The Fox News Supreme Court is a political weapon, and it’s being wielded to wreck what remains of American democracy. What happens if Trump declares martial law?

This week on Gaslit Nation, Andrea interviews Leah Litman, a constitutional law professor at the University of Michigan Law School, co-host of the award-winning Strict Scrutiny podcast, and author of the new book LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. This Court is a multi-decade effort by conservatives to seize power they couldn’t win through democratic means.

Litman warns about what the Fox News Court is up to. If you thought things were bad, we’re staring down a term packed with cases that could fundamentally rewrite public education, religious liberty, and basic civil rights. Take Oklahoma Charter Board v. Drummond. This case actually asks whether the Constitution requires states to allow religious public charter schools. Yes, you read that right: requires. The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from funding religious education. But now, thanks to the conservative justices’ persecution complex, where white Christian nationalism is the most oppressed identity in America, obviously, the Court may rule that denying public funding to religious schools is unconstitutional discrimination.

Then there’s the challenge to a Maryland school district’s decision to include LGBTQ+ inclusive books in elementary schools. A group of religious parents is arguing that merely exposing children to stories with queer characters violates their religious freedom. If the Court agrees, it could hand conservative parents a veto power over what public schools teach, effectively outlawing inclusive education if it makes anyone clutch their pearls.

What Litman makes clear is that these cases are about redefining public life, turning schools into vehicles for a theocratic agenda. And let’s be honest: they’re not talking about funding schools for Wiccans or the Church of Satan. This is about establishing a Christian nationalism dictatorship. Yes, it can happen here. Yes, it’s happening here.

But we are not powerless. Reform is not a fantasy. Term limits. Ethics rules. Court expansion. These are tools, if we find the courage to use them. Because democracy doesn’t die in darkness. It’s strangled in broad daylight by men in robes, funded by billionaires, and broadcast live on C-SPAN.

And if we don’t fight back? We’re just letting them get away with it.

EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION:

• May 26 4pm ET – Book club discussion of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Stride Toward Freeom: The Montgomery Story

• Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon.

• Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon.

• Have you taken Gaslit Nation’s HyperNormalization Survey Yet?

• Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community

The recent storms have devastated so many in St. Louis, and the Urban League needs our help now more than ever. Please donate what you can to support their relief efforts and help communities rebuild: https://www.ulstl.com/#/

What’s as gratifying as a Tesla Takedown protest? A Fox News Takedown protest! https://www.foxtakedown.com/

How much have the Trumps made since returning to power? According to The New York Times, a staggering $2 billion in the last month alone. From Russia to the Middle East, the Trumps have long cultivated ties with the global oligarchy, welcoming support from some of the world’s most repressive regimes to gain power in 2016 and, now, to enrich themselves.

You’ve likely heard about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives. And perhaps you know about Trump’s covert meeting with sanctioned Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during the UN General Assembly that September. But what about the August 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving the Trump campaign and envoys from several Middle Eastern dictatorships?

In this week’s bonus episode, we revisit the explosive 2018 reporting that detailed this secretive gathering, now more relevant than ever as Trump embarks on what can only be described as a Middle East cash-grab tour. Among the key figures: convicted pedophile and Trump ally George Nader, and Joel Zamel, an Israeli operative with links to Russian intelligence and expertise in digital influence warfare.

To help make sense of the chaos, and chart a path through it, we continue our conversation with Olga Lautman, a leading expert on the Russian mafia and transnational kleptocracy. It’s a deep dive into how the oligarchy operates, and how we resist it.

Thank you to everyone who supports Gaslit Nation–we could not make this show without you!

Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

Show Notes:

The Trumps Get Richer: We take a look at the Trump family’s business deals. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/briefing/trump-family-business.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HE8.DPvg.yMtnHvgKpHjK&smid=url-share

George Nader pleads guilty to child sex crimes https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/politics/george-nader-plea

Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.html

Early Gaslit Nation episode on Andrea meeting a Russian agent in the 2016 Trump Tower meeting: https://youtu.be/gftsj4PVbvc?si=A8fGSATV1anM_AKd

Olga Lautman’s Trump Tyranny Tracker: https://trumptyrannytracker.substack.com/

New York City’s mayoral race is heating up, and into the inferno walks Brad Lander: City Comptroller, longtime progressive pain in the ass (in the best way), and, most importantly, not a corrupt tool of the oligarchy. That alone is refreshing.

Lander’s running on a revolutionary NYC platform: competence, decency, and not being Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo, or a trash fire named Donald Trump. He’s spent his career backing tenants, workers, and immigrants, including showing up at an ICE facility to demand Newark mayor Ras Baraka’s release.

On Gaslit Nation, Lander made it clear: he’s not here to play nice with predators in power. He’s here to break the cycle of corruption, fight for working people, and stop ICE from turning Rikers Island into Guantanamo East.

On climate? “Climate risk is financial risk,” Lander says. His plan includes rooftop solar, ensuring net-zero emissions by 2040, and preventing your apartment from becoming a boiling deathtrap during the next heat wave. (Remember Cuomo leaving people to die in nursing homes?)

As the feds abandon us under Trump and Musk, someone’s got to step up. Lander wants to expand the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. And for non-New Yorkers: NYC’s mayor matters nationally. This is a frontline job against elite impunity and rising autocracy. We need Lander to help rebuild democracy.

Want to protect New York, and the country, from grifters like Adams and Cuomo? Use ranked-choice voting, ranking Lander #1. Then rank all the other progressives endorsed by the Working Families Party. Do not put Cuomo on your ballot. He already resigned after using his power to prey on women. Don’t make us go through that again.

Go to landerfornyc.com and help make New York City safer and stronger, for the sake of its residents and all of America. Share this interview with the New Yorkers in your life to help stop Cuomo and elect Lander New York City’s next mayor.

Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

In 1816, 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Shelley) birthed science fiction during a rainy vacation on Lake Geneva. Inspired by a vision of a man crouched beside the corpse he reanimated, Frankenstein warned of what happens when man tries to play God. Two centuries later, the monsters are real, and they’re called Musk, Altman, and Zuckerberg.

Today’s tech titans, like Frankenstein’s Victor, race to build superintelligent machines in their image: soulless wannabe-gods with devastating reach. Gil Duran, of the Nerd Reich newsletter, connects this to A.I. worship, quoting a billionaire obsessed with “creating God” through algorithms. M.I.T.’s annotated Frankenstein likens Victor’s horror to Oppenheimer’s nuclear regret. We’ve entered a new atomic age, but instead of bombs, it’s information weapons and hacked minds.

As Pulitzer-nominated journalist Carole Cadwalladr warns, this is what a digital coup looks like. A.I. is trained to replace journalists, strip away privacy, and deepen inequality, just as Gaslit Nation has warned since 2018.

What’s the answer? Community. Skill-sharing. Nature. The real world. Jack Welch, once worshipped like Musk is today, gutted G.E. with fear-based leadership. Now he’s a cautionary tale. So will today’s tech gods be.

Mary Shelley saw it coming. “Frightful must it be,” she wrote. We agree. But there’s power in human connection, in rejecting the machine's illusions. Frankenstein’s monster was abandoned. Let’s not abandon each other.

Join our resilience salons. Find your people. Build the future together.

Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

Show Notes

The song you heard in this week’s episode is “Unspoken Word” by Evrette Allen: https://soundcloud.com/user-726164627/unspoken-word-mix-13/s-GEvlnfQnmh4?si=954f31de09d644948d51a225224bd7ba&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Nerd Reich: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-strange-and-twisted-life-of-frankenstein

After two hundred years, are we ready for the truth about Mary Shelley’s novel? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-strange-and-twisted-life-of-frankenstein

Astronomers have determined the exact hour that Mary Shelley thought of Frankenstein. https://lithub.com/astronomers-have-determined-the-exact-hour-that-mary-shelley-thought-of-frankenstein/

AI's Energy Demands Are Out of Control. Welcome to the Internet's Hyper-Consumption Era Generative artificial intelligence tools, now part of the everyday user experience online, are causing stress on local power grids and mass water evaporation. https://www.wired.com/story/ai-energy-demands-water-impact-internet-hyper-consumption-era/

Short-term profits and long-term consequences — did Jack Welch break capitalism? https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1101505691/short-term-profits-and-long-term-consequences-did-jack-welch-break-capitalism

Carole Cadwalladr TED Talk: This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZOoT8AbkNE

Self-styled prophets are claiming they have "awakened" chatbots and accessed the secrets of the universe through ChatGPT https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/

There’s a reason the loudest voices online are often the least helpful. The edgelords, those who posture with performative rage, contrarian hot takes, and a cynical flair for nihilism, aren’t trying to build anything. Their goal isn’t liberation. It’s clout.

But we don’t have time for clout. We’re living through a coordinated, well-funded, global assault on democracy. In the U.S., basic freedoms are under attack, from reproductive rights to the ability to teach honest history in schools. While the edgelords are busy fighting each other for likes and retweets, authoritarians are organizing, legislating, and winning.

We need to focus.

Real change happens when people organize, not just online, but in communities, city councils, state legislatures, and the courts. Building political power means showing up to vote, yes, because not voting is voting, but also recruiting candidates, knocking on doors, demanding judicial accountability, and refusing to be distracted by culture war bait.

Want to know who to trust in the influencer economy’s crowded marketplace of ideas? Prioritize the voices who are brave and smart by pointing out the obvious truth: the only way out is by building political power. The far-right knows that, which is why they work so hard to suppress the vote. Political power is what taxes the rich, enforces the good laws we have, repeals the bad ones, and forces accountability. You cannot do those things unless you are in power.

So ignore the noise. Turn down the doomscrolling and tune in to your community. Find the people doing the work: mutual aid organizers, voting rights advocates, school board watchdogs, and back them up.

Ignore the edgelords. Build political power. It’s the only way we win.

Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

Show Notes:

Opening Clip: Pat Bondi pretends to care about the rule of law: https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lnnprevixu2y

Bella Ciao by Pink Martini https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksj5lCh-JSo

Terrell Starr’s Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack: https://terrellstarr.com/

FBI arrests Milwaukee judge, alleging she interfered in immigration operation https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/fbi-arrests-milwaukee-judge-alleging-interfered-immigration-operation-rcna203006

Former New Mexico judge and wife arrested on charges of tampering with evidence linked to suspected Tren de Aragua member https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/us/new-mexico-judge-arrested-tren-de-aragua/index.html

EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION:

• April 28 4pm ET – Book club discussion of Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower

• Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon.

• Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon.

• Have you taken Gaslit Nation’s HyperNormalization Survey Yet?

• Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community