Surviving Trump: Your Essential Guide to His Second Term
Navigating the chaos of today’s politics can be overwhelming —this show helps make sense of it all. In about 30 minutes each week, host Bella Goode breaks down the players, policies, and threats facing democracy — in plain language and straight talk. Your crash course in today’s politics
Episodes
In this bonus episode of Surviving Trump, Bella Goode closes out Season 1 — a year of straight talk about what’s happening inside our government, who’s driving the agenda, and how those decisions affect everyday Americans. Over 56 episodes, this season broke down Trump’s second-term plans with a singular mission: expose the unqualified people running his administration and the egregious actions and policies shaping t...
Trump’s assault on FEMA and NOAA is leaving America weaker in the face of disaster. In this episode, Bella Goode reveals how mass layoffs, budget cuts, and political interference are tearing apart the backbone of our disaster response system. From privatized forecasts to untested AI replacing experts, the safety net we’ve always relied on is being dismantled in real time. Listen now to understand what’s at stake befor...
Eight months into Trump’s second term, the price tag of taxpayer waste is already staggering. From a $200M White House ballroom to $21.7B lost through mass layoffs at the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump has turned public service into a personal profit center. Grift, canceled programs, dismantled oversight, and self-dealing are draining billions with little to no benefit for the American people. What does th...
ICE’s expansion has fueled unprecedented resistance across the country. In this episode, Bella Goode traces how communities, courts, and coalitions are fighting back—from shutting down Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, to months-long protests in Portland, to a small-town uprising in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. What emerges is a movement that proves resistance can win—whether in court rulings, workplace walkouts, or grass...
Immigration policy isn’t just written in laws or enforced at borders—it’s fought in the language that defines who belongs and who doesn’t. In this episode, Bella Goode unpacks how words like illegal alien, dreamers, border invasion, and keep families together shape perception, drive policy, and normalize extremes. From Congress to cable news, ICE press releases to family stories on the ground, rhetoric decides what fe...
Behind every raid and detention center are decision makers who built the system to look this way. In this episode, Bella Goode exposes the architects of ICE’s enforcement machine: Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Kash Patel, and Ron DeSantis. From prisons turned into propaganda stages to tax data weaponized for surveillance, their designs fuse spectacle with control. What emerges is a deliberate blueprint of cruelty—calcu...
For immigrant families, the sight of masked agents at the door no longer feels like policing—it feels like war. In this episode, we’ll reveal how ICE’s new masked raids, drones, and secret surveillance are tearing through neighborhoods, emptying courthouses, and leaving families too afraid to seek help. Bella Goode exposes how faceless enforcement erodes trust, fuels impersonations, and turns secrecy into a weapon aga...
ICE isn’t just growing, it’s exploding into one of the largest enforcement machines in U.S. history. This episode exposes how billion-dollar budgets, recruitment ads, and slashed training standards are fueling mass deportations at a wartime pace. Bella Goode unpacks the overcrowded detention camps, profit-driven contracts, political quotas, and the human toll of a system where speed and numbers outweigh justice and ri...
When ICE shows up, the damage ripples far beyond the person taken. From a quiet Colorado town to a Harlem ball field to the fire lines of Washington State, Bella Goode uncovers how sudden enforcement upends daily life. Families are torn apart, children are left afraid, and even firefighters risk detention while saving lives. These stories reveal the deeper truth: the human cost of immigration enforcement reaches far b...
America is splitting in two directions—one where violence is excused and even celebrated, and one where democracy still depends on ballots, laws, and peaceful protest. In this third episode of our political violence series, Bella Goode unpacks the asymmetry of how left and right treat violence, Stephen Miller’s calls to weaponize the Justice Department against dissent, and the dangerous rise of “national divorce” rhet...
Charlie Kirk wasn’t a president, senator, or governor—he was a conservative activist who built Turning Point USA into a cultural force. In life, he embodied America’s culture wars. In death, he became a flashpoint. In this second installment of our political violence series, Bella Goode examines Kirk’s assassination in Utah, the radicalization of his killer Tyler Robinson, and Donald Trump’s choice to weaponize the tr...
Political violence in America is no longer rare—it’s part of our daily reality. In this first episode of a three-part series, Bella Goode unpacks how threats have escalated into murders, bombings, and mob attacks since January 6. What was once shocking is now normalized, fueled by rhetoric, selective outrage, and hypocrisy. The cost is staggering: families destroyed, institutions weakened, and democracy itself pushed ...
When catastrophic floods hit Texas in July 2025, FEMA should have been the nation’s lifeline. Instead, survivors were met with unanswered calls, delayed rescues, and a gutted response system. In this episode, Bella Goode uncovers how Trump’s FEMA failed during one of the deadliest floods in state history and why the crisis revealed something far bigger: a federal disaster system being hollowed out, politicized, and po...
FEMA was once America’s safety net. Under Trump, it’s being hollowed out. In this episode, Bella Goode reveals how leadership purges, political interference, and slashed resilience programs are dismantling the nation’s disaster response system—right as climate chaos hits harder than ever. What happens when help no longer comes?
Key Takeaways To Listen For
- How Trump’s second term triggered a full-scale leadershi...
How did FEMA become the backbone of disaster response and when did it start to break? In this episode, Bella Goode lays the foundation for understanding FEMA’s original mission, its evolution after 9/11 and Katrina, and what made it a model for emergency management. From hurricane shelters to high-speed logistics, FEMA once set the standard. But under Trump’s first term, cracks began to form. This episode unpacks how ...
NOAA is more than a weather agency; it is America’s environmental safety net. Under Trump’s second term, that net is being torn apart, and the agency is now under direct political assault. In this episode, Bella Goode investigates how Trump’s second term has turned NOAA into a loyalty-driven operation, stripping away scientists, silencing climate research, and handing public data to private interests under Project 202...
What happens when the system built to warn us begins to fail? In this episode, Bella Goode unpacks NOAA's vital role in weather forecasting, public safety, and climate readiness and response. Once considered the global gold standard, NOAA has saved lives through precision, speed, and scientific leadership. But when politics, budget cuts, and coordination breakdowns take hold, even world-class systems falter. This...
What happens when corruption isn't hidden, but flaunted? In this final episode of the corruption series, Bella Goode uncovers how Trump dismantled guardrails, exploited legal loopholes, and normalized presidential profiteering. From crypto conflicts to collapsing oversight, this isn’t just about scandal—it’s a systematic threat to democracy. Stay with us as we trace the erosion of accountability and what must be ...
In this episode, Bella Goode traces how Donald Trump didn’t just dip into corruption—he turned the presidency into a personal business empire. By comparing his actions to past scandals like Watergate and Teapot Dome, we see just how far Trump has pushed the boundaries of ethics, law, and public trust. From meme coins and luxury jets to regulatory rollbacks and foreign gifts, this episode breaks down the machinery of s...
From Enron to Watergate to Clarence Thomas, corruption isn’t just history — it’s here, and it’s thriving. In this episode, Bella Goode examines how unchecked power rigs the system, silences accountability, and erodes democracy from within. From Ponzi schemes to political purges, learn how corruption works, who enables it, and why dismantling watchdogs threatens us all.
Key Takeaways To Listen For
- How Enron, Mad...
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