“Donald Trump is unraveling before our very eyes”

Donald Trump is not just failing politically. He is unraveling in ways that are putting real people in danger, from an unauthorized war with Iran to ICE raids that leave families shattered while others cheer the cruelty as if pain were a victory. Senator Alex Padilla is now calling on the cabinet to face its 25th Amendment responsibility, and the warning beneath this moment is impossible to ignore: authoritarianism does not announce itself all at once. It grows when people are taught to stop seeing their neighbors as fully human.

Based on the events of 7-23-2026

The Breakdown:

* Senator Alex Padilla stood in front of the United States Capitol and said Donald Trump is unraveling before our eyes.

* Padilla pointed to Trump's baseless voter fraud claims and his broken promise not to drag America into another war.

* Padilla said Trump has brought the country into an unauthorized war with Iran that has already claimed 18 service members' lives.

* Padilla called on Trump's cabinet to use the 25th Amendment before Trump can do more damage.

* A video of ICE agents arresting a young man showed his mother screaming as armed agents pinned him down and dragged him away.

* The comments under that video revealed a brutal divide, with some people thanking ICE, blaming Joe Biden, and mocking the family's pain.

* The same footage exposed two Americas: one that sees a mother in terror and another that treats that terror as entertainment.

* Trump's movement has spent years teaching people that cruelty is strength and compassion is weakness.

* Authoritarian cruelty usually begins with targeted groups, allowing everyone else to pretend the danger has nothing to do with them.

* Detention centers, deportation flights, street arrests, and arrest quotas create the machinery for a broader campaign of fear.

* Once the public accepts cruelty toward immigrants, authoritarian movements begin looking for new enemies and new targets.

* The next targets can become journalists, elected officials, activists, professors, and anyone willing to speak against the regime.

* Trump allies are already branding political opponents as traitors, Marxists, and communists, language that prepares supporters to accept repression.

* History shows that authoritarian movements rarely stop with the first group they target.

* Many people in other countries thought their laws, neighbors, and institutions would protect them until the line had already been crossed.

* A Fox News poll found that 56% of voters oppose Trump's military action in Iran.

* The same poll put Trump's handling of the war at 34% approval and 66% disapproval.

* Trump's overall approval fell to 39%, with major erosion among non-MAGA Republicans, white voters, and rural voters.

* Those poll numbers will not stop an ICE raid tomorrow morning, but they show Trump has not fully taken the country.

* The falling support is a reminder that there is still time to resist cruelty, defend one another, and save the country.

This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

I'm Heather Delaney Reese, and you're listening to Hope for America, where every day I bring you the truth about our politics, our country, and the forces trying to destroy them. Together, we cut through the noise, expose the lies, and stay focused on what really matters, fighting for the survival of our country. Look, Donald Trump is unraveling before our very eyes. His baseless claims of massive voter fraud, his promise to not drag us into war. Look at where we are. He's brought us into an unauthorized war with Iran that's already claimed the lives of 18 service members and wounded so many more, including many very seriously. In the meantime, what has the cabinet done? Absolutely nothing. This is why the 25th Amendment exists. I'm calling on the Cabinet to exercise their 25th Amendment responsibility and remove Donald Trump from office before he can do more damage. Those are the words of Senator Alex Padilla, spoken in front of the United States Capitol building earlier yesterday and posted on his social media accounts. I had a completely different message that I was going to bring to you. As I was finishing up the final touches on it, I just couldn't bring myself to publish it. All day yesterday, I've been carrying heartbreak for someone I don't even know. A video of an IC agent arresting a young man and a mom screaming and crying in pain. It just keeps playing over and over again in my mind and in my heart.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Oh my God, what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Thank you, Ice, for saving our country. All because of the Joe Biden administration. Good job, Ice. Guaranteed illegal with a criminal record. Ice Ice baby with American flag and laughing face emojis. I watched the same video they did with the same young man pinned beneath a pile of armed agents. I saw the same mother screaming in terror as her child was held down and dragged away. Yet somehow we did not see the same thing. It was as if two entirely different countries had watched that video, and maybe that is just where we are right now. We are no longer one America with just a political disagreement shaping us. We are now two Americas living side by side, no longer connected in any meaningful way. In one of those Americas, some wonder whether today will be the day someone they love doesn't come home because of how they look, the language they speak, or because armed men with quotas to meet decided to drag someone into an unmarked vehicle. The rest of us in that America carry a different kind of pain. We know it may never happen to our own families, but we cannot watch others' pain without feeling ourselves. We cannot look at a mother screaming for her son and not share her pain simply because it isn't our child being attacked. In the other America, that same video is viewed as entertainment, something to laugh at and celebrate, even, something they even cheer for. Both of those Americas exist inside the same borders. And what frightens me the most is that many of the people living in the second America will tell us with complete honesty that they don't see anything wrong with what is happening. What makes it even harder to accept is that it is not a failure of empathy or attention. It is the predictable outcome of years Trump and his enablers have spent teaching people that cruelty is a strength, that compassion is weakness. Even worse, that some human beings deserve less dignity and compassion than others. Cruelty like this never spreads across the country all at once. It is directed at specific people first. So everyone else can convince themselves it has nothing to do with them. It happens in neighborhoods they don't live in, to people whose names they will never know. That is how authoritarianism protects itself in the early days. Most people wake up, they go to work, go grocery shopping, spend time with their children or grandchildren, and live normal lives. And because nothing in their own life has changed, they tell themselves that there's nothing to worry about. They convince themselves that these bad things will only happen to other people. And they convince themselves that those other people deserve whatever happened to them. And while they are looking the other way, the danger keeps growing. They build more detention centers and they expand deportation fights. They kidnap more people off the streets to meet arrest quotas. They see how much fear the public will tolerate, and once they discover they can get away with it, they start looking for new targets. That is how politicians, journalists, and anyone willing to speak out against the regime eventually find themselves as the newest targets and the next to disappear. I keep thinking about how so much of what we are seeing has unfolded in other countries throughout history. Not exactly, but as the saying goes, history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. And this administration seems determined to treat the darkest chapters of history as a roadmap of what to do next. I wonder if the people cheering in the comments on the ICE video have ever stopped to ask themselves where this road leads. Maybe they have never wondered who the new detention centers are really being built for, or who fills those flights once there are not enough people left on today's target list. History tells us that authoritarian movements rarely stop with the people they begin with. They expand when they search for new enemies. They redefine who belongs and who doesn't until the only people left are the ones they can easily control. Today the targets are immigrants. Tomorrow it could be the people who defend them, the journalists who expose what is happening, and the elected officials who are viewed as a threat to the regime. Maybe it's the activists who organize and the professors who teach the truth no matter how uncomfortable it is, and the people who spend every day documenting what is happening, hoping that if we fail to stop it, future generations will at least know that not everyone stayed silent. They are already calling political opponents traitors, Marxists, and communists. Dangerous times follow after governments begin defining entire groups of people as threats instead of fellow citizens. It still sounds impossible to so many people that the direction we're heading in is as dangerous as it's going to be. And I understand why. It would have sounded impossible in other countries too, right up until the moment it wasn't. The people who eventually found themselves targeted almost never believed they would be next. They thought the laws would protect them and that their neighbors would speak up and protect them too. They thought there would be a line no government would ever cross. By the time they realized that line had already been crossed, there was no one left to stop it. We knew that the months before the bidterms would get ugly and it has already started. But it is not just us that are seeing it. The Second America is two. A poll released yesterday found that 56% of voters oppose the military action in Iran. His handling of the war sits at 34% approval against a record 66% disapproval. His overall approval is at 39%. Among Republicans who do not identify with MAGA, his approval fell 13 points in a single month down to 51%. After standing at 70% at the beginning of his term, his approval also hit an all-time low with white voters and a near record low with rural voters. And the poll was conducted by Fox News. It also showed terrible approval ratings for him with immigration. Those disapproval ratings won't stop a raid tomorrow. But it is evidence that he hasn't completely taken over our country. We still have time to save it. And that is why I still have hope for America, and you should too. This was hard for me to write. I took out big sections of it. I wanted to say more, but emotionally I just did not have it in me. And I decided that instead of pushing myself to a breaking point, that I would just cut some stuff out. It's not something I want to do, but these are dark times and we need to preserve our energy. And if you're feeling the same way, it's okay to step back for a minute. It's okay to ground yourself and realize what we're fighting for because these next four months are gonna get even uglier. And remember, no matter how dark the days get, I will be here every single day. And together, we will always find hope for America. I'll see you tomorrow.