The Weekly Wrap | Michael Fanone on Jack Smith's Testimony, Trump’s Year from Hell, & a Doctor for Governor in Ohio

Evan Fields is a veteran who writes the Fourth and Democracy and Weekly Wrap newsletters for Lincoln Square. Subscribe to his News from Underground Substack.

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap, Lincoln Square’s newsletter designed to bring you up to speed on the discussions you might’ve missed during a busy week.

Trump’s Year From Hell | The Strategy Session

We just hit the one year mark of Trump’s second term, and it hasn’t been good. Stuart Stevens, Joe Trippi, and Rick Wilson used this episode of The Strategy Session to cover the “highlights” from the year.

Rick Wilson: Trump doesn’t care about what happens to ordinary people when the markets get jittery, but he sure cares about his own investments and his friends’. Do you guys think that the market signaling we’re getting out of the last 24 hours – where the volatility rates are up, the long term interest rates are up – that he might have more responsiveness to the market crashing than the economy crashing?

In the past, he’s responded to the markets when they get cuckoo.

Joe Trippi: But then he’s got to back down on wanting Greenland. The real problem, the reason is because there’s real consequences to this stuff. Europe holds more of our debt than China. They’re not going to go in and fight militarily to save Greenland because might makes right here in Trump land. So there are only a few tools they have, and one of them is no more debt.

“We’re not gonna buy any more of it. It’s over.”

See more of the discussion here.

How Can We Help Our Veterans? | Anchor Watch with Bobby Jones

One of the most difficult parts of being in the military is leaving it. Once your service is up, the transition back into everyday civilian life can be excruciating. On this episode of Anchor Watch, Bobby Jones and Rob Braiman discuss how that process can be made easier for the men and women who serve our country.

Rob Braiman: You always have the harder path, especially coming out of the military. You’re trying to figure out how those skills translate from military service to civilian way of life and you go through that. I think it’s the first year of transition where most guys and gals struggle trying to figure out how all of those skills apply that you learned in the military. We learn about esprit de corps when you’re in the military, you learn about honor, you learn about courage, and you learn about chain of command. So I will tell you, as an employer, I probably put as much weight in prior service experience as I do in a college degree. I have a lot of members that join the Cogen Analytics family – whether enlisted or officer, they bring a different set of skills.

First thing, you’re going to have fear when you join the workforce because there’s that unknown. ‘How do my military skills apply to the civilian world?’

Bobby Jones: This is perfect. This is what we need to hear.

Rob Braiman: The truth is, you have durable skills as a veteran that apply directly to the civilian community. Now, there are some employers that don’t recognize those skills right off the bat, but almost every client that we represent will say they have some prior service members that work for them. Almost universally, soldiers come with a different way of looking at their responsibility.

See more of the discussion here.

Trump’s Shocking First Year | NAACP President Derrick Johnson Joins Journalist Sarah Rumpf

The NAACP is no stranger to taking stands against civil rights injustices like the ones being committed by President Trump. NAACP President Derrick Johnson joined Sarah Rumpf on this live interview to discuss some positive opportunities that could come from what we are experiencing.

Sarah Rumpf: The NAACP has been very active in these issues – law enforcement interacting with people and the use of force. We’re seeing similar themes now with ICE interacting with protesters, people they believe to be illegal immigrants that are citizens.

I wanted to get your thoughts on some of these force issues and what parallels you see.

Derrick Johnson: There are many parallels – and let’s be clear: our nation has always struggled with how law enforcement has treated certain individuals and holding bad apples within law enforcement. Accountability for their behaviors, whether it’s individual behavior, culture within the agency, or just rotten agencies – we’ve always had that problem.

But what we’re witnessing at this moment is an administration who is open and clear about the ICE agents and are pretty much saying they shouldn’t have to comply with the law. A Supreme Court who’s given license to racial profiling and federal agents who may or may not have been properly trained because we can’t even identify who they are.

For all practical matters, these are members of the Proud Boys or J6 offenders or individuals who were randomly picked up off the street because they held a certain view of individuals and now carry a badge wreaking havoc on the communities across the country.

See more of the discussion here.

Trump Wants You To Forget about the Epstein Files | First Draft with Susan J. Demas & COURIER Newsroom’s Nina Burleigh

Every day there is a new distraction, a new threat of war, a new unrest in our own country and we rely on journalists to keep us informed. One of those journalists, Nina Burleigh, joined Lincoln Square’s executive editor Susan J. Demas to discuss.

Susan J. Demas: I believe maybe 1% of the information that was promised from the Epstein Files Transparency Act has become public. Talk to us about what’s going on and how Trump has successfully managed to get this out of the headlines once again.

Nina Burleigh: You do get the sense that there’s some method to the madness and that they are plotting this out in a certain way that is just gradually getting more and more horrifying, more mayhem, more upsetting. So of course these things like invading or kidnapping a foreign leader, Greenland, Minneapolis. Not to mention, flying your right wing social influencers across the nation on a doomsday plane, right? Or digging a big hole under the White House that may or may not be some kind of new bunker for him that is not just a ballroom.

There’s just an assault on the norms and the exaggerated ridiculousness of his speeches where you talk and talk and you’re like, “he’s not making any more sense here. He’s not making sense.” He did kind of make sense during the campaigns. He did the swing or the weave or whatever he calls it. And he would touch on actual reality and data points, but he’s totally not doing that anymore.

So, what I think is going on is that they don’t feel pressured now to bring these Epstein files forward because they’re starting to make such a mess and running amok. I feel as though the factions around him have different goals. There’s the goal to return the manosphere, get women out of the pentagon, get rid of vaccines. These factions say, let’s invade Greenland, let’s let white supremacy be the law of the land, and they’re extremists. They’re all trying to get their agenda going because he’s not well and they can see that he’s not well.

See more of the discussion here.

Greenland Hits the Panic Button over Trump’s Threats | Danish Correspondent Mads Korsager Joins Edwin Eisendrath

Trump threatened to “take” Greenland by military force, only to flip-flop in Davos. Danish defense correspondent Mads Korsager joined Edwin Eisendrath to discuss the reaction to Trump’s belligerence.

Edwin Eisendrath: When did America ever have Greenland that it could give back to Denmark? I didn’t understand that (from Trump’s speech).

Mads Korsager: The short version of that is that during the Second World War, Denmark was obviously occupied by Germany, and there were some years where Denmark could not have the control over Greenland because our government was not functional. Our authorities were not functioning. Nothing was functioning.

And then, the Danish ambassador in the U.S., he made a quick decision. He sort of never surrendered to the German occupational force, but instead he sort of handed over the control temporarily to the United States. During those years, Greenland became a very important strategical asset for the U.S. – sort of a stepping stone, among other things – in the transportation of military hardware from America to Europe.

So in those years, we sort of handed over the control – not the ownership.

See more of the discussion here.

Americans Hate Trump’s Gestapo | Behind the Numbers with Rick & Andrew Wilson

Behind the Numbers is back more data and polling from Team Wilson. Rick and Andrew Wilson used this episode to discuss the historic unpopularity of Trump’s modern Gestapo ICE force.

Rick Wilson: Trump is not on the ballot. And because Trump is not on the ballot, that is the secret sauce of 2018 and 2022. Those low propensity Republican voters in those two years, when Trump’s popularity was in the 50s and 60s, it’s gone now. I think what we just saw was this job handling. The country is obviously very polarized over this issue, but the MAGA base, you can see 25% make up the ‘strongly approved’ number.

Look at the numbers for strongly disapproved versus strongly approved, it’s 47 versus 25 and the middle is practically empty. There’s just 25%. These people are polarized.

Andrew Wilson: He’s going to hover under 16% approval for the rest of the year, which, historically, tells us that it’s going to be a wipeout in the midterms.

Rick Wilson: None of these numbers, if you’re a Republican pollster or strategist – and folks, I’ve been a consumer of polling for 35 years now, if I looked at that and you’re asking me, “Should I get in this race as a Republican? Should I run this year as a Republican?” I’d be like, “Run away.” Run away. Keep us far away from these elections if you have hopes for a future career as a Republican politician.

See more of the discussion here.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Fanone Breaks His Silence After Jack Smith’s Testimony | Protect & Serve

Jack Smith headed to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify in front of Congress about his findings in the Donald Trump investigations he conducted. In the audience were some of the officers who battled with seditious Trump supporters on January 6th. Michael Fanone had choice words for Republicans who wanted to rewrite history and he joined Maya May to discuss.

Maya May: This idea that when an adult says what they mean, they mean what they say. So, why aren’t there any more adults in the room, Mike? What the f*ck is going on?

Michael Fanone: They’re too busy kissing Donald Trump’s ass. They’re trying to look out for their own political careers. There’s MAGA cultists, there are guys who are white nationalists, guys like Andy Biggs – that guy’s a true believer. He’s a white nationalist. He’s a racist. And an incredibly dangerous person to be in the position that he’s in. He’s someone, along with Jim Jordan and others, who talk about the subpoenaing of toll records, and how it was Republican lawmakers.

Obviously we know Jack Smith testified to why it was that he subpoenaed these toll records – because these were the individuals that were communicating with Donald Trump in the midst of the insurrection. They obviously wanted to understand what those phone calls would have been about. Which is Investigation 101.

I see no purpose to these types of hearings. It gets us nowhere. We all saw it with our own eyes.

See more of the discussion here.

Are Medicare and Medicaid a ‘Mistake’? | Dr. Amy Acton Talks her Ohio Governor Campaign with Susan J. Demas

Dr. Amy Acton is a physician, a researcher, and former Director of the Ohio Department of Public Health, and now she is running for governor. She joined Lincoln Square executive editor Susan J. Demas to discuss her bid to lead Ohio.

Susan J. Demas: Talk to us about how you can begin to win the state back, because it’s such an important state in the country and in the midwest. ‘Where Ohio goes, the rest of the nation goes’.

Dr. Amy Acton: (laughs) As Tim Russert used to say. I really do believe that Ohio is going to be the bellwether of this country again in ‘26. I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio – the stuff of Bruce Springsteen songs – and what we are in Ohio is very independent. We might be ever so slightly pink, but we’re heavily gerrymandered. We’ve had a corrupt special interest statehouse that keeps it so. But, Ohioans everywhere are exhausted. They’re exhausted by the hate and vitriol and chaos – and life isn’t getting any better. They’re absolutely ready for change in Ohio.

I’ve gone places that quite frankly Dems haven’t been to in a long time, and I listen. That’s where my background is as a physician, to go in and listen. There has been record crowds and it doesn’t matter which party.

See more of the discussion here.