Terry, this was one of your most important newsletters. Thank you for reminding us of all the wheeling and dealing and outright graft that is going on in the Trump administration - right under our own eyes. The Republicans have essentially been gelded- too afraid to speak up, or are in on the scams and making huge profits. And Democrats, for now, don't have enough seats in the House or the Senate to make changes. Hopefully this changes in the midterms.
Thanks, KMD. I think it should be one of the main issues Dems run on in the midterms. People don’t like getting ripped off by their government. That’s what worked in Hungary!
Point#3. We can tear down the arch, remove trump’s name from the Kennedy Center, and take a wrecking ball to the ballroom, but the culture of corruption will distort our democracy for generations.
And our relationships with the rest of the world are BADLY damaged. Patching up diplomatic relationships, never mind trade agreements will take considerable time.
Wise words! You’ve captured a feeling of despair because it’s trickling down from above. The moral compass is not in our leadership. The moral compass is in exactly what you said. Take what you want no matter who or what it damages. I remember the ‘80s Trump. He was a reckless child who bankrupted casinos. He still is. And no one around him has a moral compass of what is good and right for our country. And Congress!!!! Ridiculous wind bags. Vote them all out!
Good points. I think his casino catastrophe is so telling about who he is, and vividly illustrates his incompetence. He roped in his investors and city leaders by telling a tale, a big golden pipe dream. Then—in the era when casinos were booming, when he was running a business where millions of people come to your hotel and are willing to lose money, just hand it over to you, every year—he went bankrupt. Incredible.
I hope Steyer is NOT one of the top two in the CA Governor primary in June. If he is, no doubt the dino democrat’s investments in the PedoFelon’s failed casinos (& ICE prisons) will be front and center…more than they are now.
The quisling PedoFelon is a daily 9/11. His hateful lies, grifting and conspiracies are abhorrent, infuriating and unforgivable. So is his clan…and everyone too complacent to vote.
Great column -- thank you. Another thing that's a lot worse than most people realize is that the Trump administration has cut and eliminated major areas of medical research -- research that thwarts our ability to find cures for diseases like cancer and diabetes. These recent cuts were kicked under the rug and went unnoticed while we focused on the Iran war and the Epstein files.
One of my doctors mentioned this recently, telling me that our country's medical research has been set back at least 10 years. Many of our best researchers will be leaving the country to work and study elsewhere. American health will suffer for it -- but apparently this doesn't matter to Trump as long as he gets his ballroom.
So true. Maybe I should write about this. I spoke with a prominent NIH researcher last year, a man who is making breakthroughs on cancer treatments. He was utterly depressed at the destruction of an institution he loved, one he thought was doing tremendous good in the world.
Terry, it would be great if you'd do a story on it. This issue got buried. My beloved uncle died of pancreatic cancer, a terrible death, so I was uplifted to hear a couple weeks ago that some strides had been made to improve the outcome for pancreatic cancer patients. Now, however, I doubt there will be funds to continue this important research. And that's only one example, I know. Thank you, Terry.
It is an important issue, on a Global scale, that is not being discussed.
The research coming out of the United States has given the world many of its innovations for curing diseases. The destruction of USAID began the collapse of the United States contribution to stabilization and improvement of global health. Health teams funded by the United States treating Ebola patients in Africa helped to prevent them from reaching our country and spreading the disease here. Fight disease overseas so we don’t have to fight them here.
Research disease now, so we can treat or preferably, prevent the disease from happening. The prevention saves people grief, money and loss of resources.
The corruption of the Trump regime - appears to be that of a corporate raider coming in, stripping the United States of its assets and selling it off for parts.
The faster these corporate raider style governing incompetents are prevented from having the final say in the future of the American people, the better.
He is making a difference to any of us that have cancer in our families. Please tell him to continue the good fight. Present his findings to NATO, the UK, someone that will run with positive news.
And then he'll die and leave a huge pile of stinking rotting s--t for us to figure out whilst his family and cronies dine on lobster and champagne for generations to come.
You have rightly pointed out that in countries like RUSSIA…the despair sets in which begets apathy which shrinks our civic lives. I’m just going to say it, er, rather, postulate that Trump is (shall I put it kindly) unduly influenced by Putin. Trump has always been a ‘what’s in it for ME’ kind of person…avaricious, dull-witted, but shrewdly aware of opportunities to enrich himself. As we know, he’ll put down any and all objections to his personal ambitions. Fox News has continued the fantasy that he is working for his supporters, who have allowed themselves to be duped…so I have coined a new term…’dupid’. People who buy his brand of snake oil are ‘dupid’. Congress is not afraid…it’s the growing ‘dupidity’ that has captured the once auspiciously independent body. The snake may rot from the head, but the body is not far behind. Ack.
Thank you, Barbara! It’s just frustrating that we have to find new words to cut through the noise. The Republicans are in the thrall of their own dupicity!
Sorry, you mentioned Fox. That is something else. It is linked to the snake. (Republicans & Trump). They have to be eliminated as well. They pushed this BS for years.
Terry, I respect you and your work so much. But with our history of Watergate and Spotlight, how are Republican Congressmen and women just watching? Is America just exhausted fighting fires on so many fronts or is this truly the dark underbelly of America that is fueled by it?
Thanks, Wendy. We’ve always tolerated some level of political sleaze. I think that’s because we see it as a price to pay for democratic self-governance; it’s the grease in the gears of the political machine. But this is different. And I think people will see that—if the Dems make it a priority in the midterms.
Trump is obviously an addled, narcissist, sociopath maybe psychopath. He likes the money.
Congress has been neutered by the election of incompetents and their willingness to be....you guessed it.....bribed. The conservative members of the Supreme Court have facilitated, and in a couple of cases participated in, the corruption. And it's not going to get better unless the election this fall happens and is fair and open. I'm not optimistic.
The Supreme Court has a tradition of getting it wrong and not just about not so "free"-speech. Think about it, all manner of racism from slavery through segregation, voting rights limitations, limits on land ownership, unequal educational opportunity, the ability to accrue wealth, all of them were/some still are Supreme Court/legal system approved. 350 years of it. And now the court acts as if nothing really happened.
“Probity is for losers, restraint is for suckers.” What have we become? We worked so hard and were filled with so much hope in my youth. I mourn for our nation. And, given my advanced age, I fear I will not live to see the bloodstream cleansed. 🥲
𝗪𝗘 haven't become that. If we had, we probably be indulging in some dreck from the Drudge Report or Tucker Carlson, rather than Terry's excellent reportage. The sad yet obvious problem are all those who have drunk the Kool-Aid and/or decided to hang onto Trump's coattails for dear life, because they like the power and attention or whatever. We haven't fallen for his BS.
And like it or not, WE are the ones who have to stop him.
So do I. When—if—we get past this, we will have to build. Not “rebuild.” That will be impossible, I fear. But build anew, and we will need to hold on to those old values. Revive them, for we will need them.
This is the best article you've written since coming to Substack. We've been waiting for the former TV journalists to start calling out the Trump crime family. Don't stop digging into this. We need to bring all of this to light and quickly. We are running out of time before mid terms! There's so much more and it moves all the way through his cabinet as well!
Thank you, Wendy! We all have to help people understand and focus on this issue. Sometimes it seems complicated, but once people get it—they will vote on it.
terry has been calling out all trump's evils and deceptions for months now. he does it with a decency and fairness and clarity that has become my single-most respected source.....
This was in no way denigrating the work Terry is doing. I have been watching him since he started with ABC. Great journalist and great man! He has been calling out things that have been happening since DJT2. However, we need the deeper stories like a 20/20 or 60 minutes style dive into them.
Thank you! Your essay is so clearly written -- a lucid, thumbnail sketch of the dire consequences of trump's corruption on our nation. I wish newspapers like the NY Times would publish it as an "above-the-fold" op-ed. The more a spotlight is focused on the problem the better. It's beyond belief that Congress, even led by republicans, would turn such a completely blind eye to the continuous lawbreaking by our convicted felon president and his regime.
Trump’s crime syndicate currently controls every lever of the federal government. They made these changes in ‘25 so they could begin reaping the benefits in ‘26. They’ve succeeded.
The question now is, what are we going to do about it?
Trump is corrupt to the bone. And Terry does a great job of summarizing it but why isn't this story on the "front page" of every single news media site in America?
The old formulas for how to tell a story like this don’t work. Corporate journalism has difficulty describing the truth of this situation with the requisite attention to values, moral witness, and vividness, We need creative, contemporary people—Adam McKay, Jon Stewart, Dave Chappelle? And us, in our own work and conversations. Thanks, Tom.
Terry, this was one of your most important newsletters. Thank you for reminding us of all the wheeling and dealing and outright graft that is going on in the Trump administration - right under our own eyes. The Republicans have essentially been gelded- too afraid to speak up, or are in on the scams and making huge profits. And Democrats, for now, don't have enough seats in the House or the Senate to make changes. Hopefully this changes in the midterms.
Please keep reminding us that this isn't normal!
Thanks, KMD. I think it should be one of the main issues Dems run on in the midterms. People don’t like getting ripped off by their government. That’s what worked in Hungary!
Point#3. We can tear down the arch, remove trump’s name from the Kennedy Center, and take a wrecking ball to the ballroom, but the culture of corruption will distort our democracy for generations.
That’s what really gets me. Thanks, Bill.
True. Long term damage that may not be reversible
And our relationships with the rest of the world are BADLY damaged. Patching up diplomatic relationships, never mind trade agreements will take considerable time.
In SOME cases, the injury may be beyond repair.
Wise words! You’ve captured a feeling of despair because it’s trickling down from above. The moral compass is not in our leadership. The moral compass is in exactly what you said. Take what you want no matter who or what it damages. I remember the ‘80s Trump. He was a reckless child who bankrupted casinos. He still is. And no one around him has a moral compass of what is good and right for our country. And Congress!!!! Ridiculous wind bags. Vote them all out!
Good points. I think his casino catastrophe is so telling about who he is, and vividly illustrates his incompetence. He roped in his investors and city leaders by telling a tale, a big golden pipe dream. Then—in the era when casinos were booming, when he was running a business where millions of people come to your hotel and are willing to lose money, just hand it over to you, every year—he went bankrupt. Incredible.
I hope Steyer is NOT one of the top two in the CA Governor primary in June. If he is, no doubt the dino democrat’s investments in the PedoFelon’s failed casinos (& ICE prisons) will be front and center…more than they are now.
The quisling PedoFelon is a daily 9/11. His hateful lies, grifting and conspiracies are abhorrent, infuriating and unforgivable. So is his clan…and everyone too complacent to vote.
And he was the guy who tried to steal the inheritance of his brother Freds children, David and Mary to bail himself out.
Great column -- thank you. Another thing that's a lot worse than most people realize is that the Trump administration has cut and eliminated major areas of medical research -- research that thwarts our ability to find cures for diseases like cancer and diabetes. These recent cuts were kicked under the rug and went unnoticed while we focused on the Iran war and the Epstein files.
One of my doctors mentioned this recently, telling me that our country's medical research has been set back at least 10 years. Many of our best researchers will be leaving the country to work and study elsewhere. American health will suffer for it -- but apparently this doesn't matter to Trump as long as he gets his ballroom.
So true. Maybe I should write about this. I spoke with a prominent NIH researcher last year, a man who is making breakthroughs on cancer treatments. He was utterly depressed at the destruction of an institution he loved, one he thought was doing tremendous good in the world.
Terry, it would be great if you'd do a story on it. This issue got buried. My beloved uncle died of pancreatic cancer, a terrible death, so I was uplifted to hear a couple weeks ago that some strides had been made to improve the outcome for pancreatic cancer patients. Now, however, I doubt there will be funds to continue this important research. And that's only one example, I know. Thank you, Terry.
It is an important issue, on a Global scale, that is not being discussed.
The research coming out of the United States has given the world many of its innovations for curing diseases. The destruction of USAID began the collapse of the United States contribution to stabilization and improvement of global health. Health teams funded by the United States treating Ebola patients in Africa helped to prevent them from reaching our country and spreading the disease here. Fight disease overseas so we don’t have to fight them here.
Research disease now, so we can treat or preferably, prevent the disease from happening. The prevention saves people grief, money and loss of resources.
The corruption of the Trump regime - appears to be that of a corporate raider coming in, stripping the United States of its assets and selling it off for parts.
The faster these corporate raider style governing incompetents are prevented from having the final say in the future of the American people, the better.
He is making a difference to any of us that have cancer in our families. Please tell him to continue the good fight. Present his findings to NATO, the UK, someone that will run with positive news.
And then he'll die and leave a huge pile of stinking rotting s--t for us to figure out whilst his family and cronies dine on lobster and champagne for generations to come.
And Cindy, the latest, ''putting a stake through the heart of the Climate Change Religion". and exact quote from the trump-appointed EPA tsar.
Absolutely right, Anandi. Big sigh.
No one stops him
It’ll be up to the people this November.
I hope
You have rightly pointed out that in countries like RUSSIA…the despair sets in which begets apathy which shrinks our civic lives. I’m just going to say it, er, rather, postulate that Trump is (shall I put it kindly) unduly influenced by Putin. Trump has always been a ‘what’s in it for ME’ kind of person…avaricious, dull-witted, but shrewdly aware of opportunities to enrich himself. As we know, he’ll put down any and all objections to his personal ambitions. Fox News has continued the fantasy that he is working for his supporters, who have allowed themselves to be duped…so I have coined a new term…’dupid’. People who buy his brand of snake oil are ‘dupid’. Congress is not afraid…it’s the growing ‘dupidity’ that has captured the once auspiciously independent body. The snake may rot from the head, but the body is not far behind. Ack.
That’s a great description of Trump!
great word!
Thank you, Barbara! It’s just frustrating that we have to find new words to cut through the noise. The Republicans are in the thrall of their own dupicity!
Sorry, you mentioned Fox. That is something else. It is linked to the snake. (Republicans & Trump). They have to be eliminated as well. They pushed this BS for years.
Very depressing to see the evil he has unleashed on the country. May we be better than that and rise above it.
Terry, I respect you and your work so much. But with our history of Watergate and Spotlight, how are Republican Congressmen and women just watching? Is America just exhausted fighting fires on so many fronts or is this truly the dark underbelly of America that is fueled by it?
Thanks, Wendy. We’ve always tolerated some level of political sleaze. I think that’s because we see it as a price to pay for democratic self-governance; it’s the grease in the gears of the political machine. But this is different. And I think people will see that—if the Dems make it a priority in the midterms.
Generally, at some point, the crooks we caught, or at least shunned. but now they party, connive , a brag behind the walls of wealth.
Money=speech simply legalized bribery.
Trump is obviously an addled, narcissist, sociopath maybe psychopath. He likes the money.
Congress has been neutered by the election of incompetents and their willingness to be....you guessed it.....bribed. The conservative members of the Supreme Court have facilitated, and in a couple of cases participated in, the corruption. And it's not going to get better unless the election this fall happens and is fair and open. I'm not optimistic.
Yes. Most people in the USA—most people in the world—understand that money is not speech. It’s money. Somehow, SCOTUS got that one wrong.
The Supreme Court has a tradition of getting it wrong and not just about not so "free"-speech. Think about it, all manner of racism from slavery through segregation, voting rights limitations, limits on land ownership, unequal educational opportunity, the ability to accrue wealth, all of them were/some still are Supreme Court/legal system approved. 350 years of it. And now the court acts as if nothing really happened.
“Probity is for losers, restraint is for suckers.” What have we become? We worked so hard and were filled with so much hope in my youth. I mourn for our nation. And, given my advanced age, I fear I will not live to see the bloodstream cleansed. 🥲
𝗪𝗘 haven't become that. If we had, we probably be indulging in some dreck from the Drudge Report or Tucker Carlson, rather than Terry's excellent reportage. The sad yet obvious problem are all those who have drunk the Kool-Aid and/or decided to hang onto Trump's coattails for dear life, because they like the power and attention or whatever. We haven't fallen for his BS.
And like it or not, WE are the ones who have to stop him.
This really brings it into focus. It’s incredibly sad! I love our country…at least as it was. 💔
So do I. When—if—we get past this, we will have to build. Not “rebuild.” That will be impossible, I fear. But build anew, and we will need to hold on to those old values. Revive them, for we will need them.
This is the best article you've written since coming to Substack. We've been waiting for the former TV journalists to start calling out the Trump crime family. Don't stop digging into this. We need to bring all of this to light and quickly. We are running out of time before mid terms! There's so much more and it moves all the way through his cabinet as well!
Thank you, Wendy! We all have to help people understand and focus on this issue. Sometimes it seems complicated, but once people get it—they will vote on it.
terry has been calling out all trump's evils and deceptions for months now. he does it with a decency and fairness and clarity that has become my single-most respected source.....
This was in no way denigrating the work Terry is doing. I have been watching him since he started with ABC. Great journalist and great man! He has been calling out things that have been happening since DJT2. However, we need the deeper stories like a 20/20 or 60 minutes style dive into them.
Thank you! Your essay is so clearly written -- a lucid, thumbnail sketch of the dire consequences of trump's corruption on our nation. I wish newspapers like the NY Times would publish it as an "above-the-fold" op-ed. The more a spotlight is focused on the problem the better. It's beyond belief that Congress, even led by republicans, would turn such a completely blind eye to the continuous lawbreaking by our convicted felon president and his regime.
Thanks, Ann. Clarity is the most important quality I try to achieve when I write or broadcast, so what you say means a lot!
Bless you Terry for being a light in the darkness.
Trump’s crime syndicate currently controls every lever of the federal government. They made these changes in ‘25 so they could begin reaping the benefits in ‘26. They’ve succeeded.
The question now is, what are we going to do about it?
We will find out in November.
Trump is corrupt to the bone. And Terry does a great job of summarizing it but why isn't this story on the "front page" of every single news media site in America?
Cowardice
The old formulas for how to tell a story like this don’t work. Corporate journalism has difficulty describing the truth of this situation with the requisite attention to values, moral witness, and vividness, We need creative, contemporary people—Adam McKay, Jon Stewart, Dave Chappelle? And us, in our own work and conversations. Thanks, Tom.