Hey everybody. Happy Friday. Thanks for being here.
As I sat down to record this, we got information that the new White House Chief of Staff is Stephen Miller. Now, what does that tell me? That tells me that any idea that Donald Trump recognized the mistake he made is clearly not the case. They are going to double down. And that means that the next couple of years are going to be pretty rough.
Tuesday was a massive victory. But we’re ultimately going to have to continue to fight this fight. So thanks for continuing to do this with me. I thought there was a chance Stephen Miller would actually be fired since he’s largely an architect of the reason they lost. But in fact, they’re doubling down. And I guess in hindsight, what would we expect differently from Trump? Anyways, let’s get to the show.
We have our first big resignation since the election, and it’s the Justice Department official behind Trump’s whole election strategy. Her name is Harmeet Dhillon, and she’s the one who has spent the last year unsuccessfully suing states to get access to their voter rolls. She’s also the one who sent out a thousand federal monitors to the polls on Tuesday. She says she quit three weeks ago and the White House asked her to keep it secret until after the election. But the Times says the White House was angry at her for not pushing back hard enough on 60 Minutes when she was told noncitizen voting is rare. Whatever the case may be, her departure from the DOJ is great news for the country.
We’ll also get into yet another Trump cabinet secretary caught in a massive conflict of interest, the tech billionaires who spent hundreds of millions on this election and came away with nothing, the White House warning Republicans who are starting to speak up, and Pete Hegseth going on offense as his own party lines up against him.
So do me a favor. Like this video, share it with someone who needs to see it, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Let’s get to it.
1. Trump’s Election Enforcer Quits
Harmeet Dhillon is out as head of the Civil Rights Division. If you watch this show you’ve heard her name a lot these past few weeks. She’s the one who’s been running Trump’s whole effort to put pressure on the election. Her office sued about two dozen states for their voter files and tried to get ballots thrown out right before the election.
But she’s been at this a lot longer than that. The Civil Rights Division at the DOJ was created to protect people’s right to vote. Under her it became something else. She ended dozens of school desegregation cases and dropped the police reform agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville, and most of the career staff walked out. Then she spent the past year aiming what was left at the voting system and calling it election integrity.
So did she jump or get pushed off? Her story is that she jumped. She told Fox she resigned three weeks ago and the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, asked her to hold off until after the midterms. She says nobody asked her to go.
But the New York Times is reporting that Trump and his inner circle were annoyed with her after she went on 60 Minutes and didn’t push back hard enough on how rarely undocumented immigrants vote. In other words, she didn’t sell the story hard enough for them.
She was also having trouble delivering for the president. Department leaders were frustrated that her campaign to compel states to hand them voter data “had failed time after time.” Her team also built the two big election lawsuits in California and Alaska, but she never showed up in court to back them, probably knowing they were no more than legal hail marys. And it was her operation that drummed up a list of supposed illegal voters in California, only for it to flop when the state found that over 40 percent of the names weren’t even registered.
Kristen Clarke, who held the job before Dhillon, had this to say: “From Day 1, Harmeet Dhillon abdicated her responsibility to enforce our nation’s federal civil rights laws and destroyed the crown jewel of the Justice Department.”
This was a division created to protect Black voters. She turned it into a tool of intimidation dedicated to soothing Trump’s ego. When that turned out to be an impossible task, she left. She’s not the first, and she definitely won’t be the last.
2. Burgum Caught Cashing In
ProPublica got the financial disclosure for the interior secretary, Doug Burgum. This is the guy who runs national parks and public lands, which is roughly a fifth of all the land in the United States. He’s been pushing for data centers on federal property, where citizens can’t stop them.
For Doug, the push is personal. He has tens of millions of dollars invested in AI companies through a firm he co-founded. In 2025, his first year in office, he sold AI holdings for gains of between two and a half and 15 million dollars. He resigned from the firm when he was confirmed, but he didn’t take out the money.
He’s certainly a friend of the industry. Last year he met with Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet more than 20 times. A government survey recently found 91 million acres of Interior land eligible for data centers, and the department is reviewing permits for 15 right now. Some are being waved through and skipping regulatory steps.
And this is not how it used to work. Richard Painter, George W. Bush’s ethics lawyer, told ProPublica: “In the Bush administration, the answer would’ve been ‘he has to recuse,’ I can guarantee you that.” The department says Burgum has met every disclosure obligation and that his investments have nothing to do with his decisions.
In August, Fox News asked the Secretary about its own poll showing 70 percent of voters oppose data centers. He blamed “foreign influence.” Turns out, the only undue influence involved might be coming from his stock portfolio.
3. Voters Revolt Against Data Centers
In September, the president hosted a lunch at the White House with big tech royalty. They’d given to the ballroom and the inauguration. Amazon made and promoted the Melania movie. For two years, the Times writes, “it had been that easy to get what they wanted.”
But this election wasn’t so easy to buy. Look at their three biggest bets. Musk spent hundreds of millions trying to get Ken Paxton elected to the Senate in Texas. Marc Andreessen’s crypto group spent tens of millions trying to take out Sherrod Brown. And Musk backed a fellow billionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy, for governor of Ohio. They lost all three.
It wasn’t only the candidates voters rejected. It was AI itself, and that started last year when Republicans snuck a provision banning states from regulating AI into their big tax bill. The Senate killed that version 99 to 1. The fight sent both sides scrambling to make their case to midterm voters, but one clearly came out on top.
In the midterm exit polls, 56 percent of voters said AI and data centers were a major factor in their vote, and three-quarters said they didn’t want one in their community. Annie Andrews beat Darline Graham in South Carolina with ads calling her “Data Center Darline.” Newsweek went through the 23 House Republicans who lost, and 19 were AI boosters. Nearly 40 local data center measures were on ballots, mostly in Ohio and Illinois, and all but one ended with new limits on data centers.
The GOP’s embrace of AI hurt them up and down the ticket. Here’s Ron DeSantis on why.
He’s right. Trillions of dollars’ worth of AI money is flowing through the economy and the stock markets. But for the most part, that cash is landing in the pockets of big money investors. A Democratic strategist put it well, telling Politico the data center issue was “a connective point between cost of living and corruption.” Your electric bill goes up and all of a sudden the air is buzzing. But the developer gets a tax break, and the guy approving the permit is making money from the companies.
The good news is that many of the Democrats who won on Tuesday are cracking down. Gina Hinojosa says she’ll maintain a moratorium in Texas until the legislature protects water, land, and education. Amy Acton in Ohio wants one too.
Look, big tech tried to buy the president and his cabinet. But they couldn’t buy your vote, and that’s something to celebrate.
4. White House Threatens Its Own
The hallmark of the Trump presidency is loyalty. Republicans passed that loyalty test with flying colors. They stood silently by the president, even as he sank the party and abandoned the American people. At least until now.
The midterm shellacking has given many conservatives the green light to speak out. Ron DeSantis warned of an “extinction-level event” for the party. Ted Cruz gave an equally honest assessment, calling the election a “Watergate-level repudiation.” Both blamed this administration, even if indirectly.
The White House insists everything is under control. It even posted a photo of Trump glaring into the camera, fists pressed against his desk. The caption read: “PSA: Trump is still your president.” But here’s the truth. They’re terrified.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House Office of Public Liaison sent a memo to more than 3,000 conservative organizations. It listed the president’s accomplishments. It promised to prevent Democrats from reversing them. And it closed with one sentence, highlighted in yellow: “As always, we are monitoring statements, press releases, and media engagements from your organizations.”
Yikes. That sounds like it came straight out of Orwell’s 1984. And it’s a step further than even this White House has gone before. The Journal pulled previous emails from the same office. None of them mentioned “monitoring.”
To be clear, threats against free speech are nothing new. The White House has weaponized the FCC against talk show hosts. It has tried to ban news outlets from the White House and Air Force One. All because of coverage the president didn’t like.
Now they’re giving conservative groups the same treatment. That says it all, really. Trump’s own coalition is speaking out. And the White House is having to use threats to keep it in line.
5. Cornered Hegseth Lashes Out
Yesterday, we told you the party had picked its fall guy. Really, it had one viable candidate: Secretary Hegseth. But Hegseth isn’t going down quietly. He released a defiant six-minute video, filmed right in front of the Pentagon.
And trust me, there’s a lot to unpack. He called his war a “courageous and historic effort.” That’s the same war that has cost the country 47 billion dollars, the lives of at least 23 service members, and his boss control of Congress.
Hegseth also called Thomas Massie a “disgruntled, defeated congressman” with “sham articles of impeachment.” Let me remind you why those articles never got a vote. Speaker Johnson sent the House home because he was scared they would pass.
But my favorite part is when he attacks the Democrats:
Give me a break! It is astonishing that he doesn’t realize that line describes his entire tenure. Hegseth has practiced the very “politics of personal destruction” he accuses Democrats of. He has gone after minority groups serving in the military. He has blamed others in the Pentagon for military blunders. And when people challenged him, he fired them. That’s his own game.
And that culture of fear is on full display. A Pentagon spokesperson promised “the most aggressive defense of Secretary Hegseth and the President’s agenda ever assembled.” Meanwhile, several Hegseth appointees each posted the same three phrases: “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.” But if they could blink in Morse code, they might’ve said: “Please. Fire. Hegseth.”
For now, President Trump isn’t budging. He recently told ABC’s chief correspondent he has “every intention” of keeping Hegseth. In a separate interview, he said Hegseth has done “a fantastic job.” His evidence? Not the Iran War. But his firing of the generals. “Many of those people were woke,” Trump said, “and I don’t like woke generals.” Glad the president has his priorities straight.
But Trump won’t get the final say. Plenty of Republicans and Democrats agree that Hegseth is a cancer for the Pentagon and for the military. Massie has already said he’s bringing the articles of impeachment back. Hegseth’s clock is running out. As Representative Jason Crow put it: “Tick tock, Mr. Secretary.”
Some other stories that caught my eye:
President Trump signed a proclamation declaring the Oval Office and Cabinet Room a national monument, but the order does far less than he claims. It was his first official act since Republicans lost control of Congress in Tuesday’s midterms. The proclamation puts the Interior Secretary in charge of both rooms. And it requires review of alternatives before anyone substantially alters or demolishes them. Trump described it in sweeping terms, saying the office “will not be allowed to be touched by anybody.” He also said major changes would need approval from Congress. That requirement is not in the text. The document explicitly protects a president’s right to redecorate and choose furnishings. A successor could also simply revoke it, as Trump has done to monument designations made by his predecessors. This is the same president, for example, who demolished the East Wing to make room for his ballroom.
President Trump says he met with a senior Russian envoy at the White House and promised a Ukraine peace deal that “might involve all of Europe.” The envoy appears to be Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin ally who was in Washington for an event hosted by Melania Trump. Dmitriev runs Russia’s main state investment fund. He has used these talks to pitch business deals to the administration and to seek sanctions relief for that fund. Trump said he couldn’t share what they discussed, but he insisted “there’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine.” Dmitriev has not confirmed the meeting. Asked about Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians, Trump blamed both sides. “The other way, they kill, too,” he said. U.S., Ukrainian and Russian officials are scheduled to hold peace talks in the United Arab Emirates next week.
