that the parties never placed before this Court raises profound questions about the parties’ candor toward the Court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice.”

With these kinds of circumstances and the many issues enumerated in the 16-page brief we and the judges filed, the court has the power to reopen the case and look into the matter. That’s just what she did.

Our matter is by no means the only legal action against Trump’s proposed $1.8B fund. In the Eastern District of Virginia, Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of individuals and organizations also requesting to block the Trump administration’s fund, arguing that it is an unconstitutional and politically discriminatory misuse of taxpayer money. They also had a big win Friday when their judge entered a temporary restraining order forbidding the $1.8 billion fund from operating while the case is briefed and argued in the coming weeks.

In the District Court for the District of Columbia, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW, which I cofounded and where I long served on the board) filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to immediately halt this fund on the grounds that the program unlawfully favors political allies and violates constitutional protections. They are also seeking emergency relief.

Meanwhile, in a lawsuit also filed in D.C. federal court, the Public Integrity Project is representing two former police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021, asserting that the fund is unlawful because it would reward rioters and further endanger the officers’ safety.

Expect more news in all of these cases soon. And we will have another shoe to drop as well, so stand by for that, too!

Meanwhile, in the Kennedy Center case, we are bracing for an appeal of our wins, though we are confident that we can preserve them. But after the court issued its decisions, the president seemed to signal he might throw in the towel. He stated on social media Friday that if he couldn’t have his way with the center, he had instructed the commerce department to “transfer this failing Institution” to Congress — whatever that means.

We are ready for anything that may come next in both of these cases, thanks to you. Your paid subscriptions make our work possible and form the backbone of our litigation efforts in this matter and over 300 others.

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Not only that, you also make possible our great coverage of these cases and of so much more. It’s the most unique bargain in American journalism. See for yourself in my usual weekly roundup of the best of the Contrarian.

Policy Disasters

Trump’s ‘Better’ Iran Nuclear Deal Is Worse

Tom Malinowski broke down why Trump’s revised nuclear deal will be far from the
“unconditional surrender” he promised — and will in fact leave the U.S. more vulnerable than before, at the cost of an unnecessary war. “Future presidents will have to reset confidence in the United States after this fiasco.”

How Trump’s Weird Fixation on DEI Continues to Hurt Women

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf reported on the Trump administration’s latest attacks on women — including blocking a women’s history museum, erasing “Black” from maternal health legislation, and slashing NIH women’s health grants by 30 percent. “Our voices and votes matter more than ever.”

We Are Not Ready for the Next Pandemic

Roberto Valadéz wrote on how the Ebola outbreak in East Africa is revealing the profound inadequacies of Trump’s “America First” approach to global health, both abroad and at home. “In a hyper-connected world, a pathogen circulating a continent away is only a single flight from our own backyards.”

Unseen Cracks

The Secret Court System That Rules Us All

Brendan Ballou joined Tim Dickinson to talk about “forced arbitration,” the secret court system that provides protection for corporations while stripping them from ordinary citizens. “This is a story about how the billionaire class gets to swindle you with impunity.”

Sen. Chris Murphy Is Looking for ‘Meaning and Connection in a Broken America’

On this week’s podcast, April Ryan spoke with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who argues in a new book that Trump is a symptom of more foundational American ills. “We have created a culture where the winners take all, where modesty or restraint is a weakness…. And if our economic winners can just take everything, why can’t our political winners take everything?”

Somebody Has To Make a Start

Danny Miller and Steve Silverman wrote on complicity, resistance, and how they both begin in the mirror. “Hannah Arendt called it the banality of evil because what she witnessed wasn’t exceptional. It was ordinary compliance at a mass scale…. But the historical record also offers something else. Ordinary people, in conditions far more dangerous than ours, chose differently.”

Fighting Back

The Hard Work of Peace

Veteran and human rights advocate John F. Terzano gave us a reflection on the long, hard road out of any war — even one the administration is trying to minimize as much as Iran — and why “Memorial Day must never be simply a celebration of military power or nationalism. It must remain a solemn reminder of war’s terrible human cost.”

Undaunted

Jen Rubin reported on the fight against Jim Crow that is tearing across the South in the wake of the Supreme Court’s latest attack on voting rights. “Dogged voting rights activists refuse to accept [Louisiana v. Callais] as the final word on our 250-year experiment in multi-racial democracy.”

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw alarms raised about a California bill that would criminalize protests at churches, protests against redistricting in the South and data centers in Utah and Pennsylvania, global actions in Bolivia and Albania, and more. See this week’s Calls to Action for more local and national ways to make a difference in democracy: Prep for ‘Freedom Summer’ 2.0 and Stand Against the Cuba Blockade.

Cartoons, Culture & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on messing with Texas (Hearts Afire, Nick Anderson), mistakes in Iran (Trump’s Dream Deal With Iran, RJ Matson; Iran War Status Updater, Nick Anderson), and missing sanity (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

What ‘Lord of the Flies’ Can Teach Us in 2026

Meredith Blake wrote on a new Netflix adaptation of William Golding’s novel from the writer of Adolescence, which proves how much the source material has to say to our current dystopic moment.

Maura McDonough shared a rescue pet of the week, and Marissa Rothkopf Bates encouraged readers to indulge in a coffee-flavored, chewy cookie.

In spring 1945, my mom had been in Nazi captivity for a year — transferred from Auschwitz to a slave labor camp in Neuengamme, Germany, packing (and, when she could, sabotaging) ammunition. When she was flagging, a friendly jailer whispered to her to hang on — the allies were near. If not for the U.S. Armed Forces joining the fight, at a terrible cost to so many American soldiers and families, my mom would not have survived.

My father’s connection was more direct: He actually served in those forces. He fled Europe for the United States in 1940, arrived in the United States with no papers, and enlisted in the Army to become a citizen. Who knows what would have become of him if the Army had not welcomed him and his service in this country. Though my parents didn’t actually meet until years after the war (in Israel, of all places), the U.S. military was their godsend, and so mine.

That legacy, and your contribution to this fight, have helped inspire me throughout this past year, since our last Memorial Day. Whether it was seeking the release of opinions related to the administration’s legal authority for the use of military force in Iran, or those related to threats from Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age,” or joining esteemed colleagues to support Members of Congress who have faced retribution for reminding those in uniform of their duty to refuse unlawful orders, much of my legal work has stemmed from my gratitude for the honor of our servicemembers and as a solemn tribute to the extraordinary values these brave men and women represent.

The American idea, which those still serving and their absent comrades fought and died for, is being attacked from within this Memorial Day. And so I ask you the same questions I asked a full year ago: How do we honor those who died for freedom while liberty remains under attack? How do we salute the flag and that idea of America it stands for when its meaning is consistently assaulted by the very administration entrusted with its care?

Some might say we should simply remember our lost soldiers without tarnishing that tribute by addressing our political climate. But looking away squanders their sacrifice. It is our responsibility to be candid about the ongoing crises and to honor those who serve more urgently with each day that passes and with each new senseless war they are asked to wage on behalf of our great country.

We do that by recommitting ourselves, again and again, to defending our democracy. Memorializing our veterans’ sacrifices, to my mind, is to attend to the fragile, unfinished, exhausting, necessary work of fighting autocracy and rebuilding a country worthy of their service. We do that by holding tight to the idea of America, even when its practice falters. We do that by doing our part, as they did — not merely on distant battlefields, but on our streets, among our communities, and in our courthouses. This past year has shown me how profoundly committed this country is to engaging in those battles. Witnessing the masses who have gathered for the people and against oppression in Selma, Montgomery, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and nationwide fueled my resolve to continue opposing those in power who are uncommitted to upholding the dream of America. Today, I beseech you to keep up the fight, as a means of honoring those who have sacrificed their lives to secure our freedoms.

For me, that mission remains informed by a Jewish aphorism that my parents, both saved by American soldiering, would sometimes say to me:

לֹא עָלֶיך הַמְלָאכָה לִיגמוֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חֹרִין לְחִבָּטֵל מִמֶנָה

“Your job is not to finish the work — but neither are you, the child of free people, not to do your share.”

I think of it often when I’m doing my pro-democracy work in the court of public opinion at The Contrarian or in my parallel work in the court of law, which paid subscribers have generously made possible. The challenge is relentless, so it reassures me to know that I need not harbor illusions of finishing the job. By the same token, it motivates me to stay mindful that I must continue to do my share.

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“The child of free people.” That’s me and my family — but it also applies to most of you. We owe our liberty to American soldiers who fought and died for it. Memorial Day is about people — ordinary people who exhibited extraordinary courage so that those they never knew, but also they and their children, could be free. As we raise flags and lay wreaths, let us also raise voices and lay down the law. And as we enter this summer, following a year of shocking corruption and injustice, let us be realistic: no one can finish the work. But let us each be prepared to do our share for democracy.

An exceptional number of people have done just that in these past weeks alone, and we covered it here at The Contrarian, made possible, of course, with your support.

DOJ Corruption

Words & Phrases

Jen Rubin wrote on why judges, juries, and attorneys nationwide no longer trust the Department of Justice as capable of living up to its name. “Let’s dispense with the notion that the weaponized, rogue department now run by Todd ‘I love you, sir’ Blanche is even trying to earn ‘the public trust.’”

A Farcical Hearing

Tom Joscelyn and I wrote on the outrageous hearing the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee held this week on the SPLC. Titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate,” it was nothing but an opportunity to amplify the Trump regime’s smear of a legendary civil rights organization.

DOJ Facilitates a Heist

Mimi Rocah wrote on the nearly $1.8 billion dollar slush fund the DOJ is creating for Trump, purportedly in exchange for his withdrawal of a (bogus) claim against his own IRS. “We cannot lose sight of the fact that this is a fictional narrative created for political purposes.”

The Global Picture

Civilian Deaths Still Shadow Precision Warfare

Brian O’Neill wrote on the troubling opacity — and suspiciously low figures — of the administration’s civilian death reports. “Democracies do not maintain credibility because they avoid mistakes in war. They maintain credibility because they confront mistakes honestly.”

China Laughs as America Stumbles

Tom Malinowski joined Jen to dissect Trump’s diplomatic failures in Beijing and how the summit signals a shift in U.S.-China relations. “It’s like Trump has this hierarchy in his mind of power in which America is not number one. We’re in the middle … and China’s on top.”

What Happens When Every Nation Has Its Own AI?

Reuben Steiger wrote on the rise of sovereign AI, by which countries are choosing to balkanize the technology in hopes of a strategic advantage — and, in doing so, entrenching inequity and censorship. “If AI hype so far has been centered around technological miracles, sovereignty is about politics.”

Identity Attacks

When They Target Black Votes, They Attack Freedom for All Americans

Nadine Smith wrote on the inextricable ties between the advancement of civil rights and democracy writ large. “If you are not Black, the question is whether you understand yet that attacks on Black freedom have always been the core test of what this country is. They are the frontline indicators of whether democracy itself is surviving.”

Widening Our American Identity

Jenan Mohajir wrote on the Trump administration’s efforts to say “the quiet part aloud” and advance the narrative of America as a fundamentally “Christian nation” — something that, she writes, is counter to the far older truth of religious diversity as core to American identity.

Democracy Demands Women’s Health Stay Front and Center

Jennifer Weiss-Wolff on the latest in Republican threats to women’s health: “It is critically important to keep reproductive health and the chaos at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) front and center in the headlines. Why? Two words: midterm elections.”

Fighting Back

The Tea ft. Gov. Gavin Newsom & Aaron Parnas

April Ryan was joined by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and journalist Aaron Parnas for fantastic conversations about legacy v. new media, holding a mirror up to Trump, and the urgency of new ideas for resistance. “It’s not about party. It’s about you. We the people.”

Here’s How Dems Win the 2026 Midterms

Swing Left Executive Director Yasmin Radjy joined Tim Dickinson to break down the 2026 midterms in depth — and to look ahead to 2028. “Every single fight to dismantle authoritarian power has required strong grassroots power and infrastructure.”

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we shared more coverage of last weekend’s actions in Alabama, as well as protests in Missouri, Texas, New Hampshire, and elsewhere. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Fight Trump’s Corruption and Irritate JD Vance

Plus more ways to stand up for democracy with our Contrarian Calls to Action.

Cartoons, culture, & fun stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on the payoffs of the Iran war (The Summit, Jack-in-the-Box, Michael de Adder; Water Hazard, Nick Anderson), the payoffs for J6ers (A Path to Justice, Nick Anderson); and the payoffs of Chief Justice John Roberts’ long game (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

How Stephen Colbert Brought God into Late Night TV

Meredith Blake wrote on Stephen Colbert’s remarkably open embrace of his Catholic faith — always alongside his progressive politics — and how The Late Show’s end will leave “a loss for anyone who values thoughtful conversations about faith, spirituality, and belief.”

Meredith Blake shared her goldfish, Buttercup, picked up as a county-fair prize almost a year ago. And Jamie Schler encouraged Contrarians to get fancy and make an indulgent vanilla rum panna cotta with rum-roasted cherries.

Leading off the list will be Trump’s personal lawsuit to brazenly pick $10 billion out of Americans’ pockets. It is a new low. And his machinations in recent days when it looked like a federal judge might stop him only highlight how depraved this whole scheme is. For this week’s publishers note we thought we would offer a deep dive on our new top scandal—with the full list to follow tomorrow.

This sordid story begins in January, when Trump, with his sons and the Trump Organization, sued the IRS and the Treasury Department. The plaintiffs argued that the agencies failed to take appropriate measures to protect Trump’s tax information, which leaked.

The lawsuit is riddled with flaws. For starters, it targets the wrong entity. No one in the IRS leaked his taxes; an outside contractor from Booz Allen Hamilton disclosed the information. For that and many other reasons, the lawsuit is entirely defensible by DOJ – indeed, a comparable one was settled for no payment at all.

Most outrageous of all is the amount originally sought: $10 billion. That is more than the entire annual appropriation for the IRS, an agency of 75,000 employees.

And it is an agency Trump ultimately oversees, as is the other defendant, the Treasury Department. Although Trump claims to be acting in his personal capacity as the plaintiff in this lawsuit, he is the chief executive of the federal government. He is in effect both the plaintiff and the defendant in this case! It is like a bank robbery committed by the CEO and board of directors of the bank.

In the annals of American law, it is hard to find an example of a president effectively suing himself. It’s not just wrong; it also raises profound constitutional issues. The President is prohibited by the Domestic Emoluments Clause of the Constitution from receiving any “profit, gain, or advantage“ from the United States other than his salary. This frivolous cash grab—whether paid to Trump directly or diverted at his direction to a fund that benefits his loyalists—is the exact type of corrupt self-dealing that the founders and framers were concerned with when they signed the Constitution.

And then there is Article III’s Case or Controversy requirement for a federal lawsuit. It provides that a legal action is only valid if the parties are actually adverse to one another. A case that is in effect Donald Trump v. Donald Trump hardly seems to fit.

Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida was rightly skeptical. She asked Trump’s personal lawyers and the government attorneys to submit briefs by May 20 explaining how the parties are genuinely adverse. She also asked six well-regarded lawyers to serve as amici, friends of the court, providing their view of the legitimacy of this lawsuit.

Needless to say, Trump is not keen on this kind of scrutiny and potential rejection of his legal complaint. Giving additional fuel to fears of collusion, on Tuesday, reports emerged that Justice is in settlement negotiations regarding this $10 billion lawsuit. Typically, when a plaintiff settles a case out of court, he is free to drop the case, and that is the end of the matter. If that kind of side deal were allowed to happen here, the settlement would escape judicial scrutiny.

Those concerns about a plot to dodge the court were only heightened by subsequent reports that emerged throughout the week. They suggest that Trump may now drop this and other lawsuits, including one seeking damages from DOJ relating to the seizure of classified documents he wrongly retained at his Florida home. In exchange, DOJ is said to be establishing a $1.7 billion fund to compensate those whom Trump claims were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration’s “weaponization” of the DOJ, including those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Jan. 6 insurrectionists who assaulted police officers should not be able to seek a financial reward for their actions. Nor should the rest of the rogues gallery of wrongdoers and Trump allies who are included in his bogus “weaponization” claims. Though Trump is said not to be able to directly apply for payment, it appears that people or entities linked to him will not be precluded.

Judge Williams should not fall for it. She has the power to investigate all this, and she should do so. This is a historically unprecedented effort to undermine her jurisdiction and purloin vast sums through self-dealing.

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The whole affair is even more sordid because Trump’s former defense lawyers are running the show at DOJ. That starts with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose bumbling performance when Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in connection with 2016 campaign wrongdoing did not seem to harm the lawyer’s career prospects. How can a DOJ headed by the likes of Blanche be expected to fairly resolve the president’s claims? It cannot, of course.

If you are thinking this whole depraved situation could not possibly get any worse, think again. Thursday brought revelations that former DOJ ethics counsel Joseph Tirrell counseled Blanche that under the ethics laws he should not be involved in anything involving the personal issues of his former client. As a former White House ethics czar, I certainly agree. Though the American people are not privy to who is doing the negotiations over this latest Trump settlement, Blanche should immediately disclose whether he has had any involvement in anything personally relating to Trump.

As you Contrarians are well-aware, corruption has been a hallmark of Trump’s second term, but this cascade of scandal after scandal is in a category of its own. It all amounts to the most extreme example of self-dealing we’ve seen yet. As Trump makes the lives of everyday Americans more expensive by continuing the war in Iran and with higher tariffs, he is trying to shake down the American taxpayer for vast sums. No wonder consumer sentiment is hitting an all-time low.

With the support of your paid subscriptions, we have been sounding the alarm on this pattern of brazen corruption for months—and fighting it. In fact, we filed a complaint in November, requesting that the DOJ inspector general investigate the department’s potential $230 million settlement with Trump after he reportedly filed the claims related to the documents. As we described in our complaint, even Trump admitted, “It’s interesting, because I’m the one that makes a decision, right?... [I]t’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”

We agree, and we will be doing much more. Stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, enjoy our usual weekly round up of the best of the Contrarian. And if you are coming to Montgomery today, I will see you there. Plus keep an eye out for our coverage on the day of the event.

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After Callais

This week, we spoke to experts, policymakers, and activists to break down the threats to voting rights in the wake of Callais and what comes next. Mother Jones correspondent Ari Berman: “I think it’s really hard to argue now that this isn’t a return to some form of Jim Crow.” Election law guru Rick Hasen: “This is just ... a [redistricting] race to the bottom.” Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL): “Partisan politics has become a proxy for racism.” Rep Shomari Figures (D-AL): “The answer to a court Jim Crow is turnout, turnout, turnout.”

Callais Is Not the Last Word

Jennifer Rubin wrote on what democracy defenders must do now and in the long term to fight the Supreme Court’s infuriating, partisan, and legally unsound rulings. “If Democrats come out of the 2028 election with House and Senate majorities, and the presidency, they will have all the motivation and tools required to reverse the slide into Jim Crow.”

Lane Kiffin and America’s Blindness to Racism in Sports

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the rude awakening poised to descend on sports like college football, in which, despite willful denials of discrimination by powerful white men, sports and politics have never been separate. “Given the Supreme Court’s decision … people have started asking whether Black college athletes should stop playing at schools where the gerrymandering is taking place.”

We’re Not Buying It

Trump’s $4.50 Gas Price Tar Pit

Jeff Nesbit wrote on how little patience the American public has for the White House’s shrugging attitude towards affordability. “When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) notes that Americans are ‘selling their plasma to pay for groceries and gas,’ she isn’t using hyperbole. She’s describing palpable voter anxiety.”

Young People Know When Institutions Are Playing in Our Faces

Michael Franklin wrote on behalf of younger generations who see racism as an embedded, virulent fact in policy and culture — and are tired of hypocritical institutions pretending otherwise. “Telling people to have faith in systems that are inconsistent, selectively accountable, and structurally unequal without acknowledging that sounds like denial, not inspiration.”

Once a Grifter…

Sean Duffy Can’t Stay Away from Reality TV

Meredith Blake checked in with the transportation secretary, who is using his time in office this summer to star in a self-aggrandizing extended car commercial on YouTube. “Duffy has been called tone-deaf for going on a free family vacation when gas is averaging $4.50 a gallon.”

Trump Is a Just Real Estate Guy Who Sees America as a Property

Tom Malinowski sized up the emperor’s new, old clothes, and what they tell us about his policy playbook. “If you treat countries as the equivalent of property development companies, with profit as your only motive, your foreign policy is probably going to look something like this.”

Healthcare Under Threat

A One-Two Punch from HHS

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on the latest from Health and Human Sservices: the launch of moms.gov, a new website that serves as a one-stop-shop for the Trump administration’s pronatalist agenda, and an opinion essay by Melania Trump.

Voting and Reproductive Rights Are Antithetical to the Conservative Agenda

Lourdes A. Rivera analyzed the relationship between Callais and another recent exercise of conservative judicial will: a ruling in favor of Louisiana’s restriction of access to abortion medication. “Black people, women, and Black women in particular are just not Louisiana’s kind of ‘legal persons’ entitled to full participation in society.”

Fighting Back

We Are the New Architects of America

LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, joined Jen to discuss “All Roads Lead to the South,” this Saturday’s monumental gathering in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, to protest the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. “We’re not asking somebody for a seat at the table, this is our table that we have built.”

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we covered protests in Oregon, Tennessee, and New York, a new protest song, and the run-up to All Roads Lead to the South. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org, and, if you can, join The Contrarian in Alabama today!

The New Civil Rights Movement Starts Now

This week’s Calls to Action features more on the action in Alabama, localized protests against data centers, preparation for “Seven Days in June,” and more ways to get off the sidelines in defense of democracy.

Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on the war in Iran (On Life Support, Nick Anderson); the war on American voters (Raising the Flag, Nick Anderson), and how neither is making Trump look as good as he thinks (Up to his Knees, RJ Matson; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

How the Battle Over American History Is Playing Out in One Southern City

Meredith Blake wrote on Natchez, a bracing and inventive documentary on antebellum tourism in Mississippi that juxtaposes Gone with the Wind fantasy with the violent present-past beneath. “Southern nostalgia is especially irresistible because it has been economically beneficial.”

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But then three things made me feel better.

First, I looked afresh at the math, and I was reminded that we could still see a one- or two-seat pro-democracy pickup in that state. The same majority of Virginia voters who expressed their will to counteract Donald Trump’s open theft of congressional seats is still there. And, like me, they are probably mad as hell about the Republican majority on the state Supreme Court blocking the referendum they voted for.

Second, if Virginia was a wake-up call for me, perhaps it will be one for the country as well. As we covered this week, the South is rising up, with intense protests in places like Tennessee and Alabama. But we need to do much more to wake up the country as a whole to the post-Callais redistricting crisis and the ways it is being used to push for a new Jim Crow. In fact, a nationwide mobilization in Montgomery, Alabama, to address redistricting wrongdoing has just been announced for next weekend. Pack your bags!

Third, the legitimate, voter-approved Virginia redistricting that was blocked was needed to balance out illegitimate and illegal gerrymanders elsewhere. But if we can block them, we can further limit the damage. That is exactly what my colleagues and I are doing in our litigation campaign in the South, including our cutting-edge case to stop the illegal Florida gerrymander. It is the latest of my over 300 legal cases and matters defending democracy that you make possible through your paid subscriptions.

On Wednesday, April 29, a mere hour after Callais dropped, Florida House Republicans passed a brazenly partisan congressional map pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. It soon passed the Florida Senate, and on Monday, May 4, DeSantis signed legislation making this new map official. Four Democratic seats were eliminated. Other Southern states have followed suit or will do so.

Florida was also one of the worst, because it is such a flagrant violation of state law. More than 15 years ago, Florida voters overwhelmingly rejected gerrymandering by adopting the Fair Districts Amendments to the state constitution, despite opposition from the Republican-led legislature. These amendments prohibit drawing districts intended to favor incumbents or political parties. The brazen gerrymander we are now witnessing flies in the face of that.

The gerrymander is clearly partisan. Yet DeSantis’s general counsel justified it by pointing to the Callais decision — which is about racial gerrymandering. However wrongly, that ruling upheld a challenge to Louisiana’s map that created a second majority-Black congressional district in the state, even though the map was drawn to comply with the Voting Rights Act.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the partisan gerrymander in Florida. You don’t need to be a redistricting expert to see that the Florida GOP has been waiting in the wings for the opportunity to rejigger the state’s congressional map. The decision was nothing more than a pretext to roll out its long-desired plans.

This is a travesty, which is why we were quick to act. Working with a tremendous coalition of clients and co-counsel, on May 4, we filed in Florida state court to block the new map. In the complaint, we explain that DeSantis and his allies openly used partisan data to increase Republican seats from 20 to 24 (out of Florida’s 28 districts). In true partisan fashion, DeSantis’s office shared the proposed new map with Fox News before it was even sent to state legislators.

As we explain in our filing, “The Challenged Plan is illegal. It is a flagrant violation of the express will of the people of Florida, who amended their constitution just over 15 years ago to ban precisely the intent that is at the heart of the Plan. The mandate of Article III, Section 20 [of the Florida Constitution] is clear, and the Challenged Plan just as clearly contradicts that mandate. It should be enjoined.”

In addition to our great regular partners LULAC and SPLC, we at Democracy Defenders Fund are fortunate to have many other wonderful colleagues on our side in this fight. Our coalition, which includes Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of Florida, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice, reflects the mosaic of America that makes our country so great.

And there is one other partner: all of you Contrarians! Because of your paid subscriptions, we are able to file cases like this one and do our part in the national effort to combat this sweeping attempt to restrict access to the ballot.

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That doesn’t only mean filing litigation, of course. It also means being part of what is going on in the court of public opinion, including through supporting the vibrant, peaceful public protest that has sprung up across the South and is stirring around the nation. Protesters and the pro-democracy public alike count on The Contrarian’s coverage of the Democracy Movement to serve as a hub to understand the moment and take inspiration from it. This week was no exception as we took you inside the protests across the South, as I discuss in our weekly round up below.

We will be in Montgomery, Alabama on May 16 for the National Day of Action, participating and bringing you our great Contrarian coverage, just as we have done for No Kings and so many other demonstrations over the past 16 months.

For more, and for everything else that happened this week, please keep reading for this week’s best of the Contrarian. No other outlet in American journalism goes deeper on these issues every day – and, like our litigation, it is all thanks to your paid subscriptions. It’s the most unique bargain in American journalism, as you will see when you take a look at this week’s highlights.

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Voting Wrongs

SCOTUS’s Brazen Power Grab Guts Voting Rights

Norm Ornstein argued that the Supreme Court’s overexercise of power now merits more than the usual calls for judicial reform — that it’s time to go back to the Constitution to curtail a truly unbalanced federal branch. “No option should be off the table.”

The Economic Consequences of Gutting Voting Rights Are Staggering

Alphonso David trained an economic lens on the travesty of Callais. “The math of modern voter suppression: make voting more expensive while making each vote feel less powerful.”

The GOP’s Grand Southern Delusion

Charlie Bailey, chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, offered reasons for hope in a key midterm battleground state, Republicans’ voter suppression campaign notwithstanding. “They cannot get through their heads that the impacts of their policies have turned folks against them.”

Virginia’s Redistricting Ruling Is Peak Darwin-Era Politics

Historian Jill Lawrence wrote that scruples are for sissies, and that’s why it’s important to elect the candidates who will do the right thing, even if they are flawed humans themselves: “They … offer a template for looking at the bigger picture — the biggest one of all. That would be the fate of U.S. democracy, now in the hands of an oligarchic regime intent on staying in power, no matter what it takes.”

Media Matters

Local TV News Is Vanishing

Jennifer Schulze wrote on the ongoing decimation of local news sources thanks to consolidation, copycat content, and right-wing conglomerates. “Thousands of local newspapers are already gone; your local TV newscast could be next.”

‘He Put a Lasso Around the Earth in a Way Nobody Had Before’

Meredith Blake wrote on how, “for better and for worse,” CNN founder Ted Turner changed the way the world gets its news (and much more), and interviewed Lisa Napoli, author of Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News.

Split Screen: The Church Is the State Now

Azza Cohen wrote on the chilling messages encoded in the Trump regime’s use of overtly religious imagery. “The visual of the word ‘science’ next to a white man in an explicitly religious pose is a poignant visual metaphor for how this administration wants to be seen.”

Worth a Hard Look

America Becomes Outraged Only When It’s Too Late

Carron J. Phillips wrote on the latest attacks on voting as part of Americans’ pattern of all-too-blind — if not fatal — optimism in the stability of democracy. “Trump 2028 isn’t propaganda; it is a preemptive campaign slogan. Republicans tip their pitches because they know Americans will ignore the signs.”

Wars Do Not Occur Within a Vacuum

Ciera Stone gave us a searing report on the humanitarian crisis being waged across multiple regions of the Middle East. “This is what the human cost of war looks like…. The stories and people profiled are merely snapshots of an unfathomably vast, brutal picture. For each day of complacency, the cost of lives and livelihoods goes up.”

Health & Science

The Evisceration of the American Mind

Jeff Nesbit wrote on the Trump administration’s recent move to fire 22 leading members of the National Science Board, the independent governing body of the National Science Foundation. “By purging the NSB, the administration isn’t just shaking up the bureaucracy. It’s dismantling the peer-review process and replacing scientific expertise with political loyalty.”

The Triple Threat of Big AI

Reuben Steiger looked at some of the headlining threats of the frontier AI models — among them monopoly, autonomy, hacking — and asked: Can artificial intelligence solve more problems than it’s creating?

Fighting Back

Meet Two Candidates Fighting for Montana

Tim Dickinson spoke with two candidates in the Democratic primary for Montana’s 1st District, pro-healthcare ex-gun exec Ryan Busse and former smokejumper Sam Forstag, both of whom are finding creative ways to bring the blue wave west.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we covered May Day Strong protests in Missouri, Wisconsin, New York and North Carolina, redistricting protests in Tennessee, Alabama and elsewhere, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org. And see our Calls to Action for more ways to fight the MAGA assault on voting rights.

Culture, Cartoons & Pets

This week, our cartoonists covered the beach (86, Nick Anderson), the ballroom (Why the Long Face?, Nick Anderson), the Blame Game (Michael de Adder), and one unstable brain (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).

The Devil Offers Free Two-Day Shipping

Meredith Blake wrote on Anna Wintour and her cinematic counterpart, Miranda Priestly, who, between the Bezos-sponsored Met Gala and a journalism fantasy in The Devil Wears Prada II, each did a little too much trusting of billionaires.

A Make-Your-Own-Adventure Brunch Casserole

Marissa Rothkopf Bates shared a “golden retriever of recipes: eager to please and there to bring you joy with its simple, happy-go-lucky existence.”

Contrarian Pet of the Week

And last but never least: meet Daisy Shaw!

I was in New Mexico at a democracy conference of all places when the decision hit on Wednesday morning. As I sat on my patio in the morning sun and read the decision beneath the high blue sky, I was struck by the contrast between the beauty of my surroundings and the horror on the page. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed fair representation for Black and Latino Americans in Congress, state legislatures, and more, was annihilated.

The content of the majority opinion was devastating, but so was the timing. I knew that the decision would be bad, but I had hoped that the Roberts Court would at least have the decency to wait until the end of the term in June — not drop this bombshell in the middle of primary season.

Sure enough, chaos immediately ensued across the South as the GOP sought to capitalize on the case by immediately commencing efforts to snatch away Black and Latino representation. Florida passed a bill the same day. Alabama and Tennessee are taking steps to pass their own bills. Louisiana went even further, canceling active congressional primary elections! Odious Gov. Jeff Landry claimed an “emergency” in contravention of state law.

It was one of the darkest series of days since Jan. 20, 2025. But we Contrarians refused to quit back then and have since helped mount ferocious pushback in the courts of law and of public opinion. Your efforts as part of the overall democracy movement have helped make Donald Trump one of the most unpopular presidents in history. We will do the same pushback here, starting with litigating vigorously with our pro-democracy allies in the South. Your paid subscriptions make that possible; because we are owned by no one, all profits are plowed into our over 300 legal cases and matters — and counting.

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The past 15 months are not the only inspiration for what we must do now. Far from it. The civil rights movement in particular offers vital lessons. I asked three of today’s leaders in that movement — Bryan Fair of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Lauren Groh-Wargo of Fair Fight, and Juan Proaño of LULAC — for inspiration and specific next steps. I had intended to combine their ideas with my own into a single column, but their ideas stand on their own as distinct and brilliant guides to action.

Bryan’s Thoughts:

I’d like to start with a few high-level observations:

The majority opinion in Callais reminds one of the court’s infamous opinions in Dred Scott and Plessy, in which the court announced that “persons of African descent, whether slave or free, … had no rights which the white man was bound to respect,” and that “separate was equal.” Now, “nonminority voters,” a euphemism for white voters, have no duty to respect and preserve minority voters’ power. The Callais decision invites an immoral race to the bottom against all minority voters and their nonminority allies. We eventually defeated Dred Scott and the similarly dreadful Plessy. We must also reverse Callais.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend toward justice unless we bend it.

The price of freedom is high. Many people gave their lives to gain for us the right to vote for us. We honor them by exercising the right to vote. If we want change, we must demand it by participating and encouraging others to join the fight for free and fair elections.

Every electoral district in this country is a racial gerrymander, designed based on the racial demographic composition of the district. If Black and Latino opportunity districts are violative of the Fourteenth Amendment, thousands of white opportunity districts violate that amendment as well.

Tyrants are never the heroes. My heroes are those who resist tyranny in all its forms and all its sources, whether legislative, executive, or judicial. Resistance is our superpower!

We are on the right side of history and the right side of justice.

With that here are five specific guidelines for action:

1. A multiracial democracy cannot be defended by a narrow constituency. It requires a broader, deeper coalition that spans race, gender, class, geography, religion, and identity. Every coalition partner must commit to supporting our allies and their right to free and fair elections.

2. We must speak to current voters and the nearly 90 million nonvoters who sat out the 2024 election. We must speak where they are, and we must hear their concerns to connect with them. We must help them participate in our democracy, especially those who face invidious barriers.

3. We must advance the principle of one person, one vote as the cornerstone of our democracy and challenge every device, procedure, or map that undermines that fundamental constitutional doctrine. We need a new Voting Rights Act that proscribes voter suppression, vote abridgment, and vote dilution in all elections across the country.

4. We must speak directly and candidly about racism, past and present, identifying both the sophisticated and simple-minded strategies used to suppress minority voting power. Nonminority voters are not entitled to an inflated weighting of their votes. That’s what the 1965 Voting Rights Act proscribed.

5. We must expand voter education, engagement, and registration efforts to mobilize the largest multiracial turnout in our history for the November midterms.

Lauren’s Thoughts:

Callais represents the latest move by the Roberts Court, the Federalist Society, and the MAGA movement to dismantle Black and Latino political power through Supreme Court cases gutting the Voting Rights Act and eliminating private enforcement mechanisms. These actions are intended to strip the political power of Black and Latino Americans and to create a “New Solid South” under White one-party rule.

Below, I outline a strategy to delay, disrupt, and ultimately defeat these efforts while building a long-term coalition for democratic progress and a multiracial American democracy. This strategy builds the infrastructure needed to fight this immediate crisis. It also empowers us to create a new vision and build enough power to enact real, structural changes necessary for a thriving multiracial democracy responsive to the needs of its residents.

1. Fight Back Hard Now: We are working with existing coalitions and networks across the South alongside our national allies to push back against these cynical, racist attempts to gut Black political power and gerrymander the congressional and state maps. If we cannot block them outright, we must make the fight as long, difficult, and painful as possible for the GOP. The more we can combat its plans and expose them as the extreme and cruel measures they are, the more the public will see how GOP leaders are focused on their own power rather than meeting their needs.

2. Organize and Build a Deeper Coalition: We must build a deeper, more resilient coalition rooted in people and their needs, hopes, and dreams. This must be paired with developing mass movements with an effective use of electoral tools to counter anti-democratic forces along with organizing for better living and working conditions and much more. We need a mass revival of labor, community, and electoral organizing across the South. That means deepening outreach to the millions of nonvoters among us and those who aren’t following the news, and engaging and empowering young people across racial and cultural lines with strategies that go beyond political spaces.

3. Make the Coalition Broader: A key lesson of the civil rights movement is that it won the hearts and minds of the nation by constructing a truly broad tent, an approach that’s needed again today. That means bringing in the business community, disaffected Republicans, civic organizations, and other influential voices who agree we need a thriving two-party system and responsive government, the needs of our people met, healthy debate even if we all don’t agree on the issues, and the isolating of extremists and autocrats. We will engage major corporations and regional leaders who are rooted in and connected to the South and encourage them to take an active role.

4. Expose Racism, Corruption, and Disdain for the American People: Southerners and Americans more broadly do not want racism, division, or hatred. They want a functioning democracy that can make tangible differences in their daily lives. MAGA knows it has no agenda the American people want or support, which is why it is stealing power and eviscerating norms rather than attempting to make a persuasive case to voters. Political parties try to earn your vote; authoritarian movements find ways to win without it. To move forward, we must clearly identify and confront the extremists, making them and their out-of-touch ideology central and visible in ways the broader public can see and understand.

5. Mobilize Black Voters and Their Allies in the 2026 Midterms: We must leverage this attempt at massive voter suppression to drive the most robust, organized, and empowered mobilization effort in modern history this fall and fight attempts to steal or undermine the count and the results. Leaders in the South are already gearing up to do that. Allies everywhere must support this effort — and themselves turn out in record numbers. From Birmingham to Selma to Minneapolis, overreach has historically prompted voter backlash, and we must channel that here.

Juan’s Thoughts (Note: Juan was so into it that he produced a 2000 word Substack essay of his own that you can find here. Excerpts follow.)

American political life rests on a foundation that Latinos did not build alone. We built part of it. We fought for part of it. But the load-bearing structure underneath all of it was built by Black Americans who marched, organized, sued, were beaten, were jailed, and in too many cases were killed so that this country could become, for the first time in its history, a real multiracial democracy….

Here is the five-track plan I am taking to our 400+ LULAC councils and 575,000 members nationwide:

1. Federal Legislation: Congress must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. We know the political environment. We know the votes are not there today. But the bills must be live, on the floor, forcing every member of Congress on the record. That is itself a mobilization tool, and the political environment will not stay the same forever.

2. State Voting Rights Acts. Eight states already have their own voting rights acts that go further than the federal VRA. We need them in Texas, Florida, Arizona, and every state with a meaningful Latino population. LULAC is mobilizing our councils to push for state voting rights acts state by state. This is the work of the next 24 months.

3. State Courts and State Constitutions. Callais gutted the federal pathway. State constitutions and state supreme courts remain. Florida’s Fair Districts amendment, California’s Voting Rights Act, the New Mexico and Arizona state-level protections, these are now the front lines. We will litigate aggressively in state court, and we will defend state-level protections from federal court challenges that are coming.

4. Voter Mobilization. This is where LULAC lives, and this is the work that matters most right now. We will accelerate our voter registration program. We will train Spanish-language poll workers and election observers. We are building the largest Latino voter protection infrastructure the country has ever seen to challenge in real time the suppression measures that will follow this ruling. Callais makes our turnout work more important, not less. The single most powerful response any Latino voter can give to this court is to register, to vote, and to bring three others with them. We turned out in record numbers in 2020 and 2024. We will turn out in record numbers again.

5. Coalition. This week’s media briefing, convened by the National Urban League — featuring LDF, the NAACP, UnidosUS, AAJC, the Lawyers’ Committee, the National Action Network, the Leadership Conference, and other organizing partners — is the model. What you saw on that call was a multiracial civil rights coalition refusing to be divided. That coalition is the answer. The attack from this Court is on multiracial democracy itself, and the response has to come from a coalition that reflects what multiracial democracy actually looks like.

There you have it friends — a passel of ideas for how we can start work right now to rebuild, repair, and renew post-Callais. I know I felt more hopeful after talking to Bryan, Lauren, and Juan and getting their ideas. Before turning to our usual weekly summary, I wanted to share one more jolt of wisdom from my wonderful Contrarian colleague, April Ryan, discussing the broader context of the decision:

That’s all we’re asking for: a level playing field for every American. We talk about that aspiration and much more in this week’s round up of the best of the Contrarian, put together as always by our wonderful team.

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Gun Violence & WHCD Aftermath

Why Is the White House More Concerned with Building a Ballroom than Protecting Americans?

On the podcast this week, AFT President Randi Weingarten joined Jen Rubin to discuss gun violence, Trump’s ludicrous (if unsurprising) response to Saturday’s attempted shooting, and Friday’s May Day Strong Rally.

Gun Violence Deeply and Uniquely Impacts Women and Children

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on the ripple effect of gun violence on women and children—and also some underreported good news from states like Virginia, where gun safety bills that haven’t gained traction in Washington are moving ahead under Democratic governors.

Yes, Shootings Are Traumatic. Welcome to Our World

Ciera Stone gave us a searing essay on what it’s like to grow up with school shooter drills and the real and deadly threat behind them as a generational norm—and to know that institutional leadership will again do nothing. “I ask traditional media and politicians alike: how long until you forget this shooting, too?”

SCOTUS v. the VRA

The Supreme Court Has Demolished the Voting Rights Act

Leah Litman broke down exactly how antidemocratic the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision was and what we can expect as Republican-controlled states seek to redraw their maps to entrench power by destroying majority-Black and Latino districts. “It’s basically a judicial coup — a revolution against the will of the people expressed in the VRA.”

The Supreme Court’s Racist Rerun

Nadine Smith of Color of Change put the Louisiana v. Callais decision in context of America’s long history of racist attacks on voting rights, while looking to past and present for a roadmap to successful democratic resistance. “People fight differently when something has been taken; we are in that moment now.”

Want to Fight Today’s SCOTUS Decision? Then Fight for the Georgia Supreme Court in May

Ben Wikler, Lavora Barnes, and Spencer Klein—key members of the fight for the Wisconsin Supreme Court last year—wrote on two state supreme court election races that, in the wake of Wednesday’s Voting Rights Act decision, now matter more than ever. “Nobody is talking about this election. That needs to change.”

Media & Tech

Musk vs. Altman: Risking the Future on a Battle of Egos

Reuben Steiger wrote on the OpenAI as a case study in abandoned ideals. “To see where this kind of internal tension between idealism and greed leads, look no further than OpenAI’s recent agreement to work with the U.S. military to surveil citizens and use AI to make tools of war.”

Trump Is Trying to Get Jimmy Kimmel Fired (Again)

Meredith Blake analyzed Trump’s post-WHCD threats against his favorite talk-show target du jour, Jimmy Kimmel, and why they’re packing notably less of a punch this time. “The president’s problem — or at least one of them — is that his poll numbers are only tracking downward.”

Warnings About Kash Patel May Fall on Deaf Ears

Josh Levs wrote on legacy media’s “credibility crisis of its own making,” which may soften the impact of important investigative work like the Atlantic’s coverage of Kash Patel’s radical unfitness to be FBI director. “In 1976, 72% of Americans trusted the media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly either a “great deal” or a “fair amount.” Now, that figure is at an all-time low of 28%.”

Fighting Back

Trump Made Progressivism Great Again

Jen wrote on the irony that active, humane government has rarely had a better call to action than Trump’s embodiment of its total opposite. In the midterms, “Democrats must paint a vivid picture of the choice voters face: MAGA nihilism, corruption, cruelty, and oligarchic rule vs. functional government, improvement of safety net programs, humane immigration policy with border protection, personal freedoms to define one’s life, and fairness for the little guy and gal.” Every voter can be part of the referendum.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we covered May Day mobilizations nationwide, as well as earlier protests in New Jersey, Texas, Arizona, Oregon and Arizona, and more. See our weekly Calls to Action for ways to defend voting rights and continue May Day solidarity in the days and weeks to come. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Culture, Cartoons, & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists covered the president’s new construction fantasies (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling; At Least They Have Thoughts and Prayers, Michael de Adder) and the Supreme Court’s post-Reconstruction fantasies (The New Jim Crow, RJ Matson).

In 1970, Princess Anne Ruffled D.C. Feathers by Dissing America’s National Bird

Fred Frommer wrote about when a certain royal visited America with her brother, during which she said the eagle was a “bad choice.” Oh, for the gaffes of yesteryear….

We Ride For Meg

Shalise Manza Young gave Megan Thee Stallion her flowers. “Yes, she is a multi-platinum rapper who is unapologetic about her sexuality, but she is so much more than that: a philanthropist, a savvy businesswoman, a prolific entrepreneur. A survivor.”

Classic Lemon Chiffon Pie

Jamie Schler gave us a dessert that’s perfectly “sweet and tart, retro for modern times.”

Contrarian Rescue of the Week

And last but never least: meet Cardi! This tongue-lolling angel of a lab mix is available for adoption.

I spent time this week on other injustices that you, Contrarians, are enabling me to contest — including David Ellison’s Paramount-Warner merger and my forthcoming court appearance arguing for summary judgment on the renaming of the Kennedy Center. But this publisher’s note spotlights the SPLC battle. It’s a stark example of the erosion of institutional norms and the chilling effect such actions could have on free press and expression. These concerns underpin a Contrarian special report I co-wrote with my colleague Tom Joscelyn, a senior adviser for Democracy Defenders. We’ll be posting that at noon ET here at The Contrarian. In it, we scrutinize the details of the indictment to share a definitive takedown. You won’t want to miss it!

Here’s a sneak peek, followed by our usual weekly roundup:

During a press conference on Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the SPLC had been criminally indicted by a grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama. “There is nothing political about this indictment,” Blanche insisted. Anyone paying attention knows that is a lie. This DOJ attack on the esteemed SPLC is a travesty.

This sham regime has unethically abused its power in this ridiculous attack on a legendary civil rights organization. As my fellow former presidential ethics counselors Richard Painter (George W. Bush), Virginia Canter (Barack Obama and Bill Clinton), and I (Barack Obama) wrote in a statement issued shortly after the indictment, we will not stay silent while the administration weaponizes the tools of law enforcement to attack groups it disagrees with.

This grievance is not a new one. MAGA Republicans have been gunning for the SPLC for years. During a congressional hearing late last year, for instance, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) portrayed the legendary civil rights organization as a bogeyman out to get conservatives and demanded a full investigation into how the DOJ, FBI, and other federal agencies had long relied on the center’s work. Other leading MAGA Republicans have loudly complained when the organization called out their hate.

Donald Trump’s corrupted DOJ and FBI have found a way to use the court system to act out MAGA’s revenge fantasy. Absurdly, the Trump regime alleges that instead of seeking to “dismantle” white supremacist groups — the center’s mission for the past 55 years, during which time it helped take down the Ku Klux Klan — it was surreptitiously paying extremists as part of some convoluted conspiracy. Blanche accuses the group of “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.” Patel claims the SPLC “allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public.”

These allegations are a smear. None of them withstands scrutiny.

The indictment centers on the SPLC’s use of paid informants to infiltrate white supremacist groups. That is not unusual. It is often difficult to get inside groups seeking to overthrow the U.S. government or impose their racist vision on the country. The FBI itself regularly uses informants, and the “courts have recognized” that it “is lawful and often essential to the effectiveness of properly authorized law enforcement investigations.”

Indeed, the SPLC provided intelligence from its informant network to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI — a fact not included in the indictment. The exclusion of any mention of the longstanding working relationship between the SPLC and the FBI is outrageous and undermines the entire premise of the case. “We frequently shared what we learned from informants with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI,” Bryan Fair, the SPLC’s interim president, said in a video defending his organization.

Patel knows Fair’s statement is true. Patel severed “all ties” between the FBI and SPLC in October 2025, as he wrote on X. Patel’s statement is an admission that the SPLC had those ties and was providing intelligence to the bureau. In fact, before Patel ended the relationship, Republican congressmen and conservative activists frequently complained that the FBI was cooperating too closely with the SPLC.

Nevertheless, the DOJ alleges that the SPLC’s use of informants was part of a “scheme and artifice” to deceive donors. Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson alleges in the indictment that though SPLC’s “stated mission included the dismantling of white supremacy and confronting hate across the country” it was “unbeknownst to donors,” secretly using “donated money … to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance.”

However, the indictment utterly fails to explain how these payments to extremist leaders undercut the SPLC’s stated mission. Nor does it say how anyone working for the center intentionally deceived donors. Nor could it; if you surveyed donors to the organization, they have already stated or would almost undoubtedly say that investigating hate is exactly what they wanted to support and that these claims are reprehensible.

The DOJ’s entire case centers on the SPLC’s alleged payments to ten informants inside extremist groups. Our special report, which will be posted here at The Contrarian at noon today, details the facts regarding these informants. The report makes evident that not a one justifies the criminal charges brought against the SPLC.

Please check it out! As you’ll read, this is hardly a conspiracy to secretly fund extremism or defraud donors. It is simply intelligence work. In fact, it is the type of information-gathering on white supremacist groups the FBI routinely engages in — or at least used to.

The hollow, desperate accusations underscore the extent to which the Trump regime wants Americans to believe that the SPLC, which has fought white supremacy since its founding in 1971, was secretly sponsoring white supremacy. That is utter nonsense.

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We stand with SPLC and will support the organization however we can. The ability to do so in the court of law and of public opinion through our nonstop journalism is all thanks to you, Contrarians. Your paid subscriptions help fund our legal battles and scintillating coverage. See for yourself in our rundown of The Contrarian’s other work this week, put together as always by my wonderful colleagues:

War Is a Reality Check on Even the Maddest of Kings

Tom Malinowski wrote on the president’s unappealing next options in a war he said would be over in 24 hours, which has now stretched for eight weeks. “Trump wanted Iran to be easy, not hard.”

Trump vs. Earth

Tim Dickinson reminded us why Earth Day began as a protest—and why its spirit is more vital than ever to counter “the carbon-pilled nihilist in the White House” bent on reversing decades of environmental progress while making climate denial official U.S. policy.

Women Are the First To Go

Jennifer Rubin found something of a pattern in which Trump’s (incompetent) lieutenants are thrown under the bus—and which seem to only fail upward. “There is less tolerance for Chavez-DeRemer’s petty scandals than for Hegseth’s blunders that endanger our national security. Mike Walz got a different job after Signalgate; Bondi got shown the door.”

A President of Spectacle, A War of Consequence

Brian O’Neill wrote on the Iran War as a testing ground for whether Trump knows how to command anything other than attention. “The president whose political style has long depended on improvisation, denial, and force of personality is now confronting the one test that exposes those habits most brutally: sustained conflict against a capable adversary.”

Good News for Women — from the States

In the face of the administration’s ongoing attacks on women’s health, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf took a look at the states that are serving as “laboratories for democracy,” showing what can be done when women’s health is a priority.

JD Vance Can Forget About 2028

Jill Lawrence looked ahead to the 2028 prospects for the man many have picked as the best chance for Republicans to turn MAGA into a post-Trump dynasty — and why, amid a crush of scandals and outrages, the road isn’t as clear as he thinks. “Vance has no choices and no escape.”

The Tea w/April Ryan ft. Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie and Loni Love

On this week’s The Tea, April Ryan and guests Bishop Vashti Murphy and Loni Love talked about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, faith in the time of Trump, and what’s next for the entertainment industry.

‘Bow Down’: Why Madonna Remains in Vogue

Culture columnist Meredith Blake this week honored Madonna, the Queen of Pop who cemented her legacy at Coachella while her contemporaries Prince and Michael Jackson showed up elsewhere in the news. “If people are stealing your looks — literally or figuratively — it means they still care.”

Resistance Reading and How to Protest Paramount

Every week, be sure to check out the Contrarian Calls To Action, which this week includes not only our usual guide to making a difference for democracy — including how to support the SPLC, planning for May Day, and ways to protest the Paramount merger — but also recommended reading in honor of World Book Day!

Meet Penny!

And of course, we always have our pet of the week. This week, we feature our own culture columnist, Meredith Blake’s adorable new puppy, Penny, who’s sure to leave you with a million-dollar smile on your face.

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One last thing: Your big idea could win $1,000. Five colleagues and I are judging The Future of Democracy Prize — and we’re looking for young voices (18–30) with bold answers to one question: What will it take for U.S. democracy not just to survive, but to thrive? No finished essay required to enter. Just a 350-word abstract by April 30. Finalists get $1,000 and publication in a national anthology. Learn more or submit your entry here. And please, forward this to one fellow pro-democracy 20-something who needs a nudge.

As always, thank you for being a Contrarian!

Warmly,

Norm

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I barely had a moment to get comfortable before my phone started buzzing. In one of those coincidences that make you believe the good lord does not want to see CNN turned into Fox News, I got a flood of messages that the state attorneys general had just won another major antitrust case that they took to trial: the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly. I immediately jotted a note and passed it to Katie, who broke the news to the room during her opening statement:

Katie, David, and Mark were representing different constituencies that were signatories to a letter that we at Democracy Defenders Fund, the Committee for First Amendment, Future Film Coalition, and many other groups had put together. It features over 3,500 signatures urging state AG action here, just as in the LiveNation case, and pledging their support for the AGs. The signers include everyone from stars like Ben Stiller, Bryan Cranston, and Jane Fonda to the working people who actually make the film, television, and news businesses operate: camera operators, makeup artists, sound engineers, and many others.

The letter dropped on Monday with a New York Times exclusive, was widely covered everywhere, and served as a wake up call to Larry and David Ellison, the father-son duo who run Paramount, that this dangerous combination faces the same opposition that was successful in the Live Nation-Ticketmaster case. The news of that state AG win galvanized the wood-paneled hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building and with the letter and hearing constituted a one-two-three punch that knocked the inevitability out of the Paramount-WBD narrative.

I was so proud of my friends who testified with the other witnesses, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard representing the Committee for the First Amendment and Michael Isaac representing the Writers Guild of America East. As Katie said when she was later reflecting on the hearing, “Each and every witness delivered … the critical messaging that we all need to hear, which is that this merger threatens creative independence … [and] the ability to deliver truthful fact-driven journalism.” Here’s our Substack Live conversation moderated by the Contrarian’s wonderful culture columnist Meredith Blake where you can catch that and more:

It’s fitting that our work to oppose this merger, which is only beginning, came the same week that the Hungarian people finally threw out Viktor Orbán after 16 years of authoritarian rule. The excessive control of entertainment and news by merging two of Hollywood’s iconic film and TV producers, putting CBS, CNN and TikTok under the ownership of the Ellisons, would effectively represent the Orban-ization of America. As our letter of support for the state AGs said, “Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement. Media consolidation has already weakened one of America’s most vital global industries — one that has long shaped culture and connected people around the world.”

As I recently wrote, the Ellisons are notorious cronies of Trump, who with his administration have been openly pushing for the merger, including the takeover of CNN to get better coverage. And to prove the point about this unholy alliance, David Ellison will this week host a D.C. dinner “in celebration of the First Amendment honoring the Trump White House” together with the CBS White House correspondents. You can’t make this up. How do you celebrate freedom of the press by honoring a president and a White House who viciously attack it daily? The oxymoronic nature of the gathering is only highlighted by its location, the “Donald Trump United States Institute of Peace.”

This is exactly the kind of thing that Hungary–where Orban-linked forces took over the media–just rejected. We can’t let Orbanization happen in this country. We are just getting started with our work to stop it.

That is thanks to you Contrarians of course. Your paid subscriptions make it possible for us to work on this matter and about 300 others! That includes many of the landmark cases and wins of the Trump period. It’s the most unique bargain in American journalism: you get the Contrarian’s scintillating coverage of how our democracy is fighting back, and you get to join the fight by supporting my and my colleagues’ legal cases.

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As for the anti-merger letter the over 3,500 entertainment and news professionals who have now signed are all heroes because they are speaking up despite the risk of retaliation. Indeed, that retaliation was demonstrated — together with the Ellisons’ unfitness to operate CNN — when Paramount pulled all its advertising from a leading entertainment publication because one of its columnists signed the letter. There was no real doubt about the unsuitability of the Ellisons after the shocking mishandling of CBS News on their watch, but the episode highlighted how brave the signers are. Ruffalo put it well in his testimony when he compared this moment to the notorious Hollywood blacklist era.

Perhaps my favorite moment of the entire process of putting together this letter, however, was when my friend Damon Lindelof told us several days before the letter launched that he was going to apply his signature. He’s one of the great TV creators whose body of work includes Lost, Watchmen, and much more. He has made his professional home at Warner Bros. for a decade and a half. He explained on Instagram, “Hollywood mergers mean fewer movies and fewer TV shows and that means fewer jobs. When two storied backlots are owned by the same company, the outcome is intuitive—one becomes a Ghost Town. I’m scared. But I’m not a ghost. And a fight is already lost if it’s never fought. So I signed. Proudly.” His entire statement is worth reading. I am nominating him for a Profile in Courage Award! (Documentarian Rory Kennedy signed the letter too, so I know who to call.)

True, all of this was just one battle in a much larger war for democracy being waged in the United States and around the world, including in Hungary. But that’s how we save our democracy: one battle after another (so to speak). And that is also how we at the Contrarian cover our democracy. See for yourself in our rundown of the best of the Contrarian’s work this week, as always put together by my wonderful colleagues.

Under the Banner of Heaven

Hegseth’s Enraging Purges Shock but Don’t Surprise

Shalise Manza-Young wrote on the secretary of Defense’s ongoing exercises in bigotry and poor military leadership, a man seemingly determined to exclude everyone more qualified (and non-white/straight/cis/male) than he is. “Before he publicly prayed that his God give troops the power to commit ‘overwhelming violence’ in Iran, Hegseth had already acted like a segregationist intent on taking the military back to 1948.”

Trump’s Puerile Pope Problem

Catholic author and scholar Christopher Hale joined Jen Rubin to break down Trump’s recent attacks against Pope Leo XIV, and why the pope’s comments are getting so far under Trump’s skin in the first place. “When Americans can see the man in the white cassock speak natural English and speak thoughtfully about American issues…. I think that is his superpower.”

Elections

The California Quagmire

Tim Dickinson reported on the latest in the “semi-dysfunctional scrum” of California’s governor’s race, which, following the exit of Democrat Eric Swalwell in light of sexual assault allegations, has created a bizarre danger zone for Democrats: If they don’t coalesce around a viable candidate soon, California could end up choosing between two Republicans.

Trump Mobilizes DHS and USPS in Latest Assault on Elections

Samantha Tarazi told us what we need to know about Trump’s second executive order on elections, signed last month in the aftermath of the SAVE Act’s legislative failure, and no less of a blatant attempt at disenfranchisement. “[It’s] all to create chaos and sow seeds of doubt ahead of this year’s midterms while giving Trump’s allies in state legislatures a playbook to undermine American citizens’ freedom to vote.”

Long Cons

The Tax Fairness Question Dominating This Filing Season

Elena Patel wrote on the new inequalities of this year’s tax season, courtesy of the One Big Beautiful Bill — the benefits of which tilt toward the very top of the income ladder while the costs fall on those at the bottom.”

Russ Vought Is Rewriting America’s Budget

Apropos of Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought testifying before the House Budget Committee — during which lawmakers quizzed him on Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget (a 44% increase) and cuts to domestic programs — Bobby Kogan joined Jen to discuss Vought’s real game: the continued gutting of federal programs.

Why Donald Trump and Kash Patel Want Your Data

Jeff Nesbit wrote on how the very administration that claimed to be the victim of surveillance overreach is now asking for the keys to the most powerful spy machine ever built. “The timing is calculated.”

Media Matters

Why the Meme Wars Are No Laughing Matter

Josh Levs wrote on “memetic warfare,” in which the base units of internet commentary have become powerful tools of statecraft, propaganda, and cyberattacks. “It’s a phenomenon that surrounds and manipulates us in ways most people don’t realize.”

Block the Merger!

Katie Phang laid out an exacting case against the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger, which would erode press freedom and make important stories harder to tell. “Maybe no executive ever says the quiet part out loud…. Careers are made and destroyed through suggestion, through silence, through raised eyebrows.”

‘If Someone Won’t Answer, Persist’

Meredith Blake interviewed the subject and filmmakers behind Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary about Amy Goodman, the unflinching Democracy Now! Host whose prescient vision for independent media is now a beacon in a time of unprecedented consolidation and threatened free speech.

Fighting Back

Orban’s Defeat Spurs Democracy’s Resurrection

Tim Mak joined Jen to discuss celebrations in the streets of Budapest, what Viktor Orbán’s defeat means for global democracy, and what we can learn for our own fight against autocracy. “They were chanting Europe, Europe, Europe….”

This AG Fought the Ticketmaster Monopoly and Won

California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined Jen to discuss his win this week in the monopoly case against Ticketmaster and Live Nation — welcome proof that states can fight the oligarchy despite a federal government with no interest in enforcing antitrust laws.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests in Texas and Washington, Tesla Takedowns, and much more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Culture, Cartoons & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on the Strait of Hormuz (Holding the Cards, Taking a Toll, Nick Anderson; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling), dire straits at CNN (Coming Soon: The New CNN, RJ Matson), and straight-up blasphemy (Big Crowds, Doctor, Doctor, Michael de Adder).

Inventors Have Looked to Perfect ‘Robot Umpires’ for Better Part of a Century

Frederic J. Frommer reported on the MLB’s recent adoption of the automated ball-strike system — and how it’s actually the culmination of a surprisingly long, quixotically funny quest for robot umpires. “Jeez, Luciano, this machine is even blinder than you.”

Moon Joy

Lily Conway wrote about the joy the Artemis II crew gave us. From naming a crater in remembrance of one of the crewmember’s late wife to reveling in the possibility that humanity can do amazing things when united, everyone can use a little Moon Joy right now.

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One last thing: Your big idea (350 words) could win $1,000. Five colleagues and I are judging The Future of Democracy Prize — and we’re looking for young voices (18–30) with bold answers to one question: What will it take for U.S. democracy not just to survive, but to thrive? No finished essay required to enter. Just a 350-word abstract by April 30. Finalists get $1,000 and publication in a national anthology. Learn more or submit your entry here! And please, forward this to one smart 20-something who needs a nudge.