Diane Rehm: On My Mind

The pressure campaigns of the Trump administration are beginning to bear fruit. Last week saw two major institutions acquiesce to the president’s demands after actions taken by the White House threatened to undermine their budgets, workforce and, in some cases, ability to perform core business. The first was Paul Weiss, a major law firm that some accuse of trading pro bono work on behalf of Trump causes to maintain business ties to federal agencies. The second was Columbia University, which agreed to terms laid out by the government in exchange for the restoration of funding that had been slashed earlier this month. Hailed as victories by Donald Trump, Isaac Stanley-Becker, staff writer at The Atlantic, says these are just two of the highest profile examples of the ways the president has learned to wield fear as a political tool. While Donald Trump has always used scare tactic in his exercise of power, Stanley-Becker explains, what we are seeing now is different from his first term, with his name-calling and social media bullying. “What I think is especially significant,” says Stanley-Becker, “is the use of government assets and government resources -- and denying those as a bargaining chip to bring these institutions to heel.” Stanley-Becker joins Diane to talk about his recent piece, “The United States of Fear.”

Nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2050, this number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million. For years, research into the disease remained underfunded -- and patients who received a diagnosis had few options when it came to treatment. But in recent years, that has begun to change. “There are exciting developments in the research field at each stage of our lives that affect the strength of our brain and the ability of the brain to resist brain challenges,” says George Vradenburg. Vradenburg is chairman of the non-profit UsAgainstAlzheimer's, which he co-founded in 2010 with his late wife, Trish. He joins Diane for a conversation about his hopes and fears for Alzheimer’s research, and how the Trump administration could change those.

Donald Trump’s love-hate relationship with the news media was on full display throughout his first term. He screamed “fake news” at negative coverage and labeled journalists the “enemy of the people.” But lately, he has taken his campaign beyond the court of public opinion, filing lawsuits against ABC, CBS, The Des Moines Register, and the Pulitzer Board. David Enrich is the business investigations editor for the New York Times. He says Trump’s legal actions are part of a broader conservative movement to undermine First Amendment protections for the press. The effort is being led, he says, by politicians, billionaires and corporations – and may soon make its way to the Supreme Court. He joins Diane tells the story in new book, “Murder the Truth.”

In the weeks preceding President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, the administration was busy – taking an axe to federal agencies, imposing tariffs on neighboring countries, and reversing course on U.S. support for Ukraine. But we heard little about these issues from the president in this speech. What the president did do was tick off a list of accomplishments, including money saved through contracts cancelled and fraud exposed – many of these examples exaggerated or simply untrue. Norman Ornstein is a political scientist and co-author of several books on our politics, including the 2012 New York Times bestseller It’s Even Worse Than It Looks. He says that many Trump voters couldn’t see the ways that government impacted their lives. But, he adds, “If Trump succeeds as he’s already doing in disrupting so many of these areas, Americans are going to be jolted by what they missed.” Norman Ornstein joins Diane on today’s episode of On My Mind to offer his take on what he sees coming and the Democrats’ response.

On February 7, billionaire Elon Musk posted a message on his social media platform X: “CFPB RIP,” along with a tombstone emoji. In the days that followed, the workings of the government’s financial industry watchdog created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis essentially ground to a halt. More than a hundred and fifty employees were let go, with more layoffs expected. Donald Trump has explicitly said he wants to get rid of the agency. And when you try to access the CFPB’s website, you get an error message. So, can the Trump administration actually kill the CFPB? Mallory SoRelle says no. SoRelle is an assistant professor of public policy at Duke University and author of “Democracy Declined: The Failed Politics of Consumer Financial Protection.” She explains that only Congress can shutter the agency. But, she adds, the actions the Trump administration have taken so far are “fundamentally shifting the playing field in favor of the financial industry and away from consumer protection.” SoRelle joins Diane on this week’s episode of On My Mind to talk about the history of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and what would happen if it went away.

First it hit poultry farms, forcing farmers to cull millions of hens. Egg prices jumped, and some grocery stores began to ration the number of cartons per customer. Next infections spread to dairy cows, stoking fears of a wider outbreak. Now, avian influenza has been detected in domesticated cats, and humans, with about seventy confirmed cases in in the U.S. Lena Sun is a staff writer for the Washington Post who covers public health and infectious disease. She’s been tracking the spread of bird flu over the last few years and says the experts she talks to are worried. “If the country doesn’t do more to get a handle on how the virus is spreading,” she says, “it will be harder and harder to figure out ways to contain it.” Lena Sun joins Diane on this week’s episode of On My Mind.

Earlier this month Donald Trump stood next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and announced that the United States would take over Gaza. The Palestinians who live there, he explained, would be sent to Jordan and Egypt. He went on to describe a vision of the war-torn land being transformed into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Since then, Trump has stood by his comments about the U.S. taking ownership of Gaza, much to the shock of leaders around the world, and even those in his own party. This comes at a time when the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is at risk of falling apart. Aaron David Miller is a former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He says Trump’s proposal doesn’t need to be implemented to have an effect. “The idea alone has already undermined the Israel-Hamas agreement.” Miller joins Diane on this week’s episode of On My Mind.

Elon Musk and his team at DOGE have moved at a remarkable pace over the last two weeks, bringing slash and burn tactics to the federal government. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has signed more than fifty executive orders, the most in a president’s first hundred days in more than forty years. With Republicans holding power in both chambers of congress, there are seemingly few checks on the administration’s actions – even as questions remain about how lawful they are. “The one venue that remains is the courts,” says Naftali Bendavid, senior national political correspondent for the Washington Post. He points out that we have already seen Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship put on hold, and Thursday afternoon a federal judge postponed the deadline for federal workers to take the administration’s “buyout” offer. Naftali Bendavid joins Diane on this week’s episode of On My Mind to talk about this week’s news and the resistance that is taking shape to counter the powers of the president.

It has been ten days since Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term as president. Since then, he has signed a flurry of executive orders, pardoned every January 6th defendant, pushed through controversial cabinet picks, and made moves to completely reshape the federal workforce. And by most accounts, the Democratic response has been ... tepid. “Donald Trump is charting new ground for a president,” says Susan Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker. “He is daring opponents: 'Come and get me!'" So far, Glasser adds, nobody has taken him up on the dare. But this week’s federal funding debacle might have changed the equation and given Democrats an opening. Glasser is also co-author of a book about Trump’s first four years in the White House titled The Divider, and says he seems poised to take advantage of this opportunity for a do-over. She joins Diane to talk about what we’ve seen from the new administration so far and what, if anything, Democrats can do to put a check on his power.

Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a sermon at the National Cathedral on Tuesday in honor of Donald Trump’s inauguration. She ended with a direct address to the president. “Let me make one final plea, ” she said. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” She went on to mention gay, lesbian and transgender children “in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.” She talked about families in the country without documentation who are terrified of being torn apart. In response, the president demanded an apology, claiming Budde brought politics into the church. But Bishop Budde says she stands by her words, and that reminding the country of our shared humanity is part of her duty as a member of the clergy. Bishop Budde is Diane’s faith leader, and she joins her today to explain why she felt she had to speak up and why she feels no need to apologize.

What’s behind Donald Trump’s obsession with Greenland? Most of the island is covered in ice, less than sixty thousand people live there and, until recently, it was best known for snowy photos of polar bears. But climate change has changed the equation and thrust the island into the middle of global politics. Donald Trump has repeatedly said he’d like to buy the territory, and last week at a news conference he said that taking military action to acquire it was not off the table. Sherri Goodman is secretary general of the International Military Council on Climate and Security. She is also a senior fellow at the Wilson Center and author of a new book, “Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security.”

For the last year The Wall Street Journal has been investigating the Medicare Advantage program. It was originally created to make healthcare for seniors and the disabled more efficient. The idea was to outsource insurance to private companies to save taxpayer dollars -- and avoid providers gaming the system as they had in the traditional Medicare program. “Some of those good intentions did not foresee how companies would respond to the financial incentives that had been created,” says Christopher Weaver, one of the Journal reporters who looked at the issue. He says companies have bilked the system for billions of dollars using tactics like over diagnosing patients. Christopher Weaver joins Diane on this episode of On My Mind to share the results of his investigation – and discuss the future of the Medicare Advantage program. For more on The Wall Street Journal's series on the Medicare Advantage program: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/christopher-weaver

A note from Diane: Over the years I had the chance to interview President Jimmy Carter more than 10 times. We talked about his faith, his rural childhood, his triumphs and challenges as president, and his work as a global humanitarian after his years in the White House. He was always kind, warm, gracious and thoughtful. But what made him such an interesting person to talk to was that he never stopped learning, never stopped evolving. You could see this in how he approached the issues he cared about: housing and homelessness, the peace process in the Middle East, and international health, to name a few. Now, as we look back on his legacy, I wanted to share excerpts of our conversations with you. You can find many of Diane's conversations with President Carter in their entirety here: https://wamu.org/series/diane-rehm-in-conversation-with-president-carter-through-the-years/

January 20 will mark the end of the presidency of Joe Biden. Biden came into office as the man who stopped Donald Trump, with promises of serving one term then passing the torch to the next generation. His administration led the country out of the Covid crisis and included some blockbuster legislative successes, as well as a great deal of partisan gridlock. But it might be his decision to run again that will come to define his legacy. “He decided to seek a second term and that proved a perilous decision,” says Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at USA Today, pointing out that many Democrats blame him for Trump’s victory in November. And yet, she tells Diane on today’s episode of On My Mind, she considers Joe Biden to be a transformative president whose accomplishments could be felt for decades to come.

Thousands of years ago humans learned to control the power of water – and civilization was born. Now, in a new book, Jeremy Rifkin argues climate change has shifted that equation, and water is once again controlling us – with floods, droughts, hurricanes and typhoons. “The waters are rebelling,” he says. “They are literally taking down the infrastructure of our civilization in real time.” Rifkin is the author of more than 20 books about the influence of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, and the environment. He has advised governments around the globe on how to adapt economies and infrastructure to a changing world. He joins Diane to talk about his new book, “Planet Aqua,” a plea to radically rethink our relationship to water and its impact on our future.

Earlier this week Diane hosted a special edition of The Diane Rehm Book Club, her monthly series held on ZOOM in front of a live audience. This month she asked some of her favorite book lovers to join her to talk about their favorite reads of year. And they did not disappoint. Her guests were Ann Patchett, novelist and owner of Parnassus Books, Eddie Glaude Jr., professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of several books on race and politics, and Maureen Corrigan, book critic on NPR’s Fresh Air. She also teaches literary criticism at Georgetown University. See below for a list of each guest’s top books of the year, along with all of the titles discussed during this conversation. Maureen Corrigan’s top books of 2024: “James” by Percival Everett “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna “Long Island” by Colm Tóibín “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar “Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner “Cahokia Jazz” by Francis Spufford “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore “A Wilder Shore” by Camille Peri “The Letters of Emily Dickinson” edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell Ann Patchett’s top books of 2024: “James” by Percival Everett “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna “Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout “Mighty Red” by Louise Erdrich “Time of the Child” by Niall Williams “An Unfinished Love Story” by Doris Kearns Goodwin “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan “Hotel Balzaar” by Kate DiCamillo (middle grade book) “Water, Water: Poems” by Billy Collins Eddie Glaude Jr.’s top books of 2024: “Slaveroad” by John Edgar Wideman “Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative” by Isabella Hammad “We’re Alone” by Edwidge Danticat Other titles mentioned in the discussion: “Wide Sargasso Sea” with introduction by Edwidge Danticat “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver “The Dog Who Followed the Moon: An Inspirational Story with Meditations on Life, Experience the Power of Love and Sacrifice” by James Norbury “Afterlives” by Abdulrazak Gurnah “Someone Knows My Name” by Lawrence Hill “Moon Tiger” by Penelope Lively “Sandwich” by Catherine Newman “Windward Heights” by Maryse Condé “There's Always This Year” by Hanif Abdurraqib “Mothers and Sons” by Adam Haslett (publication date in January 2025) “Memorial Day” by Geraldine Brooks (publication date in February 2025) “33 Place Brugmann” by Alice Austen (publication date in March 2025) “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell “Independent People” by Halldor Laxness “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald “Beloved” by Toni Morrison “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward To find out more about The Diane Rehm Book Club go to dianerehm.org/bookclub.

Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. They say they will cut one third of the federal budget, slash regulations, reduce the federal workforce ... and that it “will be easy!” David Fahrenthold is an investigative reporter at The New York Times and has covered government spending for years. He says there are certainly places where government can run more efficiently, and where waste and fraud can be eliminated. However, he adds, “It’s really hard to find places where you can cut a trillion or 2 trillion dollars and not drastically cut back the services people expect from the government. Fahrenthold joins Diane to talk about what the leaders of DOGE have in mind and what it will take to accomplish their goals.

For years experts have warned about a looming crisis facing the Social Security system. According to current estimates, the program will become insolvent by 2034, at which time benefits would be automatically cut. During the campaign, President-elect Trump positioned himself as an advocate of the program, which remains highly popular among voters. But economist Teresa Ghilarducci says that if you dig into his proposals, a different picture emerges. A recent analysis shows his policies would move up the date of insolvency from 11 years to 9 years. “It’s kind of a shocker,” she says. “He’s very bold in his policies.” Teresa Ghilarducci is a professor of economics at The New School and author of the new book "Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy.” She joins Diane to explain the urgency of addressing Social Security’s finances and why Trump’s proposals would make the situation worse.

For years, legendary folk singer Joan Baez wrote poems and tucked them away in notebooks and on scraps of paper. She started this decades ago, around the time memories surfaced of childhood abuse at the hands of her father. Baez says poetry was a way to explore the reasons behind her lifelong phobias, insomnia and panic attacks – and to come to terms with a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder, which for her meant she lived with several other voices in her head. Now 83, Baez has taken these musings about her life, her trauma, and her passions for nature and art, and is sharing them with the world. “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance” reads like a diary in verse, and offers deep insight into the experiences and creativity of one of our nation’s most beloved folk musicians. Diane spoke to Joan Baez on Zoom in front of a live audience as part of The Diane Rehm `Book Club in August of this year. They talked about the book, as well as the recent documentary about Baez’s life, “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise.” Find out more about The Diane Rehm Book Club here: dianerehm.org/bookclub

Donald Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s an appointment that has many public health experts more than a little concerned. For years Kennedy has spread misinformation about vaccines, calling into question their safety and efficacy. He has promoted controversial or debunked medical treatments. He has falsely linked antidepressants to school shootings. And he has accused the federal agencies he will oversee as having an interest in “mass poisoning the American public.” Dr. Céline Gounder is an infectious disease specialist, epidemiologist and currently the editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News. She joins Diane to separate the facts from falsehoods and outline just how much power Kennedy might have over our healthcare system.