Deep State Radio

Democratic leadership doesn’t seem to be up to the challenge of this new Trump era. Despite some strong Democratic figures fighting back, the party has been lethargic to say the least. So what do Democrats need to do to reenergize? Tara McGowan and Simon Rosenberg are back with David Rothkopf to diagnose the problem and prescribe solutions to cure this malaise.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a Senate hearing on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. got massacred by harsh questioning from Democrats and Republicans. They called out his anti-vax views and condemned his decapitation of our public health system. But Matt Gertz of Media Matters noticed something funny: Fox News’ coverage bent over backward to portray him as pro-vaccine, as someone working to make vaccines available to Americans, not trying to restrict them. We think that reveals just how shaky President Trump’s political position has become amid RFK’s reign of destruction. Fox accidentally demonstrated just how deeply split Republicans are over this ongoing anti-vax fiasco—and how desperate Trump’s propagandists are to cover up the truth about it. In this segment, Gertz relates more of the evasions he saw on Fox, explains how Fox is struggling to navigate many conflicting currents inside MAGA, and predicts RFK’s lunacy is hurtling us toward a much bigger reckoning. Looking for More from the DSR Networ

On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we discuss Florida eliminating all vaccine mandates, Epstein survivors gathering on Capitol Hill, ICE opening a detention center in Louisiana, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pressure is escalating on President Trump and Republicans to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Survivors of Epstein’s sex trafficking spoke out on Wednesday, and one of them, Haley Robson, directly took on Trump in a very powerful way. She denounced him for calling the Epstein files a “hoax,” and called on Trump to recognize that the victims are human beings whose suffering should not be minimized. Meanwhile, a discharge petition to force release of the files is close to passing the House. And the White House is reportedly pressuring Republicans behind-the-scenes not to support the petition, a clear sign of panic. We talked to Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who has been in the middle of this debate as a member of the House Rules Committee. He explains why he thinks the petition might pass, why Republicans can’t hold off the pressure much longer, why they’re so terrified of Trump on this, and what’s coming next. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepsta

On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we discuss China’s military parade, the Trump administration’s actions targeting Venezuela, the potential deployment of National Guard troops to more cities, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump suffered a major loss Tuesday when a federal judge in California ruled that his military occupation of Los Angeles was illegal. Trump’s response was highly unsettling. Speaking to reporters, he sounded entirely unconstrained. He threatened to resend the military to L.A. and declared that the military is now definitely going into Chicago. He let out a strange, angry rant about crime in DC that sounded frankly pretty nuts, worrying a variety of legal observers. And he abruptly ended the presser amid another display of anger. We talked to former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, who explains the nuts-and-bolts of the judge’s L.A. ruling and looks ahead to the possibility of a major inter-branch confrontation with Trump if the courts continue to block his military occupations. McQuade explains why all these displays from Trump show that we’re in “a combustible situation waiting for something very bad to happen.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we discuss the meeting between Putin, Xi, and Kim in Beijing, the Trump administration ordering the denial of visas to Palestinian Authority passports, Chicago bracing for the deployment of federal agents and National Guard, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an ugly move, Fox News contacted Republican Senators and asked: Should President Trump deploy the National Guard in your states’ blue cities? Fox News got back the answer it was trying to generate: GOP Senators actively want Trump to use the military in their states’ urban areas, ostensibly to fight “crime.” This is an unnerving turn in the saga that makes Trump’s threat look worse. Congressional Republicans expressly want Trump to employ troops to intimidate their own constituents, provided it’s confined to largely Democratic areas—and they’re saying this openly, egged on by Fox, making additional occupations more likely. Meanwhile, Democrats are consumed in a big debate over whether they can talk about this topic at all. We talked to media critic Jamison Foser, who has a good piece about all this on his newsletter, Finding Gravity. We discuss why the media is wrongly describing this as a political winner for Trump, what the polls actually say, and how the media storyline is encouraging Democrats’ worst d

Original Airdate: March 5, 2025 Trump is in a very generous mood, at least if you’re Vladimir Putin. Between the public dragging of President Zelensky culminating in Tuesday night’s address to congress, it’s clear that Trump favors his man in Moscow. Mission Implausible host John Sipher joins Rosa Brooks and David Rothkopf to break down why the US is getting a raw deal.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: March 26, 2025 Signalgate is an intelligence travesty. But the problems extend beyond the masterclass in how not to handle sensitive government secrets. Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos joins David Rothkopf and Riley Fessler to break down this stunning mistake from our most senior government officials and why the cascading effects will be even worse.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: November 6, 2024 Donald Trump is officially returning to the White House. With the worst case scenario coming to pass, Rosa Brooks, Ed Luce, David Sanger, and David Rothkopf take a look at what the hell happened and discuss what we can expect from a second Trump term.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Air Date: March 3, 2025 What happens when the United States effectively switches sides on the global stage? When allying with Russia upends decades of foreign policy around the world? And what dangers does the Trump-Hegseth administration pose for global nuclear security? Joe Cirincione and Jon Wolfsthal join David Rothkopf for a tough conversation about the future of the established international order and the significant nuclear security risks posed by the Trump Administration.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House is trying to fire Centers for Disease Control director Susan Monarez for opposing Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies. This has sent the CDC sliding into chaos. On Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt struggled to spin what’s happening. She said Monarez had never been subject to a vote—but the Senate voted to confirm her. Leavitt insisted the White House had fired Monarez—but Trump’s direct word appears to be required, and as of this recording, he hadn’t spoken. Leavitt pretended Trump is defending the integrity of our vaccine system—but RFK is destroying it. We talked to the University of Michigan’s Don Moynihan, author of a good Substack called “Can We Still Govern?” We discussed how Trump will struggle to defend this move, how the American people will recoil at the looming loss of a professionalized bureaucracy, and how all this is sowing the seeds for catastrophe later. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Le

Original air date: September 20, 2024 Donald Trump is a crummy candidate, but he’s certainly not the only example of rot in the Republican Party. With so much of the Trump campaign focused on hate and division, we have to ask: how low can the Republican Party really go? The Washington Post’s Jen Rubin and Words Matter host Norm Ornstein join David Rothkopf for an examination of how far the Republican Party has fallen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker delivered an extraordinary takedown of President Trump over his deployment of the military in U.S. cities. Trump then exploded about Pritzker’s impudence, calling the governor names and instructing him to bow down and beg for his “HELP” in fighting crime. Trump has threatened twice to occupy Chicago no matter what the city’s residents and their elected representatives think about it, another window into his seething anger. In this standoff, Pritzker did something unusual: He communicated with his constituents from the heart, vowing to use all his power to protect them from Trump’s authoritarian takeover. Rather than let Trump pretend he cares about crime, Pritzker cast Trump as the primary threat to his state’s people. We talked to Brian Beutler, who has a great new piece on his substack, Off Message, taking stock of Pritzker’s response. We discuss how Pritzker is shrewdly reading the moment in a way many Democrats are not, why Trump is vulnerable on crime, and what

The Trump administration has expressed a desire for “truthful” and “unbiased” AI, yet the reality seems to be a crusade on “woke” AI. Yet the results of such a crusade would go far beyond eliminating DEI from artificial intelligence. The Brennan Center’s Amos Toh joins David Rothkopf to explore the effects the administration’s AI regulations and how AI is playing a larger role in militaries around the world.  This material is distributed by TRG Advisory Services, LLC on behalf of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the U.S.. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original air date: November 7, 2024 The election is over, and we lost. Now it’s time to get up off the mat and get back to work. Simon Rosenberg and Tara McGowan join David Rothkopf to break down what went wrong this time, and share the key lessons that Democrats have to learn in order to bounce back and keep up the fight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to President Trump’s big budget bill, funding has been canceled for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is cutting funding to hundreds of radio stations in rural areas that rely on them for critical information. Speaking to The New York Times, GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, who opposed the bill, sounded absolutely shocked that Trump and the GOP would harm their own voters so cavalierly. She said this is driven by a “blind allegiance to the president’s desires,” adding that fear of Trump’s anger overrode GOP lawmakers’ concerns for their own constituents. Yet this has been the story on many other fronts, too. Will Democrats ever be able to capitalize? We talked to Lynlee Thorne, a Democratic organizer in rural areas as the political director of RuralGroundGame.org. She explains why rural radio is a lifeline, how Trump’s agenda is shafting those areas particularly hard, what rural voters think about him right now, and how Democrats can repair the party’s deep problems with them. Learn more about y

Original air date: June 22, 2025 The moment has finally arrived: America has bombed Iran. As the dust settles, we’re left with more questions than answers about what the attack achieved and what comes next. Thankfully, Jon Wolfsthal, Gen. Mark Hertling, and Steven Cook join David Rothkopf to provide clarity on what this unprecedented moment means. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, President Trump has reached new levels of emboldenment when it comes to his ongoing authoritarian takeover. He’s vowing retribution at news organizations that displease him with greater audacity. He’s responded to Democrats and others who criticized him by threatening to send troops to their cities or unleash state power against them in other ways. In recent days, something plainly has changed, and many observers are taking note. We talked to journalist and historian Garrett Graff, who has a great new piece on his Doomsday Scenario Substack arguing that we really are seeing the advent of “American fascism” right before our eyes. He explains that transformations like this are incremental and often hard to recognize, but that Trump’s escalating brazenness strongly suggests we’ve crossed over into something new. The pile-up of new offenses Trump is committing daily, Graff says, amounts to “insanity.”  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn m