Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 6, 2026

Dear MAGA Voter: He Played You — The Swamp Wasn’t Drained, It Was Sold to Billionaires

A quick note to my MAGA acquaintance... Dear MAGA voter, I'm not writing this to mock you. I'm writing because you were lied to. And it wasn't by the people you were told to hate, but by the man you trusted the most. You were pissed off when you voted in 2024. Honestly, rightfully angry. Your town lost its factory. Your kids can't afford the house they've been dreaming of for years. The politicians in Washington kept promising you things and delivering nothing; in fact, Republicans even took away your Medicaid and food stamps as well as your kids' school lunches. You wanted someone who'd finally blow the whole damn thing up and put regular people first. So did I and millions of other Americans. The difference is who we trusted to do it. Let's talk about what actually happened.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 5, 2026

Did Jared Kushner Negotiate Peace — or Set a Trap for Iran's Leadership?

As Iran's leaders gathered to debate a U.S.-brokered nuclear deal, American and Israeli intelligence already knew their location. Was this diplomacy, or something darker? Jared Kushner grew up sleeping in Benjamin Netanyahu's bed. That isn't a metaphor or hyperbole. Netanyahu, during his visits to New York over the decades, was close enough to the Kushner family that, as The New York Times reported, he slept in Jared's childhood bedroom. Jared Kushner didn't grow up watching Netanyahu on the news the way the rest of us did. He grew up knowing the man as something close to a family institution. And that man, who has said publicly that he has "yearned" to destroy Iran's military and political leadership "for 40 years," is the same man whose government may have been coordinating directly with Jared Kushner in the days before the most consequential American military action since the invasion of Iraq or the Vietnam War. We need to ask the question that official Washington is too timid, too compromised, or too captured by the moment's war fever to ask: "Was Jared Kushner sitting across from Iranian negotiators in good faith? Or was he trying to get the Iranian leadership to meet together so Netanyahu could kill them all in one single decapitating strike?"
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 4, 2026

Could a 9/11-Scale Crisis Be the Political Lifeline Trump’s Presidency Desperately Needs?

History shows how suddenly national tragedy can transform a struggling leader into a wartime commander, and why that precedent should make Americans uneasy today… History doesn't repeat, as Mark Twain allegedly said, but it sure does seem to rhyme. And right now, the rhyme between the first year of the George W. Bush presidency and the first year of Donald Trump's second term is staring us in the face and it's getting scary. After "Poppy" George H.W. Bush finished his 1991 "little war" against Iraq, he left American troops stationed at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Those soldiers on what Osama bin Laden considered sacred Muslim soil — the home to Mecca — became his primary grievance against America. He said so publicly, raving at The New York Times and anyone else who'd listen. American men were drinking alcohol and looking at pornography and thus defiling Saudi holy land, he said, and American women were showing their bare arms and driving cars in a country where such things are absolutely forbidden. When Bin Laden declared war on us, he meant it as part of a religious and moral crusade. That war came home on September 11, 2001, and it arrived at a miraculously convenient moment for an otherwise hapless George W. Bush. The new president had taken office under a cloud of illegitimacy after five Republicans on the Supreme Court, two of them appointed by his own father, stopped the Florida recount — that would have handed the election to Al Gore — and thus gave Bush the presidency.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 3, 2026

Is Deporting a Journalist the Ultimate Form of Cancel Culture?

A top conservative podcast calls for deporting a Muslim critic, so who’s really trying to silence dissent? It probably shouldn’t surprise us. After all, intolerance and hate have always been the fuel that drives and sustains rightwing movements around the world and throughout history. Now the hosts of one of the largest-circulation “conservative” podcasts in the country are calling for a Muslim commentator to be stripped of his citizenship and deported from America. His sin? He called for the next president to take down the Hitler-style massive banners on the Justice and Labor Department buildings that feature Trump’s face, and the new one on the Education Department with Charlie Kirk’s face. And, of course, he’s a brown-skinned Muslim.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 2, 2026

Operation Epstein Fury: Is This About National Security or Political Survival?

Madison and the Founders of his generation had it right: what Trump is doing violates both the Constitution and the foundational norms of democracy… Operation Epstein Fury — with a bonus to help Bibi get re-elected so he doesn't have to face charges for his criminal behavior — is rolling on as Trump ignores the constitutional requirement that only Congress can declare war. He's also violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973 that dictates the president, if he reacts to an actual attack on America like Pearl Harbor, must notify Congress within 48 hours and have authorization within 60 days. In this case there was no actual or even imminent attack against America. To further confuse things, Trump is throwing the Iranian protestors under the bus by saying that he's willing to talk with the Iranian regime now that Kahmenei is dead, much like he crapped on pro-democracy voters and protestors in Venezuela when he kept that repressive regime intact after illegally removing Maduro and promising democracy.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 1, 2026

Chapter 14: Reform, Resist, and Remember: The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink

"Tag, you’re it." —Thom Hartmann The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, it seemed like every liberal and progressive friend I knew was either talking about moving to Canada or stocking up on canned goods, ready to hunker down for the inevitable descent into authoritarianism. I get it. After reading the previous chapters of this book, you might feel a sense of hopelessness. The path toward autocracy sometimes seems inevitable because we’ve all seen the pattern repeated in countries that have already fallen. The machinery of oligarchy and autocracy is well-oiled, the morbidly rich are already largely in charge, the courts are captured, the media is under assault, and truth itself—particularly in the increasingly popular right-wing media and on billionaire-owned social media—is more often than not optional. But here’s our mantra: authoritarianism is not our destiny. Once we realize what’s going on, it becomes a choice, and we can choose to reject it.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Feb. 28, 2026

Saturday Report 2/28/26 — Did Trump Illegally Ignite a Middle East War to Set the Stage for Emergency Election Powers?

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump has illegally, unconstitutionally attacked Iran in collaboration with his fellow felon Netanyahu. — Will this finally get Epstein off the front page and give Trump his excuse to declare an emergency to rig the elections? — Speaking of panicked Republicans, after they stripped Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies from millions of Americans, causing insurance bills to double and triple, they're facing a wave of outrage. — Does the arrest of a Columbia University Student show that we've lost our civil society? — Is CNN the new CBS? — Trump's inflation heats up from tariffs. — Bowing to chemical industry donations, Trump officials are killing off the system that protects families and communities from chemical disasters like explosions, spills, and fires at chemical facilities. — Crazy Alert! Trump viewed Noem's shooting her puppy in the face as an asset.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Feb. 27, 2026

Is a Secret Plot Already in Motion to Take the Election Out of Voters’ Hands?

If you've studied history — and you know I have — that's the moment when the hair on the back of your neck should stand up… Recently, Steve Bannon told an audience: "And I will tell you right now, as God is my witness, if we lose the midterms … some in this room are going to prison – myself included." Now, it looks like Trump and the people around him are seriously considering declaring an emergency to let them seize control of this November's elections, according to reporting yesterday in The Washington Post.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Feb. 26, 2026

“Send Them Back” Is the Oldest Racial Taunt in History, and Now It’s Being Amplified by Trump

Trump's attack on elected officials of color isn't just ugly rhetoric, it's a calculated attempt to redefine who gets to belong in this democracy… Donald Trump didn't merely criticize his political opponents this week, both at the SOTU and from his office yesterday morning. He went on a racist rant that would have embarrassed a talk radio shock jock (if it didn't get them fired), much less a head of state. After Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shouted "shame" and "liar" during his State of the Union and walked out in protest, Trump took to social media to sneer that they had "the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people" and were "LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick" who "look like they should be institutionalized." He labeled them "Low IQ" — his favorite slur for women, Black, and Hispanic people — and suggested they be sent back "from where they came." He lumped in Robert De Niro as "Trump Deranged," "demented," and possibly "criminal" for criticizing him. This is the president of the United States talking.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Feb. 25, 2026

Pardons, Policy, and Profits: Where Does Governance End and Grift Begin?

If nearly every major financial tie seems to intersect with favorable political outcomes, are Americans confronting systemic corruption or something new and even more entrenched? Last night in the SOTU we watched the most corrupt president (and presidency) in the history of America lie his way through a fascist-friendly speech. He didn't mention how rich he's made himself and his kids off the presidency, as he tried to paint in a good light what is, frankly, the most dishonorable, unprincipled, and criminal regime in the history of the free world. Rumors have been flying for years — ever since Rudy Giuliani apparently confessed during Trump's first term he and Trump were selling pardons for $2 million each and splitting the money — that Trump is at it again, taking what look like bribes for everything from pardons to business deals to regulatory and tariff relief. And the evidence is piling up in ways that are unmistakable. For example, Judd Legum's Popular Info news site is reporting that the parent company of crypto.com has made a series of "donations" to Trump's main SuperPAC, MAGA Inc., amounting to $35 million.