Seth Abramson
@sethabramson.bsky.social
400K followers 98 following 9.5K posts
Journalist, lawyer, NYT-bestselling Trump and Musk biographer, songwriter (Hounds, The Rangers), former CNN & BBC analyst, retired journalism prof. 👤: sethabramson.net/bio ⚖️: sethabramson.substack.com 🕹: retrostack.substack.com 🎶: houndsmusic.substack.com
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sethabramson.bsky.social
I can’t adequately express how mystified and nauseated I am by the conversation about Trump receiving a Nobel Peace Prize that corporate media is now leading. But as a journalist, attorney, historian and Trump presidential biographer I’m now obligated to make the case *against* in full.

Here it is:
Media and MAGA Calls for Trump to Catch a Nobel Peace Prize Rather Than An ICC War Crimes Indictment Are Obscene
The second-biggest threat to global peace after Putin has earned a cell for war crimes—not a humanitarian award. That his grotesque and scammy appeal for a Nobel Peace Prize is working is terrifying.
sethabramson.substack.com
sethabramson.bsky.social
And PROOF OF COLLUSION came well over two years after I started reporting on the dangers Donald Trump poses to America.

I have been warning about this man for a long, long, *long* time.
sethabramson.bsky.social
Seven years ago next month—the book that launched the Proof Series.
Reposted by Seth Abramson
sethabramson.bsky.social
I can’t adequately express how mystified and nauseated I am by the conversation about Trump receiving a Nobel Peace Prize that corporate media is now leading. But as a journalist, attorney, historian and Trump presidential biographer I’m now obligated to make the case *against* in full.

Here it is:
Media and MAGA Calls for Trump to Catch a Nobel Peace Prize Rather Than An ICC War Crimes Indictment Are Obscene
The second-biggest threat to global peace after Putin has earned a cell for war crimes—not a humanitarian award. That his grotesque and scammy appeal for a Nobel Peace Prize is working is terrifying.
sethabramson.substack.com
Reposted by Seth Abramson
sethabramson.bsky.social
(🧵) A key irony in what is now happening in Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, and D.C. is something I have not heard much discussed: in order to meet the high legal standard for deployment of federal troops, Trump must not only argue but establish by evidence that his agents are... incapable.
sethabramson.bsky.social
CONCLUSION/ So what we’re seeing is red-state small-government fed-haters *demanding* their own taxes be increased so *their* Guard can help blue-staters they don’t care about—insanity—and a sociopathically alpha-style POTUS who can’t legally win unless and until he admits to being an utter failure.
sethabramson.bsky.social
10/ I’m not saying anti-Big Government frames matter now. The MAGAs are nihilists and believe in nothing.

But I’d think journalists could underscore that a) Trump can’t get state aid without admitting being a historic failure, b) feds demanding state largesse is technically an un-MAGA “philosophy.”
sethabramson.bsky.social
9/ If you’re a MAGA and you SUPPORT what ICE is doing, you’re a bad person and hate the Constitution—you want an authoritarian federal government without due process.

You’re a Big Government goon.

But *some* MAGAs may realize that demanding a huge TAX HIKE to make states do federal work is insane.
sethabramson.bsky.social
8/ Trump declaring that he has so bankrupted, under-resourced, and mismanaged the federal government that for the first time ever it can’t execute basic duties without panhandling to the states isn’t just an admission of a catastrophic failure as a leader, but an implicit TAX HIKE for all taxpayers.
sethabramson.bsky.social
7/ And that’s the right question for more reasons than you might think. MAGAs hate (they say) Big Government; the idea that their big I VOTED FOR THIS policy is...

...demanding state taxpayers pay for new federal actions...

...is bonkers. It’s the Democrats who are practicing federalism correctly.
sethabramson.bsky.social
6/ People are starting to wake up to this as they learn more about the Insurrection Act, more about the national emergency Trump is claiming justifies his pre-Act orders, and the filings he’s made. People are saying, ICE is armed, well-manned, claims to be amazing...why are they demanding state aid?
sethabramson.bsky.social
5/ I’m a lawyer, but believe what’s governing this standoff—the coming Insurrection Act invocation, then martial law, possibly civil war—isn’t just the law but Trump’s criminal profile. He won’t argue in court that he’s the first POTUS incapable of running the government without emergency state aid.
sethabramson.bsky.social
4/ As we all know, Trump never apologizes, admits a mistake, or voluntarily exhibits weakness, doubt or sensitivity.

And to be clear, this inability is pathological. He’s a sociopath.

So the one thing he needs to do to justify demanding state aid for basic federal work—admit a failure—he can’t do.
sethabramson.bsky.social
3/ The problem? Every other POTUS in American history has felt that they had sufficient resources to handle basic federal functions like immigration enforcement. They didn’t go panhandling to states begging for aid—excepting one or two under-a-week-long events like the L.A. riots in the early 1990s.
sethabramson.bsky.social
2/ ...he is trying to argue, without ever saying it outright, that ICE cannot handle its own security and cannot protect its own buildings—and that therefore he has met the legal standard for deploying federal troops from various states: that his forces can’t execute the laws of the US without help.
sethabramson.bsky.social
1/ This is why we keep hearing about Trump claiming in court, falsely, that the only purpose of these troops is to provide *support* to ICE at their facilities and as they attack and disappear U.S. civilians.

Yes, he partly needs to deny any law enforcement activities—that is part of it—but also...
sethabramson.bsky.social
(🧵) A key irony in what is now happening in Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, and D.C. is something I have not heard much discussed: in order to meet the high legal standard for deployment of federal troops, Trump must not only argue but establish by evidence that his agents are... incapable.
sethabramson.bsky.social
I wrote a day or two ago about how working on Hounds has made me realize how little high-profile protest music is out there.

Well, that makes it incumbent upon me to talk about the good work that is being done beyond Hounds, Jesse Welles, and a few others I have highlighted.

So, here's a good one:
Mon Rovîa - Heavy Foot (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Mon Rovîa
youtu.be
sethabramson.bsky.social
The ceasefire has just begun.

So has the countdown until the Israeli military kills the next Gazan civilian.

It would be a miracle if the IDF makes it 24 hours without murdering someone.
sethabramson.bsky.social
This is an essay about the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, so I'm not following you
sethabramson.bsky.social
I can’t adequately express how mystified and nauseated I am by the conversation about Trump receiving a Nobel Peace Prize that corporate media is now leading. But as a journalist, attorney, historian and Trump presidential biographer I’m now obligated to make the case *against* in full.

Here it is:
Media and MAGA Calls for Trump to Catch a Nobel Peace Prize Rather Than An ICC War Crimes Indictment Are Obscene
The second-biggest threat to global peace after Putin has earned a cell for war crimes—not a humanitarian award. That his grotesque and scammy appeal for a Nobel Peace Prize is working is terrifying.
sethabramson.substack.com
Reposted by Seth Abramson
sethabramson.bsky.social
Anyone else remember that old SNL sketch in which Jon Lovitz is playing Michael Dukakis and Dana Carvey is playing George H.W. Bush and they're debating and in mid-debate Dukakis turns to the camera and says, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy"?

Yeah, *that*
sethabramson.bsky.social
I am watching otherwise intelligent people talk themselves into thinking Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize in real time

The world has gone fecking mad
theatlantic.com
The Israel-Hamas peace agreement “grew directly out of Trump’s desperate thirst for the Nobel,” Jonathan Chait argues. “If dangling the award in front of Trump encourages him to work hard to end conflicts,” we must wonder what will happen if he gets it:
Trump’s Nobel Thirst Is Actually Great for the World
The president’s ego inspires plenty of bad choices, but his desire for a Peace Prize is proving useful.
bit.ly