Letters from an American

October 26, 2026Trump posted his longest-ever social media post last night, Giant turnout for rallies by Obama illustrate the changing mood of the country, Images of the packed venues for Obama, compared to the dwindling crowds for Trump, circulated on social media, Trump’s determination to keep Republicans in control of Congress reflects concern that Democrats will impeach him and worry over what such hearings might reveal, The administration is trying to hide documents related to the Kennedy Center, A shareholder of a publicly traded US crypto company sued Trump and World Liberty Financial, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released a report saying that a growing body of evidence demonstrates that Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women, Trump and his allies are trying to tip the scales in the election, by spending vast amounts of money, suing the state of Alaska, pressuring states to release voter files, trying to use the US Postal Service to screen ballots, and sending ICE agents to ask residents about their immigration status, The transparent attempts to steal the election could sow confusion and lay the groundwork for challenging a Democratic victory. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 24, 2026The election of 1920 gave the Republicans control of the White House and Congress, Republicans rejected the Progressive Era’s idea that government should regulate business and protect workers and consumers, and turned the government over to businessmen, At first industrial production took off and profits rose, As standards of living improved, consumers rushed to buy new products, and presidential candidate Herbert Hoover promised that the economic policies favoring business would banish poverty, Americans invested in the stock market and prices rose and rose, There was a rush to speculate and any warnings that the stock prices were a bubble were dismissed, On October 24, the tide turned as brokers began to sell off shares, and by the end of the day on October 29, an extraordinary number of shares had traded hands and the market had lost $14 billion. Manufacturing output fell and commodity prices tumbled, and by 1933 the number of unemployed across the country rose to 13 million - one out of every four American workers, Republicans blamed workers, and Hoover rejected calls for public works programs that would provide jobs, In 1932 Americans - looking for a new approach - elected New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised to use the federal government to provide jobs and a safety net to Americans, His New Deal protected workers’ rights, provided jobs, regulated business and banking and provided a basic social safety net. The new system enabled the US to defend democracy when WWII broke out. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 21, 2026The president’s behavior is becoming more and more erratic, He has abandoned the traditional allies of the US to align with Vladimir Putin and Russia, Trump claims he had nothing to do with the slowing of Starlink over Ukraine, but Congress members have vowed to hold whoever was responsible for the cuts accountable, Musk is threatening Congress, but is also worried about the move of Europeans and Canadians to develop their own satellite communications systems and if Congress were to do the same, Musk could be in real trouble, Nearly 12 million Americans have lost healthcare coverage under Trump and enrollment in SNAP had fallen by more than 5 million people since the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, The budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended on September 30 was about $2 trillion, $160 billion higher than during Biden’s last year as president, The cost of the Iran war is about $45 billion according to the administration but other costs drive it even higher, Republicans are peddling fear, warning of dire results if the Democrats win the majority in Congress, Right wing groups are sharing inflammatory flyers and Vivek Ramaswamy released an attack ad against Amy Acton that has created a storm of protest, although JD Vance has defended it, Some Republicans are speaking up about the direction in which the party is headed. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 19, 2026Ten years ago, Hillary Clinton, who was running for president against Donald Trump, warned that Vladimir Putin hoped to have a “puppet” in the White House, and that Trump was that puppet, Trump protested, but ten years later he is openly embracing Putin and working to destroy the strongest and most successful alliance in human history, Meanwhile, support for Republicans has fallen to historic lows, Tariffs, the war in Iran, soaring costs of gasoline and diesel, and blatant corruption have meant that firm Republican districts are now up for grabs, Republicans are refusing to hold town halls or debate their Democratic challengers, In Texas, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina, and Maine, Republican candidates are being revealed as extremely weak, The Republican Party acts like a dying party that is no longer bothering to compete and is facing a rising one whose candidates are ready and willing to work, It is not unlike the 1850s, when the Democrats were so confident that they assumed they were entitled to their seats, The Democrats were trounced by the Republicans, who would dominate the political system for the next 70 years. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 17, 2026People around the US and the world gathered at more than 3,000 No Kings:Vote Early events, Events were designed to encourage people to vote early, Republican dominated state legislatures have restricted access to the vote since 2020, Since the 2024 election, 22 states have passed laws that make voting more difficult, Just at the height of the pre-voting events, Meta took down the No Kings organizing page on Instagram for about 4 hours, Meta claimed the issue was technical, but a report out of Brazil claims that in internal communications, Meta employees acknowledged that the company had restricted the Instagram accounts of Brazilian president Lula da Silva during the country’s recent election while recommending accounts related to his challenger, No Kings organizer Ezra Levin said the shutdown will not stop early voting, and that “No Kings means no kings in the White House,” he wrote, “or in Silicon Valley.”To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 15, 2026The idea that when a democratic system is taken over by a single party it quickly becomes corrupt describes what is happening in Trump’s orbit, In the last few days, multiple examples of corruption have emerged, Kimberly Guilfoyle was forced to resign from her post after allegedly trying to extract money from a donor, In response that donor is suing her for defamation, Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habba is claiming that Richard Grenell wanted to divert a donation from her husband intended for the Kennedy Center, Paolo Zampolli, appointed by Trump to be a special envoy at the State Department was accused of trying to get custody of his son by asking ICE to deport his son’s mother, and he has now been fired, Trump's new press secretary describes herself as a general counsel, but she appears never to have passed the bar, Rhein Amacher who started the rumor that James Talarico had been hospitalized in Ohio for mental health issues, is backing off that claim, The majority of the funds donated for Trump's ballroom have come from companies and individuals with interests before the federal government, The White House is claiming that conversations about plans to renovate the Kennedy Center are covered by executive privilege and can be kept secret, a dramatic expansion of the concept of executive privilege, All of this corruption is affecting voters, Corruption tops inflation and high prices as their primary concern, Growing numbers of Republicans are backing Democrats in the midterms.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 13, 2026The attacks on James Talarico were likely an attempt to get ahead of another damaging story about Ken Paxton, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paxton spent New Year’s Eve in Dubai partying along with two fugitives from US Justice, While the administration claims to be cracking down on fraud in the SNAP program, criminal syndicates are stealing millions of dollars from more than 990,000 households, a theft that could be stopped with digital microchips but Congress and the Trump administration are not addressing the theft, Diesel prices have jumped in spite of Trump’s move to lift sanctions on Russia, A bipartisan group of senators is pushing back on the lifting of sanctions, Zelensky said Ukraine got no warning about Russia’s strike, raising concerns that Trump is not sharing intelligence with Ukraine, Trump’s new WH press secretary debuted, apparently having been appointed over the objections of Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, After being asked by the administration to resign after her shakedown of a donor was revealed, Kimberly Guilfoyle stepped down, Almost 6 in 10 Americans say they believe Trump is either illegally profiting from the presidency or doing something unethical but not illegal.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 10, 2026Trump is openly backing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, Trump blamed President Zelensky for prolonging the war waged by Russia, Trump has issued a warning to Zelensky, The US previously stood against Russia’s invasions of Ukraine, In 1991 Russia agreed to secure Ukraine’s borders, but Putin worked to bring Ukraine under the sway of Russian oligarchs, After the election of Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine was voided, he began to work with Paul Manafort, and finally won election, immediately turning Ukraine toward Russia, He was ousted from power in 2014, and Russia soon invaded Ukraine’s Crimea, Manafort then joined the Trump campaign, Manafort and his partner, Russian operative Konstantin Kilimnik, worked to elect Trump thinking he would be sympathetic to the plan to make Ukraine subservient to Putin, Trump was not able to implement their plan in his first term, While Biden pulled NATO countries together to stop Russia’s attack, once Trump was back in office, he tried to swing the US behind Russia, On Friday he announced he was removing sanctions to let Russia sell its oil on global markets, allowing Russia to earn cash for the war against Ukraine, Trump has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on a longer will Republicans in Congress continue to protect Trump’s undermining of national security?To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 8, 2026On October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire burned through the Midwest, and claimed between 1,500 and 2,000 lives, The Peshtigo Fire was the deadliest wildfire in US history, The Great Chicago Fire happened the same day, but was smaller and less deadly, Yet the Great Chicago Fire is the one people remember, It fit into a political narrative about the danger of organized labor, After the Civil War, workers organized, In August 1866 more than 60,000 people joined to launch the National Labor union calling for better working conditions and for the government to level the playing field between employers and workers, In 1868 Congress passed and the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendments and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, When the Ku Klux Klan was organized to keep Black men from voting, Congress created the Department of Justice, Reactionary southerners began to argue that Black citizens were poor, and that they were determined to redistribute the wealth of white landowners, Their argument gained strength because of fears of what was happening in Europe, where the Paris Commune had been established, Republican fears of workers grew, And when Chicago went up in flames, some Americans blamed the fire on “communists” or “socialists,” or on immigrant workers, The Great Chicago Fire fanned the flames of fear that workers were trying to destroy America, and encouraged those who were determined to make sure workers wouldn’t have a powerful voice in American society. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 6, 2026Trump’s social media posts suggest he is panicking, Trump is blaming Ukraine for driving up oil prices, He is incensed about reports that people aren’t turning out for his rallies, He accuses the New York Times of doctoring a picture of Trump National Doral where he will hold the G20 summit, He has attacked Annie Andrews, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate from South Carolina who is in a competitive race with Darline Graham, He has walked back his announcement that he will cover the $20 milllion cost of his self-promotional ads, And there has been widespread outcry against his suggestion that a nuclear attack on LA and San Diego would be acceptable, Timothy Snyder warned that Trump appears to be inviting a terrorist attack, The administration is steering money for infrastructure investment to areas with higher than average birthrates and marriage rates in an apparent embrace of the Great Replacement theory, The administration has not invited monitors from the OSCE to observe the midterm elections, the first time since 2002 that these observers have not been invited, The push to interfere with the elections is underway, with Trump hinting that he and Russell Vought have “some big surprises coming up."To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 4, 2026Saying he will make a payment to seniors, and also pay all Americans if Republicans win in the midterms, Trump is openly talking about using taxpayer money to buy votes, Trump is increasingly worried about Democrats winning control of Congress in the upcoming elections, Democratic control of one or both chambers of Congress will mean that investigations will start immediately, The administration is asserting that executive privilege protecting conversations by the president with government advisors extends to civilians to whom the president speaks, Stories of corruption are surfacing, Sen. Ron Wyden is demanding the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s finances and the transcript of FBI 302 reports, The administration is involved in business deals with Russia which will benefit Trump's family and donors, The deals shine a spotlight on the fact that under Trump national security is for sale, Jared Kushner’s financial interests in the Israeli military are shielded because he is not a government employee, Donald Trump Jr’s financial deals are likely to be investigated, The extensive hack of the FBI's jobs portal appears to have been the result of incompetence. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 2, 2026Trump held a campaign rally in Mobile, Alabama today, Mobile is where his MAGA rallies really took off in August 2015 when more than 30,000 people showed up, In 2015, Trump tapped into the anger of people who felt they had been dispossessed, Trump promised to bring back jobs and the military and to “Make America Great Agatin,” Trump’s return to Mobile was different, with many fewer people, but he hopes to rally MAGA voters who might not otherwise turn out, Only 31% of Americans give Trump good marks for how he is handling the presidency, Trump demanded that Russell Vought come up with $20 million to run ads praising him, The Republicans have pulled their spending on the Senate race in North Carolina, In Kansas, Republicans are trying to shore up the sitting Republican Senator whose race for reelection has tightened, Trump never intended to address the real problems facing the country, People are not buying his claim that the economy is booming, Democrats are fitting into the space that Republicans once exploited.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

September 30, 2026After more than two decades, the deaths of countless Iraqi civilians and more than 4,500 US troops, the wounding of more than 30,000 US military personnel, and a cost of more than $2.8 trillion, the US has pulled out the last of its forces from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, A small contingent of advisors had remained after the US and Iraq agreed to a withdrawal plan in 2024, At that time, Iran seemed to be on the ropes, but Trump’s war on Iran has strengthened the country’s hand in the region, The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on the belief that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was destabilizing the Middle East, Although Saddam had not been involved in the 9/11 attack, officials from the George W Bush administration pushed the idea that the terrorists were affiliated with Iraq, The administration warned that Saddam Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction and when Secretary of State Colin Powell warned in a speech at the UN that Iraq had chemical WMDs and the resources to create nuclear weapons, people were convinced it was true. Later the evidence was discredited, but enough countries backed an invasion that in March 2003 American troops invaded with the intention of overthrowing the government, Saddam’s forces crumbled and by May the US had set up a transitional government and Bush had declared “Mission Accomplished,” But it wasn’t, Now the United States is entering the eighth month of a war on Iran that Trump apparently began with the same cowboy mentality as Bush carried into the war in Iraq, And Pete Hegseth is celebrating his transformation of the military and its “patriotic cowboys.” To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe