Systemic Error Podcast

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump has asked allies whether he should replace White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and has discussed possible successors, including Stephen Miller, Steve Witkoff and Bill Pulte. Politico attributed those conversations to four people it said had direct knowledge; Trump denied the report and declared that Wiles retained his “complete confiden...

What happened AlterNet, citing emails obtained by POLITICO, reports that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau repeatedly ordered special representative Paolo Zampolli to stop conducting foreign-policy work beyond cultural diplomacy. Zampolli nevertheless met foreign officials about energy, investment, aviation, and other commercial matters, while insisting that he answered directly to Pres...

What happened AlterNet reports that none of the rural and suburban Iowa voters in a focus group—all of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2024—said they were supporting or leaning toward Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson. Some were considering Democrat Josh Turek, though they wanted clearer explanations of his plans. Participants called Hinson “out of touch” and a longtime Trump “yes” vot...

What happened AlterNet reports that former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called President Donald Trump an “immature child” and a “man child” after Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself playing with a tiger. The post followed Trump’s comment on the October 10, 2026, death of former child actor William Chapman, who was killed after entering a Siberian tiger enclosure...

What happened AlterNet argues that President Donald Trump’s strategy for silencing critics is selective intimidation: use federal investigations, prosecutions, employment actions, regulatory pressure, and private legal threats against visible opponents so others anticipate the cost of speaking. Its central example is a reported Homeland Security Investigations raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington...

What happened AlterNet columnist D. Earl Stephens argues that Donald Trump’s campaign appearances were hurting Republican candidates shortly before midterm elections. He calls the schedule a “Torture Tour”: Republicans had tied themselves to Trump, could not restrain him and, in Stephens’s telling, were losing voters whenever he spoke. The column describes Trump arriving in Anchorage, Alaska, on a...

What happened AlterNet reports that a 60 Minutes episode featuring Secret Service director Sean M. Curry drew 6.061 million viewers, including 767,000 adults ages 25–54, and finished behind the CBS dramas that followed it. The reporting does not establish that Curry’s interview caused the weak audience, so the headline’s claim that it “tanked” the ratings exceeds the evidence. The episode’s perfor...

What happened Trump donor Eric Deters told Daily Beast podcast host Joanna Coles that he plans to sue Kimberly Guilfoyle for defamation and, through that lawsuit, seek subpoenas and depositions from Donald Trump Jr. and others. As AlterNet reported, no suit or subpoena had yet been filed; Deters was describing what he intended to do “in the coming months.” The dispute followed leaked messages that...

What happened AlterNet reports that the State Department fired Paolo Zampolli, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, on Thursday after Politico exposed his monthslong feud with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. A U.S. official told ABC reporter Shannon Kingston that Zampolli’s envoy status had been terminated and that he was no longer a government employee. Emails obtained by Po...

What happened Republican pollster Frank Luntz told CNN that President Donald Trump had squandered what Luntz called an extraordinary political recovery. He blamed Trump’s confrontational rally rhetoric, failure to show empathy over economic anxiety, and recent dismissal of affordability concerns as a “hoax.” AlterNet reported that Luntz cited 36 percent overall approval and 29 percent approval of...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump had four gold chandeliers installed in the West Wing for his June birthday through a $50,000 no-bid contract awarded to a small firm after the White House bypassed normal procedure. The “sleeping giant” in the headline is the American public: the article argues that polling shows voters increasingly connecting Trump’s personal enrichment a...

What happened AlterNet reports that Bill Kristol and Andrew Egger of The Bulwark believe removing White House chief of staff Susie Wiles could accelerate disorder inside the Trump administration. Their assessment is speculative: Politico reportedly said President Donald Trump had asked whether Wiles should be replaced and by whom, but the article does not establish that he decided to fire her. Egg...

What happened AlterNet reports that Democratic lawmakers introduced the Epstein Wall Street Records Act, which would require federal regulators to publish supervisory records and internal communications concerning Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell within 120 days. The proposal would also direct regulators to investigate possible banking, securities, and anti-money-laundering violations involvin...

What happened AlterNet reports that former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she resigned in August because the job required more than 60 hours a week, worldwide travel, and constant availability—conditions she could not reconcile with raising two children. On October 14, she rejected the suggestion that occasional television appearances contradicted her stated reason for leaving,...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump’s tariffs, repeated description of Canada as a potential “51st state,” and involvement favoring Alberta separatism have intensified Canadian anger toward the United States. Carleton University professor Stephen M. Saideman told the outlet that the annexation rhetoric is especially offensive because it denies Canadians a distinct national i...

What happened AlterNet reports that Wisconsin could forgo as much as $2.76 billion in state income-tax revenue from 2028 through 2037 if lawmakers adopt deductions for tipped and overtime income resembling federal policy. Trump’s federal tax law does not itself remove that money from Wisconsin’s treasury; the projected loss depends on a separate state decision. Forward Analytics, the nonpartisan r...

What happened AlterNet reports that CNN aired a compilation of Katie Zacharia, described as President Donald Trump’s new press secretary, repeatedly presenting herself as a lawyer even though she graduated from law school but did not pass the California bar. The clips included appearances in which she called herself a “corporate lawyer,” “attorney at law” and “esquire.” Zacharia said she had consu...

What happened AlterNet reports that historian Timothy Snyder rejected the idea that Russia holds some mysterious “magic grip” over the entire Republican electorate. In an interview with podcaster Shane Smith, Snyder attributed the Republican leadership’s shift toward Russia to Donald Trump’s influence, ideological affinity between parts of the American right and Vladimir Putin’s politics, foreign...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump publicly minimized Kimberly Guilfoyle’s connection to his family after she was asked to resign as U.S. ambassador to Greece amid misconduct allegations. Trump said she had merely dated his son “a long time ago,” although Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. reportedly dated from 2018, became engaged in 2020, and separated in 2024. Guilfoyle resp...

What happened According to AlterNet, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie argued that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s October 7 speech in Greece celebrated democratic values through a distorted history while ignoring the Trump administration’s rejection of those same principles. Rubio praised ancient Greece as the foundation of Western thought and complained that nationalism had become “a dirty...

What happened AlterNet reports that a 28-year-old technician at a Siberian laboratory died within 48 hours of an apparent occupational exposure on September 25. One Russian report alleged that she broke a test tube containing a pneumonic-plague pathogen, but the World Health Organization said the pathogen, the testing performed and the reason roughly 200 contacts were quarantined or monitored rema...

What happened AlterNet reports that Donald Trump suspended sanctions for six months against countries buying Russian oil or refined products, a move the outlet says could deliver billions of dollars to Russia during its war against Ukraine. Trump publicly thanked Vladimir Putin and later announced an “energy ceasefire,” but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the purported agreement was “...

What happened President Donald Trump chose conservative commentator Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary without consulting chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to AlterNet’s account of Daily Mail reporting. Four unnamed sources said the decision took roughly 72 hours and lacked the expected vetting process. Trump reportedly acted after seeing Zacharia on Fox News, consulted Boris Epshte...

What happened AlterNet, citing Washington Post reporting, says emails show how consultant Rick Canny expanded his authority at the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump’s takeover of the institution. Canny was subsequently named artistic director “in a designated executive consulting capacity,” rather than becoming a regular employee. In a March 30 email to then-chief financial officer Donna...

What happened AlterNet reports that Department of Homeland Security agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., residence as part of a potentially criminal inquiry into whether her father put incorrect information on naturalization documents years ago. Omar called the search political intimidation and said she would not retreat under pressure from the Trump administration. New York Times c...