The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz joins Tyler Foggatt for the latest installment of “How Bad Is It?,” a monthly series on the health of American democracy. Their guest is Roy Wood, Jr., the host of the satirical program “Have I Got News for You,” on CNN. The group discusses the significance of CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a recent episode of “South Park” that is searingly critical of Donald Trump, and the President’s deployment of lawsuits and the administrative state to try to intimidate his critics in the media and entertainment industries. “There's always going to be these petty, ticky-tack battles that the Administration fights,” says Wood. “But I don't think that's gonna stop the comedians from doing what Trump hopes this would do, which is silence them.” This week’s reading: * “‘South Park” Skewers a Satire-Proof President [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/south-park-skewers-a-satire-proof-president],’ by Tyler Foggatt * “What the Cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ Means [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/what-the-cancellation-of-stephen-colberts-late-show-means],” by Vinson Cunningham * “How the Israeli Right Explains the Aid Disaster It Created [https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-the-israeli-right-explains-the-aid-disaster-it-created],” by Isaac Chotiner * “Should Police Officers Be More Like U.F.C. Fighters? [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/should-police-officers-be-more-like-ufc-fighters],” by Sam Eagan * “Is Brazil’s Underdog Era Coming to an End? [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/will-trump-push-brazils-underdog-era-to-an-end],” by Shannon Sims Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts [http://swap.fm/l/tny-tps-extref]. To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts [http://newyorker.com/podcasts]. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com [themail@newyorker.com]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The city of Los Angeles has declared itself a sanctuary city, where local authorities do not share information with federal immigration enforcement. But L.A.—where nearly forty per cent of residents are foreign-born—became ground zero for controversial arrests and deportations by ICE. The Trump Administration deployed marines and the National Guard to the city, purportedly to quell protests against the operation, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, spoke of the government’s intention to “liberate” Los Angeles from its elected officials. This week, David Remnick talks with the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, a former congressional representative, about the recent withdrawal of some troops, and a lawsuit the city has joined arguing that the Trump Administration’s immigration raids and detentions are unconstitutional. (A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the government.)  “I’ve described L.A. as a petri dish,” Bass says. The Administration “wanted to . . . show that they could come in and do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and however they wanted. They were putting every other city in America on notice: ‘mess with us will come for you.’ ” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The Washington Roundtable’s Evan Osnos interviews Katie Drummond, the global editorial director of Wired, about the publication’s scoop-filled coverage of DOGE, and what Elon Musk’s experience in Washington taught Silicon Valley leaders. “They know that they can operate with relative impunity, and they are now lining themselves up next to a President who will allow that to continue to happen,” Drummond says. Plus, a discussion of how artificial intelligence will shape our society and democracy, and transform the workforce in the years to come. This week’s reading: * “Trump Redefines the Washington Scandal [https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/trump-redefines-the-washington-scandal],” by Susan B. Glasser * “Donald Trump’s Tariff DealmMaker-In-Chief [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/donald-trumps-tariff-dealmaker-in-chief]” by Antonia Hitchens * “Are the Democrats Getting Better at the Internet? [https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/are-the-democrats-getting-better-at-the-internet],” by Jon Allsop To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com [themail@newyorker.com] with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The New Yorker contributor Jon Allsop joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss how President Trump’s refusal to release the Epstein files has fractured his base, and how the Democratic Party has increasingly weaponized the Epstein conspiracy theory in its attempt to combat the MAGA movement. How do we proceed given that our country’s politics are increasingly defined by conspiratorial thinking? This week’s reading: * “Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Three Conspiracy-Theory Theories [https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-and-three-conspiracy-theory-theories],” by Jon Allsop * “Behind Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein Problem [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/behind-trumps-jeffrey-epstein-problem],” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells * “What the Cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ Means [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/what-the-cancellation-of-stephen-colberts-late-show-means],” by Vinson Cunningham * “Coldplaygate Is a Reminder That There’s No Escaping Going Viral [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/coldplaygate-is-a-reminder-that-theres-no-escaping-going-viral],” by Kyle Chayka * “In an Age of Climate Change, How Do We Cope with Floods? [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/in-an-age-of-climate-change-how-do-we-cope-with-floods],” by John Seabrook To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts [http://newyorker.com/podcasts]. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com [themail@newyorker.com]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The sense that the White House is covering something up about Jeffrey Epstein has led to backlash from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters. Even after the financier was convicted for hiring an underage prostitute, for which he served a brief and extraordinarily lenient sentence, Epstein remained a playboy, a top political donor, and a very good friend of the very powerful—“a sybarite,” in the words of the journalist Michael Wolff, “in that old -fashioned sense [that] ‘my identity comes from breaking all norms.’ ”  Wolff got to know Epstein and recorded, he estimates, a hundred hours of interviews with him. After Epstein was arrested again, in 2019, and was later found dead in his jail cell in what was ruled a suicide, it has been an article of faith within MAGA that his death was a conspiracy or a coverup, and the Trump campaign promised a reveal. Attorney General Pam Bondi initially asserted that she had Epstein’s so-called “client list” on her desk and was reviewing it, but now claims that there is nothing to share. Do the Epstein files have something incriminating about the President?  “The central point from which this grew is the [Bill] Clinton relationship with Epstein,” Wolff tells David Remnick. But the MAGA believers “seem to have overlooked the Trump relationship [with Epstein], which was deeper and longer.”  The men were “probably the closest friend either of them ever had,” until they reportedly fell out over real estate in 2004. Now Trump is frantically trying to control the narrative, pretending that he barely knew Epstein. This, Wolff thinks, “may be the beginning of Donald Trump’s lame-duck years.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]