Deadline Poet / October 17, 2023

Nothing Under the Pillow

Calvin Trillin
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell arrives at a gathering of supporters of former US president Donald Trump.(Octavio Jones / Getty)
The My Pillow guy and election denier confirms
he’s out of money for lawyers defending him in
defamation suits.—News sources

His pillow talk at first seemed what
The MAGA wackos needed, but
By circulating lies by Trump, he
Is finding public life quite lumpy.

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The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows each week.

Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world economy and set up yet another constitutional crisis at home. Plainclothes officers continue to abduct university students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown abroad to a mega prison against the orders of the courts. And Signalgate promises to be the first of many incompetence scandals that expose the brutal violence at the core of the American empire.

At a time when elite universities, powerful law firms, and influential media outlets are capitulating to Trump’s intimidation, The Nation is more determined than ever before to hold the powerful to account.

In just the last month, we’ve published reporting on how Trump outsources his mass deportation agenda to other countries, exposed the administration’s appeal to obscure laws to carry out its repressive agenda, and amplified the voices of brave student activists targeted by universities.

We also continue to tell the stories of those who fight back against Trump and Musk, whether on the streets in growing protest movements, in town halls across the country, or in critical state elections—like Wisconsin’s recent state Supreme Court race—that provide a model for resisting Trumpism and prove that Musk can’t buy our democracy.

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In solidarity,

The Editors

The Nation

Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”

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