Donald Trump and several of his top officials have promised to unleash a partisan crackdown in Charlie Kirk’s honor, even as the notion that Kirk’s assassin was in league with the institutional left becomes more far fetched.

In light of the week’s developments, we discuss:

* Our personal reactions to the Kirk murder, and the contours of the overall public response;

* What we know about the GOP plan to use it as a pretext to crack down on political dissent;

* The differences between using free speech and believing in free speech; the related differences between good-faith debate and propaganda.

Then, is MAGA’s seamless fusion of partisan propaganda with state functions actually a source of political power for the GOP? Between Trump’s sinking poll numbers on issue after issue, public rejection of his immigration crackdown, and spiraling, trollish foreign policy, is there any reason to believe Americans won’t reject a speech crackdown, too? And if the administration is embarking on a losing abuse of power (even if only to generate yet more propaganda) is there any good reason why Democrats shouldn’t fight them by seizing the mantle of free speech?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Matt’s extremely conflicted take on the looming government shutdown.

* Brian on the GOP’s recursive cycle of abusing power to generate propaganda to justify further abuses of power, and how to respond;

* The extensive fallout of the propaganda-driven Hyundai factory raid.

Another government shutdown looms, and, thus, so do more angsty struggle sessions over what Democrats should do, and what effective opposition looks like. In this episode, we discuss:

* How does mounting bad news for Donald Trump—bad jobs numbers, defeats in court, and revelations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein—affect the politics of a shutdown?

* Who’s got the better bead on how Democrats should proceed, Matt, Brian, or Ezra Klein?

* Why there’s a hidden danger in Democrats’ inclination to demand extraneous concessions—like renewed funding for Obamacare.

Then, how might the lessons of a [knocks on wood] successful shutdown fight help ameliorate ongoing fight between different factions of the Democratic Party, including progressives and abundists? Can they find common ground over their shared interest in making the Democratic Party more responsive and faster moving? Or are progressives too suspicious of strange bedfellows to ever support policy-making coalitions with Republicans and business interests?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Brian’s shutdown piece.

* Ezra’s shutdown piece

* Matt’s shutdown piece.

* Brian’s response to both.

* How to understand recent data revisions.

* Brian’s abundance flowchart for an intra-Democratic truce

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This week, we indulge all the speculation and look ahead to politics if and after Donald Trump dies in office. For instance:

* Is a movement that claims the mantle of making America “healthy” sustainable in a world where the obese 79 year old president croaks after his health secretary takes vaccines off the shelf?

* Does JD Vance have the juice required to consolidate all the pro-Trump factions (many of which hate each other)?

* What becomes of Democratic politics? Can the emerging anti-Trump politics of Democratic presidential hopefuls work against a post-Trump GOP?

Then, what’s all this got to do with Democratic propaganda? We discuss a recently unearthed progressive effort to subsidize Democrat-friendly viral content creators, which has already driven bitter recriminations across the online left. Is the problem here message or medium? Would anyone be complaining if the people involved had agreed to be open and transparent about their partnership? Or is subsidizing heavy-on-politics content an altogether mistaken concept?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Brian on the cursed establishment effort to fend off Graham Platner.

* Matt also wants to let Graham Platner cook.

* Paige Cognetti will run against Rob Bresnahan in a key Pennsylvania bellwether.

This week, a close look at two troubling authoritarian provocations from the Trump administration: Friday’s dawn FBI raid of John Bolton’s house in Maryland, and Monday’s purported firing of Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. We discuss:

* How Matt managed to leave his microphone in Maine.

* What Trump seemingly hopes to accomplish by making an example out of Bolton.

* Whether opposing the retributive prosecution of a crank like Bolton represents a good test of how to build a unified front against fascism.

* Also, what the fuck is going on with Trump’s bruises and cankles?

Then, do the Bolton and Cook abuses provide the broad left any openings to peel off Republicans who might see Trump’s consolidation of power as a threat to their own ambitions. If he’ll go after a stalwart Republican like Bolton, why wouldn’t he go after certain Republican presidential candidates? If overlook Trump’s harassment of Cook, what leg will they have to stand on when 2029 Democrats purge Republicans from government, mine their federal records, and have a big fat precedent to point to.

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Matt on the economic downside of personalist autocracies like the one Trump is building.

* Brian makes the case against liberal rectitude politics, which make it so hard for the whole, unified party to stand up for itself.

* HEADLINE: Trump, 79, Smears Right Hand in Makeup Amid Cankles Cover-Up.

Donald Trump’s federal occupation of the capital continues, but the context has worsened. It now unfolds alongside Trump’s seemingly related efforts to: 1) gerrymander as many red states as possible; 2) unconstitutionally void and rerun the Census in a manner that would benefit Republicans; and 3) assert unconstitutional control over the time, place, and manner of elections.

In this episode we’ll discuss:

* To what extent is Trump’s desire to subjugate the residents of blue cities related to his long-established desire to cheat in elections.

* Are Democrats outmatched in the gerrymandering arms race?

* Have the opinion makers who discounted Trump’s threat to the 2020 election reverted to complacency once again?

Why is Trump acting so spooked about the midterms? And what is to be done? Should congressional Democrats resist these power grabs during the government shutdown fight? Should Democratic governors send their own national guard troops to DC to magnify the contradictions? What kinds of resistance tactics from DC residents would work best to either deescalate the situation, or make it blow back against Trump?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Brian says it’s gut check time for Senate Democrats: Will they take Trump’s abuses of power head on when the government-funding deadline nears?

* Matt: Let’s fix the gerrymandering problem with proportional representation.

* Via National Security Counselors, Should Wes Moore (or someone) send blue state national guardsmen to DC?

* No comment….

Donald Trump has commandeered Washington DC’s police force and deployed federal agents and national guardsmen to patrol DC streets, on plainly pretextual grounds.

In this episode we’ll discuss:

* What makes this affront to DC sovereignty unusually offensive;

* Trump’s stated reasons for seizing power, and how to see through them;

* What, if anything, elected Democrats should say and do to defend district residents

Then, behind the paywall, there’s good reason to suspect Trump hopes his DC invasion will distract us from less flattering news. So we’re not going to let him! We discuss the latest indications that Trump has damaged the economy, the steps that can be taken in the event Trump tries to fabricate economic data, and the most recent developments in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Matt on the actual policy obstacles to more effective policing in DC.

* Brian on why DC residents are perfectly right to be frustrated with national Democrats for leaving us vulnerable to this unwelcome takeover.

* Trump’s hackish nominee to oversee government economic data wants to stop releasing government economic data.

This week, we’re reassessing both the resiliency of the economy, and the health of U.S. democracy.

Why? Because recent data suggests Donald Trump’s reactionary policy blitz (global tariffs, mass deportation) has caused the economy to seize up; and Trump has responded by trying to kill the messengers.

In this episode you’ll hear all about:

* What the recent jobs numbers actually say, and how do they gel with other recent data;

* Sydney Sweeney;

* Why data pointing to a slowdown, if not a contraction, fits the facts of Trump’s erratic agenda;

* The bull and the bear theories of the case: Could the economy somehow continue growing despite all this? Would Trump be freaking out like this if he thought the economy was firing on all cylinders?

Then, behind the paywall, is a recession the sort of thing Trump could even theoretically bullshit his way out of? Or would reality break through? What would a “recession coverup” attempt actually look like, given the complexity of the data? And what’s Trump likely to do if and when his excuses and lies stop selling?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Brian on why Trump’s reaction to the jobs report is of a piece with broader signs that he and his administration are spiraling.

* Matt notes Argentina’s recent economic successes are attributable to Javier Milei’s decision to abandon an unworkable agenda.

* Dean Baker breaks down why the jobs news is so bad.

Donald Trump is trying desperately to bury the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

In this episode, Matt and Brian explore all the distractions Trump has attempted—implicitly and explicitly—to knock the Epstein files out of the news, why Trump is so desperate and why are his usual tactics failing.

* Should we at this point suspect this is a coverup of damning evidence of Trump’s conduct specifically?

* If the story is just that Epstein conspiracy theories are all bunk, why bother with distractions or incriminating claims (like that Hillary Clinton and James Comey forged the Epstein files)?

* With Trump finally on the hind foot, why are elite institutions like Columbia University going out of their way to surrender to Trump’s threats?

Then, behind the paywall, do the new tariff “agreements” Trump has struck with Japan and the E.U. count as distractions from the Epstein scandal, or are they on their own track? What’s in the deals? How much harm will they do to American importers and consumers? And how meaningful can they be if they’re as illegal as they seem?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Matt on repairing the tax code after Trump.

* Brian argues we the discourse should shift from whether Trump is engaged in an Epstein coverup, to grappling with the truly dark things Trump is covering up, and what the consequences should be.

* Philip Bump debunks Trump’s main Epstein distraction.

The new Superman is a critical hit and box-office smash—despite conspicuous Republican efforts to discourage people from seeing it. It’s the GOP vs. truth, justice, and the American way!

In this episode, Matt and Brian explore all the reasons the modern right might have been put off by this movie, and Superman’s longer-running themes:

* To what extent are right-wing critics really just evincing old, philosophical conservative misgivings about liberal empathy and compassion?

* Are today’s Republicans really upset to learn that Superman is pro-immigrant (as he has been for almost 90 years, or is that just a red herring?

* Or is it really just that this particular adaptation is an unsubtle send up of several recent, high-profile, right-wing corruption scandals (though not, unfortunately, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal)?

Then, behind the paywall, in a recent interview, Hunter Biden of all people challenged Democrats to appeal to people’s better natures, rather than appeasing their prejudices—just like a certain superhero…

The younger Biden’s broader judgment aside, his comments raise pretty profound questions for the party as it wrestles with how to broaden its appeal in the Trump era. Should Democrats be Superman to Trump’s Lex Luthor? How far will uncut virtue get them? And who’s the best avatar for Democrats to broadcast empathy across the board: Another old white guy with cultural roots in white working class America? Or a next-generation Obama-like figure who leans on respectability politics to appeal to cultural conservatives?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Brian on why Republicans are right to dislike the new Superman (because it rightly depicts their political values in an unflattering light).

* Matt argues Democrats should just throw Joe Biden under the bus.

* The Hunter Biden interview.

* The canonical Matt Bors cartoon.

The race is on between Donald Trump, who’s desperately trying to put down the raging scandal surrounding his Jeffrey Epstein lies (whatever they happen to be) and Democrats who are finally engaged, and trying to pry the truth loose. Who’s gonna win?

In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

* How has the Epstein scandal developed over the past week?

* Why have Democrats been uninterested in all matters Epstein, both recently and over many years of right-wing conspiracy theories?

* What’s the likeliest explanation of why Trump is behaving so desperately now?

Then, behind the paywall, we tackle a bunch of pressing questions: what have Democrats done thus far to move the story forward? What more could they do? Will the files be released, or will the story fizzle? Could “the Epstein files” be the thing that finally creates real, lasting political problems for Trump? And what would it say about America if this—rather than matters of major civic significance, like COVID failures and the insurrection—becomes the thing that finally brings Trump low?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Matt wrote, “I’m not deeply invested in any theory about Epstein, but I always thought Democrats blew it by not pushing for some oversight here,” way back in 2021.

* Brian on how the Epstein saga illustrates the need for Democrats to get outside their comfort zones, and how they might use this opportunity to wage war on the entire right-wing bad-faith media complex.

* The 2002 Epstein profile that started it all: “‘I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,’ Trump booms from a speakerphone. ‘He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.’”

* Julie Brown, the reporter who broke the real Epstein trafficking scandal, weighs in with The Bulwark.