Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

Trump health rumors, media scrutiny, and what counts as news kick off the show before a wide-ranging interview with Miles Taylor—former DHS Chief of Staff and author of Blowback—about the April 2025 White House memo labeling him “treasonous,” the threats that followed, alleged blacklisting, and how executive power can be bent to punish speech. We discuss investigations vs. “fishing expeditions,” loyalty scorecards for companies, and why institutions cave—or don’t. In the spiel, Mike reframes the immigration fight: policy trade-offs, public opinion, and what data actually say about enforcement. Plus, a critique of a viral CNN segment on a deportation case and how storytelling choices shape perceptions. Keywords: Miles Taylor, DHS, Trump memo, treason label, blacklists, executive power, media coverage, polling, immigration policy, CNN report. *Please Note that Mike is on assingment, which is why his audio is not ideal* Come See Mike Pesca at Open Debate

Produced by Corey Wara

Production Coordinator Ashley Khan

Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠ad-sales@libsyn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist⁠⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to The Gist: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to The Gist Instagram Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠GIST INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow The Gist List at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Pesca⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack

Donald Trump says the office of the president gives him the right to deploy the National Guard to U.S. states. But does it? And who decides?

The president signed an executive order last week calling for a restructuring of the National Guard. It also asks the nation’s defense secretary to create a rapid response force to be deployed to states for “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring public safety.”

Meanwhile, Trump says the city of Chicago is in need of National Guard presence due to a rise in crime. But the president has declined to say how the federal government can intervene outside of D.C., a federal enclave.

Violent crime in Chicago is on a decline. In the first half of 2025, gun violence is down 25 percent compared to last year and down 41 percent from the average reported between 2020 and 2024. That data is from the CBS News Chicago Gun Violence Tracker.

What could that deployment look like? And what has the response been from city officials?

Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. 

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

• Lincoln Square on Substack
• Stuart's piece on trying steroids
• "The Conspiracy to End America"
• Stuart's book, "It Was All a Lie"
• Stuart's "The Last Season"
  
  
• Bulwark Live in DC and NYC at https://www.thebulwark.com/p/bulwark-events. Toronto is SOLD OUT 
  
  

In Houston, from 1970 to 1973, Dean Arnold Corll raped, tortured and murdered a minimum of twenty-eight teenage boys. He was known as the Candy Man. The full story has never been told until now. Investigative reporter Lise Olsen has uncovered new information about the killer and his victims. Her new book is The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys.array(3) { [0]=> string(20) "https://www.tpr.org/" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> string(1) "0" }

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Ivan Eland, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute and director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty, joins Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to discuss how domestic factors affect U.S. involvement in conflicts at home and abroad and probe whether certain wars were worth the cost they had on Americans' constitutional rights. 

You can find Eland's book Domestic Causes of American Wars: Economic & Political Triggers here. 

If you care about combating the corrupt media that continue to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism America needs.  

In a series of extraordinary deals, President Trump has muscled himself directly into the business of corporate America.

The U.S. government has been made the largest shareholder of Intel, one of the most iconic companies in the country. Senator Bernie Sanders has praised the move, while conservatives have criticized it as socialism.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist at The Times, explains how Mr. Trump’s deal could reshape America’s approach to capitalism.

Guest: Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist and the founder and editor at large of DealBook, which publishes the flagship business and policy newsletter of The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Intel agreed to sell a 10 percent stake in its business to the U.S. government.
• From DealBook: Trump may expand his revision of U.S. capitalism.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Photo: Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Everyone wants the war in Gaza to end. The reason the war is not over is because about 50 people are still being held hostage by Hamas.

Twenty of them are alive, but on the brink of death. About 30 of them have already been killed, and their bodies remain in Hamas captivity.

There are differing opinions on the best way to bring them home: continue the ground war in Gaza, or take the partial deal put forward by Qatar and Egypt—which includes a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in exchange for hundreds of security prisoners.

This war is one where everyone has an opinion. But in our view, no opinion matters more than those of the families whose loved ones, including their children, are living in Hamas terror tunnels. These families are in a collective debate about the best way to bring their loved ones home.

So we want to play a really special episode from Conversations with Coleman that illuminates these differences, and showcases arguably the largest debate in Israeli society today.

Coleman Hughes sat down with three hostage families: Tzvika Mor, the father of Eitan Mor, a 23-year-old security guard at the Nova Music Festival taken by Hamas; Talik Gvili, the mother of Ran Gvili, who on October 7 leaped into action and fought Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim;and Dalia Cusnir, the sister-in-law of brothers Iair and Eitan Horn. Iair Horn was released, and Eitan Horn remains in Hamas custody.

Today, their families tell their stories and explain what they think is the best way to bring their family members home.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We think of the surrender of Robert E. Lee as the end of the Civil War, but the end really wasn’t clear at the time. The Galveston News reported Lee’s surrender as a positive development for the Confederacy and encouraged Texans to fight on. How did Lincoln’s peace take hold? How did a divided nation come together? Michael Vorenberg’s new book is Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War.