Useful Idiots

From the nation’s sage teletherapist Dr. Phil: “This has been one of the longest wars they’ve faced. The cost has been really high politically, humanitarian-wise, and has taken a tremendous toll on………”

Can you guess who he thinks the tremendous toll is on? Hint it has to do with the last two years of death, destruction, and torture throughout Gaza.

“…a tremendous toll on Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli people.” Did you guess correctly?

It seems that Israel has now officially gained one more paid-off sycophant in pseudo-psychologist Dr. Phil, who as it turns out now runs Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission and has embedded with ICE. If deporting immigrants doesn’t scream empathy we don’t know what does.

This pro-genocide statement came in the intro to his recent fawning interview with Netanyahu himself. So Katie and Aaron are flaming him, as well as all of the other mental health professionals who have remained silent while a genocide is live-streamed across the world.

Also in this Friday Free-For-All: Jesse Watters’ hypocritical smears against the Minnesota mother murdered by ICE agents, Fox News thinks Nicolás Maduro is in awe of the US justice system, and US law enforcement literally arrests a peaceful protester during a live interview on ABC.

It’s as crazy as it sounds. Watch with Katie and Aaron so you can laugh instead of cry at all of it. It’s the Useful Idiots Friday Free-For-All. Subscribe to watch the full episode here:

This weekend the Trump Administration, with neocon Marco Rubio at its helm, illegally kidnapped the president of a sovereign nation, killing at least 80 civilians in the mission. Corporate media, however, pronounces that sentence very differently:

“Extraordinary breaking news out of Venezuela! The US captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, with no US servicemen casualties in the operation.”

Why do NBC, ABC, CNN, and CBS News all seem to be covering for the Trump administration? How is Marco Rubio justifying his hostile takeover of the Venezuelan government? Are Congressional Democrats giving any opposition to the regime change operation? And can Republicans go two sentences without accidentally spilling that it isn’t drugs but oil for US corporations that ignited this war?

We analyze all this, and more, on this week’s extended Monday Mourning. To watch the full episode on oil, regime change, and who the US plans to install as the head of Venezuela next, subscribe here:

Breaking News: it was just announced that for the first time ever, the 2026 winner of the Israel Prize will not be an Israeli. It will instead be Donald Trump.

Netanyahu visited the Israel-firster this week to shower him with praise, and in response, Trump bent the knee to proclaim that Israel can have as many second chances as they’d like to prove they’re not committing genocide. In the same speech, Trump kind of lets slip that he’s maybe thinking of shooting missiles into Iran on behalf of Israel, but hey, the whole second chances thing, right?

Katie and Aaron are covering everything happening in Israel-Palestine for one last blowout show of 2025 – but that’s not all we’re watching: a new right-wing childcare conspiracy has erupted in Minnesota after a YouTube prankster banged on daycare center doors, shouting “Where are the kids??” Somehow, this strategy led to people shutting doors in his face, which he, and GOP politicians, took to mean the daycare centers are all frauds. Now they’re cutting childcare funding in the state. Plus, Fox News’ Tomi Lahren gives a psychotherapy session on who you should really be looking to for personal inspiration.

It’s all this, and so much more madness, on the Useful Idiots News Year’s Mockin’ Eve. Thanks for joining us for a wild 2025, we’ll see you in the next one.

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We’re going live! Don’t miss the last Useful Idiots of the year on Trump’s BS Gaza peace plan, an upcoming missile strike on Iran, the latest Epstein insanity, and a special announcement of Person of the Year. It’s all this, and so much more, on this LIVE edition of Useful Idiots.

Join us today at 1pm est.

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Happy Holidays to our Useful Idiots family,

Five years ago, we came to Substack to start what was to become one of the most special communities on the internet, and as we approach 50,000 members on Substack and 200,000 on YouTube, we’re stepping back to appreciate this band that’s grown bigger than we ever expected.

Times are tough. We say it every year. And it only seems to get worse out there: just watch this year’s interviews on Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Lebanon, and the US itself. It’s dark times.

But then, sometimes, we also think about something Norman Finkelstein told us for when the light seems dimmest:

Our generation has, for good reason, lost the belief, the conviction that we have the force of history behind us. Our generation believes there’s a good chance we’ll be defeated. There’s a good chance we’re not going to win.

But you can only know one thing for certain: If you do nothing, it can only get worse. There’s that folk song, “It’s always darkest before the dawn. It’s this hope that keeps me carrying on. It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

There’s just something in the human constitution that simply can’t do nothing. In the face of such death and devastation, you just can’t.

To us, building up a community like this one to inform, to create activists, to rally together, is real resistance. It’s hard, it’s slow going, and sometimes it may feel pointless, but it’s this hope that keeps us carrying on. We’re stronger for every member of the Useful Idiots community.

Thanks for sticking with us for five years.

Love,

Katie, Aaron, and Wilson

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P.S. You still have until 11:59pm tonight to get free Useful Idiots…

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The Epstein files are out…mostly. The Trump Admin seemed to think it could get away with yet another partial dump, but one of their redactions got leaked when a photo of a desk drawer filled with photos of Trump and young women went public.

What was that about?

Katie and Aaron analyze Deputy AG Todd Blanche’s Epstein performance on Meet the Press and debunk the lies after lies he tells.

Also in this Monday Mourning: Bari Weiss has turned 60 Minutes into a propaganda joke, Lindsey Graham phones in from Tel Aviv to warmonger on not one but THREE different US wars, and Democrats Hakeem Jeffries and Jamie Raskin fail miserably in their response to the DNC refusing to release their 2024 election autopsy.

The corporate politicians are running wild. Only Katie and Aaron can reel them in. Watch or listen to the full episode for free.

And don’t miss last week’s Friday Free-For-All: Katie Halper & Aaron Maté React to Ridiculous ‘Melania’ Trailer

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For this week’s interview, we’re speaking with Francisco Rodríguez about the latest in Trump’s regime-change campaign in Venezuela. Rodríguez, a member of the Venezuelan opposition who formerly advised a challenger to President Nicolás Maduro, does not, like other members of the opposition, support the U.S. policy of starvation sanctions and military force to overthrow the government of Venezuela.

Useful Idiots: You have warned that Trump’s naval blockade of U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of Venezuela could lead to the first major famine in the Western Hemisphere. Can you explain what you mean by that?

Francisco Rodríguez: The first thing to understand is that the Venezuelan economy runs on oil revenues. Oil is more than 90% of the country’s exports. It uses its export revenue in order to pay for imports of everything, including food and essentials.

The Venezuelan economy doesn’t actually produce the food that it needs to feed itself. And that’s not atypical: that’s the case for many economies that are integrated into the world economy. But not many economies get blockaded. In fact, there’s really no precedent of a sustained blockade of any economy in the Western Hemisphere.

Useful Idiots: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to Trump’s blockade announcement by ordering a naval escort for tankers that are carrying oil toward Asia. This obviously raises the risk, if Trump decides to enforce his social media post, of a military confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela in the high seas.

Francisco Rodríguez: The U.S. has essentially gone into this strategy of trying to scare the Venezuelan military into turning on Maduro, which is called the credible threat strategy. It’s the idea that if the US can credibly threaten that it’s going to invade, it doesn’t actually have to invade: the military is going to turn on Maduro who is going to give up power.

Up until now, Maduro isn’t moving. You don’t have any sign of rebellion in the military, and this strategy has painted President Trump into a corner because now he’s almost forced to show that this threat is credible by carrying out a military attack.

But on the other hand, there seems to be absolutely no appetite, at least in American public opinion and among the political leadership of both parties, for an actual war in Venezuela. So is President Trump going to pull the trigger? Is he going to go in and seize that tanker and fire on the Venezuelan ships that are escorting it? We don’t know. It’s highly unpredictable.

But what we do know is that a lot of military conflicts begin this way. They begin with threats and then one side either miscalculating or believing that it has to enforce its threat in order to maintain its credibility.

Subscribe for the full interview with Francisco Rodríguez for his thoughts on Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado calling regime change an “act of love.”

And don’t miss this week’s Friday Free-For-All: Katie Halper & Aaron Maté React to Ridiculous ‘Melania’ Trailer

Watch the full episode here:

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In the final moments of the trailer for the upcoming blockbuster MELANIA, the filmmakers capture a phone call between the president and first lady just after the results of the 2024 election were announced.

“Hi Mr. President,” she says to her husband. “Congratulations.”

“Did you watch it?” he responds hopefully.

“I did not.”

Is this whole documentary a way for Melania to throw shade at Donald? In the strange and plotless trailer, Melania says lines straight to camera, shows us around the White House, and gives Trump speech advice that, even after multiple viewings, we can’t understand what she actually says. What is this movie about??

And the cherry on top comes when Katie reveals who the director is…let’s just say the pipeline of accused-rapists moving to Israel is strong with this one.

Also in this Friday Free-For-All: Fox News cheers on the murderous “squeezing” of the Venezuelan people, a GOP senator rejoices that photos of starving children haven’t hurt Congressional support for Israel, and Trump somehow blames his terrible healthcare plan on Obama.

It’s a Free-For-All as cringey as any: laugh at it all with Katie and Aaron. Support independent media and subscribe to Useful Idiots to watch the full episode here: