CLEARWATER, Fla. — One day after the Phillies released Nick Castellanos, it was business as usual in their clubhouse.
Even before the transaction was official, Castellanos’ absence had been obvious from the start of spring training. Not only because president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had repeatedly indicated over the winter that the Phillies intended to find a “change of scenery” for the right fielder for the final year of his contract, but because his usual locker at BayCare Ballpark was occupied by someone else.
Kyle Schwarber said he saw the handwritten letter that Castellanos posted on Instagram on Thursday, shortly after the Phillies announced his release. In it, Castellanos thanked several members of the organization and addressed what he described as the “Miami Incident.”
Castellanos revealed that he brought a beer into the dugout during a June road game against the Miami Marlins, upset that he had been removed for a defensive substitution in the eighth inning. He wrote that the beer was removed from his hand by teammates before he could take a sip, and his actions led to a one-game benching as punishment.
“I mean, I saw it. It is what it is, right?” Schwarber said Friday. “I think the biggest thing is that we all wish him the best. We’ve had a lot of really good memories here over the last four years, and he’s had some really big moments with us, and we wish him the best moving forward.
“Like it is what it is, but hopefully wherever he goes next, he’s able to keep going out there and keep doing his thing and keep having those big moments.”
Had the overall situation been a distraction for the team last year?
“I mean, that’s [neither] here nor there,” Schwarber said. “We did what we did. It felt like that in the Dodgers series that we played good games. There were just things that we didn’t execute. We didn’t walk away with wins at the end of the day. So it’s hard to say here or there, right? Like, you know, we put ourselves in the position of where we wanted to be, and we just got knocked out.
“So, can’t really say.”
Toward the end of his Phillies tenure, Castellanos had been openly critical of manager Rob Thomson’s communication, as his role changed from an everyday player to a platooning one.
Castellanos did not mention Thomson in the portion of the letter where he thanked members of the Phillies organization, including principal owner John Middleton, Dombrowski, outfield coach Paco Figueroa, and his teammates.
“I’m proud of him,” Thomson said Friday of the letter. “Because he owned up to what he did. And, hey, we all make mistakes. Mine are well-documented. But Nick helped us out in a lot of ways here. He’s had some big hits and big plays and helped us win a lot of ball games. So I do, I wish him all the best.”
Castellanos also wrote in his letter that he had planned to explain his actions in Miami to the media the following day but “was instructed not to by management.”
At the time, Thomson had described the reason for the benching as an “inappropriate comment.” On Friday, the manager said he wouldn’t change how the team handled that situation.
“I thought it was appropriate, what we did,” Thomson said.
Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter signs autographs for fans during a spring training workout on Friday in Clearwater, Fla.
Extra bases
Andrew Painter, Jesús Luzardo, Cristopher Sánchez, Aaron Nola, and newcomer Brad Keller were among the pitchers who threw bullpen sessions on Friday. “I hate sounding like Peter Positive all the time, but we had a really good day today on the mound,” Thomson said. “Painter was really good. Luzardo. Nola. Sánchez, Keller, some of the new guys, [Kyle] Backhus and [Chase] Shugart, just really good day. I mean, they’re filling it up. Balls coming out good, shapes are good.” … Max Lazar, Nolan Hoffman, and Andrew Walling threw live batting practice Friday to several of the catchers in camp, including J.T. Realmuto, Garrett Stubbs, and Rafael Marchán.
Later this week, Rob Thomson will gas up his truck near his home in Ontario and begin the drive to Clearwater, Fla., for spring training.
“As you go further south, it gets warmer and warmer, and you really feel like baseball’s back,” the Phillies manager said. “And I’m really looking forward to it.”
First, Thomson was a guest on Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. He discussed a variety of topics, including how the organization will get over its collective disappointment at not signing Bo Bichette, the value of J.T. Realmuto, moving on from Nick Castellanos, and more.
Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Phillies Extra podcaston Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Q: You pushed back the other day on the notion that the Phillies are “running it back.” I think the question heading into the 2026 season is not so much about running it back. I think the question that people should be asking is, are you better today than you were at the end of last season? How do you feel about that?
A: I think it’s to be determined, but I feel better about it. You know, we lose Ranger [Suárez in free agency to the Red Sox], and that’s a big loss. But that’s part of the business, too. I do feel really good about our bullpen. We lose Matty Strahm, who was a big part of our bullpen, but the addition of Brad Keller, who can get both sides out, the addition of Jonathan Bowlan, who I think is a really good two-inning guy that can get righties out. We got some stuff for him to get lefties out. This left-hander, Kyle Backhus, he looks really good. He’s really interesting. He’s got a really low arm slot. So I’m really excited to see these guys. I think we’ve got a really good fit here.
I’m excited to see Adolis García. I think there’s a chance he bounces back. I think with Adolis — and I can’t speak for him — but in being with Texas last year, with the expectations they had, with all the injuries they had to [Corey] Seager and [Marcus Semien], and I’m wondering if he didn’t try to put the team on his back and put a little bit too much pressure on himself. So maybe he can come in here and just kind of slide into the group and get back to where he was.
I’m excited about [Justin] Crawford. We heard all about him last year [in triple A]. Everybody kept asking me, ‘When’s he coming? When’s he coming?’ It just didn’t happen. But now it looks like it’s going to happen, so I’m excited about that. The speed, the small ball, the on-base ability, it’s really exciting to me to have him hit at the bottom of the lineup and turn the lineup over.
And with Andrew Painter on his second year coming off Tommy John [surgery], I think this is the year where he probably gets really close to being back to normal. And if he’s close to being back to normal, he’s really something. So, there’s a lot of really good things going on.
I think because of the Bichette thing, a lot of that stuff gets overlooked a little bit, and I understand that. But I certainly don’t want the people of Philadelphia to think that we’ve gone in a different direction, and we’re not committed to excellence, committed to winning, and committed to winning world championships because that will never change. We are fully committed to all of that. And we’ve just got to get to the playoffs, but we’ve got a really good club, and we’ve got to play better in the playoffs.
Q: If the Phillies signed Bichette, a lot of dominoes would’ve fallen in line behind that. Realmuto might not be here; Alec Bohm might not be here. What’s your read on everyone’s mindset in the aftermath of not signing Bichette and where guys stand in terms of knowing, ‘OK, I’m here now and this is what it’s going to be?’
A: Yeah, it’s a good question. And I think for the most part, professional athletes and our guys, because we’ve got a pretty experienced club, they understand the business side of it. They understand that things happen and things don’t happen, and they have to just keep moving forward and just stay focused on what they need to do and what they can control because they’ve been through it quite a bit — trade, free agency, trade rumors. So, it’s all part of the business. I think they understand that. And now that we’re past that, I think they’re ready to go.
Q: You were a catcher. Is there an example you can give that maybe illustrates why Realmuto is such an asset in terms of game-calling and handling a pitching staff? And what you might have missed if things had gone differently with Bichette and J.T. wound up somewhere else?
A: I was looking through it the other day, just OPS numbers with J.T. catching with our pitchers. ERA numbers with J.T. catching with our pitchers, and it’s really amazing how good it is. And obviously, our pitchers are good. But when you can stand out on the mound and you can relax and you understand, and you know that guy behind the plate has spent two hours prior to the game preparing for me, for that guy standing on the mound, it gives you a lot of confidence. And you can measure the caught-stealing rate of 30%, so that’s still really good. I don’t know what the receiving numbers are, but it seems like he’s really good.
The way he runs the game, and he can slow down the heartbeat of the team and the heartbeat of the game just by his presence, just by when he goes to the mound, when he calls timeout. You can’t measure all of that. And I’ve said it before, I’ve had [Jorge] Posada, I’ve had Brian McCann, I’ve had Pudge Rodríguez, I’ve had Russell Martin. He’s as good, if not better than all of them. He’s kind of in the same mold with Russell Martin, as far as the body, what kind of shape he’s in, his durability. So, I know J.T. is 35, but he’s playing like he’s in his late 20s. That’s the type of body he’s got and the energy that he brings. He brings so much, and I’m so happy that we have him back. I really am.
Right fielder Nick Castellanos is not in the Phillies’ plans for 2026.
Q: Dave Dombrowski said the other day that the plan is still to move Nick Castellanos, one way or another. I wonder if you could reflect on all that happened with Nick last season, from the situation in the dugout in Miami in June to reducing his playing time in the summer and then September, and the comments that he made. You pride yourself on communicating with players. Was it difficult to navigate that situation last year and make sure that it didn’t cause a larger disruption?
A: Yeah, you always try to keep the noise down because there’s always little things that happen, and I feel terrible that any player would feel like I didn’t communicate well enough, because I pride myself on that. I want players to not be confused. I want them to understand exactly what’s going on, and if there’s something going on with them that my door is always open, and I expect them to come in and they need to communicate with me, too, because I don’t know. I’m not a mind reader. So, it was just a difficult situation. The thing with Nick, the bottom line is, he wants to play every day. He wants to play every inning, every day, and you can’t fault him for that. I think I respect him a great deal, just for being that guy.
Q: Is there an idea yet of when Zack Wheeler might get on a mound? And do you have an idea for his state of mind coming off this pretty big surgery five months or so ago? Where does he stand in terms of his confidence level that he could come back and be Zack Wheeler?
A: He feels really good, and I’m really encouraged by it. I don’t have a date when he’s going to get on the mound, but he’s getting stronger. The ball flight keeps getting better every time he throws a baseball. The release point is getting more consistent every time he throws. He’s got certain goals, like he wants to start the season with us. Whether that’s going to happen or not, that’s up to the trainers and the medical people and the doctors. But he wants to be an All-Star. He’s got goals. So, that’s good. He’s got a carrot out there that he’s after, so that’s good. This whole rehab process could take up to eight months, generally. I think he’s probably going to be a little bit ahead of that. Whether he’s on our opening-day roster, I’m not really sure. Don’t want to push him, for sure, because we want a healthy Zack Wheeler. We want him back to normal, and I believe he’s going to get there.
David Robertson, 40 and unemployed until July, put out a fire in the sixth inning of the Phillies’ first playoff game of 2025, but he hadn’t pitched an “up-down” all season — ending one inning and beginning another. With a one-run lead, Rob Thomson sent him back out for the seventh. Robertson hit one batter and another singled. Thomson then brought in Matt Strahm, who hadn’t inherited a runner in six weeks. Strahm got two outs, then gave up a three-run homer. The Phillies lost Game 1 of the NLDS to the Dodgers.
Two nights later, with a slow runner on second base and nobody out in the ninth inning of a one-run game, Thomson directed Bryson Stott to bunt. Twice. The Dodgers ran a “wheel” play and nailed the runner at third. The Phillies lost Game 2 of the NLDS.
These are the latest blemishes on Thomson’s thin resumé. He was elevated from longtime major league bench coach to first-time manager in June 2022, and the Phillies have at least played to the level of their payroll ever since, but they’ve faltered in the fall. Fairly or not, from pulling Zack Wheeler early in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series to not pinch-hitting early for Johan Rojas in Game 7 of the 2023 NLCS, the popularity of the affable, accountable skipper has steadily waned.
Enter Donnie Baseball.
After an intense, two-month recruiting effort, the Phillies on Monday hired Yankees legend Don Mattingly, 64, to replace Mike Calitri as bench coach. Immediately after the four-game NLDS loss to the Dodgers, the Phillies reassigned Calitri to the post of major league field coordinator, which means he’ll retain his myriad administrative duties as they pertain to scheduling and number-crunching. But he no longer will be Thomson’s chief lieutenant; no longer the voice of reason in tight situations.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson will have an experienced bench coach in the dugout with him in 2026 with the addition of Don Mattingly.
That louder, deeper voice will belong to Mattingly.
Thomson was asked Monday if some of his playoff missteps might have been averted had Mattingly been on the bench, protesting.
“Possibly,” Thomson replied. “Possibly. You never know.”
“Missteps” might be unfair, but Thomson has addressed each one with honest reevaluation. His authenticity and his absence of ego are part of his charisma.
Charisma doesn’t win World Series.
Anyway, the dugout’s charisma just grew by a factor of 10.
For a decade, Mattingly was the face of the Yankees, then the biggest sports franchise in America. His .307 career average, .830 OPS, and nine Gold Glove awards make him a logical Hall of Fame candidate who has been cursed by a largely illogical voting bloc. With a husky build, full mustache, and thick, full head of dark hair, he was an archetype of a baseball player for a generation. Even today, as the cleft in his chin grows deeper with age, he looks like a movie-star version of a once-great athlete.
He managed the Dodgers to the playoffs three times and the Marlins once, in 2020, when he was National League Manager of the Year. He has coached for the Yankees, Dodgers, and, for the last three seasons, for the Blue Jays, who lost the World Series to the Dodgers in seven games. Mattingly expected Game 7 to be the last of his career.
But Phillies president Dave Dombrowski was on the phone the next day, and the day after that, and so forth. Finally, Mattingly agreed.
From now on, every decision — who pitches the eighth inning, who sits for a defensive replacement, who steals and who sacrifices — will go through a man with credentials Thomson simply doesn’t have.
Don Mattingly managed the Marlins for seven seasons after leading the Dodgers for five.
“We can now blame Don for it,” Thomson joked.
Mattingly might have agreed to support Thomson for the next two seasons, but he agreed to much more than just making sure that Topper doesn’t bunt again in the ninth with nobody out.
Superstar Don
Mattingly immediately validates a coaching room full of excellent, but anonymous, teachers of the game. With a roster that includes Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, and Wheeler, in a game in which nothing carries more weight than having withstood the brightest lights yourself, this cannot be overstated.
“He’s a great sounding board for our stars because he’s been there and done all these things,” Thomson said. “The rest of us really can’t [say] that.”
Sheriff Don
One of the most important services a bench coach provides is as a buffer between a manager and the players or as an enforcer who snuffs sparks before they become fires. It’s doubtful that Nick Castellanos’ insubordination or Strahm’s frequent criticisms would have proliferated if Mattingly had been around the clubhouse.
Manager Don
Asked if he ever wanted to wear the skipper hat again, Mattingly was steadfast and insistent in his reply.
“I feel like those days have passed me by; I don’t have any aspirations to manage,” Mattingly said. “I don’t think I have the energy for that anymore.”
If the Phillies stumble early in 2026, or if, heaven forbid, something incapacitates Thomson, Mattingly will be the obvious choice to replace him. You simply don’t take a job as bench coach without the understanding that you will manage the team in case of dismissal or emergency. Also …
Preston Mattingly (right) with Dave Dombrowski, is going into his second season as Phillies general manager.
Daddy Don? Spy Don?
The Phillies and Mattingly want us to believe that the presence of Preston Mattingly as the Phillies’ general manager is almost entirely coincidental to their pursuit of him and of him delaying retirement. Mattingly swore that, even though Press is his son, he never would betray the sanctity of the dugout and clubhouse to the front office.
“I’m not a voice running upstairs to talk about anything and everything,” Don said, clearly aware that some organizations are run in exactly that manner. “I came from a different era where that is not something that happens.”
That said, after more than four decades of playing and working in the majors, Mattingly admitted that he has envisioned the sweetness of winning the first World Series with his son as his boss.
“To be able to do that with him would be incredible,” Don said.
Incredibly difficult.
In fact, even chiming in on Thomson’s occasional cockeyed decisions, and even riding herd over a roster full of coddled princelings, maintaining a normal father-son relationship while balancing a strictly professional GM-bench coach relationship will be the hardest part of old Don Mattingly’s new job.
There was a point last season when Don Mattingly was planning on calling it a career.
He went into 2025, his third year as the bench coach with the Blue Jays, expecting it to be his last in the sport. Mattingly, now 64, thought he had accomplished what he had set out to do in Toronto, helping a younger manager in John Schneider become established.
But it was his 11-year-old son, Louis, who helped change his mind.
“Dad, you can’t stop,” Louis told him. “You’ve got to keep going.”
And after Toronto fell to the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series — marking Mattingly’s first World Series appearance in more than 40 years in baseball as a player, manager, and coach — he was approached by the Phillies for their open bench coach job.
The position had been vacated after Mike Calitiri was moved to the role of major league field coordinator at the end of the season. The fit was natural on both sides. The Phillies wanted a veteran voice to add to manager Rob Thomson’s staff. Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22.
He had also previously worked alongside Thomson and hitting coach Kevin Long in the Yankees organization, as well as assistant hitting coach Edwar Gonzalez with the Marlins.
And he will reunite with another of his sons, Preston Mattingly, who is the Phillies’ 38-year-old general manager.
“When it came to me that there was a possibility that Donny was going to be available, I said, ‘This is the perfect guy,’” Thomson said Monday after the Phillies announced that Mattingly’s hiring was official. “Because I know the integrity, I know the knowledge. I know how detailed he is. And plus, I think he’s a great sounding board for our players and our stars. He’s been there, and he’s done all these things, and the rest of us really can’t answer that.”
Thomson’s contract was recently extended through 2027, and Mattingly said Monday he had committed to “a couple of years” with the Phillies’ manager.
He also said he has no further aspirations to be a manager again. His approach as a bench coach is to be another set of eyes and ears for Thomson.
A six-time All-Star, Don Mattingly was a career .307 hitter over 14 seasons with the Yankees.
“I know it gets busy and fast at times when you’re thinking about your pitching, and then you got a pitch-hit situation, and all those things get fast,” Mattingly said. “ … Try to stay ahead of him and just lighten the load for him.”
Mattingly’s playing career, during which he was a six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glove winner at first base, and 1985 American League MVP, also influences how he coaches.
“The one thing I’ve tried to always do is never forget how hard the game is,” Mattingly said. “Guys make a lot of money, and we expect them to come through all the time, and that’s just not that way. … I’m always going to try to be myself [in] any role that I’ve played, as a coach or a hitting coach or manager, I feel like I’m here to help players. I’m here to serve, help them get the best out of their ability.”
Mattingly managed Phillies pitcher Jesús Luzardo on the Marlins, and is looking forward to developing relationships with the other Phillies players. He met Bryce Harper at the 2017 All-Star Game in Miami.
“He’s always been a guy for me who’s been really interesting, just because of how young he was when he came [up], how good he was when he broke into the league, watching his development over the years,” Mattingly said of Harper. “This cat can go, for me. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, hands down. So I love being around guys like that.”
It’s a bit of an unusual arrangement to have his son in the front office, but Mattingly said his priority is preserving trust with the players.
Don Mattingly, then the Marlins manager, talks with Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski before a game in 2022.
“I’m not a voice that’s just running upstairs and talking about anything and everything,” he said. “That’s just not the way I operate. I came from a different era where that is not something that happens. I’m going to have to build that trust with players so they will trust me that that’s not going to happen.”
But there is also the possibility for a storybook ending for Mattingly’s career. He had hoped last season that Toronto would meet the Phillies in the World Series to go head-to-head with Preston. Now, they’re on the same side.
“To be able to do it with him would be incredible,” Mattingly said.
ORLANDO — The Phillies have extended manager Rob Thomson’s contract through 2027, the team announced Tuesday.
After the team’s National League Division Series loss to the Dodgers, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said he planned to add a year to Thomson’s contract during the winter to avoid him being a lame duck in 2026.
“I think he’s a good manager, is really what it comes down to,” Dombrowski said in October. “And there’s so many qualities when you talk about a manager that’s a good manager. He knows the game very well; he’s inside and out in that regard. He communicates with his players. He works hard. I don’t think he leaves any stone unturned. …
“You make mistakes, or you make things that can be questioned, but you do it with sound reason. I think there’s way too much emphasis that’s always placed on ‘That didn’t go well,’ or ‘This didn’t go well.’ It’s different than if you’re doing something that just doesn’t make sense. … You review the overall picture of what somebody does. And I think he does a really good job for us.”
Since he was named Phillies manager in 2022, Thomson, 62, has led the team to a .580 winning percentage. He is the fourth manager in MLB history to reach the postseason in each of his first four full seasons at the helm and was a finalist for manager of the year in 2025.
“It always comes back for me, are you having fun? Are you enjoying it? Are you getting in somebody’s way? Are you getting in the way of winning?” Thomson said. “I’m still enjoying it. I love the organization. This is the only place I want to go.
“I don’t want to go anyplace else whenever I’m done because I love the people and I love the organization, from the owner to Dave to all our player development people. It’s just a group of people that really come together and want to win baseball games and want to win a championship. That’s what I like.”
Dombrowski also said Monday at the winter meetings that the Phillies have “mutual interest” with Don Mattingly regarding their opening at bench coach, although nothing has been finalized. Mattingly worked with Thomson in the New York Yankees organization.
The sense of loss that has permeated 2025 struck again this weekend when we learned of the sudden death of a Philly journalism legend, Michael Days, who guided the Philadelphia Daily News during most of its last dozen freewheeling and Pulitzer-winning years before we merged with The Inquirer in 2017. He was just 72, far too young. The top-line of Mike’s obituary was how, as the first African American to lead a newsroom in America’s founding city, he paid it forward by mentoring the next generation of rising Black journalists. But people like me who worked for him remember him more simply as the wisest and mostempathetic human being we ever had as a boss. He leaves right when the nation’s newsrooms need decent souls like Mike Days more than they ever did.
What a $10M bribe rumor says about Trump, Middle East peace, and America’s fall
President Donald Trump talks with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi during a summit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal, Oct. 13 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The thing about being a 79-year-old president is that sometimes you just blurt stuff out, with no filter as to whether your words might be embarrassing, undiplomatic — or potentially incriminating.
Consider the case of Donald John Trump, the 47th U.S. president and the oldest one on the day of his election. Last week, in what may prove to be a fleeting moment of triumph as Trump celebrated a Gaza peace deal that included the release of 20 Israeli hostages, POTUS arrived at an Egyptian resort town for a Middle East summit. He kicked off the day with a one-on-one sit-down with Egypt’s strongman ruler, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
“There was a reason we chose Egypt [for the summit] because you were very helpful,” Trump said as a gaggle of reporters and photojournalists entered their meeting room.
Really? Helpful in what way?
“I want to thank you,” the American president told Sissi, who seized power in a 2013 coup. “He’s been my friend right from the beginning during the campaign against Crooked Hillary Clinton. Have you heard of her?”
Here Trump was pushing, ever so absurdly, for the Nobel Peace Prize, and then he had to spoil it all by saying somethin’ stupid like, you bribed me. Well, he almost spoiled it, if more journalists — aside from MSNBC’s brilliant Rachel Maddow, who seized on the remark hours later — had grasped the potential import of this presidential prattle.
It’s certainly legal, if gross, for Trump to be close pals with Sissi, even if Human Rights Watch reports that the Egyptian dictator is “continuing wholesale repression, systematically detaining and punishing peaceful critics and activists and effectively criminalizing peaceful dissent.” What would not be legal is the Middle Eastern nation interfering in the 2016 election, in which Trump narrowly defeated Clinton in the handful of swing states that tipped the Electoral College.
What made Trump’s comments last week so jaw-dropping is that U.S. federal investigators worked for several years trying to prove exactly that scenario. In August 2024, days after Trump was nominated by the GOP for his second reelection bid, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department investigated a tip that Sissi’s Egypt provided Trump with $10 million the candidate desperately needed in the 2016 homestretch to defeat Clinton. That happened right before Trump, as 45th president, reopened the spigot of foreign aid that had been halted because of Sissi’s human rights abuses.
It’s known that Trump did put $10 million into the campaign, which he listed as a loan. The Post in 2024 offered a tantalizing, if circumstantial, piece of evidence — that the Cairo bank had received a note from an agency believed to be Egyptian intelligence to “kindly withdraw” nearly $10 million in two, 100-pound bags full of U.S. $100 bills, five days before Trump took the oath of office.
But the investigative trail ran cold. In 2019, then-special counsel Robert Mueller turned the matter over to Trump’s appointees in the Justice Department, who of course didn’t pursue the president’s bank records. Neither — inexplicably — did Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, as the statute of limitations expired in January 2022. That’s where things stood last week before Trump started blathering in Sharm El Sheikh.
One reason I’m writing about this is the sheer frustration that Trump — yes, allegedly, possibly — might have gotten away with bribery to the point where he’s almost bragging about it in public. But I also think the mysterious case of the Egyptian bags of cash speaks to the present, dire American moment in a couple of ways.
For one thing, it casts a light on what’s really behind what Trump hopes will be viewed as the signature achievement of his second presidency. That would be the fragile peace deal that aims to end the last two years of bloodshed in Gaza that started with the Hamas terror attack of Oct. 7, 2023 and has resulted in at least 67,000 dead Palestinians and the utter destruction of their seaside homeland.
How did Trump get a deal that had eluded his predecessor Biden, in a region that has vexed every American president from both parties? It certainly helped that most of the power brokers with the clout and the cash to help end the fighting in Gaza are repressive strongmen — or, as Trump might call them, role models. And they all seem to speak the same language of corrupt back-scratching.
If those bags with $10 million in greenbacks did make their way to Trump in 2017, it looks like small change in today’s cross-Atlantic wheeling-and-dealing. After all, a key go-between in the negotiations — Qatar, which has good relations with Hamas and has hosted its exiled leaders — gifted America a $400 million jet that Trump plans to use not just as Air Force One but in his post presidency, while his regime has promised to protect the Qatari dictators if they are ever attacked.
Another key supporter of the plan is the United Arab Emirates, which also backs the UAE firm that recently purchased a whopping $2 billion in cryptocurrency from a firm owned by Trump’s family as well as the family of Steve Witkoff, the regime’s lead Middle East negotiator. At the same time, Trump’s U.S. government allowed UAE to import highly sensitive microchips used in artificial intelligence.
Witkoff’s negotiation end–game brought in Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who forged close ties during his father-in-law’s first term with Saudi Arabia’s murderous de facto ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who pulled the levers for a $2 billion investment in a hedge fund created by Kushner despite no prior expertise.
Those Saudi ties could prove critical to future stability in the region, and in a joint interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes Sunday night, Kushner and Witkoff made no apologies for mixing billion-dollar deals with the pursuit of world peace. “What people call conflicts of interest,” Kushner said, “Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships.”
OK, but those “trusted relationships” are built on a flimsy mountain of cash that could collapse at any minute. Look, I’m thrilled like everyone else that 20 Israeli hostages are finally reunited with their loved ones, and to the extent Trump and his regime deserve any credit, I credit them. But the art of the deal that the president is bragging about is all about the Benjamins — more worthy of applause on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange than a Nobel Peace Prize.
Real peace is based on hard work and trust, not Bitcoin — so is it any wonder that the ceasefire is already collapsing with two dead Israeli soldiers and fresh, lethal airstrikes in Gaza? The only thing with any currency among a rogues’ gallery of world dictators is currency, and that transactional stench has fouled everything from Cairo to K Street.
Is it any surprise that a regime whose origin story allegedly includes bags of Egyptian cash would do absolutely nothing when it was told that its future border czar, Tom Homan, was captured on an audiotape accepting $50,000 in a fast-food bag from undercover FBI agents who said they wanted government contracts?
In hindsight, the failure to pursue that report of the $10 million Egyptian bribe opened up a floodgate of putrid corruption, wider than the Nile. It signaled a sick society where everything is for sale — even world peace — but nothing is guaranteed.
Yo, do this!
The 1970s and ‘80s are having a cultural moment right now, and this boomer is here for it! On Apple TV (they’ve dropped the “+,” probably after paying some consultant $1 million for that pearl of wisdom) comes the long-awaited five part docuseries about the life and times of filmmaker Martin Scorsese, the savior who rose from NYC’s mean streets to give us Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and so much more. Watching Mr. Scorsese is going to make the eventual death of the baseball season so much easier to take.
The earthy, urban musical equivalent of Scorsese would have to be Bruce Springsteen, who has been marking the 50th anniversary of his breakthrough Born to Run LP with all kinds of cool stuff, capped with Friday’s long-awaited release of the first-ever biopic about “The Boss,” Deliver Me from Nowhere. Staring The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, the film’s unlikely narrative — focusing on the making of 1982’s highly personal and acoustic Nebraska as the rock star seeks release from a bout of depression — sounds like exactly the uplift that America needs right now.
Ask me anything
Question: As someone living in Ireland and looking across the ocean. Trump won’t be in power forever, but how is anyone going to deal with the MAGA crowd that helped elect him? That level of stupidity, hatred and racism cannot be fixed. How is [t]he USA ever going to heal? — Stephen (@bannside@bsky.social) via Bluesky
Answer: That’s a great question, Stephen, and like most great questions there’s no easy answer. Although I’m optimistic that the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election will happen and that the anti-Trump coalition that we witnessed at “No Kings” will prevail, I agree with you that it’s only a partial and temporary fix. I’d fear an Iraq-level resistance could rise up in the regions we call “Trump country.” My long-term solution would be along the lines of what I proposed in my 2022 bookAfter the Ivory Tower Falls: Fix higher education — broadly defined as from the Ivy League to good trade schools — to made it a public good that reduces inequality instead of driving it. And promote a universal gap year of national service for 18-year-olds, to get young people out of their isolated silos. There are ways to prevent the next generation from becoming as stupid or hateful or racist as the Americans who came before them, but it will take time and patience that we seem to lack right now.
What you’re saying about…
Remember the Philadelphia Phillies? When I last saw you here two weeks ago, their annual postseason collapse and the fate of manager Rob Thomson was a hot topic. As expected, there was minimal response from you political junkies, and opinions were split — even before the team defied the conventional wisdom and announced he’ll be returning in 2026. Thomson’s supporters were more likely to blame the Phillies’ inconsistent sluggers, with John Braun asking “who could you hire who could guarantee clutch hits?” Personally, I’m with Kim Root: “I follow the Philly Union, who just won the Supporters Shield — that is all.”
📮 This week’s question: Back to the issue at hand: I’m curious if newsletter readers attended the “No Kings” protest last Saturday, and what you see as the future of the anti-Trump movement. Are more aggressive measures like a nationwide general strike needed, or is the continued visibility of nonviolent resisters enough? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “No Kings future” in the subject line.
Backstory on who the “No Kings” protesters really were
Demonstrators gather for a ’No Kings’ rally in Philadelphia on Saturday.
They clogged city plazas and small-town main streets from San Diego to Bangor on Saturday, yet the more than 7 million Americans who took part in the massive “No Kings” protest — the second-largest one day demonstration in U.S. history, behind only the first Earth Day in 1970 — seemed to mystify much of the befuddled mainstream media. Just who were these people protesting the Donald Trump presidency, and why are they here?
Instead of a journalist, it took a sociologist to get some answers. Dana Fisher — the Philadelphia-area native who teaches at American University and is the leading expert on contemporary protest movements — was out in the field Saturday at the large “No Kings” march in Washington, D.C., collecting data with a team of researchers. She’s shared her early top-line results with me, aiming to both give a demographic and ideological snapshot and also compare Saturday’s crowd with her findings at other recent rallies.
If you were among the 7 million on Saturday, some of this data won’t surprise you. The protesters were, on the whole, older than the average American, with a median age of 44 (compared to 38 for the nation as a whole.) Once again, the “No Kings” participants were overwhelmingly white (87%) with women (57%) in the majority. But it’s also worth noting that men (39%) were more likely to take part than earlier protests tracked by Fisher, and the 8% who identified as Latino is double the rate of Hispanic participation in the 2017 Women’s March.
That last finding may reflect the passions of the “No Kings” protesters, who listed immigration as a key motivation at a rate of 74%, second only to their general opposition to Trump (80%, kind of a no brainer). That certainly jibed with the demonstrators at the rally I attended in suburban Havertown, who again and again mentioned the sight of masked federal agents grabbing migrants off the street as what compelled them to come out.
Fisher’s most telling findings may have been these: The people out in the streets are mad about what they see happening to America, with 80% listing “anger” as an emotion they are feeling, trailed closely by “anxiety” at 76%. Yet few of those who spoke with her team believed that will translate into violence. The number of demonstrators who agreed with the statement that “because things have gotten so off track, Americans may have to resort to violence in order to save our country” was only 23% — lower than other protests her team has surveyed. It seems like the larger the public show of resistance to Trump’s authoritarianism, the more optimism that the path back to democracy can be nonviolent.
What I wrote on this date in 2021
I hate to say I told you so but… On this date four years ago, Joe Biden was still clinging to dreams of a presidential honeymoon after ousting Donald Trump in the 2020 election, but there were dark clouds on the horizon. On Oct. 21, 2021 I warned that sluggish action on key issues was starting to hurt his standing with under-30 voters. I wrote that “while the clock hasn’t fully run out on federal action around issues like student debt or a bolder approach on climate — the disillusionment of increasingly jaded young voters could change the course of American history for the next generation, or even beyond.” How’d that turn out? Read the rest: “From college to climate, Democrats are sealing their doom by selling out young voters.”
Recommended Inquirer reading
I returned from a much-needed staycation this weekend by leaving the sofa and spending a glorious fall morning at the boisterous “No Kings” protest closest to home in Delaware County, which lined a busy street in Havertown. I wrote about how the protests are winning back America by getting under the skin of Donald Trump and the GOP, who can no longer pretend to ignore the widespread unpopularity of their authoritarian project.
Every election matters, even the ones that are dismissed as “off-year” contests. In today’s heated and divisive climate, even what used to be a fairly routine affair — the retention of sitting judges on the state and local level — has taken on greater importance. Here in Pennsylvania, the state’s richest billionaire, Jeff Yass, is spending a sliver of his vast wealth to convince voters to end the tenure of three Democrats on the state Supreme Court. The Inquirer’s Editorial Board is here to explain why that’s a very bad idea. On the other hand, some judges up for retention in the city of Philadelphia — where jurists haven’t always lived up to the promise of America’s cradle of democracy — deserve closer scrutiny. The newsroom’s Samantha Melamed revealed a leaked, secret survey detailing what Philadelphia attorneys think of some of the judges on the November ballot, and it is not pretty. The bottom line is that you need to vote this year, and subscribing to The Inquirer is the best way to stay informed. Sign up today!
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