With Texas poised to pass a redistricting bill to help Donald Trump rig the midterm elections in his favor to retain control of Congress, Democrats are taking the fight to Trump. Trump's renewed engagement with Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine has made a new priority of the return of Ukrainian children stolen by Putin.

Despite his deep delusions to the contrary, Donald Trump turning Washington, D.C. into a police state is making life and business in the District worse, thanks in large part to the team of bad faith bunglers Trump has assembled to carry out his will. While Trump's acolytes appear eager to help him weaponize the DOJ and law enforcement against his political enemies, their incompetence mostly yields embarrassment. The best possibility for a consistent ceasefire in Ukraine is if a coalition of outside countries deploy a NATO-like force to enforce it, argues former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor. Texas State Rep. Nicole Collier is essentially imprisoned in the State Capitol because she won't agree to being monitored by police, so they won't unlock the doors to allow her to leave. Oklahoma's MAGA superintendent of public schools is working hard to make his state the most poorly educated in the nation by prioritizing right-wing ideological standards instead of fact-based scholastics. And Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is probably wishing her spokesperson didn't invoke the church when offering a retort about Noem mooching a free apartment from the Coast Guard.

Expectations for the outcome of Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin were low, but few people anticipated that in addition to producing no agreement, the meeting would be followed by a low-energy 12 minute press presentation with no details given and no questions taken.

Despite efforts to lower expectations for his big meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump still managed to underperform with nothing to show for the meeting, which was followed by a "press conference" with no details and no questions taken. Jen Psaki is joined by her MSNBC colleague Nicolle Wallace, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, and former deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes discuss what happened and what it all means.

Donald Trump's use of federal forces to crack down on residents of Washington, D.C. is not well received. Neither is the crackdown by federal immigration authorities on immigrant school children. Gavin Newsom has presented his counter to Donald Trump's gerrymandering scheme by offering to voters a new district map that would only be triggered if Texas changes their map first. Jen Psaki takes a closer look at the Christian nationalist extremists who have a concerning amount of influence on members of the Trump administration. Michael McFaul offers a preview of Trump's Friday meeting in Alaska with Vladimir Putin. And Alex Jones has lost another court case and it another stop closer to losing all of his business assets to pay for the Sandy Hook Elementary judgment against him.

Donald Trump cements his dictator identity by rewriting U.S. history to his liking, tampering with museum exhibits, and deploying the U.S. military against Americans in the name of crime fighting. Democratic members of Congress try to hold ICE accountable for terrible conditions at its internment prisons, but HHS is getting better at hiding its tracks and its abuses. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s deranged ideas about vaccines are not only hurting the preparedness of the United States to address new diseases, but are making MAGA followers hostile to a scientific community that is only dedicated to helping people. And Ivanka Trump is organizing a cage fight at the White House for the nation's 250th anniversary. 

The truth of Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard to police Washington, D.C. is evident in the demographics of other cities he claims to want to target. Governor Wes Moore makes it clear that he is not interested in playing along with Trump's stunt if Trump tries to move on to Baltimore. Moore also says that redistricting in his state is possible if Donald Trump persists in trying to rig the 2026 election with red state gerrymandering.

Plus, Jen Psaki answers White House press briefing questions, minus the Trump White House spin, and the best outcome to hope for from Trump's Friday meeting with Vladimir Putin is that Trump doesn't do too much damage.

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August 8, 2025; 9pm: The Trump administration continues to dance around their promise to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, but now Democracy Forward is filing a lawsuit for access to internal communications regarding the handling of the case, which could expose whatever it is that Donald Trump does not want known. Trump has announced an upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at which Trump is expected to make concessions for peace in Ukraine despite have earlier issued an ultimatum. Activists against ICE's cruel brutality against immigrants grow in number, particularly among young people afraid for their families. And Donald Trump has fired the unqualified crony he installed at the IRS and is inexplicably moving him to be ambassador the Iceland. 

Jen Psaki points out that, contrary to initial denials, JD Vance, Pam Bondi, and Kash Patel met to discuss messaging strategy around Donald Trump's Jeffrey Epstein scandal. It furthermore appears that the group worked out a list of FBI officials who had a role in some aspect of Donald Trump's legal disgrace, and fired them. Texas Democrats remain in a fight to preserve American democracy, and Georgia's former lieutenant governor has decided to switch to the Democratic Party. 

August 7, 2025; 9pm: Jen Psaki looks at how Donald Trump distorts the justice system to benefit himself, with the White House machinations around his Jeffrey Epstein scandal being the latest example. Survivors of Epstein's abuse are outraged that they are being excluded again. The Department of Homeland Security has been given a massive infusion of taxpayer dollars to pump into ICE for immigration enforcement, so they're putting new effort into recruiting more agents. And Texas Democrats are still fighting to prevent state Republicans from further distorting the state map with gerrymandering to preserve Trump's hold on Congress after the 2026 midterms.