I Was Fired by Donald Trump: Top Lawyer at EEOC Speaks Out on "Anti-DEI" Purge, Gutting of Agencies
We speak with Karla Gilbride, the former general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who was fired by President Trump in late January along with two commissioners at the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace. The EEOC was created as part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and is tasked with investigating discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex and other characteristics, but the Trump administration is gutting the agency as part of its larger assault on DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion. The EEOC says it will no longer focus on anti-trans discrimination and vows to uphold a binary view of sex and gender.
Headlines for February 4, 2025
Trump Suspends Trade War with Canada & Mexico; China Hits U.S. with Retaliatory Tariffs, Democrats Protest Outside USAID Headquarters as Trump Seeks to Dismantle Agency, Federal Judge Extends Injunction on Federal Spending Freeze, Trump Administration Freezes Work of Consumer Protection Agency as Elon Musk “Deletes” Free IRS Tax Preparation Software, Trump Administration Deactivates Famine Early Warning System Network, M23 Insurgents Declare “Humanitarian” Ceasefire in Eastern DRC After Bloody Seizure of Goma, Israeli PM Netanyahu Says “No Guarantees” Gaza Ceasefire Will Hold Ahead of White House Visit, Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, Including Oscar-Nominated Director Basel Adra, Israel Builds Military Bases in Syria After Ouster of Bashar al-Assad, Three Students Sue Columbia After Their Suspension for Palestinian Rights Activism, Senate Confirms Climate Change-Denying Fracking Exec. Chris Wright as Energy Secretary, Bukele Agrees to Lock Up U.S. Citizens,
Deportees in Mega-Prison Rife with Abuse, U.S. Businesses Close Doors for “A Day Without Immigrants” Amid Trump Crackdown, “Competent White Men Must Be in Charge”: White Supremacist Darren Beattie Gets State Department Role, German Protesters Condemn Chancellor Front-Runner Merz for Working with Neo-Nazi Party
"Troubling": Panama Agrees to Anti-Migrant Collaboration After Trump Threatens to Retake Canal
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is visiting Latin America on his first foreign trip in his new post. One of his stops is Panama, where President Trump has threatened to invade and take over control of the critical trade route of the Panama Canal in response to its growing ties to China. It is a deeply unpopular proposition in Panama, seen as a “reversion to the mid-20th century imperial encroachment that Panama so intentionally confronted over the course of the Canal transition.” It is also, “on a logistical level,” essentially “impossible,” according to Panama City-based scholar Miriam Pensack. In what Pensack calls a “troubling” development, Panama has announced it will more closely cooperate with Trump’s policing of migration from Central America to the United States as a diplomatic concession to his threats.
Trump-Bukele Alliance Grows as El Salvador Offers to Imprison U.S. Citizens & Deported Migrants
As Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits Latin America on his first foreign trip in his new post, we look at the Trump administration’s policy orientation toward the right-wing government of El Salvador and the left-wing government of Guatemala with journalist Roman Gressier. Rubio is visiting both countries during his trip, which is expected to cement Trump’s ties to Salvadoran strongman enthusiast Nayib Bukele and to the conservative opposition in Guatemala. Rubio’s top agenda items are anti-immigration enforcement and U.S. competition with China.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/4/rubio_right_wing_latin_america
Trump's Mass Detention Plan for Guantánamo Harkens Back to '90s Detention of Haitian Asylum Seekers
Before Guantánamo became what it’s known for — the “forever prison in the war on terror” — its “ambiguous sovereignty” as a U.S. military base was long utilized to incarcerate Caribbean asylum seekers to the U.S. We speak to scholar Miriam Pensack, who researches the history of Guantánamo, in light of President Trump’s recent proposal to once again imprison asylum seekers at the base’s prison complex. Pensack says that existing racist anti-migration policies in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic’s detention and deportations of people with Haitian ancestry, suggest a likely collaboration with Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/4/trump_guantanamo_bay_detention_camp
"Fascism Is at the Door": Trump Threatens to Deport Pro-Palestinian International Student Protesters
An executive order that purports to combat antisemitism on university campuses is likely to chill free speech and target students for pro-Palestine, antiwar and anti-racist views. The order, signed by President Trump, threatens to deport noncitizen college students and other international visitors who take part in protests considered antisemitic under a broad and contested definition of the term. Though the order gives them new teeth, these threats of deportation are not new, as our guest Momodou Taal, a doctoral student at Cornell University who was threatened with deportation last year, can attest. While public outcry forced Cornell to lift Taal’s suspension and allow him a limited return to campus, he is still effectively banned from campus life and blocked from teaching positions. “There’s somewhat of a great irony that students who were protesting apartheid are now subject to forms of exclusion bordering on apartheid,” says Taal about his ongoing exclusion.
Rights groups and legal scholars say the new executive order violates constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges if implemented. “This is basically a textbook authoritarian playbook meant to stifle any criticism of what’s going on in Israel,” explains our other guest, Etan Nechin, a New York correspondent for *Haaretz*. Students like Taal, however, say they will not allow the government and their administrations to prevent them from speaking out. Taal says his pro-Palestine activism comes out of his obligations as “a human being” and that “when fascism is at the door, what we do is come together and unite even stronger.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/4/trump_executive_order_antisemitism
Headlines for January 27, 2025
Trump Accused of Backing Ethnic Cleansing After Calling for “Clean Out” of Gaza, Tens of Thousands of Palestinians Head Home to North Gaza, Hamas Releases 4 More Israeli Soldiers as Israel Frees 200 Palestinian Prisoners, Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill 2-Year-Old Palestinian Laila Muhammad Ayman al-Khatib in West Bank, Israel Fires on Displaced Lebanese Returning to Their Homes as It Continues to Violate Truce, U.S. Freezes All International Aid, Except Military Funding to Israel and Egypt, JD Vance Breaks Senate Tie to Confirm Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary, Trump Fires Slew of Independent Federal Watchdogs in Likely Unlawful Move, Colombia, U.S. Agree to Deal on Tariffs and Immigration After Rapid Series of Tit-for-Tat Moves, Chicago School Bars Gov’t Agents from Entry as Feds Escalate Immigration Crackdown Nationwide, DOJ to Stop Prosecuting Most People Who Unlawfully Block and Harass Abortion Clinics and Patients, Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol Charged with
Insurrection, DRC Urges UNSC to Intervene After M23 Rebels Seize Goma in Eastern Congo, Drone Strike on North Darfur Kills 70 Patients; Sudanese Army Blames Paramilitary RSF, Elon Musk Hypes Up Germany’s Neo-Nazi AfD Party Ahead of February Election, U.S. Air Force to Continue Teaching Tuskegee Airmen History After Pulling Videos Amid Trump DEI Ban, Swiss Authorities Arrest Ali Abunimah, Journalist and Founder of Electronic Intifada News Site
Egypt, Jordan Reject Trump Plan to "Clean Out" Gaza; Palestinians Return to N. Gaza in Historic Day
As survivors in Gaza begin to return to their homes during the first ceasefire in over a year, we speak to Sharif Abdel Kouddous of *Drop Site News* about the future of those who have been displaced. As Palestinians are “returning to a devastated landscape … determined not to leave their land” in defiance of “plans of ethnic cleansing that have dated back to the 1950s for Israel,” President Trump told reporters that he wants to “clean out” Gaza, suggesting that Palestinian Arabs should be ethnically cleansed into Egypt and Jordan. Both countries have “rejected this, and they’ve done so since the beginning of this genocidal assault,” says Kouddous.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/27/sharif_abdel_kouddous_gaza_trump
Pressure Grows to Free Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah & Stop Harassment of Hossam Bahgat
We discuss the cases of two of Egypt’s most prominent political activists, Hossam Bahgat and Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who have both been persecuted by the Egyptian government for exposing its human rights abuses. Bahgat is facing a new round of harassment from Egyptian security forces, while El-Fattah remains in prison past his expected release. El-Fattah’s mother, the Cairo University professor Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike for nearly four months in the U.K., where both she and her son have dual citizenship, demanding that the British government pressure Egypt for El-Fattah’s freedom. “Her collapse is imminent. She’s probably going to be hospitalized soon,” says journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who recently spoke to Soueif’s family.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/27/sharif_abdel_kouddous_egyptian_political_prisoners
"Anxiety and Fear": Immigrants Under Attack as Trump Militarizes Border, Ramps Up Deportation Flights
A dramatic standoff between the U.S. and Colombia unfolded Sunday with Colombian President Gustavo Petro turning back two U.S. military planes that were carrying deported migrants in shackles, saying immigrants should be treated with dignity. The two countries then traded tariff threats before announcing a deal in which Colombia would begin accepting flights of deported migrants. Meanwhile, Trump has sent 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, further militarizing the region. “We’re very, very concerned,” says immigration activist Fernando García of the El Paso, Texas-based Border Network for Human Rights, whose organization is among those providing resources like Know Your Rights training to immigrants now living under a regime of “anxiety and fear.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/27/anti_immigration_crackdown_trump_admin
Trump Halts Refugee Admissions, Stranding Thousands Approved to Enter U.S., Fleeing War, Persecution
We look at the impact of President Trump’s halting of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program with Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, a faith-based nonprofit that helps place and resource refugees upon their arrival in the U.S. as part of the program. Some 100,000 refugees were settled in the United States last year under the highly selective program, which has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades. Now thousands of people already approved to come to the United States are stranded in unstable situations, with uncertain legal status in the U.S., or unable to leave dangerous conditions of war or persecution in their home countries. Vignarajah says the Refugee Admissions Program “reflects the spirit of American generosity,” and highlights the plight of approved Afghan refugees who now risk retribution from the Taliban as evidence of the importance of refugee resettlement to U.S. foreign policy.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/27/krish_omara_vignarajah_us_refugee_program
Christian Nationalist at the Pentagon: Pete Hegseth's Calvinist Sect Embraces Confederacy, Crusades
The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Trump’s defense secretary by just one vote. Hegseth has “very clear” ties to extreme Christian nationalism, as well as a history of alleged sexual assault and abuse. Logan Davis, a reporter in Denver, Colorado, who grew up in the same classical Christian educational movement that Hegseth is raising his family in, explains the problematic ideology that shapes it. Hegseth has endorsed leaders in the community and their beliefs that the church possesses supremacy over worldly affairs, antebellum slavery was a “beneficent American institution” and the U.S.'s global war on terror is a modern-day iteration of the medieval Crusades. Davis says Hegseth's lack of qualifications for his new role means he will likely be “leaning on these controversial faith leaders in his life more than someone with adequate experience” would be — bringing this extremist Christian nationalism into the mainstream.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/27/pete_hegseth_christian_nationalism
Trump Revokes 6-Decades-Old Ban on Discrimination in Federal Contracting, DOJ Freezes Civil Rights Cases, Orders Prosecution of Local Officials Who Resist Deportation Policy, ACLU Sues Trump over Expedited Deportation Policy as Pentagon Sends Another 1,500 Troops to Border, Trump Health EOs Target Drug Costs, ACA Enrollment, Medicaid Recipients and More, OMB Nominee Russ Vought Defends Social Program Cuts, Welfare Work Requirements, Trump Names Failed 2017 Labor Nominee Andrew Puzder as Ambassador to EU, Palestinians Return to Gaza Neighborhoods Reduced to Rubble by Israel’s Bombs, Israeli Troops Surround Hospitals in Jenin, Fire on Medical Workers, U.N. Chief Warns Israeli Leaders Seeking to Fully Annex West Bank, Trump Redesignates Yemen’s Houthis as Foreign Terrorist Organization, Thousands Flee M23 Rebels’ Advance in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC Files Criminal Complaint Against Apple in Europe over Conflict Minerals in Electronics, Angelenos Warned over Toxic Ashes as Tens of Thousands Evacuate New L.A. Fires, European Regulators Order Dutch Government to Cut Nitrogen Emissions by 2030
In one of his first executive orders after taking office, President Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from the U.N.’s World Health Organization, putting numerous WHO programs at risk, including efforts to tackle tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, says the move is a “grave mistake for American national interests and our national security,” as well as “an attack on science, public health and public health institutions.” He warns that the U.S. will likely fall behind on public health innovation and disease prevention, putting the country and the world at greater risk to “the next pandemic.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/23/lawrence_gostin_trump_who_withdrawal
Upon returning to the presidency, Donald Trump has granted presidential pardons to over 1,500 of his supporters involved in the violent January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including members of far-right, anti-government militias like our guest’s father. Guy Wesley Reffitt helped lead the crowd that stormed the Capitol, just weeks after his then-18-year-old son Jackson attempted to warn the FBI about his plans. Jackson Reffitt now believes that Trump’s pardons will embolden far-right extremists to commit further political violence, including potential backlash against those close to them. “To completely validate actions like that is going to be explosive,” says Jackson Reffitt, who is now estranged from his family and fears for his own safety.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/23/jackson_reffitt_father_jan_6_pardon
Former FBI special agent Mike German, whose new book Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within chronicles his experience working undercover in far-right, white nationalist militias and warns of the unchecked danger they pose to American society, responds to Trump’s mass pardons of January 6 insurrectionists, many of whom were members of or affiliated with far-right militias. “The pardons definitely send a message both to the far-right militant movement that political violence against Trump’s enemies will be rewarded … [and] sends a message to law enforcement that there’s no value in investigating and prosecuting far-right violence,” says German. He also notes that right-wing extremism has already infiltrated much of U.S. law enforcement, making it harder to root out and guard against political violence.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/23/law_enforcement_and_far_right_militias
While a ceasefire is largely holding in Gaza, Israel is intensifying attacks on the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military has killed at least 13 people in a major military operation targeting Jenin that began on Tuesday when Israeli troops raided the city, backed by airstrikes, drones and U.S.-made Apache helicopters, following a six-week siege. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers in the West Bank have been “emboldened” by Trump’s lifting of sanctions on far-right Israeli settler groups. Further violence is increasingly likely, says Mariam Barghouti, a Palestinian writer and journalist based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. “We’re seeing Israel wage a war that very much resembles the practices they have committed in Gaza,” with Palestinians left “completely defenseless,” she says. “It’s a very slow slaughter of Palestinians. If you survive a bullet, you don’t know if you’re going to survive daily life.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/23/mariam_barghouti_israel_war_on_jenin