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It’s been a historic week in the United States as a man who was twice impeached, convicted on 34 felony counts, and incited an insurrection has now returned to the White House as Commander-in-Chief for the second time. Since Monday, Trump has issued a dizzying number of executive orders, compared himself to President William McKinley, and freed the same Jan. 6 rioters who tried to violently overthrow the government on his behalf just four years ago.

Who better to help us make sense of this unprecedented time and give it context than Heather Cox Richardson?

Richardson is a prolific Substack writer. Her newsletter Letters From An American has accumulated almost two million followers. Named one of USA Today’s Women of the Year, Richardson is also a professor of 19th-century American history at Boston College, and even interviewed Joe Biden in the White House.

In a wide-ranging interview for Mehdi Unfiltered, Richardson sits down with Mehdi to discuss Trump’s second presidency, the parallels with McKinley, and whether there has ever been someone like Elon Musk in US history. “These tech bros have control over very large digital platforms that determine many of the ways in which we live,” Richardson tells Mehdi. “They also determine our public speech, and that is truly frightening.”

Richardson also looks at how historians will evaluate Biden’s presidency, what Democrats could do in order to rebound from their recent loss, and how to keep hope alive.

“One of the things that I expect to see going forward is a much clearer articulation on the part of the Democratic Party of what they stand for and how they are going to implement that,” Richardson says. “And by the same token, the MAGA Republicans have articulated what they stand against.”

To hear more from Heather Cox Richardson and how the state of the US compares to key moments in history, watch the discussion above.

“I think the combination of the fact he is himself seemingly not at the top of his game and he’s delivering things that many people expected would not happen is going to mean he’s going to face a lot of unrest a lot more quickly than a new administration usually does.” – Heather Cox Richardson

If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear the two discuss whether Biden should have dropped out of the presidential race, the MAGA agenda, and whether Trump is an aberration of history.

Free subscribers can watch an 8-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber today to watch the full interview and let us know in the comments below who you would like to see on ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ next!

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Between controversial salutes, inflammatory statements, and billionaires pretending to be normal people, there’s a lot to take in from Donald Trump’s inauguration. The newly re-elected president tore up Joe Biden’s legacy with one executive order after another as a crowd of mostly rich and very rich people looked on.

“I think it's clear that a handful of billionaires are in charge, and Musk certainly has the most influence,” says Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who joins Mehdi to share his perspective.

“What you're seeing being constructed is essentially a kleptocracy in which the billionaires of this country are going to steal from the poor and the middle class.”

One of those billionaires, Elon Musk, spent day one of the second Trump era performing two Nazi-looking salutes on stage in DC. Despite his supporters denying it was a “Heil Hitler,” Murphy is not convinced.

“Maybe you could excuse that gesture if it wasn't coming from somebody who has a consistent history of identifying themselves with neo-Nazis and with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. He literally amplifies some of the most vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Twitter.”

Mehdi pushed Murphy on his support for Israel since October 7, on the TikTok ban that Democrats voted for, and the increase in billionaire wealth on Joe Biden’s watch.

And, looking forward, Mehdi asked the senator about the future of a deeply unpopular Democratic Party.

“If we want to win,” says Murphy, who is considered to be a possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender, “you have got to make economic populism and economic fairness the tent pole of your party, and you've got to build a bigger tent in which you have the courage…to bring in some people to that tent that might not line up with you on all the issues that I think are important.”

If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear Mehdi question Murphy on sending weapons to Israel, Kamala Harris’ campaign, bipartisanship, and the normalization of corruption.

Free subscribers can watch a 15-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber today to watch the full interview and let us know in the comments below who you would like to see on ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ next!

Who is Marwan Barghouti? Why is he nicknamed “Palestine’s Mandela”? And why does Israel see him as such a big threat, even behind bars, that it is adamantly refusing to release him as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal?

This week on Mehdi Unfiltered, Mehdi goes on a deep dive into Barghouti’s life, his activism, and most importantly, all the red flags around his trial and imprisonment by Israel.

Barghouti’s story, like that of most Palestinians, is a mix of struggle and hope. The former Fatah official, the political party currently led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is the most popular leader among Palestinians today. And while 89-year-old Abbas sets a low bar for competition, Mehdi explains what makes Barghouti still so popular after decades of imprisonment - and such a threat to both Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.

It is rare for any Palestinian to see an inkling of justice in Israel’s military courts. Red flag after red flag, Mehdi details everything that went wrong in Barghouti’s trial, from torture to international law violations to a judge with a grudge, because there is no statute of limitations on injustice, especially when its victims continue to pay the price for it.

“My father used to always tell me that hope is sometimes a privilege, and being hopeless is a privilege that we can't have as Palestinians.”

Also, Marwan Barghouti’s son, Arab Barghouthi, joins Mehdi to discuss the latest on his father’s condition, his health after decades behind bars, and whether prison changed him from the leader he was.

“I don't think so,” Arab refutes, “I have my trust in God first and in my father, because he is someone who has been through a lot in his life.” Despite his hope, Arab is also well aware of his father’s difficult conditions in prison, especially since the October 7 attack.

“The head of Ofer prison came to him and in front of other prisoners, he asked him to put his hands behind his back and to kneel, to try to tell the other prisoners that if I can humiliate your leader, I can humiliate you all, which he refused. So they forced him to do it, which got his shoulder dislocated,” Arab recounts, adding that many more torture techniques were used against his father including solitary confinement and sleep deprivation.

Watch the full interview above to find out why Marwan Barghouti’s case should have never reached Israeli courts, and if Arab believes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would actually support his father’s release in 2025.

If you liked this episode of Mehdi Unfiltered, do consider becoming a paid subscriber today and let us know who you’d like to see on our show next!

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Have you ever been stuck with a subscription you just can’t seem to cancel? Or how about buying tickets online that nearly double in price at checkout? (Yes, we’re looking at you, Ticketmaster.)

We’ve all been there. But thanks to the work of the current Federal Trade Commission (FTC), those days will soon be coming to an end with initiatives like “click to cancel” and policies cracking down on pesky “junk fees.”

As the final days of the Biden Administration come to an end, outgoing FTC Chair Lina Khan reflects on some of the agency’s biggest accomplishments and the legacy she will be leaving behind. “I think our record speaks for itself. I think all of the ways that we are delivering enormous benefits for the American people speaks for itself, and I'm just enormously proud of the just win after win that we've been able to deliver for the American people,” she tells Mehdi.

Khan, who was just 32 when she was appointed to her post in 2021, has been able to unite Americans across political lines for the FTC’s anti-monopoly work and has produced populist policies that the Biden administration can be proud of.

As she explains to Mehdi, “One of the original insights underlying the antitrust laws and the anti-monopoly tradition in America was a recognition that deep concentrations of economic power would be dangerous for the American people. It would undermine their economic freedoms, but it could also pose political dangers.”

And as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg cozy up to Trump, Khan warns, “extreme concentration of economic power can buy you political power…”

Khan also talked about how the FTC’s wins during her tenure are “durable” and could outlast the Trump administration’s policies. To find out why, and more about her own plans after January 20, then please do watch the discussion above.

Paid subscribers can watch in full while free subscribers can catch the first two minutes of the conversation.

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It is less than two weeks until US president-elect Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration, and between Elon Musk’s agenda-setting and all Trump’s controversial cabinet picks, the soon-to-be 47th president is already setting the stage for an even more chaotic and corrupt term in office.

In this first ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ interview of 2025, Republican strategist and Trump Campaign surrogate Adolfo Franco joins Mehdi for a wide-ranging and, at times, heated interview on Trump’s post-election moves. Watch the full segment above.

Mehdi also challenges Franco on Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories, with Mehdi specifically asking Franco whether Trump’s fringe and unconstitutional legal arguments about election certification from 2020 applied to the 2024 election results.

“‘Only the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors’ – that's what Donald Trump said on January the 5th, [2021],” Mehdi says to Franco. “So, I'm asking, if Kamala Harris had said on Monday ‘Adolfo Franco and Donald Trump said there was massive cheating in Pennsylvania, I reject the electors from Pennsylvania,’ you support her power to do that?”

“I think she would have had a basis to do that had the election been close to her,” Adolfo says.

Mehdi asked Franco about Trump falsely claiming that he has “always been in favor” of the H1-B visa program, after Elon Musk announced he would go to “war” to protect the legal immigration program.

“That's a lie, Adolfo. He said in 2016 in a presidential debate and across the campaign that the H-1B visa program was, quote, ‘very bad,’ ‘unfair’ for US workers and, quote, ‘we should end it,’ ” Mehdi says to Adolfo.

“I don’t think it’s a lie. I think he’s for the program, but it needs to be reformed… It’s been a system that’s been used many times to sue employers because of its use,” Adolfo responds.

On the topic of the H1-B debate, Mehdi and Adolfo also discussed a tweet Elon Musk agreed with on Twitter that referred to American workers as “r*tarded,” with Franco saying that Musk, “needs to apologize.”

If you are a paid subscriber, watch the full interview to hear Mehdi challenge Franco on Trump’s cabinet picks and their controversial records, the president-elect’s flip-flop on the TikTok ban, and the dangerous misinformation Trump has been spreading about the New Orleans attack that took place early on New Year’s Day.

Free subscribers can watch the first 12 minutes of the segment for free. To access the full interview, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

In 2023, Humza Yousaf made history when he was elected as Scotland’s first minister, making him the first Muslim leader of a Western democracy. Yet, that term was cut short this past spring after Yousaf was forced to resign from the post, as his coalition government fell apart.

Since then, Yousaf has remained a backbench member of the Scottish Parliament.

However, in this exclusive interview with Zeteo in London, Humza Yousaf announces that he will not be seeking re-election to the Scottish Parliament in 2026, telling Mehdi that it’s time for him to “step away from frontline politics.”

“I think the time is right for me to step down, step away from frontline politics and make way for the next generation of elected members,” Yousaf says to Mehdi.

In this wide-ranging interview, the former leader of Scotland discusses his fallout with the Green Party earlier this year, which ultimately led to the collapse of his coalition government, saying that terminating the power-sharing agreement with the Greens was, “the right thing to have done.”

“My successor is no longer encumbered with that deal, [he] can make decisions in policy that he wants to take forward in our country's interest without having to negotiate and compromise with the Greens. They can do that on an issue by issue basis, which I think is the best way to do it,” Yousaf says.

Yousaf also discusses the Middle East with Mehdi, telling him that the UK Labour Party is complicit in Israel’s genocide on Gaza.

“There's no doubt in my mind at all they are complicit. And I hope and pray that I live to see the day that all of those who are complicit are held accountable for these crimes,” Yousaf tells Mehdi.

Mehdi asks Yousaf about his feud with billionaire Elon Musk, with the former first minister reiterating why he thinks Musk is, “one of the most dangerous men on the planet.”

Yousaf also sounds the alarm about reports that Musk has been considering donating to the hard-right Reform UK party (Musk has denied these reports).

Watch the full exclusive interview above to hear Mehdi and Yousaf also discuss the rise of Islamophobia and the UK race riots from this past summer, his party’s catastrophic performance in the UK’s general election this year, and the Pakistani government’s continued imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan.

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President-elect Donald J. Trump has once again revealed his blatant disregard for the US Constitution, touting his plan to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.

Of course, Trump being Trump thinks he can end it all by himself, via simple executive order – rather than the required constitutional amendment. But, as Mehdi points out in the video above, Trump not only would be defying the plain text of the 14th Amendment, he would also be going against over 100 years of judicial precedent.

Watch the short video above to see Mehdi rebut the right-wing critics of birthright citizenship, dismantle Trump’s lies on this issue, and brings receipts dating all the way back to the 1860s.

Paid subscribers can comment below.

Check out some of our other stories from the past week:

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The United Nations’ Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, joins Mehdi Unfiltered to discuss the country’s new leadership, the path forward, and the UN’s role in it all. Addressing the latest attacks by Israel on sites within Syria, as well as the Israeli military incursion into the buffer zone next to the occupied Golan Heights, Pedersen tells Mehdi that these are illegal under international law.

“The message to Israel is that this needs to stop. What we are seeing in the Golan is the violation of the 1974 agreement. This is a very serious issue.”

Given the UN has listed the Nusra Front as a proscribed terrorist organization, and given Abu Muhammed al-Jolani and his Nusra Front spin-off Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led the offensive against Assad and now controls much of the country, Mehdi asks Pedersen about the UN’s approach towards HTS going forward.

“This creates obviously challenges and I have been very open when it comes to this… The messaging coming out so far has been good… What we now need to see when they are in Damascus, and of course, they are not alone in Damascus, is that this vision is actually implemented.”

A precursor to opening a political pathway for such groups will of course be changing their “terrorist’ designations, something that Pedersen says he is willing to take to the UN Security Council.

“My message to the Security Council will be, yes, it's time to have a deeper look at this and see if it's possible to delist. But as I said, only if these things happen.”

Given Pedersen’s six years as Special Envoy for Syria, Mehdi also asks about the UN’s role over the last 14 years.

“We all failed the Syrian people,” Pedersen responds “and the United Nations, for many, will be the face of that, and we have to take responsibility for that.”

Watch the full interview above to hear why Pedersen is cautious in his hope for Syria, and the steps he believes need to be taken to see “Syria developing now, in the next days, weeks, months and years ahead of us.”

Please do consider also becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo to support our independent journalism and make Zeteo the go-to place for exclusive interviews with high-profile guests such as this one!

In case you missed it, here is Zeteo’s interview with a former child prisoner of Syria’s notorious Sednaya prison:

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Meet rising Democratic Party star Anderson Clayton. At just 26 years old, she is the youngest-ever state party chair, representing the Democrats in the red state of North Carolina. But despite electing Donald Trump in the 2024 election, North Carolina’s red days may be soon behind it.

Democrats secured the races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state in this election. They even won enough seats to end the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.

So why did voters elect both Donald Trump and Democrats, at the same time, in November’s elections?

“I don’t think that a political party defines how somebody is going to vote on the ballot. I think that they are looking for a person right now, and that’s why it matters the types of candidates that we run,” Clayton tells Mehdi in this wide-ranging interview.

While Democrats are playing the blame game on how Kamala Harris lost the election, Clayton says, “I don’t think anybody’s a lost cause. I actually think after this election cycle, we should be looking at every single person as somebody we're talking to.”

But it’s not just talking to voters that’s key for Democrats moving forward. “We need to run young people,” Clayton explains. She continues, “They're 60% more likely to vote for a young person on the ballot regardless of what political party that they're affiliated with. And I think that we have to look at young people as a voting bloc that wants to see themselves represented.”

Many young voters aligned themselves with the Uncommitted movement this election given the genocide in Gaza. While some Democrats blame these voters for the election loss, Clayton believes that Democrats can learn something from it: “It was them using political power in the right way because it's something where it's not discouraging people from the political process. It's saying, ‘No, let's use it to have our voices heard.”’

She adds, “That's something where Democrats should be taking it and embracing it … because right now people do not want to build up the Democratic Party. It seems like people are more interested in going around it.”

Watch the full interview to hear about political messaging in rural communities, the North Carolina GOP’s attempt to curb the incoming governor’s powers, and whether she’ll throw her hat in the ring for DNC chair. Clayton also reacts to Bernie Sanders’ criticism of the Democrats.

We are making this fascinating interview free for all subscribers to watch, but please do consider becoming a paid subscriber if you’re not already!

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Like most years, New York City spent much of 2024 at the epicenter of the most pressing stories in the United States, from college campus protests for Palestine to the trial of Donald J. Trump, to the indictment of their own Democratic mayor, Eric Adams.

“One of the few things [on] the ever-growing list of things in common between Eric Adams and Donald Trump is a sense of impunity and a belief that accountability does not apply to them,” New York Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani says to Mehdi.

In an exclusive Zeteo interview, the 33-year-old Mamdani – who will be running against Adams in the 2025 New York City Democratic primaries – talks to Mehdi about calls for Adams to resign over his recent corruption charges, and whether or not the indicted mayor is trying to cozy up to Trump for a potential pardon.

“What we've seen with Eric Adams is a continued insistence that he is not going to step down. In his own words, he is going to step up. He's not going to resign, he's going to reign,” Mamdani tells Mehdi. “I think he understands that his future is tied up with the sentiments of Donald Trump towards him.”

Mamdani – a member of the Democratic Socialists of America – responds to the critics who say that it was progressives like him that not only cost Democrats this year’s presidential election, but also shrank their margin of victory in traditionally Democratic strongholds like the Big Apple itself.

“I would ask them who was running the Kamala Harris campaign, what were the policies that were being run on? Who are the surrogates?” Mamdani tells Mehdi. “You are not going to see me in any one of these five boroughs, with Liz Cheney or Mark Cuban backing away from taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.”

Watch Mehdi’s full interview with Mamdani to hear more on why Mamdani is running for mayor, how he would have responded to the pro-Palestine student protests, and how he would uphold the ICC arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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