TrumpWatch with Jesse Lent

On December 7, 2016, “TrumpWatch with Jesse Lent” debuted on WBAI 99.5fm, New York City's Pacifica station.  Through 127 episodes, we did our best to cut through the bluster coming  from the White House to help you figure out the concrete ways that our country has been changed by Donald Trump and his administration. For our final show, we take your calls on how the resistance to this president has changed protest movements in the US.

Of all the consequences of climate change that we know about, one that rarely gets discussed is its affect on the affordable housing crisis. Back in June, President Trump (who has denied the existence of global warming throughout his presidency) signed an executive order aimed at “tearing down red tape in order to build more affordable housing.” But as reported in Teresa Wiltz’s article for The Pew Charitable Trusts Statewide blog, “Climate Change Is Making the  Affordable Housing Crunch Worse,” the administration’s refusal to engage in efforts to reduce carbon emissions is creating larger issues than red tape to contend with.  On this week’s TrumpWatch, Teresa Wiltz explains why climate change is making the housing crunch even worse.

On  Monday, attorneys general for 19 states and the District of Columbia announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration in the hopes of  blocking a sweeping new rule which would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to indefinitely hold migrant families in detention.  But will it work? On this week’s TrumpWatch, immigration reporter for Reuters Mica Rosenberg unpacks this blue state attempt to block President Trump’s border policy in the courts.

Veterans of the US Armed Forces will have a harder time receiving green cards than currently active service members, according to a new report  from Yeganeh Torbati, Isaac Arnsdorf and Dara Lind of ProPublica. Since Veterans Affairs officials declined to step in to exempt their members from a Trump administration policy restricting green cards for low-income immigrants, vets will not be entitled to any of the exemptions open to currently enlisted military personnel. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Yeganeh considers what the reporting of her and her ProPublica colleagues tells  us about the way this federal agency is being run in the Trump era.

On Aug. 12, the Trump administration announced plans to change how it how it enforces the Endangered Species Act, the landmark 1974 law  believed to have rescued the bald eagle, the grizzly bear and the American alligator from going extinct. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Ben Lefebvre, author of the POLITICO article “Trump administration eases endangered species rules,” helps break down what this new interpretation will mean for the effort to save threatened animals.

With all eyes trained on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s  testimony before Congress, we take a look at the issue that got us here—Russian interference in the 2016 election. According to Adam Piore, author of the July 23 Newsweek article “Russia Is Using  Cold War Strategy to Undermine the Faith of Americans in the 2020  Election—Will It Work?” the strategy being deployed ahead of the 2020 presidential election has disturbing echoes of 2016. While a July 18 Brennan Center for Justice report entitled “Federal Funding Needs for State Election Security” highlights dangerous vulnerabilities in the voting systems of six states. Join us for a conversation on the state of US elections today with Adam Piore of Newsweek and Christopher R.  Deluzio, a co-author of the Brennan Center study, on this week's TrumpWatch.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney reportedly told attendees at a recent fundraising retreat in Chicago that he doesn't attempt to control the President’s tweeting, time or family. Instead, according to the July 15 Washington Post article “‘His own fiefdom," he is building his own power base in Washington through a formerly inactive White House office called the Domestic Policy Council. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Lisa Rein, a reporter covering federal agencies and the management of government in the Trump administration for the Washington Post, helps break down her reporting on Mulvaney’s efforts and considers their ramifications for American politics.

On July 1, when ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson revealed the existence  of a secret Facebook group of 9,500 Border Patrol agents with posts joking about migrant deaths and illustrations of the President sexually assaulting a Congresswoman, the public backlash was swift and severe. Acting secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan promised to hold accountable “any employee found to have compromised the public’s trust.” But according to reporting by Ted Hesson and Cristiano Lima of POLITICO, the existence of the group had been an open secret among Customs and Border Protection officials for years. This week on TrumpWatch, Ted discusses what we know about the now-defunct group, who knew about it and what it tells us about the prevailing culture among Border Patrol agents.

With the third acting defense secretary President Trump has placed in the position within the past month looking like he will be forced to  temporarily resign and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo playing an increasingly active role in interactions with longtime US adversaries like Iran and North Korea, it is currently difficult to determine exactly where our foreign policy ends and military policy begins. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Adam Weinstein, national security editor for The New Republic, helps untangle who has the President’s ear when it comes to international relations.

With major news developments arriving fast and furiously theses days, it’s easy to forget that the US is actively engaged in a trade war with China. President Trump will head to Osaka, Japan for the G-20 summit this week and he has threatened additional tariffs if Chinese President Xi Jinping won't meet with him there. On this week's TrumpWatch, Soumaya Keynes, US economics editor for The Economist and co-host of the Trade Talks podcast, examines what effect President Trump’s tariffs on China are having on their economy and ours.