# The Redoubt > Original reporting, independent analysis, democratic values Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About The Redoubt URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/about/ Last updated: 2026-07-29T12:36:48.000Z ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2025/11/Wien-Museum-Online-Sammlung-250533_97-5-1.jpg) ### Origins The publication was launched in November 2025\. Its name reflects the times in which we live: when honor, decency and the very possibility of a better life are under assault from the grotesque forces of reaction. *The Redoubt* acknowledges that there have been losses but refuses to accept these as defeats. It aspires to be a stronghold for those who respect honesty and kindness, not power and wealth; to be a gathering place for all who refuse to abandon their convictions and submit to the performative barbarity of this moment. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/07/The-Redoubt-has-been-cited-by...-1-.png) ### The view from anywhere The founder, Charles R. Davis, is an American journalist who has written for publications such as The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The New Republic and Columbia Journalism Review. Currently based in Austria, he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, attended college in San Diego, California, and began his career as a congressional correspondent for public radio in Washington, DC. He has lived in Nicaragua and Ecuador, worked as a producer in Los Angeles and reported from countries such as Venezuela, Romania, Moldova and Turkey. While the publication will often focus on news involving the United States, *The Redoubt* embraces internationalism as a working principle, welcoming and hoping to serve readers from all over the world. ### Our mission We will always tell the truth. Through original reporting and analysis, we will stand up for the interests of the many and challenge ignorance and oppression in all their guises. We reject dogma, abhor nihilism and refuse to concede that this is the best we can do. We believe that we can make this world better, despite the odds, and that we have a responsibility to try. ### The best things in life We do not believe in paywalls. *The Redoubt* is a fortress, not a silo. But producing the work published here does come at a cost. If you are moved by a piece, please consider a [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). Visitors with the means to do so are also encouraged [to subscribe](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) to our paid newsletter offering, which offers a weekly roundup of the best in reporting and commentary from around the world, as well as the opportunity to directly pose questions and request areas of coverage from *The Redoubt*. All are encouraged to share what they read. Image credit: Karl Wiener, Ohne Titel (Haus im Wald bei Nacht), around 1920, Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 250533/97, CC0 --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Contact URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/contact/ Last updated: 2025-11-12T04:29:57.000Z Interested in republishing or sponsoring our work? [partnerships@TheRedoubt.net](mailto:partnerships@theredoubt.net) Got something we should cover? [tips@TheRedoubt.net](mailto:tips@theredoubt.net) ****Sensitive?** [****Message us on Signal**](https://signal.me/?ref=theredoubt.net#eu/P3IT1cudVsPdL%5F3A6P-mxbmXmTuq0LTTB-bMT5Omr%5FVZnKOzXixPL5L0jZHlctem)****.** Spot something we should fix? [corrections@TheRedoubt.net](mailto:corrections@theredoubt.net) All other inquiries: [info@TheRedoubt.net](mailto:info@theredoubt.net) *The Redoubt* *Vienna, Austria* ## Posts ### JD's war: Vance fights the blame game over Iran and the midterms URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/jds-war-vance-fights-the-blame-game-over-iran-and-the-midterms/ Last updated: 2026-11-05T21:13:42.000Z Maybe it was not such a good idea to repeatedly hit the "gas prices: go up" button ahead of an election, especially after winning the last one on a promise to make them go down. "The reason we lost is the war," Vice President JD Vance [posted](https://archive.is/QKoJm?ref=theredoubt.net) on X after his Republican Party lost the 2026 midterms by a double-digit landslide. "If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest." Honesty, according to the man who [lied](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/jd-vance-lies-haitian-immigrants?ref=theredoubt.net) about Haitians eating white America's pets, demands admitting what "everyone knows": that President Donald Trump's decision to bomb Iran earlier this year — along with "our relationship to Israel" — is why the reddest parts of America are turning shades of purple and blue. [America's war: Israel did not make Trump do itThe United States bombs whom it wants, when it wants.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-61436e89-fed8-4884-8298-19db48bd9db7.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/General_Dan_Caine_and_Secretary_of_War_Pete_Hegseth_listen_as_President_Donald_J._Trump_oversees_Operation_Epic_Fury_at_Mar-a-Lago_-55125232216--c8b706cc-27e5-4c66-9e5c-60f447402280.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-war-israel-did-not-make-trump-do-it/) The vice president's analysis is written as if he were a critic, not a star of the show, and many have interpreted it as the opening shot in the 2028 campaign. Vance is smartly trying to distance himself from an unpopular president's unpopular war, while still affirming his commitment to the MAGA domestic agenda of ethnic cleansing via mass deportation ("establishment politicians," the sitting U.S. vice president warned, "say the solution to our woes is amnesty"). An anti-Trump centrist from Yale turned far-right soldier for MAGA, Vance is nothing if not an opportunist. Eventually, anyone with higher political aspirations and access to polling data will have to decide when and how to break from a man who turns 81 in June. But Vance's post-election missive is not that inevitable betrayal. "I think it's largely true," Trump himself [told](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/soaring-diesel-prices-helped-usher-democratic-sweep-2026-11-05/?ref=theredoubt.net) reporters when asked about it. "It drove the gasoline up a little bit." Like Vance, Trump has sought to reconcile the campaign rhetoric of isolationism with "[the Iran thing](https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/trump-says-republicans-harmed-by-iran-war-inability-to-transfer-the-love-for-him/ar-AA2gLEnk?ref=theredoubt.net)" and his [special military operations for oil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%5FUnited%5FStates%5Fintervention%5Fin%5FVenezuela?ref=theredoubt.net). Before Americans headed to the polls, the White House ran [taxpayer-funded ads](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/09/27/white-house-expands-taxpayer-paid-ad-campaign-boosting-trump/?ref=theredoubt.net) in which the president of the United States pledged to evict the "warmongers" from Washington. Starting a war sounds bad, Trump knows, so when he does it — well, no, he doesn't. "I mean, what's a war?" Trump asked in an appearance on Fox News. "A war is — a war is fighting. Take a look at World War I, World War II," he said, insisting Iran isn't like any of that. "We're not fighting a war." In the weeks before the election, Vance also made the rounds of right-wing media and positioned the president as standing up to "neocons" who would have him "send hundreds of thousands of ground troops into Iran." That's just not going to happen, Vance [told](https://www.mediaite.com/politics/megyn-kelly-grills-jd-vance-on-trump-attacking-maga-iran-war-critics-feel-very-betrayed/?ref=theredoubt.net) a right-wing podcaster, "because Donald Trump is just not George W. Bush." In this way, Trump, a man who [said](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/trump-iran-deadline-threats-00861313?ref=theredoubt.net) a "whole civilization will die tonight" (and dropped the bombs that George W. Bush would not), is placed in a familiar role: enemy of a sprawling and indefatigable conspiracy known as "the establishment." There are others, "like John Podhoretz," who want even more war, Vance explained; compared to some guy, the most powerful man in the world actually wants less. Opposed to the war wholeheartedly and from the start? Vance and others, from [Tucker Carlson](https://www.theredoubt.net/tucker-carlson-owns-this-presidency/) to White House aides, have offered a means for three-time Trump voters to square their anger over another conflict in the Middle East with their past or present support for the man responsible: once again — this comes easy — find someone else to blame. [Tucker Carlson owns this presidencyRight-wing antisemites are blaming Israel instead of themselves for Donald Trump's actions. We shouldn't let them get away with it.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-e369f1e5-d4f7-40e8-836f-14739cd35360.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/AmericaFest_2025_-_Tucker_Carlson_19-00a80e31-2f8b-468e-b33b-e4790bdab5ca.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/tucker-carlson-owns-this-presidency/) Vance tried this out over the summer, telling Megyn Kelly that he recognized "folks are frustrated with the role that Israel has in all this." And he returned to it after the midterms, claiming that "one of the smartest people I know in politics" had told him Trump 2024 voters wanted four things, all of which were effectively the same: "1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel." Vance isn't saying Israel made Trump do it, but that's exactly the narrative he gets from the far-right extremists he follows on X, where Israeli lobbying for war with Iran — a fact, and something prior administrations did not heed — is reduced to antisemitic conspiracy theories about Tel Aviv ruling Washington. "There's thinking in and around the administration that the politics are a lot better if the Israelis go first," one person familiar with the discussions [told Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/25/white-house-politics-israel-strikes-iran-00799456?ref=theredoubt.net), which reported that "Trump's team is considering the optics." The optics haven't changed, and both Vance and the president again appear to be on the same page. Trump, sensitive to perceptions of him as a weak and declining old man, is unlikely to ever come out and say that his big war is Israel's fault. But on the eve of the election, certainly aware of the discourse, Trump [asserted](https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-israel-aid-end-year-citing-political-reasons/story?id=137809564&ref=theredoubt.net) that billions of dollars in aid to Israel would be "cut off at the end of the year." That claim remains to be verified, but he did not make it because his followers are mad about [Gaza](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/). In the months ahead, it is not hard to imagine the vice president and others getting more explicit, perhaps claiming the White House's bombing campaign of choice was no choice at all, but something forced upon a gullible old man who thought it would be easy. But the people responsible for an illegal American war will always be Americans — folks like Vance who helped elect, and continue to serve, the only American president willing to start it. *Follow* [*the author*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*The Redoubt*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *on Bluesky.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### It is not Donald Trump's America URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/it-is-not-donald-trumps-america/ Last updated: 2026-11-04T14:06:51.000Z The American people woke up Tuesday morning and, with one collective voice, said to the world: "Look, my bad." So much for the political realignment — a right-wing party for workers of all colors — that was said to be the Republican Party's path to a permanent majority. Ultimately, there were no tanks in the streets to prevent the opposition from taking back both houses of Congress. And if the president does ever decide to deploy the Texas National Guard to end American democracy, he will have to do so over the objections of that state's next governor, a Democrat. Texas Democratic Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa? Before Tuesday, most Democrats would not even allow themselves to hope for the possibility, burned by past delusions of the Lone Star State turning blue. James Talarico is also headed to Washington, handily defeating Trump ally and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the race for U.S. Senate. Real & independent journalism Support our original reporting and analysis with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Join The Redoubt ](#/portal/signup) The 2026 midterms can be a little hard to grasp after 2024, when a plurality of American voters decided to return Donald Trump to the White House and hand his party control over every branch of government. It was a bad year for incumbents everywhere, some Democrats explain, but still: this was not just any populist riding a wave of discontent, but a former president who had incited an insurrection and been found liable for sexual assault. Some voters will say they did not expect masked federal agents and American soldiers in the streets of American cities, shooting immigrants and citizens alike. This can be hard to swallow: Trump's 2024 campaign ("Mass Deportation Now!") was nothing if not a promise to unleash state violence against Haitians, Somalis and other disfavored people of color, who he [insisted](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/16/trump-immigration-attack-00132156?ref=theredoubt.net) were "poisoning the blood of our country." Many of those now claiming ignorance of what was to come are probably lying, possibly to themselves; perhaps they now have remorse, or care more about the price of gas. But I also think politics — if not family gatherings — requires going along with the fib, to an extent; the Democratic National Committee did not run ads calling the median American voter a deplorable, perjuring clown, and I believe that was the right decision. There will be a temptation, though, to assume the 2024 electorate is America's default. That has long been the conventional wisdom in national media and indeed among many elected Democrats: that the United States is a fundamentally conservative nation, where liberal governance is an aberration and the product of hubris. [The far right is still not the futureFrom America to Europe, most people don't share the values of right-wing extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-86126736-f6f8-416c-a661-236d173b9c80.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1760829120248-0b72e77b7766-93a63c60-ebe4-43c6-9c27-a41bb28ce904.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-far-right-is-still-not-the-future/) Axios, a media outlet that generally reflects the centrist Washington consensus, was reminding Democrats of this even before votes were tallied. "There's a difference between a blowout and a mandate," editor Mike Zapler [wrote](https://www.axios.com/2026/11/03/democrats-midterms-image-negative-2028?ref=theredoubt.net), noting that Democrats, as a brand, have a lower approval rating than the GOP. "Confusing the two could tempt Democrats to overread the results and forget the serious credibility problem they still face heading into 2028." The New York Times also looked to downplay the significance of the midterms. "While the night may have delivered a sweeping win for Democrats, it was far from a mandate," the paper of record [assured](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/04/us/elections/midterms-mood.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.N1E.IeI7.kxHl2Or6o7ey&smid=url-share&ref=theredoubt.net) readers, explaining that many voters "defected simply to stop a president they say no longer represents them." The point is well taken: an electorate that delivers Democratic majorities and a second Trump presidency in the span of 24 months could fairly be described as incoherent. Voters who went fascist over the cost of groceries are probably not now democratic socialists; they might just still be mad at the cost of groceries. An intolerable number of Americans were willing to trade away the rights of women and immigrants for the unfulfillable promises of a noxious personality from television, but only a minority, it turns out, are committed to the white nationalist patriarchy at any price. [Fight for something: 'Good governance' is not enoughOpponents of right-wing populism need to stand for more than the status quo.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-dde879d0-76c5-467c-9957-298404df21ae.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_7560-cd568a84-544a-41b3-9e81-3f1dc9e09d65.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/fight-for-something-good-governance-is-not-enough/) The anti-democratic forces that put Trump in the White House have not been vanquished — the cancer is still there — but it is now impossible to claim that the last two years are exactly what Americans wanted. The spectacle of state violence against a rotating cast of demonized minorities? It wasn't enough to maintain a majority. Two years after an election that was supposed to mark a generational realignment, a multiracial, working-class majority rejected conservative governance so decisively that not even this president could call it "rigged." Democrats [won](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/elections/voter-trends-national.html?ref=theredoubt.net) every demographic but white men, and it wasn't particularly close, aided by voters who sat out 2024 and reaped the consequences. The years and decisions to come will decide whether U.S. democracy is strengthened or this opportunity is squandered. But cynicism, however well earned, should not blind us to the fact that there is now hope that the fever has broken. America is a deeply frustrating and flawed place, but it is not Donald Trump's to rule as a king. Voters have spoken. [*Follow the author on Bluesky.*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net) ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Petty grievances won't sink Democrats' chances URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/petty-grievances-wont-sink-democrats-chances/ Last updated: 2026-11-02T17:10:02.000Z Most American liberals would gladly support a progressive candidate — a socialist one, even — if they were the last, best chance to defeat a literal fascist. This can be ascertained from the fact that the vast majority of Americans who identify as "socialists" could be fairly described as "liberals," and the vast majority of Americans who identify as "liberals" have a [favorable opinion](https://yougov.com/en-us/ratings/Democrats?ref=theredoubt.net) of socialist politicians like Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Most elected Democrats are team players too, or at least believe an intra-party hit should be carried out in a smoke-filled backroom, not on stage at the other side's rally. But there are exceptions, and while exceptions are of course not the rule, it is nonetheless of note that the least loyal Democrats are not the ones upset by a [genocide in Gaza](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/). [Subscribe to The Redoubt](#/portal/signup) Earlier this year, Rep. Haley Stevens argued that she was the best Democrat to defeat Mike Rogers in the Michigan race for U.S. Senate. On Sunday, she endorsed the Republican candidate over her fellow Democrat, Abdul El-Sayed, who hails from the left wing of the party. Although the move was superficially about Israel and [antisemitism](https://www.theredoubt.net/tucker-carlson-owns-this-presidency/), in [an interview](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/stevens-appears-with-rogers-amid-rift-with-el-sayed/ar-AA2gxFvm?ref=theredoubt.net) with CNN Stevens made it clear that wounded pride from her August primary defeat was a key contributor, the lawmaker bemoaning a "[lack of kindness](https://bsky.app/profile/thebulwark.com/post/3mzcbcpibm327?ref=theredoubt.net)" from the man to whom she lost. In Maine, progressive Democrat Troy Jackson is hoping to defeat Sen. Susan Collins, a reliable vote for the Trump agenda who brands herself the last moderate Republican in New England. A win there is vital if Democrats are to take back control of the Senate and provide a meaningful check on a lawless presidency. Janet Mills, Maine's Democratic governor and one-time candidate for Senate, would *prefer that Jackson win this November*, she supposes. *That would be better than not, probably. No, yeah, sure — it would be good.* "I encourage Maine people to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot who will stand up for our values and stand up to Trump," she [posted](https://x.com/JanetMillsforME/status/2115885342855491810?ref=theredoubt.net) on X recently. She was proud to vote for her party's nominee, she said, but Mills could not bring herself to actually endorse a man she clashed with while he served in the state legislature. Sen. Angus King, Maine's other senator — a nominal independent who caucuses with the Democrats — couldn't bring himself to endorse Jackson, either. "King's office said ... it's in keeping with his longstanding practice to not weigh in on races that involve his colleagues across the political spectrum," the Bangor Daily News [reported](https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/10/27/politics/elections/angus-king-endorses-matt-dunlap-joam40zk0w/?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com). (In 2014, King, then Maine's junior senator, [endorsed](https://www.bangordailynews.com/2014/05/16/politics/elections/independent-sen-angus-king-endorses-one-time-opponent-republican-sen-susan-collins/?ref=theredoubt.net) Collins' reelection campaign.) In 2026, a Collins victory would potentially derail any Senate oversight of the Trump administration in what will no doubt be two more wild years before the next presidential election. A president with impunity, however, would be preferable to the breach of decorum (and the harm to a friendship) of any endorsement; King would not be so impolite as to treat elections as though they have lethal consequences. It is as if politics were not a serious business, judging by the behavior of some elder statesmen — as if the stakes were control over an after-school chess club, not the U.S. Senate and the very future of the republic. [Hypocrisies are vulnerabilities: Accountability must include PalestineIn Munich, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that hypocrisy undermines credibility. That's true at home and abroad.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-e7d61841-5661-4f17-a05a-db669663e3d7.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1716299733862-7c3df22446c7-f58b045c-0435-4b21-a582-97bc8878b75d.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/) Politics, though, is very much a matter of life and death. Who controls the American Congress can dictate the fate of tens of millions of people around the world, determining whether they [receive medical treatment](https://www.salon.com/2025/02/28/a-whole-new-level-of-cruelty-health-experts-decry-devastating-cuts-to-hiv-treatment-programs/?ref=theredoubt.net) or arms to [defend themselves](https://www.theredoubt.net/russias-200-year-obsession-with-destroying-ukraine/). The midterm elections will also decide whether there is an independent check on the executive or whether the president can rule unbound by so much as the threat of a subpoena. The few hundred people in national politics should act accordingly. No question, one should probably avoid sweeping conclusions about a coalition as broad as the Democratic Party based on the actions of a few rotten apples. But it can't be ignored, either, that Democrats' least reliable soldiers are not found in its progressive flank — years of harangues about lesser-evil voting have perhaps sunk in — but among the self-styled moderates, the purported adults who have witnessed fascism come to America and still seem more perturbed by their barista's pronouns (and criticism of Israel) than the violence and hate coming direct and daily from the White House. The petty grievances of some elected officials are [unlikely](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/01/us/politics/times-siena-poll-senate.html?ref=theredoubt.net) to prevent a Democratic takeover of one or both houses of Congress. But the fact that some would risk it, at this late a date, after a decade of Donald Trump: that's a betrayal that no serious opposition can tolerate. *Appreciate this piece? Consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Interview: 'Smuggler' author Reece Jones on the lawlessness of US Border Patrol URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/interview-smuggler-author-reece-jones-on-the-lawlessness-of-us-border-patrol/ Last updated: 2026-11-02T10:02:34.000Z A professor of geography and environment at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Reece Jones has authored a series of books concerning immigration, violence and the history of both at the U.S. border. His latest work, released Oct. 20, is "[Smuggler: Drugs, Gangs, and Refugees at America's Northern Border](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Smuggler/Reece-Jones/9781493092093?ref=theredoubt.net)." Published by Simon & Schuster, the book tells the story of Bob Boulé, a self-described conservative Republican who opens a bed-and-breakfast a stone's throw from the U.S.-Canada border. Boulé dubs his property the "Smuggler's Inn," turning it into a shrine of sorts for the infamous smugglers of yore. Before long, though, Boulé finds his politics — and his respect for U.S. Border Patrol — challenged by his encounters with asylum seekers, who use his property and the cover of night to cross into Canada. Listen to the episode on [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/c/criticalsupport/?ref=theredoubt.net), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/67fepEHjUqOMqZcHbM4AH8?si=qrq27LJAQVWP0D1BVTnsCg&ref=theredoubt.net) and [Apple Music](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/charles-davis/episodes/Interview-Reece-Jones-on-Smuggler-and-the-lawlessness-of-Border-Patrol-e3rbet1?ref=theredoubt.net), or by clicking play below: ### US Census Bureau acquires more commercial voter data URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/us-census-bureau-acquires-more-commercial-voter-data/ Last updated: 2026-09-23T13:10:10.000Z Real & independent journalism This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you — not governments, and not corporations. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Join The Redoubt ](#/portal/signup) The U.S. Census Bureau is obtaining more commercial voter registration data, which can include Social Security numbers, email addresses and a person's race or ethnicity, weeks after it used such records to falsely claim that thousands of noncitizens voted in the 2020 election. According to [federal records](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F13ADDC26C0002%5F1323%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net), the Census Bureau, which operates within the Department of Commerce, recently awarded a contract worth $796,000 to the North Carolina-based Bridgetree, a data marketing firm, for "voter registration data." Delivery of the records, spanning from 2024 through Aug. 31, 2026, is due by the end of September. To obtain the contract, Bridgetree and other vendors were asked to "demonstrate capabilities" by submitting their data for a handful of jurisdictions, including Fulton County, Georgia, which is presently the target of an investigation by the Trump administration into alleged election irregularities. There are legitimate reasons why the Census Bureau might acquire commercial election data, including to validate its own [surveys](https://www.census.gov/topics/public-sector/voting.html?ref=theredoubt.net) on voter participation, one of which begins in the coming weeks. But the bureau is also explicit: any data that it obtains will be used for any lawful purpose it decides. Recent history suggests that could mean such data being used to support Trump administration claims of voter fraud. In August, the bureau issued an unsigned report claiming that commercial voter data previously acquired by the Biden administration had helped it identify "[over 24,000](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2026/dir/noncitizen-voting-in-the-2020-election.html?ref=theredoubt.net)" instances of noncitizen voting in the 2020 election. The bureau's analysis was [widely](https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/08/20/trump-census-bureau-noncitizen-voters-2020-election-methodology/?ref=theredoubt.net) [panned](https://www.theredoubt.net/aryan-bones-austrias-fascist-youth-are-bringing-back-weird-nazi-pseudo-science/) by experts and former employees. But at the time it was released, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick promised that it was "just the beginning." "More than 32 million more voters' records will be analyzed in the coming weeks, and these records will likely show tens of thousands of additional illegal voters," Lutnick [posted](https://archive.is/JE6nf?ref=theredoubt.net) on social media. [Join The Redoubt](#/portal/signup) ### Bureau seeks Fulton County records In its request for proposals, the Census Bureau asked election-data vendors to "demonstrate capabilities," in part, by providing voter information for a handful of locations, among them Fulton County, Georgia, a Democratic-leaning jurisdiction that has been the target of conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election and beyond. In January, the FBI [raided](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/fulton-georgia-fbi-trump-2020-election-raid/?ref=theredoubt.net) election offices there as part of an investigation into alleged irregularities. Vendors were also asked to share data for the Republican-leaning Jackson County, Georgia, the state of Wyoming and other jurisdictions in Mississippi, Hawaii, New Mexico and Alaska. [Exclusive: Ballroom firm got $33.7 million no-bid contract to demolish historic buildingsA no-bid contract was awarded to the same firm that is constructing President Trump’s White House ballroom, The Redoubt can reveal.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-14e0c864-ab21-4bb7-8eed-3c9969e6eff7.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/51441843822_322ad055c6_k-dd91d02a-deb2-43e3-9bdd-9baaf626f353.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) In response to questions from vendors, the bureau said the type of voter data it sought "was previously acquired ... from Data-Clear." Based in Virginia, Data-Clear sold commercial voter information to the Biden administration in 2024; that information was later used by the Trump administration to claim illegal voting. In public records, the bureau links the acquisition of commercial voter records to the need to improve its own work, explaining that such data could eliminate the need "to directly ask respondents certain survey questions." But the bureau also stressed that all records acquired will "commingle" with previously collected data and, "in effect, become the property of the \[U.S. Census\]." ### 'Hot garbage' The Trump administration's previous handling of commercial voter data is cause for "healthy skepticism" of whatever it puts out based on such data going forward, said Justin Levitt, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama administration and a White House adviser on voting rights under President Joe Biden. He told *The Redoubt* that the bureau's last report on alleged voter fraud — the first of many, the administration promised — was unsigned for good reason. "I have never seen anything like the 'beginning analysis' that was put out in August, and neither have colleagues who were career civil servants at Census," Levitt, who teaches constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said in an interview. "I don't think it's an authorized use of tax payer money," he continued, and the work product itself is "hot garbage." Proven cases of noncitizen voting in the United States are rare. Between 1982 and 2025, there were fewer than 100 confirmed instances of noncitizens voting in U.S. elections, according to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. The Census Bureau, in its August report, appears to have arrived at a far higher number by sidelining the career professionals. Citing a source within the bureau, NPR [reported](https://www.npr.org/2026/08/19/nx-s1-5938799/trump-census-bureau-noncitizen-voting?ref=theredoubt.net) that the analysis was drafted by a team that "included individuals affiliated with the America First Policy Institute, a think tank started by officials from Trump's first administration." If accurate, that suggests any data acquired by the Trump administration could be made available to its allies outside government. The Census Bureau did not respond to a request for comment. *Appreciate this reporting? Support us with a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*. And follow us on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### 'Aryan bones': Austria's fascist youth are bringing back weird Nazi pseudo-science URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/aryan-bones-austrias-fascist-youth-are-bringing-back-weird-nazi-pseudo-science/ Last updated: 2026-09-08T11:59:06.000Z Real & independent journalism This original analysis is funded by readers like you — not governments, and not corporations. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Join The Redoubt ](#/portal/signup) Fascist youth in Austria are measuring skulls and trying to prove their belonging in a master race, while the far right in Germany is celebrating its greatest victory since the last world war. What was formerly extremism — a campaign of ethnic cleansing, proposed, against those with insufficiently Aryan genetics — is mainstream, the treatment of immigrants, women and other purportedly lesser human beings discussed as blithely as a garden pest. The 21st century, so far, is feeling a bit derivative. When fascism comes back to Europe, you're telling me it's going to look exactly the same? Afraid so. An investigation [just published](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000336808/geheime-dokumente-belegen-pakt-zwischen-fpoe-jugend-und-identitaeren-sowie-braune-umtriebe?ref=theredoubt.net) by Der Standard, a liberal newspaper in Vienna, has revealed that Austria's 20- and 30-something fascists are even bringing back the race science. That is correct: we are at the measuring-skulls stage of the revival. [AfD lawmaker, Young Republican leader headline ‘remigration’ summit with convicted Holocaust denierFormer CBP chief Gregory Bovino was announced Friday as a “special guest” at an event featuring Europe’s leading far-right extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-46161894-fb82-4e03-97d1-d8ea2c20f2fb.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/2025-12-19_Sitzung_des_Landtages_Brandenburg_by_Sandro_Halank---080-bd143158-69f1-471e-b32f-cc4ec7f46005.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) Citing whistleblower testimony, Der Standard reported that the youth wing of the far-right FPÖ, or Freedom Party, has effectively merged with the neo-fascists of "Aktion 451," a front group for the extremist Martin Sellner and his anti-foreigner "Identitarians." In short, the same fascists attend the same protests and get hired to work for the FPÖ, which is Austria's most popular political party and hoping to gain power in 2029. These leaders of tomorrow? They are not subtle. After a couple pints of lager, they're breaking out the calipers. According to Der Standard, FPÖ recruits have a measuring device they use to detect each other's racial purity. The pseudo-scientist examines the patient's facial features and side profile, always on the lookout for a dead-giveaway "Aryan bone," said to reside somewhere in the back of a superior man or woman's head. [Subverting — and celebrating — the fascist aestheticIn Austria, activists co-opted fascist imagery to promote a message of inclusion. Would that work in America?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-cf9b3ac2-4d5e-4873-9219-eb70335a2dfb.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Strache-Beide-V2-Druck-A1-1-1-8ed1aa72-756c-4cca-8662-0412e255654b.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/subverting-and-celebrating-the-fascist-aesthetic/) As with their predecessors who wrecked the continent, it can be hard to gauge the sincerity of today's fascists. The Aryan bone exam is just some cheeky fun to trigger the liberals — until the moment it's used to purge the executive council. Certainly not in question is whether today's neo-Nazi youth aspire to villainy, which the men of the far right see as their path to respect and status. Fascism has always attracted the weak and off-putting; the sort of men who, prone to failure, believe that superiority can still be achieved through facial structure and a racial category. "I have the longest Aryan bone here," bragged one FPÖ youth, per one former member's [account](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000338376/schweigen-brechen-ein-identitaeren-aussteiger-und-seine-eindringliche-warnung-an-uns-alle?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com). This is not the language of someone who has other reasons to be confident. [Repeating history while refusing to learn from itUnder Donald Trump, the United States is openly pursuing a policy of “remigration,” a right-wing term for ethnic cleansing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-a55a3b3c-34bd-48fe-aa61-be144df2db78.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1775831991009-6955e3d7a823-34b954ba-03a2-49f3-aef6-789f3d1d557d.jpeg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/repeating-history-while-refusing-to-learn-from-it/) Mockery is a vital response to foolishness; those who purport to be gods should be reminded of their flaws, if only so no one else believes them. At the same time, mass graves across Europe serve as a reminder that the clownish and mediocre, once organized around and identifying with their resentment, can inflict unfathomable pain. The neo-fascist youth are increasingly open about the violence they would like to commit, as a collective. They don't dispute the evils of the past, or lament that too much time is dwelt on them, as their elders on the far right have done. Among themselves, at least, there is no facade. "No one denies the Holocaust," as one whistleblower told Der Standard. "They think it's good and they want to repeat it." The extreme right, dictating the conversation on immigration, dominating social media and leading in the polls, is getting comfortable. That is undeniably a product of success; they are comfortable because they believe themselves to be winning, and they are not wrong. But the arrogance that comes with an expected victory can also facilitate defeat. Hubris has buried Nazis before. Dodgy as the median voter might be, measuring skulls and celebrating the state-sanctioned killing of millions? These are still not the ways to make friends. In Austria as elsewhere, one hopes that the fascists get a chance to further reveal who they truly are — before another calamity. *Appreciate this analysis? Support us with a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*. And follow us on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Repeating history while refusing to learn from it URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/repeating-history-while-refusing-to-learn-from-it/ Last updated: 2026-08-26T13:52:49.000Z Knowledge is an imperfect form of prevention. Still, there was at least a chance that the men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could have learned something. In 2016, ICE announced it was partnering with the Museum of Tolerance, a Los Angeles-based institution founded by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, so named for the famed survivor and investigator of Nazi horrors. ICE staff would learn about some of the darkest chapters in the recent past, the agency said at the time, a press statement noting that the museum is “dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary context.” The museum would also help ICE employees “confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in today’s world.” One of the inaugural training sessions included in-person testimony from one of the first Black students to walk past a racist, white mob to attend desegregated classes at Little Rock Central High School. [How America emboldened Europe’s far rightHeidi Beirich, an expert on right-wing extremism, says Donald Trump has emboldened those pushing for “remigration.”![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-c8f715a8-bf8c-4e5c-96d6-fd27969bcf6a.png)The RedoubtCritical Support![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1706385945005-2ca846f6d2d7-25c75d1a-ecaf-41c1-93a3-19374c970579)](https://www.theredoubt.net/how-america-got-europes-far-right-to-stop-pretending/) A decade later, ICE, flush with cash — about [$100 billion](https://www.usaspending.gov/federal%5Faccount/070-0540?ref=theredoubt.net) sitting in its federal account, and spending up to [$20 million](https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/12/us/ice-electrical-shock-gloves-agents-hnk?ref=theredoubt.net) alone on “gloves that deliver electric shocks” — is embracing austerity, at least when it comes to education. In a recently published notice, the agency announced it was scrapping its relationship with the Museum of Tolerance and indeed ending all such investments in “experiential learning.” Those interested in career development are now being directed to online classes from LinkedIn, or as ICE explains: the bare minimum that is required by federal law. The abandonment of experiential learning — the agency also ended a leadership training course at Gettysburg, the Civil War battlefield, citing a desire to cut costs — comes as ICE personnel are engaged in a campaign of mass deportation that, to other students of history, looks awfully familiar. Real & independent journalism Our work is funded entirely by readers like you — not governments, and not corporations. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Join The Redoubt ](#/portal/signup) Thousands of people each day are now being [detained](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/22/us-citizens-racial-profiling-ice?ref=theredoubt.net) by immigration agents, the vast majority having no criminal record. The White House claims it has now deported more than 600,000 people and compelled another 1.9 million to leave the country. To hit the astronomical goal of millions deported each year — the number demanded by Trump's base — people in America are being openly questioned by authorities based on nothing more than the color of their skin and the language they speak. English with an accent? That’s probable cause. Spanish, the native tongue of millions in the United States? Get out of the vehicle. In June, immigration judges selected by the Trump administration ordered a record number of removals: [over 100,000](https://tracreports.org/reports/776/?ref=theredoubt.net), or more than double the monthly average a year before. More than 65,000 people are in immigration detention centers, where more than 50 people have died since Trump returned to office, fatalities now coming at [twice the rate](https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/25/us-deaths-in-ice-custody-surge-under-trump?ref=theredoubt.net) seen during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2025 alone, [1.6 million](https://www.npr.org/2025/12/22/nx-s1-5641022/limiting-migration-led-to-1-6-million-losing-legal-status-in-2025?ref=theredoubt.net) immigrants were unilaterally stripped of legal status by the Trump administration. Hundreds of thousands of Haitian men, women and children, legally residing in and contributing to American communities, are now facing the threat of imminent removal almost entirely because the American president and his 2024 running mate decided it was politically advantageous to tell racist [lies](https://globalextremism.org/post/neo-nazis-racist-conspiracies-haitian-migrants/?ref=theredoubt.net) about them eating dogs and cats. Citizenship is no sure protection, either. The Trump administration has already [deported](https://apnews.com/article/immigration-alabama-man-deported-589bde743ebd5068529807e755fcfb25?ref=theredoubt.net) someone who had a “substantial claim of U.S. citizenship,” in defiance of a court order, and the president regularly speaks of Somali-Americans as if they were a foreign enemy — and revolting filth, recently using the Oval Office to [proclaim](https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3msqttp7xvj2w?ref=theredoubt.net) tens of thousands of U.S. citizens to be unintelligent, possessing “no aptitude” and having “nothing going” for them, with no right to take part in public life. And there is no reason to believe it won’t get worse, long before it gets better. [AfD lawmaker, Young Republican leader headline ‘remigration’ summit with convicted Holocaust denierFormer CBP chief Gregory Bovino was announced Friday as a “special guest” at an event featuring Europe’s leading far-right extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-df7982b2-bbbb-48a1-a4f8-a61f4312d143.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/2025-12-19_Sitzung_des_Landtages_Brandenburg_by_Sandro_Halank---080-46382229-d3f3-48fc-b667-a8a7d1d42243.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) Federal records I [recently uncovered](https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-detention-facilities-in-foreign-countries/) show the agency may soon formally extend its reach abroad. A document posted on the federal government’s website for contracting opportunities says the agency is looking for private partners who could help facilitate the detention of recently deported immigrants in overseas detention centers, each with the capacity to hold up to 1,000 people. Such facilities, if they come to pass, would by design keep those within them far from the eyes of legal counsel, the media or their loved ones; out of sight, neglect and abuse tend to flourish. The context, too, is one of unapologetic extremism. At a conference this summer in Portugal, Greg Bovino, the former face of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations, mingled with [avowed neo-Nazis](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) to push the idea of “remigration,” which holds that tens of millions of people — legal residents or otherwise — must be removed from the United States and Europe in a purifying campaign of ethnic cleansing. Bovino put the figure at [100 million](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-ex-border-patrol-chief-greg-bovino-declares-he-wants-to-deport-nearly-one-third-of-the-people-in-the-us/ar-AA258V9X?ref=theredoubt.net), or roughly one in three Americans, who he said should be deported to restore white hegemony, a number [cosigned](https://www.commondreams.org/news/dhs-100-million-deportations?ref=theredoubt.net) by the Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. State Department too has embraced “remigration,” the “underlying ideology” of which is rooted in 1930s German fascism, as the University of Vienna’s Daniel Sharp, an expert on the history and ethics of immigration controls, told me, the term itself having been first popularized by the Austrian extremist and founder of Europe’s Identitarian Movement, Martin Sellner. Federal records show that the “Office of Remigration” is now the [point of contact](https://sam.gov/workspace/assistance/fal/cf702ee0ff544100bcf3c55176fee4e6/view?ref=theredoubt.net) for refugee assistance, a development that comes as the [only refugees](https://www.theredoubt.net/america-is-now-a-whites-only-refuge/) now being admitted to the United States are white people from South Africa. [America is now a whites-only refugeThe Trump administration has adopted an explicitly race-based admissions policy. The shame will not soon be forgotten.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-f596a08d-ad69-4306-bd00-5f7407b95a2d.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1699025095617-5570bc591fb4-25d1bab1-24bf-4d47-95f9-182c1adddaa5)](https://www.theredoubt.net/america-is-now-a-whites-only-refuge/) The White House’s [latest effort](https://apnews.com/article/trump-border-immigration-birthright-citizenship-494add8239eb1c0c9f4ccb45db03f1f0?ref=theredoubt.net) to unilaterally rewrite the Constitution and deny citizenship to people undeniably born in the United States, for more than a century the undisputed right of any newborn child, is but another salvo in this campaign for remigration. In context, it makes sense why ICE would not want its employees to be even familiar with the sordid history of bigots and demagogues deciding other citizens — other Americans; other Germans — are illegitimate, due to their ancestry, and should be denied the right to remain free in the land they call home. History does not repeat, nor does it reliably predict the future. But those familiar with it, from the internment of Japanese-Americans to the atrocities of 20th-century fascism, know that the road these United States are headed down has been well trod before. *Appreciate this analysis? Support us with a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*. And follow us on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Trump administration to support 'independent journalism' in Europe with anti-immigrant focus URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-administration-to-support-independent-journalism-in-europe-with-anti-immigrant-focus/ Last updated: 2026-08-20T18:28:46.000Z Real & independent journalism This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you — not governments, and not corporations. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) [Join The Redoubt ](#/portal/signup) The U.S. State Department is seeking to build out a consortium for "independent journalism" that will produce critical reporting on public policies in European countries, with a particular focus on immigration, "civilizational values" and "the state of sovereignty." President Donald Trump has not tried to hide his disdain for most European governments. "Your countries are going to hell," he [declared](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-united-nations-general-assembly-speech-unga/?ref=theredoubt.net) in a September 2025 speech at the United Nations, stating that Europe's "open borders" — a claim at odds with Europe's [highly visible efforts](https://www.theredoubt.net/in-a-concession-to-the-far-right-the-eu-tries-to-build-fortress-europe/) to dissuade and deport immigrants — are leading to societal collapse. Vice President J.D. Vance has also [openly](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/us/politics/vance-far-right-germany-munich-afd.html?ref=theredoubt.net) [campaigned](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/berlin-says-vance-should-not-interfere-german-politics-2025-02-14/?ref=theredoubt.net) for right-wing opposition parties across the continent, including the neo-fascist Alternative für Deutschland. Now the Trump administration is seeking to bolster its critique of Europe under the guise of journalism. As part of a grant opportunity [posted](https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/363640?ref=theredoubt.net) Aug. 18, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor announced it was looking for a partner — possibly including "\[f\]or-profit organizations or businesses" — that could help it "develop an independent journalism consortium in Europe." According to the listing, the grant, valued at $1 million, will be awarded as part of a "cooperative agreement" just two weeks after the funding opportunity was first publicized. Applications are due by September 1. "Well-informed citizens are key to the health of any democratic system," the State Department says in [a document](https://files.simpler.grants.gov/opportunities/a889df8b-fd01-4f29-a8f4-8818a78639d1/attachments/781369b6-6453-42b6-9032-e0f2be5dc9b8/Independent%5FJournalism%5FConsortium%5FNOFO.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) that lays out the criteria for the grant, describing "independent journalism" as "essential to provide the public with high-quality, objective information about government actions." The development of a "consortium of journalists and independent media organizations across the European Union (EU) and other European countries" is needed, it says, given the threat of "censorship of disfavored media outlets" by European governments. [Trump likes dictators a lot more than journalistsThe U.S. president, defending the killer of Jamal Khashoggi, made clear what he thinks of a free press.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-c9dce045-8d18-4837-8c44-8708378d8e4e.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/54930520345_3458fbfbca-73ae37dc-6f65-4f15-bc16-b15d4b3a65b9.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-likes-dictators-a-lot-more-than-journalists/) In July, the Financial Times [reported](https://www.ft.com/content/e2addd88-4361-43f1-94e2-9f0a808dd6a9?syn-25a6b1a6=1&ref=theredoubt.net) that the Trump administration planned to hand out almost $5 million to "MAGA-aligned European groups" to opine on issues like migration and "our common western civilizational heritage." However, a review by *The Redoubt* shows that the State Department has now made more than [$7.9 million](https://simpler.grants.gov/search?utm%5Fsource=Grants.gov&query=europe) in such funding available, including a grant worth almost $2 million, [offered](https://simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/385e33a4-6938-4933-8d04-dc60334f1909?ref=theredoubt.net) Aug. 14, for an analysis of how "foreign governments and their proxies weaponize migration." While ostensibly nonpartisan — a requirement of federal law on foreign assistance — the "independent journalism" consortium would also produce content with a reactionary appeal. The State Department suggests that U.S.-funded reporters could, among other things, cover the "impact of mass migration on safety and rule of law" and "the role of government policy in contributing to mass migration." The content would also appear to be slanted against the EU itself, with reporters, as part of their "national sovereignty" coverage, producing work that addresses "attitudes toward national identities vis-a-vis a supra-national 'European' identity, and the role and impact of European policies on national-level freedoms and politics." The State Department envisions close collaboration between the Trump administration and the recipients of its largesse. Should the money be offered as part of a "cooperative agreement," the department would insist on "substantial involvement" in the project, including the right to "approve key personnel." The State Department "will play an active role in shaping overall program strategy," it says, ensuring "alignment with U.S. strategic objectives." The grant for Trump-aligned media comes after the White House and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency eliminated the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, and froze some [$268 million](https://niemanreports.org/usaid-ned-usagm-cuts-doge-trump/?ref=theredoubt.net) in congressionally-authorized funding for independent media, per Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Previous grants had supported independent journalism in authoritarian and war-torn states such as Syria and Myanmar but were deemed not to be "fully aligned with the foreign policy" of the Trump administration. In comments to *The Redoubt*, the State Department defended its funding for MAGA-friendly journalism in Europe, framing it as a counter to "censorship" and the ostracizing of "disfavored journalists or outlets." "Under this administration, we have been clear that defending free speech is a priority," a spokesperson claimed, though the White House is itself trying to [strip broadcast licenses](https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/media/fcc-kimmel-disney-abc-trump-licenses?ref=theredoubt.net) from stations that air critics of the president. Above all, the spokesperson said, U.S. taxpayer money going to right-leaning content creators serves "American foreign policy priorities." "The Independent Journalism Consortium program closely aligns with the Trump administration's foreign policy objectives in Europe," the spokesperson said. They cited a national security strategy document, released last year, that [avowed](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/world/europe/trump-europe-strategy-document.html?ref=theredoubt.net) U.S. support for "patriotic European parties” like Germany's AfD. "The administration prioritizes democracy and freedom of expression," the spokesperson said, "in the European region." *Appreciate this reporting? Support us with a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*. And follow us on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### ICE awards no-bid contract for deportation flights, won't comment on foreign 'detention' facilities URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-awards-no-bid-contract-for-deportation-flights-wont-comment-on-foreign-detention-facilities/ Last updated: 2026-08-14T14:41:55.000Z Real & independent journalism This work is funded entirely by readers like you — not governments, and not corporations. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Join The Redoubt ](#/portal/signup) A Missouri-based charter flight company that has been facilitating deportations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been awarded a no-bid contract worth at least $215 million to operate a fleet of "government furnished aircraft," journalist Gillian Brockell [reports](https://gillianbrockell.com/breaking-eastern-airlines-gets-contract-to-fly-dhs-deportation-fleet/?ref=theredoubt.net). Eastern Air Express, which operates its own fleet of a dozen Boeing aircraft, was handed the contract on Aug. 12\. The contract is for one year, [records show](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F70CDCR26C00000021%5F7012%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net), but could be extended until Feb. 2028 and ultimately worth up to $327.9 million. The contractor, headquartered in Kansas City, has been known to be carrying out removal flights for ICE, previously as a subcontractor for CSI Aviation. In an Aug. 13 [report](https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/library/ice-flight-monitor-july-2026-report?ref=theredoubt.net), Human Rights First, a nonprofit watchdog, noted that Eastern Air Express has "operated deportation flights carrying third country nationals to African countries, including 31 individuals to the Central African Republic, 30 to Ghana, and 12 to Sierra Leone." But previous removals have largely been carried out using private aircraft. In a July 28 [report](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/article/ice-flights-dallas-love-field-22361884.php?ref=theredoubt.net), for example, The Dallas Morning News published a photo of a shackled man — one of an estimated 25 ICE detainees — boarding a Boeing 737-800 with "EASTERN AIR" clearly written on the side. As Brockell notes, the use of "government furnished aircraft" in this latest contract appears to be a reference to the planes that the Department of Homeland Security [purchased](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/us/politics/homeland-security-parked-airplanes.html?ref=theredoubt.net) last year for a total of $464 million. But there's another, potential aspect of the deal that goes beyond operating and maintaining aircraft. [Exclusive: ICE eyes 1,000-bed detention facilities in foreign countriesThe U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking for private contractors that could help set up “international staging areas” abroad.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-2f3ce635-8746-4358-a9d3-9cda84694799.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/55350543696_418ef55b25-c2143fd2-5f5b-4c17-8d19-00892b222d47.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-detention-facilities-in-foreign-countries/) Last month, *The Redoubt* [exclusively revealed](https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-detention-facilities-in-foreign-countries/) that ICE was looking for contractors that could operate a fleet of government aircraft, including seven "Boeing 737-700's or equivalent" — the same number that DHS purchased last year. A draft "Statement of Work" attached to that opportunity said ICE was also looking for the contractor to help it set up "international staging areas," or "detention" facilities, that could each hold up to 1,000 people. The Trump administration has declined to comment on that potential aspect of the deal. DHS previously asked *The Redoubt* to delay publication of [its story](https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-detention-facilities-in-foreign-countries/) on foreign staging facilities, stating in a July 12 email that it was "actively working" on a response. On July 17, a spokesperson for ICE likewise said that the agency was "\[r\]unning it by our staff now." *The Redoubt* followed up with ICE on Aug. 14\. This story will be updated if it hears back. *Appreciate this reporting? Support us with a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*. And follow us on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### ICE ditches in-person trainings on history and tolerance, opts for online courses from LinkedIn URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-ditches-in-person-trainings-on-history-and-tolerance-opts-for-online-courses-from-linkedin/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T13:45:18.000Z Real & independent journalism This reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Join The Redoubt ](#/portal/signup) Top brass at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are no longer taking part in on-site "experiential learning" courses hosted by institutions like the Museum of Tolerance, with officials now expected to pursue career development exclusively through online courses hosted by LinkedIn. In a [notice](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/6cdfe18cff5d489cb8b1018f530aafd2/view?ref=theredoubt.net) posted on the website for federal contracting opportunities, ICE said it was entering into a five-year agreement to purchase "LinkedIn Learning licenses" from Carahsoft Technology Corp., which resells computer software to government agencies. LinkedIn is itself owned by Microsoft. Although the notice the annual cost of the deal was redacted in the document, public records [show](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F70CMSD26FR0000056%5F7012%5F47QSWA18D008F%5F4732?ref=theredoubt.net) that the Department of Homeland Security, under which ICE operates, recently committed up to $346,450 for LinkedIn licenses for "professional development" at the agency. LinkedIn hosts thousands of online courses on everything from leadership strategies to artificial intelligence. "No other vendor has the depth and breadth of the training content available in LinkedIn Learning," ICE says in the notice to justify purchasing the licenses outside of a competitive bidding process. It is not the first time ICE turned to LinkedIn for such purposes: in 2023, under the Biden administration, DHS spent $18,500 on LinkedIn Learning licenses for the agency. What is different is that the Trump administration is now going exclusively online. According to ICE, its "experiential learning" arrangements were ended in 2025 pursuant to an [executive order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/eliminating-waste-and-saving-taxpayer-dollars-by-consolidating-procurement/?ref=theredoubt.net) from President Donald Trump on "eliminating waste and saving taxpayer dollars." Those arrangements included contracts with "Gettysburg, Mt. Vernon, and Museum of Tolerance," the agency said in the notice. The cost savings is redacted. [Exclusive: ICE eyes 1,000-bed detention facilities in foreign countriesThe U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking for private contractors that could help set up “international staging areas” abroad.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-8e13ded4-208a-4725-8f17-f96582b190bb.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/55350543696_418ef55b25-478546d7-540f-4da6-b753-aa65ad19eabd.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-detention-facilities-in-foreign-countries/) In years past, ICE leadership took part in a multi-day leadership training course at Gettysburg National Park, where historians would explain the strategic and ethical decisions made on the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. Federal records [show](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F70CMSD25FR0000005%5F7012%5F70CMSD21D00000002%5F7012?ref=theredoubt.net) the most recent federal award for that training, valued at just over $172,000 as part of a multi-year $1.4 million [contract](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FIDV%5F70CMSD21D00000002%5F7012?ref=theredoubt.net), was terminated in March 2025. Similar leadership trainings are hosted by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association at George Washington's estate in Virginia. Federal records [show](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F70CMSD25P00000026%5F7012%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net) the association was awarded just over $14,000 in April 2025 for "executive leadership training" involving ICE officials. In 2016, under President Barack Obama, ICE was the first federal agency to partner with the Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, an institution founded by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The museum "is a human rights laboratory and educational center dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts," ICE noted in a [press statement](https://archive.is/uBBH0?ref=theredoubt.net) at the time, "and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in today's world." In the inaugural training, dubbed "tools for tolerance," ICE officials heard "from guest speakers, including Congressional Gold Medal recipient Terrence James Roberts, who was among the first nine black students to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in 1957," the statement said. Federal records [show](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F70CMSD22P00000140%5F7012%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net) that ICE's relationship with the Museum of Tolerance, which received just over $107,000 per year for its training, was terminated in March 2025. Education appears to be one of the few areas where ICE is cutting back. The agency, which has been criticized for shortening the amount of training received by new recruits, now has an annual budget of more than [$104 billion](https://www.usaspending.gov/federal%5Faccount/070-0540?ref=theredoubt.net), up from [$9.8 billion](https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5674887/ice-budget-funding-congress-trump?ref=theredoubt.net) the year before Trump returned to office. *Appreciate original reporting? Support us with a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*. And follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### DHS scrapped MAGA PR contract after exposé, Noem ouster URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/dhs-scrapped-maga-pr-contract-after-expose-noem-ouster/ Last updated: 2026-07-16T10:35:35.000Z The U.S. Department of Homeland Security terminated its arrangement with a MAGA public relations firm after the ouster of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and the revelation that the company had ties to Noem adviser and Trump campaign veteran Corey Lewandowski. In February, I [reported for The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/homeland-security-contract-trump?ref=theredoubt.net) that American Made Media Company, a firm launched by a former Trump White House staffer and other former campaign staff, had received a $250,000 contract to provide "strategic counsel" and PR advice "to DHS senior executives including the DHS Secretary." [Subscribe to The Redoubt](#/portal/signup) The contract had alarmed experts due to its explicit partisanship — demanding that the recipient "demonstrate an established track record of promoting Trump administration policies" — and how its preference for "those who served in a cabinet agency during the first Trump presidency" appeared designed to strictly limit the pool of applicants. As I noted, the leadership at American Made Media Company also had ties to Lewandowski: the firm's Justin Clark and Sean Dollman both worked alongside him on President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. Tim Murtaugh, who was Trump's 2020 communications director and the person specifically tasked with fulfilling the contract, refused to answer my questions about his own relationship with Noem's adviser. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) Both Noem and Lewandowsi were pushed out of DHS in March. Sources "inside and close" to the White House [told](https://archive.is/v7BcP?ref=theredoubt.net) the New York Post, a right-wing tabloid, that Trump decided to fire Noem after she was asked at a congressional hearing about reports she and Lewandowski had "sexual relations." Noem had also claimed that the president signed off on another $220 million communications contract, which reportedly bothered the president. Public records show the arrangement with American Made Media Company was terminated soon after. The contract, which began in September 2025 and was set to run through June 2026, ended the same month that Noem and Lewandowski left DHS, according to the [government website](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F70RDA225P00000030%5F7001%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net) that tracks federal spending. The early cancellation means that the firm has received less than half of the $250,000 it originally expected, records showing DHS clawed back most of the money obligated under the contract and ultimately spent just under $105,000. Under Noem, DHS had also awarded a $33.7 million no-bid contract to Clark Construction, the federal contractor that is leading the construction of Trump's White House ballroom, as The Redoubt [exclusively reported](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) in February. That contract, to demolish a set of historic buildings on DHS's Washington campus, was worth millions more than an independent government estimate said the work should cost. It has not been cancelled. ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Exclusive: ICE eyes 1,000-bed detention facilities in foreign countries URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/ice-detention-facilities-in-foreign-countries/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T12:51:16.000Z As part of its drive to ramp up mass deportations, the Trump administration is exploring the possibility of building detention facilities in other nations that could each hold up to 1,000 "illegal aliens," according to documents reviewed by *The Redoubt*. The revelation is included in a posting on a federal government contracting website and indicates that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is in the early stages of identifying potential partners in the private sector. According to the listing, DHS — specifically its sub-agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — would like to identify contractors that could maintain "a fleet of aircraft utilized to support removal operations for deportations," and to facilitate the removal and incarceration of deported people in facilities abroad. In recent weeks, there has been a surge of arrests by federal immigration agents in the United States, with over [10,000 people](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/us/politics/ice-immigrant-arrests-surge.html?ref=theredoubt.net) recently detained in a span of five days. More than [63,000 people](https://tracreports.org/immigration/detentionstats/pop%5Fagen%5Ftable.html?ref=theredoubt.net) are presently in ICE custody. Two-thirds of those detained have [never been convicted](https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/detention.html?ref=theredoubt.net#detention%5Fheld) of a criminal offense. A number of those arrested will be deported to places other than their country of origin. Since President Donald Trump returned to office, more than [19,000 people](https://www.thirdcountrydeportationwatch.org/?ref=theredoubt.net) have been subject to so-called third-country removals. Most have been sent to Mexico, but others have been expelled to and subsequently detained in countries such as [Panama](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/world/americas/panama-migrants-deportees.html?ref=theredoubt.net), [Rwanda](https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigrants-deportees-rwanda-us-bb5edea43bb470e76af3ecee5ddad10c?ref=theredoubt.net) and [South Sudan](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80p315krr4o?ref=theredoubt.net). In early July, [another 11](https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/eleven-more-trump-deportees-arrive-eswatini-united-states-lawyer-says-2026-07-08/?link%5Fsource=ta%5Fbluesky%5Flink&taid=6a4ea4157d6ca1000176e615&utm%5Fcampaign=trueanthem&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=bluesky) individuals were sent to Eswatini, an absolute monarchy in southern Africa, where they are being held in a local prison with no reported date of release. Eswatini agreed to accept such deportees after signing a $5.1 million [agreement](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq50vjdx368o?ref=theredoubt.net) with the Trump administration, an arrangement that Amnesty International describes as "[unlawful](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/07/eswatini-fourth-us-third-country-removal-operation-raises-fresh-human-rights-concerns/?ref=theredoubt.net)." At least 30 countries have now signed similar agreements. [Subscribe to The Redoubt](#/portal/signup) ### 'International staging facilities' Such third-country removals appear to be the motivation for possibly creating an archipelago of detention facilities for the at least temporary holding of immigrants deported from the U.S., and potentially those who were detained by foreign governments as they made their way to the U.S. border. In a "[Statement of Work](https://drive.google.com/file/d/17KrMeZIFp-0I2ZhLYt1iVYqyGQifMN0l/view?usp=sharing&ref=theredoubt.net)" dated July 2026 and watermarked as a "draft," DHS says it is looking for a firm to operate a fleet that includes two "C-37B or equivalent Gulfstream 650ERs" and seven "Boeing 737-700's or equivalent." The statement comes as part of a request for information, or what the department describes as "market research" aimed at identifying future commercial partners who could fulfill a future contract opportunity. But the work described by DHS entails more than just aircraft maintenance. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-13-at-08.53.15-1.png) **Screen capture of DHS Statement of Work posted July 8, 2026.* According to the statement of work, any potential contractor should, in addition to managing a fleet, "Provide solutions for establishing international staging facilities within designated international host nations." "The international staging areas (ISAs) are dependent upon diplomatic relations with host nations," the document states. "ISAs may be up to 1,000 bed facilities with wrap around services which may include: power, water, sanitation, food service, security, and manpower and able to support various demographics." As part of a future contract, the document continues: "The Contractor shall provide a project plan outlining materials, project timelines, coordination with host government and services being provided. ISAs shall be leveraged to facilitate the return/removal actions for the enrolled illegal alien in the host government’s care and custody." The document was [posted July 8](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/4d69b83317164ce3a3e97ac4714b7b57/view?ref=theredoubt.net) on the federal website for contract opportunities, with responses due by July 22\. "It is anticipated that the period of performance for the required services will begin on July 28, 2027," it states. An ICE procurement officer is identified as the primary point of contact. Real, 100% independent journalism **The Redoubt* accepts no corporate or state funding. Work like this depends entirely on readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) ### Deportations or indefinite detention? According to the documents reviewed by *The Redoubt*, any firm awarded a contract by DHS would be expected to "Provide support to the \[foreign\] Government to accept U.S. removals and operational transportation support to facilitate onward movement of removals," an apparent reference to third-country removals. While DHS primarily refers to these potential facilities as "international staging areas," indicating they would be temporary transit points, that's not the only term it uses. In a section on emergency preparedness, the department's statement of work twice uses the term "detention facility," which suggests a longer period of incarceration. U.S. government personnel would also be on the ground, according to the statement of work, which says the contractor would also provide "logistical/administrative support for embedded DHS Technical and Advisory Teams (DTATs) engaging with host governments." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-13-at-08.56.13-1.png) **Screen capture of DHS Statement of Work posted July 8, 2026.* There is also some ambiguity about who exactly would be held at these foreign facilities. The documents reviewed by *The Redoubt* refer to the facilitation of removals "from host countries," and suggest that at least some of the removals would be of people in the legal custody of such hosts. That language could be a preview of a legal strategy by the Trump administration, which might claim that immigrants sent to a foreign partner are no longer its legal responsibility, as it did with more than 250 Venezuelan nationals sent to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, or [CECOT](https://www.salon.com/2025/07/24/trump-admin-claimed-cecot-held-worst-terrorists-then-they-just-let-them-go/?ref=theredoubt.net), in March and April 2025. It could also refer to immigrants detained by foreign governments on their own territory who were believed to be headed to the U.S. border. In 2024, the Biden administration [signed](https://www.embassyofpanama.org/news/2024/7/18/panama-and-the-united-states-sign-memorandum-against-illegal-immigration?ref=theredoubt.net) such an agreement with Panama to provide "equipment, transportation, and logistics for foreigners detected within migratory flows in contravention of Panama's immigration laws," a reference to immigrants from South America who had traversed the Darién Gap, an area of thick rain forest that separates Central America from Colombia. As with that Biden-era arrangement, DHS in its July 8 posting says any potential contractor must, per the statement of work, "Provide \[a\] mechanism to procure equipment, materials, and/or supplies for DHS donation to Host Governments." That requirement comes just after DHS [celebrated](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/07/04/dhs-and-secretary-mullin-mark-one-year-anniversary-historic-big-beautiful-bill?ref=theredoubt.net) the one-year anniversary of its receiving a record-busting $165 billion appropriation from the Republican-led Congress. [AfD lawmaker, Young Republican leader headline ‘remigration’ summit with convicted Holocaust denierFormer CBP chief Gregory Bovino was announced Friday as a “special guest” at an event featuring Europe’s leading far-right extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-e336fc81-8b10-4caa-b85a-4fc934539381.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/2025-12-19_Sitzung_des_Landtages_Brandenburg_by_Sandro_Halank---080-2d9a4cfb-6c68-4d17-aeb4-b309513475ca.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) ### An 'unprecedented' proposal Unlike the 2024 agreement with Panama, however, the latest DHS proposal also calls for foreign governments to accept "U.S. removals," and to provide "operational transportation support to facilitate onward movement of removals." That, again, could refer to host nations detaining immigrants deported from the U.S., indefinitely, until their home countries are willing to accept them; it could also refer to detainees subject to the Trump administration's policy of [third-country removals](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/what-are-third-country-removals-factsheet/?ref=theredoubt.net). Either path would mark a dramatic escalation of the effort to carry out what DHS has described as "[100 Million Deportations](https://archive.is/ldY5L?ref=theredoubt.net)" from the United States, a nation of some 342 million people. DHS's "market research" into detention facilities outside the U.S. also comes after reports of overcrowding at ICE's own detention facilities — immigrants "[packed like sardines](https://azmirror.com/2026/04/10/ice-overcrowding-like-sardines-congressional-oversight-arizona/?ref=theredoubt.net)," per one Democratic lawmaker. "The idea that the United States would establish removal staging areas in other countries, where they would potentially be jailed during a plane transfer, would be unprecedented at this scale," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, told *The Redoubt*. The creation of such staging areas could help the Trump administration avoid what happened in 2025, when a group of immigrants it sought to deport to South Sudan — a country they were not from — were held for weeks in a [shipping container](https://apnews.com/article/trump-deportations-ice-immigration-south-sudan-85a9ea44c6a386947abc7c99985c265c?ref=theredoubt.net) on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti while legal challenges played out in court. "We know that longer international removal flights at times stop at U.S. military bases to refuel and restock, but there’s never been a significant amount of infrastructure devoted to that capacity," Reichlin-Melnick said. The "debacle" in South Sudan, he added, "is a good example of why ICE might want that capacity." *The Redoubt* asked DHS for comment on Friday, July 10\. Two days later, on Sunday evening, a spokesperson said the department was "actively working" on a response but indicated it would not be able to provide one by the stated deadline of Monday morning. ### Foreign detention as legal loophole The prospect of multiple, thousand-bed detention facilities funded by the U.S. government and located in foreign countries is, at the scale imagined, unprecedented. But the Trump administration would not be the first to detain immigrants outside the country. In the 1990s, the administration of President George H.W. Bush detained more than 12,000 Haitian asylum-seekers fleeing political violence at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. This allowed the U.S. government to deny Haitians legal recourse by claiming they were not on U.S. soil and thus not subject to its jurisdiction: they had no right to challenge their detention or have their asylum cases reviewed by an immigration judge. The policy, continued under President Bill Clinton, also enabled the U.S. to evade its responsibilities under international law, which prohibits refoulement, or sending refugees back to the danger they fled. There was also another perk, from the perspective of U.S. authorities. An immigration lawyer who represented Haitian asylum-seekers, Ira Kurzban, [told The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-fate-of-migrants-detained-at-guantanamo?ref=theredoubt.net) that the policy allowed immigrants to be held in "a place where we can keep them out of sight." As a consequence, he said, "There was a great deal of human tragedy that was hidden from the American people." [America is now a whites-only refugeThe Trump administration has adopted an explicitly race-based admissions policy. The shame will not soon be forgotten.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-2eabb5d9-4bb2-40c1-85e3-9059bdbd7a9d.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1699025095617-5570bc591fb4-c23769e5-316b-480d-b72a-a9584631fdff)](https://www.theredoubt.net/america-is-now-a-whites-only-refuge/) Andrea Pitzer, a journalist and author of "[One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/andrea-pitzer/one-long-night/9780316303569/?ref=theredoubt.net)," said the documents uncovered by *The Redoubt* are "very disturbing." "This is a proposal for a formal network of camps," she said in an interview, arguing the establishment of such facilities is, historically, "always an attempt to do some kind of end run around the existing legal system." On July 2, for example, a federal appeals court [ruled](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/03/trump-administration-cannot-hold-migrants-without-bond-hearings-past-90-days.html?ref=theredoubt.net) that immigrants in ICE custody cannot be held for more than 90 days without the opportunity to post bond and secure their release. Expediting deportations — even if only to a temporary destination — could be a way to evade such a requirement, which presently applies to detainees in Texas and Louisiana. That is not a bulletproof means of avoiding the law, but such rulings could spur the Trump administration to explore its options. "And then the second thing is: Why do they need a network of thousand-bed detention sites?" Pitzer asked. "What it looks like to me is that they have hit the choke point that happens a lot with moving tremendous numbers of people through detention facilities and out to other countries." Removing immigrants from domestic detention and sending them abroad — before a final stop is arranged — provides "less ability for legal recourse," and with it fewer opportunities for slowing down the deportation machine. It could also result in the effective [disappearance](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/01/ice-transparency-immigrants-disappear-transfers?ref=theredoubt.net) of those affected. "What happens to them will be of much less concern to almost everybody, except the immediate families of those people, and so they will be much harder to protect," she said. "I think that's a goal of this administration." *If you appreciate independent journalism, support The Redoubt* [*with a subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### On war, again, with Iran and the pundits who loved Graham Platner URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/on-war-again-with-iran-and-the-pundits-who-loved-graham-platner/ Last updated: 2026-07-10T13:57:04.000Z In two new episodes, *The Redoubt's* Charles R. Davis and Critical Support co-host Shirin Sadeghi looked (and grimaced) at this week's headlines, including the Democratic disaster in Maine and America's never-ending war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. 🎧 **Hear new episodes of Critical Support on* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Apple*](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-support-charles-x-shirin/id1893854704?ref=theredoubt.net) *or* [**Spotify*](https://open.spotify.com/show/1j8a6whkwfdo2KsTquGWPA?ref=theredoubt.net)**. And support the production of new episodes by* [**subscribing*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup)**!* Why did so many pundits — typically white, often male — fall for Graham Platner? Progressives and moderates alike overlooked his many demonstrated faults, from lying about a Nazi tattoo to his enjoyment of war crimes in Iraq. Also this week: U.S. President Donald Trump remember that the Iranian people exist. After praising Iran's brutal leaders as smart and rational, Trump pivoted to [attacking them](https://www.theredoubt.net/sick-people-trump-now-thinks-the-iranian-regime-is-no-better-than-immigrants/) as vicious, violent and sick people. He also mentioned that his former diplomatic partners had gunned down thousands of their citizens. Will the press remember this when Trump inevitably makes his next awful deal with Tehran? ### 'Sick people': Trump now thinks the Iranian regime is no better than immigrants URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/sick-people-trump-now-thinks-the-iranian-regime-is-no-better-than-immigrants/ Last updated: 2026-07-08T12:21:25.000Z You know the months-long effort to end the war is going poorly when Donald Trump starts referring to Iran's leaders with the same rhetoric he usually saves for immigrants, people of color and his domestic political opposition. "They're scum. They're sick people," the U.S. president [said Wednesday](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/07/08/trump-ceasefire-iran-nato-summit-ankara/90844389007/?ref=theredoubt.net) at a NATO summit in Turkey, adding: "and they're vicious, violent people." Trump's remarks came after the U.S. military launched what it described as a "series of powerful strikes against Iran" in retaliation for attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks from both warring parties came despite a ceasefire that was supposed to bring an end to America's special military operation in the Persian Gulf. "As far as I'm concerned," Trump told reporters, "it's just a waste of time dealing with them." No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) The pivot from no new wars to Forever War is notable. Trump did campaign on the idea that his Democratic opponent would get America bogged down in a quagmire, if not World War III. But we should be careful about asserting, without qualification, that Trump was lying then: at least for those paying careful attention, it was always obvious that Republican antiwar rhetoric was about Ukraine and the idea that it should be ceded to Russia's sphere of influence. Iran's leaders are no doubt sick and violent. In May, Amnesty International [accused](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/05/iran-mass-arbitrary-arrests-and-political-executions-mark-intensifying-repression/?ref=theredoubt.net) Tehran of having "unleashed an all-out assault on people in Iran," one conducted in parallel with the illegal war launched by Washington. Dissidents, or those perceived as such, have been tortured into delivering false confessions; dozens have been executed after sham trials. But these leaders are the same ones that Trump described as "[very reasonable](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/world/middleeast/trump-regime-change-iran.html?ref=theredoubt.net)" just a few months ago, even as they were waging this campaign against their own population. He went even further just a few weeks ago. "We’re dealing with people that I think are very rational people," he [said](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-goals-iran-war-and-what-hes-saying-now-nuclear-missiles-regime-change/?ref=theredoubt.net) in June. "They were nice to deal with. They were strong people, smart people," he said, claiming "they’re not radicalized and they’re, you know, looking to help their country." [America is now a whites-only refugeThe Trump administration has adopted an explicitly race-based admissions policy. The shame will not soon be forgotten.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-98ca8508-7698-4f99-b830-255426b3560f.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1699025095617-5570bc591fb4-8cb33f3b-6f57-4a80-800c-1c6552a94b0d)](https://www.theredoubt.net/america-is-now-a-whites-only-refuge/) The most jarring thing, really, is not the self-serving naïveté of yesterday, or the temporary acknowledgement of reality today. I would argue that what is most grotesque is that America's president — his lexicon limited by age, prejudice or both — is talking about Iran's theocratic regime in terms indistinguishable from the way he talks about refugees, asylum-seekers and anyone at home who is Democratic, Black or brown. "These people are the most violent people on Earth," Trump [said](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-rhetoric-enemy-anti-immigrant/?ref=theredoubt.net) on the 2024 campaign trail, referring to immigrants who had entered the U.S. under President Joe Biden. "You can't live with these people," he said, broadly painting newcomers to the country as gang members, "animals" and "stone-cold killers." He was even explicit about military force, at least at home. "I think the bigger problem are the people from within," he [said](https://abcnews.com/Politics/trumps-enemy-threat-spurs-critics-alarm-authoritarian-shift/story?id=114816374&ref=theredoubt.net) in 2024 when asked about the threat posed by foreign adversaries. "We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics." They "are all crooks, the Somalians," he [said](https://truthout.org/articles/trump-calls-somali-americans-crooks-in-racist-cabinet-rant/?ref=theredoubt.net) in May, one of his more gentle comments about a community he has obsessively attacked this year. "\[C\]razy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick," Trump [posted](https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-omar-tlaib-institutionalized-shouting-state-union-address/story?id=130486313&ref=theredoubt.net) on Truth Social following his State of the Union address, referring to Democratic lawmakers Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and saying "we should send them back from where they came" (both are U.S. citizens, and Tlaib was born in Michigan). "They're sick people," Trump [said](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5939337-trump-vandalism-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool/?ref=theredoubt.net) the last time he met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, just about three weeks ago. He wasn't talking about mass executioners in Iran or even Somali-Americans in Minnesota, but people he claimed, without evidence, had damaged a reflecting pool in Washington, DC. [America’s war: Israel did not make Trump do itThe United States bombs whom it wants, when it wants.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-fe17cdea-1c8f-422d-b21e-d0a5f3e902ee.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/General_Dan_Caine_and_Secretary_of_War_Pete_Hegseth_listen_as_President_Donald_J._Trump_oversees_Operation_Epic_Fury_at_Mar-a-Lago_-55125232216--43cd20c0-fc85-4801-87ab-f6a34ebdcf91.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-war-israel-did-not-make-trump-do-it/) It loses some force, doesn't it? It also reveals the extraordinarily limited worldview of the most powerful man on Earth. You're with him — not "us" — or against him, and only deranged criminals could be the latter. Rhetorically, at first, it was the Iranian people whom the U.S. was coming to save back when this war began. Trump, who did nothing when the Iranian regime was [gunning down](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead?ref=theredoubt.net) people in the streets, encouraged Iranians to rise up; he then [bombed](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/politics/iran-school-missile-strike.html?ref=theredoubt.net) a school full of children, and talk of "regime change" gave way to chatter about deals. But it's not just in the Middle East where regular Iranians have found themselves scorned. After all, Iranians and immigrants are not mutually exclusive categories. According to a [lawsuit](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/07/07/us-gave-iran-details-iranian-asylum-seekers-lawsuit-alleges/?utm%5Fcampaign=wp%5Fmain&utm%5Fsource=bluesky&utm%5Fmedium=social) filed July 7, the Trump administration, pursuing its policy of [ethnic cleansing](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) via mass deportation, has been sharing sensitive information on Iranians it plans to expel from the country — details from their asylum applications, including sexual orientation and dissident politics — with the "vicious" and "violent" regime they fled. In the face of such rank disregard for the rights and dignity of vulnerable human beings, what else can you say, really? It's sick. ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### How did it get this far? Platner's dishonesty should have ended his campaign URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/how-did-it-get-this-far-platners-dishonesty-should-have-ended-his-campaign/ Last updated: 2026-07-07T11:58:35.000Z A certain amount of dishonesty is expected. In politics, as in other areas of life, brutal honesty is not often rewarded. A voter, like a friend, does not want to hear that their troubles are caused by bad life choices, even when a frank discussion would serve them well. The skilled diplomat must deliver hard truths with delicacy and a healthy touch of flattery. When a U.S. politician says that America is the greatest country to have ever existed, its people the best that the world has ever known, a certain degree of leeway must be allowed, even if the rest of the globe's thinking population need not embrace such a patriotic lie. But that is not the sort of quasi-noble dishonesty we saw with Graham Platner, the candidate for U.S. Senate who has now been credibly [accused of rape](https://www.theredoubt.net/america-is-now-a-whites-only-refuge/). The Democrat from Maine, who denies the allegation and had a Nazi skull tattooed on his chest, launched his campaign last August [with a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53bZ%5F95nDjk&ref=theredoubt.net) that painted him as a working-class white guy who looked like he might be racist but was actually pretty liberal. For [some progressives](https://zeteo.com/p/graham-platner-maine-campaign-primary?ref=theredoubt.net), as well as moderate [former speechwriters](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/graham-platner-isnt-backing-down/id1192761536?i=1000752293544&ref=theredoubt.net) for Barack Obama, this was a model for how the left could respond to the reelection of Donald Trump: by adopting the lily-white aesthetic of rural America and pairing it with the rhetoric of a 20th-century radical populist. That Platner was actually more upper-middle-class prep kid than salt-of-the-earth oysterman? This could be forgiven as the cost of running for office; one of his main customers, it turned out, was the mother who sent him to private school. Few people, in politics or otherwise, present themselves as children of privilege who rely on mommy or daddy to pay the rent. On its own, not a huge deal for anyone who has ever met other people. [America is now a whites-only refugeThe Trump administration has adopted an explicitly race-based admissions policy. The shame will not soon be forgotten.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-8a3c1847-5043-49d0-89ac-acdc57322d78.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1699025095617-5570bc591fb4-da3cca9b-9056-43c9-bdec-65a72a9be383)](https://www.theredoubt.net/america-is-now-a-whites-only-refuge/) The real issue is that Platner lied from the start about who he was, as a man. That tattoo, for instance, which the candidate had obtained as a young Marine on shore leave in Croatia and had shown off in the decades since by repeatedly taking off his shirt, drunk. Platner, a history buff, insisted that he did not know it was a Totenkopf. "I was appalled to learn it closely resembled a Nazi symbol," he said in a [statement](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-maine.html?ref=theredoubt.net) last October that revealed his inability to own up ("resembled") to an incontrovertible fact. Months later, a former girlfriend [revealed](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html?ref=theredoubt.net) — in addition to recounting instances of abuse — that Platner had for some time referred to the tattoo as "my Totenkopf." Platner, who worked as a [mercenary](https://www.centralmaine.com/2025/11/28/graham-platner-has-a-blackwater-problem-opinion/?ref=theredoubt.net) for the private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater, also refused to own his support for the war in Iraq. In a post on X, the candidate claimed that his Republican opponent, Sen. Susan Collins, "voted to send me to Iraq." "Did you learn anything from that experience?" he asked her. But the vote to authorize an invasion of Iraq came in 2002; the war began in 2003; and Platner enlisted in 2004. He was young, one might argue, and made a mistake. But that's not how Platner explained it, at least before running for office. In 2020, Platner, posting on Reddit as a 35-year-old man using the handle "P-Hustle," [explained](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/04/02/amid-iran-conflict-platner-re-ups-criticism-of-collins-for-iraq-vote-heres-the-background/?ref=theredoubt.net) why he joined the Marines to go fight in Iraq: "Wanted to have an adventure and kill some people," he wrote. "Joined up in '04, did Fallujah and Ramadi. Hell of an excellent experience." On the one hand, it is no surprise that any politician would lie, in public, about their past support for the war in Iraq. One could also argue that at least he picked up a gun. For those with progressive values, however, unrepentant bloodthirst is not a desirable trait in someone seeking to hold public office. What does it say about many left-of-center American pundits that they could overlook it — a lie about one's own support for war — out of appreciation for the man's aesthetic? No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) These revelations should have been enough for Platner's supporters to indulge their second thoughts: he told obvious, unnecessary lies and was repeatedly awful to women. Instead, all that was said and done prior to his running for office was dismissed as the ancient and irrelevant past; others painted it as important life lessons that made Platner even stronger as a person and a candidate. "People who don't get the appeal of redemption really shouldn't try to explain politics," liberal historian Rick Perlstein [wrote](https://bsky.app/profile/rickperlstein.bsky.social/post/3mndfuzfra22t?ref=theredoubt.net). In a [piece](https://rickperlstein.substack.com/p/but-did-you-die?r=bkbf&utm%5Fcampaign=post-expanded-share&utm%5Fmedium=web&triedRedirect=true) for his website, Perlstein said he respected those who could no longer support Platner, but said the "political panic" over the revelations — the idea that it would "break Platner's political back, or that 'the next shoe to drop' will" — reminded him of those who were more bothered by "Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes" than George W. Bush's torture of terror suspects. Platner's image as a "broken, healing, moral work in progress," he added, could be "more of a feature of his electoral appeal than a bug." But Platner's self-presentation was always more self-pitying and self-serving than indicative of remorse or redemption. His Reddit posts, in which he boasted not just of his "excellent" combat experience in an illegal war but blamed inebriated women for their being subjected to sexual assault, were a product of his feeling "utterly lost and isolated," [he said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/17/graham-platner-sexual-assault-comments-senate-midterms/?ref=theredoubt.net). "I've said things I regret. I struggled immensely for years. All of that is in some ways how I got here." This was and remains the non-apology of a predator: *Sorry if I did anything to hurt you, but I was going through some things. And if you really think about it? You should feel sorry for me.* In a [discordant piece](https://www.cjr.org/feature/out-of-state-graham-platner-senate-campaign-national-press-maine-oysterman-scandal-nazi-tattoo-misogyny-reddit-seitz-wald-democrat-janet-mills.php?ref=theredoubt.net) for Columbia Journalism Review, contributing editor Vanessa M. Gezari acknowledged Platner's scandals and noted the fact that they were all revealed by national media outlets, which she attributed to the decades-long destruction of local journalism. But she also faulted national reporters for dwelling too much on what Platner had done and not on the personal charisma he was displaying on the ground. Recounting a campaign stop she attended, Gezari described Platner as "thinking in real time, forming coherent, precise answers on topics ranging from the human toll of America's forever wars to the rising cost of housing and healthcare and the problem of oligarchy." By contrast, the media — largely absent from the overwhelmingly white, rural state of Maine — had kept reporting on Platner's Nazi tattoo, infidelities and alcoholism. "The result: months of grinding dissonance between the stories national outlets were telling and the ground reality, at a scale I hadn't seen since the media's much bemoaned failure to understand rural Americans' support for Trump in 2016." With multiple national media outlets now reporting that Platner [is a violent rapist](https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/06/us/graham-platner-racicot-allegation-maine-invs?ref=theredoubt.net), per an ex-girlfriend, it is worth reflecting on whether this dissonance was such a bad thing. Understanding a candidate's appeal is not the same as sympathy, but it can indeed function as apologism when the median voter's preferences are used as a shield and treated as akin to moral pronouncements — as if it is uncouth to question the values and wisdom of the white, rural and romanticized masses. In this case, which better served the public interest in the end: Reporting what was said at a campaign stop, and why people liked it, or revealing what was done when the cameras were not around? In 2026 as in 2016, one lesson is that voters can make bad decisions; another is that too many pundits are willing to endorse them. *Appreciate this piece?* [*Consider a donation.*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) *And follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### America is now a whites-only refuge URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/america-is-now-a-whites-only-refuge/ Last updated: 2026-06-29T18:08:39.000Z If you are seeking to be admitted as a refugee in the United States, the Trump administration has made it explicit: you will be judged by the color of your skin. Since October 2025, a total of [6,688 people](https://www.rpc.state.gov/documents/Refugee%20Arrivals%20by%20State%20and%20Nationality%20as%20of%20April%2030,%202026.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) have been accepted as refugees by the U.S. government; 6,685 of them have been white. Under a new admissions program exclusively for white South Africans, it is not even necessary to show that one has been a victim — of anything. For this privileged class, to "be able to articulate" a "fear of future persecution" is [more than sufficient](https://za.usembassy.gov/refugee-admissions-program-for-south-africans/?ref=theredoubt.net). That's a significant departure from the requirement that said fear be "well-founded" and have "an objective basis," which the Department of Homeland Security [still teaches](https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/lesson-plans/Well%5FFounded%5FFear%5FLP%5FRAIO.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) as the standard for everyone else. You also [get handouts](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/us/politics/south-africa-refugees-welcome-bags.html?ref=theredoubt.net) from the government, if you're white, including a tablet computer and a book that argues South Africa's present, democratically elected government has made "race relations even worse" than the glory days of apartheid. All this — the red carpet and tote bag — even as South Africa's whites are better off, financially, and [far less likely](https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/rising-crime-in-south-africa?ref=theredoubt.net) to be victims of violent crime than their Black neighbors. [Get The Redoubt in your inbox](#/portal/signup) It's not really about facts, though, is it? By any objective measure, people from Haiti are far more deserving of refugee status than some Afrikaner. The United Nations Refugee Agency has urged governments around the world to grant asylum to Haitians and halt the deportations, having [noted](https://www.unhcr.org/news/news-releases/unhcr-calls-states-refrain-forced-returns-haitians?ref=theredoubt.net) that their home country faces its "worst human rights and humanitarian situation in decades." But it's members of that disfavored group — some 350,000 people already settled in the United States — who are losing their legal status and facing imminent removal. The hypocrisy of America's whites-only admissions policy is a demonstration of power, if nothing else. After the Supreme Court's right-wing majority [granted](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/us/politics/supreme-court-temporary-protected-status.html?ref=theredoubt.net) the Trump administration the right to make Haitians with legal status "illegal" overnight, Stephen Miller, one of the president's top advisers, announced that "America's doors are closed, fully, to asylum seekers." Speaking to reporters, Miller — who has described white South Africans as fitting "[the textbook definition](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/11/49-white-south-africans-leave-for-us-after-trump-offered-them-refugee-status-00341204?ref=theredoubt.net)" of refugees — insisted that no one in the Western Hemisphere, Haitian or otherwise, could legitimately claim to be fleeing persecution. "All asylum claims across the southwest border are always fake," he said, [denying](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmFb%5F5eJ3M4&ref=theredoubt.net) that anyone in the Americas is ever targeted based on race, religion, politics or their membership in a targeted group. "In every case, they're either criminals, benefit seekers, economic migrants, welfare seekers, etc. They're coming to join family members and so forth." As for the threat of violence? Fake, across the board. "There's pockets of Chicago with crime rates just as high as \[Haiti\]," he insisted. In a different context, it is not hard to imagine Miller arguing that America's major cities are unsafe for white people, too. Unlike Haitians, however, Afrikaners are granted refugee status; they are not told that bad things could happen anywhere. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) That this is the "textbook definition" of white supremacy — legal status and swag if you are white; [chained to your seat](https://www.wionews.com/world/worse-than-hell-indian-immigrants-say-they-were-handcuffed-tied-with-chins-while-being-deported-from-us-8694632?ref=theredoubt.net) on a deportation flight if you are not — is both obvious and, somehow, contentious. Trump and his allies do not hide their racist venom but lean into it; the president of the United States, perhaps bored with the attacks on Haitians, has recently moved on to calling people of Somali heritage "[garbage](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-somali-immigrants-9.7001275?ref=theredoubt.net)" who "contribute nothing." "Their country's no good for a reason," he said. For 80,000 Somali-Americans, that country — the one they were born in — is the United States. But like legal status for Haitians, that too is seen as nothing more than an inconvenience (as Miller told the press: "one way or another, this nation has to end birthright citizenship"). What is it like, white Americans can only wonder, for the most powerful man in the country to declare you subhuman filth? Trump supporters lost their minds at the suggestion that some of them held "[deplorable](https://www.npr.org/2016/09/10/493427601/hillary-clintons-basket-of-deplorables-in-full-context-of-this-ugly-campaign?ref=theredoubt.net)" views. And to this day, it seems as if many are afraid to say that overt racism of the sort displayed by this president and embraced by his followers is not the product of legitimate grievances but of tiny hearts, small minds and ugly souls. How many lives will now be uprooted, trauma inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people who already call America home, so that the white racist — the president, his top adviser, the base of his support — can derive pleasure from brutality? Mothers' tears will be shed, children separated from the schools, churches and friends they have now known for most of their lives, not because circumstances demanded it, but owing to a fully man-made disaster, all to generate content for some bigot's phone. There is much about today's United States that should frighten and outrage those who still believe in the dignity, rights and equal value of every human being. Some comfort may be taken in the pendulum swinging the other way; it usually does. But the avoidable, pathetic cruelty of it all: that's something my fellow Americans will need to grapple with for decades to come, and which hundreds of thousands of others, who once called America home, will not soon forget. ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Europe's far right has a new target: newborn babies URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/europes-far-right-has-a-new-target-newborn-babies/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T12:35:35.000Z The only reason its population is not declining — and its labor force not contracting — is because of immigrants. One in five people now living in Austria [originally](https://www.statistik.at/en/statistics/population-and-society/population/migration-and-naturalisation/foreign-background?ref=theredoubt.net) came from somewhere else. Even so, the country is getting older. According to the European Commission, the number of working-age people in Austria [increased](https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-surveillance-eu-member-states/country-pages-including-country-reports/austria/economic-forecast-austria%5Fen?ref=theredoubt.net) in 2025 solely because lawmakers raised the retirement age for women. And last year was the third in a row in which the country's rate of population growth declined, tumbling to a barely-above-replacement 0.2 percent. This is the context for the far-right's war on immigration, and the latest target of hate for Austria's Freedom Party: newborn babies. As Vienna's center-left newspaper Der Standard [reported](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000328808/kinderwunschbehandlung-fpoe-will-daten-ueber-die-herkunft-von-foerderempfaengerinnen?ref=seite1%5Fzonekur), FPÖ lawmakers — U.S. President Donald Trump's closest allies in the country — are demanding to know the nationality of anyone receiving state support to cover some of the costs of in vitro fertilization. Party leader Herbert Kickl declared it a "scandal" that someone who obtained asylum in Austria could receive help to start a family. FPÖ General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz dubbed it "migration from the test tube." [Subverting — and celebrating — the fascist aestheticIn Austria, activists co-opted fascist imagery to promote a message of inclusion. Would that work in America?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-37871c57-1eed-441d-83ae-df7d0db775ee.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Strache-Beide-V2-Druck-A1-1-1-ea2af619-f92b-41af-80f3-18ebcd8e6742.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/subverting-and-celebrating-the-fascist-aesthetic/) In all of Austria, roughly 12,500 women received IVF treatment in 2024\. The cost of state support overall, then, is a fiscal drop in the bucket; the bill for helping some immigrants create life is objectively inconsequential. But as one FPÖ politician [argued](https://archive.is/rFjP1?ref=theredoubt.net), even 100 babies born to non-native parents would be simply unacceptable, amounting to "two new school classes" — not just one — of children with contaminated foreign blood. For those preaching a return to a romanticized past of national greatness via racial exclusion, future Austrians ought to be as white as the Alps (at least [before climate change](https://www.theredoubt.net/melting-away-climate-change-could-kill-skiing-in-the-alps/)). It does not matter that immigrants creating families would produce German-speaking children who would grow up learning Austrian history, including its past as the seat of a multicultural empire; the original sin is ever being born. [Get reporting like this in your inbox](#/portal/signup) Incapable of producing more children themself, for reasons that may have to do with their outlook on life and the obstacle it poses to finding a consensual mate, the reactionary turns to anger at those who can. Extremists like Martin Sellner, the Austrian proponent of [ethnic cleansing](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/), preach conspiracy — the "Great Replacement," or the notion that there is something nefarious about immigrants building lives in countries that need them. What the fascist ideologue seeks is not a return to past glory — not really — but to rule over a barren fiefdom. Theirs is an impoverished vision, defined only by what they oppose. And in Austria, it has been tried and failed before, as the Green Party's Meri Disoski told Der Standard. "Such patterns of thought are reminiscent of the darkest chapters of our past," she observed. The product of 20th-century fascism was millions of dead. When those preaching the 21st-century variety openly say that they oppose life, it is one instance where you should believe them. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This model of journalism depends on reader support. With your backing, **The Redoubt* can continue producing original reporting and analysis. [Support independent journalism ](#/portal/account/plans) ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Tradwives and right-wing men: How an 'imagined past' drives fascist politics URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/tradwives-and-right-wing-men-how-an-imagined-past-drives-fascist-politics/ Last updated: 2026-07-01T08:49:14.000Z Wouldn't it be nice to leave the commute and Keurig coffee behind? To stay at home and make strawberry preserves with your kids instead of responding to Slack notifications from some man who is not your husband? Take a deep breath and imagine: life on a farm where — with just a packet of seeds, a couple of goats and a few hours of wholesome, aesthetic work — all your family's nutritional needs are provided for by the socially-isolated pocket of land you call home. This, at least, is the fantasy of the "tradwife" being sold online: nostalgia for the world of yesterday, where men were men and women were content to be their domestic servants. On social media, influencers churn butter and romanticize pseudo-traditional gender roles, preaching a back-to-basics, 19th-century way of life even as they remain glued to their 21st-century phones. In a conversation with *The Redoubt's* Charles R. Davis and historian Shirin Sadeghi, co-host of [Critical Support](https://patreon.com/criticalsupport?ref=theredoubt.net), Salon columnist Amanda Marcotte discusses the seductive myth of the tradwife and how this longing for an "imagined past" serves as the rotten core of today's reactionary politics. 🎧 **Listen to this interview by* [**following*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *Critical Support on* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**. Subscribers get early access to new episodes and other bonus content.* **CHARLES R. DAVIS:** I'm very excited to have on Amanda Marcotte, a senior politics writer at [Salon](https://www.salon.com/writer/amanda%5Fmarcotte?ref=theredoubt.net) and host of the YouTube show [Standing Room Only](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-JSIhoXcKetaEeYOpvwcIQ?ref=theredoubt.net). Amanda is a pretty prolific writer on politics and feminism and reproductive rights issues, and she has also been, for several years now, writing and reporting about the trend of "tradwives." So, I wanted to actually start with that, Amanda. I've been hearing about tradwives for like a couple years now and, as I understand it, it is like conventionally-attractive young women selling a sort of nostalgia for pre-pasteurization gender roles. And despite this, it seems to be something you encounter, not at a farmer's market but, ironically, primarily on TikTok and social media. Can you tell me what a tradwife actually is? And if it's just internet jargon for traditional mid-20th century conservative ideas of femininity, or if it's like actually something substantively different? **AMANDA MARCOTTE:** I would say that it's substantively different in that it is, like you say, like a retro remix. It is very fascist in the way that it is trying to evoke an imagined past, right? Most wives have never lived the way that the sort of tradwife fantasies that are peddled online are. And honestly, you hear it used in two separate ways. The term "tradwife," it started to mean kind of what it sounds like: just a traditional wife, which is to say it was used as internet jargon to talk about women who tried to live, I would say, the 1950s ideal gender roles — or even 19th century, in a lot of ways, kind of depending on who you're talking to. Which is: you don't work outside the home; you're economically dependent on your husband; your career is taking care of him, taking care of children, and taking care of the house. And then what that has morphed into is an online trend on social media, primarily through TikTok and Instagram, because it's very image driven — women who sell this idea as a fantasy. I think the initial idea was that they were selling it to other women, and to an extent that's true; there's a lot of Instagram posts and TikToks about "here I am at home, and in my beautiful stress-free life with my beautiful children in my beautiful kitchen that is always clean, despite the fact that I cook so much," and often even wearing clothes that evoke, you know, either the 1950s or again sometimes like the 19th century. But I do think a lot of this content is actually consumed by men, depending on who the producer is, and there is a not small pornographic edge to some of it. **DAVIS:** Are the influencers themselves consciously selling it to men, do you think? Because obviously there is that fantasy for men of like having a wife who is completely fine living in a socially-isolated farm setting with no opportunity to ever leave you; I can see that male fantasy aspect, and certainly there's the, as you've mentioned, 19th-century cosplay kind of aesthetic fetishization going on there. But I'm wondering if it's the same set of influencers, right? Are there some just cynically selling this image to men and they know that? Or are there some that maybe started out trying to sell this to other women — and it just so happens that men are the ones consuming it and telling other women to follow this influencer? [Join The Redoubt and support independent journalism](#/portal/signup) **MARCOTTE:** There's definitely different ones that have different audiences. And just like anything on the internet, one thing about social media trends is that they're kind of ambiguous, they're sort of a vague category, and people play with it sometimes in ways that are really fun for different audiences, right? So, somebody like [Hannah Neeleman](https://www.theredoubt.net/in-a-concession-to-the-far-right-the-eu-tries-to-build-fortress-europe/) of Ballerina Farm — her account is probably the most famous. She's a trad wife living on a farm, on a ranch, I think, in Utah ... She's not actually a housewife, because she and her husband run an enormous business selling, you know, beef and other goods online through her account. But her audience is primarily women. I would say she is not very sexualized in her imagery. But then you go on TikTok, and there's a lot of women, and they kind of tend to embrace the 1950s aesthetic more. But imagine a 1950s pinafore line dress, but with the breasts pushed way up in a push-up bra of the sort that they didn't really have in the 1950s — just kind of in your face. And they're cooking stuff slowly in the kitchen. **SHIRIN SADEGHI:** When did all this happen? I don't even know what this is. Did this like coincide with the MAGA movement? Is this something that's been going on in the background all my life, and I didn't know about it? **MARCOTTE:** It started in the like mid-2010s. That's when the terminology first started to percolate, and it kind of grew out of a trend called "[cottagecore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottagecore?ref=theredoubt.net)," which actually kind of started on the left. And it was, again, just sort of the aesthetics of "I'm taking pictures of myself living like I'm Laura Ingalls Wilder," but the political angle started to creep in pretty quickly. [Subverting — and celebrating — the fascist aestheticIn Austria, activists co-opted fascist imagery to promote a message of inclusion. Would that work in America?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-14dc8193-fa2a-4eb8-814b-db6ec0d6d9c6.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Strache-Beide-V2-Druck-A1-1-1-db1f6644-4d9d-45e5-b28a-6fcdbbbde802.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/subverting-and-celebrating-the-fascist-aesthetic/) **SADEGHI:** And what is the political angle? **MARCOTTE:** The idea that feminism and women's equality has been bad for women, and that they would actually just be happier if they gave up trying to succeed in the workplace, and instead retreated into domesticity and dependence on men. **DAVIS**: Do you think, though, that there's, I don't know, an actual problem with modernity that they are exploiting? Because it seems to me that, if you buy the caricature that we live under a liberal feminist regime, I can see how, for most women, you \[could be drawn to\] the narrative that modernity requires you to pursue your career at the expense of any relationship with your children; or makes it so your children grow up strangers to you; or, if you are not a high-powered Manhattan attorney making enough money to pay for child care, you actually have to pursue your career, and all the old patriarchal stuff. You're the one primarily going to the grocery store and cooking for your kids and driving to soccer practice. Like, right now you have to do both, so I could see it being attractive for somebody online, being like, you know what? You can drop your commute and just spend time with your kids and make strawberry preserves. I guess my point is: is there not something wrong with our modern society that they're capitalizing on? And are women buying what they're selling here? **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, I think that that's true to a certain extent. But the more I've dug into kind of who the audiences for this stuff are, the more I find that they do not actually take it seriously at all, the female audiences. It's important to understand that for audiences that enjoy this stuff, like the female audiences that like Ballerina Farm, or some of the other like ones that focus more on domestic bliss, right? They see it as just sort of a thing to look at for five minutes online, and they don't really think about it too deeply. It is a fantasy that they do not actually want to live in their real lives. I think that there is this like thing where you're exhausted as a modern woman a lot of the time, especially if you're married and you have kids, because you have to work full time. And it is true: like all time-use studies show that men do not pull their fair share of the weight at home, and so women still have the second shift problem. They still do most of the domestic labor around the house, and they're exhausted. And so I think there is this aspect where you're sitting on the toilet and you're scrolling through Instagram, and you like look at these pictures, and it seems nice for like five minutes, and then you snap back into reality, and you're like, "I wouldn't want that, because it has all these knock-on effects that I do not want in my life, and as exhausted as I am, the alternative is worse." **SADEGHI:** Tell us about the relationship between this kind of idea of a woman at home, taking care of kids, and the politics that we're seeing in the United States right now, where you have a lot of the high-powered politicians on both sides ... where the men are the politicians, and their wives are these people that have their hair done nicely, and they seem relatively fit, and they're popping out three, four kids. Tell me, is there a relationship there that's happening? **MARCOTTE:** Absolutely, like this is why I think focusing on the female audience for tradwife content is somewhat missing the point because there's no evidence that women's minds are being changed by online propaganda — like, conservative propaganda — but there is a lot of evidence that it is appealing to men. And we have seen a huge shift amongst male voters in the United States to the Republican Party. I think the Democratic party does not fit that model that you just described. There are a lot of female Democratic politicians; male Democratic politicians tend to have wives with careers. But, yeah, the Republican Party has started to showily have a lot of male leadership who have these trophy wife/housewife types as their wife model, right? I don't know how else to put this. The most prominent is JD Vance. He's the vice president of the United States. His wife was actually a very high-powered lawyer; she was far more successful in that field than he was. And he makes a big deal — he brags constantly on the trail, like every speech he gives — he brags about how he basically convinced her to give up her job to be his wife full time. She's pregnant with their fourth child, and she is a very good looking woman. She's very thin and pulled together. What's hilarious and dark about that, though, is that even with all the efforts to turn Usha Vance into this tradwife model to feed to a right-wing audience, a lot of them continue to reject her because she is Indian American, and she's not white, which is really a huge part of this ideal that's being peddled. [How America emboldened Europe’s far rightHeidi Beirich, an expert on the far right, says Donald Trump has emboldened those pushing for “remigration.”![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-05c5048f-8793-4884-98fc-b87fcb282f71.png)The RedoubtCritical Support![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1706385945005-2ca846f6d2d7-3ce8109f-4854-4581-9c73-75bdcc220f11)](https://www.theredoubt.net/how-america-got-europes-far-right-to-stop-pretending/) **SADEGHI:** A lot of Usha Vance's appeal, though, is toward the minority traditional populations that vote Republican, wouldn't you say? I mean, she's Indian, she's from the subcontinent, her parents are from there. A hell of a lot of people from that region of the world voted Republican. They voted for Donald Trump. They want women who take care of kids and tend to their homes. I mean, do you think that part of that is just Usha's decision? **MARCOTTE:** We watched a ton of video of Usha for my YouTube program, and I would say she is — she does not seem like a happy person. **SADEGHI:** Yeah, I would agree with that. **DAVIS:** Whatever happened with the whole [wedding ring controversy](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/21/usha-vance-melania-trump-no-wedding-ring/87399269007/?ref=theredoubt.net)? **MARCOTTE:** She was pregnant, so it's quite possible that her hands were just too swollen and she had to get it resized, right? **DAVIS:** Not looming separation... **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, but I think a lot of people glommed onto the fact that she stopped wearing her wedding ring because every interview she gives, she could not be less enthusiastic about this. And in fact ... she'll do a lot of right-wing media, and so they're trying to help her sell this idea — that it was just the most wonderful thing in the world to give up her job and be a full-time wife, and that she and JD Vance have this love affair for the ages — so they'll just set her up with all those softball questions, like, "What's it like?" or "Tell us about your love story" or "What's it like being the second lady?" And she just will look a little sad, and she's like — she can't remember, really, how they got married. She's like, "it kind of just happened," is often her answer for that. And when she's asked about her life as a second lady, she will often straight up say, "I would like to go home and get my job back." **SADEGHI**: So, what's going on with Usha? She's a tradwife, or she isn't. Is this her choice, or is it not in your view? **MARCOTTE:** I mean, it's obviously her choice. She could choose to divorce him and go home, right? **SADEGHI:** But she's having another kid with him. **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, so I don't know. Maybe it's all an act, because a lot of the time when he's on the trail \[Vance\] gloats about how he basically persuaded her into living this way. And so the narrative overall that they are — whether it's true or not — that they're willing to let sit with the public is that she is a reluctant trad wife. **DAVIS:** Yeah, and I mean, it definitely seems like it could be consistent with her reported ambition. Like, the deal could be, you know, JD Vance is rumored to be running in 2028 if Trump decides that the Constitution prevents him from a third term, right? So she does this whole tradwife thing for a couple years — it's very likely a contrived performance — and then, I don't know, in 2031 she gets to have her like first lady healthcare initiative or whatever, and gets to come back out as a professional woman. It just seems to me like, yeah, it's a cynical ploy, but also Republicans, as we know, especially: they'll perform this relationship, but they're also at the same time hypocritical. There will be nothing wrong — they'll be able to spin Usha coming back out as a public figure in a few years, if that's how they decide to deploy her. **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, that might be the agreement they have. And you know, having this conversation, it occurs to me that, you know, the reluctance that both Usha and JD Vance hint at her having all the time might be part of what they're trying to sell. Because a lot of the right-wing guys online that JD Vance is very fixated on appealing to — they discuss ... tradwife life as something that women will have to be forced into. They often do acknowledge that women don't want to do this, and so they will discuss taking away women's jobs — they are not under the illusion that this is something that women want — and that force will be required. They're very fascist. **DAVIS:** The abusive, humiliating aspect of it — that's like a perk, not like a flaw with this relationship. **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, so definitely for JD... He runs her down publicly constantly. He makes fun of her all the time, and so a lot of what he's doing is performing for his audience that he's humiliating his wife, right? **DAVIS:** Like, even that whole thing, \[saying\], "Yeah, ideally she'd be [Christian](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/21/world/jd-vance-wife-india-religion-debate-hnk-dst?ref=theredoubt.net)." **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, he complains that she hasn't converted yet. [Trump’s ballroom reflects ‘hatred for American democracy’: White House historianEdward Lengel, a White House historian, says Donald Trump is showing “contempt for the founding fathers.”![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-484ac56b-8672-4518-aede-614e225f6531.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1678275811393-d3a340a78c9a-1be23acd-f0fd-4715-8edd-32cc4e78b626)](https://www.theredoubt.net/trumps-ballroom-reflects-hatred-for-american-democracy-white-house-historian/) **SADEGHI:** This almost sounds like what Charles was describing, when he was like, oh, you know, she's gonna be quiet, and then, you know, get to be the healthcare czar. That almost sounds like she's biding her time, a la Hillary Clinton, and is very similar to Hillary, in that \[she's\] an ambitious woman who's stepping back, letting the guy — because the world is misogynist — let the guy win office and get them to a place where she can step in? Doesn't that sound the same to you? **MARCOTTE:** No, Hillary Clinton never did what Usha Vance is doing now. She never took a break. She went straight from — she was, you know, when she was the \[first\] lady of Arkansas, she was also working as a lawyer the whole time. And when they campaigned, when Bill Clinton ran for president, the campaign was actually, they would often say "two for one." **SADEGHI:** The first time. **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, the first time, and her first year in office, she was like right away she was assigned the job of running his healthcare initiative. And it was only after that failed and the backlash really started to grow against her, that she backed off and started to do more traditional first lady stuff. But even then it was, like, write a book and other things like that. One reason I think she became such a hated figure to Republicans right away, and forever, was that she never stopped presenting herself as a career woman to the public. **SADEGHI:** I just feel like she mentioned a lot, throughout her time in office herself, and then prior, when Bill was in office — she would always talk about, well, "I had Chelsea because I knew I had to have a kid if I wanted to go into politics." And I just wonder if this kind is just a different kind of tradwife for different generations; maybe she was the Boomer tradwife, where, you know, she did have the career, she wasn't shying away from that, it was the feminist movement, etc. of the 60s, but she still deferred so much to Bill. She never divorced the guy, when you know she could have. She became senator and could have had everything on her own after that, and still didn't dump him. I mean, maybe there's just different generations of tradwives. Maybe this is just the new embodiment of this phenomenon in American culture and politics. **MARCOTTE:** I wouldn't say that, because the whole point of a tradwife is that it's a throwback — it's a fantasy of an imaginary past, right? And Hillary Clinton was living what a lot of Boomer women lived at the time, which is this compromise, right; like the generation before her was far more \[conservative\] in their gender roles. And, in fact, she herself personally went up against a lot of this, and she'll talk about it — like she went to law school when they first kind of started letting women do that. But it is true that she would often make these gestures towards compromise when she was married to Bill. Like she used to just go by Hillary Rodham when he was the governor of Arkansas, and she added Clinton to her name when he ran for president in order to appease people. But I think she was definitely of that generation that was trying to find some compromise; that there was this idea that you could compromise with men, you could have your career, and you could have your own identity, as long as you made some gestures towards him still being the boss. And I think that obviously failed, because now everybody hates her. **SADEGHI:** Yeah, so maybe what's happening is there, there is a backlash \[on the left\] happening to this tradwife sort of phenomenon that you're describing. We have someone like AOC who is not in any way a tradwife, and is sort of really doing well, not being that way. Tell me about that kind of dichotomy that's happening. **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, I would say that it's a sign that — and this is often true... there \[are\] backlashes, but they tend to be concurrent to certain trends, right? So the tradwife thing online, and a lot of men embracing these ideas of the tradwife, is a reaction to the fact that millennial feminists aren't interested in making the kinds of compromises that Hillary Clinton made, right? They're not changing their names — I mean, most are still, but, like, in terms of these prominent career politicians, I don't think AOC even is married yet. And when she does get married, I guarantee she's not going to change her name. More importantly, on a bunch of the substantive stuff, they're not going to give up their careers. They're not interested in performing subservience in any way. They think that they should be paid the same as men; that they shouldn't have to curtail their hours for child care; and that they should be leaders — that they should be able to run for office, that they should be able to run for president if they want to. And I think that it is interesting: you think of someone like AOC, she's not that different in age from JD Vance, right? He's of the same generation as she is, and so I think you really kind of see the tension there, which is AOC is a figure that appeals to I'd say the majority of American women her age. \[They\] see themselves in her, whereas JD Vance is trying to appeal to a lot of the men of that generation, and maybe Gen X as well, who are angry about these changes and want to claw it all back. [Did you know they want you dead?The state-sanctioned murder of Renee Good reveals the depravity at the heart of American fascism.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-47719226-22e9-47de-a435-3d98ac25e3de.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1559282142-a579eaba9895-0f61b123-8334-45c4-82ba-95315366ebf6)](https://www.theredoubt.net/did-you-know-they-want-you-dead/) **DAVIS:** So, do you think the reason that the tradwife thing is way more popular with men than women — the fact that Gen Z men are moving to the right, according to surveys — is simply due to the fact that they can't get dates with these liberal, empowered women that won't take their kind of retrograde attitudes? **MARCOTTE:** Unfortunately, I think, especially with the youngest, the Gen Zers: Yes. And I don't want to slur millennial men, they tend to be more liberal on average than any other generation in the U.S. **DAVIS:** What explains that? Is it just like, you know, the accident of birth, and we grew up with certain children's programming that taught us, in the 80s, "be respectful," and "women can be just the same thing as you." Is that it? Or is it Gen Z grew up under Trump telling you to be the worst version of yourself. **MARCOTTE:** I think so. I think that it's not just entirely due to that, but I do think that what is happening is that millennial men, their frustrations, and their, the kinds of frustrations that we all have, were not met with this like deluge of online right-wing propaganda that blamed women for all their problems, right? So I think what we're seeing with a lot of Gen Z men, and they're the youngest generation, right, is that they are struggling economically. They are struggling, a lot of them. The pandemic disrupted their lives in horrible ways and has caused some socialization problems, frankly, and they are struggling. And instead of what millennials got when they were struggling, which was Obama, this kind of hope- and change-like mentality, an internet that was very free and not algorithm driven and was very information driven, Gen Zers are getting deluged — like a deluge of right-wing propaganda. And, unfortunately, I do think that is turning a lot of heads. I don't know how permanent it is, and I think that this fantasy that a lot of young men have of how great their life would be if women were more submissive — they would find out that that's not actually true, that being the breadwinner with a dependent wife is actually even more stressful than what they're living life as now. But I think that right now there is a lot of appeal with these kind of backwards-looking fantasies. **DAVIS:** I know it's the content influencing people, but I'm always struck by — when, you know, a generation like Gen Z is suffering materially — the men become more fascist and the women become more liberal, even though they're both experiencing the same lackluster job market and lack of wage growth, etc. **MARCOTTE:** It's a very good question, I think you know the guest on my most recent episode of Standing Room Only, [Tia Levings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrWmcIB6H3c&ref=theredoubt.net), she pointed out that these kinds of fundamentalist, fascist notions become more appealing when people are under stress because they offer simple answers to complex problems. But why is that affecting men more than women? I don't know. I think it might just be that, first of all, Gen Z girls still did grow up with a lot of that girl power mentality, right? But I just also think that women can't afford to indulge these fantasies as much ... like the idea that you're going to get married and he's going to take care of you is very hard to square with the fact that he doesn't have a job that can afford that. **DAVIS:** And I'll also point out, too, that the material consequences of our age are not felt equally. Women's reproductive rights were taken away, so it's much harder for them to indulge a kind of fascist movement that says, explicitly, you as women should have fewer rights going forward. **MARCOTTE:** Yeah, and we are talking about a very literate, very educated generation, and so it's very easy for women to access the information that they can use to sort of understand why this fantasy is not effective for them. [Why did the press ignore a gathering of the world’s leading fascists?Right-wing extremism is going mainstream, but it’s not getting the coverage.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-a7dee8b0-8267-4cec-93e8-570405b2e924.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-2026-05-31-at-12-35-20-Charles---.-Davis--@charliearchy.bsky.social------Bluesky-1-1-5440b108-fa2e-41b5-b4f4-d901a45166f0.png)](https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/) **SADEGHI:** Is this all about reproduction? Is this men wanting women to reproduce more? **MARCOTTE**: I think that reproduction is being used as a fig leaf just to give moral justification to attitudes that are actually about gender and power. **SADEGHI:** Where do you think this is headed? I just want to see where you think this is headed, because as Charles pointed out, and as you backed up, there is definitely a split where the men are going, it seems one way, and the women are going in the opposite way. **MARCOTTE:** I think women are going to win this particular battle. I think a lot of the tradwife ideology is inherently fascist in its orientation, and that is an inherently unstable way of looking at the world. It is rooted in fantasy, and fantasies kind of degrade when they're applied to reality. And we're seeing this right now with the second Trump term, right? He got elected because he was able to craft this reality TV show-style fantasy for the public that he was a successful businessman that was going to fix everything in a month. Ridiculous, he wasn't, but the problem is he got elected and everything is going to hell, and people are souring on him. The polls show his popularity is dropping like a stone. And I think that, similarly, a lot of the kind of tradwife fantasies are being driven by the youngest generation in a lot of ways, and they're people without a lot of life experience. And I know, from watching a lot of these online trends, that when young men, especially, get caught up in these ideas, it's often because they haven't dated a lot. They don't have a great social life, and once they become adults, and they get real jobs, and they start to actually date — the real world starts to degrade these ridiculous fantasies. independent, reader-supported news This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) to help us produce more of it. [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) ### EU building 'Fortress Europe' with harsher new asylum regime URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/in-a-concession-to-the-far-right-the-eu-tries-to-build-fortress-europe/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T06:25:08.000Z VIENNA — It doesn't matter who you are, as a person: under new rules that took effect June 12 across the European Union, who you are is from where you came. Now anyone seeking asylum from countries like Iran or Nigeria can be held in a border detention facility and subjected to a new, accelerated screening process — and rapidly deported, including to places other than their country of origin. The new rules, approved by the European Parliament, create a two-tiered asylum system. If past asylum-seekers from a certain country have been rejected at least 80 percent of the time, that means anyone from that country can be subjected to an expedited screening process. Applicants will also be presumed safe unless they prove otherwise. "Many asylum seekers are likely to be subjected to the border procedure," Human Rights Watch notes in [a guide](https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/10/questions-and-answers-the-eu-pact-on-migration-and-asylum?ref=theredoubt.net) to the changes, "which may involve detention for up to twelve weeks during the examination of the asylum application and an additional twelve weeks pending deportation." Some countries are even formally declared "safe," further increasing the burden on applicants: India, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia. "Nationals originating in countries designated as safe can be automatically excluded from refugee status," the European Parliamentary Research Service [explains](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2024/762315/EPRS%5FBRI%282024%29762315%5FEN.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/06/IMG_8224.jpeg) **Flyer distributed at a protest in Vienna, Austria on June 12, 2026\. Photo credit: Charles R. Davis* All this comes as the supposed "flood" of people seeking refuge in Europe has become little more than a trickle. Take Germany: In 2026, it is [on track](https://www.dw.com/en/eu-asylum-law-ceas-germany-deportation-migration/a-77508144?ref=theredoubt.net) to receive fewer new asylum applications than it did in 2011, when the Arab Spring began. In Austria, too, new asylum admissions are lower than they have been in more than a decade. Overall, across the EU, there was a [27 percent](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20260325-2?ref=theredoubt.net) drop in new asylum applications in 2025, following an [11 percent](https://apnews.com/article/asylum-migration-migrants-asylum-seekers-eu-european-union-461497346fb484c4361a2897230bd62e?ref=theredoubt.net) drop the year before. What is happening is not a refugee crisis but a concession by Europe's political establishment. European policymakers, including many on the center-left, are ceding the narrative to the far right that something must be done about the purported scourge of people wanting to build their lives in Europe. And they are doing so despite the fact that their aging populations could use an actual influx of labor. It won't work, either. The rules will make the asylum process more difficult for many people, but, as Gerald Knaus of the European Stability Initiative[ told DW](https://www.dw.com/en/eu-asylum-law-ceas-germany-deportation-migration/a-77508144?ref=theredoubt.net), the actual number of applicants likely has more to do with conditions outside of Europe than conditions within. It also won't neutralize the threat posed by the far right, which is leading opinion polls in Germany and Austria even as the number of new immigrants declines. [AfD lawmaker, Young Republican leader headline ‘remigration’ summit with convicted Holocaust denierFormer CBP chief Gregory Bovino was announced Friday as a “special guest” at an event featuring Europe’s leading far-right extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-6afb460c-f8a8-476f-b29f-71298db57558.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/2025-12-19_Sitzung_des_Landtages_Brandenburg_by_Sandro_Halank---080-1d89d3b9-fef2-4a6a-825d-570e1fb1bd0d.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) As *The Redoubt* has [reported](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/), right-wing extremists want to purge their countries to create racially pure, white ethnostates — a process they call "[remigration](https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/)," which demands the removal of citizens too. Asserting that there is a problem with immigration — and doing so despite facts and figures to the contrary — is effective only at increasing the salience of the issue, experts have [told *The Redoubt*](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-far-right-is-still-not-the-future/), while demoralizing young voters who do not share the xenophobia. That young people, especially, are not on board with the EU's concessions to demagogues was on display in Vienna. The day the new asylum system took effect, *The Redoubt* witnessed scores of people marching through the city to protest. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/06/IMG_8232.jpeg) **Protesters gather outside a prison holding immigrants in Vienna, Austria on June 12, 2026\. Photo credit: Charles R. Davis* Addressing the crowd before it marched through the city, an activist with the Rosa Rolling Safer Space, a refuge for women fleeing persecution, said they rejected "nationalist and racist narratives" about migration in European discourse. "We will not stand by and watch as the European border and surveillance regime is further expanding," they said. "We are fighting back to build a world without borders and exploitation. And that's why we say, 'brick by brick, wall by wall, make the Fortress Europe fall.'" Hundreds of people chanted it back. No ads, no billionaires, 100% independent This on-the-ground reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Trump's ballroom reflects 'hatred for American democracy': White House historian URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/trumps-ballroom-reflects-hatred-for-american-democracy-white-house-historian/ Last updated: 2026-06-10T12:53:22.000Z The gigantic ballroom that Donald Trump is trying to build on White House grounds is a venue for [corruption](https://www.theredoubt.net/pattern-of-no-bid-contracts-going-to-companies-working-on-trumps-ballroom/), the U.S. president's donors and [favorite contractors](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) set to receive tens of millions — [potentially billions](https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-ballroom-firm-now-competing-for-billions-in-new-border-contracts/) — of dollars in taxpayer money after agreeing to help construct an entertainment complex fit for a king. But the appearance of impropriety is perhaps not the most interesting or alarming aspect of the project. There's also the matter of symbolism, and what the building of a massive event center on formerly humble grounds says about the state of American democracy and the values of the United States' political and corporate elites. In a conversation with *The Redoubt's* Charles R. Davis and historian Shirin Sadeghi, co-host of [Critical Support](https://www.patreon.com/c/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net), Edward Lengel argued that Trump's vision for the nation's capital is an affront to the legacy of those who founded the U.S. government. Lengel, former chief historian at the White House Historical Association, said that America's "founding fathers" wanted to project humility after throwing off the shackles of monarchy; to enshrine republican values in the very architecture of the U.S. government. Whatever one thinks about America's founders — or the sanctity of a White House built with slave labor — Lengel said Trump's rebuke of his predecessors and their notion of an understated, people's house, should trouble Americans of all political persuasions. Describing himself as a conservative-leaning independent, Lengel admits he once underestimated the president's willingness to literally destroy the country's institutions. "I think he's developed a hatred for American democracy," Lengel said, "and I think that this is something that is really manifest in what he's doing now." 🎧 **Listen to this interview by* [**subscribing*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *to Critical Support and following the show on* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Apple*](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-support-charles-x-shirin/id1893854704?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Spotify*](https://open.spotify.com/show/1j8a6whkwfdo2KsTquGWPA?ref=theredoubt.net) *or* [**YouTube*](https://www.youtube.com/@CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**.* **CHARLES R. DAVIS**: Our guest today is Edward Lengel. He was the chief historian of the White House Historical Association from 2016 to 2018 and he's the author of "[General George Washington: A Military Life](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/99847/general-george-washington-by-edward-g-lengel/?ref=theredoubt.net)." Edward is also somebody I reached out to a few weeks ago now, because I was working [on a story](https://www.theredoubt.net/pattern-of-no-bid-contracts-going-to-companies-working-on-trumps-ballroom/) about the White House ballroom, and my angle was the [corruption of it](https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-ballroom-firm-now-competing-for-billions-in-new-border-contracts/). I wanted to figure out if any taxpayer money was going to this giant monstrosity on the White House grounds, but talking to Edward, I ended up on a different, slightly more interesting topic, which was the symbolism of it all. Edward did write the book on George Washington, so he knows a thing or two. One of the more interesting things he told me was that, you know, corruption aside, the founding fathers did not want what Donald Trump is building. They did not want a big palace for American government, right? They had just broken from the British monarchy, so they wanted to get away from all that extravagance. So, what actually bothered Ed a little bit more than the corruption — although I don't want to say he's not bothered by that — was the symbolic affront to the American democracy \[and\] the American project that he sees this as representing. So, with that being said, Ed, I wonder if you could explain a little bit more why you think the White House ballroom is an affront to the symbolism that the American founding fathers wanted. **EDWARD LENGEL**: Good morning, Charles. Good morning, Shirin. It's great to talk with you — and Charles, I think your [earlier reporting and investigation](https://www.theredoubt.net/pattern-of-no-bid-contracts-going-to-companies-working-on-trumps-ballroom/) on this has really proven prescient. The administration really was planning all along, from the very beginning, to use significant taxpayer funds on this, and now that's out in the open with the request for [a billion dollars](https://abcnews.com/Politics/breakdown-1-billion-request-trumps-white-house-ballroom/story?id=132927177&ref=theredoubt.net). I think that was intended from the very beginning, and certainly the symbolism of it has now been recognized in the various lawsuits that have been delivered against the administration. I've had no part in those lawsuits. I've been following them from a distance, but ... I have been arguing from the very beginning that this administration's demolition of the East Wing, plans for the ballroom, and now many of the other things that are going on, including the UFC fight that's going to take place \[June 14\], are all running directly counter to and really antithetical to the founders' intent for the White House and the founders' recognition that the White House had powerful symbolic value — which continues to the present day — which required careful management. So all of this is very timely, and I appreciate connecting with you about it. **DAVIS**: Now, of course, Donald Trump says that, going back generations, that every U.S. president has wanted a massive ballroom like this. Is he wrong? **LENGEL**: Well, he, in his early comments, he said: "Oh, presidents have wanted this for a century." And I went on a on a talk show, and they brought that up, and I said, well, actually, that goes back practically to the very beginning. In fact, even Andrew Jackson had his tumultuous inauguration party, which then spilled into the White House, and kind of took it over, and forced poor Andy Jackson to [jump out the window](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First%5Finauguration%5Fof%5FAndrew%5FJackson?ref=theredoubt.net) because there wasn't enough room for all the guests. So he's right in the sense that the White House has always had limited functionality for entertainment. But where he's wrong is that that limited functionality for entertainment has always been deliberate. George Washington intended, from the beginning, that — along with \[Thomas\] Jefferson and the others — that yes, there would be entertainment; yes, there would be functions at the White House; but that they would be restrained. They would represent elements of gravitas and decorum and dignity, and that deliberately they would be more like house parties rather than gigantic public spectacles and entertainment, particularly for the elites. What the current president is asking for, as I'm arguing now — you can make an argument for the ballroom. Absolutely. But it is not a conservative argument. It is not in any way aligned with a conservative interpretation of the republic and of the democracy that it represents. It is a radical argument. It is an argument that is antithetical to the founders' intent, and I think that's really suggestive for the type of administration we have. [Exclusive: Ballroom firm got $33.7 million no-bid contract to demolish historic buildingsA no-bid contract was awarded to the same firm that is constructing President Trump’s White House ballroom, The Redoubt can reveal.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-be902d91-11a5-43de-99d6-16182c65203d.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/51441843822_322ad055c6_k-6a3d2443-753c-4e53-856b-522842877bdb.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) **DAVIS**: When you say that the founders did not want a big, expansive White House grounds for parties, they kind of knew that they were limiting themselves. Was that just a matter of like taste and decorum, or were they trying to suggest something political about this decision? **LENGEL**: So, some of the people who have been apologists for the administration, have said that in the early days there was talk about what became the White House actually being a "palace" — that the word palace was used. And also they've stated that George Washington imagined that this would be somewhat bigger than it actually turned out to be, and that's correct. If you go back to the very, very early days, I mean, even before architect James Hoban came in and won the competition for designing the White House, Jefferson, from the very beginning, was opposed. He wanted the White House, or the executive mansion, to be smaller. He wanted it to be a house. He wanted it to be built out of brick instead of carved stone, which is something that Washington brought in. However, I think just kind of bringing it all down into a nutshell: through their debates at a very politically divided time, and then when Jefferson left the picture and Washington was left pretty much in charge, working with James Hoban, Washington deliberately decided that yes, this would be built of cut stone, but it would no longer be considered a palace. That was a deliberate decision; that it would be considered a home and a residence, and that its size would be in alignment with the young republic's stature — that it would not be an excessively large edifice. And he designed it with James Hoban to represent a democratic conception of the president as the nation's first gentleman, or first American, and not as anybody more exalted than that. So it was deliberately designed not to be a palace, not to be about entertainment, primarily, but to be a residence, and that was considered essential for their conception of American democracy. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support our work with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) **SHIRIN SADEGHI**: Why should we care if Donald Trump is not revering the heritage of the White House? I mean, is it almost like Donald Trump is "woke" — that he is saying, "I'm not going to respect tradition. I'm not going to accept authority on these matters." I mean, the White House has a pretty dark history. It was built by slaves, and you know, black people's entrance into the building for a very long time was limited to servants. Why do we care? Tell us, why do we care? Why should we be concerned if Donald Trump is not adhering to the wishes of the founding fathers on the White House? **LENGEL**: Thanks for the great question, Shirin. I think there are a couple of aspects to this. One is for what it reveals about the administration itself. For me personally, I'm a more or less traditional historian. I'm not a very political person, but I would say I'm generally fairly conservative in my instincts. It reveals that this administration, this current administration, has nothing but contempt for the founding fathers, despite all that it hides itself in the trappings of liberty in America 250 — and there's a lot of talk about we believe that the traditional American history needs to be taught in respect for the founders, you know, and so on and so on and so on. This episode, more than anything else, reveals that the administration has no understanding of the founding intent and really doesn't care. It even goes down to the little things. I got myself an annual national parks pass the other day, and not realizing the form that the parks pass took. And they handed it to me, and there's a picture on the pass, obviously deliberate, with Trump's face right next to George Washington, and even overshadowing George Washington. For all that many conservatives complain about the 1619 Project, this administration doesn't care about the founding fathers and founding intent any more than the 1619 Project does. This is not a conservative administration, it's a radical populist administration, so that in itself is revealing. The second part that's very important here is that certainly, you know, critics of the founding fathers look at slavery and they look at the fact that enslaved people built these buildings and all of that is a is a very important subject. But I think what everybody should be able to agree on is that the structure of this country's government, the symbolism and the constitution and the fundamentals of American democracy, are essentially important. They're fundamental to the stability of our nation, and the fact that this government really has outlasted any other government on the face of the earth. This development, the demolition of the East Wing, but even more than that, the building of this gigantic ballroom overshadowing everything else, fundamentally changes an essential symbolic element of American democracy. It changes the epicenter of executive power from being a relatively humble residence that represents the chief executive as a person of the people who is living in the people's house and changes this permanently — and permanently is the essential word — into essentially a party central, a playground for the elites, a Mar-a-Lago type residence. This is a fundamentally important issue. Do we want our chief executive to be the chief elite who plays with, for example, Big Tech leaders and the super wealthy in a gigantic ballroom that is inaccessible by the people? Or do we want that person to have some anchor in America, in general, in the American people, in general? So I think this challenges the fundamentals of our democracy. [Pattern of no-bid contracts going to companies working on Trump’s ballroomContracts reviewed by The Redoubt call into question White House claims that the ballroom would never cost taxpayers a dime.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-59c75b4b-1f4a-4d35-bf9c-4384005bb5ec.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/whitehouse-ballroom-rendering-b6aa05bd-e600-44ba-9e15-d1a7eb8fadef.webp)](https://www.theredoubt.net/pattern-of-no-bid-contracts-going-to-companies-working-on-trumps-ballroom/) **DAVIS**: Now, Ed, you said the administration's treatment of the White House grounds is not conservative, and it's definitely, I guess, not small "r" republican. But I'm wondering if you're at all surprised by the overall politics of this and the broader conservative movement's response to it, because I know — as Shirin was kind of getting with her question — the kind of absurdity that I face is that it seems to be ... putting people like myself in a weird position where we say "Donald Trump must respect our national heritage, our history." It's like me complaining to my conservative relatives, "Don't you care about what's happening to the East Wing? Don't you care about the Kennedy Center, and stuff like that?" And it's just kind of weird that it's kind of been inverted, right? Those of us who would consider ourselves more liberal and progressive ... we've been thrust into this position of like defending our national, iconic architecture and our nation's history, whereas it seems like the broader conservative movement has just kind of gone along with Donald Trump, who, as I said, is not really representing a small "r" republican tradition when he does this. **LENGEL**: Also a great question. So, I have talked with a lot of friends about this, and also influencers, and I read the opinion columns in different newspapers. For example, I read the Wall Street Journal fairly regularly and I see that many conservatives, especially thinking conservatives, do recognize that this is appalling. For example, when I put up some commentary and I was quoted extensively in the Huffington Post, obviously a liberal outlet about the UFC fight, one of my very conservative friends commented that this whole UFC thing is disgraceful. And I have also seen other conservatives kind of very critical of what's happening, shocked at what's happening, for example, Peggy Noonan, who writes for the Wall Street Journal in the opinion \[section\]. Very, very important, kind of an older style Reagan conservative, she was a speech writer for him, \[and\] is also highly critical of what's going on. But then those who have kind of sold themselves to cling to Trump and the Trump administration as being the only force that can prevent "woke" from taking over the world? They are willing to kind of contort themselves into all kinds of mental gymnastics to defend this. And the most ironic thing is I hear those people saying, "Well, Ed, don't you think that we need to update the founders? Don't you think you know that the founders' vision is no longer really relevant today, and we need to change it to suit modern times?" And I just laugh, and I say, you know, there are many progressive legal theorists who would agree with you completely. That's the whole progressive argument for why we need to, for example, update our view of the Constitution and legal theory and everything else, is that the founding vision needs to evolve with modern times. So you see these people now using progressive arguments to defend what Trump is doing, and I've never seen anybody address that hypocrisy, and I have yet to see anybody, anywhere, argue against the statement that the founders did not intend this for the White House. Nobody has tried to engage with that argument. What they do is, when push comes to shove, they discard the founders and they embrace Trump. I find that very troubling, but I also think it again reinforces the argument that this is not a conservative administration. **SADEGHI**: Ed, you mentioned earlier about the system that would, that produced the White House, the system that was made by the founding fathers. I know growing up in the U.S., our government teachers and our U.S. history teachers throughout elementary school and high school and all that, they repeatedly would tell us that the U.S. system is unique because it has checks and balances. And it just looks like, over and over again, the Trump administration has proven my high school history teachers to be wrong. Has he in any way actually violated the Constitution by making these changes to the White House by putting a UFC, I believe it's called cage, on the White House lawn? Tell us more about that. **LENGEL**: I'm not a legal expert, I was skeptical that it would be possible to stop the administration from doing what it wanted to with the White House, and the reason for that is that there are a lot of loopholes and a lot of vague kind of areas for who is really in charge of the overall kind of structure of the White House. funding for the White House. Certainly the administration thought that simply by circumventing Congress, by getting private funding initially to fund this construction of the ballroom and demolition of the East Wing, that they could circumvent Congress's control over the power of the purse. Traditionally Congress has had to authorize any major changes, because Congress has had to publicly fund that. Now, I was skeptical that anybody could stop them, but I think the National Trust for Historic Preservation and other organizations that have mounted legal challenges to this have have really shown that there can be a very powerful argument to make to be made that what the administration is doing is illegal. And they have been able to get a number of stays on this construction; it's gone through the courts, it's now with a federal appeals court, I believe, and from initial indications the appeals court seems to be questioning the administration's moves as well. In fact, there was an interesting exchange recently where one of the judges said that, so if the administration decided they wanted to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty, and they just did it right now before anybody could stop them, are you saying that would be legal? And the lawyer for the administration said, "yes," that would be legal. So, clearly, the administration thinks that they have practically unlimited power over the symbolism and the edifices of our country. Part of what's happening here is the administration's standard MO, which is that as soon as you try to block them on one thing, the administration will snowball you with a dozen other things that will overstretch you and make it impossible for you to stop them. Thus, what Trump is doing with, for example, trying to build his triumphal arch; with painting over the Eisenhower Executive Office Building; with having this UFC cage fight; and then talking about making the arena permanent. All of this is specifically designed to kind of drive his opponents into kind of a hysterical state to try to over-defend everything, so that Trump can get through the things that he really wants. And it's important for those of us who oppose the administration on these things to stay focused and not to take a lot of what he's doing seriously. For example, when I look at the UFC fight, I think it's atrocious, but I don't get overwrought about it, because this is just what Trump does, and when he talks about making the arena permanent, I just laugh. No, the Democrats are going to come back in, \[and\] if he leaves the arena there, they're just going to tear it down. And, in fact, it's a gift to Democrats. This whole thing has been a huge gift to the Democratic Party, and I think is driving independents like me, for example, over to their side and against the administration. I think they're going to pay a big political price for this. **DAVIS**: That's actually a perfect segue to another question I wanted to ask you. Let's let's fast forward, let's say we don't go down the darkest timeline, that we have a free and fair presidential election a few years from now, and let's just say, hypothetically, a unity Democratic-Republican ticket comes in — so we're not going to get partisan here — and they invite you in to say, "What should we do with the White House grounds?" Let's assume the ballroom has been built. What would you advise them to do? Because I've seen a couple different proposals. I think you know your partisan Democrat would like to see it razed; they don't want to see anything that Donald Trump built outlast him or his administration. On the other hand, I've seen some people propose that we turn it into a museum, perhaps to recognize the enslaved people that Shirin referenced earlier, who helped to build the White House. What would you say to any future administration that is asking what they should do with what Donald Trump has done to the done to the White House grounds? **LENGEL**: Well, there are two things that could possibly happen here, and kind of connecting with what I said earlier, that this is such a big gift to opponents of the administration and to the to the political left in general. All of these things that he's doing and talking about doing — even down to the putting his putting his picture on the on the national parks pass; he's talking about putting it on the currency; trying to put it on the Kennedy Center — is building up his political opponents to this desire for a radical demolition of all of the symbolism that Trump tried to create. I mean, his opponents are are just rubbing their hands with glee and looking forward to tearing this all down, and it's going to be, I think, a great catharsis for people who despise Trump, and I think people in the political middle, like me, are going to stand by and say, "Yeah, you go get them, go for it, tear it all down." I think that emotion is building and that anger is building — that Trump's attempting to create this permanent legacy is motivating people more to erase his legacy, and I think that's going to be the likely result. Democrats are going to run into a problem if the White House \[ballroom\] is built simply, and Trump knows this — the amount of money that would go into building the ballroom would mean it would be extremely expensive to demolish the ballroom. That's the biggest problem, and that's been his argument from the beginning, which I think is why Democrats deliberately are trying to postpone this and drag this out, so that he can't get the ballroom built. If, for some reason, he is able to build the ballroom, I think a lot of Democrats, like you say, are going to want to just tear the thing down. But I think more likely what's going to happen is they're going to repurpose it in some way that will be a deliberate kind of counterpunch to this administration, say turn it into the Joe Biden Center for the Commemoration of, you know, Enslaved Labor at the White House. Something like that is very, very likely to happen, because they're going to say, "Look, there's another way to give it to them." They're going to say, "Trump and the Republicans wanted to turn this into a playground for the elite. We're going to turn it back into something directed at the common people, at the common American people." And that's going to give them a very compelling political argument. If it was just me, and if the ballroom is built, I would say repurposing in some way is probably the best way to go. But the tragedy of this is that Trump, by what he's doing now, is turning the White House into something it was never meant to be, which is an area for partisan debate. He's turning it into a battleground, and that again is specifically something not only the founders, but every president, practically right up to Trump, has respected — that vision, that the White House, whatever else we may fight in any other kind of battlegrounds, the White House will always remain politically neutral. Trump, more than anybody else, has turned this into a partisan battleground, and unfortunately, that may be permanent. [Trump ballroom firm now eligible for billions in new border contractsClark Construction is one of a handful of firms that can now bid on CBP projects funded by the president’s signature legislation.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-d0d8bf71-5eb0-4f86-9457-b24eb09fbcdc.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/30971178767_6a71936765_k-ea5bbbac-25e8-4582-8426-0615d510ad14.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-ballroom-firm-now-competing-for-billions-in-new-border-contracts/) **SADEGHI**: Ed, you were the chief historian of the White House Historical Association during Trump's first term. Can you tell us a little bit about what was the mood then? Did you see something like this coming? Have you ever met Donald Trump? Tell us a little bit more about your personal involvement with the Trump administration and sort of the integrity of American political establishments and architecture. **LENGEL:** The White House Historical Association is an independent nonprofit, and it was in fact founded by Jackie Kennedy back in the 1960s initially to focus on preservation of the interior of the White House, the artifacts, and so on. But it is the White House Historical Association, and in fact, right up to the to the present day, the association, and certainly, when I was there, was focused not just on the interior of the White House, but also on the architecture of the White House itself. I will say, by the way, I think the behavior of the White House Historical Association currently is craven and is disgraceful, and that they have made no effort to protest what the administration is doing — certainly no effort that I have seen. In fact, they have just kind of cravenly gone along with everything that's happening. And they say, "Oh, well, we're not really about the White House anymore, and that we, you know, we're not part of the administration." To me, that's an argument for why you can stand up and make your voice heard. You don't report to the White House. You are an independent voice. You can say, "Wait a second, this isn't consistent with the history of the White House." So they're not doing that, and I think that's really terrible. When I was there, and given the fact that this is an independent association, I did not report to the administration, so I didn't have to, you know, go along with them, and I've never met Donald Trump. But I did see a lot of what was happening, and I remember when Trump was inaugurated, I was at the association, I was there while in the latter stages of President Obama's tenure, and then for Trump we got a lot of contacts from the media saying, "Well, what's going to happen, is Trump going to repaint the White House gold, is he going to do this and that?" And I kind of scoffed, to be honest. I said he's not going to do that, he's not going to change the White House in any significant way, and I didn't hear any scuttlebutt at that time that he was going to demolish the East Wing. The administration did not, so far as I'm aware, pressure the association to say this or that about what was happening at the White House, so I enjoyed the luxury of being to some degree a neutral observer of what was happening. One of the reasons I quit the White House Historical Association in 2018 is that the association seemed focused on just happy talk. No, we're just going to talk about all the fun things and the trivial things that happened at the White House, and we're not really going to talk about the meat of why the White House was built and what it represents. And so to me that was not intellectually satisfying, and I moved on, so I didn't get kind of the insider vision. But I think what I can say is that all of what Trump is doing now, I think, is something that he was meditating in his rage over his various prosecutions and legal issues and the run-up to the 2024 election. I think he decided he's going to blow the place up, he's going to blow the country up. I think what he's doing is, in a lot of ways, a highly emotive reaction and a desire just to bulldoze everything. And people are not seeing that I think he's developed a hatred for American democracy and I think that this is something that is really manifest in what he's doing now. **DAVIS**: Well, Ed, like a lot of our guests, I bet you wish on some level that your expertise were a little bit less relevant these days. We've had on other guests who are experts on, like, [birthright citizenship](https://www.theredoubt.net/birthright-citizenship-and-the-attack-on-democracy-if-you-know-the-history-you-know-what-theyre-trying-to-do/), for example — this is a professionally very good time for them, but I think they would actually prefer that their books weren't selling as well, for example. That being said, I thank you for bringing your expertise to our audience at here at Critical Support, you've definitely enlightened us to somehow some of the history and why it still matters today, and why you think it's not just "Trump derangement syndrome" to be a little bit upset about what's happened to the White House. **LENGEL**: Yeah, thank you for that. I will say I didn't expect any of this to happen, and I certainly was not seeking the limelight on this, because I was kind of dozing along in the various books and projects that I have that I have happening right now, which really have had nothing to do with the White House in the recent couple of years. And then when this story blew up, because various media outlets tried to contact the White House Historical Association, and the association refused to talk with them, they found me and contacted me. So, as a result, I'm talking all over the place about the White House. And yeah, this is not something I necessarily want to talk about, because this is a terrible thing that's happening. But when somebody asks me what I think, I'm going to say what I think, and, and it is at least satisfying in some ways to say I spoke up against what was happening. And I wish many of my fellow conservatives would do the same thing — just say that this is wrong, you know. Don't be afraid. You have to stand up for the founding vision of this country. 🎧 **Listen to this interview by* [**subscribing*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *to Critical Support and following the show on* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Apple*](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-support-charles-x-shirin/id1893854704?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Spotify*](https://open.spotify.com/show/1j8a6whkwfdo2KsTquGWPA?ref=theredoubt.net) *or* [**YouTube*](https://www.youtube.com/@CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### How America emboldened Europe's far right URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/how-america-got-europes-far-right-to-stop-pretending/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T08:13:58.000Z If one thing is clear after the [May 30 "remigration" summit](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) in Portugal, it's that they're not hiding it anymore. In 2026, Europe's leading neo-fascists — including lawmakers from far-right parties like Vox in Spain and Germany's AfD — are now open about their plans for ethnic cleansing. And they're joined in this by MAGA figures like Greg Bovino, the one-time face of President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, and Stefano Forte, president of the New York Young Republican Club and a key nexus between right-wing extremists on both sides of the Atlantic. [AfD lawmaker, Young Republican leader headline ‘remigration’ summit with convicted Holocaust denierFormer CBP chief Gregory Bovino was announced Friday as a “special guest” at an event featuring Europe’s leading far-right extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-3d623467-3936-4dc8-b3d8-f4d5101127f3.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/2025-12-19_Sitzung_des_Landtages_Brandenburg_by_Sandro_Halank---080-7153300e-10f6-460c-803f-b2d5be362255.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) Less than three years ago, the Austrian white supremacist Martin Sellner was politically toxic, his proposal for "remigration" — the mass removal of all non-white people from Europe — publicly rejected by Alternative für Deutschland, the far-right party now leading in German opinion polls. In 2023, the investigative outlet Correctiv revealed that Sellner had pitched his plan to AfD leaders at a secret meeting in Potsdam. Nationwide protests followed, many Germans remembering what happened the last time the far right decided some Europeans were more European than others. The AfD was forced to come out and reject the notion of deporting legal residents and citizens of Germany. Now? AfD lawmaker Lena Kotré was [a featured speaker](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) alongside Sellner and other extremists in Portugal, including the leader of a Swiss neo-Nazi group, Junge Tat, and a Belgian activist who has been convicted of hate crimes and Holocaust denial. Instead of distancing itself from the event, the AfD sent its party-affiliated newspaper, Deutschland Kurier, to draw [further attention](https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/) to it. [Heidi Beirich](https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/), co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, has spent decades tracking the American and European far right. Speaking to [Critical Support](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net) — co-hosted by *The Redoubt's* Charles R. Davis and journalist and historian Shirin Sadeghi — Beirich explained what "remigration" really means, why we're now hearing so much about it today and what it all has to do with the 2024 U.S. election. 🎧 **Listen to this interview by* [**subscribing*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *to Critical Support and following the show on* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Apple*](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-support-charles-x-shirin/id1893854704?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Spotify*](https://open.spotify.com/show/1j8a6whkwfdo2KsTquGWPA?ref=theredoubt.net) *or* [**YouTube*](https://www.youtube.com/@CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**.* **CHARLES R. DAVIS**: I am very excited to introduce Heidi Beirich, who is the co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, and an expert on the American and European far right. And I can't think of any better way to start, Heidi, than to ask you why you decided to dedicate yourself and your life to following the worst people alive. Like, can you tell me a little bit of the story about what was behind the founding of the Global Project, and why you find this work so important. **HEIDI BEIRICH**: Yeah, so I've been tracking extremist movements domestically in the U.S. and abroad for like a really, really long time. We founded the Global Project in 2020\. I had worked at the Southern Poverty Law Center before that, and the reason for founding the global project is these movements have become really transnational. You can't just look at them through a domestic lens, it doesn't make any sense. Twenty years ago, there wasn't a far right in all the places where we have it today, but over the years I've just watched this, these kinds of movements, from the hardest core neo-Nazis and white supremacists to folks in suits and ties, grow and grow and grow. It's been distressing, and I've devoted my life to it, because I think these movements are a unique threat to democracy and human rights, and as a result they need to be exposed, and if possible, counteracted. **DAVIS**: And that is why you were the person to reach out to when I was [reporting the other week](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) on this remigration summit that just occurred in Portugal. As you well know, it was kind of a who's who of transatlantic neo-fascists: Greg Bovino from the United States, Stefano Forte from the New York Young Republican Club, but also the most prominent far-right extremists in Europe, Martin Sellner from Austria probably the most famous amongst them. And they were there to discuss this thing called "remigration," which — when I brought this up with Shirin the other week — she didn't know what that was, and I think a lot of people don't know what that is, because until a few years ago it was like this fringe far-right term that you didn't need to know. What is this term, "remigration," and why are we suddenly seeing it everywhere? **BEIRICH**: So remigration, it has a longer history than this, but Martin Sellner, who you already mentioned, is the key person driving it into the mainstream over the last few years. Martin Sellner is a former neo-Nazi, then became the head of the [Identitarian movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identitarian%5Fmovement?ref=theredoubt.net) in Europe. He headed the Austrian chapter, that's where he's from. And what it is is a plan to ethnically cleanse European countries or others — the United States, Canada, places that were historically, you know, majority white populations — to get rid of the populations that are non-white. This includes immigrants, refugees, but also importantly, naturalized citizens, or citizens, right, whose heritage is from other parts of the world who they believe are polluting and destroying Western civilization and the countries that they've migrated to. It's a pretty radical and scary idea. And just a couple years ago, there was a leak and a story written about Sellner [meeting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023%5FPotsdam%5Ffar-right%5Fmeeting?ref=theredoubt.net) with members of the Alternative for Deutschland, the Alternative for Germany party, the far-right party in Germany, and it actually caused an uproar. People took to the streets against this idea in Germany, and yet here we are, just a couple years later, and the AfD party has actually said that their official policy is remigration. 🎧 **Subscribe to Critical Support via* [**The Redoubt*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [**Patreon*](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net) *and hear new episodes before anyone else. You can also find the show on* [**Apple*](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-support-charles-x-shirin/id1893854704?ref=theredoubt.net)**,* [**Spotify*](https://open.spotify.com/show/1j8a6whkwfdo2KsTquGWPA?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [**YouTube*](https://www.youtube.com/@CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)**.* **SHIRIN SADEGHI**: Wait, when did all this start? When did a concerted program for ethnic cleansing in former European colonies and Europe start? **BEIRICH**: Martin Sellner proposed remigration about two-and-a-half years ago. That's when this started. That's when the term became popularized. **SADEGHI**: And it's just growing very fast then. **BEIRICH**: It's incredible how fast it's grown. But there's a backstory to this; a longer period of infiltrating the mainstream with something called the "great replacement" conspiracy theory. So the great replacement conspiracy theory — the term was actually coined by a Frenchman — is the idea that there's a plot, a plan, it's sometimes put at the hands of Jews, sometimes globalists, to replace white populations across the Western world with immigrants and refugees. And this idea has been around now for, I don't know, probably 25 years. It's also called at times "white genocide," and it started in white supremacist circles. The Identitarian movement was popularizing it, and Sellner in Europe, and it actually has inspired multiple terrorist attacks — at a synagogue in Halle, Germany; at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 — and I'm telling you all of this because the far right has been pushing this great replacement idea, like it moved from neo-Nazis and white supremacists into far-right parties. And remigration is the policy solution to the great replacement — even though it's a conspiracy theory, even though it's not real. This is the policy answer. So, when Sellner proposed this a couple years ago, what he was doing was saying, okay, we accept that the great replacement is happening, there are too many non-white people in these countries, so what we need to do is we need to forcibly remove them from those countries. **SADEGHI**: Do they think that non-white people are getting together and planning this, or do they think this is something that has befallen them? **BEIRICH**: So they don't believe non-white people are plotting. In fact, they, you know — these are white supremacists, they don't think non-white people are very smart. Generally, what they think is that Jews — this is the case of the guy who shot up the Pittsburgh synagogue, that Jews are plotting this — or, alternatively, they say globalists, people like George Soros, the Hungarian-born Jewish philanthropist, who now I think lives in the United States. They do believe there's a plot, and the reason we call the "great replacement" a conspiracy theory is because it's a conspiracy either put together by Jews, in their view, or by people like Soros and people on the left who have global power. So they really believe it's a plot, but it's not the immigrants and the migrants that are doing it, they're simply the tool for these people to undermine white power. That's their theory. **SADEGHI**: And they feel that all Jews, or the euphemism "globalists," are trying to eliminate white people. **BEIRICH**: Yeah, they believe that they're trying to undermine their power. I think that's sort of the first step, in other words: overwhelm them with a majority of non-white people. So they'll often point to the fact that the Census Bureau has said that, you know, sometime — maybe 2040s, 2050s — that whites will no longer be a majority in the United States, they will become a minority, and it'll be a country that's a population with a bunch of different kinds of minorities. And they look at that demographic data as the proof that this plan is happening, and yes, some of them believe that there is a Jewish conspiracy behind this. One thing a lot of people don't know is that when the shooter entered the [Tree of Life synagogue](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/mass-shooter-found-guilty-of-murdering-11-people-at-tree-of-life-synagogue-in-2018?ref=theredoubt.net) in Pittsburgh, he wasn't actually going into the main sanctuary. He was trying to get at the offices of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. This is an organization that's been around years and years and years, helped relocate people prior to the Holocaust and after the Holocaust, out of Germany and Poland and areas like that. He wanted to stop that organization, whose shorthand is HIAS, and he viewed that as a Jewish plan; like there's the proof those Jews are bringing in non-whites into the United States, and they have to be stopped. **DAVIS**: Now, we can see why a conspiracy theory so strongly rooted in antisemitism would be toxic in 2023 Germany, which is the year that Martin Sellner was revealed to have met with these AfD lawmakers. But what I'm wondering is why, since that secret meeting, has the AfD now kind of openly associated with Martin Sellner and not seem to have suffered such a great setback? Is it that they've kind of tapped into what I think is like Donald Trump's one weird trick for getting away with everything, which is learning that — if you just do it out in the open – there is no scandal for an investigative journalist to reveal? **BEIRICH**: Well, that's probably true. I also think Donald Trump plays a bigger role in this than what you're indicating. You know, he tweeted during the campaign in 2024 "remigration." He personally popularized this term. There had been nobody in any far-right party that I know of in Europe or anywhere else who had picked up on Sellner's ideas, especially because it was so scandalous at the time, right? But he did, and therefore Trump popularized this idea, gave sanction to Sellner's idea, and made it okay for people like Alice Weidel, the head of AfD, to embrace the concept. And now we've got people from far-right political parties all over Europe, as well as the American government, openly endorsing the idea of remigration, even though it is rooted in white supremacy and hate. There's just no way around it. [The far right is still not the futureFrom America to Europe, most people don’t share the values of right-wing extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-bdf316ba-8c1a-4e38-bfd2-e24567403b05.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1760829120248-0b72e77b7766-75d7a330-7fc0-4af6-aa81-3dacc5bcb920)](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-far-right-is-still-not-the-future/) **SADEGHI**: And a number of these high-profile far-righters and extremists are not even white. What about this Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes? I mean, what? Can you explain this to us? **BEIRICH**: Well, there are a handful of people like that. Also, I'd mention that one of the shooters of the Islamic Center in San Diego, from a couple of weeks ago, who was pushing the great replacement conspiracy theory and these ideas, was also non-white. **SADEGHI**: He was Latino. **BEIRICH**: Exactly. We've seen a handful of people like that who've bought into this. They usually, as was the case with the shooter in San Diego, try to self-identify as white or align themselves with white culture. I know this sounds bizarre, but that's the way they see it. There was another shooting in Allen, Texas, a couple years ago, by a Latino at a mall who was motivated by neo-Nazism, the great replacement. He wrote in a manifesto how he so much had wished he'd been born white, because being white is where the power is. So, there's some weird psychological stuff going on here. **DAVIS**: And isn't there like some weird irony? This is what I kind of grapple with as I'm consuming, or at least going through, this far-right propaganda. Because it's all based on the idea that, like, white people, and particularly white men, are just naturally at the top of the hierarchy, that colonialism was a product of white people rightly demonstrating their cultural superiority, and that entitled them to the resources of the developing world, etc. So, on the one hand they say white people are at the top of everything because we are just naturally better, that's just the way it is when you're smarter, stronger, faster, and then that is paired — like five seconds later — especially if you're in the Discord chat, like I looked into the [Reconquista](https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/) Discord chat, when I was researching this — that white supremacist, like chauvinist attitude is paired with antisemitic whining: that actually it's the Jews that run everything in the world, and you know what, like, it's not fair. They're somehow breaking the unspoken rules about global domination that is rightfully in the hands of white Western Europeans. I don't know if you could comment on that irony, if you've picked up on that. **BEIRICH**: Yeah, there is an irony there, right? If white people are so superior, how can they be victims at the same time? Which is how they present themselves. And I think that what this taps into is the idea that there's these conspiratorial forces, right? If there weren't these malign conspiratorial forces, of course, you know, white people would be in charge of everything, because they are superior, they're smarter. They created Western civilization, they deserve to colonize, they created the greatest countries, the greatest art, the greatest literature, etc. So, there have to be nefarious forces that you're not aware of that are undermining this. It's almost like there's a supernatural force undermining white people's control of places. They talk about other things too ... about the idea that white women aren't having enough babies. This is something that came up at the remigration summit in Porto this past weekend, so that that can be part of the plot as well. White women aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, which is, you know, staying in the kitchen and having lots and lots of white babies to, you know, keep that demographic edge at the end of the day. What these people can't handle is that what difference does it make what your population distribution is, right? We're all people. This isn't a plot, it's just natural births and population shifts, and for them that's just — that is intolerable. And they think they're victims in other ways, because they talk about things like, oh, only 8 percent of the world's population is white, so it must be that the Chinese and the Indians are intentionally swapping us out; there's just more conspiratorial kind of victim thought, and there is an irony here. If white people are so superior, why can't you do something about it? Which I guess is what Sellner thinks he's doing. [Sex and equal rights in Eastern Europe: What socialism did for womenAt work and in the bedroom, socialism achieved results for 51% of the population, argues Kristen R. Ghodsee, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-18ef0240-929b-431d-bbbf-0ef91fc05fa3.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Socialist_Facade_Mosaic_-Unsplash--e12914d6-e8ee-4335-a07f-0d5db9499f11.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/sex-and-equal-rights-in-eastern-europe-what-socialism-did-for-women/) **SADEGHI**: Can you explain to us the Trump phenomenon on this, because this is where it's gotten dangerous when you have the head of a government, a very powerful government, using these terms. You said that Trump tweeted ... the term "remigration." \[But\] he has a family that all of his children are married to Jewish people, many of them Orthodox Jewish. Is his family okay with this? Do they know he's doing this? Why is he doing this? Where did he learn that word? Tell me about Trump on this. **BEIRICH**: Well, Trump has been pushing the great replacement conspiracy theory, going all the way back to his first time in office. I don't know how he can sort of reconcile the Jews in his family with pushing an idea that leads to slaughter at synagogues, but he does, and he doesn't seem to care. And he seems to want to motivate his base on the basis of immigration, it's sort of his biggest thing, right? Or it has been for a long time, and he has repeatedly done and said things that are in line with white supremacist terminology. I mean, look, our entire refugee program in the United States [only allows in](https://apnews.com/article/trump-refugees-white-south-africa-border-cap-bfe3974adf6c655eca7a5c30c1f9197f?ref=theredoubt.net) white South Africans, for example. The use of white supremacist terms, I don't think bothers him at all. The Department of Homeland Security has also posted things like "remigration now," and our State Department has plans — they seem to be \[trying\] to create a Department of Remigration. Any connection — saying this idea is from, you know, a former neo-Nazi? This idea is from a white supremacist? It doesn't seem to have any impact on Trump. He doesn't seem to care. I guess whatever riles up his base against immigrants is what he wants to see. It's a bit astounding to see the most powerful elected person in the world repeat a slogan coming from a former neo-Nazi, but that's what we've got going on, and ... I don't see Republicans getting up in Congress and denouncing Trump for using this language. The party doesn't turn against him. It's shocking how extremism has been accepted by Trump and by a lot of people in the GOP. We posted at one point a list of GOP elected officials who were trading in the great replacement conspiracy theory, and it was, you know, dozens and dozens of them. So when it comes to bashing immigrants, they don't seem to care about these connections to real extreme — and frankly, in the case of remigration — ethnic cleansing ideas. This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) **SADEGHI**: When you say ethnic cleansing, that's terrifying, and you've given us a little bit of a background now on this concept, which I don't think most of our listeners know of this remigration concept. Where is this headed? Do you see this headed somewhere extremely dangerous? I mean, some people might say it's already there, where we are ethnically cleansing. And right now we're not, you know, killing "the other" or the unwanted, but we're removing them. Do you see a place, a time in America soon, where it's not just replacement? It's killing? **BEIRICH**: Look, the mass deportations that have been enacted in the United States have already led to deaths. Yes, deaths in detention centers, the killing of, you know, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the protesters in Minneapolis. It's not on the scale that a Sellner would hope, because I think what he's thinking about looks a little bit more like what happened in Germany in the Holocaust, like mass roundups and removals. **SADEGHI**: Yes, that's what it sounds like. **BEIRICH**: Yeah, sometimes they soft-pedal it, and they talk about, well, what we're going to do is enact policies that will lead to self deportation, which apparently is what this office of remigration at the State Department will do, like help people choose to remove themselves from your country. And I say softer version, but it's still the same sort of idea. I don't know how far this ends up going. When Trump came into office, his support was quite high on his immigration policies, and now they have fallen and fallen and fallen as people watched all these terrible things happen. So, I don't think that the American public is on board with that kind of mass removal. In Europe, the idea is mostly concentrated among far-right parties that do not have political power at this point in time. So, you know, that could change, right? AfD seems to be surging in the polls in Germany. If they were to take a majority, would they follow in the path of Trump and these mass deportations? I don't know. Maybe there are more sort of civil rights and human rights policies in Europe stopping that. Here in the United States, the president has almost all the power in the world over immigration policy. That's not to say that people can't challenge things in the courts, and they have, but in Europe it might be a little bit trickier. That said, a lot of mainstream political parties in Europe have moved to the right on this issue, and the EU, even just, I think, passed some kind of an immigration pact that's more hardline. So even if you don't get Sellner's policies, thank God, you are seeing a hardening line against immigrants in a lot of places. So Sellner and his allies in these movements \[are\] moving politics to the right on immigration. [Birthright citizenship and the attack on democracy: ‘If you know the history, you know what they’re trying to do’Prof. Anna O. Law spoke to The Redoubt about her upcoming book and why the 14th Amendment made America great.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-c089732b-336f-47f8-aa25-2589e7079644.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1607966822957-58665f446889-99fc1c5b-a8d8-48b9-8d59-4d56e5c7f4f3)](https://www.theredoubt.net/birthright-citizenship-and-the-attack-on-democracy-if-you-know-the-history-you-know-what-theyre-trying-to-do/) **DAVIS**: Heidi, what do you think is actually driving this? Because I'm sitting here talking to you from Vienna, Austria, and I just read a headline about how new asylum admissions to Austria are now at like a 14 year low. And then you can also look at a news story and see the far right Freedom Party is scoring 38 percent in opinion polls, which is enough to beat every other party. So it doesn't seem like it's actually tied to the number of immigrants coming into a country, and unlike the 1920s, 1930s, it's not tied to any great economic depression. So you don't really even have that materialist explanation for why people would like to unleash the ugliest version of themselves. Is it social media? Is it the fact that you now have people like Elon Musk that are embracing this idea and have a whole social media platform to promote it on? **BEIRICH**: Well, I think that's definitely a part of it. I mean, social media has unleashed, you know, heinous ideas, radicalized, you know, God knows how many people in ways that just couldn't — these things couldn't happen in the past, right? There was just no reach like that. So, I do think that's part of it. It's, of course, a shame when prominent people like Trump, like Musk and others endorse these ideas, furthering them. But it's also been the case that the far right, when it comes to power, even if we're talking about in the 1930s, often does it on the back of scapegoating a population. And immigrants have become the scapegoat, right? You don't necessarily need to have a fully thought out policy agenda to address whatever you might want to address, you just bash immigrants, and that brings people to your side. And it's a sad fact to say about humanity, but you know we've seen this over and over and over again, and not just in the European context, but in other countries, where political parties or leaders come to power on the back of demonizing various populations. For example, the former far-right president in Brazil, who's now in prison for attempting a coup, a January 6-like coup, he bashed the LGBTQ population and indigenous people, and that led to his rise to power. It seems to be endemic in far-right movements that they have to demonize marginalized populations to grow. **DAVIS**: Is there at least any sort of glass-half-full interpretation of the fact that remigration has gone mainstream? Because, in years past, I know we on the liberal left would have this, like, very intense discussion about free speech, and whether it was proper to censor these far-right views, or if it was better just to debate them out in the open. And wherever we sided in that debate, we are now in a situation where it is out in the open. Is that something that we, who oppose this agenda, can use to our advantage? **BEIRICH**: Well, I do think, at least in the case of the United States, actually in the case of Europe too, I mean the agenda itself — the actual mass deportation plans — did not go well, and did not sit well with the American public. There's still been a horrific amount of damage. I don't want to make light of that: families split apart; people dying; people becoming critically ill; a lot of bad stuff to get to a point where the public's like, "Whoa, whoa, wait, wait a minute." However, that is where we're at. And in Europe, what's interesting is that the dislike of Trump is actually so massive that some far-right parties are trying to distance themselves. I think I saw it might have been Politico that did a poll that, like, only 8% of Germans think Trump is an ally, so he may be hurting the far right with his actions, and that's of course about the tariffs and all these other things he's done right that have been disruptive in other places, or the Iran war and gas prices. But regardless, it may dampen the enthusiasm for far-right political parties in Europe. We'll just have to wait and see, but it is instructive that just a few years ago many countries in Europe didn't have far-right political parties, and now they do. **SADEGHI**: But the thing is, in Europe, the problem it seems to me they have with Trump is that he isn't, as you mentioned earlier, soft pedaling — he isn't promoting a more moderate face of this. He's not being polite about it. He's not being civilized. Like maybe they don't have a problem with remigration. They just don't like the way Trump is saying it. **BEIRICH**: That's probably true, and they don't like what they're seeing from Trump on a bunch of fronts. I just think he's giving far-right politics a bad name in Europe because it's harming Europeans and it's kind of ugly, right? And they didn't really have to face what it really looked like when someone had the power to do all these things; what that would actually be, as opposed to someone just proposing them. We'll have to see. [Fight for something: ‘Good governance’ is not enoughOpponents of right-wing populism need to stand for more than the status quo.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-644fdcd4-1aae-40b1-920b-c032e9b9c881.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_7560-c9e396a5-a7d5-4b7a-b56d-c310612a1069.jpeg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/fight-for-something-good-governance-is-not-enough/) **DAVIS**: As I alluded to in one of my earlier questions, Heidi, here in Austria, you know, we have a coalition government between the left and the right that has also embraced some anti-immigrant policies in an attempt to neuter the far right. And as I mentioned with the polling data, that does not seem to be working. So, I'm wondering, what advice you would give to public figures, political leaders who do not support the remigration agenda, but seem to feel — at least their consultants are telling them — that they need to cede ground on this whole immigration thing. What do you think they should be doing? Because it seems to me that that is ceding ground, actually, to the far right and saying "they're kind of right about the problem, but their actual, specific policies aren't right," which doesn't seem super persuasive to your median voter. I guess, speaking for myself, I would like to see a forceful defense of immigration and the value it brings to societies, but I don't know if I'm naive in thinking that that would actually be politically beneficial. **BEIRICH**: Well, you know, there's been [a lot of research](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-far-right-is-still-not-the-future/) on this, and what it generally finds is that when you move to the right on immigration, you think you're going to capture far-right voters, right — like you're talking about in Austria, bring them to the coalition — but what actually happens is they say, "Well, why, if you're just kind of milquetoasty on anti-immigrant stuff, but you're saying immigration is a problem, why would I vote for you? I'll vote for the far right." In other words, it empowers the far right, it's a bad strategy. That said, I do think defenses of immigration and facts around immigration would make a difference if someone was willing to stand up for it. They don't seem to be; what you're seeing in Austria seems to be happening in quite a few places, actually. But it's not going to harm the far right. There is, however, something else I think we all need to just acknowledge and face, which is the old politics of a left and a right are dead. What we tend to have now are political systems that have like a center, which can be a mix of like social democrats and Christian democrats in the European space, and then a far right. I think Hungary is instructive. The recent elections that ousted their far-right leader, Viktor Orbán, who was also rabidly anti-immigrant, it was a party that brought together all those different factions against the far right. So we live in a different political dynamic than we did, say, 20 years ago, and I just don't hear people acknowledging that reality, even here in the United States. Poli-sci studies show that the Democratic Party has moved further and further to the center, while the Republican Party has moved so far to the right that it's more like the AfD in Germany or the FPÖ in Austria. So, what we have once again, is sort of a centrist conglomeration, and a far right, which makes the pandering on immigration by the center even more problematic, because it shows that the far right has an issue that they should, that people should vote for, and it doesn't help this problem. We need defenses of civil liberties and human rights and democracy coming from the center, and we have to understand that politics are sort of forever changed with this dynamic, and the defense has to be for the system against the far right, which is going to harm people, demonize people, and undermine democracy and human rights. [Meta accepts $3.2 million to promote Tucker CarlsonThe parent company of Facebook is helping a right-wing influencer promote conspiracy theories about 9/11.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-7dd0d6c3-1401-4498-8fd4-7f8607d4d418.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1675352162363-ac40c3bb8265-a21a1c9a-2c99-48d0-a250-82dd63c878dc)](https://www.theredoubt.net/meta-has-been-paid-3-2-million-to-promote-tucker-carlson/) **SADEGHI**: Heidi, as we close this important interview, I wonder if you could tell our listeners what they could do. What can the public do to stymie this movement, to stymie this rise of hate, to do anything at all? **BEIRICH**: Yeah, I think there's a lot that people can do, especially in local communities, which is standing up to this demonization stuff here in the United States. That might mean people holding events that make a community welcoming; electing politicians who stand for welcoming policies; voting for candidates who believe that people shouldn't be demonized; letters to the editor; writing your representatives. All that applies, but most importantly: voting, because if we don't exercise power at the ballot box, then we're just giving an open pass. I also think people should denounce the demonization, and they should also tell those [tech companies](https://www.theredoubt.net/meta-has-been-paid-3-2-million-to-promote-tucker-carlson/) to stop spreading antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred, anti-immigrant hatred. One unfortunate thing, since Trump has come into office, is most of the big social media companies have just sort of abandoned content moderation, so the ideas are spreading even further, and you know, saying "I'm against that" is really important. We've got to stand up for democracy and civil rights, or we're going to lose them. *Appreciate this interview? Consider supporting our work with a subscription to* [*The Redoubt*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *and* [*Critical Support*](https://www.patreon.com/CriticalSupport?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Why did the press ignore a gathering of the world's leading fascists? URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/ Last updated: 2026-06-05T11:05:52.000Z Just before he [confirmed](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social/post/3mmyumhyxyc2v?ref=theredoubt.net) his attendance at a [neo-fascist summit](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) in Portugal, Gregory Bovino, the former U.S. Border Patrol commander who was once the face of President Donald Trump's mass deportations, [posted](https://archive.is/NVc3P?ref=theredoubt.net) a photo on X showing himself giving a salute familiar to anyone who has heard of Nazi Germany. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/image-6-1.png) **X post by Gregory Bovino. Screen capture on May 31, 2026.* It would be easier to dismiss this Hitlerian greeting as an awkward gesture — as some did when X's owner, Elon Musk, gave it at Trump's 2025 inauguration — were it not selected and shared by a man on his way to a racial-purity conference. The "Remigration Summit 2026," so called, was held May 30 at the [Salmanha Residence hotel](https://www.google.com/maps?q=Salmanha+Residence,+Coimbra+Region+PT,+R.+da+Salmanha+18,+3090-650+Figueira+da+Foz,+Portugal&ftid=0xd22481c48995555:0x5d6480958a14a8d&entry=gps&shh=CAE&lucs=,94297699,94231188,94280568,47071704,94218641,94282134,100799877,94286869&g%5Fep=CAISEjI2LjIyLjIuOTIxMTAxNzU3MBgAIIgnKkksOTQyOTc2OTksOTQyMzExODgsOTQyODA1NjgsNDcwNzE3MDQsOTQyMTg2NDEsOTQyODIxMzQsMTAwNzk5ODc3LDk0Mjg2ODY5QgJBVA%3D%3D&skid=77bd08ba-bab1-43fd-8edb-0e633ad575d8&g%5Fst=ic&ref=theredoubt.net) just south of Porto, Portugal, and its organizers were not subtle. "Weimar conditions require Weimar solutions," [argues](https://archive.is/3Pi2J?ref=theredoubt.net) Afonso Gonçalves, chief organizer of the event. He's the founder of the far-right group Reconquista, so named for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. That's who Bovino was [photographed](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social/post/3mn2wmxlfsk26?ref=theredoubt.net) standing next to after he landed in Europe. Martin Sellner, an extremist from Austria, is best known for pushing the "great replacement" conspiracy theory — that Jewish elites are seeking to exterminate the white race via mass migration — that has motivated mass shooters from [Pennsylvania](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/mass-shooter-found-guilty-of-murdering-11-people-at-tree-of-life-synagogue-in-2018?ref=theredoubt.net) to [New Zealand](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53861456?ref=theredoubt.net). He was the other man standing next to Bovino. Other speakers included a Belgian fascist convicted of Holocaust denial and the founder of a Swiss neo-Nazi group called "Junge Tat" who is quite open about his fondness for "National Socialism." [AfD lawmaker, Young Republican leader headline ‘remigration’ summit with convicted Holocaust denierFormer CBP chief Gregory Bovino was announced Friday as a “special guest” at an event featuring Europe’s leading far-right extremists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-19--1-dcf6dfa48ebff58d093c8e41845388e44186c3ac996fc2e3c0efeed2e2746a34.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/size/w1200/2026/05/2025-12-19_Sitzung_des_Landtages_Brandenburg_by_Sandro_Halank---080.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) I first learned of this gathering on Facebook, where it was promoted by Reconquista with paid advertising (Meta [refused to comment](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/) or to take down the ads). The only secret was its precise location. And yet? No media outlet in the English-speaking world covered the fact that a former Trump administration official was at a gathering of the world's leading fascists to promote "remigration," a far-right euphemism for the ethnic cleansing of non-white people from the United States and Europe. Major media outlets also ignored the presence of Stefano Forte, president of the New York Young Republican Club. A spokesperson for the group — informed of the extremist views (and criminal convictions) of those attending — [told *The Redoubt*](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/)that it would "never apologize for standing alongside our European brothers and sisters." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/image-7-1.png) **Screen capture of Google News taken May 31, 2026.* One of the only outlets that covered this event — and certainly the first — [was *The Redoubt*](https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/). The Spanish newspaper El Pais [reported](https://elpais.com/espana/2026-05-30/vox-abraza-una-internacional-blanca-para-unir-europa-y-lograr-un-efecto-salida-de-emigrantes.html?ref=theredoubt.net) on the presence of Rocio de Meer Méndez, a politician with the far-right Vox party; Europe's [Politico](https://www.politico.eu/article/afd-vox-mingle-with-ex-us-border-patrol-chief-white-nationalist-leader-at-remigration-summit/?ref=theredoubt.net) covered it too. But otherwise? As of Sunday afternoon, coverage appeared largely limited to the far-right outlets that were invited, such as the AfD-affiliated [Deutschland Kurier](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social/post/3mn3arrncfs26?ref=theredoubt.net) (Alternative für Deutschland lawmaker Lena Kotré was another featured speaker). The mainstream right is crawling into the sewer of neo-Nazi ideology but you probably wouldn't know it unless you were a right-wing extremist yourself. Even news outlets that dedicate significant resources to covering the scourge of antisemitism generally ignore it, at least in the United States, when it comes from Republican operatives and retired Trump administration officials. There is no need to argue about whether there is a double standard; the lack of media coverage speaks for itself. The only question is why it exists. Public-service journalism isn't free Our original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) Right-wing capture of the corporate media in the United States is one response; there's just no incentive to highlight one side of the aisle's extremists. Bari Weiss, an opinion columnist with no record of actual reporting, was handed full control over CBS News based on her willingness to turn it into a mouthpiece for its [new owners' politics](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-cbs-david-ellison-paramount-settlement-b2812624.html?ref=theredoubt.net). ABC [paid](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/14/trump-abc-stephanopoulos-settlement-00194391?ref=theredoubt.net) Donald Trump millions of dollars for the crime of [accurately describing](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/19/trump-carroll-judge-rape/?ref=theredoubt.net) his civil liability for sexual assault. Jeff Bezos has turned The Washington Post into a [conservative blog](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/02/how-jeff-bezos-broke-washington-post/685885/?ref=theredoubt.net), and not a particularly interesting one. These outlets will cover extremism and antisemitism if the dots can be connected to an elected Democrat, no question, but not when it's the other way around. After all, it is in the interests of their ownership, and the reactionary cause, for right-wing politics to be seen as a necessarily brutish response to the dangers of a loony left. [Tucker Carlson owns this presidencyRight-wing antisemites are blaming Israel instead of themselves for Donald Trump’s actions. We shouldn’t let them get away with it.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/AmericaFest_2025_-_Tucker_Carlson_19-76f4702b4c762c3a90a7bece5de6911c126ad80de649af2bc54b259b2c4127f2.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/tucker-carlson-owns-this-presidency/) But I think it's more than that. I think it's that we, broadly speaking, demand nothing from the right, even if we don't share the politics. When illiberal figures behave badly, as they are wont to do — when they give voice to their basest and oft-libidinal desires and hatreds — it is viewed as akin to a mangy dog chewing on a slipper. They are not defying expectations; they can't really be helped. Whether from sympathy or condescension, far-right politics are interpreted as naturally occurring in a way that left-wing politics are not. Small-minded, reactionary tribalism is the default setting of the world, or so it is thought. It's only news, and only interesting, when someone who purports to be better shows that they're not. Eventually, though, what's left of the free press will have to reckon with the fact that the far-right fringe is now the modern world's governing elite — and openly declaring an intent to repeat the 1930s. That's a story. *Appreciate independent journalism?* [*Consider supporting it.*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Austria was a 'safe haven' for foreign academics. Now it's acting like America. URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/austria-was-a-safe-haven-for-foreign-academics-now-its-acting-like-america/ Last updated: 2026-05-29T11:53:31.000Z Six months ago, the country's education minister was telling me all about her government's efforts to exploit American dysfunction. One of Europe's wealthiest nations, Austria could be "a safe haven for science and research and innovation," [she told me](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/10/academics-austria-safe-haven?ref=theredoubt.net), its commitment to learning and liberal values making it an attractive landing spot for talent fleeing the political instability of the United States and the Trump administration's all-out assault on academia. "We want to do things different than the USA," Eva-Maria Holzleitner, Austria's minister for women, science and research, said at the time. Now, though, she is the face of austerity — and an all too American approach to higher education. Facing a large budget deficit, the country's conservative-led coalition government is proposing to slash public funding for universities by roughly 15 percent. In a closed-door meeting with university representatives, briefing them on the proposed €1 billion cut, a government representative was [reportedly](https://www.tuwien.at/en/all-news/news/angekuendigte-budgetkuerzungen-und-deren-auswirkungen-auf-universitaeten?ref=theredoubt.net) blunt: "Science and research are not priorities for this federal government." The science ministry alone is expected to slash €190 million from its annual budget come 2028, The International [reported](https://www.theinternational.at/mass-protests-erupt-over-austria-university-budget-plans/?ref=theredoubt.net). All that has sparked nationwide protests. In Vienna, thousands of students took to the streets on Wednesday, many holding signs that would be familiar to Americans since President Donald Trump's return to office, warning that countries that fail to invest in scientific research — in their own health and future — are destined to reap the consequences. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/IMG_8107.jpeg) **A protester in central Vienna on May 27, 2026\. Photo credit: Charles R. Davis* ## 'Not even a safe haven' for Austrians "This is a declaration of bankruptcy regarding the importance this federal government attaches to universities," Brigitte Hütter, president of the university association Uniko, said at a press conference. "It has presented itself as a safe haven for academics fleeing Trump. Now Austria is not even a safe haven for its own universities.” Holzleitner's office did not respond to a request for comment. According to local news reports, she has sought to reassure university officials that the debate over the budget is not yet over and that those proposed cuts may still be reversed. But her party, the center-left Social Democrats, is a junior member of the coalition government. If it were up to her, perhaps, Austria might not be pursuing austerity at the expense of its education. [America’s indecency is Austria’s gainThe Trump administration’s assault on science and higher education presents an opportunity for Europe.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/klosterneuberg-9db8d039e8d110f52d35c6b0c2251b9d686daa700ed0abdc6b1e99bcab8e8290.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-indecency-is-austrias-gain/) As in America, there is also a market for anti-academic politics. The right-wing newspaper Kronen Zeitung, laundering a populist line of attack from the country's far-right Freedom Party, or FPÖ, recently [published](https://www.krone.at/4154460?ref=theredoubt.net) a story highlighting that university presidents in the country can earn up to €400,000 a year. From a Marxist perspective, perhaps these academic leaders could be earning a bit less, but that of course is not the origin of the attack on figures who code as "left-wing" in reactionary politics. From a capitalist point of view, many of these administrators — the University of Vienna has 11,000 employees and 80,000 students — could probably earn more in the private sector. These salaries are also not why Austria spends more than €16 billion a year on universities (which also run hospitals). But even if the attack does not land, one thing is clear: the tabloid approach to policy is not limited to the Anglosphere. ## Will Americans still come? At the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, located just north of Vienna, school president Martin Hetzer — an alum of the Salk Institute in California — noted that scientists were leaving the United States even before the present administration. Speaking to a group of reporters on Thursday, he said that 40 percent of the institute's staff were either born or trained in the United States. "Why? Because we can provide an infrastructure and environment that people want to work in," Hetzer said. That will continue to be true, particularly at ISTA, which is not directly impacted by the budget cuts being discussed. The European Union, as a whole — the continent's lead funder of scientific projects — is also [planning](https://www.science.org/content/article/europe-plans-double-research-spending-next-horizon-europe-scheme?ref=theredoubt.net) to double its research budget. Austria also still offers a high quality of life at a relatively low cost of living, particularly when compared to places like Boston, New York and Los Angeles. [For some, freedom of speech is already goneForeign-born academics are afraid to speak their mind in Donald Trump’s America.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Mahmoud_Khalil_NYC_detention_protest_011-3fbc705a87f3acb6c3bda3e8d750423f9615291f2c5a28bb846c2b1b37db697e.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/for-some-freedom-of-speech-is-already-gone/) But, if the proposed budget comes to pass, there will be fewer opportunities across Austria. And researchers looking to flee austerity and illiberalism in America may think twice about accepting an offer in a country that no longer looks so stable. Austria's next parliamentary elections are not until 2029\. But, even before the proposed cuts, there was a sense of dour resignation, at least among academics and students I spoke to in Vienna, about the prospect of right-wing extremists taking power here. The governing right-left coalition, by its very nature, pleases just about no one, while the FPÖ — comfortably in opposition — has a decisive lead in every opinion poll. Fascism is not inevitable. Some six in 10 Austrian voters would rather not return to the 1930s, and the FPÖ, with less than 40 percent of the vote, would still require a partner to form a government. But an anti-fascist coalition also needs the young and educated — and right now, that segment of the population is being actively demoralized. This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. If you appreciate ad-free, independent journalism, support it with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### AfD lawmaker, Young Republican leader headline 'remigration' summit with convicted Holocaust denier URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/afd-republican-remigration-summit/ Last updated: 2026-05-30T09:17:22.000Z A lawmaker from Germany's Alternative für Deutschland and the president of the New York Young Republican Club are set to appear at a conference on “remigration" alongside some of Europe’s most prominent right-wing extremists, among them: a Belgian Holocaust denier, a Swiss neo-Nazi and an Austrian activist best known for promoting the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. In a 16 May announcement shared on Telegram, organizers of “Remigration Summit 2026” said that the AfD's Lena Kotré would be one of the featured speakers at the May 30 conference in Porto, Portugal. Kotré also [spoke](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6%5FDhjua1Rz8&ref=theredoubt.net) at "Remigration Summit 2025" in Milan, Italy. Kotré has served in the Brandenburg state parliament since 2019\. The 38-year-old lawmaker has previously invited controversy by campaigning with far-right extremists. In 2024, the German media outlet Correctiv [revealed](https://correctiv.org/aktuelles/neue-rechte/2024/12/27/kein-geheimtreffen-gegen-deutschland/?ref=theredoubt.net) that she had met in Zurich with members of the neo-Nazi group “Junge Tat” to discuss ”remigration.” “Remigration” is a far-right term — recently [embraced](https://www.npr.org/2025/12/09/nx-s1-5630505/remigration-once-a-fringe-idea-becomes-a-mantra-for-the-trump-administration?ref=theredoubt.net) by the Trump administration — that ostensibly has a range of meanings, from the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants from the United States and Europe to the more extreme: the removal of all non-white citizens with foreign ancestry. It is often paired with the [historically antisemitic](https://fpif.org/tucker-carlsons-great-replacement-theory-comes-from-an-anti-american-nazi/?ref=theredoubt.net) conspiracy theory that global elites are seeking to eliminate or “replace” the white race via mass migration. “Germany wants Remigration - the AfD promises to deliver!” the conference announcement states. “Nobody fights harder for this than Lena Kotré, the remigration policy spokesperson of AfD Brandenburg.” In a May 23 post, organizers also announced that [Stefano Forte](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/25/south-africa-conference-far-right-republicans?ref=theredoubt.net), “president of the famous New York Young Republicans’ Club, will join us from the United States to spread the message of remigration.” Forte has previously forged ties with Europe's far-right, [speaking](https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/afd-maga-usa-bundestag-100.html?ref=theredoubt.net) at an AfD event this past March. As The Guardian [previously reported](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/25/south-africa-conference-far-right-republicans?ref=theredoubt.net), about 20 AfD lawmakers also attended the first gala that Forte hosted as head of the NYYRC in December 2025. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-07-48-42-Instagram-1.png) **Instagram post announcing Stefano Forte's appearance at Remigration Summit 2026\. Screen capture on May 27, 2026.* Last year, Forte garnered media attention for saying his group would support an unconstitutional [third term](https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-880419?ref=theredoubt.net) for President Donald Trump; in April, Fox News featured him as a “[GOP leader](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mamdanis-education-plans-lack-merit-could-fundamentally-change-student-outcomes-gop-leader-warns?ref=theredoubt.net)” and savage critic of New York’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. “A fierce advocate for our Western civilization, Stefano and his influential club have built a network around the world that will one day be crucial in defeating the globalists,” states the post announcing his appearance. Both Kotré and Forte shared the announcements on their personal Instagram pages. Kotré also posted a video encouraging her followers to attend. “Come with me to Portugal,” she says in German, describing the event as a chance to “network and be part of a major European movement for remigration.” The video, posted May 26, includes a text description of the event in English: “Shaping the future of Europe and the West through sovereignty, identity, and demographic renewal.” The presence of an elected AfD politician and a Republican operative speaks to how the once-fringe concept of remigration, and the extremists pushing it, have gone mainstream. “It was popularized by neo-Nazi activists,” Daniel Sharp, an expert on immigration and far-right politics at the University of Vienna, told *The Redoubt*. “The core idea is to rid Western societies of people of color and Muslims — to ethnically cleanse Europe,” with no regard to legal status. Some who use the term, Sharp added, “explicitly harken back to the Nazi plan to deport Jews to Madagascar.” This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support our work with [a subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) Representatives for the AfD did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Forte said he and his group had no concerns about the extremist views of other speakers. "The New York Young Republican Club will never apologize for standing alongside our European brothers and sisters," Ian McMath, press chairman for the group, told *The Redoubt*. "The United States and Europe share the same existential struggle born by liberalism — mass migration that threatens to wipe out the great peoples of Europe." "Global problems must have a global response," McMath added. Forte is not the only American appearing in Portugal. "Special guest announcement!" organizers wrote in a May 29 post on Telegram. "Joining us on the RESUM26 stage will be none other than retired Chief Patrol Agent of the US Border Patrol, Mr. Gregory Bovino, to talk about his experience." Bovino helped lead mass-deportation operations for the Trump administration as commander-at-large of the Border Patrol unit within U.S. Customs and Border Protection until just after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bovino had falsely [claimed](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/27/gregory-bovino-analysis-minneapolis-alex-pretti?ref=theredoubt.net) that Pretti — who was killed by CBP officers without provocation — had wanted to "massacre law enforcement." He was removed from his position soon after. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/image-4-1.png) **Telegram post announcing Gregory Bovino's appearance on May 29, 2026\. The man to his immediate left is summit organizer Afonso Gonçalves.* Organizers of the Porto summit, meanwhile, have openly linked their politics to Nazi ideology. Afonso Gonçalves is a headliner and appears to be the lead organizer of the summit;. Advertising on Facebook and Instagram indicates that the event has been promoted by the group he founded in 2023, Reconquista, a reference to the historic expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian peninsula. Meta’s Ad Library identifies the summit promotions as paid for by Daniela Palma, who is listed in records as the legal operator of Reconquista’s website. The group styles itself as a defender of “ethno-cultural Portuguese identity.” But the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a monitoring group, [describes](https://globalextremism.org/post/portuguese-far-right-sprouting-new-organizations/?ref=theredoubt.net) Gonçalves as a “white supremacist and misogynist who fashions himself as an authoritarian leader,” noting his [claim](https://archive.org/details/img-5343%5F202308) that “women should not have political rights” and that cities such as [London](https://archive.org/details/7%5F20230911%5F20230911) are undergoing “Africanization” in the service of “population replacement.” In a 2024 [post](https://archive.is/3Pi2J?ref=theredoubt.net) on X, Gonçalves wrote that “Weimar conditions require Weimar solutions,” referring to the rise of Nazi Germany. Meta did not respond to requests for comment. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/image-2-1-1-1.png) **A Facebook ad promoting Remigration Summit 2026\. Screen capture on May 26, 2026.* Other announced speakers at the summit include Dries Van Langenhove, a Belgian activist who in 2024 was sentenced to one year in prison for inciting violence and denying the Holocaust. Van Langenhove had been revealed as the administrator of group chats in which members of his far-right youth movement, Schild & Vrienden, had shared antisemitic jokes and memes denying the mass murder of Jews in World War II. “The defendant raved about Nazi ideology,” Judge Jan Van den Berghe [said](https://apnews.com/article/eu-right-belgium-extremism-langenhove-82d44caa76bbada7da99f8c01f7762d2?ref=theredoubt.net), adding that Van Langenhove “wants to undermine democratic society and replace it with a social model of white supremacy.” In one message that Van Langenhove [posted](https://www.rechtbanken-tribunaux.be/sites/default/files/media/news/files/vonnis-sv-12032024%5F0.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) in a Discord chat, he suggested blood may need to be shed to defeat the political left. “The day of violence is yet to come,” he wrote. “I know which side will be prepared for it and which won’t.” Van Langenhove’s conviction was [upheld](https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2025/06/20/far-right-activist-dries-van-langenhove-given-lighter-sentence-b/?ref=theredoubt.net) last year. In a "very sad announcement" [posted](https://archive.is/Rgje4?ref=theredoubt.net) May 26 on X, Van Langenhove revealed that he had also "just been convicted a second time for 'hate speech,'" over a 2024 address to a gathering of right-wing students at KU Leuven, a Catholic university. As Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS [reported](https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2025/09/23/dries-van-langenhove-ku-leuven-rechtszaak-zitting/?ref=theredoubt.net), Van Langenhove — in an address that was supposed to be about regenerative agriculture — repeatedly stated that "black Africans" were inferior to "white Flemish" citizens; that Roma women are thieves; and blamed mass migration for crime. KU Leuven lodged a criminal complaint, accusing the activist of [seeking](https://persdienst.kuleuven.be/ku-leuven-verbiedt-nsv-activiteiten-in-haar-gebouwen-en-legt-klacht-neer-tegen-racistische-uitspraken-dries-van-langenhove?ref=theredoubt.net) to "incite racism" in violation of "the core values of the university." "Given the fact that I have another court case coming up in September and that I have a dozen active criminal investigations for hate speech, time is running out for me," Van Langenhove wrote in an appeal for donations. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/image-3-1.png) Neo-Nazi activist Manuel Corchia in a video on X promoting Remigration Summit 2026 Also speaking at the summit: Manuel Corchia, leader of the Swiss neo-Nazi group “Junge Tat" — the organization that the AfD's Kotré met with last year. Corchia appears in several videos promoting the event, at least one alongside Reconquista's Gonçalves. In an interview posted this past February on YouTube, Corchia described himself as going down an extremist “rabbit hole” in college, starting with videos from the far-right influencer “Schlomo Finkelstein” before getting into “the old right in Europe,” which he described as a “National Socialistic thing.” As an art student at Zurich University, the Swiss newspaper WOZ Die Wochenzeitung [reported](https://www.woz.ch/2250/rechtsextremismus/die-schwiegersohn-neonazis/!JJPNM2QWZACD?ref=theredoubt.net) that Corchia and other colleagues logged into online lectures the day of Adolf Hitler’s birthday using the handle, “Alles Gute A.H. 88,” with one member of the group heard shouting, “Heil Hitler!” The AfD, now leading opinion polls in Germany, publicly rejects such extremism. The party also states that its use of “remigration” is not to be conflated with a desire to expel citizens of Germany. On its website, the party says it rejects “arbitrary collective deportation” and opposes the removal of German citizens with a “migrant background.” However, Correctiv also [revealed](https://correctiv.org/en/top-stories/2024/01/15/secret-plan-against-germany/?ref=theredoubt.net) that in 2023 members of the party met at a secret gathering in Potsdam with Austrian “[identitarian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/28/with-links-to-the-christchurch-attacker-what-is-the-identitarian-movement?ref=theredoubt.net)” activist Martin Sellner to discuss a “master plan” for “remigration,” which Sellner defined as extending to the “reversed settlement” of “non-assimilated” German citizens. Reports of that meeting [spurred](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68029232?ref=theredoubt.net) anti-AfD protests across Germany. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/Martin_Sellner_Buchmesse_2017-1.jpg) **Martin Sellner at the 2017 Frankfurt Bookfair. Photo Credit:* [**Ptolusque*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ptolusque?ref=theredoubt.net "User:Ptolusque")**, Wikimedia Commons* Sellner is another speaker at the 2026 summit. In a video promoting the summit, Sellner says he will talk “about remigration \[and\] the great replacement,” the conspiracy theory that global elites are plotting to eliminate white Europeans via mass immigration. Attendees, he promises, will meet both influencers and politicians at the summit, where “we’re going to reveal the next big project.” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the conference — and its mix of extremist and more mainstream speakers — “shows just how far the far right has gotten with its remigration plans.” Speaking to *The Redoubt*, Beirich described the presence of an AfD lawmaker, in particular, as “not surprising,” but nonetheless revealing in terms of the party’s agenda and its efforts to promote a more moderate face to the public as it seeks to gain power in the face of dissatisfaction with Germany’s political status quo. “The party can claim it isn't extremist, but it is belied by its connections,” she said. And “disclaimers” aside, she added: “Make no mistake, remigration is not some supposedly peaceful self-deportation program. It's a racist plan of ethnic cleansing.” *This original reporting is completely funded by readers. Support real, independent journalism with a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Independent reporting, original analysis, democratic values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### The US military failed the test URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/the-us-military-failed-the-test/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T08:18:09.000Z It was an insult to the honor and integrity of rank-and-file members of the U.S. armed forces. The idea that the American military would carry out illegal orders on behalf of an aging tyrant — one with no military experience himself — ran afoul of its history and what we knew about those who enlisted; people who signed up to serve their country, not the mercurial decrees of one old man. "I think in many ways, the uniformed military may help save us from this president and his lame people," Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, [said](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/12/04/sen%5Fmark%5Fwarner%5Fthe%5Funiformed%5Fmilitary%5Fmay%5Fhelp%5Fsave%5Fus%5Ffrom%5Fpresident%5Ftrump.html?ref=theredoubt.net) last year. "I think their commitment is to the Constitution and obviously not to Trump." The Department of War, so dubbed by those who lead it, has now killed more than [190 people](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/08/us-military-strike-eastern-pacific?ref=theredoubt.net) in what can only be described, legally, as a campaign of mass murder. Despite invoking the term narco-"terrorism," the United States is not at war in Latin America, and those it has killed have not been confirmed members of any armed faction, their identities unknown even to their executioners. Those who have survived U.S. military strikes in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea — when not slaughtered in a [subsequent attack](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/02/politics/boat-strike-controversy-legal-experts?ref=theredoubt.net) — have been [returned](https://abcnews.com/International/trump-2-survivors-us-strike-submarine-ecuador-colombia/story?id=126650540&ref=theredoubt.net) to their native countries, where they have not been convicted of any crimes. Members of the American military may have objected to this open defiance of [U.S.](https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/illegal-summary-executions-trump-is-committing-murders-on-the-high-seas-with-attacks-on-boats-in-caribbean-lawyers-say/?ref=theredoubt.net) and [international law](https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule89?ref=theredoubt.net) — more than a dozen top brass have [retired](https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/military-officials-ousted-retired-trump-hegseth?ref=theredoubt.net) since Trump's return to power — but if that's the case they have not said so. And there are other plausible explanations. Last October, Navy Adm. Alvin Hosley announced he was retiring as head of U.S. Southern Command, which has conducted these killings. According to Reuters, a source said "[there had been tension](https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/military-officials-ousted-retired-trump-hegseth?ref=theredoubt.net)" between Hosley, who is Black, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News personality who has opined against "[diversity](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/us/politics/hegseth-pentagon-town-hall.html?ref=theredoubt.net)" and [blocked](https://www.npr.org/2026/03/27/nx-s1-5763863/hegseth-soldiers-promotions?ref=theredoubt.net) the promotion of Black officers. Here, as elsewhere, the reason for Hosley's departure has been left to speculation. Perhaps their silence is a product of military culture that stresses keeping one's opinions to oneself, but the practical effect is complicity. Meanwhile, Hosley's white successor, Gen. Francis L. Donovan — confirmed by the U.S. Senate with [no recorded objection](https://breakingdefense.com/2026/02/senate-approves-new-southcom-head/?ref=theredoubt.net) — has continued the work. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-20-at-12-21-19-U.S.-Southern-Command--@Southcom--_-X.png) U.S. Southern Command [post](https://x.com/Southcom/status/2051819745003942039?ref=theredoubt.net) on X, May 7, 2026 U.S. military leaders have, in fact, assumed ownership of this killing spree. Last December, Admiral Frank "Mitch" Bradley was [perceived](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/02/us-admiral-to-brief-lawmakers-as-bipartisan-scrutiny-grows-over-boat-strike?ref=theredoubt.net) as taking the fall for the double-tap missile strike on survivors of an earlier attack. Bradley was the commander of that operation on alleged drug traffickers — who, even if guilty, are civilians — and, accordingly, "directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed," according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Bradley did not step down as head of U.S. Special Operations Command nor has he faced any sanction, social or otherwise. This past March, some 90 days after the controversy, he [testified](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTPZBLfpiLE&ref=theredoubt.net) before the House Armed Services Committee, where transcripts show he was not asked any questions about his ordering a state-sanctioned homicide. That is, regrettably, mitigating: If the liberal opposition cannot maintain its outrage, is there even a scandal? It's been more than six months since a group of Democratic veterans [urged](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elissa-slotkin-mark-kelly-veterans-video%5Fn%5F691e6db9e4b0b763ab8dbd39?ref=theredoubt.net) members of the U.S. military to defy illegal orders; they have not repeated that guidance — or provided an example — in the time that has passed. [The way we talk about murderInterrogating the euphemisms used to legitimize state killings.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--72846f88c285b6f482b1f3a7e9e3b65fdb525ddf1b577862f544454c0fbfcf03.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-From-2025-11-10-14-22-17-d88119aa75e339ac777f6dccc32f4014c4a94762479d2c40eee19f4b88e1e523.png)](https://www.theredoubt.net/how-we-talk-about-murder/) Expecting members of the U.S. military, at any level, to stand up and refuse illegal orders aimed at the foreign "other" was unrealistic in an American society where no institution has navigated the Trump years with much dignity. Practically speaking, the expectation was indeed unreasonable: Hegseth fired the nation's top military lawyers soon after taking office, removing the very people whose legal interpretation could be leaned on to defy an illegal command. If military lawyers won't say it's wrong; if military leaders don't say it either; what can we really expect of the person asked to pull the trigger? This is not to say that there is no limit, nor that there is no unseen, internal resistance throwing sand in the gears. And it is true: the rank and file — the most decent — did not enlist for the opportunity to kill their fellow Americans, even if they consider others fair game. Like other American institutions, however, the U.S. military cannot be trusted to save us from a corrupt and amoral regime. Nearly 200 dead civilians, massacred without even the pretense of an active war, cannot be so easily dismissed; they were as deserving of life and liberty as any U.S. citizen. But the U.S. military murdered them, and it did so without a squeak of public dissent. Where is the honor in that? *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Trump ballroom firm now eligible for billions in new border contracts URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-ballroom-firm-now-competing-for-billions-in-new-border-contracts/ Last updated: 2026-05-19T18:06:39.000Z The lead company building President Donald Trump's White House ballroom is one of a select group firms now eligible to receive up to $10 billion in contracts for work on immigration-related facilities, including U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints. On May 11, Clark Construction, a Maryland-based federal contractor, became one of 10 companies [awarded](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F70B01C26F00000333%5F7014%5F70B01C26D00000021%5F7014?ref=theredoubt.net) a contract by U.S. Customs and Border Protection — one that makes it eligible to bid for future work designing and constructing major infrastructure projects funded by the president's landmark legislative achievement, the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/big-beautiful-bill-immigration-border-security/?ref=theredoubt.net). Present CBP infrastructure is "insufficient to meet the extensive scale, scope, and complexity of modern border security operations," according to the agency, which issued a request for proposals last December. Those awarded contracts will have the opportunity to build a wide-range of CBP facilities, "including checkpoints, sector headquarters, border patrol stations, and air facilities throughout the United States." [Exclusive: Ballroom firm got $33.7 million no-bid contract to demolish historic buildingsA no-bid contract was awarded to the same firm that is constructing President Trump’s White House ballroom, The Redoubt can reveal.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--41.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/51441843822_322ad055c6_k-1.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) As a major federal contractor, it is not unusual that Clark Construction would be considered for such work. Before Trump took office, Clark Construction was awarded four federal contracts in fiscal year 2024 worth $1.6 billion, according to [public records](https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/8470bfbc-50af-251d-d192-3059c5b82618-C/latest?ref=theredoubt.net). In fiscal year 2026, which runs through October, it has received four contracts valued at $420 million. But Clark Construction stands out as the one firm selected by CBP that has been touted by the president and previously chosen to receive controversial no-bid contracts. Trump, who selected the firm to construct his 8,300-square-meter ballroom, has described Clark Construction as "[highly respected](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-secret-construction-contracts-fountains-b2965009.html?ref=theredoubt.net)" and suggested it will take the lead on renovation projects in the nation's capital. Last December, the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees CBP — awarded Clark Construction a no-bid contract valued at $33.7 million to demolish historic buildings at its headquarters. As The Redoubt [reported](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) at the time, that contract was worth millions of dollars more than an independent government estimate said the work should cost. The New York Times later [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/us/politics/lafayette-park-fountains-trump-contract.html?ref=theredoubt.net) that the company received another, $17.4 million no-bid contract to renovate fountains at Lafayette Park, directly across from the White House. [Pattern of no-bid contracts going to companies working on Trump’s ballroomContracts reviewed by The Redoubt call into question White House claims that the ballroom would never cost taxpayers a dime.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--42.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/whitehouse-ballroom-rendering-1.webp)](https://www.theredoubt.net/pattern-of-no-bid-contracts-going-to-companies-working-on-trumps-ballroom/) As one of the group of firms chosen by CBP, the company could receive billions of dollars in new contracts. The initial award is deceptively small: just $10,000\. According to the federal government's request for proposals, that money is the legally binding "seed" project that formalizes the contracting relationship and allows the company to "compete for future task orders." All the contractors chosen were required to meet a massive bonding requirement that would have weeded out smaller competitors. Initially, CBP said it would select firms that could post a $15 million bond per project — money that firms would forfeit should they fail to complete the work. However, weeks later the agency increased the requirement to $500 million. The increase did not sit well with all the bidders. "Please clarify the rationale for establishing a $500M bonding requirement," one would-be contractor asked CBP, per a document dated Jan. 13\. The agency replied that it had increased the bond to ensure "adequate competition," as well as to cover "the full range of anticipated task order values." According to the same document, it declined a request to extend the application deadline. In a statement to *The Redoubt*, a CBP spokesperson said firms selected by the agency will have an equal opportunity to receive future work. "Each individual project will be competed among the ten \[contract\] holders," they said. Of the 10 companies, however, only Clark Construction has a demonstrated relationship with the U.S. president. Whether that pays off, at the border, remains to be seen. *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting, unsparing analysis and real independence. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Special Report: Live from Eurovision URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/special-report-live-from-eurovision/ Last updated: 2026-06-01T14:07:22.000Z This year, Vienna hosted the 70th edition of Eurovision, which was perhaps the most controversial one yet. While ostensibly just a showcase for campy pop songs, the the fun does not happen in a vacuum, a fact that organizers recognized in 2022 when they ejected Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Why then, critics ask, has Israel not likewise been kicked out over its genocide in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon? The Redoubt spoke to activists and fans alike, exploring whether politics should have any place in a song contest — and whether it's even possible to avoid. Check out the 15-minute audio documentary below: This special edition of [Critical Support](https://www.theredoubt.net/critical-support-in-trying-times/) is available on [Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/special-edition-live-from-eurovision-and-the/id1893854704?i=1000768384658&ref=theredoubt.net), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/23AftYzkohFb2lL4h9T8jB?si=hZHB4EIOQDK3YitlC%5F3Qag&ref=theredoubt.net), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s31sxXlvFs&ref=theredoubt.net) and [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/posts/special-edition-158575383/edit?ref=theredoubt.net). No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) ### Tucker Carlson owns this presidency URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/tucker-carlson-owns-this-presidency/ Last updated: 2026-05-13T11:27:04.000Z If someone were to blame "the Jews" for all the ills of modern capitalist society — for stagnating wages, growing inequality and the general bleakness of the 9-to-5 — would we call that "anti-capitalism" or recognize it as something else? Antisemitism we'd call it, and rightly so, or the socialism of fools. So why is it any different when the topic is American foreign policy? In a [piece](https://newrepublic.com/article/210069/tucker-carlson-anti-war-democrats-leadership?ref=theredoubt.net) for The New Republic, a liberal American magazine, writer Liza Featherstone argued that Tucker Carlson could outflank mainstream Democrats when it comes to opposing the U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran. To make the point, she cites a recent interview in which Carlson declared President Donald Trump a "slave" to Israel. "Carlson, emphasizing his moral opposition to the war, contended that the administration had been pressured into it by Israel and argued that it would hurt U.S. interests for generations to come — and on those points, he’s correct," Featherstone wrote. And in the absence of a forceful liberal opposition, that's a problem: "Carlson's antiwar opinions are shared by many across the political spectrum," Featherstone notes. And in the absence of more prominent and forceful liberal critique, that could be a problem. "If opposition to this war, and to all wars driven primarily by our relationship with Israel, doesn’t quickly become central to Democratic messaging, we can expect Carlson — or someone very much like him, such as former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — to emerge as the antiwar candidate in the 2028 presidential election," Featherstone warns. It's worth examining, then, what Carlson has actually said, and why. If he is indeed a future politician, it is worth interrogating his statements with the same justified cynicism that The New Republic applies to congressional Democrats. [America’s war: Israel did not make Trump do itThe United States bombs whom it wants, when it wants.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--40.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/General_Dan_Caine_and_Secretary_of_War_Pete_Hegseth_listen_as_President_Donald_J._Trump_oversees_Operation_Epic_Fury_at_Mar-a-Lago_-55125232216--1.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-war-israel-did-not-make-trump-do-it/) “This happened because Israel wanted it to happen. This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war," Carlson [said](https://www.timesofisrael.com/isolationist-us-right-wing-commentators-decry-iran-war-trump-says-he-doesnt-care/?ref=theredoubt.net) right after the conflict began. Speaking to The New York Times, he attributed the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the fact that "many American presidents have put Israel's interests before our own." Indeed, the office of former Vice President Dick Cheney, he asserted, was "completely controlled ... by people who were putting Israel's interests above America's interests." "I think the Iraq war was, to a great extent, a product of that, and I believe that Trump felt exactly the same way," Carlson declared. It's worth revisiting 2003 because what Carlson claims is the exact opposite of what actually occurred — and the way he is wrong is revealing. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff and no friend of Israel (he falsely blamed Tel Aviv for chemical weapon attacks in Syria), revealed that Israeli officials had warned against any invasion of Iraq, viewing Saddam Hussein's regime as contained and his overthrow as destabilizing. "The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy," Wilkerson [said](https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3444393,00.html?ref=theredoubt.net), a claim [backed by reporting](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/02/07/israel-emphasizes-iranian-threat/b033ec97-9ad4-4ed2-8b2c-c13e3dc823f0/?ref=theredoubt.net) in The Washington Post and public statements at the time. "Today, everybody is busy with Iraq," Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said in 2002\. "But you should understand, if you ask me, today Iran is more dangerous than Iraq." The Bush administration did not listen, declaring war on an enemy of the Islamic Republic and in the process expanding Iran's influence in the region. The next president, Barack Obama, then signed a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic. Israel may have wanted a U.S. conflict with Iran, but it did not dictate U.S. foreign policy. So why act like it does? Because the reality, for Americans, is more damning: they have no one to blame but themselves. And with Carlson, one need not search long and hard for a darker explanation: that the man is an antisemite looking to absolve his fellow Americans, including the president whom he helped put in office. He says as much. "I’ve always liked Trump and still feel sorry for him, as I do for all slaves," he [told Newsmax](https://x.com/JamesRosenTV/status/2042686180286697513?ref=theredoubt.net), saying in a separate interview that it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to claim that the American president is "under the control of \[Benjamin\] Netanyahu." So no hard feelings for [U.S. missiles](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/politics/iran-school-missile-strike.html?ref=theredoubt.net), fired by the U.S. military, taking out dozens of schoolchildren in the opening hours of the war: Trump, like America, is a victim too. Israel is a convenient scapegoat because, of course, it is a partner in the present conflict, which clearly lobbied for the war after shredding its international reputation with a [genocide in Gaza](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/). Trump officials have likewise recognized the advantage of shrugging off responsibility, admitting before the war began that it would be "[a lot better](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/25/white-house-politics-israel-strikes-iran-00799456?ref=theredoubt.net)," politically, if Israel were blamed for starting it. For antisemites, Israel is also, conveniently, run by Jews — the same people Carlson has suggested killed Jesus [and Charlie Kirk](https://www.timesofisrael.com/tucker-carlson-appears-to-blame-jews-for-killing-charlie-kirk-with-story-on-jesus-death/?ref=theredoubt.net). Indeed, a viewer of Carlson's broadcasts would conclude that Jews are a problem everywhere: Last year, he gave the white nationalist [virgin](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nick-fuentes-virgin-piers-morgan%5Fn%5F693839fde4b064dbeef04ebd?ref=theredoubt.net) Nick Fuentes a platform and allowed him to [declare](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/12/carlson-fuentes-interview-maga-rift/87210363007/?ref=theredoubt.net), without objection, that the "main challenge" to national unity is "organized Jewry in America." If Carlson deems something bad, there is a very good chance he will find Jews to blame for it, from mass immigration — the "[great replacement](https://fpif.org/tucker-carlsons-great-replacement-theory-comes-from-an-anti-american-nazi/?ref=theredoubt.net)" conspiracy theory is rooted in Nazi propaganda and has motivated [attacks](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/27/san-diego-police-shooting-synagogue-poway-reports?ref=theredoubt.net) on [synagogues](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/mass-shooter-found-guilty-of-murdering-11-people-at-tree-of-life-synagogue-in-2018?ref=theredoubt.net) — to the [September 11 terror attacks](https://www.theredoubt.net/meta-has-been-paid-3-2-million-to-promote-tucker-carlson/). It's this vital context that The New Republic omits, and it does so at a time of [record-high](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/05/06/attack-jewish-american-antisemitism-audit/89891944007/?ref=theredoubt.net) violence against Jews who have nothing to do with the state of Israel. [Meta accepts $3.2 million to promote Tucker CarlsonThe parent company of Facebook is helping a right-wing influencer promote conspiracy theories about 9/11.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--39.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1675352162363-ac40c3bb8265-1)](https://www.theredoubt.net/meta-has-been-paid-3-2-million-to-promote-tucker-carlson/) To be sure, those on the left who like and share Carlson's critiques of U.S. foreign policy typically stress that they do not love the man himself. "You do not have to hand it to Tucker Carlson," Featherstone writes near the end of her piece (he's "a [loathsome](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-gop-republican-party.html?ref=theredoubt.net) [scoundrel](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/tucker-carlson/?ref=theredoubt.net)," she notes elsewhere). But the disclaimer rings hollow after one has endorsed Carlson's view that the Israeli government is responsible for the worst American policies. It is only liberal opposition to war that is treated with skepticism. Congressional Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries may condemn the war now, but they have welcomed American militarism in the past; Schumer criticized the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as harshly as a Fox News anchor. Both men may have led their respective caucuses to [overwhelmingly vote](https://www.theredoubt.net/p/9f9bcc21-47d9-4001-b682-8432cd214a18/?member%5Fstatus=free) in favor of halting the conflict, but to Featherstone this feels more like "belatedly jumping on the bandwagon" than leadership. Fair enough; few will defend congressional Democrats, fellow Democrats especially. But the same could be said for Carlson. Did we really need him to make the point? Ten years into the far-right takeover of America, it's just not that interesting to treat fascist actors as mere cudgels against squishy liberalism. Carlson may indeed be a future politician — so treat him as such. This American government is the one he wanted and was willing to [lie to his audience](https://apnews.com/article/tucker-carlson-fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trump-5d6aed4bc7eb1f7a01702ebea86f37a1?ref=theredoubt.net) for. Shouldn't he own it? And shouldn't we ask why right-wing opposition [always disappears](https://newrepublic.com/article/135775/liberals-keep-calling-donald-trump-dove?ref=theredoubt.net) the moment the right actually seizes power? [Trump unilaterally pauses the war that he alone startedThe U.S. decision to halt the bombing of Iran is a reminder that America alone had the power to start it![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1665292715493-ae1082bc4d41?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDIyfHx0cnVtcCUyMGlyYW58ZW58MHx8fHwxNzc1NjM1MTAxfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-unilaterally-pauses-the-war-that-he-alone-started/) Care to advance left-wing politics while critiquing Democratic leadership? There are some better ways than elevating the critiques of right-wing antisemites. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, addressed this at a recent forum when asked if she would be willing to partner with far-right politicians who criticize Israel. She has learned to work with her party's establishment, but she is also adept at [criticizing its hypocrisies](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/). "I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite," she [responded](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/aoc-shuts-down-progressives-who-trust-proven-bigot-and-antisemite-marjorie-taylor-greene-i-dont-video/ar-AA22Mpn9?ref=theredoubt.net). "I don't think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists." To be clear, those who would openly align the left with the extremists of the right are few in number, albeit over-represented [on social media](https://bsky.app/profile/postleftwatch.bsky.social/post/3mlgydao7bs2z?ref=theredoubt.net). But there are still too many willing to entertain the idea that their opponents on the right make some really good points — ones that can be weaponized against the shared liberal enemy. That was bad enough in 2016, when some saw [qualified praise for Donald Trump](https://thenewinquiry.com/the-gamble/?ref=theredoubt.net) as a way to voice their displeasure with the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. At least then, one could insist we did not know there were worse things than the neoliberal status quo. In 2026, it feels more like the anti-liberalism of fools. *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Pattern of no-bid contracts going to companies working on Trump's ballroom URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/pattern-of-no-bid-contracts-going-to-companies-working-on-trumps-ballroom/ Last updated: 2026-06-01T14:07:50.000Z If you are an American taxpayer, public records suggest you were always going to be paying for that White House ballroom. The ballooning cost was one sign: Were private donors contributing $200 million (July 2025), $300 million (October 2025) or $400 million (December 2025), and how would we even know? Even before Senate Republicans proposed contributing $1 billion in public funds to the White House's gargantuan renovation, *The Redoubt* uncovered [federal](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F47PH5426F0002%5F4740%5F47PD0320A0001%5F4740?ref=theredoubt.net) [contracts](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F47PH5426C0001%5F4740%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net) for work directly related to the project totaling more than $380,000, including costs associated with the demolition of the White House East Wing. There are also now at least three instances of a company working on the ballroom receiving a no-bid contract from the Trump administration — two of which are for work elsewhere in Washington. In October, 2025, public records show that M.C. Dean, a Virginia-based contractor that regularly performs electrical- and security-system related work for the federal government, was awarded $138,150 for what is described, with a typographical error, as “EASY WING CAP AND DISCONNECT UTILITIES.” That money was awarded under an existing Blanket Purchase Agreement, which allows the federal government to fast-track the procurement process with pre-vetted contractors. Work under the contract began Oct. 9, 2025 and was completed by Feb. 6, 2026\. Construction of the White House ballroom commenced last September; the demolition of the East Wing began Oct. 20. Federal records show that another $17,217 contract was awarded to Convergint Technologies, an Illinois-based firm that specializes in security and fire alarm services. That work is described as “WHITE HOUSE EAST WING GIANT VOICE & FIREWORKS DISCONNECT PROJECT,” with a listed start date of Dec. 3 and end date of Dec. 19, 2025\. In February 2026, meanwhile, the Executive Office of the President awarded just under [$225,000](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F11316026P0004OAS%5F1100%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net) for an environmental assessment to the infrastructure consulting firm AECOM. While it appears that work is related to the ballroom, on which the company is the [lead engineering contractor](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/07/the-white-house-announces-white-house-ballroom-construction-to-begin/?ref=theredoubt.net), the assessment in that contract is identified as being performed at a zip code — 20543 — that is exclusively associated with the Supreme Court (EOP is not responsible for work on a separate branch of government). The contract is notable as, last year, the Dallas-based company [refused to disclose](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-democrats-press-dallas-based-aecom-over-white-house-ballroom-get-no-answers/ar-AA1SCgwd?ref=theredoubt.net) whether its ballroom work was awarded on a competitive basis. Trump's return to office has been a boon to the company's finances. Fiscal year 2025 was the best on record for AECOM, at least in terms of its business with the federal government, the firm having been awarded some $24.4 million in contracts, almost exclusively from the Department of Defense; its next best year was fiscal year 2024, when it received $7.4 million. ## No-bid deals AECOM is not the only company working on Trump's ballroom that has received a no-bid contract. In February, *The Redoubt* revealed that Clark Construction, the firm that is leading the construction of Trump's ballroom, was awarded a no-bid contract worth [nearly $34 million](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) to demolish historic buildings at Department of Homeland Security headquarters. The New York Times subsequently [reported that](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/us/politics/lafayette-park-fountains-trump-contract.html?ref=theredoubt.net) the company received another, $17.4 million no-bid contract to repair fountains across the street from the White House at Lafayette Park. As a major federal contractor, Clark Construction could have received those projects through a competitive bidding process. In both cases, however, the company received millions of dollars more than the estimated cost of the work it performed, creating the appearance it was being rewarded by an administration that has previously handed out contracts on an [explicitly political basis](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/homeland-security-contract-trump?ref=theredoubt.net). Those no-bid contracts are an indirect way taxpayers could be on the hook for Trump's ballroom. But the White House had previously insisted that all costs directly related to the project, from demolition to construction, would be covered by money [donated](https://fortune.com/article/who-has-donated-trump-white-house-ballroom/?ref=theredoubt.net) from the likes of Amazon, Apple, Meta and Lockheed Martin. “We did this, no charge to the taxpayer, whatsoever, this was all donations made by friends of mine and people that are, that love our country,” the American president boasted at the Feb. 21 National Governors Association dinner hosted by the White House. “Not one penny,” he continued. "So important to say, because nobody ever reports it: it will be totally, totally tax free. Not one penny of tax will be donated to this.” It is possible that the ballroom-related contracts, derived from public funds and identified by *The Redoubt*, were ultimately going to be paid with corporate donations — although the opaque nature of process would have made that difficult to verify. Now, though, the White House is not bothering to reconcile previous statements with its open welcoming of taxpayer funds. On May 5, Trump administration spokesperson Davis Ingle [told reporters](https://apnews.com/article/ballroom-congress-security-white-house-trump-ece6c330833639e087abf24703113f82?ref=theredoubt.net) that the $1 billion in taxpayer dollars, earmarked for the U.S. Secret Service and "security adjustments and upgrades" at the president's 8,300-square-meter event center, was "long overdue." Finally, Ingle said, public funds will be used "to fully and completely harden the White House complex." [Exclusive: Ballroom firm got $33.7 million no-bid contract to demolish historic buildingsA no-bid contract was awarded to the same firm that is constructing President Trump’s White House ballroom, The Redoubt can reveal.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/size/w1200/2026/02/51441843822_322ad055c6_k.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/) ## "An atrocity" The costs won't end there, however, as historian Edward Lengel told *The Redoubt*. Such a massive building will require ongoing maintenance and "doesn't exist in isolation," noted Lengel, who served as chief historian at the White House Historical Association from 2016 to 2018 and is the author of a biography of America's first president, "[General George Washington: A Military Life](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/99847/general-george-washington-by-edward-g-lengel/?ref=theredoubt.net)." "It isn't like some kind of set apart property that you can come in and just say, 'Okay, we're going to demolish this and we're going to build that and have these private donors pay for the construction, or pay for this and that, and it won't affect anything else," Lengel said. "There is a deep and extensive infrastructure that connects it to other adjacent properties." No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) But not all costs can be quantified. Lengel maintains that the price of building such a massive ballroom is more abstract and damning — indeed, he sees the project as a rejection of the country's republican traditions. Events on White House grounds have always been performances that reflect values, including a pronounced refusal, historically, to embrace the pomp and excess associated with foreign monarchs and less democratic nations. President Washington, for example, believed White House events "should be dignified — with the proper gravitas; splendid, but not ostentatious. There was a deliberate purpose there." "That's the irony," Lengel continued. "These people call themselves conservatives. They say they believe in the founders and American history. You can make an argument for building a ballroom like this, but it's not a conservative argument." "It's totally untethered from what the founders intended the country to be," he said. "It's fundamentally changing the nature of how the country was supposed to be represented, symbolically." "I just think what's going on is an atrocity," he added. ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting, critical analysis and progressive values. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### 'Critical Support' in trying times URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/critical-support-in-trying-times/ Last updated: 2026-04-22T13:15:20.000Z *The Redoubt* is expanding its operations and opening another front in the fight for hearts and minds. In a new show, "[Critical Support: Charles x Shirin](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-support-charles-x-shirin/id1893854704?ref=theredoubt.net)," *The Redoubt's* Charles R. Davis and Shirin Sadeghi, an historian and former BBC journalist, provide informed analysis of global developments in politics, culture and society. As the name suggests, the perspective is indeed critical — the hosts have preferences, but they will not act as partisans — but the intent is also to provide a supportive dose of real news and genuine hope in a world that is presently lacking in both. The show is available on [Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critical-support-charles-x-shirin/id1893854704?ref=theredoubt.net) and [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1j8a6whkwfdo2KsTquGWPA?si=PRQcIPxSQJWdx-WOrwdDcA&ref=theredoubt.net). In the first few episodes, Charles and Shirin discuss topics such as the toppling of Viktor Orbán and what it means for democracy in Hungary and elsewhere; the logic of "lesser evils" and whether purity tests are responsible for Donald Trump; and whether "One Battle After Another" was inspiring — and deserved an Academy Award — or whether it was actually problematic. *Have feedback? Guest or story ideas? Partnership opportunities? Reach out: CriticalSupport \[at\] TheRedoubt.net* ### Pope Trump and MAGA American heresy URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/pope-trump-and-maga-american-heresy/ Last updated: 2026-04-13T15:36:20.000Z It is no knock on one's sincere beliefs to observe that some people — perhaps more than a few — adopt religion for less than holy reasons: to assuage guilt over their sinful thoughts and actions, their behavior unchanged by their professed beliefs, or just to obtain a better angle for throwing stones at other sinners. For all its faults as an institution led by flawed human beings, the Roman Catholic Church is at least constituted as an institution for all children of God, regardless of race, gender or nationality. It transcends borders and promotes adherence to a law higher than any imposed by mere governments. This is unacceptable to any real follower of Donald J. Trump. His movement is built, if nothing else, on inequality: the notion that there is a natural human hierarchy, with white, American men at the top, and the bottom determined by the political needs of the moment — Haitians on Monday, Somalis by Friday — but assuredly of darker pigmentation. Trump owes his power to millions of his fellow Americans abandoning any pretense of love for their neighbors. But he has, up to now, allowed his Christian supporters to maintain the self-preserving fiction that their politics were at least arguably compatible with their claimed religion. That is to say: he did not pick a fight with the literal pope, for instance. But an open confrontation was inevitable between this president and an institution that treats him as another mere mortal. “I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump [told reporters](https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/trump-says-not-a-big-fan-of-pope-leo-after-his-anti-war-message-2145889593?ref=theredoubt.net) on Sunday. He went on to describe the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics as "weak on crime" and "terrible for foreign policy," while also claiming credit for his appointment, saying the church only made Leo pontiff because it believed "that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump." Why would the Catholic Church need someone who could "deal with President Donald J. Trump," and why would that person need to be an American? The 79-year-old's narcissism does not allow the reflection necessary to grasp how the answer is unflattering: because, incapable of empathy, he could only be persuaded by someone in whom he sees himself. His behavior — including the posting of a blasphemous image likening himself to an [American Jesus](https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mjdtuertmk2i?ref=theredoubt.net) — also demonstrates how no critic, however meek, could avoid injuring his grandiose ego. Indeed, what sparked the president's rage was a modest defense of human life. “Attacks on civilian infrastructure \[are\] against international law \[and\] also a sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction that the human being is capable of," Pope Leo [said](https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/pope-appeals-for-peace-iran-war-april7-2026?ref=theredoubt.net) on Easter Sunday. This came after Trump threatened that a "[whole civilization will die](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/trump-iran-deadline-threats-00861313?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQKNjYyODU2ODM3OQABHmbqMp4mdF5iyxbd%5FYnZcMDIlhA7n1-ikogHBJrPuygrjmm5pUuDi0NspD8W%5Faem%5Fl970f6DLzKwJfwZQ6ruajw&ref=theredoubt.net)" if he did not get his way. A more sophisticated politician would have dismissed the pope's comments with a metaphorical pat on the head; as romantic idealism befitting a man of God. But the American president is not just lacking in emotional regulation, but has been rewarded for it by an American electorate that gave him a nuclear stockpile. He has been given no reason to change, were he capable of it. It is not clear that personally attacking the pope, in the defense of his right to kill millions, will cost him anything among the right-wing faithful, either. A recent [poll](https://www.ncregister.com/cna/poll-catholic-support-for-president-donald-trump-drops-below-50-amid-iran-war?ref=theredoubt.net) found that nearly half of American Catholics approve of Trump's performance in office despite his assault on their [immigrant brethren](https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/america-s-bishops-express-opposition-to-indiscriminate-mass-deportations?ref=theredoubt.net) and his [cosplay as the Antichrist](https://theconversation.com/what-will-the-antichrist-look-like-according-to-western-thought-an-authoritarian-king-or-the-pope-256205?ref=theredoubt.net). Even after he threatened genocide, the conservative Catholic League criticized not the president, but the head of the Roman church, saying Leo had "[left himself open for rebuke](https://www.catholicleague.org/is-pacifism-moral/?ref=theredoubt.net)" by suggesting there's no such thing as a good bombing campaign. The [dark triad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark%5Ftriad?ref=theredoubt.net), not the [trinity](https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-unilaterally-pauses-the-war-that-he-alone-started/), is the bedrock of America's right-wing religion, and criticizing Donald Trump its gravest form of heresy. Is the pope Catholic? Irrelevant. Is he MAGA? *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484&sk=reviews)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Trump unilaterally pauses the war that he alone started URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-unilaterally-pauses-the-war-that-he-alone-started/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T11:55:26.000Z After threatening the total destruction of "a whole civilization" — an action, alone, that would prompt any civilized nation to remove him from power — Donald Trump ended his war with Iran, at least for now, not with a mushroom cloud but a timid little whimper. An "historic and crushing defeat" of the U.S. and Israel is how Iran's Supreme National Security Council spun a two-week ceasefire that ends more than a month of bombing in exchange, reportedly, for nothing at all. "Iran has achieved a great victory and has forced criminal America to accept its own 10-point proposal." Trump, following weeks of shifting rationales for the 40-day assault, from outright ending the Islamic Republic to destroying its nuclear enrichment program, appeared to acknowledge his total capitulation in [a post](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116367088879643074?ref=theredoubt.net) on Truth Social. "A big day for World Peace!" he wrote. "There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process." The problem with having a mercurial and demented leader of the free world is that it is never clear what will happen tomorrow. In 14 days, Trump could well pivot back to promises of genocide. Right now, though, with Iran continuing to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz, and with it control over the global economy, few can claim it looks like victory for the United States — or Israel, which appears bound by a ceasefire that it had no role in negotiating. "There has never been such a diplomatic disaster in all our history," Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on social media following news of the deal. "Israel wasn't even at the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security," he [wrote](https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog%5Fentry/lapid-on-iran-ceasefire-there-has-never-been-such-a-diplomatic-disaster-in-all-our-history/?ref=theredoubt.net), adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "failed diplomatically, failed strategically and did not meet any of the goals he himself set." [America’s war: Israel did not make Trump do itThe United States bombs whom it wants, when it wants.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/size/w1200/2026/03/General_Dan_Caine_and_Secretary_of_War_Pete_Hegseth_listen_as_President_Donald_J._Trump_oversees_Operation_Epic_Fury_at_Mar-a-Lago_-55125232216-.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-war-israel-did-not-make-trump-do-it/) Put another way: Israel does not control American foreign policy, as much as it may wish that to be true. That's an important fact to remember as, even just hours before the ceasefire was announced, there appeared to be efforts underway to blame America's strategic defeat on its far less powerful ally in the region. A [report](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html?ref=theredoubt.net) in The New York Times detailed how Netanyahu had presented Trump with a case for war that pointed "to near-certain victory," with Iran's ballistic missile program destroyed and the country so weakened it couldn't dare threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. "Sounds good to me," the Times paraphrased Trump as saying, the report identifying Vice President JD Vance as the "stark exception" when it came to support for the war, most others having "deferred to the president's instincts" (a clue, perhaps, as to who leaked this version of events and why). The effort to attribute the war to Israel started before the war even began. A Feb. 25 [report](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/25/white-house-politics-israel-strikes-iran-00799456?ref=theredoubt.net) in Politico, citing two people familiar with White House discussions, revealed that Trump's top advisers believed "the politics are a lot better" if Israel were seen as acting first against Iran and compelling an American response. When the war began, that is indeed how Secretary of State Marco Rubio [spun](https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-war-israel-did-not-make-trump-do-it/) U.S. intervention: as Trump responding to Iranian retaliation brought about by Israeli attacks. Critics of the administration, some good faith and some [just antisemitic](https://www.jpost.com/international/article-888296?ref=theredoubt.net), have swallowed this explanation in furtherance of their own critiques of Israel and U.S. support for a rogue nation that did not just threaten a genocide but [carried one out](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/). But even accepting the Times report at face value, the lesson is not that Washington's wars are dictated by Tel Aviv but that only Donald Trump was stupid and arrogant enough to buy what they were selling. Israel has agitated for U.S. action against Iran for decades — after 9/11, it wanted George W. Bush to attack Tehran, [not Baghdad](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/02/07/israel-emphasizes-iranian-threat/b033ec97-9ad4-4ed2-8b2c-c13e3dc823f0/?ref=theredoubt.net) — but it never found a willing partner until a plurality of U.S. voters decided to return the worst person in America to the White House. The Israeli government has earned its fair share of criticism. But in the weeks ahead, let us all be mindful: it was the U.S. government, controlled by Trump and with nary a word of criticism from anyone in his cabinet, that made the decision to commit American forces to an attack Iran — to bomb schools, kill children and threaten the all-out destruction of a civilization. Don't help anyone in this administration blame someone else. *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### After denying Trump access to its airspace, Austria says it needs fighter jets URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/after-denying-trump-access-to-its-airspace-austria-says-it-needs-fighter-jets/ Last updated: 2026-04-03T11:32:34.000Z When Donald Trump singled out Austria in an address for the United Nations, citing its immigrant population as evidence that Europe is "going to hell," the country's response was muted. "Of course we are offering cooperation here," Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger [responded](https://www.krone.at/3906993?ref=theredoubt.net), referring to efforts to control irregular migration. "Right now, cooperation ... and diplomacy are more important than ever," she said after Trump cited the fact that a slim majority of Austria's comparatively small prison population was born elsewhere (the U.S. president declined to note that much of that foreign population — less than 10,000 people — comes from within Europe). Following the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, however, the Austrian government is done being so diplomatic. The bombardment has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with Austria's governing coalition of conservative, liberal and centrist parties forced to [slash fuel taxes](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/austria-cut-fuel-tax-cap-margins-iran-war-lifts-oil-prices-2026-03-18/?ref=theredoubt.net) in an effort to limit war-related inflation. It is now the latest European country to say "no" to the American military, joining the likes of Spain and Italy, which have also prohibited U.S. flights carrying war supplies. "Of course, Austria must deny U.S. access to our airspace for military flights," Vice-Chancellor Andi Babler, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party, or SPÖ, said in an [April 2 statement](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/austria-cut-fuel-tax-cap-margins-iran-war-lifts-oil-prices-2026-03-18/?ref=theredoubt.net) on social media. "We want nothing to do with Trump's policy of chaos and his war, which is bringing us the next energy crisis. Neutrality is a precious asset in our country. No to war." No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us by[signing up for our newsletter](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or with a [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) But that was not the most intriguing comment of the day. Hours after the coalition government's liberal leadership spoke out against American military flights, a spokesperson for Austria's defense ministry — led by a member of the conservative coalition partner — added that the country's sovereignty could only be ensured with military force. "To maintain control of our airspace and prevent others from using it, we need fighter jets. At least 36," spokesperson Michael Bauer said in [a statement](https://x.com/Bundesheerbauer/status/2039816799823216874?ref=theredoubt.net) on social media. "How else could we prevent overflights?" Speaking to Politico, Bauer [said](https://www.politico.eu/article/austria-blocks-us-warplane-overflights-citing-neutrality/?ref=theredoubt.net) it was odd that Trump's government would even ask to use Austrian airspace, citing his country's post-World War II status as a nonaligned nation. "The question is — why submit a request to a neutral state in the first place?" he asked. The era of American hubris may be far from over. But it is now clear that the U.S. government, under the current president, is viewed by its erstwhile European allies as more of a threat — another Russia — than a future partner. *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484)*.* ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### "No Kings": Absent a demand, Americans are losing interest URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/no-kings-absent-a-demand-americans-are-losing-interest/ Last updated: 2026-05-18T15:38:36.000Z It's hard to argue that what may have been the largest day of protest in United States history was a failure. But it was a missed opportunity, and there is no sign that its organizers plan to correct course. For the third time since Donald Trump returned to power, millions of Americans took to the streets to demand — well, that isn't clear, exactly. While organizers with the progressive group Indivisible insist that "'No Kings' is more than just a slogan," they are decidedly vague on what it is instead: > "\[I\]t is the foundation our nation was built upon. Born in the streets, shouted by millions, carried on posters and chants, it \[No Kings\] echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together." On their website, organizers of the March 28 protest reference Trump's efforts to subvert democracy, terrorize immigrants and wage an illegal war ("\[spending\] our tax dollars on missile strikes abroad"), nowhere do they mention the typical demand of movements opposed to dictatorship: removing the dictator. It's not as if Indivisible is unfamiliar with the concept of "impeachment," the constitutional remedy for a president who usurps the power of their office. "We simply cannot just wait for Trump to leave office as his threat level to our democracy continues to increase," the group [said in 2021](https://indivisible.org/news/indivisible-impeach-remove-and-disqualify/?ref=theredoubt.net), after Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. Five years ago, a would-be tyrant's assault on the republic demanded immediate action. In 2026? Accountability is, if not just a slogan, uncomfortably close to one — and a now tired one at that. With the president of the United States wrecking the global economy while launching missiles at elementary schools, his approval rating tanking in inverse relation to the price of gas, why rally around the same nebulous message as a year ago? The lack of a clear demand — protest, instead, as an expression of general discontent — tracks with the strategy of Democrats in Congress, who impeached Trump twice in his first term and now see the topic of his removal as unhelpful, at best. Rather than viewing impeachment as an opportunity to galvanize their own base, the conventional wisdom among members of Congress is that it would: 1) lead nowhere, with Republicans refusing to provide the votes necessary to convict him; and 2) rally Trump's own supporters around the MAGA flag. "Literally no Democrats are talking about this," House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar [told Punchbowl News](https://punchbowl.news/article/house/dems-no-impeach/?ref=theredoubt.net) about 48 hours before the latest "No Kings" rallies. "This is not something that comes up in our discussions at all." "The reality," added Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, "is we know that Trump, regardless of any impeachment vote, is not going to get convicted by the Senate." No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires Our work is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) The belief is that Democrats can take back Congress by virtue of not being the party of Trump. They may well be right; Republicans, certainly, have won more elections by promising less. But while protest movements should indeed be strategic and mindful of public opinion, it is not wise for them to be bound to the considerations of a tactically conservative political party and the myopia of politicians who are, by the nature of their profession, narrowly focused on eking out a win in the next election. It is, above all, important to be honest. A man who asserts the right to unilaterally launch a globally destabilizing war, and publicly mocks the constitutional system by declaring it a "[military operation](https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mi37amfxlt2z?ref=theredoubt.net)" instead, is a man who should be removed from power. The inability to say this projects weakness and breeds cynicism. You can see it in the numbers. According to organizers, no fewer than eight million Americans turned out to the latest "No Kings" protests, serving as a useful reminder that there is an army of concerned citizens who are eager to do something; those citizens are now reminded that they are not alone, and the relationships they forge today will matter tomorrow. That is certainly not nothing. But we were already aware of this last June — and interest, beyond the participants, is now waning. According to Google, searches for "No Kings" in the week leading up to the last protests were [about half](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=%22no%20kings%22&ref=theredoubt.net) what they were in the weeks leading up to last year's rallies. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-01-at-07-49-32-no-kings---Explore---Google-Trends-1.png) **Google Trends data as of April 1, 2026.* Data from Media Cloud, an open-source platform for monitoring news coverage, also shows that interest is [falling off](https://search.mediacloud.org/search?q=%2522no%2520kings%2522&nq=&start=02-25-2025&end=03-31-2026&p=onlinenews-mediacloud&ss=&cs=34412234&any=any&name=%22no%20kings%22&edit=false&ref=theredoubt.net). Of particular note is the diminished staying power, despite the turnout: on the Monday following the June 14 protests, some 357 articles were published by U.S. media outlets; after the October 18 rallies, that number jumped to 428; but in the wake of the March 28 actions, a new high in crowd was met with a new low — just 304 articles were published, a 33 percent drop from five months before. One can go ahead and blame the media, sure. Protests by the far-right regularly achieve more news coverage than their liberal and leftist counterparts; similar turnout against a Democrat would produce editorials demanding a "national conversation," if not a resignation. But the trend also reflects the lack of a good hook. Sure, a lot of people do not like Trump — but we already knew that. Going forward, the question that needs to be answered is: What are they actually going to do about it? Indivisible did not respond to a request for comment. But in a [recent interview](https://www.commondreams.org/news/no-kings-general-strike?ref=theredoubt.net), Leah Greenberg, the group's co-founder, said the plan now is to transition these "No Kings" protests into an "economic show of force": "No work, no school, no shopping." Greenberg also promised that this nationwide general strike, something that has [never before happened](https://inthesetimes.com/article/shutting-it-all-down-the-power-of-general-strikes-in-u-s-history?ref=theredoubt.net) in U.S. history, would be centered on a "clear message." "\[W\]e demand a government that invests in our communities," she said, "not one that enriches billionaires, fuels endless war, or deploys masked agents to intimidate our neighbors." A call for "invest\[ing\] in our communities" is perfectly sensible rhetoric for a Democratic congressional campaign, but it will not spur millions of Americans with at-will employment to risk losing their jobs. The clear takeaway is that there is no real, actionable demand; certainly nothing as eminently graspable as "regime change" (or "stop the war"). It is more of the same — while asking much more of its participants — and as such its organizers are unlikely to succeed where no one has before. *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484)*.* ### Don't give up on the public just yet URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/dont-give-up-on-the-public-just-yet/ Last updated: 2026-03-26T14:44:45.000Z VIENNA — Former U.S. President Joe Biden tried to [raise the alarm](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/politics/biden-speech-transcript.html?ref=theredoubt.net) about the threat that Donald Trump and his movement posed to "the very foundations of our republic." Days before the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, [speaking](https://rollcall.com/factbase/harris/transcript/kamala-harris-remarks-campaign-rally-ellipse-washington-october-29-2024/?ref=theredoubt.net) at the site where her Republican opponent incited the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, warned that Trump was "consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power." It didn't work, at least if the measure of success was preventing a plurality of the American electorate from returning a would-be autocrat to power. Democrats, per the post-election consensus, spent too much time warning about abstract threats and not working with the voters that actually exist: people who want to hear about prices ("kitchen table issues"), not a lecture about civics. People "can't pay for groceries with democracy," political consultant Louis Perron [wrote](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-harris-election-incumbents-inflation-living-costs-immigration-economy-politics-2024-11?op=1&ref=theredoubt.net) following the 2024 contest. 📰 Appreciate original journalism? [**The Redoubt* needs your support!](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) The median voter, in the pejorative sense, is largely motivated by vulgar self-interest: [cheap gas](https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/insights/markets/us-voter-pessimism-drops-along-with-gas-prices/?ref=theredoubt.net) and consumer electronics. Others cast their ballot based on a desire to inflict harm on the disfavored; on [racism](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379420300901?ref=theredoubt.net), [xenophobia](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-voters-haitians-springfield-ohio-b2614498.html?ref=theredoubt.net) and [hatred of women](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/06/americans-remain-wary-of-electing-a-female-president-new-poll-reveals-00594591?ref=theredoubt.net). That is, at least, a defensible reading of an electorate that returned the worst possible option to power. But even if we should avoid romanticizing the common citizen, we should also avoid writing them off as a lost cause. Indeed, research suggests someone can vote for an authoritarian (more than once) and still learn to value democracy — and vote accordingly, going forward, even if they ignored such appeals in the past. "A lot of people tune out," Anja Neundorf, professor of politics and research methods at the University of Glasgow, noted in a recent talk in Vienna. They do not grasp the real-world implications of democracy being eroded, perhaps — or because those warning about it are partisans for the other side of the political aisle, they ignore the warnings and rally behind the threat to the republic. "It's messy and complex and it's natural for us when we see something that is so complex, to just tune out," Neundorf continued, addressing an audience at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a social democratic think tank. "But if we empower people by explaining them what \[democracy\] is, how it works and why it's good for you, then you empower them." Put another way: If you teach people why it matters for the press to be independent and diverse, as a basic first principle, they will be primed to defend the values of liberal democracy without further prompting when they see them under attack. Neundorf was not speculating. As part of [a project](https://www.aneundorf.net/erc-project-demed/?ref=theredoubt.net) funded by the European Research Council, she and a team of researchers used Facebook and Instagram to present three-minute civic courses to more than 90,000 people in 33 countries who agreed to participate for a chance to win an Amazon gift card. What they found is that simple, animated and kind of cheesy lessons about democracy — what it is and why it should matter to you — promoted a statistically significant change in people's opinions and even their voting intentions. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-17-at-19-51-59-How-to-counter-the-far-right-lessons-from-Brazil---Media_1227448_smxx.pdf.png) **"Reclaiming democracy through online civic education," Anja Neundorf, Frierich Ebert Stiftung* Crucially, the study found not just that these lessons changed people's take on the abstract concept of "democracy," but how they perceived threats to it. In Turkey, watching the lessons was associated with a 5 percent drop in support for the ruling party of strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, despite the fact that neither he nor his government were ever mentioned. The effects of watching a 180-second video were even measurable some 10 weeks later. "Something that maybe we wouldn't have expected is that the message that actually worked the best was to emphasize the core of liberal democracy," Neundorf said. "The media that focused on rights and the media that focused on institutions worked better than focusing on people." These messages about rights and the importance of checks and balances wereeven more effective than economic claims, like the fact that living in a liberal democracy is broadly associated with better material outcomes for regular people. Maybe the public is not so bad? Or rather: its constituent parts can be persuaded to stand up for their own rights. At least in this one exercise. And it is just an exercise. The question is: Can something like this — civic lessons delivered via social media platforms that are increasingly under the control of right-wing oligarchs — be replicated in the real world? For the chance to win a $500 gift card, people will watch a civics lesson on their phone. For free, though? Why would you? There's a cat video to watch, or some AI-generated Dachshunds fighting over a stuffed animal. That's a real and unsolved problem. If you can get someone to take their pills, they may heal; if you can them to learn about civics, they may even defend democracy. But you need to figure out a way to make people actually take the medicine. **One of the videos that researchers found to be the most effective.* The messenger is part of the problem. Biden and Harris were partisans whose remarks could be dismissed as self-interested. Both would have been better served by their administration exercising power — quickly and aggressively prosecuting those who organized the effort to [overthrow the republic](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-capitol-riot-was-not-the-language-of-the-unheard-2021-1?op=1&ref=theredoubt.net) — than issuing warnings that were dismissed as partisan politics. But what about everyone else? The American media treated the election as any other, with "both sides" leveling embellished claims about the other; while the American public should not be spared its share of responsibility, it's not hard to imagine someone concluding that this was just another contest between two teams that always get a little heated. Neundorf suggested that education should be an all-society effort, not the responsibility of politicians alone. That means: you, me and civil society. She did not, like anyone else in our present world, have an easy answer as to the form and means of distribution. What she did present, however, is an encouraging insight in a discouraging time: that people can be made to care about democracy, and that they can be made to so based on principles, not just their pocketbook. *Follow The Redoubt on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/theredoubt.net?ref=theredoubt.net) *and* [*Facebook*](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584134002484)*.* No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires More than hot takes: This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) ### Fight for something: 'Good governance' is not enough URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/fight-for-something-good-governance-is-not-enough/ Last updated: 2026-06-01T14:08:10.000Z VIENNA — The dread swept over me as he spoke, that sense of recognition — that awful familiarity — tightening the muscles in my stomach and tensing my back. The words coming out of his mouth were causing me physical pain. Over a pint of beer at a leftist bar in a conservative neighborhood, this political scientist was explaining how the country's political establishment planned to fend off the threat posed by the populist demagogues of the far right. What people want is proper good governance: public services delivered competently, without scandal or fanfare. And voters, listening to their better angels and examining their material interests, would reward those who could deliver it and, in turn, reject the hateful, transgressive thrill of culture wars and literal fascism. Austria, I began to think, might be destined to repeat not just its own history, but America's too. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires **The Redoubt's* original reporting and analysis is supported entirely by readers like you. [Sign up for free ](#/portal/signup) Anyone familiar with U.S. politics between the time Donald Trump lost power and the time he regained it will recognize this story. The Freedom Party, or FPÖ, is Central Europe's answer to MAGA. Founded by a former SS officer, it has already had a shot at power and blew it through incompetence and naked corruption. In 2019, a secretly recorded video was released showing the FPÖ's Heinz-Christian Strache, then Austria's vice chancellor, at a meeting in Ibiza with a woman purporting to represent a Russian billionaire and promising positive media coverage in exchange for government contracts. Strache resigned and the FPÖ's more mainstream conservative coalition partners dissolved the government, saying "[enough is enough](https://apnews.com/article/f1889cdac21b479c8faccd0a3fb0705f?ref=theredoubt.net)." In the next election, later that year, the party of right-wing extremism saw its support drop by 10 percent and came in third. What did Austrian voters then do in 2024? Give the FPÖ — now led by a man, Herbert Kickl, who recommended treating COVID-19 with vitamin D and ivermectin (everything's the same, everywhere) — its best result ever: first place, at just under 29 percent of the vote. The only reasons it did not form a government are hubris and Austria's parliamentary system: Kickl behaved like a man who had just won 55 percent and failed to convince any of the parties representing 7 in 10 voters to join him. Austria now has a grand coalition, consisting of the conservative ÖVP, the social democratic SPÖ and the much smaller, neoliberal NEOS, which naturally pleases just about no one, particularly at a time of austerity following a period of high inflation. The country has a tradition of odd-couple governance, with the ÖVP and SPÖ each taking turns in the chancellor's office, but that tradition is also why it's so easy for populists here to take on "the establishment." How is proper good governance faring? I won't profess to be an expert on the issues facing a country I have only lived in for six months, but relatively speaking — compared to the country I just left, for example — I would say it is doing just fine. Vienna looks like a museum; higher education is practically free; health care literally so; and the public transit is cheap and abundant, even in an age of budget cuts. If anything, the country serves as a model for how a strong social safety net is not, alone, enough to diminish the appeal of fascism. If Austrians are so unhappy with their lot in life that they would prefer fascism to liberal democracy, a hundred years after the Nazis marched into Vienna, then they frankly need to get out more; what they cannot do is claim, by any global measure, to be suffering to the degree historically viewed as necessary for a people to throw it all away. As a columnist for the left-wing newspaper Der Standard recently [pointed out](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000311110/wer-waehlt-die-fpoe?ref=theredoubt.net), social science indicates that is not economic deprivation that primarily drives support for the far right but false perceptions: voters who are doing better than others, objectively, but imagine themselves to be worse off, or are simply anxious about losing their privileged status. And that is why I felt a little sick in that bar, hearing that political scientist explain (but, he would add: not endorse) a strategy that sounds an awful lot like former President Joe Biden and the Democrats' plan between 2020 and 2024\. Then, as now, the operating theory was that the public would appreciate their real material gains; that people would reward the party that gave new parents thousands of dollars in cash assistance, and appreciate the folks that made politics boring again; that voters in red states would value infrastructure investments and chip factories more than their desire to punish uppity, pink-haired baristas and others who make them upset when they look at their phones. Yeah, whoops. There were obvious mistakes, including the military and diplomatic support for a g[enocide in Gaza](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/), but a plurality of Americans looked at the lesser evil and chose the greater one. Today, in Austria, the FPÖ is polling better than ever, at more than 35 percent, even as the country's economy [grows](https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/economic-surveys/Austria-Economic-Snapshot.html?ref=theredoubt.net). Their victory is not inevitable come 2029; they polled nearly as well 30 years ago, their support then collapsing. But the ruling coalition is repeating a strategy that has been tried and found lacking elsewhere, including [appeals](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-signs-executive-order-shutting-southern-border-rcna155426?ref=theredoubt.net) to [xenophobia](https://apnews.com/article/austria-new-government-migration-family-reunions-2621ad0698df0512ffa5fb78a0d15216?ref=theredoubt.net) that all sides of the spectrum view as cynical. Being decent at running a government is all well and good, but without an answer for the emotional appeal of the far-right — without being able to sell an inspiring counter-narrative — then the promise of hope and change will indeed be supplanted by the threat of cruelty and hate. Drink up. [*Subscribe to The Redoubt*](https://www.theredoubt.net/fight-for-something-good-governance-is-not-enough/#/portal/signup) *and follow the author on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ### 'Melting away': Climate change could kill skiing in the Alps URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/melting-away-climate-change-could-kill-skiing-in-the-alps/ Last updated: 2026-03-05T11:42:25.000Z VIENNA — Heat and snow mix like oil and water, which makes it all the more confounding that Austria's winter tourism industry appears to be in denial about the existential threat it faces from the burning of fossil fuels. “The average altitude of ski areas in the Alps is approximately 1,800 meters. At 3 degrees of warming — 0.6 degrees per 100 meters — the viable zone shifts upward by 500 meters to 2,300 meters," University of Vienna ecologist Stefan Dullinger, speaking in German, recently told reporters in the Austrian capital. "Switzerland still has enough terrain at that altitude. Austria doesn't." "As space shrinks and everything shifts upward," he continued, "the overlap and competition for an ever smaller area will become greater and greater." From 1920 to 2020, snowfall across the Alps dropped by an average of 34 percent, according to a 2024 study published by the International Journal of Climatology, with the biggest declines reported below 2,000 meters. If that trend continues, it will mean not just fewer opportunities for the average tourist, but further ecological damage, Dullinger noted. While ski operations are moved to formerly pristine areas, lower-altitude slopes will be abandoned and left devastated, discouraging climate-adaptive uses of the land, with hikers and others moving on to new terrain themselves. "If you level a ski slope, mechanically shave off all unevenness — there are studies in Switzerland, over 10 to 15 years, showing no meaningful vegetation recovery at all," he said. "It simply degrades. It is never good." Yet, for many in the country's alpine tourism industry, the fact that their livelihoods may well be destroyed by climate change does not seem to register. A year after the study reporting dramatic declines in snowfall, two of Austria's largest ski resorts, KitzSki and SkiWelt, merged and [announced](https://www.iloveski.org/en/2025/06/03/austria-plans-europes-second-largest-ski-are/?ref=theredoubt.net) major expansion plans — below 2,000 meters. As University of Vienna sociologist Valentina Ausserladscheider discovered, avoidance — refusing to accept that global warming is not a distant threat but something well underway — is a way to cope with the fact that there is no simple replacement for a winter sport industry that turned sleepy, impoverished towns into global destinations. "A viable economic alternative, a big one, won't exist," the CEO of a cable car company [told her](https://thesociologicalreview.org/magazine/june-2025/slippery-slopes/?ref=author%5Fprofile), as she reported in a 2025 article for The Sociological Review, when asked what life in the Alps will be like when artificial snow can no longer make up for declines in the natural variety. “Agriculture won’t be enough ... Industrialization won’t happen either. And then we are left with depopulation because there will be too little work without tourism.” For many, it seems better just not to think about what is still perceived as a future problem. Reality, however, will persist. So too will skiing, even in Austria — just not for most people. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This original reporting is funded entirely by readers like you. Support us with a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). [Subscribe now ](#/portal/signup) Speaking to reporters gathered at Vienna's foreign press association, Ausserladscheider, speaking in German, argued that Austria's ski industry should use its collective voice and its cultural power to demand action on climate change. Solar panels and more carbon-neutral transit are fine, but in the absence of real advocacy amount to little more than small gestures in the right direction. "What is not happening ... is the clear communication that climate change is a massive problem for the industry," Ausserladscheider said. “If we really want to imagine a development where climate change does not fundamentally change our way of life, then we have to turn all political and economic screws — and if not the climate change-vulnerable industries, then who else?" The future, at least for skiers in Austria, will also be a lot more segregated. When warmer temperatures eliminate winter sports at lower altitudes, what will be left are the economic elites at the top. "We can see the trend," Ausserladscheider said. "Towards higher prices. Towards luxury. And that, of course, quite clearly prevents skiing, if it ever could be, \[from being described\] as a popular sport." For there to be a chance at arresting the spike in global temperatures and ensuring a mass-market ski industry can exist past 2050, the stewards of Austria's traditional tourism industry should not remain on the sidelines of political debate. "Those," she added, "whose entire economic system is melting away: if they don't say climate change is a problem, then I see our future as somewhat problematic.” [*Support independent journalism by signing up for our newsletter.*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) ### America's war: Israel did not make Trump do it URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-war-israel-did-not-make-trump-do-it/ Last updated: 2026-03-03T12:41:31.000Z In the history of military conflict, few are the aggressors who have ever fessed up to deliberately launching a war of choice. Just about every unprovoked bombing campaign has been launched in self-defense, every invasion the product of a decision made by someone else. So it was Monday, when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that the United States' March 1 attack on Iran was compelled by a chain of events outside of its control. Israel, he argued, was going to strike the Islamic Republic anyway. "The imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked — and we believed they would be attacked — they would immediately come after us," Rubio [told reporters](https://www.timesofisrael.com/rubio-reveals-us-launched-strikes-against-iran-because-of-planned-israeli-attack/?ref=theredoubt.net) ahead of a classified briefing with members of Congress. "We were aware of Israeli intentions ... and understood what that would mean for us and had to be prepared to act as a result of it," he continued, remarks that came after Trump administration officials conceded a day prior that there was otherwise [no imminent threat](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-tells-congress-no-sign-that-iran-was-going-attack-us-first-sources-say-2026-03-02/?ref=theredoubt.net) from the Iranian regime. This claim has been taken, in some quarters — on both the anti-imperialist left and neo-Nazi right — as an admission that America's ally, Israel, is a rogue state that has manipulated its chief benefactor into a transgression of U.S. and international law; that a nation of less than 10 million people dictates the foreign policy of a global hegemon. This is a politically convenient narrative for antisemites, of course, but its adoption is not limited to those just looking for an easy excuse to blame the Jews. [Get analysis like this in your inbox](#/portal/signup) "We signed up to defend the United States," Fred Wellman, a military veteran and Democratic candidate for Congress, [posted](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social/post/3mg5dsl56zk26?ref=theredoubt.net) on social media. "Not be mercenaries for Netanyahu and the murderous Saudi regime." In this way, American innocence is preserved and critiques of President Donald Trump can take on a populist, nationalist veneer. The administration has sold us out to foreigners who do not have our best interests at heart. It's "America First" but from the left of center. The obvious problem is that it is simply not true, and those treating Rubio's remarks as a gaffe are falling for propaganda. On Feb. 25, Politico [reported](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/25/white-house-politics-israel-strikes-iran-00799456?ref=theredoubt.net) that this ostensibly critical narrative was just the one favored by those who decided to start a war without the consent of Congress and without even bothering to make a public case. "Senior advisers to President Donald Trump would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country," the outlet reported, citing two sources familiar with the discussions. "These Trump administration officials are privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a U.S. strike." The U.S. wasn't compelled to act by a reckless and intransigent ally, in this telling, but hoping that Israel would move first so it could publicly claim its hand was forced. There is also the problem that the opening strike on Iran, reported as a joint U.S.-Israeli operation that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was carried out based on information provided by the CIA, "which learned that the supreme leader would be meeting in Tehran on Saturday \[Feb. 28\]," [according to](https://abcnews.com/International/intelligence-pinpointed-khamenei-tehran-compound-ahead-precise-strike/story?id=130649278&ref=theredoubt.net) ABC News. "The United States had high confidence in the intelligence and the attack was shifted to its eventual timing on Saturday morning, the source said." The opening salvo had been planned for exactly one week earlier, [per Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/03/02/iran-war-strike-israel-delay-trump?ref=theredoubt.net), but was delayed "for operational and intelligence reasons." Israeli and U.S. officials cited by the outlet gave differing explanations for that delay, from bad weather to allowing time for more negotiations between Tehran and Washington — the key disagreement: whether those talks were simply a ruse — but if there is evidence that Tel Aviv would have been willing to go it alone, it isn't there. That is, indeed, the problem with the narrative suggested by Rubio and some of the administration's critics: Israel would not and could not have gone it alone, at least not if it knew there would be real financial, military and diplomatic consequences — imposed by the most powerful nation on earth, one perfectly capable of punishing governments that defy it. If the Trump administration wanted to stave off an Israeli attack, it could have, in ways public and private; it decided, instead, to carry out the [largest](https://apnews.com/article/us-military-iran-buildup-nuclear-program-5663a8b0d81c8439adfaa010c59a36f5?ref=theredoubt.net) military buildup in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, another U.S. war of choice. The U.S. relationship with Israel should be viewed critically, but let us not forget the power dynamic: whether it is launching a war or [facilitating a genocide](https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/), American presidents should be made to own their choices. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ### Exclusive: Ballroom firm got $33.7 million no-bid contract to demolish historic buildings URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/exclusive-noem-spends-33-7-million-to-demolish-historic-buildings-at-dhs-headquarters/ Last updated: 2026-06-01T14:07:38.000Z The "emergency" demolition of historic buildings at the Department of Homeland Security's St. Elizabeths campus in Washington, DC, will cost U.S. taxpayers at least $33.7 million – millions of dollars more than an independent government estimate suggested the work should cost, according to federal records reviewed by *The Redoubt*. Last year, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a memo declaring that more than a dozen buildings on the site of her department's new headquarters posed an immediate "risk to life and property." Noem, in her Dec. 19 missive, asserted that the buildings could "provide a tactical advantage for carrying out small arms or active shooter scenarios." [Pattern of no-bid contracts going to companies working on Trump’s ballroomContracts reviewed by The Redoubt call into question White House claims that the ballroom would never cost taxpayers a dime.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/whitehouse-ballroom-rendering.webp)](https://www.theredoubt.net/pattern-of-no-bid-contracts-going-to-companies-working-on-trumps-ballroom/) News of the planned demolition, first [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/12/30/homeland-security-plan-demolish-buildings-st-elizabeths/?ref=theredoubt.net) by The Washington Post, drew criticism from historical preservationists. The St. Elizabeths campus, which has undergone more than a decade of development to transform it into a home for DHS, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, having been the site of a 19th-century asylum. An August 2025 review found that the buildings targeted for demolition were suitable for "future adaptive reuse," the Post reported. But less than two weeks after Noem's memo was issued, federal records show that a no-bid contract was awarded to Clark Construction Group LLC, the same firm that has been chosen to construct President Donald Trump's White House ballroom. The company is a [major federal contractor](https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/8470bfbc-50af-251d-d192-3059c5b82618-C/latest?ref=theredoubt.net) that regularly performs hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work annually for the government, and was previously awarded a contract by the Biden administration to perform work at the St. Elizabeths site. Federal records [show](https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT%5FAWD%5F47PB5326C0001%5F4740%5F-NONE-%5F-NONE-?ref=theredoubt.net) that Clark Construction Group LLC was awarded $33,655,499 on Jan. 2, 2026, for the "demolition of 17 structurally and security-compromised buildings" at DHS headquarters. In [a document](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bHLHwzrdRkTo0qxdpC2NQQ4kfruYXqol/view?usp=sharing&ref=theredoubt.net) justifying the use of a no-bid contract, the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages federal properties, pointed to the company's ongoing work at the site and the fact that it already had construction permits "and demonstrated experience working under St. Elizabeths specific security, environmental, and historic preservation constraints." No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) "For these reasons," the document states, "Clark is the only contractor that can satisfy the Government's minimum needs within the required timeframe." An open bidding process, it says, would have delayed demolition by "weeks or months." But the same document also indicates that this work is being performed at a premium. An "Independent Government Estimate" for the demolition work, cited by GSA, found that it should cost between"$23 - $30 million dollars." The actual cost is more than 12 percent higher than the high-end estimate, and 46 percent higher than the low-end. GSA did not respond to a request for comment. In mid-February, the Washington-based publication Migrant Insider [reported](https://migrantinsider.com/p/demolition-poisons-workers-at-dhs?ref=theredoubt.net) that the demolition work at St. Elizabeths was raising health concerns among DHS staff, particularly with regard to asbestos, a known carcinogen. While members of the construction crew are wearing respirators and protective suits, the outlet reported that staff in nearby buildings have received nothing. “There’s this attitude that because this is a high‑security campus, they can do what they want and we’ll just deal with it,” one DHS official told the outlet. “But we’re talking about cancer‑causing dust in a federal workplace. People are scared, and they should be.” *Have a news tip?* [*Reach out*](https://www.theredoubt.net/contact/) *and follow the author on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ### Hypocrisies are vulnerabilities: Accountability must include Palestine URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/the-next-administration-accountability-must-include-palestine/ Last updated: 2026-02-22T12:21:33.000Z A senior Israeli defense official recently [admitted](https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-believes-70000-gazans-killed-in-war-as-claimed-by-hamas/?ref=theredoubt.net) that at least 70,000 human beings were slaughtered in the Gaza Strip. Some 3-4 percent of the population died violent deaths in the first 16 months of war, a [study](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/19/gaza-death-toll-higher-than-reported-lancet-study?ref=theredoubt.net) published in the Lancet medical journal confirmed, including more than 42,000 women, children and elderly people. There is a term for this deliberate attempt to exterminate civilians who are viewed as a [demographic threat](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/?ref=theredoubt.net): per a United Nations commission, it is "[genocide](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds?ref=theredoubt.net)," and it transpired while Israel enjoyed the full military and diplomatic support of the U.S. government — a liberal Democrat facilitating mass murder by a [far-right regime](https://jstreet.org/netanyahus-global-far-right-alliances/?ref=theredoubt.net). For a time, it was possible, if not historically advisable, to believe the rhetoric from Washington. Nearly 1,200 civilians were massacred in a Hamas-led terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023; Israel was always going to respond with its own deadly force, but by embracing its ally (the "[bear hug](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/06/biden-netanyahu-cease-fire-squeeze-00161900?ref=theredoubt.net)"), the United States could better ensure this response was proportional. But even the stated logic of that strategy raised questions. If the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had to be treated with the same delicacy as an enraged drunk who insists they can still drive, were they really the kind of friend anyone should keep around? Further, the U.S. never took away the keys — it handed them over. Under former President Joe Biden, the executive branch [disregarded](https://apnews.com/article/israel-military-aid-gaza-us-biden-leahy-law-3fe632e1ef524656b7a201bc4c1651a2?ref=theredoubt.net) a law prohibiting the transfer of weapons to governments known to be willfully violating human rights; publicly denied its own [internal assessments](https://www.propublica.org/article/biden-blinken-state-department-israel-gaza-human-rights-horrors?ref=theredoubt.net) that Israel was violating the laws of war; and [attacked](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/bidens-icc-hypocrisy-undermines-international-law/?ref=theredoubt.net) the International Criminal Court over its decision to indict Netanyahu for crimes against humanity ("[outrageous](https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-says-icc-move-arrest-warrants-israeli-leaders-outrageous-2024-05-20/?ref=theredoubt.net)," the American president said). "They saw their job as ... justifying a political decision," a former U.S. official, discussing their colleagues in the Biden administration, [told Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-intel-found-israeli-military-lawyers-warned-there-was-evidence-gaza-war-2025-11-07/?ref=theredoubt.net) last year. "Even when the evidence clearly pointed to war crimes," another said, "the Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card was proving intent." [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) Speaking at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted that such behavior is not just immoral and illegal, but self-defeating. "Whether it is threatening our allies to colonize Greenland \[or\] looking the other way in a genocide, hypocrisies are vulnerabilities and they threaten democracies globally," the New York Democrat [said](https://bsky.app/profile/vanjackson.bsky.social/post/3mer6bfescc2z?ref=theredoubt.net), adding that she opposed providing "completely unconditional aid" to governments that violate human rights. "I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza, and I think that we have thousands of women and children dead," she [continued](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/13/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-israel-military-aid?ref=theredoubt.net). "That was completely avoidable." It was also a conscious and indefensible decision, not just a matter of "looking the other way." The Biden administration did not simply avert its eyes from an ally's wanton criminality, but deliberately provided cover for its crimes and the means to carry them out, [diverting](https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/11/ukraines-artillery-supply-declines-shells-go-israel/392130/?ref=theredoubt.net) weapons from the [defense of Ukraine](https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-war-may-increase-demand-for-artillery-shells-needed-ukraine-2023-10?op=1&ref=theredoubt.net) to use in the Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory. In February 2024, some four months after the Oct. 7 terror attack, President Biden himself acknowledged that his continued support for Israel came at what was by then an undeniable cost. Israel was not just attacking Hamas but destroying the ability for anyone to live in Gaza. There "are a lot of innocent people who are starving," Biden admitted, and "a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it's got to stop." It did not end, and neither did U.S. support. Biden's remarks turned out to be little more than public relations, the American president playing the "good" cop to Netanyahu's "bad" in an apparent effort to assure Israel's liberal critics — ahead of an election — that their president was sympathetic and doing his best to prevent further bloodshed. That was a lie. "Time and again," ProPublica's Brett Murphy [observed](https://www.propublica.org/article/biden-blinken-state-department-israel-gaza-human-rights-horrors?ref=theredoubt.net), "Israel crossed the Biden administration’s red lines without changing course in a meaningful way." Even as Israel continued to deny aid shipments from entering Gaza, Biden officials conspired to keep the weapons flowing, openly flouting their legal commitments. This continued until the very end: In a November 2024 meeting, national security adviser Jake Sullivan fielded concern from diplomatic staff that Israel was flouting a U.S. deadline to allow aid or risk a suspension of weapon shipments. "Don't our law, policy and morals demand it?" one attendee, speaking of the need to suspend weapons shipments, told ProPublica. But Sullivan informed attendees that "the decision had already been made" and "the deadline would likely pass without action and Biden would continue sending shipments of bombs uninterrupted." That is just what happened. As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency put it in a [headline](https://www.jta.org/2024/11/13/politics/us-takes-no-action-as-deadline-passes-for-israel-to-meet-gazas-humanitarian-needs?ref=theredoubt.net) at the time: "US takes no action as deadline passes for Israel to meet Gaza’s humanitarian needs." Less than two weeks before Biden left office, and after tens of thousands had already been bombed and starved to death, the White House announced plans to send another [$8 billion](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvne94v1rdo?ref=theredoubt.net) in missiles, bombs and artillery shells — on top of the [$20 billion](https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-20-billion-weapons-us-aid-b6a99129c88a5dcc4a4753e20b5e19ec?ref=theredoubt.net) in military hardware approved for sale just months earlier. "It's hard to avoid the conclusion," Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, told ProPublica, "that the red lines have all just been smokescreens." What makes it all the more unconscionable is that no one who enabled this can claim ignorance. Internally, and early on, staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development [described](https://www.reuters.com/world/early-warning-apocalyptic-wasteland-gaza-blocked-by-us-envoys-israel-2026-01-30/?ref=theredoubt.net) bones littering the streets of Gaza in what they described as an "Apocalyptic Wasteland," where "catastrophic human needs" were being unmet, intentionally. Biden's ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, blocked the report from being released, claiming "it lacked balance." To tell the truth, in public, people of conscience were permitted one option: resign. "America's diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza," [wrote](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/02/politics/us-government-employees-gaza-policy-statement/index.html?ref=theredoubt.net) a dozen U.S. officials, in July 2024, who quit over Biden's enabling of genocide. They described American policy as "morally reprehensible and in clear violation of international humanitarian law and U.S. laws." Why does this matter today, when another president is facilitating the [depopulation](https://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-plan-to-relocate-gazans-stuns-the-region-but-it-faces-serious-obstacles/?ref=theredoubt.net) of Gaza? Because we should always care about the truth and speak it freely, particularly if we wish to be viewed as credible voices when condemning future transgressions. We know this to be true when we see the hypocrisy in others and discount their crocodile tears accordingly, including those [allies of Palestine](https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2025/01/24/assad-was-no-friend-of-the-palestinians-gravediggers-of-a-once-thriving-suburb-of-damascus-devastated-in-syrian-war/?ref=theredoubt.net) who [excused the evils](https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-establishment-americas-new-syphilitic-politics-of-the-far-left-and-alt-right/?ref=theredoubt.net) of Syria's Bashar al-Assad or defend the present Iranian regime. In 2024, this was not entirely possible, at least in the United States and among rank-and-file Democrats: facing the threat of Donald Trump returning to the White House, many did not feel they could be completely honest about their side's heinous and active facilitation of an actual genocide. Already, there is talk of 2028 and the inevitable compromises that voters must accept in order to save what's left of liberal democracy. This is a product, in part, of a vapid and contracting news industry that prefers clickable gossip to boring substance, and also justifiable concerns about what could happen if the Democratic base is demoralized by uncomfortable truths. But it — the pivot to the next election and the need to be a self-censoring team player, for democracy — is also a reflection of partisans choosing the comfort of moral relativism (a citizen's duty to support the least-evil but viable option on the ballot) over the threatening moral clarity with which some speak of Israel and Palestine. If not now, though, when? Can we not spare some time to tell the truth — and show that our righteous outrage is not cynical in nature, reserved only for the crimes committed by one side? As Ocasio-Cortez observed in Munich, there is a pragmatic benefit to maintaining principles: people are more likely to believe you. Since January 2025, criminality in the White House has increased exponentially — the dismantling of USAID alone will likely kill [hundreds of thousands](https://www.cgdev.org/blog/update-lives-lost-usaid-cuts?ref=theredoubt.net) — and along with it demands that any future Democratic administration ruthlessly pursue accountability. But it's not enough to insist that Republicans, and Republicans alone, be made to answer for their abuses of power and violations of law. Real justice, deserving of the name, requires confronting the past without fear or favor. We cannot just look the other way. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ### Shoot. Slander. Repeat. URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/shoot-slander-repeat/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T08:26:25.000Z When a masked federal agent attempts to kill an innocent member of the public, the first thing that the Trump administration does is tell shameless lies about the person who was subjected to a street-level execution. A snow shovel or a broom handle or something like that: In January, these were the deadly weapons imprecisely identified as being in the hands of three "illegal aliens" in Minneapolis. The story, as told in a [press release](https://archive.is/U2KL2?ref=theredoubt.net) from the Department of Homeland Security, went that a pair of undocumented immigrants "ambushed and attacked" a federal immigration agent who was attempting to arrest Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man who, during the altercation, "got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick." "What we saw last night in Minneapolis was an attempted murder of federal law enforcement," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Jan. 15 statement. "Our officer was ambushed and attacked by three individuals who beat him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms. Fearing for his life, the officer fired a defensive shot." Sosa-Celis, who received a bullet in the leg, was charged along with another Venezuelan man for their alleged attack on a "brave member of law enforcement." The accused — take note: two men were charged, not three — denied ever assaulting anyone. But it took nearly a month for the government itself to admit: Okay, this never happened. "Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the Complaint Affidavit," prosecutors said in a Feb. 12 court filing, requesting that the case be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again. [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) As ABC News [reported](https://abcnews.com/US/wireStory/prosecutors-move-dismiss-charges-men-accused-hitting-ice-130129292?ref=theredoubt.net), the case had actually fallen apart within days of the incident: "Neither video evidence nor testimony from a neighbor and the two men’s romantic partners supported the agent’s account that he had been attacked with a broom or shovel or that there had been a third person involved." Who hasn't completely fabricated an alleged murder plot only to quietly drop the claim a few weeks later? Not this government, which has done it time and again. Marimar Martinez was shot five times and labeled a "domestic terrorist." In October 2025, the Chicago woman was monitoring federal immigration activities in her city when a masked agent attempted to kill her. She was initially charged with a felony, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin [claiming](https://archive.is/20251006111719/https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/04/vehicles-again-used-weapon-attack-against-dhs-law-enforcement-officers-forced-fire?ref=theredoubt.net) in a statement at the time that she had "rammed" a law enforcement vehicle. "Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fired defensive shots at an armed U.S. citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds," McLaughlin said. In fact, Martinez collapsed after driving her car to a nearby auto-repair shop. Her would-be killer — who yelled "[do something, bitch](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/border-patrol-agents-marimar-martinez-video-do-something%5Fn%5F698e4357e4b0ba74045ddc6e?ref=theredoubt.net)" before opening fire — later boasted in text messages with his anonymous bros: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys." Charges against Martinez were dropped, video showing that she had honked her vehicle's horn, not attacked anyone. That — not any ramming — prompted agents, their guns already drawn, to hop out of their car and go on the offensive. "It's time to get aggressive and get the fuck out," [one said](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/dhs-shot-terrorist-border-patrol-chicago-new-video-martinez/?ref=theredoubt.net). A month before Martinez was attacked, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, an immigrant from Mexico, was also shot in the streets of Chicago. At the time, DHS claimed the undocumented man, who had just dropped off his kids at school, "dragged" an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer "a significant distance with his car." [Trump’s war on the AmericasThe U.S. president views the attacks in Minneapolis and South America as all part of the same conflict.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--28.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Foley_Square_Park_protest_against_killing_of_Renee_Good_131-1.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/trumps-war-on-the-americas/) "We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer," McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said in [a statement](https://archive.is/20250912225723/https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/12/dhs-statement-ice-officer-seriously-injured-line-duty-and-shooting-chicago-during?ref=theredoubt.net). The recovery was indeed quick, but there was no need for divine intervention: "I've got a cut," the ICE agent [said](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/videos-of-fatal-ice-incident-in-franklin-park-raises-new-questions-about-what-happened/3828524/?ref=theredoubt.net) at the time of the incident, per body-cam footage. "Nothing major." In that case, though, there were no criminal charges to be dropped: Like Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Villegas-Gonazalez's death sentence was carried out by a federal agent who acted as judge, jury and executioner. One could go on, unfortunately (the father of three U.S. soldiers, severely beaten after DHS claimed he attacked federal agents with a weed whacker, just had his deportation case [dismissed](https://apnews.com/article/narciso-barranco-immigration-case-dismissed-california-7aaa4c33945c868b1369949302cb296b?link%5Fsource=ta%5Fbluesky%5Flink&taid=698ef63311ecd2000128b0e4&utm%5Fcampaign=TrueAnthem&utm%5Fmedium=AP&utm%5Fsource=Bluesky)), but the point is made: When a department led by an [openly adulterous](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/chaos-kristi-noem-homeland-security-f095ac95?st=C9Kt2k&reflink=desktopwebshare%5Fpermalink&ref=theredoubt.net), confessed perpetrator of [animal cruelty](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/02/kristi-noem-dog-cricket-00155700?ref=theredoubt.net) makes a claim about someone brutally attacked by one of its employees, it is almost certainly lying. To note this, after the next person is shot, is not evidence of bias but the duty — providing context for official claims — of any responsible reporter. In the absence of professional journalism, however, news consumers can also employ the following trick when presented with a DHS press release: just wait a few weeks. *Appreciate this article? Please consider a* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) *or* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup)*.* ### America's indecency is Austria's gain URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/americas-indecency-is-austrias-gain/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T12:53:51.000Z We knew that Donald Trump's second term would not be great for science. But even so, the all-out and self-destructive war on higher education and public health has still come as a shock to many, demonstrating that this Trump administration is prepared to gut the country's premier institutions to deliver victories in the culture wars, even at the expense of the country's economic future. It is also clear this will not be reversed in the next few years. Even if a new administration were to come in and recommit itself to furthering human knowledge: Can you trust that the United States electorate will not make another bad decision in four to eight years? For those just starting to build their careers — and especially for immigrants — America is no longer the safe bet. [For some, freedom of speech is already goneForeign-born academics are afraid to speak their mind in Donald Trump’s America.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--25.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Mahmoud_Khalil_NYC_detention_protest_011-2.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/for-some-freedom-of-speech-is-already-gone/) That's a travesty, but for other countries it is also an opportunity. As Austrian officials told me, they cannot afford to replace a global hegemon, but they can poach some of its leading researchers by offering money, in the form of new fellowships, but also stability and academic freedom. Dozens of scientists have taken them up on the offer in just the past year; several said it was a pretty easy call, citing the higher quality of life in this central European nation — free health care and cheaper housing — and the stress and uncertainty that would come from remaining in the U.S. *Read* [*the full story*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/10/academics-austria-safe-haven?utm%5Fterm=Autofeed&CMP=bsky%5Fgu&utm%5Fmedium=&utm%5Fsource=Bluesky#Echobox=1770707174) *at The Guardian:* [‘I saw the writing on the wall’: Austria offers safe haven for US academics as Trump wages war on universitiesOther countries benefit from the Trump brain drain as administration wages war on academia and research![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon-512-1.png)The GuardianCharles Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/4968.jpg)](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/10/academics-austria-safe-haven?utm%5Fterm=Autofeed&CMP=bsky%5Fgu&utm%5Fmedium=&utm%5Fsource=Bluesky#Echobox=1770707174) ### Trump's war on the Americas URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/trumps-war-on-the-americas/ Last updated: 2026-02-10T16:00:51.000Z It sounds bad — the president of the United States, whose mind and body are visibly deteriorating, is asserting the right to kill whomever he likes — but the reality is somehow less great: He has the ability to do so, has exercised it through his military and law enforcement proxies, and, outside of some [abysmal](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/poll-nearly-two-thirds-of-americans-say-ice-has-gone-too-far-in-immigration-crackdown?ref=theredoubt.net) [polling](https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53939-more-americans-support-than-oppose-abolishing-ice-immigration-minneapolis-shooting-poll?ref=theredoubt.net), has suffered no real consequences for doing so. Over the past five months, the U.S. military has killed at least 128 people in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. When people have survived an initial attack, they have been slaughtered in follow-up strikes — the [textbook definition](https://www.justsecurity.org/125948/illegal-orders-shipwrecked-boat-strike-survivors/?ref=theredoubt.net) of a war crime. It was this killing spree that President Donald Trump brought up, without a segue, so that he could move on from discussing the killing of two U.S. citizens, [Renee Good and Alex Pretti](https://www.theredoubt.net/did-you-know-they-want-you-dead/), by masked federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In an interview with NBC News, Trump slandered the dead as "no angels" and reduced their killing — by his government, in the streets of an American city — to a matter of public relations. "I hate even talking about it. Two people out of tens of thousands," he said. "And you get bad publicity. Nobody talks about all the murderers that we're taking out of our country." Instead, many Americans are talking about the murderers employed by their government. The president would prefer they talk about something else: the other killers on his payroll. "As an example, we've been very tough on the waters," Trump said, pivoting from dead U.S. citizens to dead [Venezuelans](https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/first-winner/2025/reporters-take-risky-trip-in-venezuela-and-uncover-a-nuanced-truth-about-crewmen-of-boats-blown-up-by-trump-administration/?ref=theredoubt.net), [Colombians](https://abcnews.go.com/International/family-colombian-fisherman-killed-us-boat-strike-files/story?id=128056901&ref=theredoubt.net) and [Trinidadians](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/us-boat-strikes-lawsuit-9.7065587?ref=theredoubt.net). "If you look at the waters, where we knock out boats, each boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. We're doing a job like nobody's ever seen before." [The way we talk about murderInterrogating the euphemisms used to legitimize state killings.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--23.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-From-2025-11-10-14-22-17-2.png)](https://www.theredoubt.net/how-we-talk-about-murder/) Consider how the president's mind works and why his 79-year-old cerebral cortex would make this connection between federal agents, occupying American cities, and the American military carrying out his unlawful orders. It's all the same thing, isn't it? It's all Donald Trump asserting his dominance by playing judge, jury and executioner. Those killed overseas have been labeled "narcoterrorists," while Good and Pretti were determined to be "[domestic terrorists](https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5690124/ice-alex-pretti-immigration-unproven-claims-dhs-enforcement-arrests?ref=theredoubt.net)" within minutes of their state-sanctioned killings. The key difference, with respect to the dead Americans, is that extensive video evidence immediately rebutted administration claims, like Trump's assertion that Good "violently, willfully, and viciously ran over \[an\] ICE officer." No, every available video shows: [she did not](https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010648638/ice-shooting-renee-good-minneapolis-videos-analysis.html?ref=theredoubt.net). The only evidence of "narcoterrorists" being killed, by contrast, has been released by the Trump administration as snuff films on social media. Here, the dead are anonymous, their names not even known to those who targeted them. When it hasn't murdered survivors, though, the U.S. military has provided good reason to question if the dead are as guilty as their executioners claim. Last October, two men survived a strike on an alleged "narco sub." Instead of killing them in a double-tap strike, as it had a month before in a similar situation, these men were spared. In a [post](https://archive.is/20251018185946/https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115396632441470075?ref=theredoubt.net) on Truth Social, the U.S. president declared that the survivors, a man from Ecuador and another from Colombia, were "known narcoterrorists" who would be subject to "detention and prosecution" in their respective countries ("At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore," he added). What happened next: both men were treated in hospitals, released and never charged with anything. In Ecuador, the attorney general's office declared that there had been "[no report of a crime](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ecuador-releases-survivor-us-strike-narco-sub-no-evidence-crime/?ref=theredoubt.net)" and the accused had "no pending case against him." In Colombia, the survivor "[was never detained](https://www.courthousenews.com/colombian-survivor-of-us-drug-submarine-strike-released-without-charge-source-says/?ref=theredoubt.net)," per a government source. If those two men were innocent, what about the two who did not survive the attack — and the [126 others](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/us/politics/us-boat-strike-pacific-deaths.html?ref=theredoubt.net) who have died at the hands of the U.S. military? It is unlikely that Pete Hegseth's Pentagon enjoys a 100 percent rate of success when it comes to executing only those people who totally deserve it; that is also not the standard of civilization. [‘New and startling’: Trump’s return drives global decline in civic freedomsA human rights monitor says dismantling USAID helped fuel an international assault on free expression.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--24.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1565432294494-bfbea0ca6225-2)](https://www.theredoubt.net/new-and-startling-trumps-return-drives-global-decline-in-civic-freedoms/) In a free and decent society, unarmed civilians are not executed by the state without charge or trial. But Donald Trump's America is neither free nor honorable. The taking of human life is not regretted, as an unfortunate deed forced upon them by a dangerous world, but treated as a [punchline](https://truthout.org/articles/jd-vance-jokes-about-us-vessel-strikes-i-wouldnt-go-fishing-right-now/?ref=theredoubt.net): "I wouldn't go fishing right now," Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert who's been condemned by [two](https://www.ncronline.org/news/vance-surprised-pushback-pope-us-bishops-new-immigration-policies?ref=theredoubt.net) [popes](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/jd-vance-pope-leo-00339790?ref=theredoubt.net), joked last year. "Nobody wants to go anywhere, anything near the water," the president himself [added](https://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/trump-jokes-people-afraid-fish-063840662.html?guccounter=1&ref=theredoubt.net). That state terror has come home is a [predicted consequence](https://www.salon.com/2025/10/16/from-venezuela-to-america-trump-wants-to-bring-the-war-home/?ref=theredoubt.net) of treating it with a shrug (or polite laughter) when it happens abroad. Ten days after the Trump administration began killing foreign civilians on boats, federal agents shot and killed a Mexican national in Chicago, [Silverio Villegas González](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chicago-ice-crackdowns-first-casualty-father-two-had-built-quiet-life-us-2025-10-11/?ref=theredoubt.net), just after he dropped his kids off at school. There, too, video evidence flatly [contradicted](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/police-records-witness-accounts-complicate-dhs-narrative-fatal-chicago-area-ice-2025-09-24/?ref=theredoubt.net) administration claims that the deceased posed a threat to anyone. But with Chicago as with the Caribbean, there was no need to acknowledge a public relations fiasco; outrage never swept through white America. It's no wonder, then, that Trump seemed annoyed and confused: Why are we dwelling on the deaths of two people in Minneapolis — liberals and race traitors, really — when we've killed so many others, and no one who mattered seemed all that bothered by it? Dead white people may be a heavier lift, in terms of public relations, but as the president of the United States has made clear: in his mind, it's all the same war. [*Contact*](https://www.theredoubt.net/contact/) *the author and follow him on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ### The far right is still not the future URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/the-far-right-is-still-not-the-future/ Last updated: 2026-03-31T05:13:36.000Z VIENNA — When Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election, it was hard not to conclude in the days following that the end — for honor, decency and the progressive left — was very much near. American voters, given a choice between a qualified Black woman and an unqualified white racist, went with the man who said Haitian immigrants eat cats and dogs. The election, in a bad year for incumbents everywhere, was decided by a swing of a few percentage points. The American people, as a whole, did not go fascist, even if a plurality of those went to the polls did indeed vote for fascism. For democracy and human rights, it was a devastating blow that will have ramifications for a generation, even if America's course were corrected tomorrow. For the far-right in Europe, it was an inspiration — a sign that the future was theirs. Just days before 77 million Americans returned Trump to power, the Freedom Party, [founded](https://www.dw.com/en/austrias-fp%C3%B6-freedom-party-a-turbulent-history/a-48789817?ref=theredoubt.net) by old Nazis, won the most votes in Austria's legislative elections. "The men and women of Austria have made history today," FPÖ General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz said of his party's 28.8 percent in the polls, enough to make it the largest party in parliament and [earning](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rdygy5888o?ref=theredoubt.net) it first dibs on forming a governing majority. It didn't get far. "Everybody thought, 'this is a done deal.' But, somehow, they were not willing to compromise," Dr. Filip Milačić, a senior researcher at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and visiting professor at Central European University, said of the FPÖ. Speaking in a crowded cafe in the heart of liberal Vienna, Milačić credited Trump with making the FPÖ believe the far right's global ascendence is practically inevitable. So far, at least, that hubris has kept them out of power. "Even though they won 28 percent of the vote, they behaved like they won 40," Milačić said. "After Trump's victory, they thought that the zeitgeist had changed — that time is on their side," he said, a phenomenon that threatens to both radicalize and undermine the far right across Europe. "In other countries, you can see something similar: that the far right is not willing to compromise, but becoming more and more radical because they think they are the future."c Instead of forming a government, Austria's far-right has had to watch from the sidelines as the country's conservative, liberal and social democratic factions united for a grand coalition designed to keep them out. And now the continent’s right-wing extremists, once buoyed by thoughts they soon would get a chance to "Make Europe Great Again," are being forced to [distance themselves](https://www.reuters.com/world/europes-far-right-populists-distance-themselves-trump-over-greenland-2026-01-21/?ref=theredoubt.net) from their American counterpart and his brand of tariff-happy imperialism. ### **The groundswell that isn't** Far-right parties are getting more votes, in Europe and elsewhere, and the threat they pose to democracy is real. That is neither in doubt nor, necessarily, a reason for pessimism over the long-term. Consider the places where it is strongest and what has been required to both attain power and keep it: in short, deception — lies about their governing intentions — and efforts to silence, using the levers of the state, any and all dissent. For all their bluster, these far-right movements are not confident that they enjoy popular support. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has spent the last 15 years turning his country into a laboratory and international model for "illiberal democracy." This project maintains the facade of democratic norms, holding regular if not necessarily [free and fair elections,](https://www.freiheit.org/en/central-europe-and-baltic-states/hungarys-next-election-test-democracy?ref=theredoubt.net) but its leaders openly declare national sovereignty and "traditional" values more important than checks, balances and equal rights. Since 2010, Orbán and his party, Fidesz, have taken over state media and seen their allies take over most private outlets, [denying platforms](https://apnews.com/article/hungary-media-democracy-orban-magyar-european-parliament-f6315d7cc252f210c360863de403054e?ref=theredoubt.net) to their opposition; declared war on NGOs and "woke" academia, forcing the Central European University to move most of its operations to Vienna; [stacked](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/30/nx-s1-5407320/hungarys-viktor-orban-chips-away-at-the-countrys-judiciary?ref=theredoubt.net) the judiciary with loyalists; and waged never-ending culture war at the expense of democratic values, most recently by [trying](https://apnews.com/article/hungary-pride-ban-orban-lgbtq-rights-e7a0318b09b902abfc306e3e975b52df?ref=theredoubt.net) to ban LGBTQ+ Pride events. The American right is openly envious of this model. Vice President JD Vance has explicitly [praised](https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4673650-vance-doubles-down-on-praise-for-viktor-orbans-crackdown-on-universities-in-hungary/?ref=theredoubt.net) Hungary's assault on education, and Orbán is a regular guest at Mar-a-Lago. Speaking at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, hosted in Budapest, Orbán [praised](https://archive.is/YWrUu?ref=theredoubt.net) organizer Matt Schlapp for recognizing "that what we can do here on a small scale, on the scale of Hungary, can be done on a large scale — in America." But while Hungary's authoritarians govern as if they enjoy the overwhelming support of the masses, the reality is that Orbán pursued a revolution without ever campaigning on it and has barely held onto power despite exercising near-total control over state institutions and media. In 2010, when it came to power in the wake of a massive corruption scandal, Fidesz and its right-wing partners won just under 53% of the vote. Because of how seats are awarded, however, Orbán and his allies ended up with a two-thirds super-majority in the Hungarian parliament, enabling it to purge the country's judiciary, pass sweeping legislation without any court review and ultimately rewrite the nation's founding charter. "During the election campaign in 2010, Fidesz never said it would change the whole constitutional system, so it is difficult to claim that the election was a referendum on a new constitution," Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton University expert on autocracy, noted in 2013 [testimony](https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/understanding%5Fhungarys%5Fconstitutional%5Frevolution.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) before the Helsinki Commission. That's important to recognize: While there are of course committed ideologues among the electorate, most people — including may who vote for right-wing parties — are not themselves right-wing radicals. They may well fall for right-wing talking points and culture wars, but what the average person wants is not a revolution. [Sign up to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) ### Denying a mandate That's true even in the United States, where, in 2024, Trump returned to power on a platform of somehow making everything cheaper. He promised mass deportations in what was the most racist campaign in modern American history, to be sure, but he also disavowed any intention of pursuing a total right-wing remodeling of the federal government. "I have nothing to do with it," Trump, on the campaign trail, said of Project 2025, the hard-right Heritage Foundation's policy agenda for his second term. Since winning the election, though, he has "implemented or is in the process of implementing about half of Project 2025's proposals," including its call to completely "dismantle the administrative state," [according to](https://www.factcheck.org/2025/09/trump-project-2025-and-the-dismantling-of-the-administrative-state/?ref=theredoubt.net) the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "The people voted for major government reform, and that's what people are going to get," Elon Musk, the billionaire who led the Department of Government Efficiency, [claimed](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/mandate-donald-trump-al-green-election-results-history-keyword-king-fdr-scam-new-deal/?ref=theredoubt.net). That's the thing, though: As much as voters should have known better than to believe a lie, it is a lie they were told. How could they reasonably be said to have voted for something the candidate denied any intention of doing? Anyone claiming an unambiguous mandate for whatever Trump wants is not grappling with what was said, before he took office, and the data since his second term began. In July 2025, according to one Gallup [poll](https://news.gallup.com/poll/692522/surge-concern-immigration-abated.aspx?ref=theredoubt.net), a record-high 79 percent of U.S. adults say that "immigration is a good thing," including 64 percent of Republicans. Some 85 percent of those surveyed said children brought to the U.S. illegally should be offered the chance to become citizens; 78 percent said the same of undocumented immigrants overall. Just 38 percent expressed support for what is now U.S. policy: "Deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country." By January 2026, a plurality of survey respondents even [told YouGov](https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/Immigration%5F%5FICE%5F%5Fand%5FGuns%5Fpoll%5Fresults.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) that it was time to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is, from the perspective of a fellow citizen, rather contemptible. Trump, if anything, promised at rallies and on campaign signs: "Mass Deportations Now." Some of the people that pollsters are interviewing are surely lying, perhaps even to themselves. Recriminations, though, are best left for family gatherings. In the world of politics and the game of winning state power, it's a reminder that voters are not always rational; their votes are not clear expressions of policy preferences; and their views are not static. Liberal politicians ignore this at their own peril. When consultants and others push watered-down xenophobia, they only increase the salience of anti-immigrant politics — there must be a problem if everyone says there is — while depriving the electorate of a meaningful choice. In 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned not on "open borders" but on a smarter, more humane crackdown on immigration, legal or otherwise; it was the safe play but it didn't work. Even after Harris' loss, Democrats continued to read the electorate as demanding that they, the opposition, simply offer a more competent alternative to Trumpist xenophobia. Amid the 2025 summer immigration raids in Los Angeles, for example, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., continued to champion his support for a "bipartisan bill" that "would have stopped all asylum seekers from being released into the country." "It gave \[the president\] emergency power to shut down the border," Murphy [boasted](https://bsky.app/profile/chrismurphyct.bsky.social/post/3ltnlepilc22b?ref=theredoubt.net) on social media. The rejoinder is that, if someone believes exercising the legal right to seek asylum should be punished with incarceration, they are unlikely to prefer a Democrat over a Republican. And liberal voters may wonder: If that's the choice we're being given, why even bother? "In a way, they are saying to the public: you know, the far right is right, but don’t vote for them, which doesn’t make sense at all," Milačić told The Redoubt. "They are acknowledging the rhetoric of the far right and partly emulating it. And then this is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: They are legitimizing this rhetoric and then making it more popular." [Birthright citizenship and the attack on democracy: ‘If you know the history, you know what they’re trying to do’Prof. Anna O. Law spoke to The Redoubt about her upcoming book and why the 14th Amendment made America great.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--20.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1607966822957-58665f446889-1)](https://www.theredoubt.net/birthright-citizenship-and-the-attack-on-democracy-if-you-know-the-history-you-know-what-theyre-trying-to-do/) ### **The politics of hating immigrants** Europe is no different than the United States in this regard, as Vanderbilt Prof. Larry M. Bartels observed in his 2023 book, "[Democracy Erodes from the Top](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691244501/democracy-erodes-from-the-top?ref=theredoubt.net)." For all the talk of a populist surge and political realignments, he observed that relatively little attention had been paid to how successful reactionaries in Eurpe — from Hungary's Fidesz to Poland's Law and Justice — actually got into office. A closer examination does not reveal the mandate that is often claimed. "It was only *after* gaining power," Bartels wrote, "that these rather conventional-looking conservative parties embarked upon the project of 'illiberal democracy.'" It has never been terribly popular. In Poland, for example, the right-wing Law and Justice Party was thrown out by voters after it attempted an Orbán-style, anti-democratic "revolution" in its own country; this, after first running on competence and opposition to corruption. Indeed, despite all the media attention and justified fears over the rise of the far right, the public remains fundamentally decent and committed to the values of democracy and tolerance. Relying on data from the European Social Survey, a biannual academic study of public opinion conducted across more than 30 nations since 2001, Bartels noted that the rise in anti-immigrant parties across the continent was not accompanied by a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment among voters. This is despite the continent having faced a major economic downturn and subsequent influx of millions of refugees, and media coverage that treated immigration as an emergency and populist demagogues as channelling popular discontent. "Remarkably," Bartels wrote, "given the widespread perception of an 'immigration crisis,' the overall trend in public support for immigration was generally upward, with the average level of support across Europe gradually climbing from 5.1 on the zero-to-ten scale before the onset of the \[2007-09\] economic crisis to 5.7 in 2018-2019." Speaking to *The Redoubt*, Bartels explained that there's a tendency among reporters, pundits and the politicians who read them "to overestimate the electoral importance of issues and ideology and to underestimate the importance of social identities and appeals to peace, prosperity and social order." The belief, he said, "is that, if voting patterns shift, there must have been some momentous shift in citizens' preferences. But in most instances where populist parties have gained substantial support, the primary cause has been prosaic failures of governance by established parties." This is easy enough to see in the United States with its two-party system, where the primary way to express discontent with the status quo is to vote for the party that is out of power, one of which has now been captured by anti-democratic extremists. But the media and political class also treats election outcomes rather differently: Trump's narrow 2024 victory with a plurality of votes is treated as a mandate for generational change, while his predecessor's larger win in 2020, with a majority of the vote, was treated as a return to America's default setting – and met with calls to compromise and reach across the aisle to the [losing seditionists](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-capitol-riot-was-not-the-language-of-the-unheard-2021-1?op=1&ref=theredoubt.net). Per Bartels, "there is a substantial tendency for journalists and those who read them to exaggerate the recent successes of populist parties, and thus to overreact to those successes." Take the Netherlands: In 2023, Geert Wilders and his anti-immigrant party won the most votes in the Dutch election, prompting outlets like Time Magazine to run pieces [explaining ](https://time.com/6339173/dutch-election-results-geert-wilders-far-right-netherlands-europe/?ref=theredoubt.net)how the far-right extremist achieved a "resounding victory over his mainstream rivals." Two years later, the electorate shifted and Wilders was thrown out of government, losing to a center-left party, [Democrats 66](https://d66.nl/verkiezingsprogramma/europa-defensie-internationale-samenwerking-en-migratie/asielbeleid-dat-wel-werkt/?ref=theredoubt.net). Instead of embracing its rivals' talking points, the party emphasized tolerance for and indeed solidarity with immigrants, making explicit appeals to voters with a "migration background" and pledging to end "institutional racism." "Whoever we are, whatever we look like, whoever we love, or whatever we believe in: every person must be given the space to build a good life," declared the party's campaign platform. It's a blow to the politics of concession, or the idea that liberal parties can only win by offering more humane version of right-wing policies on culture and migration. But as Bartels said, "I'd guess that a comparison of the media's coverage of the 2023 and 2025 elections ... \[would\] reveal a lot more attention to Wilders' rise than to his fall." Indeed, Time Magazine did not report on the outcome of the latest Dutch election; its [last piece](https://time.com/7328870/netherlands-election-2025-geert-wilders-far-right-pvv/?ref=theredoubt.net) ran before the vote, noting that Wilders’ party was in the lead. “Journalists find it very hard to resist dramatic, scary stories," Bartels noted. Responsible adults promising competent governance? It’s too decent to go viral. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ### **The importance of an alternative** As the Dutch elections show, liberals do not have to cosplay as reactionaries to win an election. The same has proven true in Austria, where in 2016 the Green Party's Alexander Van der Bellen easily defeated the far-right Freedom Party's candidate, Norbert Hofer, in the final round of voting to become president. Instead of mimicking his opponent during the campaign and conceding there was a problem when it came to immigrants, "Van der Bellen was unapologetic about his stance on welcoming refugees, his support for the EU and conviction that the Schengen treaty is a cornerstone of Europe’s stability," [per Politico](https://www.politico.eu/article/5-takeaways-from-austrias-presidential-election-van-der-bellen-hofer-far-right-greens/?ref=theredoubt.net). He handily won reelection in 2022. According to Milačić, Van der Bellen's approach can be a model. Too many on the center-left fight defensive and at times apologetic campaigns, ultimately standing for the status quo — its positive attributes but also all the baggage — rather than offering a cohesive, confident and principled vision for the future. "When you talk about identity — national identity and patriotism — many on the left are really allergic. I think this is a mistake," Milačić said. "Personally, I have no attachment to the concept of ‘the nation.’ But this is not preventing me from seeing that I’m a minority. Because for many people, the nation as a group, as a concept, is very important." Austria's left-wing activists have also toyed with this notion. Ahead of 2025 municipal elections, guerrilla artists [put up posters](https://www.theredoubt.net/subverting-and-celebrating-the-fascist-aesthetic/) in Vienna that used the aesthetic of 1930s fascism and the slogans of fascist partisans (think: "Defend the homeland!") but paired it with calls for welcoming immigrants and driving out the hatemongers. In this version of nationalism, it was diversity and open borders that made the city great, not exclusion and homogeneity. [Subverting — and celebrating — the fascist aestheticIn Austria, activists co-opted fascist imagery to promote a message of inclusion. Would that work in America?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--16.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/Strache-Beide-V2-Druck-A1-1-1-2.jpg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/subverting-and-celebrating-the-fascist-aesthetic/) Liberal nationalism was also deployed in the Netherlands. The leader of Democrats 66, Rob Jetten, opposed the far-right's policies without conceding the terrain of national identity, describing himself as a "[progressive patriot](https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/far-right-freedom-party-suffers-shock-reversal-in-dutch-elections?ref=theredoubt.net)" who was truer to the country’s tradition of liberalism. "I believe that it is important progressive parties also show that we can be proud of our country," Jetten said, encouraging supporters to wave the flag and nearly tripling Democrats 66's seats in parliament from 2023 to 205. The American analogy is "[No Kings](https://www.npr.org/2025/10/19/nx-s1-5579042/no-kings-protests-takeaways?ref=theredoubt.net)": the protests that frame opposition to Trump and his consolidation of power as an affront to the country's revolutionary, anti-monarchal history. Liberals and the left need not whitewash their country's spotty history but, instead, frame themselves as the heirs to its proudest traditions – and as the ones determined to realize its noblest aspirations. This approach can be seen in a recent speech from Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., one of the youngest members of Congress. "For so long, the right-wing has held up patriotism as a vibe, as an aesthetic. But patriotism is more than 'bald eagle, flag and beer.' Patriotism is about loving the people who live in the damn country," Frost said at a rally in Washington, DC, following the [state killing](https://www.theredoubt.net/did-you-know-they-want-you-dead/) of Renee Good. "If you fight for the rights of immigrants, you're a patriot," he [added](https://bsky.app/profile/maxwellfrost.bsky.social/post/3mcfott6qv22j?ref=theredoubt.net) on social media. "I'm not saying you need to emulate the right," Milačić said, but instead offer "an emotionally compelling counter-narrative." Instead of accepting public opinion as static and regressive, he argued, the left can win by offering a genuine alternative to the inherent ugliness and instability of right-wing populism in governance. Despite the small margins of their losses, "somehow the political elites on the left and center-left \[have been\] convinced that the electorate shifted to the right, so they shifted," Milačić said, referring to the anti-immigrant but center-left governments presently ruling Britain and Denmark. "They completely misread the whole situation," Milačić argued. "They are adapting to the narrative, in terms of the agenda of the far right, which is a big mistake." The answer is not to copy the right's policies but to offer an earnest alternative to bigotry. What the far right gets is that "emotions matter in politics," Milačić said. "They have a very clear message, and they have a message that is very emotional." So offer something similarly emotional but positive and inspiring; an actual vision for a progressive, diverse nation that makes no apology for defending liberal values. Most people vote on vibes, not their careful readings of policy, and the alternative — abandoning one's convictions for techocratic versions of one's opponents' policies — is a good way to project weakness. To take one recent example: New York City elected a democratic socialist not because it suddenly lurched to the far left, but because the democratic socialist was confident and personable, talking on the campaign trail as if he were a real human being familiar with the average person's problems; even Trump [couldn't resist](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11/21/us/trump-news?ref=theredoubt.net) the Zohran Mamdani charm. Not every election will or can be won by a charismatic liberal, and right-wing voters are not all suffering false consciousness. But despite what algorithms may feed up on social media, the truth is that the far-right's arrogance is not matched by public opinion; normal people do not want to return to the 1930s. The challenge, for progressive politicians and others who object to government by and for the worst among us — for weird ideological projects and wretched cults of personality — is to stand up for them and the values of liberal democracy, and to do so without apology. [*Contact*](https://www.theredoubt.net/contact/) *the author and follow him on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* ### For some, freedom of speech is already gone URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/for-some-freedom-of-speech-is-already-gone/ Last updated: 2026-02-01T14:54:13.000Z These are not conversations one would have about a thriving democracy. In interviews with a dozen European academics and officials, the United States was repeatedly likened to an adversarial, authoritarian state in the fashion of Russia or China. Since Donald Trump's return to power, those who still live there are looking to get out, while those who already left are glad they did. It's just not a free country anymore, at least by the test: Can you say that and be sure there won't be trouble? “I’m worried talking to you,” one professor, a green-card holder now residing in a red state, said in an interview. “This is maybe not the smartest thing for me to do, to say things that are critical of the administration.” The detention of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort has shown that not even U.S. citizens can safely voice (or observe) criticism of the Trump administration without fear of reprisal from the federal government. The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by masked federal agents, thus far with impunity, show there can be even darker consequences for opposing this administration. "It definitely made me feel a bit uncomfortable,” a German-born researcher, presently at a federally-funded U.S. laboratory, said of remaining in America. They recently made the decision to leave, citing, in part, the loss of academic freedom and the fact that one can no longer "explore some research topics freely due to political reasons." Indeed, to obtain funding and retain employment, researchers must avoid any mention of certain [sensitive topics](https://www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/nih-banned-words-analysis-grant-title-changes/?ref=theredoubt.net) in their grant requests (like “women” and “people of color”). In some states, professors cannot discuss the topic of gender ([or Plato](https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2026/01/08/texas-am-forbids-a-plato-reading-in-an-intro-philosophy-course/?ref=theredoubt.net)) in the classroom without fear of termination. In this way, freedom of speech has already been lost. But it's not just funding and career advancement at stake: every European academic still in the U.S. expressed concern that voicing even mild criticism of the federal government could cost them their visa; those outside the U.S. worried it could deny them entry. [‘New and startling’: Trump’s return drives global decline in civic freedomsA human rights monitor says dismantling USAID helped fuel an international assault on free expression.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--17.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1565432294494-bfbea0ca6225-1)](https://www.theredoubt.net/new-and-startling-trumps-return-drives-global-decline-in-civic-freedoms/) “The beauty of the U.S. academic system was that it attracted talent from all over the world,” said another German-born professor. They recently chose to leave an elite American university. If they stayed, they reasoned, they would always fear losing their legal status — and with it, their livelihood. It's not just Trump, though. Nearly 80 million Americans voted for the president, and some of them go to college, where they have been encouraged by groups like Turning Points USA to expose “woke” professors. Teaching is now a minefield, where students will claim "liberal bias" over a lesson on gerrymandering. It leads to self-censorship in a setting that requires freedom of speech. And outside the classroom, the risk is worse than cancellation: this government could try to deport you. For anyone carrying a foreign passport, the wisest action, if not most courageous, would be to remain silent. “You think, ‘Yeah, you should be careful,’” the president of an Austrian university said in an interview. They left the U.S. in 2024 but still have friends, family and professional opportunities there. Is it safe, then, to talk about Donald Trump? [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) The U.S., however flawed, was once seen as a free and open society. You could at least say: *I don't like the government*. That is not how it is viewed today, including by many of its own citizens. One academic, originally from Austria but now a naturalized U.S. citizen, said they were afraid to speak freely, citing the Trump administration's plans to strip citizenship from those who obtained it "[unlawfully](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/us/politics/trump-immigration-citizenship-denaturalization.html?ref=theredoubt.net)." The law is now wielded according to the arbitrary grievances of a 79-year-old man. Would you take the chance? Immigrant or otherwise, many Americans are discovering that an assault on the rights of one group can undermine the rights of all. As the professor noted, there are now risks to speaking out. And while those risks may be worth it, “everybody needs to be careful." --- No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ### Trump, greed and Greenland URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-greed-and-greenland/ Last updated: 2026-01-19T12:06:02.000Z The first edition of The Dispatch, a newsletter on democracy and international affairs for premium subscribers. _This post is for subscribers on the Sustainers and The Inner Sanctum tiers only._ ### Did you know they want you dead? URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/did-you-know-they-want-you-dead/ Last updated: 2026-01-16T12:43:09.000Z Forget the person you thought you knew more than a decade ago, when Donald Trump formally entered the world of politics and made unfiltered bigotry popular again. Regrettably, your loved ones who turned MAGA and stayed aboard through COVID, January 6 and the 2024 terror campaign against Haitian immigrants are not the decent human beings you once imagined them to be. That your mother or father or brother or uncle actually might want you dead — or would at least forgive if not praise your killer — cannot be so easily denied in the wake of the state-sanctioned killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old from Minnesota whose child was orphaned because she made one of Trump's ICE agents feel temporarily emasculated. Insta-smeared as a "[domestic terrorist](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/experts-question-noem-calling-good-a-domestic-terrorist-heres-what-the-term-means?ref=theredoubt.net)" by the Department of Homeland Security, videos show that Good did not, in fact, run over her killer with her car. Video, in fact, [shows that](https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010631041/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html?ref=theredoubt.net) this mother and active member of her community posed no threat to anyone but that man's fragile masculinity; it also shows that armed agents of the state denied her medical care while she bled to death from the bullets [lodged](https://kstp.com/5-investigates/records-medics-found-renee-good-had-gunshot-wounds-to-chest-forearm-and-head/?ref=theredoubt.net) in her head, chest and forearm. Here, again, was an opportunity: even self-styled conservative supporters of the police and Trump's all-out assault on immigration, legal or otherwise, were under no obligation to defend a reckless agent's daylight murder of an unarmed white woman. The victim's race ought to be irrelevant, of course, but the lesson is that we are now at a point where white racists will justify the killing of white people, which portends even worse for anyone of color. If they can shoot her dead in the streets with no pushback, they can shoot anyone. [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) And there was no pushback. What there was instead was justification, based less on Good's actions than her identity: She was a lesbian "with pronouns in her bio," Fox News' Jesse Watters [pointed out](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jesse-watters-fox-news-ice-shooting-victim%5Fn%5F695ed649e4b07c5009384a21?ref=theredoubt.net), and indeed a race traitor, per the right-wing influencer Matt Walsh, who [asserted](https://archive.ph/hs0UN?ref=theredoubt.net) that giving one's life to protect one's Black neighbors (Somalis in Minnesota this year's version of Haitians in Ohio, i.e., people the president told you to hate) is the "most disgraceful and humiliating end a person could possibly meet." Right-wing media didn't even leave the deceased's kid alone, the New York Post publishing an [exclusive investigation](https://archive.ph/lUjUm?ref=theredoubt.net) — while Good's body was still undergoing an autopsy — regarding "her 6-year-old son's woke charter school." That school has since been forced to [suspend](https://sahanjournal.com/education/minneapolis-southside-family-charter-school-threats/?ref=theredoubt.net) in-person classes following a wave of harassment from Trump supporters. Good's ex-father-in-law, a self-described Trump supporter, then used his 15 minutes of fame to appear on television, [lie about the incident](https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-victim-renee-goods-trump-supporting-father-in-law-breaks-silence/?ref=theredoubt.net) and absolve ICE of any responsibility for killing the woman who gave birth to his grandchild. It is a grim but vitally important realization: If a masked member of the president's secret police were to shoot you dead in the street, on video, in broad daylight, there would be MAGA members of your extended family tree eager to tell a cable news anchor that you basically had it coming. It's not enough to be innocent — hell, it's not enough to be white — when one's life (or death) runs up against the PR needs of this American government. And with ICE's annual budget having [tripled](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-funding-world-militaries-b2790466.html?ref=theredoubt.net) since Trump's return, its $75 billion in taxpayer largesse dwarfing most countries' military allocations, there is almost guaranteed to be future examples to test this hypothesis It is true, and perhaps some comfort, that the average supporter of fascism would never pull the trigger themselves; they might even help a liberal with a flat tire on the side of the road. But mass murder does not require mass participation or even the support of a majority. That's not to say the United States is destined to revisit the horrors of 20th-century totalitarianism, but after more than a decade of the worst among us proving how depraved they can be, it would be a grave mistake to ignore the signs of what could come next — and with immigrants [dying](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/01/15/ice-detention-death-homicide/?ref=theredoubt.net) in camps, where we are already. *Have a tip?* [*Contact*](https://www.theredoubt.net/contact/) *the author or follow him on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* --- No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires This model of journalism depends on reader support. With your backing, **The Redoubt* can expand its reporting and become a sustainable project. If you have the means, please consider a [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support), or sign up for one of our premium tiers by clicking the button below. [Support independent journalism ](#/portal/account/plans) ### Birthright citizenship and the attack on democracy: 'If you know the history, you know what they're trying to do' URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/birthright-citizenship-and-the-attack-on-democracy-if-you-know-the-history-you-know-what-theyre-trying-to-do/ Last updated: 2026-06-01T14:09:24.000Z The idea that the United States is fundamentally distinct from, and indeed superior to, every other country in the world has been a core, if not blasphemous, tenet of American conservatism. God's chosen people reside not in the Old Testament but can be found in present-day North America, buying guns, big trucks and unregulated supplements to treat their unvaccinated children. Say one's not an obnoxious ultra-nationalist, though, and that one's view of life on this planet differs from that of a patriotic toddler. The U.S. is a country like any other, then: there are good things about it — this nation of 350 million people — and there are bad things. But accepting that the U.S. is a flawed country, with no divine right to rule the world, there is at least one thing that does make it different than most other places: birthright citizenship. Under the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, anyone born on U.S. soil — excepting the children of foreign diplomats and soldiers — is entitled to be a full legal member of the American polity. That's not how it is in most other nations, Prof. Anna O. Law, the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights at CUNY Brooklyn College, explains in her forthcoming book, "[Migration and Origins of American Citizenship](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/migration-and-the-origins-of-american-citizenship-9780197660096?cc=us&lang=en&&ref=theredoubt.net)." This is less a product of American superiority than a settler-colony needing to attract immigrants and later being forced to correct the founding injustice of slavery, which resulted in denying citizenship and its legal protections to those of African descent. Whatever its origins, birthright citizenship does set the U.S. apart. And that angers many who claim the country is "exceptional," who would rather that America mimic the blood-and-soil nationalism of last-century Europe than extend the privileges of freedom and liberty to people of color. In an interview with *The Redoubt*, Prof. Law discussed the origins of birthright citizenship, its opponents and the historical connection to slavery and genocide. 📖 "Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship," by Prof. Anna O. Law, will be available March 24, 2026\. [Order now.](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/migration-and-the-origins-of-american-citizenship-9780197660096?cc=us&lang=en&&ref=theredoubt.net) **One of the reasons I was interested in birthright citizenship, before even the Supreme Court decided to take up the case the other day, was that I moved to Austria, and I got to thinking about: What if I started a family here? Would my children be Austrian citizens, right? And, you know what, they would not be Austrian citizens. There'd be a pathway. But that was kind of like a realization, and a naive, perhaps American one.** "That's how it works everywhere, right?" **Right, but other countries do not have this thing, which is really kind of an amazing anomaly. And it's kind of disappointing, because I thought I might have little Austrian kids, but, you know, I'd have to work a little bit harder to do that. So how did America come to have this interesting, anomalous way of granting citizenship just based on birth? And would you say that it is a defining characteristic of what makes America?** I think it is a defining characteristic. The birthright citizenship provision in the United States comes about because of the very complex racial history of the US. So we hear people say, "oh, you know, the borders were always open." Yes, but the borders were also open to enslaved importation, and ... we knew, while slavery was legal, that people who are enslaved have no rights. Okay, so what's the citizenship status of free black people? Because before the 14th Amendment, that wasn't clear. States in the northeast, some of them treated free black people as state citizens, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, and free black men were allowed to vote and be on juries. But other free states and other slave states did not recognize free black people as state citizens. And even for the free black people who are citizens, what's the relationship of the hierarchy between federal citizenship and state citizenship? Does one trump the other? Like, what is the relationship between the two? So because none of that was specified or clear before the 14th Amendment, all kinds of discrimination could be visited on free black people. **I was under the impression that birthright citizenship had some sort of common law basis; that there was a tradition, predating the 14th Amendment. Am I mistaken in thinking that? How did that work out before the 14th Amendment, specifically for the children of freeborn blacks?** The naturalization provision, that you don't have to be born here and there's a pathway for you to become on the same plane as a citizen, a natural born citizen, born in the U.S. — that is common law based. But the birthright citizenship clause is also necessary, because the U.S. passed the Naturalization Act of 1790, which is limited to naturalizing people who are white. Even if you are a free black person or an Asian person or any other color person, you can't naturalize. So because of those multiple pathways being cut off for free black people, that's why the amendment became necessary. Common law tradition does contribute to birthright citizenship for people of European descent. But you cannot understand the reason why the US has it without cognizance of the long history of slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction amendments. Slavery and securing Black freedom from rollback was the main reason, not this modern-day concern about temporary or “illegal” aliens. The U.S. immigration system today bears no resemblance to the one back then. Griping about “illegal aliens” and children of temporary visitors is taking modern-day categories of U.S. immigration law and political priorities and projecting them backwards in time. **Birthright citizenship was trying to correct an egregious injustice as a product of enslavement, right? It was not our founding fathers trying to differentiate us from the European nations with a more progressive, liberal form of citizenship.** Nope. **It was more: there are all these people in this gray area, and we need to fix that.** So naturalization is — we think of it as, "oh, citizenship, what a lofty idol that we bestowed." I mean, the Naturalization Act of 1790, you could say, is breathtaking in its generosity. By saying "all free white persons," I mean, you're giving citizenship to people regardless of social class, regardless of religion, regardless of ethnicity, not race, but ethnicity, right? So it's very widely encompassing. Why do we have that? Oh, that's purely instrumental. It's not some lofty goal; yes, there's some revolutionary ideals of, "we want to break from England and the 18th century idea of 'once a subject, always a subject." But fast and easy naturalization was a recruitment tool in the colonies and in the early republic to tell non-English people, "Hey, please come here. Please come here as a volunteer migrant, and we're going to make naturalization very fast and easy for you, and put you on the same legal plane as a British citizen." And so once you got that, you can own land and you can bequeath land to your heirs. Because why would people come all the way from Europe if they can't do that, right? So naturalization was a huge incentive and recruitment tool for voluntary migration. **And these children of European immigrants, were they also in this gray area? Like if they were born before the recent immigrant parent had gone through the naturalization process. Or was there a track for them to get citizenship? Was it: as long as you were applying for U.S. citizenship, your children would be granted it too? How did that work?** Before the Reconstruction amendments, your access to rights, your access to equal treatment, your access to the social and racial hierarchy did not derive from your legal citizenship status. Because citizenship, yes, it's this mushy concept, but how you were treated and your access to rights was more based on your race, your social class, your gender and the networks that you belonged to. **It seems like now, in modern days, we've gone more towards this dichotomy of citizen or non-citizen — and the non-citizen does not get any of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. I'm not trying to romanticize the 19th century that you're talking about; I realize it was based on classism and racism. But as you're saying, I guess rights weren't based solely on, "Did you get the citizenship document or not?" You were kind of treated — assuming you were, let's just say, a middle-class white person from Europe, your treatment under the law was based on your being a white European.** Your treatment under the law and your treatment in society, right? So before the Reconstruction amendments, there's no concept of ... equal treatment under the law. You had no presumption of equal treatment. Discrimination was rampant. The 19th century conception of rights was, "Okay. Our highest priority in law" — the legal culture of the time — "is we prioritize the 'will of the people' and the 'public good.'" Okay? The public good is very disparately defined, as you know, the mainstream status quo. So if you are a person of color, enslaved or free, if you're a single woman — God forbid, a single woman who's pregnant — I mean, you have no presumption of good treatment or equal treatment, or any concept of individual rights. [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) **I** [**interviewed**](https://www.salon.com/2025/04/04/from-the-confederacy-to-the-gilded-age-manisha-sinha-on-the-sorry-history-that-inspires-maga/?ref=theredoubt.net) **another historian a few months back, Manisha Sinha, who argues the Reconstruction Era is like the second American Revolution. Do you kind of view it that same way? Like the 14th Amendment is trying to correct this historical injustice, or at least a legal loophole that left a lot of people with questionable citizenship status. But it was also obviously part of a broader attempt to ensure equal treatment under the law that, as you were saying before, was ad hoc and very much based on your color and economic status.** I do consider it, [like Eric Foner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction:%5FAmerica%27s%5FUnfinished%5FRevolution,%5F1863%E2%80%931877?ref=theredoubt.net), who calls it a second founding, if you may. But it's an incomplete one, right? We know what happens with the story of Reconstruction, and it just doesn't quite take until the Civil Rights Act of 1965, Voting Rights Act, and then now we're backsliding again. **Could you put this in historical context, the current administration's hatred of the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship? Obviously, there was the** [**Wong Kim Ark case**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%5FStates%5Fv.%5FWong%5FKim%5FArk?ref=theredoubt.net)**, which was like 30 years after it passed, which solidified it as applying to the children of immigrants. But the fact that there had to be a case like that shows there was opposition to that, even then. So how do you place the current moment in history?** Citizenship, or what Hannah Arendt in the 20th century, described as "the right to have rights," has always been political, and it's always been — not racial in the U.S, it's been racist in the U.S. So while the 14th Amendment birthright citizenship clause was being debated, the most hated group were the Chinese immigrants that were arriving in significant numbers since the 1850s on the West Coast. So the fear was, "Oh my God, you can't have birthright citizenship. Are you telling me those people and their children will be citizens?" And so, because the Naturalization Act of 1790 is still in effect, the Chinese immigrants themselves cannot naturalize under U.S. immigration law. But what about their children who are born here? And there was a debate about it. And you know, someone explicitly asked, "Okay, do you mean children born to those hated Chinese people would be citizens?" And the Congress said "yes." And part of the consideration was, "If we don't do that, we've got undocumented European people. What, their kids are going to be stateless? We cannot have that, right?" So the current moment is, once again, this backlash against a very broad conceptualization, a very color blind conceptualization, of American citizenship, and so that's the continuity. The problem with political change is that no change is permanent if the losers keep fighting it and won't accept it. And so that's what's going on now. **I know that the Trump administration and the xenophobic element of the Republican Party, which is clearly dominant, has long despised the idea that undocumented immigrant children could become citizens. But are you surprised at all that it has become such a central tenet of the MAGA movement and the Republican Party today? During the first Bush administration, I didn't hear much about birthright citizenship outside of the far-right fringe, the** [**Tom Tancredo**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%5FTancredo?ref=theredoubt.net) **element of the party, and now it's front and center.** It was inevitable it was going to go there. I think, beginning with questioning Obama's fitness to be president of the United States, right, there's always been this undercurrent of people who reject the idea of a multi-racial democracy. There's always been a baseline of those people. Trump did not invent racism, but he normalized it — made it respectable and made it mainstream in the Republican Party. **Why are you so interested in this topic? And why did you think it was important to go through the history? I guess this is obvious now, but you didn't necessarily know when you were going to start writing this book that the Supreme Court would take up birthright citizenship in Trump's second term. So what led you to give it the book-length treatment?** So the book started 16 years ago. And people keep telling me, right now, as the book is about to come out in March, they're like, "Oh my God, you wrote such a timely book." I say, "You know what? I'm horrified." I started this book 16 years ago. I thought I wrote a historical book. \[I\] didn't think the thing would be salient in politics, now. **It almost sounds like an Irish curse, "may your book be salient."** I know: It's like when you study slavery, Native American dispossession, and Chinese exclusion, you don't want to be salient in the current moment. But what led me to that writing that book was a fairly simple question: Where's the dividing line between national and local authority on migration? Where is it located? It turned out that took me 16 years to answer because, depending on which period of U.S. history you're asking, it's different, and a large part of the story is because slavery existed. The slave states were not going to allow the federal government to control international or interstate migration. They are afraid: "No, no, no, we can't have the federal government in charge of immigration, they're going to deport all our enslaved people. We have to control it, and we also have to be able to have control over excluding free black people from coming into our jurisdiction." The largest, most evident effect of slavery on voluntary migration is that it delays the transition to the federal government for over 100 years. It goes from the colonial period to 1888, where the states strongly maintained almost exclusive control over international and interstate migration. Now the northeast, there's a different set of concerns. New York, Massachusetts, they're getting European immigrants. They don't have enslaved people, but they're afraid of people who are likely to become a public charge. There are no government safety-net programs until the 1930s so if you have poor, sick, disabled people, they are the burden and the responsibility of the local communities. So New York and Massachusetts and all the Northeastern seaboard states are taxing people likely to become a public charge. And they don't want the federal government in charge of that, because they feel like the federal government is too far away and they don't know what they're doing. **How often was the this public-charge exclusion enforced? There's still plenty of people coming over who could arguably have been excluded under such clauses. Is it right to think that it wasn't really enforced to the extent that it might have possibly been?** It's not hugely enforced, if you mean, like, are people actually sent back to Europe or sent to a different state where they came from. It's not enforced in that it's not rejecting people. But remember, it's a huge revenue generator for New York state. Instead of excluding people and deporting them — Massachusetts was deporting more people; Massachusetts was actually sending people back — but New York was saying, "Okay, well, you know, this person seems to be they could be a public charge, so the shipmaster has to pay a bond or a head tax." It was just a source of revenue for the state. And so they, they do let people in, but they're collecting money. So it depends on what you mean by enforcement. I mean, they're enforcing it by collecting head taxes. **Who was paying the head tax? The shipping company that then has to charge people higher fees for getting on a boat?** Yes, exactly. The shipmaster is paying the taxes. It's not, you know, the individual immigrant who they say, "Oh, no, you're a public charge." It's the shipmaster, which leads the shipping company to raise their fees on everybody, right? And that leads the shipping company to do their own screening pre-departure because they don't want to pay these taxes. And the shipping companies repeatedly go to the federal courts saying, "You got to be kidding me, man, this is a violation of interstate and international commerce, which should be under the control of the U.S. Congress, not the states." And they keep losing, until the Civil War decouples slavery and voluntary migration, and then finally, the courts say, "You know what? Yeah, okay, yeah, that's that's a violation of international commerce." It was before too, but it wasn't politically viable for the court to rule that way before the Civil War. **How were immigrants determined to be public charges? Because I imagine it's not like today where they can go through your bank records very easily, or, like, you know, require you to present your asset sheet. How was a random person coming off a boat from Ireland assessed whether to be a public charge or not?** So you're right: Today, you have to submit bank statements, affidavits, lists of your assets, to show how much money you have or do not have. Back then, the record keeping is not that extensive. There's a person from the state inspecting each person getting off the boats; they're doing an eyeball sort of assessment. Okay, anybody who's not in steerage, like, you know, first class, they're not even going to screen them: these are rich people. Then they're looking for communicable diseases. They're looking for mental illness. Of course, the understanding of mental illness and disability is not that sophisticated at that point, so they're basically eyeballing it, and classes of people would draw higher suspicion. So during the Irish Potato Famine, any Irish person in steerage is going to be presumed to be a pauper, and any woman by herself, without family members, without a spouse or without a family, family members coming to get you to pick you up at the docks is suspicious. Pregnant women traveling alone? Holy shit, I mean, that would raise red flags \[of\] public charge. Anyone who was physically and mentally disabled, that the inspectors could see, would be public charge. **So it's kind of just like a club bouncer approach to immigration. Quick snap judgments.** I know it when I see it. **So we talked about enslave peoples, and we've talked about European immigrants of various economic statuses, and how our immigration laws were formed based on addressing the problems that people perceive with these different groups. What we haven't talked about, though, is indigenous peoples. Reading your work, the native peoples who are already here — I was surprised that there was a connection to our immigration policy. What is that connection?** There are a bunch of Supreme Court cases where there there's a line of doctrine called "[plenary power doctrine](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plenary%5Fpower?ref=theredoubt.net)," which gives huge liberty to Congress and the elected branches to regulate immigrants and Native Americans. And the plenary power doctrine at the end of the 19th century arises at the same time in federal Indian law and immigration law, and then the Chinese. How we herded Indians onto reservations, and how the U.S. government can control who goes on to reservations, is turned around and used a year later to justify Chinese exclusion. So these groups that seem to us today have nothing to do with each other, the people of those times thought of their mobility and citizenship as relational. So the connection of why Native Americans are in a book about voluntary migration is, one, they were already here, and two, we need to think about immigration policy as not just restrictionist, but \[about\] incentives. So in the colonial period, the colonial governments, each colony is giving away tracts of land, 50 acres, 100 acres, for every voluntary migrant that comes, because you're trying to get people to come and to populate the land. So if you're a rich person, and you bring your wife, and you bring two servants, and you bring an enslaved person, for each person that you pay for to come, you get 50 acres, or 100 acres. That land was contested. Some of that land Native Americans claimed, and they had lived there for generations, but the land was being used as an incentive for voluntary migrants. Fast forward to the 19th century. There are federal land laws that are trying to get people on the East Coast, white people on the East Coast, and Europeans who haven't even come yet, to go to the middle part of the country. And so there are homestead laws, right? "Okay, you move out there and make the land productive; you know, start your farm, and we'll give you however many acres." That was Native American land. Some of it had been obtained by treaty with the U.S., some of it obtained by force, and treaties that were forced on Native people. And so the relational aspect is the U.S. government saw it as zero sum. They could not see a republic where Native American people, in sovereign native nations, lived alongside white settler communities. They went with a logic of we need to buy the land or push them out — physically remove people. In the 1830s, that logic culminates in the U.S. government financing and carrying out native deportation. That's 80,000 people. Everyone knows the Cherokee Trail of Tears, and that's 16,000 people, which is a huge number of people as is. But in the 1830s it was 80,000 people, with huge casualties along the way. It was the southeastern states, Mississippi, Oklahoma; they were eyeing Cherokee land and native land because they wanted to expand cotton growing and slavery. So the ability of Native Americans in the southeast to remain and stay on their ancestral lands was relational to the white planters who wanted that land and who asked the U.S. government to deport native people; violent deportation. I use the word "deport" very deliberately. I'm following the lead of Claudio Saunt, who's a native historian. I'm calling it "deportation," and not the euphemistic "removal," because this thing is financed and carried out by the U.S. government. I've heard people say to me at talks, you know, "my family came here legally with nothing, and they had no help from the government, and they made something of themselves." Your family cleared 80,000 native people out of the way, and then \[they\] gave you land? Your family did all that by yourself? No, the U.S. government is involved. I think that we need if we're going to tell a full picture of U.S. migration history, we need to not just talk about who came, but also who was there before and why were they forced to leave, and how were they forced to leave. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) **Undoubtedly, you've encountered well-meaning, progressive, liberal types who have, in their attempts to denounce the Trump administration, claim that we didn't even have federal immigration restrictions until the Chinese Exclusion Act. But we've just talked for a half hour about all these horrific state and local level immigration restrictions and deportations that were carried out internally.** **As an academic, I'm sure you're bothered by that, but I'm wondering what the balance is between trying to, like, appeal to a more progressive hope enshrined in American history — that "nation of immigrants"; anyone can come here and make something of themselves — to kind of promote a more progressive Future.** **Or should we be more directly honest about how there were never open borders and, in fact, we were always restricting people? I could see myself wanting to avoid that argument on the basis of not wanting to give my conservative family more ammunition to argue for border controls today.** I think I would tell a progressive: the U.S. as a land of opportunity was true for a lot of people. I mean, if you look only at the right of mobility, and the corollary, the right to set roots and stay where you want, the U.S. was very good about that for the majority white population, and that is what led to people building generational wealth. And that's a pretty good model, but we need to extend it to other people. I mean, what does the borders being "open" even mean when the borders were also open to enslavement, right? So we've got to find a way to make our laws and our citizenship more inclusive so it's not a racialized citizenship. Now, Stephen Miller has said repeatedly that he hates the 14th Amendment. He hates the birthright citizenship clause. I think that's one of the things we as Americans should be the most proud of, because it realizes the promise that America was, that America gave people. It took a while to get there, but we need to uphold that idea of of colorblind, birthright citizenship and, at the same time, need to see that it wasn't always like that. We did eventually get to the right place, but now we're backsliding and rolling back, or they're attempting to roll us back. So I would draw pride and strength in, "Yes, the U.S. can be and has been, a multi-racial democracy, and we should continue striving to achieve that." **I guess that kind of brings it back to how we began, which is that, yeah, birthright citizenship is not some high-minded principle from America's founding fathers. But the Reconstruction amendments fulfill the promise of the founding, and its loftier rhetoric, or at least attempt to create a more fair, equal republic.** We fought a freaking Civil War to get those amendments. I mean, I don't know why you would want to go back to before that. And the thing I emphasize about the local laws against free black people and their citizenship being unclear, I say: "Okay, look at what happened to people, the kinds of discrimination that were visited on people who were born in this country, who didn't have official legal citizenship. That's what the citizenship restriction and stripping is about." By taking people's legal citizenship away, you can do any manner of discrimination and horrible things to them. We were trying to move away from that. Why are we going back to that now? If you know the history, you know what they're trying to do. **My real, last question: Are you at all hopeful?** Looking at the broad sweep of American history, because my book went from the colonial period to 1860s, I am hopeful. I'm still a political scientist, although I did some very historical research, and my colleagues who have studied authoritarian regimes and countries that have turned in a less democratic direction, say: You know what? There's always a U-turn. They always go back to democracy." Now, the problem is we are at the bottom of the U and how long a country stays at the U before the rebound is entirely dependent on current politics. Looking at back at U.S. history, abolitionists five years before the Civil War were very grim and said, "Oh my god, we're never going to get rid of slavery." And then five years later, it was gone. They couldn't have known that, right? But they saw it in their lifetime. But I'm also sanguine. And look, I'm 55 years old. I've told students and young people: "I'm confident the rebound toward democracy is coming. I'm not sure it will happen in my lifetime. I hope it happens in yours." *Contact the author at* [*cdavis@theredoubt.net*](mailto:cdavis@theredoubt.net) *or follow him on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Project 2025 and the specter of mass surveillance in Europe URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/project-2025-and-the-specter-of-mass-surveillance-in-europe/ Last updated: 2025-12-19T14:54:25.000Z VIENNA — In 2020, Max Schrems changed the way that American tech companies do business in Europe. A few years earlier, the Austrian lawyer and digital privacy activist had filed a lawsuit arguing that Europeans' data were not safe in the hands of companies like Meta, citing the revelation that U.S. intelligence agencies were indiscriminately collecting their communications on platforms like Facebook. The European Union has a strict privacy law, the [General Data Protection Regulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General%5FData%5FProtection%5FRegulation?ref=theredoubt.net), which limits the ability of companies and governments to access users' communications, whatever their nationality. The United States has the Fourth Amendment, which restricts the state's ability to spy on Americans without a warrant. But [Section 702](https://www.intel.gov/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act/fisa-section-702?ref=theredoubt.net) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permits U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on practically any non-citizen "reasonably believed to be located outside the United States." The European Court of Justice [agreed](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/16/european-court-rules-on-facebook-vs-schrems-case.html?ref=theredoubt.net) that posed a problem. If Europeans' data could be transferred to the U.S., where foreigners are deemed to have no right to privacy, and then sifted through by U.S. intelligence, what would be the point of the GDPR? This is especially concerning given that even most European governments are dependent on digital services from Silicon Valley. As the court ruled, users "must be afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU," which means allowing them to meaningfully challenge alleged privacy violations — the storing of personally identifiable information without consent — wherever they may occur. [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) In 2023, President Joe Biden addressed the ruling by issuing an executive order promising to protect Europeans' data from indiscriminate snooping. Among other things, the order allows EU citizens to raise alleged intelligence agency violations in a newly created [privacy court](https://www.justice.gov/opcl/redress-data-protection-review-court?ref=theredoubt.net); an independent agency, the Federal Trade Commission, was also charged with ensuring corporate compliance. "The FTC has long committed to protecting consumers and privacy across borders," then-Chair Lina Khan wrote in a June 2023 [letter](https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc%5Fgov/pdf/2023.06.08letter-to-commissioner-reynders.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net), "and we are committed to enforcement of the commercial sector aspects of this framework." But it is 2023 no longer, and there is good reason to doubt that deal — insufficient as it is, from the perspective of Schrems and other critics — will be upheld much longer. In Washington, a government openly hostile to Europe is now in power, led by a man who claims the executive orders signed by his predecessor are null and void. Early on, though, there was still denial about what this means for U.S.-EU relations. "We had the first meeting on data transfers, I think, a month or two into the Trump administration, and \[European leaders\] were like, 'Well, we have a deal. It's fine,'" Shrems, founder of the privacy advocacy group NOYB ("none of your business"), said in an interview. "Like, guys," Schrems said, "you know that all of this is based on executive orders that he's going to turn over in two seconds for some other reason?" As for the FTC: "Now that's not independent anymore," Shrems said, noting the Trump administration's claimed right to fire all of its Democratic members — a right that the conservative majority at the U.S. Supreme Court [appears likely](https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/fight-over-trumps-power-fire-ftc-member-heads-us-supreme-court-2025-12-08/?ref=theredoubt.net) to uphold. "Suddenly, this whole structure of how we transfer data back and forth between the U.S. and Europe is collapsing because the oversight body is gone." ## The Project 2025 plan for US espionage Trump has not actually overturned the data-transfer agreement with Europe, even if he has said all of Biden's executive orders are "fully and completely terminated." But Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for Trump's second term, flags that agreement as an infringement of U.S. sovereignty, [urging](https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025%5FMandateForLeadership%5FFULL.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) officials to immediately "suspend any provisions that unduly burden intelligence collection." "The United States has never seriously pushed back against the EU; now is the time," the Project 2025 document states, suggesting that European privacy concerns are mere cover for an attack on American industry. The Trump administration's outrage at the European Commission — Secretary of State Marco Rubio [described](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9kejzvw0o?ref=theredoubt.net) a fine imposed on X for breaching EU transparency regulations as "an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people" — is a possible sign of what's to come. In Washington, "America First" means protecting the right of American tech companies to do business wherever and however they please. What hope is there, then, of this U.S. administration maintaining an agreement made by its predecessor? As Schrems asked: "How do you deal with a clown? How do you deal with someone where there's no reasonable argument anymore?" No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) In its official national security [strategy](https://www.npr.org/2025/12/05/g-s1-100893/trump-national-security-strategy-foreign-policy?ref=theredoubt.net), the Trump administration describes the European Union and present European governments as enemies of the people (quite literally defined as: white Europeans), accusing it of facilitating the "prospect of civilization erasure" by way of mass immigration. The White House also expresses open support for Europe's far-right opposition, describing "the growing influence of patriotic European parties" — Alternative for Germany, the Freedom Party in Austria — as a "cause for great optimism." Suppose that such an avowed opponent of the EU got its hands on sensitive or compromising communications, not just from elected officials, but activists and journalists in Europe: Would an administration staffed by Project 2025 alum and other illiberal sympathizers share it with their right-wing allies in Europe? There is no evidence to date that they have, but it is not safe to assume they would not. Europe's dependence on America and its technology sector is the heart of the problem. There is no short-term solution, Schrems told *The Redoubt*, but the decoupling could be advanced if the U.S.-EU data-transfer agreement is tossed aside in the coming months, either by another European court ruling or the Trump administration itself. Whatever happens, Schrems said, Europeans need to be aware of what's at stake. Agreement or not, their data is being collected by an adversary that does not feel bound by the rule of law on either side of the Atlantic. Digital privacy may not be a top concern of most EU citizens, but it is vital for the survival of their liberal democracies. "Spying on people is never going to be relevant for the average European, directly," Schrems said. "But indirectly, in the sense that typical targets are journalists, are politicians, are decision-makers in big companies, activists and whatnot? If they cannot communicate freely anymore without getting into trouble? We know that may not end well." *Follow the author on* [*Bluesky*](https://www.theredoubt.net/sex-socialism-and-democratic-decline/) *and* [*reach out*](https://www.theredoubt.net/contact/) *if you have a tip.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Sex, socialism and democratic decline URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/sex-socialism-and-democratic-decline/ Last updated: 2025-12-14T12:05:41.000Z Trump's return to power has led to "new and startling" attacks on civic freedoms. _This post is for subscribers only._ ### 'New and startling': Trump's return drives global decline in civic freedoms URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/new-and-startling-trumps-return-drives-global-decline-in-civic-freedoms/ Last updated: 2025-12-09T14:41:05.000Z Sparked by a crackdown on pro-Palestine activism across Europe and the United States, and fueled by President Donald Trump's return to the White House, a leading human rights monitoring group said Tuesday that civil liberties are on the decline in many parts of the world, with most people now living in countries where fundamental freedoms are under attack. "Globally, it's not looking well," Ine Van Severen, a researcher at the monitoring group CIVICUS, said in an interview with *The Redoubt*. Over the last year, researchers with CIVICUS — which describes itself as a "global alliance of civil society organizations and activists" — identified more than 3,100 "civic freedom" violations, some of the most common being arrests of nonviolent protesters and journalists. Using a five-point scale, ranging from "open" to "closed" civic spaces, the group found that just 39 out of 198 countries and territories fully respect the rights to free expression, association and peaceful assembly. By comparison, 83 countries and territories are considered to be "repressed" or to have a "closed" civic space, representing 73 percent of the global population, according to [the report](https://civicusmonitor.contentfiles.net/media/documents/Embargoed9December.CIVICUSMonitorReport25.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net). What's notable is how many of the countries backsliding on CIVICUS' scale are in regions once considered — or at least, self-represented as — bastions of liberty. The United States is one of 15 countries where conditions have "deteriorated" since Nov. 1, 2024, slipping from "narrowed" protections of fundamental freedoms to "obstructed." Other countries similarly downgraded include Liberia, Madagascar and Argentina. But Western Europe also makes the list: France, Germany and Italy also fell to "obstructed," indicating "serious civic space constraints." The report cites, among other things, "Germany's intense state crackdown on solidarity with Palestine," noting that in Berlin alone there have been nearly 9,000 criminal charges linked to anti-Israel activism since October 2023\. Police have also used excessive force in shutting down these protests, with [one woman](https://monitor.civicus.org/explore/snap-election-sees-support-double-for-the-far-right-continued-crackdown-on-palestine-solidarity-protesters-and-ngos-under-pressure/?ref=theredoubt.net) at a silent vigil for Palestine in January 2025 "dragged away for carrying a heart-shaped hand warmer misidentified as a Hamas symbol." In France, authorities have in particular targeted climate change activists, depicting them "as violent 'ecoterrorists,'" the report notes. In July 2025, it was [reported](https://www.liberation.fr/societe/police-justice/mobilisation-contre-la69-des-policiers-infiltres-et-deguises-en-zadistes-20250801%5F5LXE4HF7NVEQJJMAPGMZZE6VPA/?redirected=1&ref=theredoubt.net) that law enforcement had infiltrated one group — opposed to new highway construction —"and incited violence, setting the stage for a militarized police response," per CIVICUS. And in Italy, a journalist who reported on "pro-fascist elements" in the youth wing of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party, and a pair of pro-refugee activists, "were [targeted by Graphite](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/06/italy-new-case-of-journalist-targeted-with-graphite-spyware-confirms-widespread-use-of-unlawful-surveillance/?ref=theredoubt.net), a military-grade spyware sold exclusively to governments." The software, which allows states to discretely hack a target's devices, is made by an Israeli tech company, Paragon Solutions, and is currently [being deployed](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-ice-contract-paragon-graphite-spyware-israel-biden-b2818884.html?ref=theredoubt.net) by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "All the countries that like to portray themselves as democratic are actually slipping down," Van Severen said. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ## From bad to worse The restriction of civil life in the U.S. did not begin with the Trump administration. Following the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and his Department of Justice designated the largest Muslim charity in the United States, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a terrorist organization. Prosecutors then accused it of providing "material support" for Palestinian militants, a nebulous charge that meant that funding for social programs could be portrayed as helping groups like Hamas win "hearts and minds." According to [Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/11/after-israels-designation-human-rights-groups-terrorists-biden-should-release?ref=theredoubt.net), "The U.S. government's case was based in part on evidence obtained through FISA wiretaps as well as evidence obtained via questionable foreign intelligence from Israel, faulty translations, and accusations by anonymous Israeli military witnesses." But just because civil liberties deteriorated before does not mean they cannot further erode, Deborah Makari, project officer for civil society rights and resiliency at the Charity & Security Network, noted in an interview. Makari helped lead research on the U.S. for the CIVICUS report and said she found an assault on fundamental freedoms that is much broader than before. "We're seeing something that does feel new and startling," Makari told *The Redoubt*. In September, Trump issued an executive order that purported to designate "Antifa" a "domestic terror organization." Weeks later, the Department of Homeland Security [claimed](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/10/14/bounties-originating-mexico-offered-shoot-ice-and-cbp-officers-chicago?ref=theredoubt.net), without evidence, that anti-fascist activists had "provided logistical support" to drug cartels, and that indeed foreign criminals were "in coordination with domestic extremist groups" in an effort to assassinate immigration agents. Federal prosecutors have responded to the White House designation by [filing](https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-prosecutors-bring-first-antifa-terrorism-charges-texas-police-shooting-case-2025-10-16/?ref=theredoubt.net) the first known terrorism charges against two people allegedly associated with Antifa, which is not an actual organization but a label typically adopted by left-wing anti-fascists who embrace radical protest tactics, including property destruction. FBI Director Kash Patel described the accused as "Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists," claiming they were involved in a July 4 attack on a Texas ICE facility in which a police officer was shot in the neck. But the designation threatens to have far broader implications. On Dec. 4, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued [a memo](https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/bondi-orders-law-enforcement-investigate-us-groups-over-accusations-domestic-2025-12-05/?ref=theredoubt.net) directing federal law enforcement to compile a list of "extremist groups" that use "the threat of violence to advance political and social agendas," including "extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; \[and\] adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity." Bondi specified that such groups may have engaged in "tax crimes," suggesting that the IRS could strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status. "There's been an effort to kind of frame any sort of progressive organization or advocacy work as part of this network of violence and terrorism," Makari noted. That's already had a chilling effect, she said, noting that the Charity & Security Network — established to help guide nonprofits on legal compliance in potentially hostile terrains — has fielded questions from center-left groups concerned about "exposing themselves or partners to criminal or civil liability," particularly when their work involves immigration or Palestine. ## The 'mass shock' of killing USAID The Trump administration's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the ensuing loss of humanitarian aid in the developing world, could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million children under the age of 5, according to [a study](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2825%2901186-9/fulltext?ref=theredoubt.net) published in The Lancet. The loss of U.S. support, coupled with the conspiracy theories spread by the Trump administration, also threatens democracy. "The USAID funding freezing and cuts have had, across the world, a huge, huge impact on civil society," Van Severen, who led CIVICUS' research on the impact to civil spaces, told *The Redoubt*. "I think it was a mass shock across the world." While perhaps best known for supporting efforts to combat hunger and the spread of disease, USAID also provided a lifeline to journalists and human rights groups around the globe. The sudden loss of funding and the lack of immediate alternatives resulted in much of their work coming to an end. But the harm didn't stop there. "Once these funding cuts were announced, authorities smeared or publicly vilified organizations, and started investigations of organizations, that received USAID funding," Van Severen noted. That smear campaign was fueled by the Trump administration, with billionaire Elon Musk, who claimed credit for destroying the agency, [describing](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/elon-musk-boosted-false-usaid-conspiracy-theories-global-aid-rcna190646?ref=theredoubt.net) USAID as a "criminal organization" and "a viper's nest of radical-left marxists who hate America." Trump himself [falsely claimed](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-politico-usaid-maga-conspiracy-b2693562.html?ref=theredoubt.net) that "BILLIONS" from USAID had gone to "THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A 'PAYOFF'" for promoting his political opposition. That line of attack was picked up around the world. As noted in the CIVICUS report, criminal investigations were subsequently opened in countries such as Georgia, Hungary and Slovakia. In Serbia, police raided five civil society groups "over allegations of 'misusing American taxpayer funds.'" In Kazakhstan, a member of the governing party, citing the Trump administration, called for adopting a "foreign agents law" that would allow USAID recipients and others to be targeted for undermining national security. The trend toward increased repression predates the 2024 U.S. election, to be sure. But a superpower embracing the rhetoric and policies of authoritarian regimes has no doubt been a blessing for the world's repressors. For better or worse, the United States remains a model to much of the world, and what happens there can serve, elsewhere, as a license to do the same. You can hear the impact in the way leaders talk. "Things that used to not be openly said," Van Severen observed, "are now being said by politicians." Liberal, democratic values are no longer shared, even ostensibly; they are openly under assault. And while these attacks didn't all begin in January 2025, and cannot all be attributed to one man, there is no question that, "under Trump, they just escalated." *Contact the author at* [*cdavis@theredoubt.net*](mailto:cdavis@theredoubt.net) *and follow him on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Sex and equal rights in Eastern Europe: What socialism did for women URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/sex-and-equal-rights-in-eastern-europe-what-socialism-did-for-women/ Last updated: 2025-12-08T17:47:41.000Z VIENNA — The trouble started with The New York Times. In 2017, the newspaper of record reached out to see if she would be interested in contributing a thousand words to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. "As somebody who has spent more or less my entire academic career studying women's rights in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe, I wrote what I thought was a basically fairly obvious thing," Kristen R. Ghodsee, a professor of Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, recounted at a Dec. 4 talk in the capital of Austria. "If you compare women in Eastern Europe to women in Western Europe, women in the Eastern Bloc countries just had way more rights and privileges than women in the West." Those rights and privileges, as Ghodsee wrote in 2017, included "major state investments in their education and training, their full incorporation into the labor force, generous maternity leave allowances and guaranteed free child care." Those perks and accompanying reductions in stress, and the other failings of the former Soviet Union aside, translated into real-world satisfaction: a 1990 study of East and West Germany, for instance, "found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as Western women." [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) "Of course," Ghodsee said in Vienna, "The New York Times decided to go with the very sensational, clickbaity title, '[Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/why-women-had-better-sex-under-socialism.html?ref=theredoubt.net).'" Props to the editor, though: it worked. "Unfortunately, as I'm sure you can imagine, when you publish in a major newspaper, things quickly spiral out of hand. And the reaction to this was swift, vitriolic and utterly incredulous," Ghodsee said. Feminism was a product of the Western, capitalist world, or so many Americans liked to believe, and so was the whole notion of women's sexual liberation. "So there was no possible way that women in totalitarian countries could have better sex or better lives or better anything." Critics questioned her scholarship and charged her with apologism for tyranny. "Yes, that's why birth rates plummeted in the USSR and men drank themselves into a stupor, because sex under socialism was so much better!" wrote one poster on Reddit. "Women in East Germany may have had more orgasms," [wrote](https://archive.ph/1H8y4?ref=theredoubt.net) a contributor to the conservative Washington Examiner, but that's not a good argument "for an all-powerful government," they said. "Because in a free-market economy, women don't have to rely on the state to fulfill their needs." "It's hard to get in the mood when you're sharing a bedroom with your mother-in-law," [crowed](https://reason.com/2018/11/23/no-sex-wasnt-better-for-women-under-soci/?ref=theredoubt.net) Reason magazine after Ghodsee expanded the argument to [book form](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kristen-r-ghodsee/why-women-have-better-sex-under-socialism/9781568588896/?lens=bold-type-books&ref=theredoubt.net) (in the present day, a third of American adults under 35 [still live](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/17/why-many-young-adults-in-the-us-are-still-living-with-their-parents.html?ref=theredoubt.net) with their parents, by the way). "I think it's fair to acknowledge these were not perfect societies — obviously," Ghodsee said. "There were a lot of issues that women still continue to face, particularly the persistence of patriarchy, particularly the persistence of the double burden, the responsibility for housework and childcare ... \[and\] very essentialist binary categories that, from the vantage point of 2025, we recognize as being a little out of date." "But," she continued, "there is absolutely no doubt in my mind, and to this day, I will very proudly stand and say that a woman in Bulgaria or a woman in Poland, when I was born in 1970, unequivocally had more opportunities in her life than I would have had at the same time in the United States." No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ## A failure with achievements Even today, though, decades after the fall of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the impact can still be seen. In 2018, researchers at the Paris School of Economics published [a paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147596718302476?ref=theredoubt.net) arguing that East Germany's "radical experiment in gender equality in the labor market and other instances" has had a lasting impact on gender norms. Specifically, they examined performance in mathematics, showing that the gap between girls and boys is "sharply reduced" in the former German Democratic Republic relative to the rest of Europe. Conceding the flaws of top-down, state socialism — that the project's final collapse was an indictment of the model — Ghodsee argued that this lasting impact exposes the problems with "what we call 'liberal feminism,'" at least in its more vulgar forms (think: former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg's "[Lean In](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/227762/lean-in-by-sheryl-sandberg/?ref=theredoubt.net)"-style of equality in the boardroom). "It gave privileges to a certain class of women without actually structurally changing the circumstances under which women could achieve their own economic independence and make decisions for themselves," Ghodsee said. By contrast, in the former Eastern bloc, "They were very clearly sort of top-down feminist projects, where the state mandated that women had to work; or the state mandated certain kind of policies around parental leave; where the state decided that there would be kindergartens and public cafeterias and canteens and so on and so forth," she said. "It's very clear that these sorts of state policies that changed the playing field in the long run benefited women to a much greater degree than the kind of burning-your-bra liberal feminism that we had in the United States or in Western Europe." Still, Ghodsee argued there is no going back, nor should the progressive left seek to answer the reactionary nostalgia of the right with sentimentality of its own. Today, the focus should not be so much on a workers' state but a state of leisure — a society that allows men, women and those who reject such binaries to enjoy more time with their friends and family; a 30-hour work week and a universal basic income, perhaps, as part of a vision of a future that's more than just a return to the past. Ultimately, "state socialism in Eastern Europe in the 20th century was an abject failure," Ghodsee said. "It fell into a capitalist mindset. It fell into a workerist, productivist mindset. It had real structural problems." But even though the system did not always deliver, there was at least the claim that society, as a collective, was working to build something better. That is something often missing in today's politics. "The utopian vision — that initial impulse of, 'What if we built a world whereby everybody could flourish, rather than a small elite? That is still a vision that we share, some of us, and that is an inspirational vision." *Contact the author at* [*cdavis@theredoubt.net*](mailto:cdavis@theredoubt.net) *and follow him on* [*Bluesky*](https://bsky.app/profile/charliearchy.bsky.social?ref=theredoubt.net)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Covering the international fight for democracy from Vienna, Austria. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Last Week at The Redoubt: Congress loves corruption URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/last-week-at-the-redoubt-3/ Last updated: 2025-12-08T19:22:01.000Z ICE, graft and bipartisanship in Washington. _This post is for subscribers only._ ### Congress killed due process, setting the stage for Trump's mass deportations URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/congress-killed-due-process-then-trump-went-even-further/ Last updated: 2026-06-12T13:11:26.000Z After President Donald Trump returned to power, the very first thing that Congress did was pass a bill making it easier for him to fulfill his signature campaign promise. With the backing of nearly every Republican — and support from dozens of Democrats, including some of the party's most prominent rising stars — the House and Senate voted to strip due-process rights from potentially millions of undocumented immigrants, allowing them to be detained indefinitely while the government tries to deport them. "It's a landmark law that we are doing today," Trump [told reporters](https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/g-s1-45275/trump-laken-riley-act?ref=theredoubt.net) at a Jan. 29, 2025, signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, now empowered to pursue the mass deportations he had promised. "It will save countless innocent American lives." The law was named after a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia who, in February 2024, was murdered by a man from Venezuela who was in the country illegally. Riley's killer had been arrested several times previously, including for alleged retail theft, but not deported — a symbol, to critics, of President Joe Biden's failure to secure the country's borders. The case, fueled by the racial politics of an undocumented man of color killing a white woman, became a rallying cry for right-wing opponents of immigration and a feature of Trump's 2024 campaign rallies. The bill passed in Riley's name amends federal law to require the detention of any undocumented immigrant arrested or otherwise accused — but not convicted — of a crime, including "burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting or assault of a law enforcement officer." ## Eliminating habeas corpus Put more plainly: the [Laken Riley Act](https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2025-01/2025%5FNIPNLG-Laken-Riley.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net) stripped immigrants of the ability to challenge their detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, effectively eliminating a centuries-old right known as habeas corpus. Those accused but not convicted of crimes can now be held for as long as it takes to remove them from the country, a process that can sometimes last years. Months after the act was signed into law, thousands of people are now detained who may not have been otherwise. Of the more than 65,000 in [ICE detention](https://tracreports.org/immigration/detentionstats/pop%5Fagen%5Ftable.html?ref=theredoubt.net), as of Nov. 16, about a quarter, or 15,800, have pending charges against them, according to [data](https://www.cato.org/blog/5-ice-detainees-have-violent-convictions-73-no-convictions?ref=theredoubt.net) shared by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank (it is unclear how many were arrested for alleged offenses, but government figures show another 29,000 people in detention have never been charged with a crime). "What the Laken Riley Act was about was increasing who was subject to mandatory detention," Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, said in an interview. And by that measure, alone? The law has worked, its passage followed by record-breaking numbers of immigrants behind bars. But not every detention of a non-criminal immigrant can be attributed to the January 2025 change in law. The Laken Riley Act certainly raised the floor, in terms of who could be held without a conviction, but the federal government has since gone well beyond the dictates of the law. After heralding its passage, Bush-Joseph explained, "the Trump administration came in and they said, 'OK, we're going to go, actually, much further than that and we're going to take a different approach than what had been the interpretation of the law and policy for decades and apply mandatory detention to a much wider swath of people.'" ## An unintended consequence The Laken Riley Act was unquestionably an effort to make life [miserable](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/08/us/detainees-ice-immigrants-hold-rooms?ref=theredoubt.net) for more undocumented immigrants, mandating that thousands more be detained in unsanitary, overcrowded facilities. And it has had immediate consequences that, without another change in law, may well outlast the present administration. "The Trump administration has expanded cooperation with state and local police to a record level," Bush-Joseph said. "So when someone is arrested for something, those cops are calling ICE. And I could see the Laken Riley Act and this cooperation with local cops resulting in more people being detained for those smaller types of offenses." That cooperation could well outlast the present administration, serving as a long-term funnel into federal detention. Even if the current White House is exceeding the letter of the law, that law — the Laken Riley Act — does provide it with broad justification for detaining foreign nationals who have never been convicted with crimes. And that's something that was accomplished with the support of many in the political opposition: [46 Democrats](https://newrepublic.com/post/190569/list-house-democrats-vote-pass-laken-riley-act-immigration-bill?ref=theredoubt.net) in the House and [12 in the Senate](https://rollcall.com/2025/01/20/democrats-senate-laken-riley-act/?ref=theredoubt.net) voted to strip undocumented immigrants of due process, among them Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who were consponsors of the bill; Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona; and Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia. There is, however, an ironic byproduct of Congress dramatically expanding the federal government's ability to put foreign nationals behind bars: it served as a reminder to courts of lawmakers' intent to govern such matters. The Laken Riley Act raised the floor, recall, but it did not abolish the ceiling. Broadly speaking, there are two sections of federal law relevant for deciding when an undocumented immigrant is supposed to be detained by ICE: one governs those who are encountered at the border (§ 1225), while the other pertains to those who are already settled and living in the country (§ 1226). The Laken Riley Act modified the latter. But the Trump administration has been acting as if all immigrants, wherever they may be found, are subject to the same rules. In July 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was revising its interpretation of federal law and had now decided that anyone in the country without documentation should be treated as an "applicant for admission" — in other words, like someone encountered at the border. That doesn't make any sense, though, as [scores of judges](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/28/trump-detention-deportation-policy-00669861?ref=theredoubt.net) have since pointed out. If all immigrants in the country were subject to § 1225, "then there would be no possible set of noncitizens to which § 1226(a) would apply," U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes wrote in a [Nov. 20 order](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.980210/gov.uscourts.cacd.980210.81.0.pdf?ref=theredoubt.net). In that decision, she noted that Congress had just recently "amended portions of § 1226 through the passage of the Laken Riley Act." If that section of federal law were irrelevant, in other words, it would be awfully strange for Congress to have just gone through the trouble of changing it — and for President Trump to have praised that change as a "landmark" deal. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ## Those left behind As Reuters [reported](https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-judge-orders-trump-administration-provide-bond-hearings-detained-migrants-2025-11-25/?ref=theredoubt.net), Sykes, in her decision, granted class status to immigrants who were living in the U.S. when they were detained, recognizing their right to challenge detention in federal custody. That means, under the ruling, that the Trump administration has to provide bond hearings to all immigrants detained while residing in the country who request one. Matt Adams, an attorney who brought the case, [told](https://apnews.com/article/immigration-bond-hearings-detention-trump-b863c23d6f1740e2df0be59947a087c5?ref=theredoubt.net) the Associated Press that the decision had already led some immigration judges to inform those brought before them of their reclaimed rights. These are people, he said, "who have no criminal history, who do not present any danger or threat of a flight risk, and yet they were being locked up without any possibility of being released during these lengthy \[deportation\] proceedings." To date, more than 3,000 people in immigration detention have filed habeas petitions, which immigration attorneys [told](https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/11/13/lawyers-using-habeas-corpus-in-last-ditch-efforts-to-free-immigrants-from-detention?ref=theredoubt.net) KPBS were almost unheard of in years past, a product of the Trump administration's indiscriminate efforts to detain and deport. But there are far more than just a few thousand people who could challenge their detention — and it's far from obvious that most immigration judges, who serve at the pleasure of the Department of Justice, will inform those who come before them of their contested rights. The Trump administration is also expected to appeal Sykes' decision. What is clear is that many of those who enter the immigration detention system are unlikely to be aware of their full legal rights, much less have access to someone willing to advocate for them. "People are struggling to find attorneys and it's that much harder to get an attorney in detention," Bush-Joseph told *The Redoubt*. "We know that people have worse outcomes when they don't have an attorney and, in detention, people are giving up their cases and opting to 'voluntarily depart' because the conditions in detention are so poor." The Laken Riley Act was a major step towards mass deportations, eliminating rights without requiring convictions and exposing thousands of people to the threat of ICE detention. It's a sign of just how radical the Trump administration has been that even that law — treating every alleged shoplifter like a potential murderer — has been found insufficiently extreme. *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### How to blow the case against elite corruption URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/how-to-blow-the-case-against-elite-corruption/ Last updated: 2026-03-31T05:13:53.000Z Donald Trump's White House is the most nakedly corrupt institution in America. To do business in these United States, major corporations and foreign governments have rightly calculated that they need to bribe the president, and they need to do it with gold. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, [appeared](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/07/tim-cook-trump-gift/85555805007/?ref=theredoubt.net) in the Oval Office with a glass plaque on a 24-karat base, complete with Trump's name on it. Swiss business executives [gave](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/rolex%2c-gold-gifts-to-trump-spur-call-for-swiss-investigation/90545882?ref=theredoubt.net) America's head of state a Rolex table clock, valued at over $130,000, and a gold bar engraved with "45" and 47" on it, representing the 79-year-old's two terms in office (he [lowered ](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/14/business/switzerland-us-tariffs?ref=theredoubt.net)tariffs on Switzerland soon after). All the while, Trump's sons, by blood and by marriage, are cashing in on the father's presidency. Jared Kushner, qualified by virtue of being Ivanka Trump's husband, is conducting diplomacy in the Middle East while [collecting](https://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-says-15bn-qatar-uae-came-irrespective-trump-win-2004895?ref=theredoubt.net) hundreds of millions of dollars from governments in the region. As his dad signs off on [legislation](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-stablecoins-congress-cryptocurrency-94fa3c85e32ec6fd5a55576cf46e58ea?ref=theredoubt.net) backed by the crypto industry and has the military [slaughter](https://www.theredoubt.net/how-we-talk-about-murder/) men in boats on the Caribbean, Donald Trump Jr. is [hawking](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/21/trump-djt-bitcoin-net-worth.html?ref=theredoubt.net) Bitcoin while [advising ](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/us/politics/trump-drones-pentagon.html?ref=theredoubt.net)defense contractors on how to [get real money](https://archive.ph/95mQM?ref=theredoubt.net) from the Pentagon. And then there's the immigration czar, Tom Homan, meeting a guy in a parking lot and [allegedly](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/16/tom-homan-50k-sting-operation-00611219?ref=theredoubt.net) taking $50,000 stuffed in a bag as part of an FBI sting operation. It's all rather corrupt, and they're not really bothering to hide it. That's been a gift to the opposition. In a November report, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, issued a [report](https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/new-report-exposes-the-trump-family-s-multi-billion-dollar-crypto-empire-fueled-by-self-dealing-and-corrupt-foreign-interests?ref=theredoubt.net) detailing how, among other things, "Donald Trump has turned the Oval Office into the world's most corrupt crypto startup operation." While his administration promotes digital tokens that facilitate black markets, the president and his family have personally amassed "crypto holdings worth as much as $11.6 billion," collecting over $800 million in crypto sales in the first six months of 2025\. You can even "[invest](https://www.businessinsider.com/truth-social-crypto-etf-launch-donald-trump-meme-coin-schwab-2025-1?op=1&ref=theredoubt.net)" in crypto on Truth Social now. So how have Democrats managed to undermine their case against corruption? By defending the appearance of it themselves. Consider the case of Virgin Islands Del. [Stacey Plaskett](https://www.theredoubt.net/democrats-stay-silent-on-stacey-plaskett-an-ex-republican-who-texted-epstein-in-congress/), a nonvoting member of the House of Representatives. In November, it was revealed that Plaskett was texting back and forth with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the middle of a 2019 congressional hearing. Epstein had previously donated thousands of dollars to her campaign; Plaskett had also traveled to his New York City mansion to solicit a $30,000 donation for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. [Democrats stay silent on Stacey Plaskett, an ex-Republican who texted Epstein in CongressRep. Ro Khanna told The Redoubt that the “Epstein class needs to go,” but wouldn’t say if that includes his Democratic colleague.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/icon/The-Redoubt-1--7.png)The RedoubtCharles R. Davis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/thumbnail/2021_-_Centre_Stage_HM1_7730_-51649268166--1.jpeg)](https://www.theredoubt.net/democrats-stay-silent-on-stacey-plaskett-an-ex-republican-who-texted-epstein-in-congress/) Speaking on the House floor, Raskin, just seen denouncing Trump's crypto corruption, [defended](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cnn-anchor-fact-checks-jamie-raskin-over-wild-defense-of-dem-colleague-s-texts-with-epstein/ar-AA1R3JJV?ref=theredoubt.net) Plaskett on the grounds that she merely "took a phone call from one of her constituents." He later defended those comments on CNN. "What rule did she violate? People text and email and call us all the time," Raskin said. "It's unfortunate that he's got some people's phone numbers," he continued, referring to a deceased pedophile, "but, you know, he's no longer with us." After sophistry like this — in the service of a Democrat who texted a billionaire donor "[Thanks](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/14/epstein-text-messages-cohen-house-hearing/?ref=theredoubt.net)!" after he complimented her beauty mid-hearing — it is difficult not to be jaded about the whole Epstein endeavor. Indeed, after this SMS scandal, more Democrats (86) voted to condemn "[the horrors of socialism](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/119-2025/h305?ref=theredoubt.net)" than to [censure](https://abcnews.go.com/US/house-votes-censuring-plaskett-epstein-texts/story?id=127670527&ref=theredoubt.net) Stacey Plaskett (0). One could be forgiven for thinking that, in the eyes of many lawmakers, it's better to be tight with a wealthy predator than to be too far to the left. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaires We need readers like you to support our independent journalism. Consider a [paid subscription](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) or [one-time donation](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) to help us keep covering the global fight for democratic values. You can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, full of original reporting and progressive analysis, and a monthly dispatch with exclusive commentary on international affairs. [Sign up! ](#/portal/signup) ## Bipartisanship in action That's hardly the only example of America's political opposition whiffing on a chance to be the party against corruption, wherever it may be found. In a Nov. 3 appearance on CNN, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described another lawmaker — one [indicted](https://archive.ph/IYqbc?ref=theredoubt.net) by the Biden Department of Justice for allegedly accepting "$600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities" in exchange for government favors — as a "beloved member of the House of Representatives." That member, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, a conservative Democrat, had just been [pardoned](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-pardoning-democratic-rep-henry-cuellar-was-indicted-bribery-rcna247185?ref=theredoubt.net) by Trump, the latest in a series of such grants of impunity for those accused of [corruption](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/nx-s1-5420699/the-fallout-in-a-virginia-county-after-trump-pardoned-a-former-sheriff?ref=theredoubt.net). In 2024, Trump [expressed](https://archive.ph/h1o2d?ref=theredoubt.net) solidarity with Cuellar, describing him as a "Respected Democrat Congressman \[who\] wouldn't play ball with Crooked Joe's Open Border game." Jeffries, likewise, was more critical of the prosecution than the man who allegedly took bribes. "Listen, the reality is this indictment was very thin to begin with, in my view," the House Democratic leader said. "I don't know why the president decided to do this," he added, but "I think the outcome is exactly the right outcome." This defense — [voiced](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4649247-democratic-leader-defends-cuellar-charges-very-different-from-santos-menendez/?ref=theredoubt.net) long before by other high-ranking Democrats — may well be strategic. Cuellar, at least, can vote, and the thinking may be that a conservative Democrat in that south Texas seat is better than no Democrat at all. But that strategy, for it not to hurt the party as a whole, hinges on most of the public failing to notice. Those paying close attention are likely to come to the same conclusion as the low-information voter: that when it comes to corruption in Washington, and politics in general, it's a cynical game and no one is clean. *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Meta accepts $3.2 million to promote Tucker Carlson URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/meta-has-been-paid-3-2-million-to-promote-tucker-carlson/ Last updated: 2025-12-01T11:54:50.000Z Tucker Carlson has careened towards the fringe since being forced out of Fox News two years ago, using his newfound independence and an eponymous platform to promote the idea that "[chemtrails](https://archive.ph/kVj0w?ref=theredoubt.net)" are real — that the clouds produced by high-altitude aircraft are "far worse than anything you imagined" — and to host historical revisionists who argue the United States might have [picked](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orgvAk7JhBI&t=3943s&ref=theredoubt.net) the wrong side in World War II. It may come as no surprise that a right-wing influencer is producing the sort of conspiratorial content that thrives in today's online information environment. But Carlson is going viral not just with the help of Elon Musk's X, but with an assist from a tech giant that he once accused of [silencing](https://archive.ph/M0ECS?ref=theredoubt.net) his voice. In a little over two years, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has received an estimated $3.2 million ($3,272,065) to promote Carlson and the work of his media company, Last Country, Inc., according to publicly available ad data. And that work has often been deeply conspiratorial: An analysis of the [data](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmoS7aoVksEzpWnWwlZ%5FbHr27u71mMLE8ExBarqsqIQ/edit?usp=sharing&ref=theredoubt.net) reveals that, as of Nov. 18, 2025, Meta had accepted at least $694,400 — and as much as $844,156 — to promote Carlson's recent web series, "The 9/11 Files," which suggests that at least one hijacked plane may not have actually crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, and asserts, as fact, that the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 was a "controlled demolition." [Reader-supported, independent journalism in your inbox](#/portal/signup) The financial relationship between Carlson and Meta has blossomed even as others on the right have sought to distance themselves from the former prime-time anchor. In October, Carlson interviewed Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist and antisemite who has [defended](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/nick-fuentes-white-supremacist-popularity/684005/?ref=theredoubt.net) segregation and [praised](https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-reinstated-white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-who-praised-hitler-2023-1?op=1&ref=theredoubt.net) Adolf Hitler. Fuentes used the platform to argue that "organized Jewry" is an obstacle to national unity, describing Jews as "a stateless people" who are "unassimilable." The conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, in response, [described](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/us/politics/gop-tucker-carlson-nick-fuentes-antisemitism.html?ref=theredoubt.net) Carlson as "the most virulent superspreader of vile ideas in America." Carlson does not appear to have advertised his Fuentes interview on Facebook. Instead, his media company has focused on promoting his 9/11 series, ads for which have now garnered at least 12 million impressions on the social network. Two of the most common ads feature photos of Carlson and former President George W. Bush, superimposed over the Twin Towers and under the heading "False Flag," a term for an attack that's intended to frame someone else as the perpetrator. "Cut straight through the establishment's narrative with firsthand accounts and primary sources and uncover what really happened on September 11, 2001," reads the text on [one](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active%5Fstatus=active&ad%5Ftype=political%5Fand%5Fissue%5Fads&country=US&is%5Ftargeted%5Fcountry=false&media%5Ftype=all&q=tucker%20carlson%20last%20country&search%5Ftype=keyword%5Funordered&source=ad-report) sponsored message. "Firsthand accounts and declassified documents prove that intelligence agencies had the information necessary to stop the attacks on September 11, 2001," states the [other](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active%5Fstatus=active&ad%5Ftype=political%5Fand%5Fissue%5Fads&country=US&is%5Ftargeted%5Fcountry=false&media%5Ftype=all&q=tucker%20carlson%20last%20country&search%5Ftype=keyword%5Funordered&source=ad-report). A third [ad](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active%5Fstatus=all&ad%5Ftype=political%5Fand%5Fissue%5Fads&country=US&is%5Ftargeted%5Fcountry=false&media%5Ftype=all&q=tucker%20carlson%20last%20country&search%5Ftype=keyword%5Funordered&source=ad-report), now inactive, declared that the "official story of what happened on 9/11 is a complete lie." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-22-at-10-11-07-Ad-Library-Report-1.png) **Screenshot of Meta Ad Library, Nov. 22, 2025* Carlson's five-part series on the 2001 terror attacks rehashes a litany of claims associated with the so-called "9/11 Truth" movement. It begins, however, with what is essentially a restatement of the official story: that U.S. intelligence agencies had connections with 9/11 hijackers, knew they were in the United States and did not communicate the threat they posed to U.S. law enforcement. This is, indeed, a key part of the 9/11 Commission Report, which [faulted](https://publicintegrity.org/politics/agencies-failed-to-share-intelligence-on-9-11-terrorists/?ref=theredoubt.net) the CIA and FBI for not sharing intelligence with each other that, if acted upon, might have prevented the attacks. Carlson revisits these failings and stops short of claiming they were intentional. But that is not where the series ends. In a later [installment](https://archive.ph/A62pa?ref=theredoubt.net), Carlson openly cites 9/11 conspiracy theorists, with episode four of the series focusing on the destruction of 7 World Trade Center, or WTC-7\. That building, adjacent to the Twin Towers, collapsed in the hours after the attacks, which Carlson says was "odd" and — despite showing a montage of television news footage — "almost entirely ignored." After listing various government agencies that had offices in the building, Carlson cites the group "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth." That group published a report that claims to debunk the [conclusion](https://www.nist.gov/publications/final-report-collapse-world-trade-center-building-7-federal-building-and-fire-safety-0?ref=theredoubt.net) of experts associated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who found the building was brought down due to a [combination](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a66051920/911-myths-debunked/?ref=theredoubt.net) of structural damage, caused by debris from the initial attacks, and the intense fires that ensued. That official assessment is not plausible, Carlson tells his viewers. "Why then did Building 7 collapse after just seven hours of burning, in a way that no steel-frame building anywhere in the world has ever collapsed?" Carlson asks. "With the support of a group called Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth... Professor \[Leroy\] Hulsey found that office fires of the kind in Building 7 on 9/11 could not have produced sufficient thermal expansion to cause the crucial girder to fail. It's impossible, he found." Carlson concludes: "There's only one thing that could have triggered the collapse that we saw on television, and that is a controlled demolition." (On its [website](https://archive.ph/dbVYz?ref=theredoubt.net), Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth claims that all three World Trade Center buildings "were destroyed by controlled demolition using nano-thermite and possibly other explosive and incendiary materials.") Later in the fourth episode, Carlson also suggests that there was something unusual about the destruction of Flight 93, the plane that crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, and killed [44 people](https://www.nps.gov/flni/learn/historyculture/crew-and-passengers.htm?ref=theredoubt.net) on board, including four hijackers. "Why wasn't there substantial wreckage of Flight 93 at its supposed crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania? We were told the crash of that aircraft was so powerful that it vaporized the aircraft's hull. And yet the hijackers' passports were found intact at the site. How does that work?" Carlson asks. Meta did not respond to requests for comment. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-22-at-10-18-03-Ad-Library-1.png) **Screenshot of Meta Ad Library, Nov. 22, 2025* Carlson's media company appears to have begun paid promotions on Meta platforms in February 26, 2024, starting with two ads: [one](https://archive.ph/zOM87?ref=theredoubt.net) featuring Carlson criticizing former President Barack Obama for "stoking race hatred," and [another](https://archive.ph/MiXOl?ref=theredoubt.net) promoting an interview with anti-vaccine campaigner Steve Kirsch ("How many people died from the COVID shot?" reads the [description](https://archive.ph/4IXx8?ref=theredoubt.net) on Carlson's site). Meta has long been criticized for allowing misinformation and hate speech to proliferate on its platforms. In May 2021, responding to such concerns, the company announced it was adopting measures to help ensure bad actors were not being rewarded by its algorithms. "Whether it's false or misleading content about COVID-19 and vaccines, climate change, elections or other topics, we're making sure fewer people see misinformation on our apps," the company [said](https://archive.ph/dGDbl?ref=theredoubt.net) at the time. But following President Donald Trump's election victory in 2024, Meta reversed course, ending its partnership with third-party fact checkers and lifting several previous restrictions on misinformation. In an [explainer](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/misinformation/?ref=theredoubt.net) on its website, Meta states that while it still prohibits "graphic violence or hateful conduct," misinformation is "different from other types of speech" and "there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited." "The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute," the company says. In announcing the shift, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a January 2025 video, [said](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/07/tech/meta-censorship-moderation?ref=theredoubt.net) he had decided to lift previous content restrictions because they had "increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it's gone too far." It's not clear what impact that decision has had on how Meta treats conspiracy theories. In the past, though, it had removed ads promoting conspiratorial claims about terror attacks. In 2019, for example, the group "Crowdsource The Truth" bought [an ad](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=2445997838810780) to promote an interview with Richard Gage, described therein as "the founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth." According to Meta, "This content was removed because it didn't follow our Advertising Standards." In 2020, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth itself purchased a [Facebook ad](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=229932938378846) to promote its claims about the "controlled demolition" of WTC-7\. "We are proud to announce the release of the final report of the four-year computer modeling study of World Trade Center Building 7," the ad stated, linking to the same report that Carlson cites in his 9/11 series. The ad was quickly removed for running "without a required disclaimer" detailing who paid for it, according to Meta's Ad Library. support independent journalism If you appreciate original reporting without a paywall, consider a one-time donation. [Tip us ](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) The ads promoting Carlson's 9/11 series are clearly labeled as paid for by Last Country, Inc., which the former Fox News personality founded in 2023 with Neil Patel. He and Patel — a former policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney — earlier cofounded The Daily Caller, a conservative news site, which Carlson has since left. Last Country, Inc., which operates the "Tucker Carlson Network" streaming platform and manages Tucker Carlson's Facebook presence, did not respond to requests for comment. The company's ability to purchase millions of dollars' worth of ads stems, in part, from the financial support it has received from another conservative company with ties to the Trump family. In October 2023, The Wall Street Journal [reported](https://www.wsj.com/business/media/tucker-carlsons-media-company-secures-investment-led-by-new-anti-woke-firm-1789-capital-a47d20dd?ref=theredoubt.net) that Last Country, Inc., had secured $15 million in investment from 1789 Capital, a self-styled anti-"woke" venture capital firm [that counts](https://www.reuters.com/investigations/trump-linked-venture-fund-1789-capital-tops-1-billion-assets-2025-09-08/?ref=theredoubt.net) Donald Trump Jr. as a partner. Earlier this year, Omeed Malik, the founder of 1789 Capital, specifically lauded Meta for responding to the 2024 election by lifting restrictions on misinformation that he argued had resulted in the censorship of conservatives. Appearing on [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/01/07/elon-musk-is-vindicated-following-meta-lifting-restrictions-says-1789-capitals-omeed-malik.html?ref=theredoubt.net) in January 2025, Malik said he was "very happy that even big companies are starting to realize the error of their ways," arguing that executives like Zuckerberg can see "where the leaves are blowing" and where money is now to be made. "It turns out that free speech is good business," Malik commented. *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Subverting — and celebrating — the fascist aesthetic URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/subverting-and-celebrating-the-fascist-aesthetic/ Last updated: 2025-11-25T19:25:22.000Z It's right there in the name, "National Socialists": an example of reactionaries trying to coopt and pervert the language of the left. It's Steve Bannon [identifying](https://archive.ph/LQjTp?ref=theredoubt.net) as a "Leninist," the former Trump adviser claiming that, like the Bolsheviks, the populist right aims to "destroy the state" and "all of today's establishment." It's billionaires and their lackeys criticizing "[elites](https://archive.ph/vdXN5?ref=theredoubt.net)." The far right has long practiced the art of lifting rhetoric and tactics from its political enemies. So ahead of local elections earlier this year in Vienna, a group of left-wing activists decided it was time for some payback at the expense of their own local fascists: Austria's Freedom Party, or FPÖ. Dubbing itself the "Strache list," a reference to FPÖ politician Heinz-Christian Strache, the artist-activists of Stahlglatt & Blumeenweich launched their own [satirical campaign](https://stahlglatt.net/projekte/flood-the-zone-with-shit/?ref=theredoubt.net) for city government, creating a series of posters in the aesthetic of 1930s fascism. The propaganda is instantly identifiable in a country with its own dark history of authoritarianism; about 40% of the guards at World War II concentration camps [hailed from](https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/rearvision/austria-struggles-to-come-to-grips-with-nazi-past/6910962?ref=theredoubt.net) a country that made up just 8% of the Third Reich. Some might have been content at slapping "FPÖ" (or "GOP") on an actual Nazi poster and calling it a day. But the aim of the "Strache list" campaign was not just connect today's fascists to the one's of old, but to subvert and disorient. "For our homeland!" one poster declares above a blonde couple. "Fortress Vienna against traitors to our people" — so far, pretty fascist — "who corrupt our youth with racism, fearmongering and hate speech!" ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/size/w1200/2025/11/Strache-Beide-V2-Druck-A1-1.jpg) "For our homeland! Fortress Vienna against traitors to our people who corrupt our youth with racism, fearmongering and hate speech!" (Stahlglatt & Blumeenweich, 2025) As the group explains on its website, the campaign, by pairing a reactionary aesthetic with earnest, progressive rhetoric, is intended "to maximize the audience's uncertainty" with "provocative" content. Any fascist sympathizer will begin to frown as they make their way through the text, which reframes the defense of the "homeland" as standing up for the liberal values of tolerance and inclusion that made it great. But as an American seeing these posters for the first time, what was disorienting was that I had recently seen this same aesthetic back in my home country. The first connection that I made was not to Nazis in Germany, but fascists in the United States. Under President Donald Trump, the federal government is now chock full of 20-somethings who appear to be self-consciously aping the style of literally Adolf Hitler. The U.S. Department of Labor has released a series of propaganda posters that appear to be inspired by mid-20th century authoritarianism, as mediated by artificial intelligence. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2025/11/565118331_1201827235326164_5497528500177343953_n.jpg) Image posted by the U.S. Department of Labor on Facebook, Oct. 18, 2025 When I showed the Trump administration's conspicuously Aryan aesthetic to someone here in Austria, their reaction was: "Wait, is this real?" It is. And in America, where there is less familiarity with Nazi imagery, it works on a couple of levels. One, it provokes: those over-educated liberals will be so mad, the creator hopes, and look hysterical when they try to explain that "this is fascism" to someone less clued in. Two, it's a signal: while publicly denying the accusations of the triggered and loony left, the purveyor of such imagery knows it will be recognized for what it is by the far right, too. It's like the Trump campaign [naming](https://www.kqed.org/news/10953759/official-says-too-late-for-white-nationalist-to-resign-as-trump-delegate?ref=theredoubt.net) a prominent Nazi organizer to be a Republican delegate: anti-fascists and fascists alike will both understand there's little chance that could happen by mistake. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2025/11/33330_ca_object_representations_media_4178_frontend-1.jpg) German Labor Front Poster: “Beauty of Labor” (1934), published in: German History in Documents and Images, \[November 04, 2025\] The self-conscious adoption of an historically evil aesthetic is also why I don't think a subversive campaign would really work in America. The population is not as historically literate and while one could ironically adopt the MAGA aesthetic, after 10 years of this tasteless kitsch, I don't think anyone on the left really wants to see another red cap with white text. It is, of course, debatable whether it works in Austria, either. Stahlglatt & Bluemeenweich say their "communication guerrilla warfare" is inspired not just by local fascists, but Steve Bannon and his mantra: "[flood the zone with shit](https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/misinformer-year-steve-bannons-flood-zone-shit-approach-destroying-american-democracy?ref=theredoubt.net)." In taking on the "authoritarian camp" — identified as "Donald Trump and his cronies, the German AfD and the Austrian FPÖ" — they are pursing an "artistic strategy for subverting authoritarian actors with their toxic communication structures," taking back terms like "homeland" and "our people" that were "believed to have been lost to authoritarian groups." Maybe? But it's also possible that some aesthetics, MAGA or Nazi, are best left in the bin. Take the example of that red hat and white text: Is the relief a liberal feels when realizing it's ironic — "Make America Mexico Again" — enough to make up for the initial aggravation? ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f6/71/f671d086-f0d7-4c0f-bc4c-d72fa949f40c/content/images/2025/11/plakat25-A1-1.jpg) "For our homeland! Reward the hardworking instead of sparing corrupt city politicians!" (Stahlglatt & Blumeenweich, 2025) Austria's guerrilla artists do try to address that by including people of color in another one of their posters, making it a good deal likely to be confused with earnest white supremacy. In America, though, I'm not sure you even need a subversive art campaign to link those in power to their fascist predecessors. The 20-something [white nationalists](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?ref=theredoubt.net) now staffing the federal government are happy to do that themselves. *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Trump likes dictators a lot more than journalists URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/trump-likes-dictators-a-lot-more-than-journalists/ Last updated: 2025-11-25T19:25:56.000Z The self-styled [king](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/king-trump-rcna192912?ref=theredoubt.net) of the free world does not hide his disdain for unruly subjects. President Donald Trump is an open admirer of despots and how they deal with the indignity of being challenged, something that was on open display when he hosted his Saudi Arabian counterpart at the White House. Trump, hosting the man responsible for killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, lavished the murderer with praise, denigrated his victim — perhaps he had it coming? — and attacked the press for asking an obvious and legitimate question about state-sponsored butchery. If it wasn't clear before, he spelled it out on Tuesday: He likes authoritarian leaders a lot more than the reporters they kill. "He's done a phenomenal job," the U.S. president [said](https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m5wc7pimqs2u?ref=theredoubt.net) of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who, according to U.S. intelligence, ordered the 2018 operation that resulted in Khashoggi being [cut to pieces](https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-saudi-arabia-jamal-khashoggi-un-investigation-20190619-story.html?ref=theredoubt.net) inside the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. As for the deceased, a U.S. resident, father of four and critic of the Saudi regime who wrote for The Washington Post, Trump told reporters: "You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about." "Things happen," Trump added, while the crown prince fiddled with his hands. "But he knew nothing about it and we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that." [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) But the dictator of Saudi Arabia is not as out of touch as his American ally claims. As a 2021 CIA report [details](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/26/us/report-jamal-khashoggi-killing.html?ref=theredoubt.net), bin Salman "had absolute control" over the country's "security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince's authorization." Out of the 15-member assassination squad, seven were members "of Mohammed bin Salman's elite personal protective detail." He knew. That's something Trump himself conceded was "possible" back in 2018, when, speaking [candidly](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/trump-calls-cia-assessment-of-khashoggi-murder-premature-but-possible-idUSKCN1NM0FN/?ref=theredoubt.net), he admitted that bin Salman could be guilty but that he wouldn't let it spoil a friendship. "They have been a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development," he said of the Saudi kingdom. "As president, I have to take a lot of things into consideration." To be honest, President Joe Biden wasn't all that better when it came to murderers in the Middle East. While he didn't outright embrace Khashoggi's killer, he did fist-bump this strategically significant "[pariah](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62189543?ref=theredoubt.net)" on his first trip to the region. But Trump's apologism should not be confused with a regrettable compromise of his ethics, rationalized with the cold logic of realpolitik. For this president, it is his own money and power that dictate his foreign relations, not his country's perceived interests. The Saudi kingdom [buys](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-leaning-toward-backing-sale-f-35s-saudi-arabia-senior-white-house-official-2025-11-17/?ref=theredoubt.net) lots of expensive military hardware from the United States, sure; it also [holds](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/us/politics/liv-golf-tournament-trump-doral-resort.html?ref=theredoubt.net) golf tournaments at Trump's properties, gave [$2 billion](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68296877?ref=theredoubt.net) to his son-in-law and is currently in talks that could "bring a Trump-branded property to one of Saudi Arabia's largest government-owned real estate developments," The New York Times [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/world/middleeast/trump-organization-saudi-development-deal.html?ref=theredoubt.net) just days before Tuesday's White House meeting. Trump and bin Salman are two rich and powerful men who need not answer to the public; this is a fact for the crown prince, and an aspiration for his American admirer. It's not just that questions from below are difficult to answer — it's that they're annoying, demonstrating a galling lack of respect for the natural hierarchy of power. How could a reporter at the White House not understand that their job is to listen to the president and repeat back what they hear? "You don't have to embarrass our guest." Trump does not relish opportunities to defend himself or his policies. Rather, he expresses genuine anger that such opportunities exist. To be asked a pointed question, as the single most powerful man in the world, is to be aggressed upon. "ABC, your company, your crappy company, is one of the perpetrators," Trump said Tuesday when [asked](https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m5wdorhxsx2u?ref=theredoubt.net) another question about his old friend, Jeffrey Epstein. "I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake, it's so wrong. And we have a great commissioner — chairman — who should look at that." support independent journalism If you appreciate original reporting without a paywall, consider a one-time donation. [Tip us ](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) This is now a regular occurrence: Trump urging Brendan Carr, his pick to head the Federal Communications Commission, to take the free press off the air. There is no principle other than deference to his power, which is not secure enough to handle a late-night comic's jokes. As he [said](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/09/18/trump-fcc-revoke-tv-licenses-negative-coverage/86223851007/?ref=theredoubt.net) in September: "When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump — that's all they do... They're licensed. They're not allowed to do that." These threats of brute censorship have not been carried out, but that's not to say they have had no effect. The administration has enjoyed success just by raising the prospect of harsher measures, using its [regulatory powers](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477530/paramount-cbs-skydance-sale-fcc-approves?ref=theredoubt.net) to influence coverage and help secure the [installation](https://www.npr.org/2025/10/06/nx-s1-5563786/bari-weiss-cbs-news-free-press?ref=theredoubt.net) of political allies at broadcast networks. The last thing the Trump administration wants is what Jamal Khashoggi called for in his [final column](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/jamal-khashoggi-what-the-arab-world-needs-most-is-free-expression/2018/10/17/adfc8c44-d21d-11e8-8c22-fa2ef74bd6d6%5Fstory.html?ref=theredoubt.net): a truly independent media, one"isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda." After Tuesday's showing, we need not speculate on how Trump would view the killing of a columnist whom "a lot of people didn't like." That doesn't mean that reporters, in America, are soon going to be [murdered](https://www.theredoubt.net/how-we-talk-about-murder/) by their government, but it does speak to the values of the man who leads it — someone who [muses](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/26/politics/dictator-comments-trump-power-expansion-analysis?ref=theredoubt.net) about being a dictator and admires those who already are. But then he told us who he was almost a decade ago, when America's first Black president was still in power. Asked about Russia's Vladimir Putin and his habit of disappearing members of the press, Trump responded that there are worse things than being a guy who kills journalists. “At least he's a leader," Trump [explained](https://time.com/4154624/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-killing/?ref=theredoubt.net), "unlike what we have in this country." *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Democrats stay silent on Stacey Plaskett, an ex-Republican who texted Epstein in Congress URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/democrats-stay-silent-on-stacey-plaskett-an-ex-republican-who-texted-epstein-in-congress/ Last updated: 2025-12-08T07:19:01.000Z A trove of correspondence from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, released this month by the House Oversight Committee, has drawn renewed attention to President Donald Trump's years-long relationship with the deceased pedophile. In one email, Epstein [described](https://newrepublic.com/post/203140/donald-trump-epstein-worst-person?ref=theredoubt.net) his former friend and future leader of the Republican Party as the worst person he had ever met — "not one decent cell in his body" — and, in [another](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/epstein-offered-reporter-photos-donald-girls-bikinis-kitchen/story?id=127473941&ref=theredoubt.net), offered to provide a New York Times reporter photos of Trump with "girls in bikinis in my kitchen." But the recently revealed correspondence has also shed light on Epstein's connection to another politician: Democrat Stacey Plaskett. A former Republican who served in the Bush administration as a political appointee at the Department of Justice, Plaskett now represents the U.S. Virgin Islands as a nonvoting delegate; she also served as a leader of Trump's second impeachment trial. As The Washington Post [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/14/epstein-text-messages-cohen-house-hearing/?ref=theredoubt.net) last Friday evening, Nov. 14, Plaskett was actively conversing with Epstein during a February 2019 congressional hearing in which former Trump fixer Michael Cohen was testifying. [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) "Great outfit," Epstein texted Plaskett, according to the Post, as the hearing was being broadcast on television. "You look great." "Thanks!" Plaskett replied. But the texts touched on more than just looks. Epstein also gave Plaskett tips for her questioning, suggesting she ask Cohen — who had by then broken with the president — about figures at the Trump Organization who could speak to alleged financial improprieties. "Cohen brought up RONA - keeper of the secrets," Epstein texted, apparently referring to Rhona Graff, a former Trump assistant, the Post reported. "RONA?? Quick I'm up next is that an acronym," Plaskett replied. She would go on to ask about Graff. Plaskett's connection to Epstein, as revealed in the new documents, has been a gift to conservative media. "House Democrat exchanged texts with Epstein on how to hurt Trump during 2019 congressional hearing," the New York Post, a right-wing tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, [declared](https://archive.ph/QzsRp?ref=theredoubt.net) in one headline. "‘Quick I’m Up Next’: Dem Del. Plaskett Caught Texting Epstein To Help Steer Questioning During Congressional Hearing," The Daily Caller [crowed](https://archive.ph/yPmwP?ref=theredoubt.net) in another. Reached for comment, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the House Oversight Committee who has been outspoken about the Epstein saga, told *The Redoubt* that he wants all of the convicted sex trafficker's former allies to come clean. "The Epstein class needs to go and we need accountability," Khanna said. "All Epstein files must come out. I have said from the first day I don't care whether it implicates Republicans or Democrats. Anyone who participated in abuse or knew about it and stayed silent must answer. And people should be transparent about their relationship with Epstein, what they knew about him, and what actions they took to stop the abuse." But Khanna declined to name Plaskett, despite being asked about her. Pressed on whether he considered Plaskett to be a member of the "Epstein class" that "needs to go," Khanna responded: "I am talking about rich and powerful people who abused underage girls or covered up for them." Khanna is not alone in failing to call out Plaskett by name. So far, none of her Democratic colleagues have demanded further scrutiny of her connection to Epstein, much less call for her resignation. They may well — and not without reason — view any acknowledgement of the Plaskett-Epstein texts as distracting from Trump, their main target and the man named [some 1,500 times](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-epstein-files-document-9.6976591?ref=theredoubt.net) in the latest batch of documents. But a failure to address the matter could also stoke cynicism about Democrats' commitment to cleaning their own house and bolster claims of hypocrisy. No ads, no paywalls, no billionaire donors If you appreciate original reporting without a paywall, consider a one-time donation. [Tip us ](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) Plaskett has not been charged with any crime in connection with Epstein and has denied any knowledge of his actions. In October, a civil case brought by victims of Epstein, accusing Plaskett and other Virgin Islands officials of creating a "safe haven" for his depravity, was [dismissed](https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/epstein-victims-agree-to-dismiss-claims-against-plaskett/article%5Ff2c79946-9c49-4396-bbc1-96657036271f.html?ref=theredoubt.net) with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again. In a statement at the time of the dismissal, Plaskett described the suit as "frivolous," noting that she "has consistently stated that Jeffrey Epstein's actions against the plaintiffs and countless other women were absolutely reprehensible." But in February 2019, at the time she was texting back and forth with him while in Congress, Epstein was a known sexual predator, having already [pleaded guilty](https://apnews.com/article/trump-epstein-investigation-records-timeline-545c371ee3dd3142355a26d27829c188?ref=theredoubt.net), in 2008, to soliciting prostitution from a minor. In November 2018, three months before the hearing, the Miami Herald had also started publishing its investigative series, "[Perversion of Justice](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article220097825.html?ref=theredoubt.net)," detailing how Epstein had earlier evaded federal prosecution despite having been "accused of assembling a large, cult-like network of underaged girls — with the help of young female recruiters — to coerce into having sex acts behind the walls of his opulent waterfront mansion" in Palm Beach, Florida. (It wasn't until July 2019 that Epstein was charged with federal sex trafficking.) As Business Insider [reported](https://www.businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epstein-island-politics-stacey-plaskett-2023-6?op=1&ref=theredoubt.net) in 2023, Plaskett also leaned on Epstein for financial support. Beginning in 2014, when she first ran for Congress, Epstein helped fund the lawmaker's political career, donating $13,000 "to the Democratic Party for the benefit of Stacey Plaskett," per an email from Cecile de Jongh, the former first lady of the US Virgin Islands. De Jongh had encouraged Epstein's support for Plaskett, telling the disgraced financier, "We would have a friend in Stacey." In a 2023 court filing, JPMorgan Chase — itself accused of facilitating Epstein's activities — alleged that de Jongh, who managed Epstein's companies on the Virgin Islands from 2007 to 2015, was the convicted sex offender's "primary conduit for spreading money and influence through the \[U.S. Virgin Islands\] government," NBC News [reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jpmorgan-alleges-ex-virgin-islands-first-lady-aided-jeffrey-epstein-rcna86365?ref=theredoubt.net). She has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with any offense. Plaskett, who would win a close primary contest in 2014 to launch her political career, would go on to receive Epstein's support for her subsequent campaigns: a $5,400 donation in 2016, the maximum allowed, and again two years later. After Plaskett met with him at his home in Manhattan, Epstein — whose infamous private island, Little Saint James, is located in the U.S. Virgin Islands — gave $30,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the fall of 2018, which the committee rejected after vetting the donor, according to Business Insider. Plaskett, like other Democratic members of Congress, had been asked to raise funds for the committee. But while other Democrats were rejecting Epstein's financial support, Plaskett was not. Even after Epstein was arrested and charged with federal sex trafficking in 2019, her office initially said she would keep his campaign contributions. "I'm pretty sure she's not," spokesperson Mike McQueery [told CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/08/congresswoman-to-keep-contribution-from-accused-child-molester-epstein.html?ref=theredoubt.net) in July 2019 when asked if Plaskett would return the donations. That changed a day later. "In light of new information and allegations that have been made against Jeffrey Epstein I have decided to make contributions to Virgin Islands organizations that work with women and children in the amount of his previous contributions,” Plaskett said in a [statement](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/democratic-congresswoman-will-return-jeffrey-epstein-donation.html?ref=theredoubt.net). Plaskett's office did not respond to *The Redoubt's* requests for comment. As for Cohen: Asked what he thought of the Epstein-Plaskett connection — and the fact that questions he was asked in Congress were being suggested by the convicted sex trafficker — President Trump's former personal attorney pointed *The Redoubt* to a Nov. 15 [interview](https://www.ms.now/weekends-with-alex-witt/watch/michael-cohen-urges-congress-to-release-epstein-files-so-epstein-s-entire-network-is-fully-exposed-252130373744?ref=theredoubt.net) on MS NOW (formerly MSNBC). In that appearance, Cohen denied ever speaking with Epstein himself and wondered why anyone would be talking to him after he had already been convicted of being a sexual predator. "The part that bothers the most about it is not so much the questions or the comments that Jeffrey Epstein was making to this member of Congress, but why this member of Congress was even in discussion with somebody who was a known child sex trafficker, who was known to have had inappropriate sexual relations with underage girls," Cohen said. "I can't put my finger on why this member of Congress would be engaging in any conversation other than what we now know: that Jeffrey Epstein was a financial supporter." *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Russia's 200-year 'obsession' with destroying Ukraine URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/russias-200-year-obsession-with-destroying-ukraine/ Last updated: 2025-11-25T19:26:30.000Z VIENNA — When Eugene Finkel set out to write a book covering two centuries of Russian imperial ambitions in Eastern Europe, it was, for him, more than just an academic endeavor. The Johns Hopkins University scholar was motivated by the 2022 full-scale invasion of the country where he was born, of course. But that wasn't the only reason why he chose to spend six months digging through archives to document Moscow's long-term "obsession" with his birthplace. "It was also my personal revenge story," Finkel, who teaches at Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, explained at a Nov. 6 talk in central Vienna. Four months after Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine three-and-a-half years ago, one of its spies [was caught](https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jun/16/russian-spy-caught-trying-to-infiltrate-war-crimes-court-says-netherlands?ref=theredoubt.net) trying to secure an internship at the International Criminal Court. Sergey Vladimorovich Cherkasov had spent his entire adult life trying to infiltrate the upper echelons of Western power, assuming another identity — claiming to be a Brazilian named Viktor Muller Ferreira — and spending years diligently working his way through academia in hopes, it seems, of someday landing a job at The Hague. [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) Cherkasov got his bachelor's degree at Trinity College Dublin, according to a copy of [his CV](https://archive.ph/GVt2A?ref=theredoubt.net) that's still available online, and worked as a "travel agent" in Rio de Janeiro. He also pursued a master's degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. "What pushed me to write this book was that when I was still teaching at my current school, but in Washington, I had a student who took several classes with me, worked pretty closely with me — and then asked for a recommendation for the International Criminal Court," Finkel recounted. "I wrote his recommendation. He got the job." Finkel had unknowingly assisted the Kremlin's military intelligence agency, the GRU, and had learned that he had done so just weeks after the [Bucha massacre](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/12/un-report-details-summary-executions-civilians-russian-troops-northern?ref=theredoubt.net), when Russian forces slaughtered hundreds of Ukrainian civilians who had failed to greet them as liberators. It was a multi-faceted betrayal, resulting in a livid scholar producing, "Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine." ### History repeats The thesis of Finkel's book, published in late 2024, is that Russia's latest war of conquest is the product of a centuries-long fixation on its neighbor. "Over the last 200 years, with some brief exceptions and interruptions in the 1920s and 1990s, the project of dominating Ukraine was the key goal of Russian Imperial, Soviet and post-Soviet governments. And this desire to dominate Ukraine, I think, can be quite reasonably described as an obsession," Finkel said. "Russians are absolutely obsessed with Ukraine, and this obsession is driven by two factors: identity and security," he said, but of the two, "identity is far more important." 📚 "Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine," is [available for purchase](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eugene-finkel/intent-to-destroy/9781541604674/?ref=theredoubt.net) from Hatchette Book Group. Since 2014, when Russia sent irregular forces across its borders and illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula, those trying to understand the Kremlin's motivations have often accepted its claimed security concerns at face value. Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO, the military alliance founded to counter the Soviet Union, were an embarrassment, if not an existential threat, at least from the perspective of Moscow; the whole conflict, however unjustified, might have been avoided had the West not been so intent on humiliating a fallen superpower. But Russian President Vladimir Putin, both before the war in a bloated [historical essay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On%5Fthe%5FHistorical%5FUnity%5Fof%5FRussians%5Fand%5FUkrainians?ref=theredoubt.net) and in private conversations since, speaks about Ukraine not in terms of it being a NATO satellite, per se, but as if it were family — the shared blood justifying the attempt to conquer its soil. In that he's no different than his predecessors who spoke of Ukraine as if it were no more than a "little Russia." Take the following quotes: *"Russians and Ukrainians are one people, a single one."* *"Ukrainians are Russian brothers who are being freed and liberated."* *"Military action is needed to protect brothers of the same blood: Ukrainians."* Only the first was uttered by Putin, Finkel pointed out in his Vienna talk. The second? Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, commander of the Imperial Russian Army in 1914; the third was Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister under Josef Stalin. All to various degrees viewed Ukrainians not as a separate people, with their own culture and history and right to exist, but as miniature and often inferior versions of themselves — as little brothers in need of protection (and, when little brothers act out: violent correction). "A lot of Russian reactions to what Ukraine does simply boil down to: Who do you think you are and how dare you do something without asking us?" Finkel said. This belief in Russian-Ukranian "brotherhood" is not always an affectation. Both nations trace their beginnings to the Kyivian Rus', an Eastern Slavic state founded in what is today the Ukrainian capital, hundreds of years before "Moscow" first appeared in historical records. But the rhetoric of "one people" should not be mistaken as progressive: this is not the language of peace and friendship, but of nationalism and empire — of an abuser who claims that they alone have the right to decide when a relationship ends. ### Brothers become traitors Under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine was moving toward a genuine divorce, breaking from the hold of Russian influence that had dominated the country since its formal independence in 1991\. For many Russians, and not just at the elite level, that this could be the product of genuine Ukrainian democracy — as opposed to American scheming (a century earlier it was "German meddling") — was inconceivable. And if a break from Russia did enjoy mass Ukrainian support: that was an unforgivable betrayal. "I think this story also explains the violence against civilians that we see. We still don't know much about what was going on in the heads of Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine, but we know enough to say that many of them actually, genuinely believed those identity stories about Ukrainians being 'Russian brothers' who are being liberated," Finkel noted. Once they realized Ukrainians did not welcome their "liberation," these brothers became traitors. "And the violence that follows is essentially a violence of revenge." support independent journalism If you appreciate original reporting without a paywall, consider a one-time donation. [Tip us ](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) That Russians actually believe their own historical propaganda, at both the grunt and elite level, is evidenced not just in the historical records and quotes that Finkel uncovered while working on his book. The devotion to this constructed narrative — of Ukraine and Russia as one, meaning: the rightful property of the latter — is such that the Kremlin undermines its own negotiating position by refusing to let it go. In an [Oct. 17 report](https://www.ft.com/content/7af3b49e-c4da-405b-8199-3e12957b78c2?ref=theredoubt.net), the Financial Times shed light on the failure of U.S. President Donald Trump's summit with his Russian counterpart. Trump has appeared eager to end the war in Ukraine on pro-Russian terms, repeatedly declaring that the victim should be forced to cede territory to the aggressor. The August meeting in Alaska was intended to hammer out such a deal and a return to 19th-century-style imperial deal-making. But Putin, offered a huge chunk of Ukrainian land, just couldn't stop being weird about Russia's claims to the whole thing. According to the FT, Putin, "delivered a rambling historical discursion spanning medieval princes such as Rurik of Novgorod and Yaroslav the Wise, along with the 17th century Cossack chieftain Bohdan Khmelnytsky — figures he often cites to support his claim Ukraine and Russia are one nation." No one should underestimate the American president's ability to get back on board the Russian side. Still, if the reporting is to be believed, even he was taken aback by the history lecture at what was supposed to be a real estate transaction. ### Surprises and disappointments Alexander Etkind, a professor of international relations at Central European University in Vienna, spoke alongside Finkel at the talk, which was organized by the [Research Center for the History of Transformations](https://www.recet.at/?ref=theredoubt.net). Speaking from the perspective of someone born in St. Petersburg, he agreed that Russians are indeed obsessed with their imperial history, so much so that he was not surprised that Putin would sacrifice so many of his countrymen to assert dominance over their intransigent neighbor. That said, one thing has surprised him about the war: the overall complacency of the people whose family members are being used as cannon fodder. "A total passivity and complicity in the events," Etkind said of the Russian population writ large. "There is no rebellion, no protest, no resistance." No one has a say in where they were born, but, Etkind argued, too many Russians — even considering that they live under an authoritarian regime that prosecutes dissent — have made a choice to meekly accept the bad history they have been taught, even as its deadly consequences are made obvious. "Being a Putinist is a political choice. Those who are complicit — they have made their choice," Etkind said, adding that only widespread suffering among the Russian populace, from sanctions and Ukrainian military victories, is likely to bring down Putin and his form of government. But for Finkel, the disappointment is more than just with the Russian people. Early on, he saw Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a "genocide": an effort to eliminate an independent Ukrainian identity. And he was relieved to see U.S. President Joe Biden [label it](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/biden-called-russias-war-in-ukraine-genocide-heres-why-that-matters?ref=theredoubt.net) as such back in April 2022. What changed as a result of this determination, in a world that had vowed to "never again" stand by and watch an [extermination](https://www.justsecurity.org/112466/eliminate-nation-russia-crime-extermination-ukraine/?ref=theredoubt.net) transpire? "Nothing. There was absolutely no difference," Finkel said. "Calling something a 'genocide' will not manufacture policies; it will not manufacture support," he said, noting it's a lesson for opponents of crimes against humanity elsewhere. The political will "does not exist to a sufficient degree in Ukraine, and it definitely does not exist in the Palestinian case." "I was cynical — quite cynical — to begin with. I'm from Eastern Europe, we grew up with that. But I'm now not just cynical, but disillusioned, despondent, you name it. I now don't think those labels mean much." *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### The way we talk about murder URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/how-we-talk-about-murder/ Last updated: 2025-12-04T14:11:44.000Z Seventy-six people in [19 strikes](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/10/politics/boat-strike-76-dead?ref=theredoubt.net) in just over two months: that's how many civilians have been killed in a U.S. war that has not been declared. It is a war, ostensibly on drugs, and packaged for social media, that has left wives without husbands and children without fathers, their names and faces as absent from the media coverage as any legal justification. The accusation — that those slaughtered were involved in the narcotics trade — has been leveled only after the sentence has been carried out, each unverified claim accompanied by a clip on social media showcasing the [extrajudicial sentences](https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/un-experts-say-us-strikes-against-venezuela-international-waters-amount-2025-10-21/?ref=theredoubt.net). "I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war," President Donald Trump [told reporters](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-vow-killing-people%5Fn%5F68fb2fcbe4b0bc7dc61f89e9?ref=theredoubt.net) in October. "I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country." [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) There is no pretense of justice on the part of the executioner, at least as it's been conceived since the Magna Carta, nor even a credible claim of active armed conflict that might blur the lines between cold-blooded murder and legitimate self-defense. If it's been open about anything, the U.S. government has been open about the fact that the only law here is the word of one man. Killing these people is a political choice: it plays well for those, frightened by the endless repetition of claims and images on their screens, need to see foreigners killed to feel safe and secure in their cul-de-sac. As executing gang members is not tenable in the homeland, [at least not yet](https://www.salon.com/2025/10/16/from-venezuela-to-america-trump-wants-to-bring-the-war-home/?ref=theredoubt.net), the performance is carried out under the guise of foreign policy, politically-motivated killings being permissible in the name of national security. That this is indeed murder for show — and that even the perpetrators know, on some level, that there's something dishonorable about the whole thing — is revealed in how they have treated some of those who have survived their initial blow. When an October strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea had the unwelcome outcome of not instantly killing everyone on board, the U.S. government was left with a decision: it could finish the job and execute those in its custody, reflecting the present administration's belief that an accusation is as good as a jury trial; or it could acknowledge that an in-detention killing would be viewed as a crime against humanity. The executioner flinched. "The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution," Trump [posted](https://abcnews.go.com/International/trump-2-survivors-us-strike-submarine-ecuador-colombia/story?id=126650540&ref=theredoubt.net) on his website. There is no moral difference between executing an alleged criminal in one's custody and executing an alleged criminal who could easily be detained. The U.S. Coast Guard has for years intercepted and searched boats suspected of transporting drugs, and it continues to do so to this day; it has even collaborated with formal "enemies" of the United States, [partnering with Cuba](https://archive.ph/0hN74?ref=theredoubt.net) to dismantle trafficking operations. However biased and editorializing it may appear, there is a legal term, then, for what the Trump administration is doing: [murder](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1111?ref=theredoubt.net). That's what it would be even if Congress gave these killings the color of law with a declaration of war — these would still be civilians, none engaged in combat — and that's what the recovery of those survivors demonstrated. In an [Oct. 31 letter](https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/releases/durbin-welch-lead-letter-to-doj-demanding-answers-about-the-legality-of-trump-administrations-recent-boat-strikes-killing-57-people-in-the-caribbean-sea-and-pacific-ocean?ref=theredoubt.net) to the U.S. Department of Justice, a group of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee spelled this out. "Based upon the reported facts," they wrote, "it appears the strikes may violate 18 U.S.C. § 1111, which makes it a felony to commit murder within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, which includes the high seas." That's not an ethical judgment, but a legal and inescapable one, based on facts that no one really disputes: we're killing people we could have detained for crimes they haven't been charged with. The only way out of this judgment is to wrap oneself in the flag and say that this is a "war," with all the evisceration of peacetime norms that word entails. This may not work in an international court of law, but these arguments, for now, are being fought for purposes of public opinion — and even in undemocratic states, a war-time framing unlocks and legitimizes a wide range of brutality that would otherwise be impermissible. The language of war doesn't just lower the bar, but it anesthetizes. "Murder" sounds bad; we are familiar with the concept and generally frown upon it. But a "kinetic strike," it's harder to say. What even is that? It is, for one, how the Pentagon would like to frame its killings. And because deference to powerful institutions is conflated with objectivity, it's also how some in the press are anodizing the reality. "Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announces another kinetic strike on Thursday against alleged narcoterrorists in the Caribbean," is how one [local NBC affiliate](https://archive.ph/wip/SAN1I?ref=theredoubt.net) described a Nov. 6 attack that killed three people. "To more 'narco-terrorists' were killed in the Trump administration's latest kinetic strike," [said another](https://archive.ph/wip/hkGro?ref=theredoubt.net). "US obliterates alleged 'drug boats' with lethal kinetic strike," declared The Independent, a British newspaper that accompanied its Nov. 11 headline with a [38-second video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zshlBNN7WdI&ref=theredoubt.net) of that particular lethal kinetic action. It's not just journalism that's corrupted by adopting the obfuscating euphemisms of the state, "kinetic strike" — a term for any destructive warfare — as unhelpful to the average reader's understanding as "[officer-involved shooting](https://www.cjr.org/analysis/officer-involved-shooting.php?ref=theredoubt.net)." Whether in the media, the Pentagon or academia, jargon is a savvy replacement for actual knowledge, and has thus proven irresistible to some in the political opposition. support independent journalism If you appreciate original reporting without a paywall, consider a one-time donation. [Tip us ](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support) Earlier this month, Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who serves as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sounded more like a Republican consultant than a serious critic following a private briefing with Trump officials. With the murder toll approaching triple digits, his gripe was not at the immorality of killing criminal suspects but with how the White House was going about selling its illegal campaign. "Kinetic strikes, without actually interdicting and demonstrating to the American public that these are carrying drugs and they're full of bad guys, I think, is a huge mistake and undermines the confidence in the administration's actions," Warner told reporters. He added that it was "good" that senators could now see, [per CNN](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/boat-strikes-democrats-briefing-trump-admin?Date=20251106&Profile=cnn&ref=theredoubt.net), "the administration's detailed legal justification for the strikes in a classified setting." Even as he critiques, with a peep about how "interdicting" the deceased would have been ideal, Warner cedes ground, politically and linguistically. A "[lawless killing spree](https://bsky.app/profile/bcfinucane.bsky.social/post/3m5bsbuff2c2b?ref=theredoubt.net)," as the International Crisis Group's Brian Finucane describes the strikes, lets one know that what's happening here transgresses all notions of honor and decency; "kinetic strikes" are a policy difference, to be discussed in respectful chats among the exclusive club permitted to know the legal arguments for why Donald J. Trump can be judge, jury and executioner. As the Trump administration performs its kinetic, compensative masculinity at the expense of the foreign nationals in boats it decides to blow up, the press and political opposition would do well to remember that language is also a battleground — and that the ugly truth, plainly stated, is a useful weapon. *If you appreciated this piece, please consider a* [*paid subscription*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup) *or* [*one-time donation*](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support)*.* --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Welcome to The Redoubt URL: https://www.theredoubt.net/welcome-to-the-redoubt/ Last updated: 2026-06-01T14:08:51.000Z It feels like the very idea that life could be better is under assault. An era of utopian idealism this is not. The worst among us have seized power and are determined to wield it. Enter *The Redoubt*, a publication devoted to the truth, honor and decency — to serving as a secure foothold for the values that are now under attack. Those who believe in justice and equality have suffered losses, but we refuse to call these defeats, and we reject the comforts of nihilism and submission. [Subscribe to receive our work in your inbox](#/portal/signup) So, yes: a digital magazine — one that aims to enlighten its readers with the original reporting and analysis that's too often missing from the corporate press. Its perspective will be international, reflecting its founding in Vienna, Austria, and its aim will be to highlight and strengthen connections across borders. And while America will be a recurring topic, the goal is to serve readers from all over the world. The intent is to never put up a paywall. *The Redoubt* is a fortress, not a silo. But if you are interested in building something that lasts, and have the means to do so, we welcome [paying subscribers](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/signup), starting at $8 a month. Perks include the ability to comment and receipt of our weekly newsletter; for $15 a month and up, you can also receive our monthly dispatch containing exclusive commentary and a roundup of the best in international journalism. We also [accept donations](https://www.theredoubt.net/#/portal/support). And if you have a story idea, wish to republish our work or just have a suggestion, please [reach out](https://www.theredoubt.net/contact/). --- ## Sign up for The Redoubt Original reporting and progressive analysis for a global audience. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.