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Foreign. 20:26 the wheels are wobbling on the Trump administration bus the administration has always been an alliance of groups and people that oppose the so called liberal consensus, the idea that the US Government should regulate business, provide social welfare programs, promote infrastructure projects, protect civil rights and support a rules based. Republicans had embraced that ideology since the 1980s, but for all their celebration of tax cuts and deregulation, leaders recognized that the modern American state depended on the free trade and defensive security systems of the international order and that the American people liked infrastructure and social welfare programs. Trump upended that system, promising to get rid of the federal government built around the liberal consensus, the government his voters thought they hated because they thought its protection of equality before the law gave black Americans, brown Americans women and gender or religious minorities a leg up on white Christian men. Or they thought funding for science wasted their money on the research that right wing influencers mocked for wasting their money and intruding on their freedom. Or they thought the US Contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO and the US participation in alliances did not put America first. In 2024, Trump cobbled together enough groups who thought that way to win the White House, and as soon as he took power he set out to destroy the liberal consensus government with the help of loyalists he installed in key positions. In its place, he sought to establish an authoritarian government with himself and his family at its head. Now the effects of his plans on the American people are filtering through to those who weren't paying close attention. Trump's initial tariffs of April 2025, his so called Liberation Day tariffs destroyed the foreign markets for US Agricultural products, while Trump's war on Iran has sent the price of the diesel fuel farmers need skyrocketing and put the cost of fertilizer out of reach. Today, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins testified before the House Agriculture Committee, where she made the national cost of a government of loyalists determined to destroy the federal government clear. Minnesota's Representative Angie Craig, the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, grilled Rollins, who did not appear to know much about the industry she oversees. As Ron Filipkowski of Midas plus reported, when Craig asked Rollins how many farms we lost in the US last year, Rollins said about 315 had gone into bankruptcy. While the number of bankruptcies is correct, it does not reflect the loss of smaller farms to consolidation. That number, as Craig pointed out, is 15,000. Craig continued to hammer Rollins with statistics. Farm diesel has gone up 95% in the last year to $5.41 a gallon. Farmers lost $28 billion last year, 70% of farmers say they cannot afford fertilizer because of Trump's war on Iran. Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat of Massachusetts, added that farmers in his district have been totally screwed over by this administration. They are livid, they are mad, they are pissed off, he continued. They can't afford fertilizer. It's at record highs because of your administration. They can't afford diesel because of this president's reckless, illegal war. They can't afford farm equipment. It's more expensive than ever because of the stupid tariffs. And now New World screwworm, a parasitic fly larva that had been eradicated in the US since the 1960s, is back. In March 2025, the Trump administration cut funding for disease control and prevention, including that of New World screwworm. Today, news broke that the New World screwworm has been found in Texas for the first time since 1966. The screwworm burrows into the living flesh of animals. Most maggots feast on dead flesh and it can kill them. Screwworms are a serious threat to livestock and can hurt food production. If we all work together and follow the animal treatment protocols and movement restriction guidance, there is no reason to believe that this incursion will result in an establishment of the pest in our country, rollins said last night. Meanwhile, Jamie Smith of the Financial Times reported yesterday that US oil reserves are at their lowest level in 22 years. The administration has released them to try to control oil prices that are skyrocketing after Trump's war on Iran prompted the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's oil passed. Before the war, oil industry analysts warned that oil prices will shoot higher if the crisis isn't resolved. Today, President Donald J. Trump appeared to fall asleep again at a meeting in the Oval Office. But Trump's interest in profiting off the presidency remains clear. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post reported today that 14 of the 27 known donors to Trump's $400 million ballroom project have or expanded federal contracts totaling over $50 billion since they made their donations. As the results of the Republican destruction of the liberal consensus become clear, Democrats are speaking up to defend it and to chart a different course for the nation. Today, for example, Democrats called out the $187 billion in cuts Republicans have made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or snap, in their budget reconciliation measure of last July, the one they call the One Big Beautiful bill House Democrats criticized. Agriculture Secretary Rollins repeated boasts that she has pushed more than 3.5 million people off Snap, claiming that such cuts are a way to reduce fraud in the program. Representative Craig noted that Rollins appears to confuse the program's error rate, which measures underpayments or overpayments, with fraud. Craig noted that Snap has the lowest fraud rate in any program in America, although Congress itself makes the same distinction between error rates and fraud rates. Craig did and says that SNAP fraud is rare. Sidney Carruth of msnow reported that Rollins told Craig, you can't be serious. More and more Democrats are anchoring their opposition to MAGA Republican governance in their opposition to its extraordinary corruption that siphons taxpayer money into the pockets of a small group of wealthy elites and their loyalists. On Sunday, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff reminded an audience of Trump's deal with his appointees at the Department of Justice to establish a slush fund of $1.776 billion to pay his supporters for their claims that the Biden administration weaponized the legal system against them by indicting them for crimes. Ossoff called out Trump's frantic pace of outlandish social media posts, then said when not posting, he's been trying to rob us. Have you seen it? He sued the US government he commands for $10 billion. Then he settled the suit with himself to create a 1.8 billion dollar slush fund so he can cut checks to cronies and January 6th foot soldiers, the same men who sacked the Capitol to seize the presidency for Donald Trump, who beat police officers with flagpoles, built a gallows on the Capitol lawn and hunted the vice president to lynch him. Donald Trump's brown shirts? He pardoned them and now he wants you to pay them, ossoff continued. He promised to bring down prices on day one. Instead, prices are soaring. Ground beef's up 25% since Trump was sworn in. Coffee 40%. The price of gas 33%. Groceries, rent, health care and the power bill hit their new all time highs last month. And while you pay more for everything, Donald Trump wants your tax dollars for what many are calling the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ballroom. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York called out how the corruption of the admin averts the nature of government by stealing from everyday Americans for the vanity projects of a leader. She told Scott McFarland of McFarland News that when people see a ballroom and they see at the same time their health insurance getting cut off, they know that they are paying for that ballroom. With no health care, higher grocery prices and increasingly impossible to afford housing, people are pissed off about it, she said. And they should be. It's wrong. This is a complete theft of our money. Rather than paying for Trump's ballroom or his splashy renovations in the nation's capital, taxes should pay for better roads, health care, more affordable housing. And when the Texas Democratic nominee for the US Senate, James Tallarico, spoke to supporters in the home county of his opponent, Ken Paxton, he made it clear that the corruption of MAGA Republicans must not stand. He noted that Paxton's mugshot was taken just a few miles from here, at the Collin County Courthouse, where he was indicted for investment fraud. He convinced his own friends to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into a tech company, but what he didn't tell them was that he was making a commission off their investments. He was scamming his own friends. If Ken Paxton will sell out his own friends for a quick buck, Talarico asked, what makes you think he won't sell you out in the United States Senate? In a telling echo of a different sort of rally almost a decade ago, the audience began to chant, lock him up. Lock him up. Listen, talarico said. Ken Paxton has escaped accountability, but accountability is coming. On November 3,
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Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, MA. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.