It’s Happening Here

On this week’s episode of It’s Happening Here, hosts Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol discuss the tragedy of Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant who was legally in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, subjected to humiliating ICE enforcement, and died in an apparent suicide. They examine how the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy is fundamentally rooted in dehumanization and white nationalist ideology—not in addressing actual crime or immigration concerns.Subscribe to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

On this week’s episode of the It’s Happening Here podcast, hosts Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the Trump administration’s threats to manufacture a national emergency around the 2026 election. They discuss Steve Bannon’s call to deploy ICE at polling places, Trump’s history of invoking emergency powers under false pretenses, and why an administration filled with loyalists poses a greater danger than it did before January 6.Subscribe to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine how Christian nationalism at the highest levels of the Pentagon is undermining military readiness. They discuss how Pete Hegseth’s ideological commitments have made him fundamentally unqualified to run the Defense Department. Plus: the persistence of National Guard deployments in D.C., the purge of transgender service members, and how the military’s moral and professional decline is signaling weakness to U.S. adversaries. Finally, why rebuilding these institutions is far harder than destroying them—and why the stakes have never been higher.Listen now to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the cultural conflicts at the heart of the American experiment. They discuss why the right’s cultural dominance is weaker than it appears, relying increasingly on political power to achieve cultural ends. Plus: Trump’s failed attempt to rebrand the 250th anniversary of American independence, white nationalism’s pervasive influence on the right, and why Christian nationalism and authoritarianism are fundamentally dependent on cultural homogeneity. Finally, what the multicultural vision must do to resist—and why it’s already winning in the places that matter most.Listen now to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

Tom Joscelyn speaks with Bill Kristol about the Trump administration’s campaign to rebrand its opposition as communists. Plus: how Marco Rubio ended up co-hosting a conference on political violence with Stephen Miller, and what that says about the Secretary of State’s drift from operator to true believer. Finally, Trump’s militarization of ICE and DHS at home.Listen now to It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

Tom Joscelyn talks with Bill Kristol about the unwinnable, unending war with Iran. Plus: how the roughly $50 million in Saudi business ties documented in Trump’s own financial disclosures has become inseparable from US foreign policy. And what it would take to rebuild American power and state capacity after Trump.It’s Happening Here is a Home of the Brave podcast. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

Tom Joscelyn talks with co-host Bill Kristol about the latest ICE killing in Maine and the deportation regime’s campaign of fear; Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing and the suspicious Ghislaine Maxwell transfer; National Guard troops being normalized on DC streets; and why Trump’s primetime “election interference” speech is really about 2026 and 2028. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

Donald Trump made mass deportation a defining promise of his political movement. But the fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Araujo, a hardworking father who had lived in America for 35 years, is revealing what happens when that promise becomes policy.In this episode of It’s Happening Here, Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the conflicting witness accounts, unanswered questions, mounting court rebukes, and erosion of constitutional rights—and explain why Trump’s crackdown may finally be backfiring. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

In this episode of It’s Happening Here, Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the Court’s ruling, the history of the 14th Amendment, and why a decision that changed virtually nothing has sparked such an intense political and cultural backlash. They also discuss how rhetoric around immigration, citizenship, and American identity has shifted in recent years—and what that says about the current state of American conservatism. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

On this episode of It’s Happening Here, Tom and Bill break down one of the most alarming developments in Trump’s second term: the installation of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence.The DNI was created after 9/11 to help protect America from foreign threats. But Trump has made clear that he wants Pulte focused on something else entirely: his false claims about “rigged elections.” Tom and Bill explain why that matters, how Trump is filling key national security roles with loyalists, and why the real danger may be what comes next in 2026 and 2028.This is not just another bad personnel move. It is part of a broader effort to turn the power of the federal government into a political weapon—against Trump’s enemies, against the truth, and potentially against free and fair elections. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe

Welcome to Home of the Brave’s newest weekly podcast series: It’s Happening Here. Hosted by Bill Kristol and Tom Joscelyn, this show will go deep on the erosion of American democracy today—and what to do about it.Like, rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Going forward, we’ll be dropping episodes every Saturday at 11 am ET. In his dystopian 1935 political novel It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis imagined what could transpire when Americans elected a dictator. Less than a century later, Bill and Tom are here to break down the threats to American democracy, and lay out a playbook for how citizens can respond. Our first episode covers why Trump’s attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, should be made to answer for Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein files, and the corruption of the Justice Department. You won’t want to miss it.Bill is an advisory board member of Home of the Brave and leading voice in defense of American democracy. Tom served as a senior professional staff member on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol, where he was principal author of the Committee’s final report.Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy. Get full access to Home of the Brave at newsletter.ofthebrave.org/subscribe