|
 |
Get all access now and save 30% when you upgrade to become a paid subscriber today. Your subscription upgrade is a direct investment in defending democracy, helping Lincoln Square build a pro-democracy media machine to fight disinformation and inform voters with the facts.—We’ll also gift you $20 in Lincoln Bucks to use in our pro-democracy merchandise store for the holidays.
 |
| ||
Trump's Texas-Sized Pardon Fail | The Weekly Assignment with Susan Demas, Sam Osterhout, & Brian Daitzman
Trump pardoned Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar ... and was shocked when he said thanks and filed for reelection anyway. So much for the 'Art of the Deal.'
|
| |||||||||||||||
Trump’s pardons expose a governing style defined by pure transaction rather than any recognizable theory of justice.
The administration’s retreat from global leadership signals a deliberate choice to shrink American influence in favor of personalist power.
ICE’s escalating abuses—and the cruelty baked into the system—underscore how authoritarianism thrives through bureaucratic violence.
Public fatigue has given way to public clarity: Americans now see the cost of a government that mistakes spectacle for strength.
Susan Demas and Sam Osterhout open a conversation with The Intellectualist’s Brian Daitzman that refuses to accept numbness as the national mood, treating Trump’s latest pardon fiasco not as another headline but as a window into a presidency built on “loyalty” as currency. Their exchange makes plain how quickly corruption stops feeling theoretical once it collides with actual lives, and how the week’s absurdities—from MMA fantasies on the South Lawn to Trump-branded park passes—serve as accidental confessionals about a leader who can’t tell power from performance. What lands hardest is the way their dialogue strips the varnish off Trump’s self-mythology: the “dealmaker” who can’t close a deal, the “strongman” whose insecurity bleeds into every appointment, the “patriot” undermining the very institutions he claims to protect. And beneath the humor, the frustration, the disbelief, there’s a shared insistence that corruption isn’t inevitable—it’s visible, it’s traceable, and it’s beatable when people stay awake to the pattern instead of acclimating to it.
Tune in for a conversation that meets the chaos where it lives and refuses to let it define the country’s future. And subscribe to The Intellectualist today!
 |
![Epstein Claimed in 2018 He Could 'Take [Trump] Down'](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fDWU!,w_1300,h_650,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f6ea7a3-56e1-470b-8fb7-5eb2a8f4f98c_1456x1048.jpeg)
 | A guest post by
|
You’re currently a free subscriber to Lincoln Square Media. For full access to our content, our Lincoln Loyal community, and to help us amplify the facts about the assault on our rights and freedoms, please consider upgrading your subscription today with this limited-time offer. Lock in this special holiday rate today. Offer Ends 12/31
Not ready to subscribe? Make a one-time donation of $10 or more to support our work amplifying the facts on social media, targeted to voters in red states and districts that we can help flip. Every $10 reaches 1000 Americans. The Truth needs a voice. Your donation will help us amplify it.
Want to help amplify this post? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think.
| ||||||||||
