Donald Trump hit with 26 articles of impeachment

Billal Rahman
Sat, September 26, 2026

President Donald Trump has been slapped with 26 new articles of impeachment by a House Democrat, accusing him of abuses of power, violations of his oath of office, and a sweeping range of other alleged misconduct.

Representative Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat and senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the articles on September 24, just nine days after the House rejected a separate impeachment effort brought by Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas.

The latest effort comes as Democrats remain divided over pursuing impeachment against Trump.

Green's resolution was shelved by the House in a 232-147 vote on September 15, with 18 Democrats joining nearly all Republicans in voting to table it and another 47 lawmakers voting present. Those voting present included House Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar.

What Are the 26 Articles of Impeachment Against Trump?

Cohen's resolution is considerably wider than Green's. Its 26 articles encompass allegations involving Trump's immigration policies, the use of military power, federal spending, tariffs, presidential pardons, the federal workforce, universities, law firms, the media, and alleged personal financial benefit from the presidency.

View embedded content

The first article accuses Trump of "undermining democracy" by sowing doubt in elections, while the second alleges an abuse of power by waging war on Iran without congressional approval. Another concerns alleged extrajudicial killings in international waters off Venezuela, while a fourth targets the deployment of military forces against U.S. cities.

Immigration features prominently in the resolution. The articles target Trump's birthright citizenship executive order and the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. They also make allegations concerning conditions at El Salvador's CECOT prison and accuse the administration of defying court orders in immigration enforcement.

Other articles accuse Trump of unlawfully withholding congressionally appropriated funds, imposing loyalty tests on the federal workforce, improperly terminating inspectors general, and abusing presidential pardon powers.

Cohen also targets Trump's dealings with the press, law firms and universities. Two articles accuse the president of attacking press freedom, including by excluding reporters from the White House over coverage and allegedly coercing CBS and ABC to alter editorial content.

The press-freedom allegations come amid an ongoing legal battle over Trump's banishing of CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters from the White House, with the three outlets suing to regain access.

Others concern executive actions against law firms and the withholding of federal funds from universities.

The final article alleges that Trump violated the Constitution's emoluments provisions by "profiting personally and directly from the presidency." The claims contained in the resolution are allegations made by Cohen and do not themselves establish that Trump committed impeachable offenses.

"Trump is clearly the most impeachable President our country has ever endured. His continued presence in office is a danger to our democracy," Cohen said in a press release.

"That the sycophantic Republican majority in Congress is derelict in its duty does not mean that I must abandon my responsibilities. I took an independent oath to support and defend the Constitution. That commitment compels me to introduce this resolution today. When historians write about this period, and our constituents ask who stood up to President Trump's lawlessness, this resolution is the answer."

Cohen has acknowledged that the effort is unlikely to advance. "I know they won't go anywhere, but I'm not going to stop standing up for my constituents and for democracy," he told Nexstar.

The White House has been contacted for comment.

Democrats Divided Over Impeachment

The new resolution arrives amid clear differences among House Democrats over how and when to pursue impeachment.

Green's September effort focused much more narrowly on the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. His resolution accused Trump of abusing presidential powers in connection with immigration operations in which federal officers killed several civilians. The administration defended the officers' actions, saying they had feared for their lives and acted in self-defense.

Democratic leaders did not endorse Green's effort and said impeachment should follow formal investigations and hearings that had not taken place.

Aguilar, the House Democratic Caucus chairman, also said shortly before the Green vote that impeachment was not at the top of House Democrats' agenda.

There is some overlap between the two efforts, particularly over immigration enforcement. Cohen's articles include allegations involving Abrego Garcia, CECOT, and the administration's compliance with court orders in immigration cases. Green's September resolution, by contrast, centered on the immigration crackdown and civilians killed during federal enforcement operations.

Previous Trump Impeachment Efforts

Both Cohen and Green have a history of seeking Trump's impeachment dating back to his first term.

Cohen introduced five articles against Trump in November 2017 while serving as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

Green also pursued impeachment during Trump's first year in office. He introduced an impeachment resolution in 2017 accusing Trump of conduct that Green argued had fueled bigotry and hatred and brought the presidency into disrepute.

When Green forced a House vote on an impeachment resolution in December 2017, lawmakers voted 364-58 to table it, with Republicans and most Democrats opposing an effort that Democratic leaders at the time argued was premature.

Trump was impeached twice by the House during his first presidency.

The first came on December 18, 2019, when the House approved articles accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress following an investigation centered on his dealings with Ukraine. The Senate acquitted Trump on both articles in February 2020.

The House impeached Trump for a second time in January 2021 on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was subsequently acquitted by the Senate.

The latest 26-article resolution does not mean Trump has been impeached again. An individual House member can introduce articles of impeachment, but impeachment occurs only if the House votes to approve at least one article. Cohen's effort also enters a House controlled by Republicans, and the recent Green vote demonstrated that even Democrats are not united behind another impeachment push.

Nader Rips ‘Feeble, Weak, Cowardly’ Democrats for Eschewing Trump Impeachment

“The Democrats and electorally frightened Republicans pushed Richard Nixon out in 1974 for far, far lesser transgressions than those committed by Trump in a week.”

Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader listens during a news conference  at Public Citizen in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Sep 17, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


As Democrats campaign for the November midterm elections after helping kill the latest congressional effort to impeach President Donald Trump, progressive consumer advocate and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader this week renewed attacks on the party’s leadership for abandoning their constitutional responsibility to hold the president accountable.

In a September 14 essay published by Current Affairs, Nader argued that Democratic leaders have effectively given up on impeachment even as Trump’s second administration faces continuing allegations of executive overreach and misconduct.

“The chronic prevaricator and delusionist Donald J. Trump knows that the worse his outlaw actions become, the less likely the Democrats in Congress are to impeach him,” the Public Citizen co-founder wrote. “The massive number of blatant, impeachable acts by the lawless, corrupt, violent, systemically racist, unstable, dangerous tyrant increases by the day.”

“The American public knows it,” Nader continued. “The majority of Americans favor impeaching Trump. Among Democrats, it’s 84% in favor, as well as a majority of independents. Polling even shows that most Americans think Trump is a ‘dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.’”

Yet, “when asked about impeachment, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries [D-NY] replied: ‘We haven’t ruled anything in and we haven’t ruled anything out,’” he noted. “What? Every day, the mega-arsonist is burning down our republic and its Constitution, with tens of millions of Americans suffering and endangered. Yet Jeffries has been noncommittal about whether Democrats would pursue impeachment even if they had a congressional majority.”

In a column republished by Common Dreams earlier this month, Nader wrote, “What must Tyrant Trump be thinking about his opponents’ feeble, weak, cowardly responses to his daily torrent of serious, impeachable offenses?”

“Even his egomaniacal narcissism cannot fully explain his amazing good luck,” he opined.

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives voted 232-147 to table an impeachment resolution introduced by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), effectively ending the measure’s consideration. Eighteen Democrats joined Republicans in voting to table it, while 46 Democrats—including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—voted “present.”

Green’s resolution accused Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors arising from the administration’s deadly anti-immigrant crackdown, including alleged violations of civil liberties and due process. Green said before the vote that the Constitution contains no provision requiring Congress to wait before confronting impeachable conduct.

Democratic leaders have attempted to justify their decision not to support Green’s resolution by arguing that impeachment requires a substantial investigative record, hearings, witness testimony, and document review. Jeffries, along with Democratic leaders Katherine Clark of Massachusetts—the House minority whip—and Pete Aguilar of California, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said they would vote “present” because “none of that serious work has been done,” as they jointly explained.

Nader rejects that reasoning. In Current Affairs, he argued that saying Democrats “don’t have the votes” misses the purpose of a sustained impeachment campaign, which he described as a way of building public pressure and organizing voters.

“Impeachment is a mobilizer for get-out-the-vote efforts,” he wrote, as well as “for educating and energizing the people back home.”

Trump has already been impeached twice by the House, although the Senate failed to convict him either time. No other president has been impeached multiple times. Nader has pointed out that Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors are more grave than those for which then-President Nixon resigned from office in 1974 rather than face impeachment, and that Democrats’ fear of the consequences for impeaching Trump again is no excuse for their cowardice.

“The Democrats and electorally frightened Republicans pushed Richard Nixon out in 1974 for far, far lesser transgressions than those committed by Trump in a week,” he wrote.

 

Scientists finally know the body temperature of the Tyrannosaurus rex

T. rex was a hottie! A fossil-based thermometer reveals the animal’s temperature

University of California - Los Angeles

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Key takeaways

• UCLA scientists used portions of dinosaur teeth to pin down Tyrannosaurus rex’s temperature for the first time, placing it at 97 degrees Fahrenheit, comparable to a human.
• A warm-blooded T. rex would have been an energetic predator or scavenger, not a sun-basking slowpoke. 
• UCLA researchers perfected the method of measuring temperature from fossils, and partnered to use T. rex teeth from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

When picturing a scaled, toothy Tyrannosaurus rex stomping across North America, building nests and eating other dinosaurs, it’s easy to forget that scientists have gleaned everything we know about T. rex from clues left more than 60 million years ago. While the presence of fossils in Alaska suggested that this prehistoric ancestor of birds was already on the evolutionary path from cold-blooded reptile to warm-blooded avian, there wasn’t a way to take T. rex’s temperature —until now. 

UCLA scientists have perfected a method to measure a dinosaur’s temperature from its teeth and found that T. rex was a relatable 97 degrees Fahrenheit — almost the same as humans. The finding, using fossils from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, confirms the “King of the Tyrant Lizards” would have been a fast-moving predator or scavenger — not a sun-basking slowpoke — that was able to survive in chilly climates deadly to other reptiles.

UCLA researchers developed their prehistoric thermometer method a decade ago, using bones to measure whether extinct animals were warm-blooded or cold-blooded. Testing it on a T. rex, however, required more bone than any museum would part with. Over that decade, however, the UCLA team refined the process, cutting the amount of material needed for ancient dental testing by roughly 90%. It was enough to convince L.A.’s Natural History Museum to provide portions of two teeth from Thomas the T. rex, the most complete of the towering tyrannosaur skeletons inside NHM’s dinosaur hall.

Though scientists have found increasing evidence that T. rex was warm-blooded in recent years, the study published Sept. 16 in Science Advances marks the first time scientists have an actual number. 

“No one’s been able to make a temperature measurement like this before,” UCLA geobiologist and study co-author Robert Eagle said. “We found T. rex was 36 Celsius (97 Fahrenheit), about the same as humans. The temperature is about what I would have guessed — higher than a reptile or a slow mammal like a sloth, but lower than an avian.”

Though still a scaly, egg-laying reptile, T. rex’s 36 C body temperature is comparable to a furry, warm-blooded mammal’s. Modern, cold-blooded reptiles run about 28-30 C (82-86 F), while most birds — T. rex’s evolutionary descendants — often run much warmer at 40-43 C (104-109 F), Eagle said. 

How the body temperature of Tyrannosaurus rex was determined

The key to taking T. rex’s temperature lies in a chemical bond, Eagle said. Inside tooth enamel, rare isotopes of carbon and oxygen form bonds together. The number of those bonds between those isotopes increases in cooler temperatures and decreases in warmer temperatures. A warm-blooded animal will have fewer of these chemical bonds in their teeth than a cold-blooded animal.

“That’s the basis of using the isotopes as a thermometer,” Eagle said. “In theory, we can make measurements using any part of the skeleton, but the bones in our body are constantly being remodeled and dissolved and replaced. Tooth enamel has large crystalline structures that are extremely durable, making it the part of the skeleton that most resists chemical alteration by the environment over the eons.”

Eagle and lead author Randy Flores used a dental drill to remove the enamel from the fossils and dissolved the resulting powder in phosphoric acid to release carbon dioxide gas containing the isotope bonds. Measuring the gas with a mass spectrometer revealed the isotope ratios, Eagle explained. Pressurizing the gas allowed them to create a denser jet of CO2, providing a large enough sample for the mass spectrometer from a smaller amount of material.

What the T. rex’s body temperature tells us about the dinosaur

A thermoregulated T. rex supports theories that tyrannosaurs were active animals, chasing or scavenging food to fuel their fast metabolisms, Eagle said. It also adds to the timeline, showing how much this ancestor of modern, very warm-blooded birds had already diverged from cold-blooded dinosaurs.

A toasty T. rex also was able to survive in a cooler habitable range, stretching into territory where cold-blooded animals would have faltered, said study co-author Alessandro Chiarenza, a paleontologist at University College London. The warm-blooded reptile would have adapted over millions of years to the hot-house conditions of the Cretaceous Period, one of the warmest periods in Earth’s history, approximately 11-25 F warmer than today. 

But even in the baking heat of the Cretaceous Period, winter in Alaska would have been too frigid for a cold-blooded dinosaur, Chiarenza said. And sure enough, paleontologists haven’t found fossils of lizards, turtles, crocodiles or other reptiles from Cretaceous Alaska, but they have uncovered Tyrannosaurus fossils there

“Now we have empirical evidence using this geologic thermometer,” Chiarenza said. “Using paleoclimate models of the past, we were able to reconstruct a range in North America 66 million years ago that stretched from Mexico to Alaska, based on where T. rex could have survived with a 97 F body temperature.”

Why it was the right time to test the fossils

After years of collaborating with Eagle and UCLA, the Natural History Museum agreed the technology had advanced enough for the institution to provide small portions of Thomas the T. rex’s teeth that aren’t on display, said Luis Chiappe, curator of the museum’s Dinosaur Institute and head of NHM research and collections.

“We’re asked for fossils for use in destructive analysis all the time,” Chiappe said. “The museum contains tens of millions of specimens of minerals, animals and fossils that are irreplaceable. We have to make decisions that balance the damage to the specimen against gaining knowledge about the natural world. Sacrificing small portions of two teeth to learn about T. rex’s body temperature is definitely worth the trade-off.”

Thomas the T. rex’s bones come from a dig site at Hell Creek in Montana, the same place as ancient crocodilian fossils also measured by the research team. By comparing their findings of the crocodilian’s 30 C (86 F) body temperature to the 36 C (97 F) of the T. rex, the researchers showed that the results weren’t reflecting a fluke of geology changing the fossils’ molecular composition, which would have resulted in similar temperature readings for both species, Eagle said.

The research was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation.

---

Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aeb7653

Related News Releases

• Scientists finally know the body temperature of the Tyrannosaurus rex
  (University of California - Los Angeles)

From Bread and Circuses of the Romans to the World Cup of the Globalists: A Saga of Hegemony 

Omar Ramahi

 August 14, 2026

FacebookTwitterRedditBlueskyEmail

Photograph Source: Javier Perez Montes – CC BY-SA 4.0

What has changed since the times of the Romans when coliseums were built for entertainment and amusement? The answer: only the architecture. The objectives live on, but on a much grander scale.

“Bread and circuses” is a term that came from the Latin panem et circenses, coined around 100 AD by the Roman poet Juvenal. Despite what has reached us about Juvenal, his intentions and his political savvy and vision, the coinage was a brilliant realization that the Roman Empire’s construction of coliseums was used to divert their non-slave subjects from participating in political and economic discourse that would have chipped from the privileges of the courtiers and nobilities of the Empire.  Without food, the population would revolt since death and hunger are impossible to accept. However, the challenge that tyrant regimes are faced with (tyrants, by definition, are cruel, oppressive and unjust) is ensuring filling the two intake cavities in the human being that matter the most to the ruling elite—the stomach and the brain. The coliseums of the Roman Empire can be found across its expansive domain, and considering the significant expense of building such structures, the Romans must have understood their immense value in distracting and “entertaining” their subjects.

Historically, and for most people, filling the stomach related to alleviating hunger. Juvenal’s coinage could have implied that “circuses” captured the intricate system that we now call entertainment in all its aspects. Psychologists and linguists have a range of definitions for the word “entertainment”. Since entertainment may lead to addiction, yet another plausible definition for entertainment is sedation. Since modern definitions of entertainment can be expansive, possibly divergent, and at times contradictory, the contextualization of “circuses” as a form of entertainment may not be helpful here. Nevertheless, the definition of a circus should be broadened to include any activity that has an objective like that of the Roman circuses. These definitions largely converge to imply a process that leads to elation or emotional fluctuation which may take different and sometimes opposite manifestations. One may be entertained by a movie that is full of drama and sadness or may be entertained by a movie that induces laughter and joy. Yet, others may be entertained by sheer violence, from the soft type to the extreme.

Circuses or their modern connotation of entertainment are activities that are mostly gutted of any value to the human being. They can be considered as distractions or diversions that occupy one’s time that otherwise would be occupied by carrying out a value-based activity. Recreation is often conflated with entertainment, but the two are distinctly different. Watching a football match for two hours adds no value to a human being but largely adds significant value to sponsors of the match which caters its commercials to manipulate the brains of the viewers to buy their products, some of which can be very harmful.

Then comes the grand circus of them all, i.e., The World Cup. An international circus of a grand magnitude. Unlike those of the Roman Empire, this circus is managed entirely by a globalist organization with far reaching influence and power, primarily because of a budget larger than that of several countries combined, harbored by classic Swiss secrecy that provides fertile grounds for high corruption.  But this circus has a much more devastating effects than the diversion and distraction that the Roman’s circus was intended for. The globalists behind this global circus are creating a global impact, a very negative one indeed. An impact that cuts across social life, political life, economics, and the environment.

The Economic and Environmental Impact

Industry experts estimate that between 18 to 23 million official World Cup jerseys (licensed) will be sold netting three major sport equipment/apparel companies an estimated 2.4 billion USD. This is aside from the non-licensed jerseys whose number is estimated to range from 30% to 70% of the licensed ones, which would equal an additional 6 to 14 million jerseys. Thus, a conservative estimate is that approximately 30 million jerseys were made. These jerseys are made of polyester and nylon, materials that are non-biodegradable and can persist in the environment for hundreds of years.  The psychology behind a chid in a “third or fourth world country” yearning to spends more than US$120 to wear a shirt sporting the number of Messi, Ronaldo or the flag of a certain country is complex but is effective and brings huge financial gains for clubs, players and sports apparel hegemons. This phenomenon is pronounced in economically challenged countries but not in technologically advanced and economically prosperous countries. One would typically sport a symbol that carries deep personal attachment or inspires a feeling of strong loyalty, but the marketing psychology is based on suppressed identity syndrome rather than nationalism and loyalty. For instance, Moroccan kids love to sport their country’s jersey yet are willing to sacrifice their life crossing the sea to Spain, a football rival. Saudi fans are known for being fanatical in support of their country and sporting its team’s jerseys, yet no one turned out to greet their defeated World Cup team. Identifying with a “champ” or an individual that bears no resemblance to one’s real identity, wellbeing, home, country, culture, politics, religion, etc., is a phenomenon that reflects a subverted identify that the World Cup stakeholders have exploited brutally and brilliantly.

While shuttling between matches, the private jet of the president of FIFA, a globalist organization that is the epitome of corruption, generated over 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent. When adding the travel of fans from around the world to attend the matches which were spread over the expanse of North America, the Time Magazine estimated that the 2026 FIFA World Cup generated 7.8 to 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent. This carbon footprint is more than double the emissions of the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar.

“Unite the World”

With unlimited cash, FIFA must have hired the most brilliant marketing firms to create and market a grand illusion that would strengthen the appeal of this major circus and make it palatable socially and politically. With vast marketing budget, harmful products can be turned into “cool” and “hip” products. (World Cup is typically sponsored by “soft drinks” producers.) That is why marketing is all about psychology.  “Unite the World” was the catch phrase FIFA adopted for its 2026 grand circus. This theme was featured prominently in commercials showing a group of friends lounging together in a home to watch the game and cheer their teams, while enjoying drinks and food. But this World Cup signature commercial is deeply flawed: one would only invite close friends to one’s home. It is highly unlikely that an Argentine would invite an English to watch the Argentina-England match, let alone to cuddle together and enjoy food and drinks in a loving and congenial atmosphere while cheering the two teams! Such commercials while imbecilic and deeply deceptive, claim that the match will unite the world. The reality is that the World Cup is divisive politically and culturally. Whether originated out of benign or sinister intentions, the World Cup has roots in France, a country that is arguably the birthplace of modern nationalism and all its divisive and jingoistic manifestations.

Arab countries while heavily reeling from the colonial enterprise that divided their domain into colonial political states (rather than nation states), approached the World Cup with even higher divisive attitude. The infamous Sykes-Picot plot, which started as a sinister colonially mischievous scheme to fragment the Arabs into colonial political fiefdoms, has been solidified with a booster dose every four years. Jordanians, Iraqis, Saudis, Kuwaitis, etc. believed themselves that they represent different nations simply because the Europeans composed the nation’s template for them and left them with the freedom (as “independent” and “sovereign” nations) to fill the boxes of the template with a flag, national anthem, national bird, etc.  This is like the prisoners when given an hour to walk in the prison courtyard. The guards don’t stipulate the path the prisoner take leaving the choice to the “independence” and “freedom” of the prisoners.

The semi-final match between Argentina and England brought old hatreds and political rivalries between the two nations to the forefront. Argentines took advantage of their defeat of England to rehash the Falkland war hostilities. The feud between these two nations was put on display for all the world to see, even for those who had no clue what the Falklands war was about.

Cultural Diversity or Cultural Hegemony

The half-time show, which was unconventionally stretched À la American style, featured Madonna, Shakira, BTS and Justin Bieber, all of whom are singers and performers whose life, manners, values, shows, and behavior on-and-off stage are divergent to those of most people of planet earth. Football superstars who do not represent any specific culture but only the sport of football, were brought in to provide an international appeal, but also to spice up the half-time show escorting Madonna and her cast of demons into the pitch. If the Times of India estimates are good, then the eyes of the 1.75 billion audience were most likely fixated on Madonna’s pornographic-style dress, legs, body and gestures. While some cultures may view certain dances as full of intense artistic expressions and rhythms, the vast majority may view them as sexually provocative and outright vulgar and dirty.

Only few years ago, Shakira’s belly dance including her costume was viewed by the host country as “dirty dance”. Now it is hailed as an artistic expression demonstrating cultural diversity and embracement. Let us remember that the football match is supposed to be rated G (general audience) not NC-17 (adults only). Unless the NC-17 rating has become more palatable in recent years to make watching pornographic gestures a daytime family experience.

Cultures, by definition, are different from each other, otherwise, it is a singular culture.  When one narrow culture that can only be found in Hollywood and Bollywood movies supported by globalists the likes of FIFA attempts to impose values on the majority, it is no longer entertainment, artistic expressions, or instruments to “unite the world”, but pure cultural hegemony, if outright cultural decimation. Those performers reflect cultural norms acceptable only in the pockets of the West and possibly partly by its cultural sphere (such as pockets in South Korea, India and Thailand, to name only few examples). The penetration of the half-time show with hedonistic and satanic expressions, and vulgarity infused with extreme sexual and pornographic expressions was alarming and could have never been planned in the spirit of the all-too familiar and ostentatious ruse of collectivism that allegedly defines world bodies such as FIFA. To veneer the half-time culturally disruptive show with benignity, goodwill, charitable spirit, and philanthropy, FIFA brought in no other but children, especially from Africa, to sinisterly decorate their pitch with. Afterall, who doesn’t like children? The whole sale satanic vulgarity was packaged as if it was done for the children of the world. Here is FIFA’s statement: “The FIFA World Cup 2026™ Topps Final Halftime Show will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund to expand access to quality education and football opportunities for children worldwide.” This is straight out of the Rockefellerian playbook to cover a mischievous financial enterprises with a philanthropic gloss.

The irony is that this grand FIFA circus is taking place while the host country is an accomplice to the genocide in Gaza that cut severely the lives of more than 20,000 Palestinian children and malnourished hundreds of thousands of other children. One can imagine Fascist Italy hosting a grand global circus while carrying out the genocide in Libya that resulted in the death of 50,000 to 70,000 Libyan civilians during the Italian concentration-death camps in the 1930s that created the template for the follow up Nazi concentration camps in Europe.

Whereas the Romans were concerned with feeding the stomachs of their subjects, the globalists, or the true modern borderless empire, focuses on controlling their subjects. The “bread” has become associated with vulgar and satanic profit and hegemony rather than satisfying instinctive hunger. The mounting pressure on most people around the globe to make a liveable wage exacerbates the mental anguish and social pressure that makes the multitude gravitate towards a more distractive sedating experience, the grandest of which is the World Cup.  So, not to offend other entertainers who may provide genuine artistic expressions to improve our lives, the World Cup can be classified as sedative-entertainment.

The World Cup has become a grand circus with severe negative impact on everything humans care for.

Overcoming the Political Amnesia About Lying Trump’s Record

Ralph Nader

 August 11, 2026

FacebookTwitterRedditBlueskyEmail

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

A major dereliction by the feeble Democratic Party leadership is their unwillingness to address the political amnesia they have allowed corrupt, lying, cruel, outlaw tyrant Trump to enjoy with political impunity. Trump has been more than willing to fill the vacuum created by this abdication.  That is his business and political modus operandi (MO).  His daily lies, boasts, and fantasies have polluted the political landscape.  Moreover, his false claims are rarely rebutted by the haughty Dems who view his diatribes as beneath them to counter.

The Democratic Party leadership needs a compelling “REMINDERS” platform for their current electoral campaigns that they can pin on the Trump rubber-stamping GOP candidates at the Congressional and state levels. Here is a sample:

1. Trump was a failed gambling czar and a frequent user of bankruptcy as a competitive tactic, as he brazenly described it, to stiff his creditors, employees, and consumers. He also used hundreds of undocumented workers for his construction projects, whom he exploited with low wages and bad working conditions.

2. Trump is a serial sexual abuser of women.  There are dozens of credible accusations and legal actions against him by his victims. Michael Cohen— Trump’s former personal lawyer even arranged to pay Stormy Daniels to cover up the story about Trump’s 2006 sexual encounter with her.  Remarkably, since 2019, the Dems have been AWOL on this predator’s past, while eating their own for a tiny fraction of Trump’s transgressions.  (See the February 24, 2020 OPEN LETTER TO THE WOMEN IN CONGRESS).

3. Trump derided and minimized for weeks in early 2020 the spreading COVID pandemic. A Columbia University report conservatively estimated that between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths were attributable to the failures of the Trump administration’s delays. Have you heard much about his lethal, arrogant incompetence in the Democrats’ campaigns?

4. Trump’s tax cuts for the super-rich and giant corporations mean huge deficits and a lack of these tax dollars for public services, public works and jobs in communities everywhere. Democrats can highlight what specific and recognized needsthese communities were denied because of Trump’s tax giveaways to the fat-cats.

5. Trump is the consummate climate denier.  Each time there are uncontrollable wildfires, floods, heat domes related to climate disruptions by burning of fossil fuels, Democrats can remind people of his ridiculous assertions that global warming is a “hoax” or a “scam,” and start naming these disasters “Trump Hurricanes,” “Trump floods,” “Trump wildfires.” Doesn’t he like things named after him?

Moreover, he has starved the budgets of FEMA and other agencies that combat the impact of these disasters. He is also refusing to pay the underpaid firefighters a living wage and or to expand OSHA’s authorization to protect their safety.

6. Dems should remind people how Trump is the extorter-in-chief. He has discriminatorily cut back on FEMA assistance, mass transit assistance, and other federal outlays for Democratic blue states to punish them for their pro-electoral resistance, including their refusing to give his outlaw regime control over state election data and machinery.

7. Trump has never backed down from his outrageous claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The Dems are too sporadic in condemning Trump’s massive drives TO STEAL this Novembers’ elections. Democratic Party leaders almost never use the word “steal” against Trump, compared to his constant harping falsely about the 2020 election being stolen from him. (See The Wrecking Ball Comes For the Midterms by Jonathan M. Winer).

8. Trump is a major league racist against African Americans and Hispanics, among countless other groups with his stormtrooping ICE, his selective military firings, his shattering of safety net programs like Medicaid and Food Stamps disproportionately needed by low-income ethnics, his sick frothing such as “shit-hole” countries, unlawful deportations, and only admitting as “refugees” white South Africans.

9. Trump has pardoned hundreds of convicted violent criminals and fraudsters, politically on his side, many of whom have since committed crimes. By comparison, in 1988 the GOP used unfairly against presidential candidate Michael Dukakis the Willie Horton case (Horton committed a crime while on a prison furlough) to inflict considerable damage on Dukakis.

10. Trump’s words about “law and order” exclude his corporate crime cronies. He has dismissed well over a hundred pending Justice Department cases against corporate crooks stealing from and harming innocent Americans, virtually closed down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and thrown out SEC cases—especially against his cryptocurrency buddies from whose shenanigans he and his family have personally profited. “CORRUPTION” IS THE UNPRECEDENTED “COIN OF THE TRUMP REALM” — THIS IS THE MESSAGE THAT SHOULD RING THROUGH THE LAND.

11. Trump’s cruelty to children knows no bounds. He supports strip-mining the successful Head Start programs, cutting budgets for children’s services, exposing children to unregulated toxic pesticides, and refusing to put forward an authentic child tax credit. His barbaric actions affect both conservative and liberal families.

12. Trump enabled the criminal enterprise DOGE, led by Elon Musk, to rampage through federal agencies in 2025, closing down some vital lifesaving programs and pushing out the door tens of thousands of civil servants doing their work daily for the public. The DOGE criminals were unleashed gangsters goaded on by the hateful, vengeful, unstable Trump. Never in American history has an administration broken or destroyed a sliver of what Elon Musk’s DOGE did on Trump’s orders. Millions of poor people and children abroad will die because of the closing of USAID with its medicines, vaccines, food supplements, and safe drinking water. The annual cost of operating this lifesaving agency is less than a week and a half of the current bloated Pentagon budget that crooked Trump wants to increase by another $500 BILLION!

13. The Dems should remind people of Trump’s crazed hatred of solar and wind energy—life-sustaining—in favor of goodies for the homicidal oil, gas, and coal corporations heating the planet. Psychiatrists, you are needed here. (See the Statement from Medical Professionals, Congressional Record—Senate, April 30, 2026).

14. Finally, voters will be stunned by Trump’s plethora of vote-losing epithets such as “losers and suckers” to describe those who are killed in combat, like those buried World War II GIs in a French cemetery, as this draft dodger related to his chief of staff, retired General John Kelly. Or “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations.” Or “I like this inflation,” or in 2016, “American workers are overpaid,” and endlessly more. The Dems should demand that Trump’s Republican candidates publicly disavow these and other outlandish lies and defamatory claims during debates.

It is, of course, true that the Democrats have to run on what they are for. Their leaders, who don’t like progressive mandates, have rejected putting forward such cohesive, long-overdue pledges as given them by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, or by the undersigned (see Robert Reich’s “What Democrats Must Pledge to America” December 5, 2025; and my column “LONG OVERDUE DOMESTIC COMPACT FOR AMERICA” August 29, 2025). It is up to the candidates in the field to offer such authentic compacts or their own cohesive agendas.

Most GOP candidates are running on their unbreakable fealty to Trump. Therefore, they should be held accountable for all the ugly drawbacks of Trump that they have been backing to the hilt including his cruel and vicious Cabinet secretaries.

Political amnesia by the public is easy to fall prey to because it is so often covered up by the culprits and allowed by incompetent opponents. The Democratic Party knows how to lose. It allowed Trump’s worst GOP in history to win in 2024!

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!