You are not alone if your reaction to what’s happening feels something like airsickness, a nausea-inducing conflict between what we know and what we see. The effect is both vertiginous and crazy-making. This isn’t “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. It’s a desperate effort to hang onto reality.¹
I think that describes it well. The daily news seems almost hallucinogenic and you have to constantly ask yourself, “Is this really happening? Am I losing my mind?”
It is really happening. And it’s so outrageous that I honestly wonder how it can get any worse. Are they really going to push this envelope, because if they do we will be going into a darker territory than I think even those of us who always knew it could be bad ever contemplated.
But I’m finding hope in certain places. Obviously, there are the protests and elections which have been huge and decisive. I wrote earlier about James Fallows’ interesting piece about how the non-profit foundations are fighting back. And I think art is finally starting to catch up. In repressive times, it’s often when it flourishes, telling stories and providing images that speak to our reality in ways that reach past the politics and hit a kind of emotional chord that can actually enlighten and change minds.
I started thinking about this when Rob and Michelle Reiner were tragically murdered. The outpouring of grief transcended our divisions (well, except for the monster in the White House) and made people revisit his work, which was nothing if not rooted in all-American values we used to take for granted. It showed that we have something in common, a rare thing these days. (No wonder Trump was so mad.)
Then last night I watched “One Battle After Another”, now streaming on HBO, which I’d seen a few months ago on the big screen. This is the kind of subversive art that truly speaks to our moment, as a surreal take in the mode of Dr. Strangelove. It captures the zeitgeist and the aesthetic of our time in a way I haven’t seen before and I’m hopeful it isn’t the last film or series to capture it.
It’s a dark film but it isn’t depressing and I think it’s because it expresses what Walter Chaw at FCC says in this great review of the film. (Sorry if this is a spoiler for you but I don’t think it is.)
One Battle After Another is a celebration of the power we derive from our diversity, the indomitability of our spirit, and our essential rejection of authoritarianism, which was the driving force behind our revolution against a colonial monarchy and its mad king. It’s not a hagiography for Americans–who can, after all, be messy and violent–but for the idea of a country that used to do things besides try to turn a quick buck. The picture’s ending, like Vineland‘s, is upbeat. Even more upbeat than the book’s, arguably, because it ties a few additional threads and allows for a reunion that’s emotionally resonant. More than upbeat, it’s inspirational: a call to action, an invitation to the dance. Anderson says fighting fascism isn’t civil disobedience, it’s American. There is, in fact, nothing more American, so let’s go.
That’s right. The story of our country is one battle after another.
Let’s go.
If you have the means and the desire to help us keep this one little corner of the resistance going, I’d be most grateful for your support. This next year is going to be a doozy.
Right now, in every grotesque social media post; in every cabinet meeting devoted, North Korea-like, to adulating him; in every executive-order-signing ceremony intended to make him appear like a Chinese emperor; in every fawning reference to all the peace he’s supposedly brought the world; in every Neronic enlargement of the White House’s East Wing; in every classless dig at his predecessor; in every shady deal his family is striking to enrich itself; in every White House gathering of tech billionaires paying him court (in the literal senses of both “pay” and “court”); in every visiting foreign leader who learns to abase himself to avoid some capricious tariff or other punishment — in all this and more, our standards as a nation are being debased, our manners barbarized.
I wonder if we are ever getting them back — and if so, what will it take. As Trump was unloading on Reiner, James Woods, probably the most outspoken Trump supporter in Hollywood, lovingly remembered Reiner as a “godsend in my life” who saved his acting career when it was at a low point 30 years ago.
“I think Rob Reiner is a great patriot,” Woods said Monday on Fox News. “Do I agree with some of, or many of, his ideas on how that patriotism should be enacted, to celebrate the America that we both love? No. But he doesn’t agree with me either, but he also respects my patriotism.” Woods is right, but how that spirit of mutual respect and good faith can be revived under a man like Trump is a question he and the rest of the president’s supporters might helpfully ask of themselves.
They will not ask themselves that. They voted for what he calls our “petty, hollow, squalid Ogre in Chief and they knew what they were getting. They wanted it. It makes them feel good.
[A]mid all this turmoil, how are all the Donald Trump voters feeling? Has buyer’s remorse set in? Are they starting to wonder whether voting in a convicted felon as president – a man who has declared bankruptcy six times – might not have been the wisest move? Not according to the polls. Rather, the US appears to be a nation of Édith Piafs: they regret rien...
I could cite various academic papers on the politics of resentment; I could surface endless statistics on the subject. But I think the best summation of Trumpism is a quote from a woman called Crystal Minton from back in 2019, which went viral after being included in a New York Times report. Minton lived in a Florida town that had been ravaged by the double whammy of a hurricane and a Trump administration-instigated government shutdown, and was suffering. “I voted for [Trump], and he’s the one who’s doing this,” Minton complained. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”
Right now, however, Trump is hurting the sort of people many of his voters seem to be interested in seeing get hurt. He’s an avenging angel, wreaking vengeance on the elite institutions, scapegoats and bogeymen that the Republican party has spent years blaming for the state of the US. He’s cut funding to all the Ivy League universities he’s called “woke” and declared out of touch with American values. He’s gone after transgender people. And he has rounded up immigrants and protesters, just as he promised he would do.
Trump isn’t just doing every vindictive thing he told his supporters he was going to do: he’s trolling his detractors via nasty memes. He’s rubbing salt in their wounds. There has been what Marcus Maloney, a sociology professor at Coventry University in the UK, called a “4Chanification of American politics”. The White House Valentine’s Day post, for example, was a poem: “Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally, and we’ll deport you”. Cutesy font appeared above the floating heads of Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan. And a video last month posted by the White House showed a man being deported while Semisonic’s famous lyrics played in the background: “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” The cruelty is very much the point.
What are we going to do about that?
I have no idea but we’d better come up with something because that ugly genie is out of the bottle and it’s not going back in with an election of two.
Stephen Miller: "We don't have a Democrat Party anymore…We have a communist party, but it's actually the worst kind of communism imaginable, which is DEI communism. So it's not just 'we're going to redistribute your wealth,' it's 'we're going to import massive number of… pic.twitter.com/M1dvaOqBKp
“We don’t have a Democrat Party anymore…We have a communist party, but it’s actually the worst kind of communism imaginable, which is DEI communism. So it’s not just ‘we’re going to redistribute your wealth,’ it’s ‘we’re going to import massive number of illiterate refugees and give all your wealth to them.
And we’re going to give their kids the first spot in every college, and we’re going to make sure their kids are the next wave of doctors who are going to butcher you when you’re having a medical emergency’…communism and DEI is LITERALLY a recipe for national death. That is what Democrats are bringing us.”
He’s talking about you. And me. At least half the country.
It would be one thing if he was just another far right kook yammering away at TPUSA. But he’s the Deputy White House Chief of Staff in charge of domestic policy for the U.S Government. And the president he serves is an angry, vengeful,addled old man who nobody can control.
Deep breath…. Three more years.
Oh, and by the way, it isn’t just the Democrats:
As Americans get ready to celebrate Christmas, the George W. Bush Presidential Center is very earnestly posting about the urgent need for unfettered migration from the most dangerous nations on planet earth, while effectively conceding some of these migrants will try to kill us. https://t.co/uhmpRSWeZ5
Of course there are gradations of Americanness. Ilhan Omar is less American than AOC. Vivek Ramaswamy is less American than Byron Donalds. And all of them are less American than JD Vance. We all know this, and it’s time to stop playing this ridiculous game. https://t.co/F2BbtBlim7
If you detect mission creep in the White House deportation program enforced by unprofessional, undertrained DHS/ICE agents, you are not imagining things (from Thursday):
As President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown continues, one community says they’ve felt unfairly targeted. This year, the Navajo Nation said dozens of Native Americans have been questioned or detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, even though Indigenous people can’t be deported.
You may recognize Native American actress Elaine Miles from her roles in “Northern Exposure,” “The Last of Us,” and “Smoke Signals.” She said ICE agents approached her last month near a bus stop in Redmond, Washington, asking for her ID, and then said it looked fake.
“I kept telling them that it was from a federally recognized tribe in eastern Oregon. It’s a federal ID, and only enrolled members can get those because they kept saying anybody could make them,” Miles said.
Also in November, Leticia Jacobo, an Indigenous woman, was set to be released from an Iowa jail after serving time for a traffic violation. Her aunt, Maria Nunez, said things went downhill when the family tried to pick her up.
“They stated to her that she was to be released at midnight, but was not going to be released because she had an ICE detention hold on her,” Nunez said.
BREAKING: ICE agents are questioning and detaining Native Americans.
Leticia Jacobo, an Indigenous woman, was supposed to be released from an Iowa jail after serving time for a traffic violation. Instead, she was stopped at the door.
Jail staff told her she wasn’t being released after all, because ICE had placed a detention hold on her.
She was told she’d be free at midnight. Midnight came and went. Rather than being released, she was treated as if she were undocumented.
She was already dressed in a jumpsuit for deportation.
Leticia is 24 years old. She grew up in Arizona’s Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community. She is Native American. She had her tribal ID with her.
None of that stopped ICE from labeling her an “immigrant.”
Only later did jail staff admit they had made a “mistake,” claiming they confused her with another inmate who had the same last name. After that admission, she was finally released and sent home with her mother.
That explanation should alarm everyone.
This wasn’t a harmless clerical error. It’s the predictable outcome of an enforcement system that increasingly relies on names instead of verified identity.
ICE is not just operating inside jails. Agents are also stopping, questioning, and detaining people during street encounters, often without judicial warrants and with little immediate oversight. In these situations, enforcement frequently depends on name-based database matches, not confirmed identity.
At the same time, federal agencies are sharing large amounts of passenger name data, further expanding the number of ways someone can be flagged, misidentified, or detained.
When enforcement works this way, confusing one person for another isn’t a small mistake, it’s a due process failure. People can be treated as deportable first and sorted out later, if they’re lucky.
And as more of these cases come to light, DHS continues to deny they’re happening at all.
They are lying.
🚨BREAKING: ICE agents are questioning and detaining Native Americans.
Leticia Jacobo, an Indigenous woman, was supposed to be released from an Iowa jail after serving time for a traffic violation. Instead, she was stopped at the door.
One might guess that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem shot her dog because she misplaced its leash. She could use some for her ICE agents. And a supply of plastic bags to clean up after them.
Late Wednesday evening it seemed a lock that Donald J. Trump’s crazed, prime-time speech would prove fodder for last night’s “Saturday Night Live” cold open. But then beginning Friday morning (and without congressional approval), Trump had workmen add is name atop President Kennedy’s on the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. That evening, his Department of Justice failed to fully release the Epstein files in compliance with the law Trump signed a mere month earlier. Trump complained on Wednesday, as he has for decades, that the world was laughing at us (him). “But they’re not laughing anymore,” he argued. The world had barely recovered from the shock of his Wednesday night rant before Trump gave the world more reason to laugh at us (him).
SNL shifted its focus.
For a man who fears people laughing at him almost more than jail time or losing the media spotlight (or his money), Trump is working overtime at making himself a world-historic laughingstock, and the United States as well.
Reporter Ashley Parker noted during Friday evening’s “Washington Week with The Atlantic” that the “central irony” that “Donald Trump is actually great at willing his own reality.”
Trump cannot convince people that the price of their groceries and rent has gone down. But he is a magician skilled at misdirection whenever he needs to divert public attention from embarrassing news — like his panned speech or the Epstein files non-release. Adding his name to the Kennedy Center accomplished just that. Even SNL’s writers went for it.
"Putin doesn’t name buildings after himself," said @FranklinFoer.
"The only leaders in the world who do this are in places like Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. There’s a tin-pot dictator quality to what [Trump is] doing and how he’s afflicting his insecurities on the world." pic.twitter.com/s4kfBJqcOB
— Washington Week with The Atlantic | PBS (@washingtonweek) December 20, 2025
“Putin doesn’t name buildings after himself,” said Franklin Foer. “Orban doesn’t name buildings after himself. This is something — you know, the only leaders in the world who do this are in places like Turkmenistan, in Tajikistan. There’s a tin pot dictator quality to what he’s doing and how he’s inflicting his insecurities on the world.”
But moderator Jeffrey Goldberg summed up the Trump presidency as the laughingstock it’s become. The Trump presidency last week took on “a feeling of Boratness to it.”
Somehow, I don’t think MAGA thought they were voting to make their beloved country a character in a cringe comedy.
I’m guessing you’ve already had it up to “here” with holly jolly Burl Ives and Rudolph with his frigging red nose so bright wafting out of every elevator in sight. Christmas comes but once a year; this too shall soon pass. I promise I won’t torture you with the obvious and overplayed. Rather, I have curated 20 selections that aren’t flogged to death every year; some deeper cuts (and a few novelty items) for your Xmas creel.
Happy Crimble, and a Very New Year!
Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland – Grandaddy
The stockings are hung with irony in this California-based indie band’s rendition.
Gone away Is the blue bird Here to stay Is the new bird He records a love song The production’s right on Alan Parsons in a winter wonderland
All I Want For Christmas – The Bobs
The Bobs have been stalking me. They formed in the early 80s, in San Francisco. I was living in San Francisco in the early 80s; I recall catching them as an opening act for The Plimsouls (I think…or maybe Greg Kihn) at The Keystone in Berkeley. I remember having my mind blown by a cappella renditions of “Psycho Killer” and “Helter Skelter”. Later, I resettled in Seattle. Later, they resettled in Seattle. I wish they’d quit following me! This is a lovely number from their 1996 album Too Many Santas.
Ave Maria – Stevie Wonder
There are songs that you do not tackle if you don’t have the pipes (unless you want to be jeered offstage, or out of the ball park). “The Star Spangled Banner” comes to mind; as does “Nessun dorma”. “Ave Maria” is right up there too. Not only does Stevie nail the vocal, but he whips out the most sublime harmonica solo this side of Toots Thielemans.
Blue Xmas – Bob Dorough w/ the Miles Davis Sextet
The hippest “Bah, humbug!” of all time. “Gimme gimme gimme…”
A Christmas Song– Jethro Tull
Ian Anderson decries all the crass commercialization; gets drunk with Santa. “Psst…Hey, Santa. Pass us that bottle, will ya?”
Christmas at the Airport – Nick Lowe
Wry and tuneful as ever, veteran pub-rocker/power-popper/balladeer Nick Lowe continues to compose, produce, record and tour. This is from his 2013 Christmas album, Quality Street. I think a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination is overdue.
Christmas in Suburbia – The Cleaners From Venus
Despite the fact that he writes hook-laden, Beatlesque pop gems in his sleep, and has been doing so for five decades, endearingly eccentric singer-musician-songwriter-poet Martin Newell (Cleaners From Venus, Brotherhood of Lizards) remains a selfishly-guarded secret by cultish admirers (of which I am one). But since it is the holidays, I’m feeling magnanimous-so I will share him with you now (you’re welcome).
Christmas Wish – NRBQ
NRBQ has been toiling in relative obscurity since 1966, despite nearly 50 albums and a rep for crowd-pleasing live shows. I think they’ve fallen through the cracks because they are tough to pigeonhole; they’re equally at home with power-pop, blues, rock, jazz, R&B, country or goofy covers. This is from their eponymous 2007 album.
I Am Santa Claus – Bob Rivers
Funniest Christmas parody song ever, by the “Twisted Tunes” gang.
I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas – Yogi Yorgesson
I first heard this tune about the “joys” of holiday gatherings on “The Dr. Demento Show” . It always puts me in hysterics, especially: “My mouth tastes like a pickle.”
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Leo Kottke
In 1969, an LP entitled 6- and 12-String Guitar quietly slid into record stores. The cover had a painting of an armadillo, with “Leo Kottke” emblazoned above. In the 50+ years since, “the armadillo album” has become a touchstone for aspiring guitarists, introducing the world to a gifted player with a unique and expressive finger picking technique. Kottke’s lovely take on a Bach classic is a highlight.
River – Joni Mitchell
Not a jolly “laughing all the way” singalong; but this is my list, and I’m sticking to it. Besides, Joni opens with a “Jingle Bells” piano quote, and the lyrics are stuffed with Christmas references. Oft-covered, but it doesn’t make a lot of holiday playlists.
Santa – Lightnin’ Hopkins
Best Christmas blues ever, by the poet laureate of the Delta.
Now, I happened to see these old people learning the young ones, Yeah just learning them exactly what to do. So sweet, it’s so sweet to see these old people, Learning they old children just what to do. Mother said a million-year-ago Santa Claus come to me, Now this year he gone come to you.
My little sister said take your stocking now, Hang it up on the head of the bed. Talkin’ to her friend she said take your stocking, And please hang it up on head of the bed. And she said know we all God’s saint children, In the morning Ol’ Santa Claus gone see that we all is fed.
Sleigh Ride– The Ventures
I’ve never personally seen anyone “hang ten” in Puget Sound; nonetheless, one of the greatest surf bands ever hails from Tacoma. This jaunty mashup of a Christmas classic with “Walk, Don’t Run” sports tasty fretwork by Nokie Edwards and Don Wilson.
Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas – Harvey Danger
Ho-ho-ho, here’s your %&#!@ change. We’ve all been there at one time or another. I have a soft spot for this music video (It’s a Wonderful Life meets Clerks) because it features one of my favorite neighborhood theaters here in Seattle-The Grand Illusion.
Stoned Soul Christmas – Binky Griptite
“Man, what’s the matter with you…don’t you know it’s Christmas?!” A funky sleigh ride down to the stoned soul Christmas with guitarist/DJ Binky Griptite (formerly of The Dap Kings). A clever reworking of Laura Nyro’s “Stoned Soul Picnic.” Nice.
2000 Miles – The Pretenders
A lovely live chamber pop rendition, and Chrissie’s vocals are sublime.
We Wish You a Merry Christmas– Jacob Miller (w/ Ray I)
An ire, ire, ire Xmas wish from the late great Inner Circle front man.
A Winter’s Tale – Jade Warrior
Not a Christmas song per se, but it certainly evokes a cozy holiday scenario:
Ivy tapping on my window, wine and candle glow, Skies that promise snow have gathered overhead. Buttered toast and creamy coffee, table laid for two, Lovely having you to share a smile with me.
A beautiful track from an underappreciated UK prog-rock band.
‘Zat You, Santa Claus? – Louis Armstrong
The great jazz growler queries a night prowler who may or may not be the jolly old elf.
Bonus track!
What begins as a performance of “Everlong” turns into a rousing Christmas medley in this 2017 performance by the Foo Fighters on Saturday Night Live. Good grief!
Stuck for something to watch on movie night? Check out the archives at Den of Cinema
— Dennis Hartley
It’s Happy Hollandaise time here at Hullabaloo. If you like to throw a little something in the old Christmas stocking it would be most appreciated.
UPDATE 12/22/25: I was captivated by Chris Rea’s distinctive pipes the first time I played “Fool If You Think It’s Over” on my afternoon drive radio shift in 1978 and I’ve been a fan ever since. Sad to hear of his passing today. Equally at home with well-crafted pop, rock, and blues (and a tasty guitar player), he was a prolific artist who belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. R.I.P. -D.H.
I rag on the elite institutions in our country all the time because they’ve shown that they are cowards and sellouts. Law firms, universities, corporations etc. have (with some notable exceptions) demonstrated that they have no civic responsibility or even any sophisticated instinct for self-preservation in the face of Trump’s petty and puerile demands. But according to James Fallows there is on sector that is not kow-towing and they are powerful and wealthy in their own right: foundations. He discusses this in the podcast below:
This first podcast is about an under-publicized and perhaps unexpected source of civic strength. These are America’s philanthropic institutions—including the legacies of great wealth accumulated from the Rockefeller or Ford eras onward, which are now applied to challenges in the US and around the world…
Toward the end of making their collective courage less quiet and more contagious, I recently had a podcast discussion with one of the most outspoken of their leaders. This is John Palfrey, now in his seventh year as president of the MacArthur Foundation, based in Chicago.
MacArthur is best known for its “genius” fellowships, but it is active in many other realms, in the US and around the world. Its total assets are just under $10 billion. Before coming to MacArthur, Palfrey had directed the Berkman Center on the Internet and Society at Harvard, been a tenured professor at Harvard Law School, and led Phillips Andover Academy.
This year, Palfrey has been prominent in the philanthropic world for his exhortations that institutions need to “Unite in Advance”—and that they should use their money right now, on an emergency basis, to defend the values that shore up democracy. You can read more about his efforts and messages here, here, here, and here. Those rainy day funds? The rain is pouring down.
Because Palfrey presents his case so clearly, I hope you’ll listen to the full 30-minute podcast discussion, below. His answers are precise, and he clearly extends the lessons from his powerful and privileged sector of American society to the obligations of citizenship for all of us, in emergency times.
As I’ve written many times, the late Jane Goodall had an answer for audiences around the world, especially children, who learned about society’s problems and asked, But what can I do? She would reply: Do what you can. Where you are. When you are able.
John Palfrey closes this discussion on a similar note. In the final two minutes of the recording below, he says that he ends this tumultuous year asking himself, Am I fully doing what is mine to do?
Whatever is in our control, are we doing it, to preserve this American Republic, particularly as we go into our 250th year?
I think there are going to be so many opportunities for every American to stand up and do something that represents the history and the community that we believe in.
And I think only by doing that are we going to be able to restore the fabric of this incredible, incredible American Republic.
It’s really interesting. Give it a listen if you have the chance.
Yep. We’re all in this together. And I think it’s already making and difference and the energy will only grow in the next year.
I try to put up a daily thank you, tribute and discussion of what we do here and why because I know that some of you only stop by sporadically and I want to make sure that everyone knows how grateful I am for your support. I very much appreciate your kindness and generosity.
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It’s Saturday so I wanted to extend a shout-out to my old friend and movie/culture critic, Dennis Hartley who does our Saturday Night at the Movies feature week in and week out. There was time when I was as up on all the latest films as he is but no more. I depend on him to let me know what’s happening — and also what older films I need to revisit. His personal site is https://denofcinema.com/ and it’s very well organized if you ever want to check out his lists or recommendations.
Dennis has an encyclopedic knowledge of film and music of the rock era and excellent taste. (He knows politics too…) And lately, the two of us often find ourselves texting back and forth about the latest sad departure of a beloved figure from our youth or an artist we both admire. I guess that starts to happen as you get older. Dennis’ tributes are often among the best I read anywhere — his piece about Rob Reiner was just beautiful. So I guess we can add a talent for writing obituaries to his other skills.
I’m so grateful to him for his contributions to this project and for being my friend for many decades. At this point in our lives the friendships that have stood the test of time are the most precious.
If you value what we do here and you’d like to keep us going for another year, I’d be very appreciative. It makes it possible to keep the lights on.
This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release.@AGPamBondi is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public. pic.twitter.com/3wYZAl2dse
The DOJ half assedly released just a few of the Epstein files yesterday even though the law required them to be fully released. There are pictures of Bill Clinton and some others but weirdly, no mention of Trump. I can’t tell you how shocked I am. (Not.)
The right’s obsession with this story has long been about exposing Bill Clinton and other Democrats, not Donald Trump who, for some reason, they believed was a peripheral character even though he and Epstein were best buddies for over a decade. It’s no surprise that the corrupt Trump Justice Department would go this way.
Other than Tom’s post below, the best rundown of this drop is, unsurprisingly, from Marcy Wheeler. She calls it a limited hangout which is the best way to see it. And those don’t really work. Politico compared it to the way Trump used the Wikileaks drops in 2016 against Hillary Clinton to create a “drip, drip, drip of bad news. Now he’s using it against himself.
For a second day in a row, a long-brewing internal fight among MAGA influencers spilled onto the stage of Turning Point USA’s first annual conference since the September slaying of Charlie Kirk, the organization’s co-founder.
Podcaster Ben Shapiro, speaking on the AmericaFest convention’s opening night Thursday, ripped into right-wing broadcasters Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly, as well as white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
“The conservative movement is also in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” Shapiro said. “Those of us with a microphone have a moral obligation to call that out by name.”
He condemned Carlson for hosting Fuentes — whom he called “a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse” — and Bannon for “maligning people that he disagrees with” by accusing them of “loyalty to a foreign country.”
Bannon fired back on Friday night from the same stage, accusing Shapiro of wanting to take over Turning Point USA and putting Israel’s interests ahead of the United States.
“Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads,” Bannon said to cheers from the crowd of thousands at the Phoenix Convention Center.
It’s actually much more dramatic than that. I collected some highlights that show it’s not just about Bannon and Shapiro. They are ALL at each others’ throats.
🚨BREAKING: Total Fail Opener at Amfest – $200 Million Grifted and Geofencing Tech Partners, and TPUSA can't figure out an iPad or teleprompter or written paper backup when Erika's laptop won't turn on. Erika blames "the enemy" for making her iPad not work and claims her "entire… https://t.co/fP6RjN5YKEpic.twitter.com/k8QMedTA1e
Here is Ben Shapiro's full speech at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest where he slams Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, and criticizes his friend Megyn Kelly.
Whether you agree with him or not, it's a must-watch…especially considering that… pic.twitter.com/fIHj4hxiL9
BANNON: @benshapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads. It metastasizes. He tried to take over Breitbart and I ran him out. He tried to take over David Horowitz’s, his mentor. Mark my words, he’ll make a move on @tpusa. He’s always been envious of Charlie Kirk. pic.twitter.com/XAkGy8uovy
Fresh from his most recent visit to his beloved Qatar (where he bought a home), and right after Muslims murdered Americans in Syria and murdered Jews in Australia, Islam whore @TuckerCarlson yells at Americans to stop ‘attacking Americans because they’re Muslim’ to a silent crowd pic.twitter.com/FUNuAw7T9z
1. Ben Shapiro attacking Tucker and speaking at TPUSA Amfest.
2. The heavily redacted Epstein files being released, failure to release them all by today’s lawful deadline, and redacting “politically exposed individuals and government officials.”…
Tucker Carlson totally upstaged Ben Shapiro—very mature, well articulated response after Shapiro called for Tucker to be denounced on AmFest stage. Really poor use of his platform. That’s not what Charlie would’ve wanted. We’re better than this.pic.twitter.com/g0x7Edonnu
Vivek Ramaswamy says the idea of a “heritage American” is ridiculous, and implies that immigrants who just received their citizenship are just as American as Americans descended from the Colonial Era.
Nick Fuentes on Donald Trump’s latest speech and the reality of an administration that delivers nothing.
“Trump is unpopular with his own base because of the exit of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the handling of the Epstein files, the post about Rob Reiner, the lack of an end to the… pic.twitter.com/r8D2JII6vD
She really looked at the camera and screamed: “Your people… contract lords” “I’m off the mother-effing plantation” “F**K YOU Ben Shapiro and the midget horse you rode in on”
Only cowards take to the national stage or X to attack their “friends” without so much as a phone call to discuss it. And also didn’t tag me bc she is afraid. 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/EkRLnKgJQr
“If this is what the MAGA movement and the political movement on the right becomes, I am not interested, nor will I seek to be involved in any way with whatever that is.”
