American citizens – including young kids and toddlers – are among those who have already been ensnared in President Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown. In the past week alone, according to the ACLU of Louisiana, at least three children in Louisiana have been deported, and in at least one of those cases, a federal judge expressed concern that the child was not given “any meaningful process.” “Deportation Donald is not allowing any due process for families in the state of Louisiana or anywhere else in this nation,” says Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. Journalist Ray Suarez adds that the Trump administration’s apparent overreach has a purpose. “They are testing us,” he tells “Velshi” guest host Charles Coleman Jr. “They are testing what the public will tolerate. They are testing the waters.”

The Trump admin continues to attack DEI, targeting museums dedicated to Black history. Dr. Tracie Therence Ferrell reminds us that this history is vital and more current than people realize. “This is history that is happening now,” says Dr. Ferrell. “My family is not even one generation removed from a slave plantation.” And yet these important stories are at risk of erasure. “What this administration is trying to do is not just erase parts of history, but actually erase the very idea of history and knowledge in the service of mythology,” says Harvard professor Imani Perry. 

Trump’s tariffs against the United States’ three largest trading partners, Canada, Mexico, and China are now in effect. These taxes levied on imported goods are not paid by the exporting country, but rather a cost that is passed on to the American consumer. Now, products like electronics, cars, denim, home goods, and food could see an increase in price.

President Donald Trump is ushering in an era of American leadership that is simply … unserious. And that has been on display throughout the confirmation process for Trump’s cabinet; the people who will lead the most powerful agencies in the country, and with that, the most powerful agencies in the world. It’s impacted how the rest of the world views America. Mehdi Hasan, CEO & Editor-in-chief of Zeteo, says Trump is jeopardizing some of our strongest alliances. “I didn’t think I’d be the guy going on TV saying I’m worried about a war with Denmark, Panama or Canada,” said Hasan. Ravi Agrawal, editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy, adds “This isn’t a new world order - this is a new world disorder.”

Two Idaho teenagers, a handful of authors, a tiny public library, and the nation’s largest publishers are suing the state of Idaho, pushing back against HB170 – the state’s book ban that went into effect last summer - a law that restricts books from both public and school libraries. The law forbids minors from accessing books with content that the state has deemed “harmful to minors.” “The most important thing is to speak out,” says Jerrick, one of the student plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs say the law is overly broad because it enables any person in the community to complain about any book whose message they disagree with. “We are the boots on the ground here in Idaho,” says 17-year-old Jerrick.

Federal data shows that Black Americans, who have historically found greater equity in the public sector compared to the private sector, will disproportionately bear the brunt of Trump's effort to gut the federal workforce. “These forms of employment in service to the nation were actually one of the few areas that Black people could rely upon to enter the middle class. It's potentially devastating, the loss of that sector,” says Harvard professor and best-selling author Imani Perry. This is not the first time it’s been tried by a U.S. President, warns Errin Haines, editor-at-large of The 19th*. “This is why it’s so important to know history… Taking a page right out of Woodrow Wilson’s playbook.”

Despite losing Ukrainian authors, journalists, artists, and more than a third of the nation’s book printing capacity, demand for Ukrainian literature is on the rise as Ukrainians strive to secure their future and preserve their history. “The weight of history is really the motivating force for Ukrainians resisting today,” says Ukrainian author and Journalist Yaroslav Trofimov. “They know that the alternative of surrender is actually worse than the tremendous casualties and destruction that occur today.”

Three years ago, Ali Velshi travelled to Eastern Europe to cover the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While talking to Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Ali met then 15-year-old Nastya Shpot. She and her family were forced to flee their hometown, leaving behind Nastya’s father, a military chaplain who stayed to fight for their country. Ali kept in touch with Nastya and her family over the years and now, just one day before the 3rd anniversary of the start of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, Ali caught up with Nastya, who is back in Ukraine to reunite with her father. “The situation is getting more horrible” Nastya says, “It’s a miracle that [my father] stayed alive”. Despite the worsening conditions, Nastya tries to stay optimistic. Today, she’s a full time student in the U.K., where she’s determined to educate herself to be in service of Ukraine. “My country needs people like me.”

Donald Trump has consistently shown his disdain for journalists, frequently calling the media “the enemy of the people”. “The press, we're not the enemy of the people, we're defenders of the people,” says former Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. Now, the Trump administration is taking unprecedented steps to control which journalists and media organizations are allowed access to the President. They have denied critical news teams - like those at the Associated Press and Reuters - access to the press pool. “We're here to ask the hard questions, and honestly, it's why the First Amendment is there,” said Acosta. “[Trump] can't just throw that out the window … and have just fawning propagandists and sycophants in the Oval Office with him.” 

On Tuesday, the DOJ dismissed a Biden-era lawsuit against Idaho over its near total abortion ban, and separately, it requested an extension in the ongoing abortion medication case in Texas. Advocates warn these steps signal the administration’s eventual embrace of Project 2025’s proposal for a nationwide abortion ban. Abortion will cease to exist in most of the United States if the Trump administration “pumps the brakes” on these lawsuits, warns Dr. Michele Goodwin, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown Law School. “That really is the goal– to make sure that there are no avenues for women to seek this type of medical care.”

The atrocity of “Bloody Sunday” helped move public sentiment, and eventually helped bring about the passage of the landmark voting rights ruling of 1965. Today, the struggle continues. In recent years...

“We have to understand the dismantling of Roe as being an assault against democracy,” says Georgetown Law professor Michelle Goodwin. This week, a Louisiana woman pleaded not guilty to a felony charge after allegedly giving her teenage daughter abortion-inducing medication that was prescribed and shipped from a doctor in New York, where the medication is legal. The NYC-based doctor was also indicted on a felony charge for allegedly prescribing and sending the medication to Louisiana after a telemedicine appointment. “Once you begin to say that women’s lives have no meaning, that their autonomy, that their equal protection, that all of the things that are protected in the constitutional rights do not apply to them, then you can say then for other people too in other circumstances.”

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has launched a multipronged crackdown on institutions and speech that challenge his agenda, targeting Big Law, universities, and media outlets. Amid this escalating assault on the First Amendment, veteran journalist John Harwood and First Amendment scholar Mary Anne Franks argue that institutions such as the press and academia must reevaluate their approaches to neutrality and objectivity. “Everyone in civil society needs to stand up,” Harwood says. “That includes the business sector. [Trump] is going to destroy the rule of law.” Franks cautions that we may be underestimating the threat to our own detriment. “It may seem when you attack Columbia University, that you’re just attacking a bunch of elites. But you’re attacking the idea of knowledge, you’re attacking the idea of criticism,” she warns. “This is a direct threat to all of us.”

Americans are calling on Universities, CEOs, and people in power to stand up to Trump’s ongoing attack on Democracy. “I am really hopeful that people understand that quietude and passivity are just as bad as active collaboration,” says former Governor of Washington Jay Inslee. “If you know a college president, if you know somebody who's in a big law firm, if you know somebody might be a CEO, urge them to get in touch with their courage.” The time to speak up was “yesterday,” says Inslee. 

States with abortion bans are increasingly targeting women who suffer miscarriages, marking a dangerous escalation in the GOP’s war on women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom. This week, Georgia police arrested a 24-year-old woman after she suffered a miscarriage, with the state even performing an autopsy on the 19-week fetus. The Dobbs ruling is just the first step in a “long-term end game” of granting legal rights to fetuses that allow for these types of prosecutions, warns Greer Donley, an associate law professor. But author David S. Cohen notes the resistance movement has been strong in defending abortion access. 

Two democratic Federal Trade Commission members fired by the Trump administration last week are now suing, arguing they were fired without cause. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of the two fired members ...

This week, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. It aims at eliminating what the president calls “improper ideology” from the American Historical narrative, including at our museums, national parks, and monuments. The order singles out the Smithsonian, claiming that the museum system’s telling of America’s history is a “distorted narrative”. But, says Johns Hopkins professor of History Martha S. Jones, “Americans are more than capable of confronting hard histories, including in the halls of the Smithsonian, and come out still feeling themselves to be Americans.” Chandra Manning, U.S. History professor at Georgetown University, agrees. “It's not a question of trying to tell a positive or a negative story. It's a question of telling a false story when we leave out the people who make up our past.”

Donald Trump, who has infamously labeled the press as "the enemy of the people", has recently turned to legal action against some networks, and also expressed his desire to go after libel protection – including a 1964 Supreme Court ruling that established protections for journalists who make honest mistakes. It is the bedrock of a free press that is able to hold the powerful to account, and it protects freedom of expression for all Americans. “They really want to scare people into silence," says David Enrich, New York Times journalist and author of the new book, ‘Murder the Truth.’ “Having a credible, independent, and vigorous news media that's not afraid … is a threat to people who are using lies and distortion to advance their agendas.”