As the Trump administration tries to exert power over American cities, Chicago has become a flashpoint where federal agents are performing immigration raids, detaining journalists, and clamping down on protests. President Trump has deployed the National Guard, but a federal judge has temporarily blocked the deployment. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tells Ali Velshi that Trump has “declared war on the city” and that it’s incumbent on everyone “to push back fiercely against this tyrant.”

When OMB Director Russell Vought was working on Project 2025 - the blueprint for seizing power in a second Trump presidency - he spoke about how his think tank was building a rationale for invoking The Insurrection Act to deploy the military on American streets. Now, Project 2025 is here. National Guard troops have been deployed to five American cities - and worse could be on the horizon as Donald Trump and his inner circle have begun labeling a wide range of people and behaviors as “insurrectionist" in recent weeks. What we are witnessing is a real-time test of whether our democracy can survive a government that sees its own citizens as the enemy.

What does “minimum force” really look like? New videos surface showing ICE agents making arrests in broad daylight, near schools, in front of children, and on busy streets. The videos show federal agents intensifying their aggressive tactics in America’s big cities. Writer Radley Balko says, "The fact that we all have a camera in our pockets, and we have instant access to share these videos with the world, is an extremely powerful tool… These videos are having an effect."

In his novel “War and Peace,” the author Leo Tolstoy tells us that history does not unfold in discrete moments, but rather as a collection of small things that happen in a continuous, chaotic timeline. Ali Velshi explains the importance of taking in the chaotic timeline we are in, right now, before it passes us by. The survival of democracy relies on all of our collective stewardship and our recognizing the gravity of our current moment. 

The award-winning director and actor said the current climate has become “beyond McCarthy era-esque.”

In reality, there’s no difference between the White House’s shutdown contingency plan and the agenda they’ve already put into action.

All in one week, federal agents stormed a Chicago apartment complex, Donald Trump told 800 of the military’s top brass that America’s cities should be used as “training grounds” and that American citi...

On day four of the government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined Ali Velshi to discuss the state of negotiations around the government shutdown – notably that they are not happenin...

Book bans have slowly become normalized in recent years and a new report from PEN America shows the alarming consequences. Under President Trump, the book ban movement has escalated with the federal g...

Four days into a government shutdown, congressional Republicans are refusing to negotiate and have ultimately done away with regular order. President Trump is using the shutdown as an excuse to punish...

With no end in sight to the government shutdown, Donald Trump and OMB Director Russell Vought are threatening to fire civil servants en masse and freeze federal funds. They claim Democrats are forcing...

It’s day five and counting of a budget impasse in Washington, but critics say characterizing this moment as a government “shutdown” is misleading. For months, Donald Trump and his budget director Russ...

Since returning to office, President Trump has sought to reshape Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fit his mass deportation agenda. ICE insists agents use a “minimal amount of force” when making ...

Veteran director Rob Reiner told MSNBC on Sunday he is worried America is one year away from becoming a hellish "full-on autocracy" under President Donald Trump.

The United States has "about a year" before "democracy completely leaves us," director Rob Reiner told Ali Velshi on MSNBC Sunday. Reiner cited recent deployments of National Guard soldiers to Portlan...

As part of a multi-pronged deal with Pfizer, President Trump announced a new government website called “TrumpRx,” where he says Americans can buy discounted drugs directly from manufacturers. Co-Found...

From the cancellation of Stephen Colbert, to the preemption of Jimmy Kimmel and the postponing of Jessica Chastain’s new series, President Trump’s administration is using politics to squeeze Hollywood. Acclaimed filmmaker Rob Reiner calls the current climate “beyond McCarthy era-esque” and warns Ali Velshi, “This is just the beginning.” He says his colleagues need to speak up: “Our job now, as communicators, is to start communicating to the rest of the country.”

A new ADP report indicating significant drops in private employment is "definitely a negative signal" for the economy, economist Justin Wolfers tells Ali Velshi. But amid the government shutdown, we don't have an up-to-date jobs report or even someone leading the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after Trump withdrew his controversial nominee, E.J. Antoni. "The only thing he'd ever done with statistics was misrepresent them," Wolfers said. 

As part of a multi-pronged deal with Pfizer, President Trump announced a new government website called “TrumpRx,” where he says Americans can buy discounted drugs directly from manufacturers. Co-Founder of The Contrarian, Norm Eisen, tells Ali Velshi that Americans are “already getting lower prices” because of the Affordable Care Act, and TrumpRx is “another example of President Trump deceiving and distracting” for political gain.

Since returning to office, President Trump has sought to reshape Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fit his mass deportation agenda. ICE insists agents use a “minimal amount of force” when making arrests, but video footage shows otherwise. Now with Trump ordering federal deployments into Chicago against the wishes of local officials, Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes says, “This is not about safety or security. This is about sowing division. This is about control.”