The DSR Network

President Trump is now suggesting he may pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein who’s serving time for sex trafficking. Trump told reporters: “I’m allowed to do it.” He dispatched Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to solicit testimony from Maxwell, ostensibly to gain new insight into Epstein’s activities. But in today’s episode, lawyer Philip Rotner, author of a new piece f...

On the DSR Weekly Wrap-Up for July 25, we discuss President Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state, Tulsi Gabbard’s public accusations against Obama-era officials, conflict in Thailand and Cambodia, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new Gallup poll finds that President Trump’s approval has dropped to 37 percent. But the White House has figured out how to get those numbers back up: By picking a huge fight with “The View.” This week, Joy Behar unleashed a striking takedown of Trump, mocking him mercilessly for being jealous of Barack Obama. This enraged the White House, which responded with name calling—and a veiled threat. W...

South Park is back, and they don’t care about pissing off Donald Trump… unlike Columbia University. While Trump fumes about his disastrous PR and anybody who dares to even joke about him, the sinister undercurrents of his regime continue to flow. Norm Ornstein and David Rothkopf are back to discuss the challenges facing universities, the complete erosion of legal norms under Trump, and the latest...

On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we cover protests over a controversial new law in Ukraine, calls for Pam Bondi to testify, another court blocking Trump’s birthright citizenship order, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump is “furious” about his inability to make the Jeffrey Epstein scandal go away, Politico reports. He’s frustrated with his staff’s failure to tamp down the uproar, which continues to consume his base, and his allies are admitting this has become major problem, with one telling Politico that Trump understands that “this is a vulnerability.” This comes amid new reports that Atto...

Let’s be honest, Donald Trump is the captain of a ship of fools. Nowhere is this more clear than in the realms of foreign policy and defense, where folks like Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard run rampant. What does this descent into madness mean for our country? Ed Luce, Rosa Brooks, and Kori Schake join David Rothkopf to answer this critical question and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we break down the new trade deal between the US and Japan, Pam Bondi firing a New Jersey prosecutor, a landmark new UN ICJ ruling on climate change, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the last few days, we seem to have crossed a threshold. President Trump is ratcheting up the authoritarianism and threatening to prosecute his enemies in a new kind of way. In a series of angry new rants, Trump accused Barack Obama and other members of Obama’s administration of serious crimes. He’s also calling for Senator Adam Schiff to be put in “prison.” Critically, all this has been accompa...

Artificial intelligence isn’t just a hot-button issue for the tech industry—it’s a key part of global geopolitics. But how has AI become such a focus for political leaders around the world, and what are governments doing to harness the benefits of AI and mitigate the negative consequences? Assistant Foreign Minister for Advanced Science and Technology for the UAE Omran Sharaf joins David Rothkopf...

On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we discuss the intensifying feud between The Wall Street Journal and the White House, the sentencing for an officer convicted in the death of Breonna Taylor, the administration releasing files related to the MLK assassination, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump’s propagandists are getting more frantic in their efforts to spin away the scandal around the Jeffrey Epstein files. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, unsurprisingly, has been the most creative of all: Speaking to reporters, Leavitt fobbed the whole fiasco off on to the FBI not once but twice, as videos posted by Acyn Torabi show. Leavitt said the same thing twice: You...

On the DSR Daily for Monday, we discuss the Harvard challenge to restore $2.5 billion in funding, a key EPA research office shutting down, Japan’s surprising election results, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As you’ve heard, CBS has ended “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Troublingly, this comes just after Paramount, which owns CBS, settled President Trump’s frivolous lawsuit against it by paying out $16 million dollars. Only days before the firing, Colbert called the deal a “big fat bribe.” Now Trump has just praised the firing in a vile new attack on Colbert. Trump laughably insisted that Colber...

On the DSR Weekly Wrap-Up for July 18th, we discuss Democrats resisting Trump judicial nominees, Trump potentially releasing the grand jury testimony in the Epstein case, the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s often said that we’re living in historic times. Historic threats to democracy and historic turning points for our nation. Yale professor Joanne Freeman joins David Rothkopf to take a look back and the early days of the United States to titanic figures like Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to explore just how novel our current moment is and how we can draw inspiration from the past to f...

President Trump is in more trouble than usual. The Jeffrey Epstein files are killing him with the base. New polls show him cratering on many issues. And questions are mounting about his mental state due to a bizarre story he invented about his uncle and the Unibomber. At her latest briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt grew angry at reporters for questioning Trump’s unhinged respo...

Make no mistake - the Justice Department is actively fostering Trump’s authoritarian regime and increasingly rewarding loyalty over legality. Between the blatant partisanship, abuse of the shadow docket, the cuts to the Department of Education and Emil Bove’s nomination - where has our justice gone? Dahlia Lithwick joins David Rothkopf and Norm Ornstein to discuss the erosion of our democracy and...

On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we discuss the Senate voting to to rescind funding for public broadcasting, massive backlash over the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, the Syrian government and Druze leaders reaching a ceasefire, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump is in a rage over his inability to get MAGA to stop talking about the Jeffrey Epstein files. He unleashed a furious Truth Social tirade on it, and then rambled bizarrely about it to reporters for a minute straight. Meanwhile, striking new polls from Quinnipiac and from CNN show wide public dissatisfaction with the whole fiasco—and both show large chunks of Republicans are also unha...

On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we break down Israel’s strikes on Damascus, MAGA discord over the release of the Epstein files, a Tariff deal reached with Indonesia, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, we learned that inflation rose last month. The New York Times said inflation “accelerated,” ABC News noted it “surged,” and other reports observed that President Trump’s tariffs are starting to produce long-predicted price hikes. Trump reacted angrily. He pretended the surge was nonexistent, and then deflected by unleashing a furious tweet at Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell that...

On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we discuss the incoming cuts to the Department of Education, the ongoing purge of the DOJ, accelerating inflation, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The MAGA movement has been in full meltdown ever since President Trump’s Department of Justice concluded they have no evidence that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a client list or was murdered in jail. This contradicted a major MAGA conspiracy theory, and MAGA influencers are screaming cover up. Tucker Carlson just ratcheted this all up by attacking Trump over it: He faulted Trump’s government...

On the DSR Daily for Monday, we cover new threats of tariffs on Mexico, Trump pledging new Patriot missiles for Ukraine, massive turnover at the DOJ, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices