CovertAction Bulletin

Trump Advances Right-Wing Agenda At Home and Abroad

On Tuesday, UnitedHealth Group announced that CEO Andrew Witty was stepping down. The announcement came from Witty as the company suspended its full-year financial outlook - because it believes that medical costs will be higher than forecast. UnitedHealth’s revenue was over $400 billion. The year before Witty became CEO in 2021, its revenue was $257 billion - that’s a 55% increase.

At the same time, the Trump administration’s 2026 budget will slash $880 billion in cuts to the critical programs of Medicare and Medicaid, while funding the military to an even higher level than requested by the Pentagon. Some of the cuts will come in the form of privatization, pushing recipients to private plans with Medicare Advantage - described by former Cigna executive Wendell Potter as “one of the biggest scams that we’ve seen in this country” because of significant fraud by the private companies that administer the plans.

From cuts to healthcare and other social services padding the pockets of the wealthy, to threats to eliminate habeas corpus and other key democratic rights, and into new moves on the international stage, the Trump administration is showing us an entire system in crisis and moving far to the right.

Genocidal Ben-Gvir Faces Resistance on U.S. Trip

Israeli Minister of National Security and supporter of extremist, far-right policies Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the United States in late April. From the time he got off his plane in Florida and throughout events in New Haven, CT, New York City and Washington, DC, he was met with opposition, protest and resistance. Even some Zionist groups opposed his visit, which included stops at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago, a Jewish society tied to Yale university, the halls of Congress, and a fundraiser in New York. Ben-Gvir is a Kahanist, a follower of the rabbi Meir Kahane who supported and encouraged and was convicted of acts of terrorism in both Israel and the United States. He famously has a portrait of Baruch Goldstein in his living room, who killed 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994, and he repeats the calls of Goldstein and Kahane to expel all Palestinians from their homeland.

And following in those ideological footsteps, Israel’s government announced this week that it plans to seize Gaza entirely for the first time since it was forced to withdraw in 2005.

Earth Day: War and Climate Change Threaten The Planet

April 20th marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest oil spill in U.S. history, which killed 11 workers and spilled 134 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. For those who rely on fishing and related industries off the Gulf Coast, as well as for those who were involved in the recovery and cleanup efforts, real relief is still yet to come. The AP reports that “all but a handful of roughly 4,800 lawsuits seeking compensation for health problems linked to the spill have been dismissed and only one has been settled,” noting that in 2012 BP paid $67 million - about $1,300 each for nearly 80% of those seeking compensation. BP has since been forced to pay billions of dollars in fines.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration plans to extend fossil fuel drilling and fracking even more than the Biden administration did. The nearly $1-trillion Pentagon budget is also a hotbed of climate- and life-destroying wastes of money, as the US prepares for great-power conflict with China.

This episode was recorded on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22nd, and we get into the lasting legacy of the Deepwater Horizon spill and much more.

Kilmar Garcia Disappearance Triggers Constitutional Crisis

Mahmoud Khalil, likely days away from the birth of his first child, is still being held in Louisiana as his lawyers fight for his freedom after a judge ordered that he can be deported. Just Monday, Columbia student Moshen Mahdawi was detained by ICE during a regular interview as part of the citizenship process. Hundreds of students from more than 90 institutions across the country have had their student visas revoked.

And the Trump Administration is doubling down on the disappearance of hundreds to CECOT, the maximum-security prison in El Salvador. With Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele by his side on Monday in the White House, Trump suggested that US citizens could be sent to the notorious prison, saying “Homegrowns are next. The homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places. It’s not big enough.”

At the same meeting, Bukele said he would not return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who fled his home 14 years ago to escape gang violence and had an order granting him the right to stay in the United States. Garcia is married with three children and works as a first-year apprentice with SMART Local 100, the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union. The Trump administration is ignoring multiple courts who have said the deportation of Garcia must be overturned, including the Supreme Court.

Is a Constitutional crisis around the corner? Is it here? And what should we make of the threats to continue these deportations and disappearances and expand them to US citizens? 

Negotiations Set: What do Trump & Netanyahu want with Iran?

Talks are set to begin on April 12th in Oman between the United States and Iran about Iran’s nuclear program. The announcement was made as Benjamin Netanyahu left the White House after his second visit to DC in as many months. In a short video posted after the meeting in Hebrew with English subtitles, Netanyahu praised Donald Trump and said, “We agree that Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” adding that any such agreement coming out of these meetings would need to be “Libyan style” - where Iran destroys its nuclear program and submits to a foreign verification regime run by the United States.

The announcement of talks comes after diplomatic letters were exchanged between Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the US sent multiple B-2 bombers to the Diego Garcia base located in the Indian Ocean, within clear striking distance of Iran.

What do Netanyahu and Trump seek to get out of these talks? We get into how their approaches may differ, but they have the same goal. And then, we discuss mass protests that happened over the weekend in DC and across the country.

Movement at a Turning Point: All Out for Palestine!

After breaking the ceasefire deal, Israel is continuing its ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, and threatening to further ignite wider conflict by bombing Syria and Lebanon. In just one 48-hour period after the end of the ceasefire, a combination of bombings from the air and a ground invasion killed over 500 Palestinians in just 48 hours. Though both countries are increasingly isolated in public opinion and on the world stage, the U.S. government continues to provide full financial, political, diplomatic, material and military support to its genocidal client regime.

The movement in the United States against genocide has been met first with contempt, mockery and dismissal, and then with outright attacks. The disappearances and government kidnappings of student leaders like Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Badar Khan Suri, and too many others come with promises of more from the Trump administration, which has revoked the student visas of at least 300 international students for exercising the right to free speech and for taking a stand against genocide. Rather than be silenced and deterred, the movement is continuing on and strengthening. A Gallup poll released last month shows that support among Americans for Israel is at its lowest point in 25 years, with just 46% saying their “sympathies in the Middle East situation” are with Israelis rather than Palestinians. That poll was taken in early February, before Israel broke the ceasefire and before Mahmoud Khalil was taken by the government.

The work of the Palestine solidarity movement has taken on many flavors. From rallies and protests to blockades and disruptions of politicians, art shows and benefit concerts to boycotts and encampments and so much more, we are at an historic point in the struggle for justice, against genocide and for Palestinian liberation. Last week, the film The Encampments opened in New York City to packed theaters and rave reviews. Featuring Mahmoud Khalil and others, The Encampments blows away the mainstream narratives of what started on Columbia’s campus in April 2024 and spread across the country and the world. It exposes the University administration and New York government for their treatment of people calling for an end to genocide, showing exclusive footage taken in the encampment. The film is currently or soon will be showing in about a dozen states across the country, with more to come.

And on Saturday, April 5th, a mass march on Washington will demand a permanent ceasefire, an arms embargo against Israel and an end to repression of anti-genocide activists. Buses are headed to DC from as far away as New Hampshire, Michigan and Tampa, Florida for the event organized by a broad coalition that includes the Palestinian Youth Movement, The People’s Forum, ANSWER Coalition, DSA, Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine and many more.

Signal Leaks & JFK Files: What’s Happening Behind Closed Doors

Tens of thousands of new and newly-unredacted documents related to the killings of JFK Jr, his brother RFK and Martin Luther King Jr have been released over the past week. While historians and journalists are still pouring over the files to see what new historical information can be learned from them it’s becoming clear that there’s no smoking gun - no document changing the official narrative of the JFK assassination. But we are learning more about CIA tradecraft as well as a number of clandestine US operations against Cuba and the USSR.

 

We also discuss Monday’s revelation that the Trump White House was using Signal group chats with disappearing messages to plan the March 15 bombing of Yemen.

Finally, Rachel speaks about a new documentary film premiering this week at the Angelika Theater in New York about the student movement against the genocide in Gaza - The Encampments.

Israel and U.S. Resume Genocide of Palestinians

The Israeli government, with the full backing of the White House, has completely thrown out the January ceasefire and negotiations and resumed the genocidal bombing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, which may be followed up by a full-scale ground invasion. Over 400 people were killed, including over 170 children, in Israeli air strikes on Monday night. It was the deadliest nights of the last 15 months in Gaza, since November 7, 2023, and the death toll may end up being significantly higher.

Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened that “this is only the beginning,” and the Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that the attacks are “not a one-day operation” of its war to exterminate or expel the Palestinian people, Protests across the country and the world are responding to the latest Israeli attack, which could not have been carried out with political and military support from the United States - including the F-16 and F-35 planes that are continuing to drop bombs as we record.

On this episode, we discuss how Israel destroyed the ceasefire, how the ruling class wants the detention of Mahmoud Khalil and attacks on other Palestine solidarity activists to have a chilling effect on protests, the use of the Alien Enemies Act against Venezuelan immigrants, and we honor AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein.

Free Mahmoud Khalil!

Over the weekend, federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the United States, and said they were stripping him of his permanent resident status and going to deport him back to Palestine. During the student encampments and protests at Columbia University last year, Khalil was a public figure involved in negotiating with the University’s administration on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Though the Trump administration is promising more arrests and deportations of those in the Palestine solidarity movement and beyond, the move has been met with action and resistance inside the courts and in the streets. A federal judge has temporarily halted the deportation, and over two and a half million people have signed a petition demanding Khalil’s immediate release. Protests, rallies, teach-ins and walk-outs are scheduled to happen all week.

Click here to sign the petition demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil.

Trump’s “Peace” in Ukraine Prepares US for War with China

Following up on last week's show where we discussed the quickly-changing dynamics of U.S.-European relationships under Donald Trump, we look at the “peace deal” Trump has penned with Ukraine that reportedly includes significant mineral rights for the U.S. we focus on how the Ukraine conflict and its possible end reflect the shifting focus of U.S. imperialism. Ukrainians have been used as pawns in this war and in the conflicts that precipitated it, and as we’ll get into, the U.S. government is ready to move on - not to peace, but in fact to another war, this time with China.

 

We’re joined by Walter Smolarek, editor of LiberationNews.org.