TUC president and POA leader STEVE GILLAN speaks to Ben Chacko on the eve of Congress 2026
WHEN it comes to the federal role and federal aid responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters, President Donald Trump says one thing, but his budget — and his chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) — say quite another.
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s another spanner in the works in determining how much money will be available to help future disaster victims: Trump’s Mexican border wall.
With Hurricane Harvey still drowning the Texas Gulf Coast, and threatening Louisiana, too, Trump is praising first responders, Fema and the volunteers who are rushing to aid the tens of thousands of people driven from their homes.
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
CJ ATKINS takes a closer look at Trump’s recent spate of red-baiting speeches and asks why the authoritarian president is running scared
The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and union member, has sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls from National Nurses United to dismantle Ice and related agencies, says MARK GRUENBERG
Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER


