THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

Latest Episodes:

Why Trump’s Angry New Tirade at Dems Unnerved Even His Own Advisers Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

Over the weekend, President Trump explicitly commanded Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies in a crazed Truth Social tirade. He named the Democrats he wants prosecuted, and even openly boasted that he’d pushed out a veteran career prosecutor for refusing to carry out this mission. Now Rolling Stone reports that Trump’s open demand of his attorney general was so corrupt that it surprised even some of his own advisers. They apparently couldn’t fathom that he’d knowingly make it public! But we think Trump wants it to be publicly understood that he’s making this threat, and that grasping this dynamic is essential to understanding our moment. So we talked to Rolling Stone’s Asawin Suebsaeng, the reporter on that story. He explains how Trump’s threat was viewed inside Trumpworld, why even some of his most MAGA-fied advisers are not necessarily on board with this abuse of power, and what that all says about our ongoing slide into authoritarianism.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump Drug Boat Bombings Take Darker Turn as Damning New Facts Emerge Sep 22, 2025

Show notes

Several weeks after President Trump ordered a military strike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people supposedly suspected of drug smuggling, this saga has gotten much worst. Last Monday, Trump bombed another vessel, killing three. Again his administration released zero evidence supporting the decision, and the specifics in this case make this campaign look increasingly lawless. And we just learned that the White House is quietly circulating a draft bill that would vastly expand Trump’s authority for these bombings. Its details offer a damning glimpse into how unrestrained he aims to be going forward. We talked to Brian Finucane, who’s been writing great analysis of the situation as an editor at Just Security. He explains why the specifics of that draft bill are so alarming, why the bombings appear to constitute serious abuses of power, and why all this may be hurtling us toward darker lawlessness to come. (Since we recorded, Trump bombed a third vessel in similarly lawless fashion.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump’s Crazed New Rants Make Jimmy Kimmel Mess Look Even More Corrupt Sep 19, 2025

Show notes

This week, ABC suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show under pressure from the Trump administration. The ostensible reason: Kimmel supposedly spread disinformation about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin. But then President Trump ranted to reporters on Air Force One about the ouster, and he basically confirmed that he’s sending a message to networks that they can’t criticize him too much. “They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said. Actually, they are, and in this, Trump made the ouster look even more corrupt. Trump also rambled angrily about how many of the people he sees on TV are crazy or on drugs, and he reiterated his threat to unleash the state on the leftist enemy within. All this confirmed that Trump is both increasingly unhinged and emboldened to carry out his autocratic takeover right out in the open. We talked to Jennifer Rubin, editor-in-chief of The Contrarian, who has a good new piece on Trump’s abuses. We discussed how Trump’s consolidation of power works, why many institutions are capitulating to it, and how Democrats can fight back.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump’s Epstein Spin Collapses as Kash Patel Buckles Under Questioning Sep 18, 2025

Show notes

As the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has worsened, President Trump’s story has been that it’s all Democratic “hoax,” and that his signature on that lewd drawing in Epstein’s birthday book is a “forgery.” But at a congressional hearing Wednesday, FBI director Kash Patel faltered under intense questioning from Democrats. Patel filibustered when asked whether Trump’s name is in the Epstein files. He seemed to accidentally reveal that he does know how many times Trump’s name appears. And he agreed to investigate whether Trump’s birthday note to Epstein is indeed forged, which seems ill-advised. Patel badly undermined Trump’s whole stance. So how much longer can Trumpworld keep the lid on this? We talked to Nicole Hemmer, a historian who has written books about the right and its media apparatus. She explains the schism Epstein has opened inside MAGA, how Patel exposed Trump’s position as untenable, and how it all fits into the last half-century of right wing deceptions and conspiracy theories.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump Explodes in Rage at Journos as Shock Poll Exposes a Key Weakness Sep 17, 2025

Show notes

President Trump seems even more angry at the media than usual. His lawyers just filed a lawsuit against The New York Times that First Amendment lawyers are dismissing as a total joke. The suit, however, is also chock full of angry rants that appeared dictated by Trump himself. And he announced it with a Truth Social tirade that boiled with fury. Meanwhile, Trump himself snapped directly at reporters in strange ways, hitting one with a bizarre threat and engaging in a bizarre dominance display over the other. This comes as a new poll from the Economist reveals shockingly low support for Trump among independents, a key metric for gauging political strength—or weakness. We talked to Paul Waldman, who recently argued on his Substack, The Cross Section, that Trump’s powers of persuasion are failing him. We discuss how Trump both despises and relies on the media, the real reasons for his mounting anger, and how it’s all revealing big cracks in his authoritarian project.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kash Patel Is Such a Fiasco for Trump that Even Fox Just Admitted It Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

In a surprise, Fox News is reporting that the knives are out for FBI director Kash Patel due to many recent missteps, including the botching of key facts about the hunt for Charlie Kirk’s assassin. That this is being featured by Fox News may be a sign of how dire Patel’s internal standing has truly become. Yet we’re in the middle of a complicated moment. Even as Patel’s tenure is beset with follies, Stephen Miller just unleashed a vile rant making it clear that Trump is about to turn federal law enforcement loose on the liberal-left in a big way, all fake-justified by Charlie Kirk’s assassination. So we talked to Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent who now writes a good Substack called “The Freedom Academy.” She explains why Patel compares so woefully to his predecessors, what the coming mass repression campaign could look like, how the FBI might figure into that, and how we’ll know things are getting really bad.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump’s Threats Darken on Fox News as MAGA Rage over Kirk Boils Over Sep 15, 2025

Show notes

In an appalling move, President Trump went on Fox News and openly suggested that far-right political violence is typically justified as a response to left-wing extremism. This functionally tells Trump supporters that it is now open season on the liberal-left after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Trump also signaled he will use the power of the state to exact retribution on Trump-MAGA's designated scapegoats for Kirk’s killing. This comes as eruptions of MAGA fury over Kirk’s death, including calls for mass violence, are rising to alarming levels, making Trump’s encouragement even more depraved. We talked to Will Sommer, who closely tracks the far right as a staff writer for The Bulwark. He discusses how far-right individuals and groups will take Trump’s signals as “sanction,” notes the “all-consuming anger” he’s seeing, and suggests we may see more organized violence coming from those precincts going forward.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump Drug Boat Bombing Takes Darker Turn as Damning New Info Emerges Sep 12, 2025

Show notes

Questions are mounting about President Trump’s decision to bomb a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. The administration says these were drug cartel members who posed a threat to the United States, but many legal experts have concluded the bombing might have been illegal or a war crime. And this saga just got darker. Senator Tim Kaine and two dozen other Democrats just released a powerful letter laying out tough questions for the administration. The letter demonstrates the weakness of Trump’s legal case in a freshly vivid way. And a Senate staffer tells us Kaine reached out to numerous Republicans in hopes of getting them to sign the letter, but damningly, none would. Meanwhile, new reporting indicates that the boat might have been turning around before getting hit, making Trump’s decision look even worse. We talked to Scott Anderson, senior editor at Lawfare and author of a great piece analyzing the strike. He demystifies the legal and substantive complexities, sheds light on how brazenly Trump is stretching the law, and discusses whether we’ll ever learn what really happened.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nancy Mace Erupts in Fury on House Floor after Dem’s Speech Hits Home Sep 11, 2025

Show notes

GOP Congresswoman Nancy Mace lost her temper on the House floor on Wednesday. It all started when Mace unleashed a long, vile tirade about transgender Americans. After that, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a Democrat, offered some cutting criticism of the absurdity of GOP anti-trans rhetoric. That prompted Mace to fly into a fury and start shouting. We think this is a telling moment: We’re all supposed to just put up with it while the right unleashes nonstop vitriol and hate. But when a Democrat offers admittedly provocative pushback—albeit something that doesn’t come close to routine right wing rhetoric—it’s taken as this enormous affront, as if the Earth has been knocked off its axis. We talked to Representative Jacobs about the exchange, what we can learn from it, why she takes rhetoric like this personally, and how Democrats should navigate the complexities of the overall issue.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump Press Sec Seethes as Epstein Spin Falls Apart in Briefing Fiasco Sep 10, 2025

Show notes

House Democrats have released Jeffrey Epstein’s “Birthday Book,” and it’s brutal for President Trump. His note to Epstein is real and it appears to bear his distinctive signature. There’s also an image of Epstein holding a big check that discusses selling a “fully depreciated” woman to Trump. On Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, visibly irritated, offered some truly absurd spin about Trump’s signature on the note to Epstein, throwing in obsequious praise to boot. She dodged a question about the check with rank misdirection while curtly brushing off further queries. The upshot: White House spin looked comically awful throughout. Leavitt flashed anger at other points, accusing reporters of ignoring serious crimes and of being dishonest about Trump’s militarization of Washington, DC. We talked to MSNBC’s Steve Benen, author of Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past. We discuss why MAGA deceptions on Epstein are worse than usual, what that says about the evolution of the right-wing disinformation machine, and where this scandal is going next.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices