Wednesday, August 27, 2025

The Snapshot

Wednesday, August 27, 2025.  Chump's going full on Hitler and Mussolini in his attempt to control business, his farce of protecting children continues to be exposed by the special treatment he gives to convicted pedophile and sex trafficker Jizzy Pants Maxwell, his cabinet is so stupid that they can't even pronounce world famous proper names, and much more.


Let's start with Ben and MEIDASTOUCH NEWS for a reading of the room this morning.



In the roundtable last night, Mike observed, "He may have the administration that he deserves but it's not one that this country deserves."

 

There is so much in the above video but I want to zoom in on one thing.  I hate stupid adults.  I had a trauma as a child and lost all memories and knowledge.  I had to relearn everything.  And I did.  And that may be why I actually have a thirst for knowledge and in my fantasies I'm living right off a college campus and taking one class after another year after year.  

To be a cabinet secretary in an administration and well over fifty, you should have to have some level of education.  But in Chump's administration, they're all idiots and liars -- not "or" but "and."  That's most obvious by the idiot who chose to bring up the Nobel Peace prize.  


As a general rule, if you don't know how to pronounce something, don't use the word.


But some people re so stupid that they don't grasp their own stupidity.


Which is how you got a cabinet secretary in the video above trying to kiss Chump's ass by bringing up the Noble Peace Prize and by mispronouncing it.  It is not No-bull.  Is is No-bell.  


The Nobel Peace Center created this video three years ago and it is aimed at children.


Alfred Nobel.  Can someone please educate our very ignorant administration on the pronunciation of Alfred Nobel's last name, the name given to the various prizes awarded each year including the Nobel peace prize.  And, again, if you don't know how to say a word, don't say it.  It's fine if you're a kid, it's even fine if you're a young adult.  But by the time you're in your fifties, getting something like this wrong just makes everyone wonder if you ever learned a damn thing.




Seems like only yesterday when warnings that Donald Trump qualified as a neo-fascist and that what he was selling qualified as neo-fascism guaranteed rolled eyes, dismissals that the warnings were hysterical, and cries of "Trump Derangement Syndrome," a neat little expression utilized by those who argued that the evidence in front of our faces wasn't there. Addressing a group of young people in 2019, Trump provided a civics lesson at sharp variance with what they had learned in school. "I have the right to do whatever I want as president," he told them. It wasn't the first time he'd claimed to have absolute power as president. "(The Constitution) allows me to do whatever I want," he'd told ABC News earlier. Fox host Sean Hannity tried to cajole Trump into walking back his repeated vows to be the "retribution president," encouraging him to promise "that you would never abuse power as retribution against anyone." Trump declined. "Except on day 1," he replied.
Day 1 has lasted well into Trump's second administration, and we ain't seen nothing yet. We were warned about this in no uncertain terms by those in a position to know, who bluntly described Trump as a "fascist." Just weeks before the 2024 election, Trump's first chief of staff, John Kelly, told The New York Times that the word "fascist" fit the bill. "Looking at the definition of fascism, it's a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism (and) forcible suppression of opposition," the retired four-star Marine general said, breaking his silence about the president whose clinical narcissism and addiction to falsehoods Kelly had attempted to manage. "So, certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America." It was a measure of how obvious this had become that scant attention was paid to the disclosure that Trump had complained that he "wanted generals like Adolf Hitler had."
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley was even more direct, if possible. Trump, General Milley told The Washington Post's Bob Woodward, was "fascist to the core" and "a total fascist."

There's no longer any reason to tiptoe around the bush on this point. By April of this year, Americans had seen enough of the executive orders targeting law firms who'd dared to dispute Trump's fraudulent claims that he'd won the 2020 election and the mass purge of anyone in government not prepared to buy his con-artistry to reach their conclusion. A Public Religion Research Institute poll released that month found that 52% of Americans agreed that "President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy."


There is no reason to tiptoe around this.  The American people are right to be concerned.  Anyone paying attention is right to be concerned.  Chump is a thug and idiot that at that.  He's not fooling anyone.  He's certainly not fooling Dan Abrams.   Joe DePaolo (MEDIAITE) notes:


Dan Abrams slammed the FBI raid on John Bolton as an act of a weaponized Justice Department — and dismantled the claim that the Biden DOJ was politicized, which some on the right are arguing in order to justify the Bolton raid.

In a blistering opening monologue for his show on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel Monday, Abrams — the founder of Mediaite — called the weaponization of the Trump DOJ “disgusting” and argued that the evidence the FBI had against Bolton to justify a raid almost certainly “pale[s] in comparison” to the evidence against President Donald Trump ahead of the August 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago.
“At this point, if anyone had lingering questions about the disgusting weaponization of this DOJ and intel leadership, they have been answered with the raid on John Bolton’s home,” Abrams said. “You had intelligence and DOJ working together to make some case against Bolton — likely based on a book he wrote in 2020 which was very critical of Trump. Maybe it’s based on something else. And heck, they got two judges to sign off on search warrants so there may be some violation. But I am confident that whatever they may have will pale in comparison to the documents case against Trump himself — where he and his team lied about having over 100 classified documents.”

Abrams then listed off a host of examples in support of his claim that the Trump DOJ is weaponized — from the firing of dozens of federal prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases, to the investigations launched against those Trump feels have wronged him, such as former cybersecurity head Chris Krebs, who publicly stated that the 2020 election was fair.
“And yet when confronted about how absurdly political this all is,” Abrams said, “the response is the same. The Biden and Obama DOJ’s are the ones that started the politicization.”

And that claim — according to Abrams — is “BS.” The Mediate founder pointed out that one of the most compelling arguments knocking down the premise that the Biden DOJ was weaponized actually came from former FBI Director Chris Wray — who, like all of his predecessors in the job, was a Republican when he was appointed.

“At a senate hearing in 202, Wray pointed out that as a ‘lifelong republican,’ the idea that he was leading a politicized FBI made no sense,” Abrams said. “And in another hearing in 2022, he responded to one of the talking points that the FBI had been supposedly targeting pro-life protestors pointing out that more of their investigations were actually on the other side.


Here's the video, by the way.



We live in the age of hypocrisy as Dan notes above.  Chump is weaponizing the Dept of Justice.  And note the case Chris Brennan (USA TODAY) lays out:



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expressed grave concerns about the president marching America's military into his state.

He wanted assurances that his state's residents' "safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed." He sought to "ensure that Texas communities remain safe, secure and informed" well before the troops arrived.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said he understood why his constituents were reacting with "concern and uncertainty" because, in his view, "the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration." People in Texas just couldn't trust what was happening, he said.
A national poll showed that 32% of primary voters thought the federal government was about to seize control of Texas, while 40% did not believe that and 28% were unsure.

Alex Jones, a far-right fount of conspiracy theories, called it an invasion and urged Texans to prepare. Russia's government, eager to accentuate the anxiety, used the internet to amplify it.

But none of this was about crime in American cities. And it wasn't an invasion. It wasn't even this year.
A decade ago, in the summer of 2015, the kind of conservative alarmists who were then congealing into President Donald Trump's MAGA base were howling not about him but about then-President Barack Obama.

And it was all because the U.S. Special Operations Command planned to conduct training across seven states ‒ Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida ‒ from July to September in an operation called "Jade Helm 15."

Among the outlandish Jade Helm conspiracy theories then was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was building "death domes" to hold anyone who resisted, that closed Walmart locations would be used to process detainees, and that Russia would arm rebels in Texas for civil war.
That right-wing panic 10 years ago is instructive, because none of those freedom-loving voices are now calling out concerns about Trump really doing what they falsely accused Obama of doing with the military.
It has always been easier, of course, to play to the partisan base with conspiracy theories than it is to confront the titular head of your own political party as he leans hard into strongman tactics.
Trump, using crime as a pretext to menace American cities with our own military, isn't sending armed forces into Republican-controlled Texas, even though Houston and San Antonio rank in the top 10 for the highest total crime rates among the country's 30 largest cities.

Trump instead has invaded California with Marines and National Guard members.

He now has armed National Guard members wandering around Washington, DC, and he keeps talking about the next targets ‒ Chicago, New York, Baltimore.


Yet you have silence.  The people who wrongly accused Barack Obama of what Chump is actually doing now refuse to call out Chump's actions.  With their silence, they are destroying our democracy.  Robert Reich observes:


I’m old enough to remember when American politics was divided between those who wanted less government (they were called “conservatives,” or the Right) and those who wanted more social safety nets (called “progressives,” or the Left).

It’s hard to find Right or Left these days. Instead we have something no one has ever seen in America — a personal takeover of nearly all the institutions of government and, increasingly, the private sector, by a would-be dictator.

Trump is on the way to occupying Democratic-led cities with the Army, National Guard, and ICE — in what appears to be a dress rehearsal for the 2026 midterms.

He is telling Republican states to super-gerrymander in order to squeeze out more Republican seats in Congress, to help retain Republican control of the House after the 2026 midterm elections.

He is trying to silence criticism from universities, museums, law firms, and the media. And targeting critics for prosecution, such as Adam Schiff and John Bolton.

But that’s hardly all of it.

At the same time, Trump is taking personal control of the U.S. economy.

He’s trying to control the Federal Reserve Board, threatening Jerome Powell with unflattering stories about his expenditures on the Fed’s building and Fed governor Lisa Cook with stories about her home loan.

He’s imposing his will on key industries, from semi-conductors to steel.


Let's move over to THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE (MSNBC) and their report and then panel discussion on Chump's out of control power grabs.



We also need to note another segment of Stephanie's program from last night.



Stephanie Ruhle: Meanwhile the Commerce Secretary is saying that the US government may look to take stakes in defense companies.  That does not sound like any free markets capitalism I know. [. . .]  This is bananas and this is not how the US government works and this is not how capitalism works. 


Chump is a thug, a crook, a convicted crook, a con artist and, yes, a joke. 





GHISLAINE.  That sitcom really does portray the crimes of Maxwell and how she has manipulated Chump to get exactly what she wants because Chump can't stand up to a pedophile.  He won't.  Maybe she has a ton of dirt on him?  All the more reason to stand up to her.  But he refuses to do so.


Robert Davis reports:

The Trump administration just betrayed the victims of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking crimes, a legal expert said in a new report.

President Donald Trump recently released the transcripts of interviews Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. The move was meant to placate the growing discontent within the MAGA base over the release of the Epstein files, but one expert suggests that it was really a betrayal of the victims.

"The games the administration is playing with re-releasing already public documents while withholding the Trump-Epstein files and other key information is another betrayal of survivors," former Amb. Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, told Axios.


On the Epstein and Maxwell crimes, Tom Boggioni notes:


The former U.S. attorney who helped engineer what has been described as a “sweetheart deal” for Jeffrey Epstein in 2008, which allowed him to walk away from sex crime accusations with a slap on the wrist, has agreed to talk to Congress.

That led a former Florida prosecutor to point out to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that they have an obligation to question him on several major points that could clear up what legal maneuvering was agreed to that allowed Epstein to commit more crimes until his later arrest and eventual death in a prison cell

As NBC News reported, “[Alex] Acosta was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida in 2008 when the office reached a secret non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, who wound up pleading guilty to state charges involving a single underage victim, protecting him from federal prosecution.”


Let's explore that further via James Zirin (THE HILL):


Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went to the White House to warn Trump that his own name was in the Epstein documents. So he came up with a political stunt, pivoting to the grand jury minutes, which he must have known would be shrouded in secrecy under the law.

Disclosure of the minutes required a court order that he and Bondi knew he could never get. In federal procedure, you get an order by making a motion before the court — in this case before two courts. The government lawyers knew this would fail. What unfolded was a classic “Casey at the Bat,” except one where Casey wanted to strike out.

Naturally, Bondi began in Florida, where she and Trump knew the territory. In July, Florida District Judge Robin Rosenberg rejected the Justice Department’s submission. “Strike One,” Rosenberg said.

“Kill the umpire,” cried the MAGA fans, and likely they would have, had not the diverter-in-chief raised his hand.

Bondi then moved again, in the hated Southern District of New York, where Epstein and Maxwell had been indicted. Once more “the spheroid flew.” And on August 11, District Judge Paul Engelmayer said “Strike Two.” He denied the motion, finding that Maxwell’s grand jury records would reveal “next to nothing new” and also labeled Trump’s transparent ploy a “diversion.”

“Fraud!” cried the MAGAs. But “one scornful look” from the White House “and the audience was awed.”

District Judge Richard Berman’s ruling represented the third and final rejection of the administration’s requests to unseal the records.

“The government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” wrote Berman. “By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the government’s possession, The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.’”

Berman quoted and agreed with Engelmayer’s findings. “The information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice,” he wrote.

The Epstein grand jury, as with its counterpart in Maxwell’s case, consisted entirely of testimony by law enforcement officials, not victims. The same FBI agent who testified before Epstein’s grand jury also testified before Maxwell’s.

Berman noted: “The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has recently stated that the [Justice Department] informed the Committee it will begin providing Epstein-related records ‘this week.’” But Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the committee, stated that the overwhelming majority of the over 30,000 pages that the Justice Department produced had already been made public.

This is the appearance but not the reality of an investigation — with the conclusion of cover-up almost incontestable.


Chump thinks he can trick the American people on Epstein and Maxwell.  He can't.  He's wrong just as hes been wrong every week with his belief that this story would fade with the July 4th holiday.  It has not and it's not going to.  Discussing economic terms and theories?


Yes, that can be confusing for some.  


But we're talking about sex trafficking.  We're talking about pedophiles.  Americans very easily grasp the basics of this story.  They follow along with no need to for a slow walk-through.  And they get that Chump is on the wrong side of this issue.  They get that none of the survivors are being spoken to or, for that matter, being granted perks like convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.  


And too bad for Chump, the survivors are not going to be silenced.  Daniel Bates (THE I PAPER) reports:


The truth has a funny way of getting out, and in the case of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, it may well arrive in the most unexpected way. The news that the memoir of Virginia Giuffre – the woman who claims that the late paedophile trafficked her to Prince Andrew when she was 17 – will be published posthumously is no doubt chilling for the White House and causing deep anxiety for the Duke of York.
Ms Giuffre, a mother of two who was living in Australia, died by suicide in April, aged 41. However, come October, she may get her final opportunity to reveal all, including about her association with Prince Andrew. Ms Giuffre has claimed that Andrew had sex with her when she was under the legal age of consent, something he has denied. He paid what was reportedly millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Giuffre in 2022, which accepted no liability of guilt. But she could also give her unvarnished opinions about Donald Trump, who knew Epstein, who hanged himself while awaiting trial in 2019, for years and once called him a “terrific guy”. 



Why it matters: The memoir arrives as Giuffre's family continues to speak out against Epstein and his associates, and as President Trump's handing of the Epstein files continues to face public scrutiny.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April at age 41, had alleged in various lawsuits that she was a victim of sex trafficking and abuse by Epstein, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew.
Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew all denied the allegations.
Her memoir, titled "Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice," is scheduled to be released on Oct. 21.

The book "offers an unsparing and definitive account of her time with Epstein and Maxwell," according to the book's description on Penguin Random House's website.
"Her story has never been told in full, in her own words — until now," the description reads.
Zoom in: The book will explore her "intimate, disturbing, and heartbreaking" experiences with Epstein and Maxwell, as well as her time "meeting politicians and CEOs," the publisher said.



Let's pull this from last night's roundtable:


Jim: What's been the biggest disappointment in the last 218 days?

Wally: Republicans in Congress.  They've always claimed to have ethics.  They have none.  They vote that Big Bulls**t Bill that destroys America -- for example, destroys medical insurance for so many Americans -- and then they make it worse by going into their districts and lying about what the bill will do.  And then they have a whiney fit when their constituents refuse to go along with them and their break from reality.  That's what the second Chump term is: A break from reality.  A psychotic break. 

Dona: Grace Hall (MIAMI HERALD) cites Pew's latest poll which found his job approval rating has fallen "to 38%" and it was 47% at the start of his second term in January 2025."  It would appear that a large number of Americans are tuned into what he's doing.

Marcia: Yes, but that's not registering with Republicans in Congress -- like Wally pointed out earlier.  And they control both houses of Congress.  So it's hard not to feel as though we're screwed for the rest of this year and next.


Betty: And we've got a corrupt Supreme Court.  Don't forget that.  And let's never forgive John Roberts, Chief Justice, for bringing us to this point.  He is part of the problem.  And he will be remembered in history for presiding over the Court that the American people lost faith in.  For decades, we had seen the Supreme Court as a trusted body.  Now we see it for a collective of right-wing partisan hacks. It doesn't represent the American people and it doesn't even attempt to pretend that it does.  This is a very sad and very risky moment in American history.  And I think we're seeing how little democracy means to a number of people -- some of whom hold elected office.
[. . .]

Elaine: Exactly.  He announces that he's got an executive order that now will put anyone burning a flag into prison for one year.  This despite the rulings of the Supreme Court that flag burning is a form of free speech.   Or his attempts to fire Lisa Cool from the Federal Reserve Board -- a move that a Supreme Court verdict earlier this year said he did not have the power to do. 


With that in mind, let's register another refusal by the Chump administration and its cronies to obey a court ruling.  Robert Davis notes:


A MAGA attorney general is openly defying a court order to close a federal immigration detention center in their state.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told a local news outlet that he plans to continue operating the facility, known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The facility is located in the Florida Everglades and was named because the property is surrounded by alligator nests and poisonous snakes.

"We’re going to continue operating the facility,” Uthmeier told news outlet WINK. “We believe that it’s a fully lawful facility. This is an effort by environmentalists, by the left, by Democrats and by honestly this judge, to stall our immigration enforcement efforts.”


Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Senators allege that “ED is covering up its attempts to make FSA less responsive to millions of students, families, and borrowers.”

Investigation reveals ED’s efforts to intentionally hide the “Submit a Complaint” button on the Federal Student Aid website

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in sending a follow-up letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon condemning the Department of Education (ED) for deliberately hiding the “Submit a Complaint” button on the Office of Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) website, firing employees responsible for providing customer service to borrowers and families, and misleading Congress about the scope of these firings.

“These findings suggest that ED is covering up its attempts to make FSA less responsive to millions of students, families, and borrowers who rely on the agency to lower the cost of attending college and protect them from loan servicer misconduct,” the senators wrote.

The senators initially wrote to Secretary McMahon in March 2025 regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to slash FSA’s capacity to handle student aid complaints and hide the “submit a complaint” button. ED’s response to the senators provided a misleading and incomplete explanation of the Department’s actions.

FSA’s complaint system allows students and borrowers to receive help with a range of issues, including servicer errors interfering with loan repayment and problems with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.

In response to the senators’ concerns that FSA has made it more difficult for students and borrowers to submit complaints on FSA’s website, ED stated, “the button to submit a complaint has been moved from the top of the webpage to the footer and renamed ‘submit feedback.’”

But the senators’ investigation revealed that ED’s explanation only tells part of the story. Now, under Secretary McMahon, the complaint button can only be accessed by clicking a tiny “Site Feedback” button hidden at the bottom of the page and navigating through several additional menus. Reports of internal communications between Department personnel reveal that the explicit purpose of this change was to limit the number of complaints ED received.

The senators also raised concerns regarding ED’s choice to fire FSA employees responsible for reviewing financial aid complaints and demanded answers on how this would affect ED’s capacity to help parents and students navigate the federal student aid system. ED had claimed that “[n]o employees working on the core functions of FAFSA or student loan servicing were subject to the Reduction in Force (RIF).” Yet, the layoffs included a large number of staff at the Office of the Ombudsman, which is responsible for investigating and resolving complaints, and staff from FSA dedicated to resolving technical issues with the FAFSA.

“[U]nder your watch, ED has made it more difficult for borrowers to notify the Department of issues related to their financial aid and receive the help they are entitled to,” wrote the senators to Secretary McMahon. 

Senator Warren has led the fight to make our higher education system more affordable, cancel student loan debt, and hold student loan servicers accountable for incompetence and malfeasance. She also launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education:

  • On August 7, 2025, Senator Warren publicly released Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s response to the senator’s 60+ questions and pressed for additional information. Senator Warren announced that she would refer certain matters where the Department has proved uncooperative to the Government Accountability Office and the Education Department’s Inspector General.

  • On August 4, 2025, Senator Warren led eight Senators in pressing major private student loan lenders on their plans to serve the incoming surge of borrowers who will be pushed to the industry because of Republicans’ recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

  • On July 17, 2025, Senator Warren released a new 23-page report, “Education At Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump’s War on Students,” highlighting warnings from 11 major national education and civil rights organizations on the impact of the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education (ED), slashing support to millions of American students, primary and secondary school teachers, administrators, parents, and student loan borrowers.

  • On July 15, 2025, Senators Warren and Sanders, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, urging her to reverse the interest hike on student loan borrowers in the SAVE forbearance.

  • On July 14, 2025, Senator Warren joined a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, and Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, demanding that the Department of Education stop blocking nearly $7 billion in funds for K-12 schools, including for afterschool programs.

  • On July 3, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in submitting an amicus brief for NAACP v. US, arguing to the United States District Court District of Maryland that President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education violate separation of powers and lack constitutional authority.

  • On June 10, 2025, Senator Warren met with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and delivered over 1,000 letters to McMahon that the senator had received from people in all 50 states who were worried about the Secretary’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.

  • On June 9, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in pushing the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Education to open an investigation into new information obtained by her office, revealing that DOGE may have gained access to two FSA internal systems, in addition to sensitive borrower data.

  • On May 20, 2025, Senator Warren and 27 other senators pushed for full funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid.

  • On May 14, 2025, Senator Warren led a Senate forum entitled “Stealing the American Dream: How Trump and Republicans Are Raising Education Costs for Families,” highlighting the consequences of Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education and President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for working- and middle-class students and borrowers.

  • On May 13, 2025, Senator Warren agreed to meet with Education Secretary Linda McMahon and promised to bring questions and stories from Americans across the country to highlight how the Trump administration’s attacks on education are hurting American families.

  • On May 6, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the consequences of President Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education for American families in a Senate forum.

  • On April 24, 2025, Senator Warren launched a new investigation into the harms of President Trump’s attacks on the Department of Education, seeking information on the impact of the Trump administration’s actions from the members of twelve leading organizations representing schools, parents, teachers, students, borrowers, and researchers.

  • On April 10, 2025, following a request led by Senator Warren, the Department of Education’s Acting Inspector General agreed to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.

  • On April 2, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mazie Hirono, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Department of Government Efficiency’s proposed plan to replace the Department of Education’s federal student aid call centers with generative artificial intelligence chatbots.

  • On April 2, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren launched the Save Our Schools campaign to fight back against the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and highlight the consequences for every student and public school in America.

  • On March 27, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led a letter to Acting Department of Education Inspector General René Rocque requesting they conduct an investigation of the Trump Administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.

  • On March 20, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders led a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to slash the capacity of Federal Student Aid to handle student aid complaints.

  • On February 24, 2025, in a response to Senator Warren, Secretary McMahon gave her first public admission that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with Trump’s plans to abolish the Department of Education.

  • On February 11, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim sent Linda McMahon, Secretary-Designate for the U.S. Department of Education, a 12-page letter with 65 questions on McMahon's policy views in advance of her nomination hearing.

  • In February 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to the student loan servicer Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) with continued concerns over its website’s Terms of Use, which appear to be written with the intent to relieve MOHELA of liability for severe misconduct and may infringe upon student loan borrowers’ legal rights.

  • In February 2025, during the Senate’s consideration of the Republican budget resolution, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) proposed an amendment to protect higher education funding in Massachusetts.

  • In February 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led 32 Democratic senators in writing to President Donald Trump, demanding that he reject Congressional Republicans’ legislative plans to increase the cost of living, including education costs, for Americans after pledging to lower costs on “Day One” of his presidency.

  • In February 2025, following Elon Musk and DOGE forcing their way into the Department of Education, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Minority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a coalition of Democrats in demanding the Department of Education launch an investigation into Musk and DOGE’s access to federal student loan data.

  • In January 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent Elon Musk, Chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a letter detailing over 30 proposals that would cut at least $2 trillion of wasteful government spending over the next decade, including through saving on education programs.

  • In December 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) revealed the alarming findings of a Senate investigation into millions of consumer credit reporting errors that occurred during the transfer of student loan accounts from Nelnet to MOHELA in 2023. The senators urged the CFPB and ED to investigate these errors and use their supervisory and enforcement authority to hold the appropriate parties accountable.

  • In December 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-PA) led 24 lawmakers in sending a bicameral letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra and Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, revealing the results of their investigation into Navient regarding its cancellation process for the predatory, for-profit student loans in its portfolio and urging the agencies to hold the student loan servicer accountable for any violations of federal law.

  • In November 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) sent a letter blasting MOHELA for abusing borrowers with potentially illegal, exploitative terms of use.

  • In October 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (ED) commending the agencies on their progress in helping borrowers who are struggling financially to discharge their student loans in bankruptcy and asking them to continue expanding awareness of the Biden-Harris administration’s new policy.

  • In October 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) celebrated new federal student debt relief, bringing the total number of Americans who have had their debt canceled under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program during the Biden-Harris Administration to a historic 1 million people and counting.

  • In September 2024, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Merkley (D-Ore.) released a new report examining the impact of the Biden-Harris administration’s new Higher Education Act rule, finding that low- and middle-income borrowers, seniors, women, and Black borrowers will receive enormous benefits from the new rule.

  • In September 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) led 56 of their colleagues in a letter to the Department of Education (ED), calling on the Department to conduct an analysis as to whether the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) has adhered to its contracts with the federal government, and if not, to consider terminating those contracts.

  • In August 2024, Senator Warren joined Senators Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to launch an investigation into the reported mishandling of student loan transfers by MOHELA, Nelnet, and credit reporting agencies.

  • In August 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) led over 30 lawmakers in a letter urging student loan servicer Navient to reform its flawed process to cancel the private student loans of borrowers who attended fraudulent, for-profit colleges.

  • In July 2024, Senators Warren, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, and Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, cautioning the Department of Education on Federal Student Aid’s transition to the Unified Servicing and Data Solution system.

  • In July 2024, Senators Warren, Schumer, and Sanders released a joint statement on the American Federation of Teachers’ lawsuit against MOHELA for allegedly overcharging and misleading student loan borrowers.

  • In May 2024, Senators Warren and King led their colleagues in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging them to provide guidance and communication to borrowers as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program transfers from MOHELA to the Department of Education.

  • In May 2024, Senator Warren led a growing coalition of senators in urging the Department of Education to hold student loan servicer MOHELA accountable for its failures.

  • In May 2024, Senator Warren and 24 members of the U.S. Senate sent a letter to Senator Tammy Baldwin, Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, encouraging them to provide $2.7 billion in funding to the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) in fiscal year (FY) 2025.

  • In May 2024, Senators Warren, Carper, Kaine, and Representative Don Davis (D-N.C.) called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to release data on the Postsecondary Education Complaint System (PECS), a centralized database to track complaints against schools that participate in the Tuition Assistance (TA) and My Career Advancement Account Scholarship (MyCAA) programs.

  • In April 2024, Senator Warren led eight of her colleagues in sending a letter to David L. Yowan, President and Chief Executive Officer of student loan servicer Navient, urging the servicer to cancel decades-old private student loans pushed onto borrowers attending fraudulent, for-profit colleges.

  • In April 2024, Senators Warren, Blumenthal, Markey, and Van Hollen released a new report: Servicing Scandals: Student Loan Servicers’ Failures During Return to Repayment, which reveals a decades-long pattern of student loan servicer incompetence and misconduct that has affected millions of borrowers nationwide.

  • In April 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren led a hearing on student loan servicer Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) and its failures during borrowers’ return to repayment, including MOHELA’s mismanagement of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

  • In March 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, along with U.S. Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), and John Larson (D-Conn.), led their colleagues in calling on the Social Security Administration (SSA), the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and the U.S. Department of Education to end the practice of offsetting Social Security benefits to pay off defaulted student loans.

  • In February 2024, Senator Warren, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a statement calling for an investigation into student loan mismanagement by MOHELA.

  • In January 2024, Senators Warren, Schumer, Sanders, Warnock, and Padilla, along with Representative Ayanna Pressley, Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Representative Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), led their colleagues in calling on the Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, to host a fourth session of the student debt negotiated rulemaking to consider relief for borrowers experiencing financial hardship.

  • In December 2023, U.S. Senators Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey, and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) sent follow-up letters to student loan servicers – MOHELA, EdFinancial, Nelnet, and Maximus – raising concerns about borrowers’ problems with return to repayment, requesting information about the borrower experience, and pushing back on the servicers’ claim that budget shortfalls limit their ability to provide quality customer service to millions of borrowers.

  • In December 2023, Senators Warren, Schumer, Sanders, Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, urging him to leverage his existing and full authority under the Higher Education Act to provide expanded student debt relief to working- and middle-class borrowers.

  • In August 2023, Senator Warren, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senators Alex Padilla and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar, Jim Clyburn, and Frederica Wilson led 79 other lawmakers in a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to swiftly deliver on his promise to deliver student debt cancellation to working- and middle-class families by early 2024.

  • In October 2022, Senator Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) visited communities across Massachusetts to celebrate the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation plan and help residents sign up for student loan relief.

  • In March 2022, Senator Warren, along with Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Senator Brown, and Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.), urged Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to swiftly discharge the loans of borrowers defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges and universities, including those operated by Corinthian College.

  • In January 2022, Senator Warren, along with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Representatives Jayapal, Pressley, Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Katie Porter (D-Calif.), led more than 80 colleagues in a bicameral letter to the Department of Education calling for it to release the memo outlining the Biden administration’s legal authority to cancel federal student loan debt and immediately cancel up to $50,000 of debt for Federal student loan borrowers.

  • In April 2021, Senators Warren and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led a group of colleagues in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging the Department of Education to take swift action to automatically remove all federally held student loan borrowers from default.

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