Trump's Cartoon World; Dolls, Alcatraz, and Narcissism

A conversation with Katie Couric

Charlie Sykes

May 08, 2025

A few things you ought to know today:

Trump’s Big Beautiful Trade Deal is with the UK, and it’s actually not that big of a deal. It’s not actually a deal at all — more of a “framework.” The UK is our 11th largest trading partner and accounts for only 3% of US trade. As University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers points out: “It's a photo op, with little macroeconomic significance.”
Why Elon Musk's DOGE is amassing sensitive government data - The Washington Post: “The goal — a centralized system with unprecedented access to data about Social Security, taxes, medical diagnoses and other private information — would create a multitude of vulnerabilities, experts say.”
What happened at the Newark airport was terrifying; and should be a national scandal.
The new face of mass deportation… is a 19 year-old girl who has lived here since she as four years old.
After a traffic stop for turning right on a red light in Dalton on Monday, a 19-year-old Dalton State student is now facing possible deportation.
Friends say Ximena Arias-Cristobal, who has lived in Whitfield County since she was 4, was taken to the Stewart Detention Center wearing chains around her wrists and ankles. There, she'll wait a little over a month before she appears before a judge. That facility is near Columbus about 3 and a half hours away….
Arias-Cristobal's younger sister told us...
They came in with big dreams because they wanted a big future for my older sister. And, you know, my sister goes to college, and she was an honor student since middle school. And she runs. She loves to run. It's her passion, and the only reason they came is to follow my sister's dreams.
After a traffic stop for turning right on a red light in Dalton on Monday, a 19-year-old Dalton State student is now facing possible deportation. Photos: Via Hannah Jones / Via Whitfield Co. Sheriff's Office.

Happy Thursday.

On today’s “To the Contrary” podcast, Katie Couric joins me to unpack the psychological underpinnings of Donald Trump’s political appeal and the enablers around him. We explore the disconnect between populist rhetoric and billionaire influence, the crumbling state of local journalism, and why media coverage struggles to keep up with an administration governed by chaos. With stories of real-world consequences, we try to figure out whether self-respect, truth, or economic pain can still break through the political cult of personality.

You can watch or listen right here or on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed.

A highlight of my conversation with Katie Couric

Understanding narcissism.

How the right continues to lose its mind…

In Virginia: MAGA has gone all in on the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor who was caught with sexually salacious pictures — putting cultish loyalty over electability (and lots of other things). Via the NYT:

When Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia found out that Republican research had linked the G.O.P.’s nominee for lieutenant governor to a blog featuring photos of naked men, he tried to save his party from an embarrassing situation.
Mr. Youngkin called the candidate, John Reid, a longtime conservative talk radio host in Richmond, and told him he needed to abandon his campaign because the website was certain to be discovered and would tank the party’s entire ticket.
“I need you to drop out,” Mr. Youngkin said, according to two people briefed on the call.
Then a funny thing happened. Mr. Reid did not quit. Instead, he posted a five-minute video to social media noting that he is gay and explaining that he had watched pornography and had one-night stands in the past. The Republican base in Virginia quickly rallied around him.
The episode has illustrated the post-shame nature of Trump-era politics in a state where one recent governor survived a blackface scandal; another was convicted on corruption charges (which the Supreme Court subsequently threw out); and, just two years ago, a state legislative candidate stayed in her race even after the emergence of live-streamed videos of her having sex with her husband.

In Georgia: “Marjorie Taylor Greene For Senate? It Sounds So Awful, Even Republicans Are Freaking Out | Vanity Fair”

Indeed, the MAGA firebrand has said she is weighing a Senate campaign, which could excite the most fervent parts of Trump’s base but also comes with the vulnerabilities that weighed down Walker. “She can win a primary,” Georgia GOP strategist Brian Robinson told NBC News. “She cannot win a general [election] in Georgia.”

And, of course, in Washington, where Trump has just dumped his nominee to be Surgeon General at the behest of right-wing lunatic Laura Loomer, and replaced her with a full-fledged tinfoil hat crank.

In a podcast appearance with Tucker Carlson — which now has over 3.7 million views on YouTube — Means questioned the necessity of vaccinating infants according to the schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, specifically against hepatitis B, which she said was “emblematic of how we are put on the pharma treadmill from the moment we are born in this country, for reasons that are very strange.”

BONUS: Earlier this week, Education secretary Linda McMahon sent a threatening letter to Harvard that was, shall we say, somewhat subliterate. Happily, some internet wags provided some editorial suggestions:

Heh.

Nota Bene

Must read/watch: Tara Palmieri goes one-on-on with former Biden-cheerleader-turned MAGA grifter, Lindy Li (who allegedly has a book coming out.)

Lindy Li is a strange case. She’s a former Democratic fundraiser with a large social media following who announced her rabid (and convenient) conversion from Democrat to Republican after Election Day. Ever since, she has been the darling of the Right-wing media ecosystem, racking up millions of views on shows like Dave Rubin, Shawn Ryan, and Dr. Phil….
As of our interview two weeks ago, Li said she had not landed on a publisher, but she was quick to announce that it would be made into a movie and docu-series, which made me suspicious. Why would Hollywood want to tell this unflattering portrait about itself as leaders of the Democratic establishment? I’ve spoken to authors of Biden books who have lamented that there’s little interest in turning their bestselling books into films like Game Change.
But for Li, she says her book is different because it’s all about her.
“One of the producers who's vying for the book told me that this story is bigger than Watergate, and I never thought of it that way,” she said. “I never thought about it that way because it was just my life, you know, I was living it.”
When I asked Li about the first few pages of her book that I was able to review in which she writes that she was given free rein of the White House and was taking phone calls in the Lincoln Bedroom, she was angry that I referenced a book that she claims will burn down the establishment.
“I'm working with a ghostwriter. That was his first draft. I did not write that line,” she said. “Are you here to ambush me?”

Spoiler alert: Lindy’s interview with Tara did not go well….

Ryan Lizza: Donald Trump's 100 Days of Lawlessness: Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig says that ALL of Trump's signature initiatives are unlawful.

Lizza: I think a lot of people who are not in Big Law were astonished that some of these firms decided not to fight this, not to sue — you would think these law firms are pretty good at suing — and instead decided to cut these deals. What's your view of that?
Luttig: It was offensive. The four or five or six firms that were some of the so-called Big Law firms, by which is meant big New York law firms and/or Washington law firms. It began with Paul Weiss. Paul Weiss sold out their own lawyers. They sold out their own clients. They sold out their sister law firms, which had also been subject to targeting executive orders by the president. They sold out the legal profession. And ultimately, they sold out the rule of law in America solely to protect their own partner draws.