The Trump Administration

On today’s TMI Show, co-hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan consider Donald Trump's campaign promises in the light of the reality he will have to face as he returns to the White House in January. He promised mass deportations and still claims he plans to carry them out, but will ugly optics and economic need for more workers pressure him to back down? Were his threats to impose big tariffs on Chinese imports empty, and negotiating tactic, or to be taken at face value? Trump remarked that he had "a concept of a plan" to repeal and replace Obamacare; if so, what would that look like? Should Ukraine expect to be told to negotiate with Russia?

On The TMI Show, co-hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan investigate Pete Hegseth, the obscure Fox News weekend host nominated to become Trump’s Secretary of Defense. Why was he chosen? Is he qualified? Will the Senate confirm him? The Pentagon is a vast bureaucracy that controls an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion a year and employees nearly 3,000,000 people around the world stationed at over 1000 overseas military installations and hundreds in the United States. It is the second largest employer on planet earth, and if you include subsidiary contracting firms, it is by far the biggest. In addition, it controls the military academies as well as four separate intelligence agencies. Considering all that, is Hegseth, a veteran with no relevant experience, out of his depth? Ted and Manila pose that big question to Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense with almost 30 years of federal service in the U.S. Defense Department and as a specialized trainer for border guards and Special Forces in select countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The TMI Show Ep 25: “Trump's #1 Pick Is a NeoCon” Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio has flown under the radar as the media spotlight shines a light on controversial cabinet picks like Matt Gaetz and RFK Jr. In many ways, however, Rubio—who will head the first or second most powerful federal department alongside Defense and will be on the short list in the presidential line of succession—is the most extreme and radical of them all. Rubio, an unreconstructed neoconservative who would have been home in the Bush Administration that brought about the misbegotten war against Iraq, is exactly the kind of DC swamp creature Trump promised to purge. And he’s espoused extremist militarist positions against Latin American nations like Venezuela, Nicaragua snd Cuba. He’s out to pick a fight with China. On today’s The TMI Show, co-hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan are joined by human rights, labor rights, and peace activist Dan Kovalik, to explain how State became more militaristic than Defense, why Trump picked a member of the DC “blob" for State and what it means for Trump’s foreign policy.

Please support this independent work on the following sites: YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TMinfoShow X: https://x.com/TMInfoShow TikTok: www.tiktok.com/TheTMIshow TruthSocial: https://truthsocial.com/@TMIinfoShow You can support us financially HERE: Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheTMIshow Substack: thetmishow.substack.com Ted Rall & Manila Chan give you too much info daily M-F 10am ET. Hot topics, politics, and some laughs. Manila Chan is a recovering news anchor/reporter. Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist & author. Together they unpack stories that often don’t get enough coverage. Come learn TMI.

Donald J. Trump is about to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve one term, lose a reelection bid and then run a third time successfully for a second term. What has Trump and his team learned from his first term? How will he govern differently? This time he has added progressives like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to his team, drawing from the left of the Democratic Party in a way that he didn't do the first time around; how will they impact his policies? As a lame duck with no possibility of running for reelection, his only real concern for the future is for passing the torch of the MAGA movement, potentially to JD Vance. Is Trump now more free to do what he wants, and if so, what does he want? TMI Show co-hosts Ted Rall and Robby West (filling in for Manila Chan) are joined by Angie Wong for an inside view into the new administration by an old president.

Trump 2.0 is still a month away and he’s causing chaos in Washington. After negotiating a budget deal with the Democrats, DOGE master Elon Musk (either acting alone or with Donald Trump’s backing) spazz-tweeted the deal away, spooking frightened House Republicans into reneging. Then, with Speaker Mike Johnson’s head on the chopping block, Republicans attempted to cut a new deal but Democrats refused to renegotiate. In the end, deficit hawk Republicans voted with Democrats to turn down the Trump deal because it would have abolished the debt limit for at least two years. Another government shutdown looms, mainly because there are two Republican Parties. The TMI Show’s Ted Rall and Robby West (filling in for Manila Chan) are joined by Chicago Tribune cartoonist Scott Stantis to unravel the madness.

Civil war has broken out in the Republican Party just weeks after its triumphant election victory. Generally speaking, the issue is immigration, one of the top issues in the campaign. The populist MAGA base wants it limited or eliminated. But Trump’s billionaire allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are pushing hard for H1B visas that allow tech companies and other employers to import foreign workers. So far, Trump seems to be siding with Team DOGE. Will this controversy tear apart his fragile coalition? “TMI Show” hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan are joined by conservative political analyst and fundraiser Angie Wong to handicap and analyze the rupture within the GOP.

Please support this independent work on the following sites: YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TMinfoShow X: https://x.com/TMInfoShow TikTok: www.tiktok.com/TheTMIshow TruthSocial: https://truthsocial.com/@TMIinfoShow You can support us financially HERE: Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheTMIshow Substack: thetmishow.substack.com Ted Rall & Manila Chan give you too much info daily M-F 10am ET. Hot topics, politics, and some laughs. Manila Chan is a recovering news anchor/reporter. Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist & author. Together they unpack stories that often don’t get enough coverage. Come learn TMI. Political cartoonist Ted Rall and cultural analyst Manila Chan discuss the esoteric pressing trends and issues that are changing your world.

Civil war has broken out in the Republican Party just weeks after its triumphant election victory. Generally speaking, the issue is immigration, one of the top issues in the campaign. The populist MAGA base wants it limited or eliminated. But Trump’s billionaire allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are pushing hard for H1B visas that allow tech companies and other employers to import foreign workers. So far, Trump seems to be siding with Team DOGE. Will this controversy tear apart his fragile coalition? “TMI Show” hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan are joined by conservative political analyst and fundraiser Angie Wong to handicap and analyze the rupture within the GOP.

Americans have always had a love-hate relationship with food. We eat too much of it, and not the best kind; as high as 75% of Americans are considered obese. Yet our popular culture lionizes models and actors so painfully thin many of them suffer from anorexia. The latest attempt by the body-positivity movement to fight fat-shaming comes in the form of online “fat-fluencers,” one of whom has been hired by San Francisco as its weight stigma czar. Meanwhile, HHS nominee RFK Jr. is going after Big Food on the grounds that they’re inhibiting his drive to Make America Healthy Again. Co-hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan investigate these latest developments in our national Food Fight.