Doors slam on weak Trump as pushback hardens at every level

Rachel Maddow looks at Donald Trump's position of extreme weakness ahead of what are expected to be massive "No Kings" protests, with Trump's agenda running into resistance from everyone from students and universities to members of the media to sitting judges to everyday people on grand juries and in public polling.As Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is set to keep the federal government closed for a fifth week, Rachel Maddow shares new reporting from the New York Times on information published by individual states showing the cost increase in raw dollars if Republicans succeed in making changes to subsidies, the very changes Democrats have taken a stand against in the shutdown fight.Bill McKibben, veteran climate organizer and founder of Third Act, talks with Rachel Maddow about the strong representation of older Americans among anti-Trump protesters and how the combination of personal experience and roots in civic activism has energized the older generation to speak out about the abuses and backsliding in the Trump era. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Maddow points out the exceptional and unusually effusive praise and thanks that Donald Trump heaped on Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the president of Egypt, at an event tied to the Israel-Gaza ceasefire, in which Trump bizarrely mentioned his race against Hillary Clinton. The episode calls to mind a mysterious $10 million and a related investigation's questions left open-ended after Trump was inaugurated the first time.Rachel Maddow looks at recent examples of Donald Trump using the power of American taxpayers to cut deals for himself and his friends and family, and focuses on the especially galling case of Trump and his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, sending an extraordinary $20 billion to bail out Argentina at a time when the U.S. government is closed for lack of funding.Rachel Maddow reports that the number of events planned for the "No Kings" day of protest on Saturday, October 18 already exceeds the previous "No Kings" protests that drew millions of Americans to voice their opposition to Donald Trump's overreach and attacks on democracy in the United States. Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, joins to discuss the planning and organizing taking place.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Democrats are looking to regain power, and there is a whole lot of warranted debate about what a winning formula looks like. “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” is a forum where those discussions take place. On season two of her podcast, Jen sits down with some of the biggest names on the left side of the political spectrum to talk about confronting Trump 2.0 and how the Democratic party can shape the future they’d like to see. New episodes drop October 15th. Search for “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” to follow the show. And subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts for ad-free listening. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Maddow reviews how the Trump administration has made a practice of weaponizing access to personal data in order to attack people Donald Trump doesn't like, and talks with Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate running for governor in New Jersey who had her full, private military personnel record released to an ally of her Republican opponent without the proper procedure, not the necessary redactions.Oregon Governor Tina Kotek talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump's bizarre impression that the city of Portland is a war zone that requires U.S. military occupation, and her frustrating efforts to dispel Trump of this wrongheaded notion.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Maddow points out that Donald Trump is following the "strongman" playbook so closely, and with such a lack of originality, that his behavior in his second term has become entirely predictable. And yet, for all of his aspirations to be a strongman, his leadership suffers from some profound weaknesses, from the economy to healthcare to criminal justice to immigration. Rachel Maddow talks with Jonathan Mahler, staff writer for the New York Times Magazine, about his reporting on the concerted effort by the Trump administration to destroy America's global leadership in cancer research. What constituency supports Donald Trump sabotaging work that not only saves lives but supports countless American jobs?Former CDC director Susan Monarez is set to testify before the Senate this week as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is stacking the vaccine advisory board with vaccine skeptics.And the Trump administration claimed to have burned a massive quanitity of contraceptives meant to be distributed in developing countries, with the false explanation that the contraceptives are abortifacients, only for it to be discovered that the contraceptives are still sitting in storage.Follow Rachel Maddow on BlueSky at https://bsky.app/profile/maddow.msnbc.com  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The estate of Jeffrey Epstein released materials today to the House Oversight Committee, including the "birthday book" that Donald Trump disputed (and continues to dispute) includes a crude drawing and note he submitted with his signature. Rachel Maddow looks at this and other new revelations and how much energy Trump is putting into denying what seems plain about Trump's role in a disgusting scandal of historic scale. Donald Trump's poor choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his HHS secretary has cost him a leadership role in public health as Kennedy dismantles key departments and agencies, cuts funding and fires experts, leaving state leaders to take charge of vaccine availability and other health issues. Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, chief science officer for the Washington State Department of Health, joins Rachel Maddow to discuss. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Maddow highlights the difference between Donald Trump's rhetoric and his actions and notes that taking the big picture of Trump's actions can illuminate significant trends. For example, moving an individual out of one position in the administration into another may not seem particularly noteworthy until it becomes clear that Trump is moving people into ambassadorships instead of firing them. Similarly, a pattern appears to be taking shape as high-level military and national security leaders are being dismissed from service.Donald Trump is acting as though he has the authority to fire members of the Federal Reserve Board and had attempted to do so with Governor Lisa Cook. Paul Krugman joins to explain the disaster Trump is courting.Constantly making a mess of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case hasn't stopped the Trump administration from continuing to do so. Today a judge prevented his deportation to Uganda.And red states that have sent National Guard troops to serve in Trump's military occupation of Washington, D.C. have cities with higher crime rates than D.C., exposing the lie that these deployments have anything to do with fighting crime. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Donald Trump seems to move from one unpopular catastrophe to another. With people still in the streets protesting his military take-over of Washington, D.C., his disgraceful capitulation to Putin in Alaska prompted even deeper disapproval, with a new Pew poll showing his numbers steadily worsening. Meanwhile, in Texas, state Democrats have returned, enabling Republicans to restart their gerrymandering effort, another facet in Trump's effort to manipulate the upcoming midterms to preserve his hold on power.BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/maddowblog.msnbc.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/maddow.msnbc.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/maddowshow/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maddowshow  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Maddow cites example after example of Donald Trump going out of his way to help criminals, including some really terrible ones, so the idea that Trump's concerns about crime are behind his deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. does not seem to hold water. Looking more closely at what Donald Trump has done instead of what he has said points to the more likely explanation that Trump really likes pointing the U.S. military at the American people.Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for mRNA vaccine research, a move that has been widely panned by health experts across the political spectrum, including members of Trump's first administration.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Maddow points out that the thing most Americans were dreading has come to pass, and the United States has changed profoundly in only six months of authoritarian rule. "We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country." With freedoms likely to continue to be curtailed in deference to Donald Trump's power, that means Americans have the most tools for democratic resistance right now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.