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Like every authoritarian before him, Trump is working to co-opt news sources and control what the public sees and hears. Too many corporate outlets are bending the knee—but not Common Dreams. We will never be intimidated, and we will never compromise the core values that define our community: social justice, universal human rights, equality, and peace. Because we are funded by ordinary people like you, our editorial freedom is guaranteed.
Laura Bonham, PDA Communications Coordinator
Laura@pdamerica.org, (435) 336-2123
Tim Carpenter, PDA Executive Director
Tim@pdamerica.org, (413)-320-2015
We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a
non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a
prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of
former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B.
Cheney, the attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice
whose memos sought to justify torture, and other former top officials
of the Bush Administration.
Our
laws, and treaties that under Article VI of our Constitution are the
supreme law of the land, require the prosecution of crimes that strong
evidence suggests these individuals have committed. Both the former
president and the former vice president have confessed to authorizing a
torture procedure that is illegal under our law and treaty obligations.
The former president has confessed to violating the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act.
We
see no need for these prosecutions to be extraordinarily lengthy or
costly, and no need to wait for the recommendations of a panel or
"truth" commission when substantial evidence of the crimes is already
in the public domain. We believe the most effective investigation can
be conducted by a prosecutor, and we believe such an investigation
should begin immediately.
Drafted by The Robert Jackson Steering Committee
https://afterdowningstreet.org/robertjackson
Signed By:
Progressive Democrats of America
https://pdamerica.org
Center for Constitutional Rights
https://ccrjustice.org
The National Lawyers Guild
https://nlg.org
American Freedom Campaign Action Fund
https://americanfreedomcampaign.org
High Road for Human Rights Advocacy Project
https://www.highroadforhumanrights.org
After Downing Street
https://afterdowningstreet.org
Democrats.com
https://democrats.com
Gold Star Families for Peace
https://cindysheehansoapbox.com
Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel and US diplomat
https://voicesofconscience.com
Delaware Valley Veterans for America
https://delvalvets4america.org
Voters for Peace
https://votersforpeace.us
Wisconsin Impeachment / Bring Our Troops Home Coalition
https://impeachwi.com
Backbone Campaign
https://backbonecampaign.org
CODE PINK: Women for Peace
https://codepink4peace.org
Velvet Revolution
https://velvetrevolution.us
Justice Through Music
https://jtmp.org
Brad Blog
https://bradblog.com
Cities for Peace
https://citiesforpeace.org
National Accountability Network
Northeast Impeachment Coalition
https://neimpeach.org
Republicans for Impeachment
https://republicansforimpeachment.com
Op Ed News
https://opednews.com
Marcus
Raskin, cofounder of Institute for Policy Studies, member of editorial
board of The Nation, member of the special staff of the National
Security Council in Kennedy Administration
The Progressive
https://progressive.org
Peace Team
https://peaceteam.net
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
https://afterdowningstreet.org/vips
Defending Dissent Foundation
https://defendingdissent.org
Grassroots America
https://grassrootsamerica4us.org
Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored
https://projectcensored.org
Peace Action
https://peace-action.org
Grandmothers Against the War
https://grandmothersagainstthewar.org
World Can't Wait
https://worldcantwait.net
United for Peace and Justice
https://unitedforpeace.org
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
https://space4peace.org
War Crimes Times
https://warcrimestimes.org
Veterans for Peace 099
https://veteransforpeace.org
Veterans for Peace 26
https://veteransforpeace.org
Veterans for Peace
https://veteransforpeace.org
Naomi
Wolf, author of "End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,"
and "Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries"
Iraq Veterans Against the War
https://ivaw.org
Daniel Ellsberg, Truth-Telling Project
https://ellsberg.net
Organizations and individuals can add their names to this statement at https://prosecutebushcheney.org
Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and U.S. politics by working inside and outside of the party by working to elect empowered progressives and by building the progressive movement in solidarity with with peace, justice, civil rights, environmental, and other reform efforts. For more information about PDA, please see PDAmerica.org.
Journalist Mehdi Hasan said Trump and his allies "plan to overturn the Constitution and democracy. They’re not hiding it. They’re bragging about it.”
In a frightening interview, one of President Donald Trump’s top allies said there is a “plan” for the president to remain in power after 2028, despite constitutional limits.
Speaking to a pair of interviewers at The Economist, Steve Bannon—Trump’s former chief strategist and one of the most influential voices in the MAGA movement—described a third Trump term as a divinely ordained fait accompli that people must simply accept.
“Well, he’s gonna get a third term, so Trump ’28,” Bannon said. “Trump is gonna be president in 2028, and people ought to just get accommodated with that.”
Asked about the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution, which plainly forbids a president from serving more than two terms in office, Bannon proclaimed that “there are many different alternatives” to get around it.
“At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is,” he said. “But there’s a plan. And President Trump will be president in ’28.”
Bannon continued: “We have to finish what we started... I know this will drive you guys crazy, but [Trump] is a vehicle of divine providence. He’s an instrument. He’s very imperfect. He’s not churchy. But he is an instrument of divine will.”
“We need him for at least one more term,” Bannon reiterated, “and he’ll get that in ’28.”
In recent days, Trump has increasingly signaled his intent to run for a third term, selling “Trump 2028” merchandise on his website and displaying it in the Oval Office during negotiations with Democrats over the government shutdown.
His recent demolition of the White House’s East Wing to build a luxury ballroom has also raised alarms that Trump increasingly views himself as its permanent resident rather than a temporary steward.
Bannon was adamant that Trump would not only serve a third term, but that his staying in office would be “by the will of the American people.”
This assumption is out of line with what polls would seem to predict: Trump’s support recently hit a new low in his second term, with just 37% of voters approving of his job performance in the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, compared to 61% who disapprove.
Bannon’s comments came days after the New York Times reported that Trump’s handpicked election officials have called for him to declare a “national emergency” ahead of the 2026 midterm election, which they say would allow him to assert more control over election laws and impose new rules on state and local elections without approval from Congress.
Max Flugrath of the voting rights group Fair Fight Action, who warned earlier this week of Trump’s plans to “hijack” the next elections, said that by pushing for a third term for the president, “Bannon is basically saying, ‘Let’s light the Constitution on fire.’”
Author and activist Jim Stewartson noted that Bannon “uses the same alchemy as [House Speaker] Mike Johnson and [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth to rationalize destroying the Constitution: ‘spiritual war.’”
Johnson has argued that the US government “must be biblically sanctioned” and that the Founders’ idea of the separation of church and state was “a misnomer.” Hegseth, meanwhile, has endorsed a video of a far-right pastor discussing the need to repeal the 19th Amendment, which enshrined the right of women to vote.
Some pointed out that Bannon often manages to create a stir in the media by saying provocative things and claiming to have privileged knowledge about the machinations of Trump’s inner circle. It’s not the first time Bannon has raised the possibility of a third Trump term.
“A question that I’ve never seen fully resolved is to what degree Bannon is just trying to get attention as a media figure and to what degree he’s actually clued in to what’s going on in the White House,” said HeatMap News correspondent Matthew Zeitlin.
However, Bannon was in the know about Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election well before it happened. Days before the vote, he was recorded telling right-wing allies that “What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory... He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”
Others said that Bannon’s prognosis about a third Trump term is gravely serious, especially given Trump’s other actions during his second term.
“I would love to be wrong, but they keep saying this in public,” said writer John DiLillo. “He’s selling Trump 2028 merch. He’s massively remodeling the White House as if it were his personal residence. I don’t really see why the idea shouldn’t be taken seriously just because it’s ‘unconstitutional.’”
Mehdi Hasan, founder of the media outlet Zeteo, meanwhile, said: “They’re literally shouting it out loud! Their plan to overturn the Constitution and democracy. They’re not hiding it. They’re bragging about it. And the media are just ignoring it, or worse, normalizing it; the biggest story perhaps in modern American history.”
"Demolishing the East Wing is bad enough, but carving the names of corporations and billionaires into the White House walls would mark a permanent scar on the People's House."
Amazon, Apple, Lockheed Martin, Google, Altria, and Union Pacific Railroad are among the dozens of corporations bankrolling US President Donald Trump's ongoing effort to replace the East Wing of the White House—which is now reduced to rubble—with a gaudy, 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
The White House released the list of donors on Thursday as the expected price tag of the project grew to $300 million.
Watchdogs said the ballroom represents yet another way in which Trump is inviting corporate influence peddling. Earlier reporting from CBS News indicated that some donors could have their names etched on the walls of the gold-encrusted ballroom.
"Demolishing the East Wing is bad enough, but carving the names of corporations and billionaires into the White House walls would mark a permanent scar on the People's House," said Jon Golinger, a democracy advocate with Public Citizen, said in a statement Thursday.
"Money buys access and influence and, in this case, a long-term presence on the White House wall," Golinger added. "This is easily understood and blatantly disgusting."
Below is the full list of names, including individuals and corporations, provided by the White House:
Economist Paul Krugman wrote Friday that "it may seem like a trivial story, but it's a highly visual metaphor for the way MAGA is tearing down almost everything good about our country."
"In true Trumpian style, this act of vandalism is being paid for by large corporate donors—mostly tech and crypto companies—seeking to buy Trump's favor," wrote Krugman. "I am sure there will be a Trump meme-coin dispenser installed on every table."
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro demanded "no crazy war, please!" as the Trump administration showed no sign of dialing back its unlawful military attacks.
President Donald Trump set off alarms Thursday when he signaled his administration would soon escalate its military campaign in Latin America.
For the last seven weeks, the Trump administration has conducted military strikes against purported drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean that have killed at least 37 people so far.
Even though many legal experts and human rights advocates consider the attacks to be illegal acts of extrajudicial murder, Trump said during a law enforcement roundtable at the White House that he is going to soon expand the campaign to attack purported drug traffickers who are traveling by land as well.
As The New York Times noted, Trump said he's going to launch these strikes without seeking any authorization from the US Congress.
“I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” said Trump. “I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead.”
Trump: "I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war, I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like dead." pic.twitter.com/55NQXpZ0jf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2025
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called Trump's comments a "blaring red warning signal for the rule of law."
The administration has claimed it is targeting boats to stop drug trafficking from Venezuela, despite the fact that the country is not a prominent source of either fentanyl or cocaine.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated on Wednesday that the US is going to approach its new War on Drugs in the same way it approached the War on Terror, the result of which was two failed military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
"Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere," Hegseth wrote in a Wednesday post on X. "Just as al-Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice."
Dozens of elected officials throughout Latin America on Thursday released a letter denouncing the Trump administration's military aggression in their regions, and France 24 reported on the same day that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro warned Trump against launching a "crazy war" against his nation.
"Yes peace, yes peace forever, peace forever. No crazy war, please!" said Maduro in a meeting with unions. The president has accused the Trump administration of seeking regime change.
Some US politicians have also denounced Trump's military aggression in Latin America.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) described Trump's boat attacks as a "stain on our moral conscience" and urged other lawmakers to speak up.
"This is not a time for the opposition party to be silent," he said. "We must speak out for our moral values and to stand against a new regime change war."
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that Trump must seek permission from Congress before launching any military strikes in Latin America.
"Legally, he is required to come to Congress," Schiff wrote on X. "Though he may not get the answer he expects. Americans don't want another war."
Former Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), a longtime critic of US foreign interventionism, also said the president is required to go through Congress before taking any military action.
"The Constitution doesn’t permit a president to act as the legislature and judiciary on top of being the chief executive," he wrote. "If it’s war, he must go to Congress. If it’s crime, he must go to court. When there’s no imminent danger, there’s no justification for unilateral strikes."
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) slammed the administration for trying to employ tactics that failed in the War on Terror to a fight that it claims is targeting narcotics trafficking.
"Now the Trump administration is talking about 'regime change' in Venezuela," he wrote. "When has that ever worked for us—in Cuba, Afghanistan, or anywhere else? This isn’t making us safer. It's having the opposite effect."