What A Day
Episodes
Loyalty Over Competence At Trump's Justice Department
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Emil Bove as a federal appeals court judge, a lifetime appointment to a perch one rung below the U.S. Supreme Court. B...
Trump's Tariff Deadline Is Two Days Away
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friday is President Donald Trump’s alleged tariff deadline, the day when dozens of countries either have to reach a new trade deal with the U.S. or ...
All Eyes On Gaza As Hunger Crisis Grows
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Global outrage is building as the hunger crisis in Gaza descends into new depths of horror. Even aid workers themselves — the people tasked with hel...
New EPA To Argue Greenhouse Gases Are Totally Fine
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sometime this week, the Trump Administration is expected to launch an assault on one of the major cornerstones of U.S. climate policy, known as the 'e...
Immigration Lawyer Details Horrific Conditions at ICE Detention Centers
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump Administration is quickly ramping up its efforts to arrest and deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible, now that extra money is s...
Trump Targets Obama, Deflects From Epstein
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While pressure mounts on the White House to release documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump is do...
Mike Johnson Staves Off Epstein Vote
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
House lawmakers will start their Summer break a few days early today, vacating the capital until September. They’re leaving early because Republican...
A Look At Trump And Epstein's History
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Despite President Donald Trump's best efforts, his administration can't escape the conspiracies swirling around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein...
How AI Is Weaponizing Voicemail
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As artificial intelligence programs become more widely accessible, so too do increasingly sophisticated deepfake scams that take advantage of the tech...
Inside 'Alligator Alcatraz' with Rep. Maxwell Frost
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alligator Alcatraz, a pop-up immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, has been touted by members of the Trump Administration as an ‘e...
Trump v The Federal Reserve Chair
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump spent Wednesday refuting reports he plans to imminently fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The president has been com...
The Trump Putin Breakup Explained
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the 2024 campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly claimed he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine ‘on day one.’ Roughly 180 days i...
Can Planned Parenthood Survive Trump’s Big Beautiful Law?
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago, the question of abortion's legality and availability returned to the states. As of now...
Why Hiring 10,000 New ICE Agents Is A Bad Idea
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump’s new spending and tax law is set to balloon the budget for immigration and detention enforcement. With an extra $170 billion...
Ex-NOAA Administrator On Trump's Staffing Cuts
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to central Texas today to tour damage of the devastating July 4th weekend floods. More than 100 people h...
ICE Gets Billions To Intimidate Americans
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Federal agents descended on a park in the middle of Los Angeles midday Monday, showing up on horseback, in armored tanks, and carrying rifles. While i...
Ex-CDC Doctor On RFK Jr.'s Risky Vaccine Policies
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In just a few short months on the job, Health And Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has managed to upend the American public health syste...
How Democrats Will Make Trump Own His Disastrous Spending Bill
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Now that President Donald Trump has gotten exactly what he wanted, and signed his major domestic tax and policy agenda into law, what should Democrats...
Trump's War On The Poor
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Despite months of handwringing and a litany complaints from dozens of Congressional Republicans, President Donald Trump scored yet another major polit...
Zohran Mamdani's Fight For NYC feat. Brad Lander
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The New York City Board of Elections on Tuesday confirmed Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman, beat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the city's...
The Big Republican Spending Bill Debacle Disaster Adventure
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Senate passed President Donald Trump's spending bill on Tuesday after Vice President JD Vance arrived to break a 50-50 tie. The bill is now headed...
GOP Senators Ruin Their Summer Vacay for Trump Spending Bill
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As Republicans in Congress look to gut Medicaid with President Donald Trump’s supposed “Big Beautiful Bill,” the Supreme Court ended its session...
GOP Rushes To Pass Trump's Big Beautiful Bill
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s make-or-break week for Congressional Republicans and their big policy and spending legislation, a.k.a. President Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Be...
A Blockbuster Day For The Supreme Court
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court will issue a slew of major opinions today on what’s expected to be the final day of its current term. Still outstanding are decisi...
Is This Trump's Idea of Isolationism?
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump addressed leaders at a NATO summit in the Netherlands Wednesday as the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Iran continued to h...
What It's Like To Have An Empathetic Leader
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does national leadership really look like? Despite all of President Donald Trump's rhetoric, it's not like running a business. It's not even like...
MAGA Isolationists Sidelined in Iran Strike Debate
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Iran fired missiles at a U.S. military base in Qatar Monday in retaliation for American strikes on three nuclear enrichment sites, marking another maj...
Sen. Warner Says Congress Needs Answers After US Bombs Iran
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The United States is going to war in the Middle East again… maybe. President Donald Trump announced Saturday the U.S. had bombed three of Iran’s m...
Politics and Musings Live with former Senator Al Franken
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago, What A Day took a trip to the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in Seattle, Washington, for a conversation with former Democratic Minnesota ...
How The Supreme Court Just Failed Trans Youth
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court is staying busy with decisions. The High Court issued a 6-3 ruling on Wednesday in United States v. Skrmetti, upholding a Tennessee ...
The Israel Iran Conflict Explained
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tensions continue to escalate between Iran and Israel as the two countries swap missile fire. Israel claims to have killed multiple high-level Iranian...
Los Angeles Is Not In Crisis feat. Mayor Karen Bass
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A federal appeals court will decide if President Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to anti-immigration rai...
Sustaining The Movement After No Kings
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In towns and cities across the country, from blue cities to red states, from Idaho to Georgia and pretty much everywhere else, folks gathered to show ...
Asking A Question Got US Senator Padilla Handcuffed
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Congress is reeling after Democratic US Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed and handcuffed – all for the crime of trying to ask Homeland Secur...
Decoding Recent Supreme Court Gun Rulings
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court has been busy releasing opinions. Last week, it ruled against a ten billion dollar lawsuit from Mexico against American gun manufact...
Why Climate Change Is Driving An Insurance Meltdown
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You know how people are always saying, "What happens in California often doesn't stay here"? They're so right! Case in point: home insurance. When nat...
The Court’s Willful Ignorance And Our Racial Caste System
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump Administration has decided that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are themselves a form of discrimination. And last week, the Supreme...
LA On The Front Lines Of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
People protesting against Immigration Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles and President Trump’s crackdown on immigration clashed with the Natio...
Trump And Musk's Messy Break-Up
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While President Trump demands his administration investigate the former president's pardons and executive orders, we're left thinking about President ...
The Big Beautiful Bill Breakdown feat. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some Republican lawmakers are backtracking their support for President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” after realizing it’s …not all that beau...
We're Not Powerless Against Trump's Climate Sabotage
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump has made it his mission to single-handedly reverse basically every accomplishment of the Biden administration. That’s especia...
Migrants’ Legal Limbo
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the last few weeks, the Supreme Court has dealt more than half a million migrants a serious blow to their ability to live here in the U.S. legally....
How Trump's Chaos Is Becoming Normal
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can you believe it’s already June? So much has happened since President Donald Trump returned to the White House four and a half months ago, it’s ...
In Israel And Gaza, War Opposition Grows
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week marked more than 600 days since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. In the wake of Hamas' horrific Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, ...
When The Conspiracy Theorists Become Bureaucrats
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before Kash Patel, Dan Bongino and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. were prominent members of the Trump Administration (FBI Director, FBI Deputy Director and He...
Are Trump’s Crypto Ventures Corrupt
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To the average American, the world of cryptocurrencies can be completely inscrutable. Only about 17 percent of U.S. adults say they've ever invested, ...
Abortion Access In Trump's America 2.0
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has long been a pusher of junk science, especially when it comes to research around vaccines and...
Assembly Required: Rachel Maddow on Winning America’s Fight Against Fascism
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today, the What A Day team is off. But we’re excited to bring you a recent episode of Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams.In the first 100 days of ...
SCOTUS Deadlocks On Major Religion Case
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In one of the most anticipated rulings of the term, the Supreme Court justices deadlocked Thursday in a case over the creation of a religious charter ...
Inside Diddy's Federal Sex-Trafficking Trial
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you're a certain age, Sean' Diddy' Combs was inescapable during some really formative years of your music-listening habits. The entertainment mogul...
Why Medicaid Work Requirements Are A Bad Idea
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As Congressional Republicans try to pass President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' through the House and Senate, Medicaid is one of the big progr...
A House Divided
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's make-or-break week in the House for President Donald Trump's 'one big, beautiful bill.' House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he still believes ...
Why One Yale Professor Chose To Leave The U.S.
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The New York Times recently published a video op-ed by a group of Yale University professors who say they’re leaving the U.S. for jobs at the Univer...
The Art Of The Deal: Mideast Edition
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump is expected to wrap up the first major international trip of his second term today when he returns from the Middle East. His fo...
What To Know About Today's SCOTUS Birthright Case
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court hears arguments today in three cases challenging President Donald Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship. Lower courts have bl...
Why Trump’s Economy is Weird AF
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is the U.S. economy … good? Bad? Somewhere in the middle? If it feels like you're desperately shaking a Magic 8 Ball for economic tea leaves, and ev...
Can The India-Pakistan Ceasefire Hold?
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire Saturday, after days of fighting along their shared border and in the contested region of Kashmir. While the ...
Millennials And Gen Zers Step Into Leadership
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's 2025, and if you're a Millennial or Gen Zer, there's a good chance that you are qualified to manage and lead other people, even run for political...
The First American Pope
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We have a new pope, and he’s from Chicago! On the second day of the papal conclave Thursday, Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the 267th pope of t...
Congress, U Up?
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few months, you might have been wondering to yourself, “Hey! The president of the United States is running roughshod over the rights o...
Elon Musk Go!
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and, depending on whom you ask, the perceived head of the Department of Government Efficiency, is taking a big st...
Netanyahu Threatens to Escalate War In Gaza
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was 'on the eve of a forceful entry to Gaza.' His announcement came just hours after his sec...
Project 2025: Trump's 100-Day Blitz
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While President Donald Trump struggles to convince the American public his tariffs are worth sacrificing for by prattling on about how kids these days...
Mike Waltz Loses Job, Gets A New One
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Thursday became the first major ouster of President Donald Trump’s second term… kind of. Rumors of Waltz’...
In Trump vs Universities, Students Are Stuck In The Middle
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump has fundamentally reshaped the federal government’s relationship with many of the nation’s...
Trump is Tariff-ied
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump cruised to victory in the 2024 election largely because voters said they trusted him more on the economy. But 100 days into his second...
100 Days In Trump’s America 2.0
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We made it, ya’ll. One hundred days of President Donald Trump’s second term down. Only 1,362 to go…. not that we’re counting (we're definitely...
Why Some Migrants Say They'll Self-Deport
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration's relentless assault on immigrants keeps marching on. Over the weekend, federal officials said they arrested nearly 800 peopl...
Job Cuts Come For the State Department
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent part of his Thursday gilding President Donald Trump's lily, saying during an Oval Office Q&A with reporters that ...
Will Trump Abandon Ukraine?
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration is putting pressure on Ukraine to accept a U.S.-backed peace plan with Russia that closely aligns with Moscow's goals in the ...
MAGA Baby Bucks
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
MAGA is in full-on panic mode about the declining birth rate in the U.S., and so the doors of the West Wing are wide open to figuring out how to get m...
A Week of Big Cases At SCOTUS
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's a busy week at the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, the justices heard oral arguments in yet another legal attack on Obamacare, this time over requ...
America At A Tipping Point
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump still hasn’t hit the 100-day mark of his second term, but it feels like the country is already hitting some kind of inflectio...
How Trump’s Shredding Green Regulations
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration is running through our constitutional rights like a bull unleashed on the streets of Pamplona. For days now, the high-stakes ...
Dems Go To Bat For Due Process
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador Wednesday to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who the ...
How RFK Jr. Has Already Reshaped Public Health
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda on the road this week, stopping in Ind...
Trump's Deportation Standoff Keeps Getting Worse
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump met with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office Monday. Their conversation centered on immigration, and speci...
We Went To The 'Fighting Oligarchy' Rally
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Congress is out of session this week. Democrats are keeping busy with planned town hall events in red and blue districts nationwide. But a certain pro...
House Republicans Pass Big Beautiful Bill feat. Rep. Ro Khanna
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re not feeling better after President Donald Trump paused the largest of his previously planned tariffs on 75 countries on Wednesday, you’r...
Trump: Now You Tariff… Now You Don’t
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When most of us woke up Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump was still very excited about the tariffs he imposed on dozens of countries that had ...
Supreme Court Gives Trump What He Wants... For Now
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration three successive wins this week, albeit temporary ones. On Tuesday, the justices halted a lower cour...
Trump’s Market Meltdown… And Your Wallet
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The stock market continued to have a not very good time Monday as a result of President Donald Trump's tariffs on everyone, even penguins. And counter...
Massive Crowds Tell Trump 'Hands Off' My Government
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hundreds of thousands people across the country spent part of their Saturday at ‘Hands Off’ rallies to protest President Donald Trump and his admi...
Trump Tariffies The Markets
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If Wednesday was ‘Liberation Day’ in America, then Thursday was its day of reckoning, as the reality of President Donald Trump’s decision to lev...
Trump Launches Tariff-Palooza
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wednesday was ‘Liberation Day’ in Trump’s America. For everyone else, it was a day of sheer economic panic, as President Donald Trump unveiled h...
Why Planned Parenthood Is Back In Front Of SCOTUS
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments today in a big case about healthcare access and Planned Parenthood. The years-long court fight c...
Trump's TBD Tariffs
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Economists, Wall Street traders — really, anyone who has a stake in the health of the U.S. economy — are all holding their breaths right now ahead...
Musk Throws Millions Into Wisc. Supreme Court Race
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wisconsin voters will head to the polls Tuesday (if they haven’t already) to choose a new member of the State Supreme Court. The race between two st...
Is Any Immigrant Safe In Trump's America?
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration spends a lot of time trumpeting all the ways it’s cracking down on immigrants in the United States. From the very public ra...
Trump’s Next Chat Scandal: The Coverup
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Atlantic published the entire Signal conversation centered on strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen between multiple administration officials and, ...
This Group Chat Should Have Been An Email feat. Sen. Mark Warner
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were on Capitol Hill Tuesday for what was supposed to be a routine ann...
Sec. Pete Hegseth Is In My DMs
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has been busy since assuming office earlier this year. Zeldin's been pushing President Donald...
Trump Wants To Be King
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In just about two months, President Donald Trump has managed to thoroughly shake U.S. democratic structures to the core. From firing thousands of fede...
The Miseducation Of Donald Trump feat. Former Sec. Arne Duncan
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to officially start shutting down the Department of Education. The thing is... he can't do t...
The Trump Administration's All-Out Assault On Judges
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are we in a constitutional crisis? That’s the big question on the minds of legal experts across the country right now, as President Donald Trump and...
Trump Sows Chaos Abroad
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tuesday was a big day in foreign policy news. Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes on Gaza Monday night, its first attack since a ceasefire with Ha...
Trump’s Law-Bending Attack on Migrants
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In both court and in interviews Monday, the Trump administration doubled down on its decision over the weekend to deport more than 250 migrants, mostl...
Dems: Chuck's Not Like Us
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer may have kept the U.S. government from shutting down last week, his decision to help Republicans pass a spe...
Is Bipartisanship Dead? feat. Leader Hakeem Jeffries
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s shutdown day in America, with lawmakers facing a midnight deadline to pass a government funding bill that keeps the proverbial lights on. After...
Are We At Risk Of Another Pandemic?
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a rough time for people who worry about infectious diseases. A new study shows bird flu is more widespread in U.S. cows than previously thought...