500 hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics are at risk of closing because of the Trump-Republican big, ugly bill. Many are in rural areas. Meanwhile, Republican-held US House districts and states Trump won in 2024 rely more on ACA coverage. They're selling out their own voters.

ICE will reportedly hire contractors to surveil social media platforms 24/7 to target people for deportations. The information would then be funneled into an existing ICE database built by Palantir (founded by Trump ally Peter Thiel). "The party of small government,” folks.

If you're interested in buying my latest book and helping to support independent bookstores (instead of helping Jeff Bezos buy another yacht) then I humbly ask that you consider purchasing a copy from @bookshop.org bookshop.org/p/books/comi...

yeah okay

When you hear about Big Tech companies lobbying the federal government to stifle AI regulation in the states, this is one reason why.

Early voting is underway for Prop 50 in California. I urge anyone in the state to vote yes. This isn’t a race to the bottom. It’s a means of avoiding the bottom. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-blue-states-should-do-when-red

Republicans are trying to give their rich donors more tax cuts while your health care costs double.

Don’t believe Trump’s lies about undocumented immigrants.

Your Prime Day reminder that Amazon... -Provides cloud services that help fuel ICE's deportation machine -Donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund -Scrapped plans to display tariff costs after pressure from Trump -Shelled out $40M for a documentary about Melania Trump

Trump is threatening to withhold back pay for federal workers furloughed during the shutdown — which goes against a law he signed in 2019, by the way. This should come as no surprise: Trump and his businesses have been accused of stiffing hundreds of their own workers out of pay over the years.

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day? Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

Thanks to Trump’s tariffs on China, U.S. soybean farmers have lost their biggest customer and are grappling with higher prices for farming equipment. Now, Trump has said he will bail out farmers — supposedly with the tariff revenue that caused the crisis to begin with. Hello?

Just some light reading for today... www.citizensforethics.org/reports-inve... @citizensforethics.org

Trump has turned the Department of Justice into his own personal vendetta machine. And Pam Bondi has been happy to go along for the ride. We're witnessing the most egregious politicization of the DOJ in recent memory — and I lived through the Nixon years.

Just as a reminder, Bondi’s origin story in Trump world is that she said she was going to investigate Trump University, Trump sent her a $25K check and the investigation disappeared. She later became Trump’s personal defense lawyer. So yeah, don’t challenge her integrity.

I’m a career prosecutor who took a $25,000 check from an affiliated entity of Donald Trump’s while investigating Trump University and later left my lobbying firm to become Donald Trump’s personal impeachment lawyer, White House aide, and Attorney General. So don’t you DARE question my integrity.

The problems that we as a nation have sought to illuminate, so that we can remedy them, are disappearing — not because the problems are disappearing or have been remedied, but because we will no longer know about them. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/turning-out-the-lights-on-the-economy

“No one man can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” -Edward R. Murrow

Journalist Edward R. Murrow used his platform on CBS to criticize the witch hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. This is what real journalism should do — hold power to account, not capitulate to it.

Whether you're a casual news reader or a breaking news reporter at the NYTimes, I implore you--please, please, please--do not believe or report DHS/ICE/CBP's side of events uncritically. End the state's monopoly on legitimate storytelling. They are not the objective arbiter of what really happened.

Everything Trump is doing now is a preamble for his regime's real goal: to invoke the Insurrection Act. I don’t want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of this imminent danger. It’s unfolding very rapidly. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-plan

People are being robbed. The answer to that is not shame or anger. The answer is empathy and compassion.

As you see the Ellisons’ use the husk of Paramount/CBS to hand out fiefdoms to conservatives, remember: This summer Paramount bribed Trump $16m at the cost of 60 Minutes’ integrity. FCC approval of the Ellisons’ takeover bid followed within a few days. Brendan Carr made this statement at the time.

Drugs treating cancer, epilepsy, & HIV were developed thanks to millions in federal funding for universities. What lifesaving drugs are future patients missing out on due to Trump’s attacks? https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2025/trump-university-research-medicine

Never in Social Security’s 90-year history has a commissioner held a second job. But it always takes less time and effort to destroy something than to build and maintain it. The Trump administration is allowing Social Security to rot through sabotage and neglect.

Journalist Edward R. Murrow used his platform on CBS to criticize the witch hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. This is what real journalism should do — hold power to account, not capitulate to it.

71.5% of ICE detainees have no criminal convictions, according to government data. Don’t fall for Trump’s lies about targeting the “worst of the worst.” As Trump's regime terrorizes communities to fill up detention centers, remember that some of his biggest donors are private prison corporations.

A judge blocked Trump from sending Oregon's National Guard into Portland. That same judge then blocked Trump from deploying California's National Guard to Portland instead. This isn't a "left wing" judge — Trump appointed her. Says a lot about Trump's authoritarian power grab.

Turning the military on citizens. Attempting to rig elections. Toying with the idea of declaring martial law. Attacking political enemies and punishing those who speak out. If this were happening in another country, what would you call it?

“No one man can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” -Edward R. Murrow

A disturbed man and his fanatical advisors are making potentially life-threatening decisions on the basis of what he sees on television. We should all be very concerned. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-trump-gets-and-processes-information

1. Federal agents from ICE and other agencies are wrongly detaining U.S. citizens, sometimes detaining them for days, on suspicion that they are undocumented immigrants. The raids are done without search warrants or other procedures designed to protect civil liberties.

If any other president said something like this in a speech to a military academy, it would be a massive scandal. Instead, it isn’t among the ten most dangerous things he’s done this week.

Still waiting for it to trickle down...

Trump's FAA just lifted restrictions placed on Boeing after its fatal 737 MAX crashes. Meanwhile, Boeing workers in St. Louis just entered their ninth week on strike. Putting profits over workers and safety is a key reason why Boeing has taken a nosedive.

Stoke fear. Exploit desperation. Suspend the rule of law. Fan brutality. Every time the stronger brutalize the weak, it’s fundamentally the same playbook. Our duty is to stand up to brutality. Our moral obligation is to protect the vulnerable and hold the powerful accountable.

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” —FDR, 1944

ICE and other federal agents conducted a violent, middle-of-the-night raid on an apartment building in Chicago — just days after Trump said the military should go after “the enemy within.” He and his cronies are building a police state piece by piece. https://youtu.be/5zrye_p-EPI?si=VinP3uxFa9_JiN8X

Friends — I’d like to talk with you about a difficult subject. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-a-national-trauma

Donald Trump thinks he’s all powerful. But this was another week where he displayed just how vulnerable he is. We break it all down on the latest Coffee Klatch.

Free Greta Thunberg and the rest of the illegally detained flotilla activists.

Just an FYI: We’re not facing a “government shutdown.” This is a Trump-MAGA Republican shutdown. Call it what it is.

Trump hates to be the object of humor. He understands that humor can be a more powerful antidote to tyranny than any other form of criticism. I'm sure he'd hate it if you shared this cartoon. [Cartoon by Jon Adams/The New Yorker]

I don’t have a crystal ball, but I have a good idea how this shutdown ends. Trump and Republicans will cave (he won’t admit he’s caving, of course, but he will cave). Here’s why: Air traffic controllers.

The wealth of the richest 1% in America just hit a record $52 trillion. These are the people getting huge tax cuts — paid for by cuts to health care for millions of Americans. Every lie Trump and Republicans are telling right now about the shutdown is meant to distract you from this.

Donald Trump thinks he’s all powerful. But this was another week where he displayed just how vulnerable he is. We break it all down on the latest Coffee Klatch.

Presidents? SCOTUS gives them immunity. Corporations? SCOTUS makes it easier for them to pollute. Billionaires? SCOTUS says they can buy elections. But if you look Latino, speak Spanish, or work at a low wage job, SCOTUS says you can be abducted by masked agents. The legacy of the Roberts court.

Robert Reich is a national treasure. Read his new book, Coming Up Short.