8.25.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the reading of The New York Times for Monday,
August twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. Your reader for today
is Mary Fullington. As a reminder, RADIOI is a reading
service intended for people who are blind or have other
disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. We'll

(00:24):
start today's reading with a Merriam Webster word of the day,
which is undulant. Undulant is an adjective spelled u n
d u la nt. Undulant describes things that rise and

(00:45):
fall in waves, or things that have a wavy form, outline,
or surface. Here's an example. The exhibit featured a painting
with beautiful green star that resembled undulant hills. The Merriam

(01:07):
Webster word of the day undulent. Now we will read
the front page headlines from today's print edition of The
New York Times. Corporate America's newest activist investor, Donald Trump.
The president is demanding governmental stakes in US companies and

(01:28):
cuts of their revenue. Experts see some similarities to state
managed capitalism in other parts of the world. The rainforests
being cleared to build your RV. American demand for tropical
wood that is used in motor homes, conservationists say is

(01:51):
accelerating the disappearance of some of the world's largest forests.
In Trump's second term, far right agenda enters the mainstream.
President Trump has embraced an array of far right views
and talking points in ways that have delighted many right
wing activists who have long supported those ideas. The lioness

(02:17):
at the center of City Hall battered by scandal. Before
Ingrid Lewis Martin was indicted on bribery charges, she was
one of the most powerful people in Mayor Eric adams orbit.
Now she may hasten his fall. In New York first
article Corporate America's newest activist investor, Donald Trump. The president

(02:45):
is demanding government stakes in US companies and cuts of
their revenue. Experts see some similarities to state managed capitalism
in other parts of the world. By Lauren Hirsch and
Maureen Ferrell. Corporate America has built up defenses against the

(03:07):
likes of Carl Icon, Nelson Pelts, and other corporate raiders
who have rattled the cages of chief executives pushing for
higher stock prices. Now companies have a new investor to
worry about. The President of the United States. President Trump
has inserted the government into US companies in extraordinary ways,

(03:32):
including taking a stake in US Steel and pushing for
a cut of NVIDIAs and advanced micro devices revenue from China.
Last month, the Pentagon said it was taking a fifteen
percent stake in MP Materials, a large American miner of
rare earths, and on Friday, Intel agreed to allow the

(03:54):
US government to take a ten percent stake in its business,
worth a eightero point nine billion dollars. These developments could
herald a shift from America's vaunted free market system to
one that resembles, at least in some corners, a form

(04:15):
of state managed capitalism more frequently seen in Europe and
to a different degree China and Russia, say lawyers, bankers,
and academics steeped in the history of hostile takeovers and
international business, and the actions are sending wall streets bankers

(04:35):
and lawyers scrambling to help companies come up with a
playbook to defend against or at least find ways to
mollify mister Trump. Quote. Virtually every company I've talked to
which is a regular recipient of subsidiaries of subsidy subsidies
or grants from the government is concerned about this right now,

(05:00):
likefet CO, Chairman of the Corporate Defense practice at the
law firm Sideley Austin, said in an interview, the Trump
administration is casting a wide net, scouring other companies that
it thinks could be right for some form of government involvement.
Three people briefed on these discussions said the US government

(05:20):
has inserted itself in corporate America before. The Obama administration
took stakes in banks and auto companies after the two
thousand and eight financial crisis, and both the Obama and
Biden administrations used government subsidies to promote green technology. But
experts say mister Trump's push is different from and more

(05:44):
aggressive than what the United States has seen before. The
companies he is targeting are not on the cusp of collapse,
nor would their demise, as in the case of the
banks during the financial crisis, set off a chain of
events that could lead to global economic ruin. Quote, America

(06:06):
has always been wary about the line between public and
private enterprise, said Jonathan Levy, a historian and professor at
Sciences Poe in Paris and author of Ages of American Capitalism,
a history of the United States. Quote. The one time
it's been suspended, he added, is in the context of

(06:27):
war or national security interest. The White House insists that
national security is indeed driving its investments, and disputed the
notion that taking these stakes in critically important companies is
undermining free markets. Intel was awarded a roughly eleven billion
dollar grant as part of the Chips Act, a bipartisan

(06:51):
law passed during the Biden administration and aimed at making
the United States less reliant on Asia for semiconduct manufacturing.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik has argued that by taking an
equity stake, US taxpayers will get the upside of any
boost afforded to Intel. Quote, this is not a pots

(07:16):
and pans company. A White House official said, this amounts
to something so critical to national security that it warrants
this action. But some of mister Trump's recent moves appear
to be a strong break with historical precedent. In the
cases of Nvidia and AMD, the Trump administration has proposed

(07:38):
dictating the global market that these chip makers can have
access to. The two companies have promised to give fifteen
percent of their revenues from China to the US government.
In order to have the right to sell chips in
that country and bypass any future US restrictions. David Cecilia,

(07:59):
an associate professor of history emeritus at the University of Maryland,
said he had never seen a time when the United
States has changed its trade policy to target one or
more specific companies. Quote The least generous interpretation is that
its extortion for success, he said. When discussing the Intel

(08:25):
deal on Friday, mister Trump said the company's chief executive
had quote walked in wanting to keep his job, and
he ended up giving ten billion dollars for the United States.
Activist investors like mister Icon and mister Pelts typically take
stakes in companies struggling in the public market and then

(08:47):
pushed to make them changes and push them to make
changes that will lift their share price, like selling off
a division or replacing a chief executive. But unlike a
traditional corporate activist, mister Trump has not always clearly tied
his calls for corporate action, whether it be ousting a

(09:08):
chief executive or quote eating the cost of tariffs to
a company's returns. For now, Intel shareholders have reacted favorably
to the government's deepening involvement. Shares of Intel closed up
more than five percent on Friday, as mister Trump announced
that the government was taking the stake. Shares of competitors

(09:30):
like AMD have fallen since news of the potential deal
became public last week, a decline that analysts partly attribute
to the expectation that the government will support Intel over
other chip companies. Quote. If you are focused on the
short term, then these sorts of deals may be beneficial,

(09:52):
because you're going to get squeezed anyway, said Sarah Barl's Dansman,
a political scientist and an associate professor serve International Studies
at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
at Indiana University. But she cautioned once the government gets
involved in strategic decision making, those strategic choices are no

(10:15):
longer driven by market considerations. The President's growing entanglement with
private enterprise also raises broader questions about the loss of
protections for ordinary shareholders. Quote. We are used to controlling
shareholders saying I want to get private benefits of control.

(10:37):
I'm also the CEO. I want to get a fifty
six billion dollar compensation package. We have ways of handling that,
said Edward Rock, a professor of corporate governance at New
York University, quote, but if the government encouraged a company
to shut down its offshoring plans, for example, we don't

(10:57):
have doctrines in corporate law that allow us to analyze
that situation. Rebuffing mister Trump's demands will not be easy.
Suing the government is not likely a productive path, said
mister Lucfett, the Sideley Austin lawyer. While the CHIPSAC does
not expressly authorize the government to take equity stakes in

(11:20):
companies receiving grants, it does have language that could be
interpreted as giving the government broader authority, he said. The
current playbook for companies to avoid the threat of government
stake or other extraordinary demands, corporate advisers say, is to
continue what they are already doing to stay out of
mister Trump's crosshairs, scrubbing public websites of diversity, equity and

(11:44):
inclusion language, and making more visits to the president in Washington.
Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon, for example, has visited
mister Trump four times since he took office in January,
According to two people with knowledge of these visits That

(12:05):
is an unusually high number for the bank's chief executive.
Policy experts say they worry that this type of business
climate is is eroding the level playing field that they
believe is crucial to the country's long term success. Who
will want to invest in companies the administration is not backing?

(12:28):
Ask Dan Akinson, an economist and trade expert, what will
happen to promising firms that don't kiss Trump's ring? Next article,
the rainforests being cleared to build your RV. American demand

(12:48):
for tropical wood that is used in motor homes, conservationists say,
is accelerating the disappearance of some of the world's largest
forests by Sue Lee we Words spread fast that heavy
machinery had arrived in the ancient rainforest near the Indonesian
village of Sungai Matamata, an expanse of the on the

(13:12):
western edge of the island of Borneo that is home
to Orangutan's clouded leopards and sun bears. Flouting the law,
the excavators began digging trenches to drain the area's protected wetlands.
Then came the logging crews, which cut down woodlands the

(13:32):
size of more than two thousand, eight hundred football fields
in just a few days. It was an apocalyptic site,
said Samsadar, a regional forestry official who goes by one name,
recalling the devastation he encountered two years ago. The trees
had turned into piles of wood, not just any wood,

(13:55):
though the trees were maranti, a species found more moly
in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, and their
tropical hardwood is of particular interest to one industry in
the United States, manufacturers of motor homes. The United States
is the world's largest producer of recreational vehicles and has

(14:19):
relied for decades on maranti, which is also known as luan.
The timber is processed into a plywood that is lightweight,
moisture resistant, flexible, and cut into thin sheets. Are v
makers use it for interior walls, flooring, cabinets, and other features.

(14:40):
Catering to this demand, conservation groups say has accelerated deforestation
in Borneo. In the last five years alone, tens of
thousands of acres of the island's forests have been chopped
down for luan, usually with the Indonesian government's permission. This
has contributed to the the disappearance of some of the

(15:01):
world's largest rainforests and wetlands, unleashing dense stores of carbon,
upending the lives of indigenous people and endangering the habitats
of orangutans and other animals. Since twenty twenty, the United

(15:21):
States has bought more than nine hundred million dollars of
the lane plywood that goes into r vs, the vast
majority of it from Indonesia. U S trade data shows
Lane is also used by the construction industry. The American
RV industry has long portrayed itself as a good steward

(15:42):
of the environment. It calls on its consumers to protect
public lands and promotes its vehicles as a way for
people to connect with the great outdoors. Among the big
RV makers, Four Industries says that its suppliers are forbidden
by US law to buy ill the timber and Winnebago
says that it is committed to preserving the planet. Thlor

(16:09):
added that it was not aware of any deforested wood
in its supply chain. When Abago referred questions about the
origins of its lawan to its supplier, Patrick Industries, an
American company, and the RV Industry Association, neither of which
responded to request for comment, nor did Forest River, another

(16:32):
big RV maker, but the industry has defended its use
of laoane, some of which is selectively harvested so forests
can continue to grow quote. Without access to loan, manufacturers
would be forced to use thicker, heavier materials that reduce
livable space, impact fuel efficiency, and compromise the structural design

(16:56):
and safety of the RV. The RV Industry is unociation
said in a letter to the Trump administration in April,
while arguing against new tariffs on the plywood quote. In short,
it added, lean is not just a preference, it is
a functional necessity integral to nearly every RV built in

(17:17):
the United States. Some composite materials have emerged as potential
alternatives to lane, but URV makers say they are not
as versatile and are typically more expensive. Conservation groups say
r V makers are only focused on price and do

(17:37):
not have policies to responsibly source loane. This allows deforested
timber to taint the industry's supply chains. They say. Sustainably
grown loane now is plentiful in Indonesia, and while it
goes for about twenty percent more. Earth Sight, a group
based in Britain, argued that outfitting an RV with only

(17:59):
that kind of wood would have a negligible effect on
its price. Quote. Nature loving RV owners would surely be
more than happy to pay this tiny price, said Sam Lawson.
Earth Site's director thor and Winnebago did not comment on
earth Site's assertion. Forest River did not respond to her

(18:22):
request for comment. Indonesia has long seen its forests as
an economic resource and has cleared tens of millions of
acres of forest this century alone, much of it for
palm oil and pulpwood, but the American RV industry's role

(18:43):
in deforestation has drawn little scrutiny. Demand for RVs and
the United States soared to a record during the pandemic,
and now more than eight million American households have won.
Anna Montgomery, a landscape architect in Charleston, South Carolina, bought
one for her family of four in twenty twenty. Her

(19:04):
twenty four foot Winnebago Minie Winnie costs seventy seven thousand dollars.
Miss Montgomery said she had spent years researching the vehicles,
dropping in on RV shows and dealerships to look at
the materials, but she did not know that her vehicle
may have deforested timber. Quote. It wasn't anything that I

(19:28):
had thought about, Miss Montgomery said of her RV purchase. Here,
I am thinking I got a good RV, but what
is the reality of it? Last year, around tens of
thousands of trees were felled in Indonesia to supply the
construction of RVs in America. According to earth Sight, all

(19:49):
of those trees were from rainforests and most of the
logging was approved by the authorities. Several conservation groups have
concluded that the RV industry is now the biggest user
of tropical plywood in the United States. Earth Site and
Indonesia based Orega Nusentara shared government documents and shipping records

(20:12):
showing how deforested wood travels from Indonesian rainforests to American
RV makers. It is unclear whether the RV industry was
aware of the origins of the wood. Barbara Cooper, a
supply chain expert at Profundo, a Dutch nonprofit, also reviewed

(20:32):
earth Site's findings. Quote. The RV industry stands out, she said,
for its role in overall US demand for lane. Most
of the logging in Indonesia has been authorized by the government,
which owns all the land in the country and gives
concessions to companies, sometimes taking land away from individuals. While

(20:57):
Indonesia has made a lot of progress in reducing deforestation,
officials say they rely on cash crops to build the
nation's economy. In twenty twenty one, the Environment minister said
that the country's development quote must not stop in the
name of carbon emissions. Many rainforests in Borneo are intertwined

(21:19):
with bogs known as peat lands, that hold enormous amounts
of carbon. The recent deforestation has also destroyed thousands of
acres of peat lands, making Indonesia one of the world's
largest emitters of greenhouse gases, though still far behind China
and the United States. The deforestation near Sungai, Matamata and

(21:45):
two neighboring villages in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty
four resulted in the total emissions of more than two
hundred and fifty thousand tons of carbon dioxide, according to
Satyabumi nonprofit or as much as what fifty thousand cars
emit in a year. The logging was done by a

(22:08):
company called p T Maojuana Persada, which was forbidden by
law from clearing the adjoining peatlands. It erased a highly
biodiverse rainforest and seated an industrial acacia plantation. While Maajuana
had a concession of nearly three hundred and fifty thousand

(22:30):
acres in West Kalamantan Province in Western Borneo, it was
required by law to notify residents of its plans, which
residents said it did not. Maojuana and Indonesia's Environment Ministry
did not respond to repeated requests for comment. About a
decade ago, Maajuana began clearing the land it was awarded,

(22:54):
prompting an outcry from environmental groups. It raised nearly one
hundred thousand acres, or about half the size of New
York City. According to Mighty Earth, a global conservation group,
satellite imagery reveals the speed and scale of the deforestation
in recent years. Maiawana's logging also upended a community eighty

(23:18):
miles north of Sungai. Matamata Village. Sabarbubu is home to
about one hundred subsistence farmers on the western edge of
Indonesia Borneo. One morning last year, Andreas Raetius, the leader
of the community, and a Diac indigenous man was harvesting

(23:39):
leaves to feed his pigs. Above him, the soaring canopy
formed a lattice of overlapping greens that filtered the sunlight.
Bird calls echoed through the treetops. Four generations of the
hamlet's ethos has been to conserve this hilly forest that

(23:59):
it considers sacred, mister Ratius said, adding animals should not
be disturbed, large trees should not be cut down. But
in twenty twenty Mayajuana crews arrived and raised part of
the hill. Some residents of Sabar Bubu and nearby areas
said they had been detained by the police for protesting

(24:21):
against Mayajuana and had lost their livelihoods because of the deforestation.
Maria Adeaux had planted rubber trees over a decade on
a fifty acre plot of land in the area. Quote
it was all flattened, she said in tears. She now
has to rely on odd jobs to make a living,
she said, and sometimes earn nothing, earns nothing. The Maranti

(24:46):
timber from Maajuana's deforestation in twenty twenty three ended up
in the American RV industry's supply chain. According to shipping
records obtained by Earth's Sight. For years, the Jco Jflight
has been the best selling travel trailer in the United States,
made by a subsidiary of Thor. Jco's website states that

(25:10):
the j Flight uses lane. One of Jacob's key suppliers
of lean has been MJB Wood, a company based in Bristol, Indiana.
Over the past two years, MJB Wood bought tens of
thousands of feet of deforested plywood from Indonesia, including from

(25:32):
a supplier that sells tropical hardwood from rainforests, the conservation
group said, citing shipping records. MJB did not respond to
a request for comment. The Indonesian supplier could not be reached.
Thor said it does not have knowledge of wood being
supplied to Jacob As a result of deforestation in Sabar Booboo,

(25:58):
Mister Racius, the chief, said that he remained worried about
the future of the forest. Although the government ordered Mayauana
to stop logging last year, he pointed out that the
company's permits had not been revoked. He also said he
wasn't familiar with r vs, which were described to him
as vehicles in which people can sleep, cook, and relax.

(26:21):
After seeing a picture of one, he laughed and shook
his head. Next article. In Trump's second term, far right
agenda enters the mainstream. President Trump has embraced an array
of far right views and talking points in ways that

(26:43):
have delighted many right wing activists who have long supported
those ideas, by alan fewer. During President Trump's first turn
in the White House, right wing extremists like the Proud
Boys were on the streets weekend after weekend, raising their voice,
and oftentimes they're fists about issues such as immigration, the

(27:05):
squelching of conservative speech, and the removal of Confederate era statues.
But in the first seven months of mister Trump's second term,
there has been a conspicuous absence of far right demonstrations,
and that some leaders of the movement say is because
the president has effectively adopted their agenda. Quote. Things we

(27:30):
were doing and talking about in twenty seventeen that were taboo,
they're no longer taboo their mainstream now, said Enrique Terio,
the chairman of the Proud Boys, who took part in
many of those early far right rallies. Quote, Honestly, what
do we have to complain about these days, whether it

(27:51):
is dismantling diversity programs, complaining about anti white bias in museums,
or simply promoting an aura of authoritarian nationalism. Mister Trump
is embraced in an array of far right views and
talking points in ways that have delighted many right wing
activists who have long supported those ideas. His administration has

(28:14):
also hired several people with the history of making racist
or anti Semitic remarks, or who have looked favorably on
the attack on the Capitol on January sixth, twenty twenty one.
Far right figures have been particularly thrilled by mister trum
Trump's aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants, praising not only the

(28:38):
ubiquitous images of masked federal agents rating farms and factories,
but also the ideology that has fueled those moves, a
belief that migration to the United States is all but
synonymous with a military invasion. Last week, in fact, on
the eighth anniversary of the vile far right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia,

(29:03):
where neo Nazi is marched by torchlight chanting about immigrants
and Jews, Augustus Sole Invictus, a Florida lawyer who helped
organize the event marveled at how thoroughly the Trump administration
had adopted a position that had once been on the
fringes of political discourse. Quote. Eight years ago, you were

(29:29):
an extremist if you protested being replaced by immigrants, mister
invictus wrote on social media. Your life was over if
you talked about stopping or reversing it. Now it is
official at White House policy. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman,

(29:50):
offered a vocal defense of mister Trump. Quote. President Trump
is a voice for millions of forgotten men and women
who support the widely popular policies he is enacting, she said.
During the Biden administration, far right organizations like the Proud
Boys and the Oath Keepers were severely hobbled, largely by

(30:11):
the criminal prosecutions of dozens of their members who took
part in the Capital Attack. The Oath Keepers, a militia
style group of current and former military and law enforcement personnel,
barely exists anymore. Its founder, Stuart Rhades, no longer appears
in public as often as he once did at far

(30:32):
right demonstrations or standoffs with the government. As for mister Tario,
he and his compatriots have generally given up on the
set peace demonstrations that they took part in for years
in cities like New York, Berkeley, California, Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles,
New Orleans, and Charlottesville. These days, he mostly hosts podcasts

(30:56):
and promotes a blockchain powered app called ice raid that
pays people in cryptocurrency for reporting undocumented immigrants. While some
far right groups like the fascist organization Patriot Front have
continued to stage public demonstrations, researchers at Armed Conflict Location

(31:18):
and Event Data, a nonprofit organization that tracts political violence,
have found fewer far right wing protests this year compared
with recent years. Quote. The rise of alt right a
decade ago was a backlash against the first black president
and ideas of progress in race and immigration, said Amy Spittolnik,

(31:42):
the chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Now,
a decade later, we've seen the opposite of those ideas
normalized in the highest levels of power, including at the
White House. Echoing mister Tario, she added, why do you
need to protest when the White House is basically doing

(32:03):
what you want? Mister Trump's first term in the four
year interim when he was out of power were often
characterized by flirtations with the far right, albeit conducted at
a deniable distance. In twenty seventeen, after a neo Nazi
activist drove into a crowd of leftist protesters in Charlottesville,

(32:26):
killing a woman named Heather Hier, mister Trump criticized the
white nationalists who planned the demonstration, but in almost the
same breath he asserted that there were quote very fine
people on both sides of the conflict. During a presidential
debate in twenty twenty, he called out to the Proud Boys,
telling the extremist group to quote stand back and stand by,

(32:50):
But within a day he walked his comments back, saying
he had no idea who the Proud Boys were. He
did much the same in November twenty twenty two, after
having dinner with the infamous white nationalist Nick Fuintes at
mar Lago, his private club and residence in Florida, quickly
issuing a statement that he knew nothing about his house

(33:11):
guest or his views. But this time around, mister Trump
and his administration seemed less interested in distance or denial.
On his first day. Back in the White House, he
issued a remarkably sweeping grant of clemency to all of
the nearly one thousand, six hundred Rioters who took part
in the capital attack, including those who assaulted the police

(33:35):
and were convicted, like mister Tyrio, of sedition. He also
issued two executive orders, quote guaranteeing the State's Protection against
Invasion and protecting the American People against Invasion. Both drew

(33:58):
on language and idea is about immigrants that echoed statements
made by violent extremists who attacked Hispanics in El Paso,
the black community in Buffalo, and Jews in Pittsburgh. The
next month, mister Trump issued an executive order halting foreign

(34:19):
aid to South Africa and allowing members of the country's
white minority to settle in the United States through a
refugee program. In the order, he said that American officials
should do everything possible to help Quote Afra connors in
South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination. The

(34:40):
view effectively amounted to a government endorsement of long held
far right theories about mistreatment of white South Africans in
the post apartheid area. At the same time, his aids
and allies, when confronted by racist or far right views
in those e around them, have often chosen to ignore

(35:02):
the situation or gone on the attack. This winter, for example,
a young employee of Elon Musk's jobs slashing agency, the
Department of Government Efficiency, quit the government after it was
revealed that he had posted racist comments online, including one
that read normalize Indian hate. But instead of letting the

(35:27):
man go, mister Musk and Vice President J. D. Vance
began a campaign to bring him back, breezily suggesting that
his offensive remarks were merely indiscretions disclosed to the public
by journalists who were out to destroy his life. Around
the same time, the State Department hired a man named

(35:48):
Darren Beatty to serve as the acting Under Secretary for
Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Mister Beatty was brought into
the government even though he had already been fired from
an earlier JIB as a speech writer in the first
Trump administration for appearing at a conference attended by white nationalists.

(36:11):
Just months before his new appointment, mister Beatty was still
posting racist messages online. Quote competent white men must be
in charge if you want things to work, he wrote
on social media in October, Unfortunately, our entire national ideology
is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities
and demoralizing competent white men. In July, mister Beatty's portfolio

(36:39):
expanded when he was named to run the US Institute
of Peace, which leads public diplomacy outreach at the State Department.
A Department spokesman, Tommy Piggott defended the hire. Darren Beatty
has spin an invaluable members of the Trump Administration's team

(37:03):
at the State Department in implementing the president's America First
foreign policy, he said. Mister Trump's Defense Department has hired
Kingsley Wilson, the daughter of the conservative commentor Steve Cortes,
who to serve as Deputy Press Secretary. Despite her history

(37:23):
of making extremist comments on social media. Last year, Miss
Wilson posted a message evincing support for the so called
Great Replacement theory, a far right idea holding that liberals
have purposefully sought to replace the white population of the
United States with foreigners and immigrants. In twenty twenty three,

(37:44):
she posted another message questioning the facts behind the death
of Leo Frank, a Jewish man lynched by an anti
Semitic mob in Georgia in nineteen fifteen. The consensus among
legal scholars is that mister Frank was falsely convey of
raping and murdering a thirteen year old girl, but Miss
Wilson's post put the blame on mister Frank himself. In

(38:08):
a statement, Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said that
miss Wilson quote has been doing a fantastic job and
that quote left wing groups have erroneously attacked her character
because she is a fighter for President Trump. The Office
of Special Counsel and Independent Watchdog Agency is now being

(38:30):
led by Paul and Gracia, despite his history of making
racist comments and supporting white nationalists like Nick Fuintes on April.
In April twenty twenty three, mister Ingrassier wrote a substack
post calling on X to reinstate mister Fuintes's account on

(38:51):
First Amendment rights. Eight months later, he posted a message
on X saying quote, exceptional white men are not only
the builders of Western civilisms, but are the ones most
capable of appreciating the fruits of our heritage. All of
these developments have taken place, as the official x account

(39:11):
for mister Trump's Department of Homeland Security has posted some
messages with thinly veiled white nationalist content. Last week, for instance,
the account seeking new recruits for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
posted an image of ucle Sam under a slogan reading

(39:33):
quote America needs you join Icenell. Above the image was
a question which way American Man? That appeared to be
a reference to the nineteen seventy eight book Quote Which
Way Western Man? Written by the white supremacist supremacist William

(39:55):
Gaily Simpson and published by the National Alliance, a neo
Nazi organization. The book claims that there is a Jewish
plot against white people in the Western world and calls
for violence against Jews. Asked by reporters about the post
last week, Tricia McLaughlin, a sportsman, a spokeswoman for DHS,

(40:20):
called the question embarrassing and said, where are we quoting
a white supremacist. A few days after mister Trump won reelection,
William Tire, the leader of the Texans three Percenters, a
local for right militia group, wrote to him with an offer.
His organization wanted to help the White House carry out

(40:43):
its plan to deport millions of immigrants. While there's no
evidence that the administration accepted mister Tyers's proposal, it arguably
did not need to. Homeland Security officials, flush with billions
of dollars from mister Trump's recent budget bill, have been
hiring new immigration agents and cracking down with new initiatives

(41:04):
like encouraging officers to search the social media accounts of
immigrants seeking to enter the country for anti American sentiments.
That last measure appeared to enchant Kevin Deanna, an early
alt right leader who often writes for a white nationalist

(41:24):
website under the name of James Kirkpatrick. On Tuesday, mister
Deanna posted on social media about an article quoting a
spokesman spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services saying quote
America's benefits should not be given to those who despise
the country and promote anti American ideologies quote got a

(41:47):
little more of what I voted for again, mister Deanna
wrote next article, the Lioness at the center of a
hall battered by scandal. Before ingrid Lewis Martin was indicted
on bribery charges, she was one of the most powerful

(42:09):
people in Mayor Eric Adams' orbit. Now she may hasten
his fall In New York by Nicholas Fandos and Dana Rubinstein.
It took decades for Ingris's Ingrid Lewis Martin to fight
her way to the top of New York City politics,
but by twenty twenty two she had unquestionably arrived. As

(42:34):
chief adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, she was arguably the
second most powerful person in city government. She had an
office across the hall from him, a habit of rewriting policy,
and a reputation as his heavy handed enforcer. So it
was notable that fall when Miss Lewis Martin set her

(42:57):
sights on a seemingly whimsical goal a turn on the
silver screen. A pair of studio executives she knew agreed
to help, and soon enough she was downing an evening
dress for a cameo alongside Forrest Whittaker in Godfather of Harlem.
She had just two brief lines, but she was delighted.

(43:20):
Quote it was everything, miss Lewis Martin gushed to the
executives afterward in a thank you text message. One thing
off my bucket list in reality, the TV gig was
far from a lighthearted aberration, Manhattan prosecutors asserted on Thursday. Rather,

(43:44):
in a series of four indictments, they said that it
was one of the earliest perks of a year's long
bribery scheme in which miss Lewis Martin put the city
up for sale in exchange for home improvements, cash, and
catered rabcakes, totaling more than seventy five thousand dollars. Her

(44:04):
graft ended, they said, only when she resigned from the
Adams administration last December, just ahead of earlier bribery charges
accusing her of receiving another one hundred thousand dollars. The
indictments this week undoubtedly dealt another grave blow to mister

(44:25):
Adams as he fights for reelection, though he was not
directly implicated. But even more so, they turned a high
wattage spotlight into one of the most colorful and consequential
figures of this chaotic New York era. A fierce and
foul mouthed daughter of Caribbean immigrants, missus Lewis Martin arrived

(44:47):
at City Hall as an emissary of a Brooklyn before
bike lanes or artisanal grocers. Her mastery of its bare
knuckle politics helped make mister Adams the second black b mayor.
Now it may also hasten his undoing. When she moved
into her new office, miss Lewis Martin sixty four hung

(45:09):
a poster declaring herself, quote the lioness of City Hall.
In court this week, she dressed in gold as she
surrendered to authorities in Lower Manhattan to plead not guilty
to eight counts of bribery and conspiracy. Quote. She's a
larger than life character, said Lincoln Wrestler, a city council

(45:32):
member from Brooklyn who has known and sometimes clashed with
miss Lewis Martin for two decades. Quote ingrid is a
shrewd operator, he continued, But she thinks that the rules
don't apply to her, and she believes that she's fighting
for Team Eric Adams, and therefore what she's doing is
inherently right or just Mister Wrestler was one of twenty

(45:56):
associates interviewed for this story who described Miss Lewis Martin
as a figure of deep contradictions, A chaplain who frequently
begins text messages with offerings of prayer. She once told
City and State quote, I'm not Michelle Obama. When they
go low, we drill for oil. She could be unfailingly

(46:17):
devoted to friends and openly hostile when she felt they
had crossed her or the mayor. Relying on intercepted phone calls, texts,
and encrypted messages, prosecutors accused miss Lewis Martin of using
the same muscle that powered her rise to wage pressure
campaigns designed to fast track her friends projects and rig

(46:41):
a multi million dollar migrant shelter contract. On one profanity
laced call described by prosecutors, she told a developer that
when she gives a city agency in order, quote, we
expect them to make that shit move. In another instance,

(47:02):
they said, miss Lewis Martin torpedoed a proposal to reduce
traffic fatalities on McGinnis Boulevard in Brooklyn to help out
the studio executives who opposed the changes and had put
her on TV. Quote, just make sure we shut their
asses down on McGinnis, she said in one intercepted phone

(47:22):
call from April twenty twenty four. According to the indictment,
her lawyer, Arthur L. Adelah, forcefully rejected the prosecutor's narrative
in a statement on Friday, saying miss Lewis Martin and
her son, Glen D. Martin, the second, who was also indicted,
were prepared to quote vigorously contest each and every charge. Quote.

(47:48):
Her decades of public service are marked by meaningful achievements
and acts of genuine dedication to this city. Mister Adelah
said these accomplishments clearly call in to question the veracity
of these unfounded accusations. Before miss Lewis Martin ever set

(48:09):
foot in city Hall, her style had polarized members of
the mayor's orbit. While mister Adams was planning his transition
in twenty twenty one, several allies expressed concern that his
longtime confidant had a history of clashing with staff members
and pushing ethical boundaries. As his top aide. While he

(48:29):
was Brooklyn Borough President, miss Lewis Martin led a nonprofit,
the One Brooklyn Fund, that a city inspector general said
appeared to have improperly solicited funding from entities with business
before the office. Quote. I told him that mayors are
judged by the quality of the people around him, and
Ingrid was such a looming presence, said Tom Allen, a

(48:54):
media executive who was once a close ally of mister Adams. Quote,
I warned him to find a for ingrind outside of
the day to day operations of the city. The mayor
did the opposite. Mister Adams, after all, had known Lewis
Martin since they were both in their twenties when he
was a young police officer and she was a middle

(49:16):
school teacher in Crown Heights married to his police partner.
They were both ambitious, conservative Black Democrats in a city
that was still mostly run by white officials. They both
have spoken about what happened in the years that followed
in near religious terms. Mister Adams made it his life's

(49:36):
mission to be mayor, and Lewis Martin made it hers
to help. After working for two Brooklyn Democrats and as
a modern and African dance instructor and school dean, Miss
Lewis Martin managed mister adams successful stint state Senate campaign

(50:01):
in two thousand and six. After a stint in Borough Hall,
she helped lead his mayoral campaign four years ago. Letitia James,
the state Attorney General who had declined to comment for
this article, once said that power in Brooklyn was built
on retail politics and quote, nobody does it better than Ingrid.

(50:25):
Mister Adams once told a friend that, even after a
career in law enforcement, miss Lewis Martin was the only
person he knew would take a bullet for him. She
was also one of the few people who could yell
at the mayor. According to an associate who witnessed her
do so at his election night victory party, miss Lewis

(50:45):
Martin was the first person mister Adams thanked from the stage,
starting from the bottom. Now we're here, he said, quoting Drake.
When mister Adams won the mayor's race, he not only
defied entreaties not to hire miss Lewis Martin, but he
let her choose her position. She came up with the

(51:08):
title of Chief Adviser, which she said would provide maximum
flexibility to pick and choose which weeds to be in.
Anne took the office normally reserved for the first deputy mayor,
with whom she feuded. Her starting salary was more than
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the post came

(51:29):
with a car and driver. Colleagues credited her with sometimes
deploying her fierceness to get politicians. Were union officials on
board with projects they resisted. She took an interest in
policing quality of life issues and the Mayor's free concerts series,

(51:50):
at which her son, A DJA, performed. Quote ingrid is
someone who is passionate, passionate in politics, passionate in life,
said the Reverend Karim Kamara, a former assemblyman from Brooklyn.
That's not a negative. That's something that helps somebody get
through life, persevere and succeed at high levels, as she has.

(52:18):
But it did not take long for miss Lewis Martin
to attract scrutiny. She played a role in hiring gay
marriage opponents at city Hall in the early weeks of
the Adams administration, sharply criticized former President Joseph R. Biden
Junior's immigration policies, and, in widely covered remarks, said the

(52:39):
mayor's administration did not believe in the separation of church
and state. Lupe Todd Medina, a longtime Democratic operative in Brooklyn,
said miss Lewis Martin had drawn extra scrutiny for years
because she was a black woman in a job that
required her to be a bull and a china sh shop.

(53:01):
The pro problem, she said, was that someone in her
roles should never have been tasked with quote working within
the structures required by city Hall. She just got too
big and too powerful, Miss Todd Mendina said. Miss Lewis
Martin never lost mister Adams's confidence, though, even after she

(53:24):
was indicted the first time late last year, he allowed
her to return to his campaign as a volunteer. Facing
reporters at City Hall on Friday, Mister Adams did not
defend miss Lewis Martin, but he refused to criticize her either. Quote,
Ingrid is like a sister to me. I love Ingrid,

(53:45):
he said. I know her son, and I know her
and I know her heart. She and her attorney will
deal with the case that's in front of her. Asked
if anyone had raised ethical or legal complaints to him
about her while she was still employed, Mister Adams did
not directly answer, quote, there were no complaints on her

(54:07):
work ethic, he said. In fact, to the contrary, people
knew that she knew how to make sure the people
in this city got the services they needed in America's
most transit rich city. Miss Lewis Martin said publicly that
she had not quote taken the subway really since she

(54:27):
was nineteen She seemed to take particular umbrage at efforts
to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, projects that
often pitted a new, gentrifying Brooklyn against older, working and
middle class residents who drove. In early twenty twenty two,

(54:49):
she ordered officials to reopen a street in the Fort
Green neighborhood of Brooklyn that the Transportation Department had closed vehicles.
In another case, she intervened to derail a bike lane
on Ashland Place in the same neighborhood. According to two
city officials familiar with the matter, this concludes the reading

(55:11):
of The New York Times for today. Your reader has
been Mary Fullington. If you have any questions or need
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