Maddow: Trump is terrible at everything except this one thing

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There is a lot that the U.S. government and this presidential administration is failing at right now. In the courts, in public opinion, in politics, in the technocratic and practical functions of government, even some of their schemes and scams are falling apart. Every day, every news cycle, the list just piles up of things at which they are failing. Today, for example, the Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department learned that their officials may be held in contempt of court by a federal judge in Rhode Island. The administration put out a press release lying about this particular judge, vilifying this particular judge in terms that were not true. What it said in the press release about this judge was false. Now, today in court, the Justice Department's lawyer begged the judge's forgiveness for that. He admitted in today's court hearing in Rhode Island that he, in fact, had deliberately withheld information from this judge. He said he only did so because the Department of Homeland Security explicitly instructed him to do that. That's really bad. But he sort of threw himself on the mercy of the court, told the judge he's so, so sorry. Lying to a federal judge, lying about a federal judge is a really big deal if you're a lawyer or a government official. And even though Trump's Justice Department lawyer, quote, profusely apologized for it in court today, the judge said at this hearing today that she is weighing contempt charges against DOJ officials and Homeland Security officials for the lying. That is very not good. And that happened today, while another federal judge, a judge in Alabama, is also weighing a very serious allegation, a potentially very consequential allegation, that DOJ lawyers may have lied to the grand jury in a very high-profile case in Alabama. This is the case about the Southern Poverty Law Center, where Trump's DOJ has brought a bizarre prosecution against that longtime civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, in responding to the indictment. They've done something very unusual now. They have now asked the judge in that case to allow them to see, to allow them to see the transcript of what the lawyers from Trump's DOJ actually told the grand jury behind closed doors. When they went in to talk to that grand jury, to convince that grand jury to sign off on the indictment on this civil rights group, they want to know what Trump's DOJ lawyers said to that grand jury. This is a very rare request. This is a very unusual thing to request of the judge in a court case. But the reason they have done it is because in this case, in the Southern Poverty Law Center case, the indictment really makes it seem like Trump's Justice Department lawyers might have lied to the grand jury, might have told them things either about the civil rights group or about the law that were just factually wrong. The arraignment in that case is on Thursday. The judge is right now considering whether to release the grand jury information to the defense. If that happens, if it does turn out that the lawyers at Trump's DOJ lied to the grand jury in order to get that indictment, not only would that instantly end the indictment, end the case, It could very easily mean contempt of court or discipline or even disbarment for the Trump lawyers involved here. The fact that this is even in play in a high profile case like this is unheard of for Justice Department lawyers. But in Trump's Justice Department, that's kind of how they roll. They are not great at this. They are really not great at this. Politically, they're not great at this either, it turns out. In an environment where the Republican Party is embodied essentially entirely by their leader, where nobody else has allowed the oxygen to thrive or speak. The latest Washington Post, ABC News, Ipsos poll has Trump negative 25 overall. He's 25 points underwater on his overall approval rating. And that's kind of a high point for him in this poll. Minus 25 is kind of as good as it gets. On the economy, his approval rating is 31 points underwater. On the Iran war, his approval rating is 33 points underwater. On inflation, Trump's approval rating is 45 points underwater. On Trump's handling of the cost of living, which is effectively what he ran on to get a second term in the White House, Trump is 53 points underwater. 76% of the country disapproves of Trump's handling of the cost of living. He's minus 53. as, among other things, his war of whim, his war of impulse, this war of choice that he doesn't even seem to understand, drags on with no end in sight, and the energy crisis he caused by starting this inexplicable war just gets worse and worse, with gas prices continuing their steady, steep rise. They are really, really not great at this. They're not good at this. we're also now seeing every day the practical impact of what it means that they kicked off this second presidential term for Donald Trump by wholesale breaking the government in every way they could figure out to do it. And we're seeing that in very practical ways, like regardless of your politics, regardless of your ideological can't, we're seeing it in very practical consequences. Last month's tornado outbreak in Kansas City, Kansas. Trees damaged, homes damaged, mobile homes and RVs overturned, people injured. Turns out people had basically no warning of those tornadoes last month. And why not? Usually a tornado watch goes up a few hours before storms are anticipated. But in the Kansas City, Kansas tornadoes last month, they only got the tornado watch up about 30 minutes before the first storm hit. That's not the warning, hey, it's coming. That's the watch, which usually gives you hours of notice to let you know that tornadoes are a possibility that day. They only got 30 minutes before the watch. No time to get ready. Which undoubtedly affected people's preparedness and undoubtedly affected the amount of damage and potentially the number of injuries. What happened there? Why did the people get no notice? Quote, many forecasting offices in the Great Plains did not launch weather balloons at 7 a.m. that day as they have for decades. And why didn't the National Weather Service offices launch the weather balloons that morning as they always have every 7 a.m. every day for decades? Well, thank Donald Trump. Weather balloon launches was one of the first things that had to go when Donald Trump, in his infinite wisdom, started radically cutting the staffing levels at the National Weather Service and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Why did he cut those jobs? What do you have against weather forecasting and tornado watches? Who knows? But there's your tornado warning system on Trumpism. And again, this isn't, you know, this isn't abstract. This isn't theoretical. It isn't ideological. It's just failure. It's what happens when you break things. Turns out then they're broken, so they don't work when you need them to work. They really are not great at this. The Trump administration, in its infinite wisdom, also this year, radically has screwed up its agriculture numbers, which has turned out to be a huge, expensive catastrophe. Here's a byline Kansas City, Missouri from The New York Times. After Trump's agriculture department made its estimate last summer of how much corn American farmers would harvest this year, the projection had to be repeatedly revised upward until in January the department found 1.3 million more acres of corn that it had not accounted for in its earlier estimate. 1.3 million acres is an area, quote, larger than Delaware. Why is this estimate important? Well, traders use this estimate to buy and sell commodities, affecting the prices that farmers receive for their crops. Farmers use the estimate to make decisions about how and when to try to sell their crop for the most money. But under Donald Trump, the U.S. government is apparently no longer capable of making these very basic estimates. Quote, it was a miss. No other way to call it. It was the department's worst projection in recent memory. And why did they screw this up? Why did it happen? I don't know. You tell me. Quote, it came as the Trump administration was cutting staff at the Agriculture Department. The Agriculture Department lost 23,000 employees in 2025 as Elon Musk's Doge slashed jobs across the federal government. The National Agriculture Statistics Service, which produces the crop reports, was one of the hardest hit divisions. They took its staff from about 800 down to about 500. Yeah, and then weirdly, it turns out the crop report started sucking worse than they ever had, which kicks American farmers in the teeth right at the moment that Trump's other genius policies mean they can't afford fertilizer or diesel for their tractors or for the trucks to get their harvest to market. if anyone in the world will still buy their harvest, since Trump screwed all that up with his tariffs adventure as well. I mean, they're really not good at this. As the war in Iran seems to have become a hot war again today, with U.S. and Iranian ships firing at each other in the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump has decided at the same time that he's going to pull 5,000 U.S. troops out of Germany. Now, wait, why does that matter for the Iran war? Germany isn't Iran. Well when Trump started the war in Iran without hardening or protecting any of our gazillion military bases and installations all over the Middle East which were now in the range of fire for Iranian missiles and drones oops where do you think they sent the U troops who had to be evacuated really quickly off of all of those undefended bases all over the Middle East Where did they send them They sent them to Germany Because we have a really big troop presence in Germany and lots of facilities for our troops in Germany There have been hundreds of U.S. troops wounded in Trump's Iran war so far. Where do U.S. troops get evacuated to when they're wounded in the Middle East? They get evacuated to Germany because we have such a big troop presence there and lots of military facilities there to handle those things. Trump is now sending 5,000 American troops home from that crucial position. Trump is simultaneously re-upping the war in the Middle East and also shrinking our ability to support that war from the place where we support a war like that, which is Germany. Why did he decide to do this now? simultaneously upping the Iran war and also taking away the military's ability to support the troops that are there fighting the war. Why did he decide to do this now? Where did he get this idea? Well, you know, little clue in the fact that he's done this exact same thing before. In his first term in 2020, you might remember this, it went down kind of exactly the same way. In 2020, Trump announced that he was going to take thousands of U.S. troops out of Germany. And the Pentagon was totally blindsided. Nobody could figure out why he announced it. Turns out he had just talked to Vladimir Putin right before making that announcement about pulling U.S. troops out of Germany. Of course, Putin, more than anything, wants U.S. troops out of all of Europe. So he was delighted. That was in June 2020. Then the following month, July 2020, Trump talked to Putin again. and right after talking to Putin again, Trump reiterated more forcefully this time, I really mean it. I want those thousands of U.S. troops taken out of Germany. The only reason it ultimately didn't happen back then is because that was already late in the year in 2020 and then Trump lost the presidential election and President Joe Biden countermanded Trump's ridiculous, nonsensical order. But now Trump's back in the White House and so here we are again and it's gone down exactly the same way. The president publicly announced that he wants thousands of U.S. troops pulled out of Germany. The Pentagon, once again, totally blindsided. Nobody knows why he has done this. Then it turns out, it emerges, that he made this announcement about pulling U.S. troops out of Germany right after he got off the phone with Vladimir Putin. Pulling U.S. troops out of Germany is something that Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin really, really want. something that would be terrible for the United States, but really good for Vladimir Putin. And somehow, magically, every time Trump talks to Vladimir Putin, he emerges from that phone call with this same idea over and over again to give the Kremlin what it wants, even though it is terrible for the United States and particularly terrible for the United States military right now while they're fighting a war in the Middle East that Trump started for who knows what reason. they're not good at this. It was three months ago tonight when the president posted online a video depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as if they were apes. President Trump did later take it down. He refused to apologize for it and still hasn't to this day. That was three months ago. It was five months ago when Donald Trump confirmed something that he had previously long denied. Back in his first term, President Trump had told a group of senators at the White House that he thought it was terrible that immigrants to America were from asshole countries. And according to reporting at the time, he named some predominantly black countries and he said they were asshole countries. And couldn't we instead have immigrants from predominantly white countries? He mentioned Norway. Since countries with white populations are apparently good, and countries with black populations are swear words. So Donald Trump said that in his first term, and when it was reported that he had said that, he denied it. He said he had never, ever used that language. But then just a few months ago, he started bragging proudly. Weirdly, at a speech in Pennsylvania, he started bragging that, yes, actually, despite all those earlier denials, of course he had used that term, And moreover, he still believes it. Predominantly black countries are asshole countries. This administration, I think it's clear from just the repeated daily news cycle. I think this administration is bad at everything they set their mind to. They're terrible in the courts. To the point where their performance in court jeopardizes the law licenses of everybody who speaks for them. They're terrible in the court of public opinion, which you can see in the polls, which is going to have a big political impact on them the next time people get a chance to vote for them en masse. They're terrible, really terrible at all the technocratic practical stuff a government is supposed to do, including like basic stuff like the weather. They're terrible at war, terrible at diplomacy. They're even terrible at hiding the ball in terms of how much this president does whatever Vladimir Putin wants, even when it makes no sense for us. They're just not great. They're bad at basically everything they try to do. But on the issue of race, on the treatment of African-Americans specifically, even being terrible at what they're doing has still proven to be disastrous for our country. And it is, in part, the posturing and the messaging and the racist vibes from the White House and the president. That is stuff that validates and excites the worst bigots in the country, and that is consequential. But it's more than that, too. We are now about 16 months into what has been, from day one, a concerted and intense targeting of Black Americans, specifically by this president and by this administration. On his first full day in office, he proclaims war on diversity efforts, not only in government, but in any institution in the country over which he can exert leverage, everything from schools and universities to law firms to private businesses of every stripe. He then immediately started firing some of the highest profile black public officials in the whole U.S. government, seemingly regardless of any other thing about them. I mean, right away we get the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles C.Q. Brown. We get the firing of the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. And then it's Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board. And then it's Robert Primus, the chair of the Surface Transportation Board. And then it's Alvin Brown from the NTSB. And then it's Peggy Carr, the head of the National Center for Education Statistics. And then it's Willie Phillips from FERC, from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And then it's Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. And on and on and on. When Trump and his top political donor, Elon Musk, then started just lopping off huge swaths of the federal government to disastrous practical effect, the largest and most egregious cuts targeted federal agencies that employed a disproportionate number of black employees. Reporter Erica Green wrote about this a few months ago for The Times, noting that nothing had moved backwards in the federal government for black Americans this quickly or this far in over 100 years. Since Woodrow Wilson came in in 1912 and resegregated the federal workforce, quote, Black employees were fired or demoted to lower-level jobs, relegated to separate and inferior lunchrooms and other facilities, and accused of making white women feel unsafe. Those who remained were humiliated. A black worker in the Postal Service was surrounded by screens, so white workers would not have to look at him. Another employee had a cage built around him to separate him from his white counterparts. A clerk in the Treasury Secretary's office was assigned to rewrite all correspondence to address black employees by their first names. The way Trump addressed the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, by her first name, when he crowed publicly about firing her for no reason. In the year of our Lord, 2025, and now 2026, this president and this administration is not just inheriting that history from the Wilson administration, it's furthering it in its own ways. Since 1965, there has been an executive order in effect. It was signed by Lyndon Johnson, 1965. Since 1965, all federal contractors have been banned by executive order from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. Donald Trump rescinded that 1965 rule on his first full day in office. Less than a month later, Trump announced another rule change. They rescinded Clause 52.222-21 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which doesn't sound like much, but I'll tell you what the title of that is. It's Prohibition of Segregated Facilities. That's what Trump rescinded less than one month into being back in the White House. That section reads, quote, the contractor agrees that it does not and will not maintain or provide for its employees any segregated facilities at any of its establishments, and that it does not and will not permit its employees to perform their services at any location under its control where segregated facilities are maintained. That anti-segregation clause has been in government contracts for decades. Donald Trump overtly reached out to rescind it, which means bluntly that The federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains. Make America great again, right? Recently fired and sidelined employees in the Department of Housing and Urban Development have started sounding the alarm that the Trump administration is no longer, just bluntly no longer enforcing a federal law known as the Fair Housing Act. Fair Housing Act, another pillar of the civil rights movements and its achievements. Fair Housing Act dates to 1968. It says you can't refuse to rent to someone or refuse to sell a house to someone on account of their race or their color or religion or national origin or any other factor against which we're supposed to be protected from discrimination. According to current and former employees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Donald Trump, they have dropped. they have dropped enforcement of the Federal Housing Act. In Trump's first year back in office, Black unemployment spiked in this country from 6.2% all the way up to 7.5%, making it the highest of all racial groups. Under Joe Biden, Black unemployment had been at a record low of 4.8%, spiking now under Donald Trump. The Trump administration generally speaking is bad at its work It is bad at what it sets its mind to in all sorts of ways But black Americans African Americans have been targeted by this administration in a concerted way that has nevertheless been devastating, even though the Trump administration isn't good at anything they set their mind to. And that was all before the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, including all of Trump's appointees, voted to effectively end the Voting Rights Act a few days ago. As soon as the court said they would take up that case, people started mapping the worst-case scenario for what Trump and the Republicans would do, particularly in the South, if the court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement. And the before and after looks like the snapback after the end of Reconstruction, after the Civil War. I mean, look at the state of Louisiana there. A third of the population of Louisiana is black. Louisiana's Republican governor canceled congressional elections that are already underway in that state to rush through new maps that will presumably make sure that even though one-third of the population of that state is black, there will be no black representation in Congress for Louisiana at all. South Carolina, a quarter of the population is black. They have one majority minority district represented by an African-American Democrat, Jim Clyburn. They are going to try to get rid of that one black district so that South Carolina is all white, all Republican in representation, while a quarter of the people who live in that state are black. In Tennessee, one in six residents is black. Republicans now want to make sure all nine congressional seats in Tennessee are white. All nine of them. They want it to be nine to nothing, white and Republican. And one in six people in that state is black. In her dissent from the majority ruling, Justice Helena Kagan said it will likely cause the largest reduction to minority representation since the end of Reconstruction. She probably didn't need to use the word likely there. The war on black Americans that is being waged by this president and this Republican Party is one of the only things they have put their mind to in this past year that they've actually done pretty well at. A comprehensive attack on black public officials and black public power. A comprehensive attack on black public officials in the federal government, black employees in the federal government, Black representatives in Congress. And now all around the country, where everywhere Republicans are in charge, they are scrambling to make sure that Black public officials can no longer hold office. We're going to talk tonight about the pushback against that and the strategies to make them pay for it, both in Louisiana, which is ground zero here, and around the country. We're going to talk tonight about some surprising pushback from churches and the clergy. We're going to talk tonight about a blistering takedown of Trump and the administration in federal court in Washington in a most unexpected case. But big picture here, we are in the middle of something really radical in this country. Not just to get rid of our constitutional republic, to replace our form of government with something else, but to get rid of the multiracial democracy that our Constitution is supposed to protect. It is a war on black America. The fight to save it is looking like it's going to be the fight of all of our lives. More ahead tonight. Stay with us. Have you ever considered surrounding your house with a moat to keep it safe? Would you hire a professional wrestler as a bodyguard for your car? Okay, maybe you wouldn't go that far. But if you'd go to great lengths to avoid dealing with your insurance company, you might have Insuranoia. And if you have Insuranoia, you should have NJM Insurance. They go to great lengths to do what's best for their policyholders. Start relieving your Insuranoia today at NJM.com. Burlington knows you cannot forget Mother's Day. And be real, texting your sibling to add your name to their card isn't enough. Instead, head to your newly refreshed Burlington, where it's easier to shop for deals that will make mom proud. Find fragrances from perfume to candles or opt for a brand name bag. Plus, your store had a glow up. So it's more fun to shop for those special women in your life. Mom is wow upside down after all. Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow. Why have we asked our contractor we found on Angie.com to be our kid's legal guardian? Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids. We only met a month ago. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. Democrats currently hold about two dozen congressional seats in the American South. On this map, those are the Islands of Blue. Now that the Supreme Court has cleared the way for Republicans to erase majority minority districts by gutting the Voting Rights Act, some estimates say Republicans could quickly pick up a minimum of half those seats, at least a dozen. People who study this thing say that by 2028, Republicans could draw maps that would give them as many as 19 of those seats in the House. One analysis shows the Congressional Black Caucus shrinking by as much as a third. That's the risk. That's what Democrats are looking at if they do nothing. But what if Democrats fight back with every single thing they've got? What if Democrats everywhere they can draw maps that maximally favor them? The voting rights group Fair Fight Action estimates that Democrats could pick up 10 seats by 2028. Democrats could pick up 10 seats using maps drawn in states where Democrats control the state legislature. If Democrats gain control of more state legislatures, say this year in November, if they win in places like, say, Wisconsin, they could pick up as many as 22 seats, which would all but erase any advantage Republicans are about to give themselves by losing the Voting Rights Act's protections. The first thing that means is that races for state legislature, state House and state Senate this year just got way more important in the immediate run and the right here right now. Democrats are already taking steps to protect what they have to try to expand the map. Today, the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, said he's already talking to Democratic officials in his home state of New York to come up with a plan for new maps there in time for 2028. He said today, quote, this is just the beginning across the nation. We will sue. We will redraw and we will win. The we will sue part of that strategy is key because Democrats and voting rights groups are also pushing back in the courts wherever they can. As I mentioned at the top of the show, the Republican governor of Louisiana just took the extraordinary step of announcing it was an emergency and stopping an election that was already underway, specifically so his state can draw new maps that favor Republicans and that disfavor black voters in Louisiana. Today, a coalition of voters and voting rights groups sued the governor for stopping those elections after Louisianans had already started to vote. In a statement announcing the lawsuit, they said, By attempting to suspend an ongoing election, state officials are creating confusion, undermining public trust, and placing partisan interests above the constitutional rights of Louisiana voters. Black voters in communities that have long fought for equal political representation should not be forced to bear the burden of unlawful power grabs designed to silence their voices. Elections belong to the people, not to politicians seeking to manipulate the rules. Joining us now is attorney Sophia Lynn Lakin. She is director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. The ACLU is representing those voters and civil rights groups in court. Ms. Lakin, thanks very much for being here. Appreciate you being here in person. Thank you for having me. So first of all, have I said anything about the situation in Louisiana or what the governor there is doing or what this case is about that strikes you wrong or the wrong way around? No, not at all. Not at all, unfortunately. Canceling an election after people have already started voting feels like it should be the sort of thing you're not allowed to do. Can you help us understand the legal arguments here and what this case is about? Sure. You know, this is actually the second case that we filed. We filed an action on Friday in state court saying the governor actually doesn't have the authority to issue this proclamation, in this executive order to try to suspend the elections in an attempt to stop this before early voting in person started on Saturday. Unfortunately, the court denied our temporary restraining order there. So we have since, as you've pointed out, moved in federal court today to try once again to put a stop on what's creating massive confusion. You know, we are hearing Republican election administrators calling this a nightmare for election administrators. It is chaotic. People don't understand what the situation is. There are actually elections that are proceeding irrespective of the suspension. Right. There are other things on the ballot as well. So if voters think that, oh, the election is off, they may not have their opportunities to even vote in those other elections, too. So we're talking about tens of thousands of voters who have turned out, who have cast ballots already, having their ballots suspended and where are potentially canceled. A true disenfranchisement of voters in the very real sense of the word. So voters are being handed a ballot where there's lots of different races in the ballot. They're being told some of your votes here will count, but some of them won't. And in terms of when you want to cast votes for that other election, we'll let you know later. But if you cast it now, we're not going to count that, but we promise we'll count the other things. I mean, I can't imagine that voters, I mean, any voter would be confused in that circumstance. But what's the remedy you could even seek with 80,000 people having already voted that can retroactively fix the confusion that's already been cast over this election? Well, that's what we're trying to do by going in very quickly, asking for a temporary restraining order to say, please halt the enforcement of this suspension of the election. Let it go forward. Count everyone's votes that have been currently cast and continue on with this election. If you want to redraw these maps, we can talk about that at a later date. But at this moment in time, you're just causing chaos. You're disenfranchising voters. You're creating a situation that nobody wants to see when it comes to talking about elections that have integrity. I know that the ACLU is also involved in a number of other cases over gerrymandering and racial discrimination in places like North Carolina, Texas and Missouri. How does this sort of world-shaking Supreme Court decision affect the legal battle in those kinds of cases? I mean, it's an extraordinary gut punch to the work that we have been doing to protect fair maps for voters of color. You know, the Supreme Court, in its majority opinion, describes this as an update to the Voting Rights Act, when, as Justice Kagan points out in her dissent, it is all but dead. And that's really going to be a challenge for us going forward. This is one of the principal tools that we have used to bring progress to this country, to bring diversity in our representation to ensure that voters of color have a say an equal say in our political process And it going to be difficult without this primary legal tool to ensure that we aren rolled back to a time before the Voting Rights Act to a time of Jim Crow. Sophia Lynn Lakin is director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. You have your work cut out for you. Thanks for being here to help us understand. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. All right. We'll be right back. Stay with us. So you know that uneasy, anxious feeling you get when you think about dealing with your insurance company? Well, there's actually a term for that. It's called insuranoia. And if that sounds like something you're way too familiar with, you should really think about getting NJM insurance. They go to great lengths to do what's best for their policyholders, like providing dedicated reps whose priority is you. And that means you'll find more peace of mind with them. Relieve your insuranoia with NJM Insurance by visiting NJM.com for a quote today. Why have I asked my HVAC guy I found on Angie.com to change my grandpa's trachea tube? I was so amazed at how we replaced our air ducts. I knew I could trust him to change Pop Pop's tube. I think we should call a doctor. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. At DSW, we ask the important questions. Like, what shoes are you going to wear? Whether you're prepping for wedding season, festival season, or just planning the ultimate vacay, the right shoes can make or break an RSVP. So own the moment. You've got big plans and we've got just the shoes at the perfect price, of course. Get ready to get ready with Designer Shoe Warehouse. Head to your DSW store or DSW.com today and let us surprise you. Last week on the show, we showed you some of these images from Providence, Rhode Island. This was outside the Citizens Bank annual shareholders meeting. These folks were demanding that Citizens Bank, which is based in the Northeast, they should drop the big financial investments that bank has in two private companies that run immigrant prisons for the Trump administration. And it was not just at that shareholders meeting. There have been protests all across the Northeast, specifically targeting Citizens Bank because of its involvement with Trump's immigration prisons. Citizens Bank stopped funding ICE prisons. One Rhode Island union has now said it's withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Citizens Bank in protest of what Citizens is doing with Trump's immigrant prisons. On top of that, a coalition of dozens of religious groups in Boston, they've announced that they will be pulling a million dollars out of the bank. unless leaders of the bank at least held a meeting with them to discuss their concerns. They made that threat, that charge, basically, last week. In a statement, Citizens Bank said in response that it does not comment on specific customer or client partnerships. But after having put that charge to Citizens Bank last week, well, that coalition of religious groups, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, they say this meeting they've asked for with Citizens Bank and its executives has not been forthcoming. And so they say, as of today, they're following through on what they said they're going to do. Members of this interfaith group, ministers, pastors, rabbis, they all gathered at a Citizens Bank branch in Boston today to follow through on their pledge. They withdrew $1 million from the bank. Apparently, this interfaith group has something like $14 million in the bank altogether. They say they're going to keep pulling it out a million at a time as long as Citizens Bank doesn't change its ways. They even brought this giant $1 million withdrawal slip with them for today's announcement. Among the speakers today was Reverend John Edgerton, Senior Minister of Old South Church in Boston's Back Bay, who said in part, we are here today because we need to let the banks know that people of good faith, people of good conscience, People of goodwill, our neighbors, will not stand for building private prisons, for building deportation machines, for crushing our neighbors underneath their wheels for profit. No, he said, no, not with our money. Joining us now is the Reverend John Edgerton, Senior Minister of Old South Church in Boston. Reverend, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you making time. Well, thank you so much, Rachel, for having me. Really appreciate it. I'm giving the opportunity to speak to your audience. How did this come about? Why did the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization decide to start pressing Citizens Bank this way? We pulled a million dollars out today. We transferred it to another bank because we want Citizens to stop doing this dirty business. Citizens is one of the only banks in the country that banks with and provides financing for CoreCivic and GeoGroup, two of the most notorious private prison companies in this country. This year, Emmanuel Damas, who is a neighbor, a Boston resident, a 56-year-old man, he died in CoreCivic detention in Arizona from a toothache. He had a toothache. He complained about it. They didn't give him proper care. His toothache became an infection. His infection became sepsis, and he died. And these are the practices that CoreCivic is notorious for and GeoGroup is notorious for. And they will not be abusing our neighbors, not with our money. I got the sense from the speeches today from you and your fellow clergy who are part of this interfaith group. I got the sense that Citizens Bank is not a symbol. They're not a sort of a distant corporate abstraction to you. As a bank that is based in the Northeast, as a bank that is something that deals individually with all the different faith organizations, churches and synagogues and mosques that are part of the interfaith organization, I got the sense that U.S. faith leaders in Boston have a real relationship with Citizens Bank and that that is part of why it both pains you and motivates you that you haven't been able to shift them on this. Is that fair? We feel deeply betrayed by what Citizens Bank is doing. 20 years ago, we helped them to build relationships in the immigrant community so that they could expand their business. And since then, they have turned into an organization we don't recognize, into an institution we don't recognize anymore. Rather than partnering with and building up all of our neighbors in Boston, instead they are making money, tearing families apart. And it is unconscionable. It is against the basic values of this country, and it is something that I find religiously abhorrent. Do you and your fellow clergy who are part of this interfaith group plan to continue to withdraw more money from the bank as a way of sort of ramping up the pressure? Are you hearing from any other faith organizations or nonprofits or entities that bank with citizens who may want to follow your lead on this? Today, a sister organization, Greater Cleveland Congregations, joined. They pledged that they would pledge their deposits toward this as well. So we are now well over $14.5 million of deposits. We are customers of citizens. We don't want to hurt citizens. They are 20-year customers with $14.5 million and growing of deposits that are ours. And we want for them to do what is right. Their core customer base is in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, across New England. They are fast becoming the ice bank. And if they think being the ice bank is going to play well with their core base here in New England, they need better advice. And that is what we are trying to do is give them some good advice, which is that they need to stop being involved in this dirty business. Reverend John Edgerton, Senior Minister of Old South Church in Boston. Reverend, thank you so much for your time. Keep us apprised. We're really interested in this campaign, both for what it means in New England, but also, I think, the kind of model that it presents around the country. We'd love to savvy again and to hear how it goes. Wonderful. Absolutely. Anytime. Really appreciate it, Rachel. All right. We'll be right back. Stay with us. This is the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, D.C. It's a public course, so that means you don't have to be a member. Anybody can sign up to play there. I don't know anything about golf. I can't tell golf from mini golf. But I can tell you that East Potomac is thought of as a really beautiful course. It's a lovely and well-loved amenity in New York. Excuse me, in D.C. Or at least it was. Last year, after President Donald Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House, bulldozed it, surprise, on his own say-so, to build himself a ballroom nobody asked for, after he bulldozed and tore down the historic East Wing of the White House, he had the dirt and the rubble from that hauled away from the White House in trucks and had those trucks dump it all at the East Potomac Golf Course, with, again, no warning or explanation. That's nice. Like I said, this is a public golf course. This is not one of Donald Trump's private golf clubs. This belongs to the people. But then, even after he turned it into his own personal construction dump, how did that happen? The Trump administration then announced that they were going to seize control of that course and de-seize two other public golf courses as well. Again, no consultation, no explanation, just gimme. Just hungry, hungry, hippo style. I'm taking it. At East Potomac, there was reporting that the White House planned to shut the course down as early as this week, as early as today. The legal advocacy group Democracy Forward sued the Trump administration to try to stop them from taking control of this course, which is part of a whole park that belongs to the taxpayers and not to the White House or Donald Trump. Today, the judge in the case told the Trump administration in no uncertain terms that the East Potomac golf course must stay open. And the administration cannot make any significant changes to it without notice or approval. The judge today in court warned the White House that if so much as a shovel is seen at East Potomac, if anything even resembling heavy machinery pulls into its parking lot, She said there's going to be hell to pay. Quote, let's just say, given some issues around the district recently, I would have a particular concern that we not act first and ask forgiveness later. She said, quote, if anyone orders big things to show up, by big things, I mean anything bigger than my sedan, then I want the plaintiffs to have notice. anything bigger than my sedan got it tea times at the east potomac golf course are available bright and early tomorrow morning and every morning from here on out they are not going without a fight stay with us all right that's going to do it for me tonight thanks for being here have you ever considered surrounding your house with a moat to keep it safe would you hire professional wrestler as a bodyguard for your car. 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