2025 Archives

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 21, 2025

Chapter 6: The Death of Democracy Is Profitable: The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both." —Louis D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money. Jakelin Caal Maquin was only seven years old when she died in the custody of our government.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 20, 2025

Saturday Report — Why is the GOP Leaping Off the Health-Care cliff?

The Best of the Rest of the News. — How do we save journalism and democracy? — Is Our Gun Culture Grooming People to Kill? — Does Trump's Chief of Staff have Russia ties? — The Billionaire Protection Program at the Department of Justice rolls on — Jack Smith has the goods on Trump's criminal activity and Republicans in the House don't want you to hear the details. — How strange is it that the GOP has the urge to jump off the health-care cliff? — Bob Kennedy's Children's Health Defense anti-vax group is circulating disinformation at the height of a measles outbreak, according to reporting in The Guardian. — Geeky Science. Feeling awe and wonder actually improves your health, both mental, emotional, and physical.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 19, 2025

Is the New Message of Trump’s White House "Power First, People Last"?

A palace rising on public ground while the affordability crisis tightens its grip isn't just bad optics, it's a betrayal of the idea of America… The White House has always mattered because of what it represents. It was never supposed to be a palace; it was meant to be the people's house, a physical reminder that power in America is borrowed, temporary, and accountable. That's why the news that Donald Trump is turning it into a 400 million dollar monument to himself should stop every American cold. This isn't a routine renovation. What Trump first floated as a ballroom has ballooned into a massive two story complex with sweeping staircases, private residential quarters, and a secure bridge connecting it directly to the presidential residence.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 18, 2025

Was That a Speech or a Breakdown?

A stark look at the speech that blurred the line between leadership and losing control on the world stage… Let me take off my psychotherapist hat and simply speak as a parent, an adult, a businessman, a citizen, and a human being. There is something deeply and fundamentally wrong with Donald Trump,

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 17, 2025

Who’s Really Pulling the Trigger: The Shooter, or the Predator Lobby?

When politicians hand the gun industry a liability shield, they're not "protecting freedom,"they're protecting a business model built on body counts… America's 465th mass shooting in 2025, this one at Brown University in Rhode Island, should remind us all that it's insane that the GOP passed and Bush signed into law the so-called Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in 2006 that largely gives immunity from liability lawsuits to the gun industry (and only the gun industry). It's time to end the predator-state coalition in America, of which this is just one glaring example.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 16, 2025

How Much More Can America Take of "Trump Derangement Syndrome?"

Trump calls it "Trump Derangement Syndrome" when we object to cruelty and division. The real story is what that hate is doing to America's democracy, and when we finally push back… I have Trump Derangement Syndrome and so does much of America and much of the world. That's not a confession of mental illness: it's an indictment of a political era defined by cruelty, division, and the deliberate poisoning of democratic life. "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is the phrase Donald Trump and his followers love to fling at anyone who dares to object to his behavior. But the truth is simpler and far more damning: if millions of Americans and people across the globe are reacting with alarm, anger, and outrage, it's because Trump has spent years earning that reaction.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 15, 2025

Is the Morbidly Rich’s “Brilliance” Just a Threat to the Republic?

In 11 months, we'll have an opportunity to retrieve our democracy from the clutches of the morbidly rich, the ideologues who deify them (and have for millennia), & their bought-&-paid-for politicians… The idea is as old as western civilization: "The morbidly rich are born to rule the rest of us." And now, with a billionaire as president, 13 billionaires in his cabinet, and rightwing billionaires installing and spiffing Republican Supreme Court justices, it's become the operational assumption of the GOP.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 14, 2025

Chapter 5: Powered by Plutocrats: The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink

"There is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with “the money touch,” but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers." —Theodore Roosevelt, 1913 letter to Sir Edward Grey Make no mistake: Trump wasn’t president because of his policies, his qualifications, or even primarily because of his base. He was president because America’s wealthiest class funded his rise, protected his power, and enabled his worst instincts, at least so long as he delivered the goods..

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 13, 2025

Saturday Report 12/13/25 — The Trump Grinch That Stole America!

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The Trump Grinch that stole America! — MAGA, meet the pothole: Trump floats withholding road money and refusing to pave roads in the Red states of his own base. — Grand Theft Retirement: Trump’s GOP war on Social Security and Medicare rolls on. — “Who is Antifa?” FBI Director can’t say because it’s not a membership club. — Merry Christmas: the EU just kicked Trump and Putin in the nuts. — Detained for “looking Somali”: ICE goon grabs a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis. — What happened to Republican’s love of states’ rights? — Not a Palace: National Trust sues to stop Trump’s “Presidential Ballroom.”

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 12, 2025

Who Do Trump & the GOP Really Work For?

As America slides into recession, this is a struggle over who owns America's future: a broad middle class—or a locked-in economy run by the richest few… America is in or on the verge of a seriously bad recession and the Trump regime is hiding the numbers; the signs are everywhere. His incoherent tariffs, massive tax breaks for billionaires, and gutting the Inflation Reduction Act are kneecapping our economy. In response, Trump visited Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania this week and tried to pitch himself as a champion for the little guy, the middle class, small farmers, and working people. Which raises the question: who do Trump and the GOP really work for? — Putin was furious that the Biden administration had been providing Ukraine with weapons systems, including air defense munitions and HIMARS rockets, so in March of this year Trump abruptly suspended delivery of most US military aid and Republicans in Congress never restarted it.