Here's Why (02/10/2025)
Read or listen to this newsletter with additional commentary.
*skip down for news roundup*
First things first: some housecleaning! As you all know I am new to SubStack and I’m trying to figure out the best way to balance my work here as well as my blog on Instagram (@hereswhykevin). Thank you for being here as I try to figure out the best way to do all of this. Eventually, I would like to get to a place where I can do recaps daily but because I want to incorporate audio voiceovers with every entry, I need some time to get there. So this is how I will structure my SubStack for now and I promise to remain consistent:
Monday - Here’s Why Newsletter these entries will serve as a round-up of news stories that took place over the weekend. The text will be straight-to-the-point, just the facts. The audio voiceover will feature more analysis and commentary from me.
Wednesday - Essays every week I will share an essay on a trending topic or story in politics, pop culture or society.
Friday - Here’s Why Newsletter these entries will serve as a round-up of news stories that took place during the week. The text will be straight-to-the-point, just the facts. The audio voiceover will feature more analysis and commentary from me.
Additionally, for paid subscribers I will share uncut interviews with celebrities and political leaders from my new podcast with The Advocate magazine that launches next week. These will be shared on Tuesdays. I want to make as much of my work free as possible. But if you can, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help support me and this work.
Ok … onto the recap.
Federal Judges Are Saving America, here’s why …
Since Trump’s inauguration, he has tried to keep as many of his hateful, racist, transphobic, reductive and harmful promises as possible. Thankfully, for now, we still have three equal branches of government. And although the Democrats in the legislative branch are outnumbered, thus rendering them useless apparently, we can still count on judges in the U.S. to uphold the law.
Federal judges (appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents alike) have blocked many of Trump’s actions. The judiciary has emerged as a key check on presidential power, especially given the Republican-controlled Congress's limited resistance to Trump's initiatives, this is a reminder that lawsuits work and we should support organizations like the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights who are doing the work.
Federal judges have blocked several actions by the Trump administration since he took office in 2025 including: the Birthright citizenship executive order, a Federal funding freeze, a federal worker buyout program, restrictions on transgender inmates and access to gender affirming care, DOGE access to Treasury systems, USAID dismantling and the transferring of some immigrants to Guantanamo Bay.
Project 2025 Is In The White House, here’s why …
Last week, the Senate confirmed the architect of Project 2025, Russell T Vought, to direct the Office of Management and Budget (OBM) for President Trump. He served in this role from 2019 to 2021 for President Trump’s first administration. Since the end of Trump’s first term in office, Vought went on to help develop the ultraconservative playbook for the next Republican administration. Now he’s in the White House to execute that plan.
Vought said in a Project 2025 training video that he wants to inflict ‘trauma’ onto federal workers and force them to leave their post so Trump can completely take over the federal government. But it doesn’t stop there, he also wants to inflict trauma on the average American consumer. This weekend, Vought rolled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) into his office as well.
CFPB, which is responsible for protect consumers in the financial marketplace, was designed to operate independently of OMB but now the lines have been blurred as part of the Trump administration’s plan to consolidate government agencies and reduce their autonomy. Vought order all work at the CFPB to stop. This move doesn’t protect Americans and it doesn’t support any conservative agenda. It just leaves us all vulnerable to being taken advantage of.
JD Vance Is Attempting To Challenge The Constitution, here’s why …
The Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, is suggesting that the President of the United States can ignore judicial orders (like the ones I mentioned in the first story above) to carry out executive orders that violate the contrition. This is also a violation of the constitution.
We have three equal and separate branches of government to avoid the kind of constitutional crisis that Vance is preparing to attempt. Project 2025, Donald Trump and the people he has filled his cabinet with have a clear agenda: increase the powers of the executive branch and make all other branches of government useless. This is the first step to authoritarianism.