#1728 The Lawfare Presidency: The Case of Trump v. Journalism

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Jay Tomlinson

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2025

⏱️ 191 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Air Date 8/10/2025

Trump has been condemning the media for all of his professional life and is pretty open about doing it so that people won't believe the negative press he so richly deserves. Now, with the power of the presidency, he's turned his battle with the press into a protection racket complete with payoffs and side deals in an attempt to turn the media into pro-Trump propaganda.

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PART 1: DIRECT STATE VIOLENCE

(00:01:34) #1719 - The Fascist Playbook: Immigrants, Brown Shirts, and the Backlash

1: Tanks on Dc's Streets and a Us Senator in Handcuffs - Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick - Air Date 6-14-25

2: Papers, Please Hayes Flags New Police Tactic Trend in Trumps America - All in W/ Chris Hayes - Air Date 6-19-25

3: Palantir Peter Thiel's Data-mining Firm Helps Doge Build Master Database to Surveil Immigrants - Democracy Now! - Air Date 6-3-25

(00:22:14) #1722 - Imbalance of Powers: The Supreme Court and Executive Branch Collude for Unchecked Power Grab

4: SCOTUS May End Birth Right Citizenship Soon - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 6-30-25

5: The Injunction Ban, Explained - Leeja Miller - Air Date 6-30-25

6: 'Lawlessness Will Flourish': Scotus Justice Issues Chilling Warning After Major Ruling - The Beat - Air Date 6-27-25

PART 2: SYSTEMIC DESTRUCTION

(00:39:30) #1723 - Scam Nation: Trumpism is the Art of Screwing You Over in Every Way Possible

7: Is Ai Productivity Worth Our Humanity W/ Prof. Michael Sandel - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 6-26-25

8: Empire of Ai: Karen Hao & Roger Mcnamee Expose Sam Altman, Musk & Big Tech - The Nerd Reich - Air Date 6-16-25

8: The Real Reason Investors Are Going All in on Palantir - More Perfect Union - Air Date 6-24-25

(01:02:26) #1721 - The Evolution of the Military Industrial Complex: Now with AI!

10: Is AI Productivity Worth Our Humanity w/ Prof. Michael Sandel - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 6-26-25

11: Empire of AI: Karen Hao & Roger McNamee Expose Sam Altman, Musk & Big Tech - The Nerd Reich - Air Date 6-16-25

12: The REAL Reason Investors Are Going All In on Palantir - More Perfect Union - Air Date 6-24-25

PART 3: REALITY MANIPULATION

(01:23:14) #1725 - A Flood of Disinformation: A World of Climate Change and Conspiracies

13: Flooding Is Common in Texas Hill Country. This Was Different Part 2- Consider This - Air Date 7-7-25

14: Why Kristi Noems Incompetence Matters - Bulwark Takes - Air Date 7-10-25

15: The Real Conspiracy Behind the Texas Floods - More to the Story - Air Date 7-16-25

(01:42:48) #1726 - Epstein Forever: Trump flails as criticism finally comes from inside the MAGA house

16: Epstein Files Firestorm Shows the Power of Online Conspiracy - There Are No Girls on the Internet - Air Date 7-8-25

17: Epstein Conspiracy, or Epstein Conspiracy Theory? - Radio Atlantic - Air Date 7-7-25

18: Epstein Survivor Calls for Accountability: Release the Files, End Impunity for Rich & Powerful Abusers - Democracy Now! - Air Date 7-18-25

19: We Tracked Every Visitor to Epstein Island - Wired - Air Date 11-22-24

Part 4: Global Chaos

(02:12:24) #1718 - On the Path to Destruction: Israel Attacks Iran as Support for War on Gaza Drops

20: Jon Stewart on Israel's "urgent" Iran Strike, Minnesota Murders & Maga's Blame Game - The Daily Show - Air Date 6-16-25

21: "A Show of Human Solidarity": Ex-u.s. Diplomat to Join Global March to Gaza to Break Israel's Siege - Democracy Now! - Air Date 6-10-25

(02:32:30) #1727 - Super-Powered Men For Good and Ill: Fascism, Media, and the Manoshpere

22: Tired of Putin's 'bullshit': Trump Reverses, Says Us Should Send Weapons to Ukraine - Erin Burnett Outfront - Air Date 7-8-25

23: The Next Generation of Maga Influencers - Some More News - Air Date 5-28-25

24: Brief Mehdi Hasan Vs Jordan Peterson - Conspirituality - Air Date 7-26-25

PART 5: BUILDING RESISTANCE

(02:54:25) #1720 - Building an Organized Left, the Eternal Oxymoron

25: Ralph Nader's Message to Doomers: "stop Making Excuses!" - Current Affairs - Air Date 6-22-25

26: "We Fight for Working People with No Apology": Zohran Mamdani Beats Cuomo in Nyc Mayoral Primary - Democracy Now! - Air Date 6-25-25

27: Is Protesting Ineffective? | Penny for Your Thoughts - Dasia Sade - Air Date 6-23-25

(03:21:46) #1724 - How to Socialism: Einstein liked socialism, you think you know better?

28: Mamdani's Spectacular Victory W/ Alan Minsk - Jacobin Radio - Air Date 7-2-25

29: 'The Economy Is Rigged": Robert Reich on Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party, Inequality, and Trump - Democracy Now! - Air Date 6-26-25

30: Old Democrats Must Go or Trump Never Will - Unftr Media - Air Date 7-15-25

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast.
0:07.0	Trump has been condemning the media for all of his professional life and is pretty open about doing it so that people won't believe the negative press that he so richly deserves.
0:17.9	Now with the power of the presidency, he's turned his battle with the press
0:21.0	into a protection racket, complete with payoffs and side deals in an attempt to turn
0:26.5	the media into pro-Trump propaganda. For those looking for a quick overview, the sources
0:32.0	providing our top takes in about 45 minutes today include Courier, On Point, Today Explained, a message from the CEO of NPR,
0:41.9	Democracy Now, Ring of Fire, the last word, and between the lines. Then, in the additional
0:48.2	deeper dives have with the show, there will be more in five sections. Section A, corporate
0:53.1	control, followed by section B, censorship is
0:56.3	paramount, section C, public broadcasting, section D, the larger plan, and section E, the fight
1:03.8	back. But first a reminder to check out our new show solved on the Best of Left YouTube
1:08.7	channel. We are very proud of the show we're making.
1:11.7	You will get real value out of it, I guarantee. And besides enjoying it for yourself, you checking
1:17.3	it out will help us find new viewers on YouTube. So thanks in advance for all of your
1:21.8	views, like, subscribes, and comments. That's all on the best of the left YouTube channel,
1:26.5	link in the show notes. And now,
1:28.7	onto the show.
1:33.3	Three key facts. Number one. Trump's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal is an attempt
1:40.8	to silence any media coverage of Trump's well-documented ties to Epstein
1:46.4	and is part of a broader effort to stop outlets from reporting news Trump doesn't like.
1:51.6	On July 17th, the journal reported that Trump wrote a birthday letter to Epstein
1:56.7	that included a lewd cartoon he drew and made reference to Trump and Epstein
	...

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