John Avlon interviewed Barbara Walter, author of How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, about the dangerous warning signs in America today.
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More Think Shutdown Will Last Less Than Two Weeks
A new YouGov survey found that 41% of Americans think the federal closure will last for two weeks or less. Thirteen percent said they expect the shutdown to last three to four weeks and 9% said they predict at least a month-long closure.
More than a third — 37% — of Americans surveyed, however, said they are not sure how long it will last, resonating with the uncertainty voiced by most lawmakers in Washington.
Trump’s Team Pledging Economic Gains Next Year
“President Trump’s advisers are counseling him to refine his economic message with a pitch to voters aimed at easing their anxiety about weak jobs growth and stubborn inflation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Their new mantra: Just wait until next year.”
“In private conversations with the president, Trump’s advisers, rather than dwell on shaky economic data, have painted a rosy outlook, insisting that data will begin to improve in the first quarter of 2026.”
Supreme Court Will Be Forced to Grapple with Trump
“The Supreme Court and President Donald Trump are headed for a reckoning,” the Washington Post reports.
“After months of terse emergency rulings that largely avoided major confrontations with the new administration, the justices will open their new term on Monday faced with the need to render full, final verdicts on policies at the core of Trump’s presidency.”
Laura Loomer Is Turning Against MAGA Stalwarts
“President Trump confidante Laura Loomer has successfully campaigned for the ouster of more than a dozen national security officials and others she has accused of secretly working against the president’s ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Now she is training her considerable firepower inside the MAGA tent.”
“The 32-year-old, self-styled journalist with 1.8 million followers on X and a twice-weekly podcast ‘Loomer Unleashed,’ has emerged as a powerful figure in Trump’s second term, speaking to the president in the evening when she calls, and telling him who she thinks is disloyal to him.”
Not All National Parks Remain Open in the Shutdown
“As the government shutdown enters its first full week, travelers planning visits to national parks and other tourist sites run by the federal government face more than a little uncertainty,” the New York Times reports.
“National parks largely will remain open, but there are exceptions, and even those that are open may reduce services for visitors. Specifics likely vary from park to park.”
Judge Blocks Trump’s Deployment of National Guard
“A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from using Oregon National Guard soldiers to help quell nightly protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon,” the New York Times reports.
“Judge Karin Immergut, of the U.S. District Court in Oregon, sided with Democrats who run the state government when she issued a temporary restraining order blocking the mobilization. President Trump and the Defense Department had ordered 200 Oregon soldiers for a 60-day deployment.”
Hegseth Mulled Sending 82nd Airborne to Portland
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth considered sending an elite U.S. Army strike force to Portland, Ore., to quell protests that President Donald Trump has characterized as ‘lawless mayhem,’ according to images of messages,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.
“The messages, casually exchanged last weekend in a crowded, public space, show high-level officials in the Trump administration discussing the deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne, an infantry division that has been deployed to combat zones in both world wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan.”
“If the administration were to send in the Army division, it would almost certainly be challenged in court under federal laws limiting how the military can be used domestically.”
Trump to Federalize Illinois National Guard
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) warned that President Trump plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.
Pritzker said he would be defying the order: “I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people. Illinois, we will do everything within our power to look out for our neighbors, uphold the Constitution, and defend the rule of law.”
Trump Gets Away With What Sank Clinton and Romney
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Russ Vought’s Plan Was Decades in the Making
CNN: “The memo symbolized Vought’s methodical march to accumulate power within the executive branch — and the outsized role he has played in getting to this moment. Vought’s vision for how to deconstruct Washington’s sprawling federal bureaucracy, shaped by his years toiling in Republican circles, is now being enacted.”
“Vought has transformed a role typically focused on the weeds of congressional appropriations into the Trump administration’s primary instrument to dismantle, piece by piece, federal agencies and spending plans.”
Have Cubans Fled One Authoritarian State for Another?
New Yorker: “In the past few years, as many as two million people have escaped the island’s repressive regime and collapsing economy. Those who’ve made it to the U.S. face a new reckoning.”
House Won’t Come Back Until Shutdown Ends
“The House GOP leadership told rank-and-file Republican lawmakers Saturday morning that they will only come back to Washington when Senate Democrats reopen the government,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Speaker Mike Johnson told lawmakers on a conference call that he believes the GOP is winning the messaging fight on the shutdown. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he will give members 48-hour notice before they have to return to Washington.”
“The House Republican Conference was largely supportive of the leadership’s strategy on the call.”
A Senate GOP Conference That Will Outlast Trump
“Senate GOP Leader John Thune and his lieutenants have largely remained silent as President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to target his adversaries, enriched himself and his family through brazen self-dealing and repeatedly stepped on congressional prerogatives, among other transgressions they’d never tolerate from a Democratic president,” Politico reports.
“Yet at the same time — and with purposefully little fanfare — Thune and other lawmakers have quietly gone about trying to normie’ize their conference with mainstream Republicans. Of course, what’s normal in the Trump era is all relative — the price of admission for every GOP senator and would-be senator not named Murkowski or Collins is complete and total fealty to the president.”
“What Thune is doing, though, is shaping a Senate Republican conference that will outlast Trump (if not Trumpism) and offer some ballast against a House that’s sure to move with the momentary tides toward isolationism and populism.”
Vance Emerges as Frontman in Shutdown Fight
“The White House has increasingly made Vice President JD Vance the face of the government-shutdown fight, turning to a messenger who so far has taken a lighter touch — and more discipline — than President Donald Trump,” Bloomberg reports.
“Vance’s expanded role was evident from the start, with the vice president attending negotiations Monday between Trump and congressional leaders before the shutdown and then taking the lead role, ahead of House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, in briefing reporters after the meeting.”
American Jews Turn on Israel Over War in Gaza
“Many American Jews sharply disapprove of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, with 61 percent saying Israel has committed war crimes and about 4 in 10 saying the country is guilty of genocide against the Palestinians,” according to a Washington Post poll.
“The findings are striking given the long-standing ties between the U.S. Jewish community and Israel, suggesting the potential for a historic breach over the Gaza war.”
Trump to Send Witkoff, Kushner to Middle East
“President Trump is sending his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Egypt this weekend to help complete a hostage release deal, U.S. and Arab officials said Saturday, after Hamas and Israel backed his 20-point proposal to end the war but with reservations that need to be ironed out,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The high-profile delegation shows Trump’s seriousness about securing a deal, despite significant concerns about the terms among all the parties involved. Kushner, the president’s son-in-law who played a crucial role in negotiating normalization accords between several Arab countries and Israel during Trump’s first term, helped craft the current plan and will now try to close the gaps and get it implemented.”
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