Thousands rally against Trump, Musk in May Day protests | The Excerpt
On Friday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Demonstrators rallied against the Trump administration in nationwide May Day protests. Paste BN White House Correspondent Joey Garrison discusses President Donald Trump's shakeup of his national security team. A judge rules Trump cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants. Plus, the Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to intervene in its bid to strip temporary protected status for more than 300,000 Venezuelans. President Trump signs an order that aims to cut funding for PBS and NPR. Paste BN Movie Critic Brian Truitt discusses the movie release of 'Rust' years after the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, May 2nd, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, how some took to the streets to protest the Trump administration on May Day, plus a shuffling of the administration's national security team, and Rust hits theaters years after a devastating on-set tragedy.
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Thousands of people marched near the White House yesterday as part of nationwide protests against the Trump administration, its policies, and the billionaires supporting them in what organizers called a war on working people.
Protesters:
Donald Trump, shame on you. Donald Trump, shame on you. Donald Trump, shame on you. Donald Trump, shame on you.
Taylor Wilson:
More than a thousand demonstrations and rallies in every state and around the world were held on May Day, also known as International Workers' Day. Organizers say the protests were centered on opposition to President Donald Trump and billionaire supporters, including Elon Musk who has led the Department of Government Efficiency's slashing of the federal workforce. Organizers accused the Trump administration, Musk, and their wealthy backers of attempting to erase labor rights, break unions, and silence immigrant voices. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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President Donald Trump shuffled his national security team yesterday. I spoke with Paste BN White House correspondent Joey Garrison to learn more. Hey there, Joey.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, how's it going?
Taylor Wilson:
Good. Thanks for hopping on. Just starting with the big news, what do we know about this move surrounding Mike Waltz?
Joey Garrison:
Early Thursday morning, Paste BN, along with other media outlets, reported that Mike Waltz was going to be on the way out of the administration. Of course, he's been serving as National Security Advisor since Trump was sworn into office. This came weeks after, you'll recall, the Signal fiasco, which became known as Signalgate, in which Mike Waltz inadvertently invited the editor of the Atlantic Magazine into a cell phone chat of top Trump officials in which they were discussing highly sensitive military information, including Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, revealing plans for attacks in Yemen of sites of Iran-backed Houthis. He revealed those in the chat. So it became a big controversy.
This came weeks later. A lot of the thinking was Waltz has been let go amid the fallout that still exists from that event. Well, Trump in a social media post eventually confirmed that Waltz, yes, in fact is out as a National Security Advisor. However, he is nominating him to be his UN ambassador, so he's not leaving the administration. Trump, you'll recall, had nominated Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman from New York. However, she withdrew from consideration when Republicans needed her to retain her congressional seat out of fear of losing their majority when we had a series of special elections. So this was a real curve ball when Trump said, "Yeah, he's not going to be my National Security Advisor, but I want him to stay on board."
Taylor Wilson:
Joey, it seems like as this news broke yesterday, there were folks in and around the Trump administration who were caught off guard by this news. What can you tell us about that?
Joey Garrison:
Tammy Bruce, the spokeswoman of the State Department, was asked about this new arrangement right after Trump announced it. You can see it was totally new to her. Did not realize Rubio had been elevated to that dual role. Also did not know that Trump had formally announced the removal of Waltz as National Security Advisor. That just gives you an idea of how out of the loop many in the Trump administration were on this move, and it really was a call that the president was making.
Taylor Wilson:
So Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will serve as National Security Advisor now on an interim basis. How unusual is that, Joey? I guess, what's this juggling act now look like for Rubio considering all the different jobs he has?
Joey Garrison:
This is kind of fascinating. Rubio now is the acting administrator for USAID, which of course is the agency that oversees foreign aid that Trump has gutted, as well as the acting archivist of the United States. Rubio now is wearing four hats. I'm not sure how one person can do all those things, but Rubio currently has all four of those positions. I think when you're the Secretary of State, I have a hard time believing that you're also doing a lot of duties as archivist. He probably is prioritizing things to a certain degree and, I think probably atop those things, was trying to bring negotiations between Russia and Ukraine as well as the conflict in the Middle East, trying to advance Trump's national security agenda.
So I'm not sure if we're going to be able to really distinguish his role from Secretary of State versus National Security Advisor. I'd be surprised if that is ultimately the long-term plan. I think he could eventually bring in another National Security Advisor. Of course, a lot of people quickly pointed out that it was Henry Kissinger in the Nixon administration in the 1970s who actually held those two roles simultaneously. So this kind of hearkens back to that when it comes to Rubio.
Taylor Wilson:
All, right, lots of great context here. Joey Garrison is a White House correspondent with Paste BN. Thanks, Joey.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, thanks a lot.
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Taylor Wilson:
A federal judge in Texas said yesterday that the Trump administration exceeded the scope of an 18th century wartime law in using it to deport some Venezuelan migrants. In his opinion, US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez ruled the administration could not rely on the Alien Enemies Act to detain or deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.
Meanwhile, separately, the administration yesterday asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its bid to strip temporary protected status for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants, a move that would clear the way for their deportation. The Justice Department asked the high court to put on hold a federal judge's order that stopped Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's move to halt the temporary legal status previously granted to some Venezuelans. A Federal Appeals Court last month declined the administration's request to pause the judge's order.
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President Trump has signed an executive order aimed at cutting funding to NPR and PBS, according to the White House. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funding to PBS and NPR stations, to cease direct funding to them. Both NPR and PBS have previously said that Trump's effort to cut their funding would disrupt essential media services and have a devastating impact on Americans who rely on them for credible news. The Trump administration has labeled multiple institutions and academics and the media as being biased and woke. Human rights advocates have raised concerns over free speech and academic freedom. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued the White House last week after Trump pushed to fire three of its board members.
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Rust hits theaters today. The movie's release comes three and a half years after the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. I spoke with Paste BN movie critic Brian Truitt for more. Thanks for hopping on, Brian.
Brian Truitt:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
Can you remind us about the tragedy that happened during the production of this movie?
Brian Truitt:
In 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed in an accidental shooting death on the set of Rust. A live bullet was discharged from a prop revolver being handled by Alec Baldwin. Actually, the same bullet also injured the director, Joel Souza, who was standing behind Hutchins at the time. It was years of just legal wrangling and lawsuits and some criminal charges. We didn't know if Alec Baldwin was going to go to jail or not or was going to be charged for manslaughter or not. So it's amazing that the film's actually going to come out.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, Brian, you start your review on Rust by writing that it's easy to be rattled by the gunshots. How did the experience of watching this movie land with you?
Brian Truitt:
It's interesting because I tried to take the tragedy out of it as much as possible and just watch the movie for the movie. But like Twilight Zone: The Movie and The Crow, when there's an on-set tragedy in one of these movies, it's forever haunted by it. It's the case with this, too. You're watching a Western. Of course, there's gunfights and gunslinging and bullets going everywhere and death, but you feel it a little bit more watching this movie, I think. Maybe it's a subconscious thing, but all the bullets feel a little bit more real with this movie. An accidental shooting death is what propels much of the plot. A young boy accidentally kills a person on a horse with a bullet not intended for them. It just goes off. That's really eerie considering what really happened.
Taylor Wilson:
That's completely surreal. You also write that it does look really good, right, Brian, the visual beauty of this film, and of course, Halyna Hutchins was a cinematographer. Can you talk through some of that visual beauty that you wrote about?
Brian Truitt:
That's an interesting thing. If it was just that kind of Western movie and everything, it's fine. It's pretty straightforward. It's got all the tropes: cowboys, horses, bad guys, that sort of thing. There's some pretty good acting performances. But the photography is awesome. It is very cool to look at. It's a testament both to Hutchins and Bianca Klein, who was the person who finished up the work after she passed. There's lots of widescreen vistas that are really cool. But the use of shadows is amazing. There's one shot where a boy's at the grave of his parents because he's an orphan, and the sun's out there, but everything's black. The graves are black. The boy is in shadow too. There's lots of really cool riding scenes. There's not a lot of day riding scenes. They're all at dusk. You're at sunset or cloudy where the colors are really like grays and blacks and blues in the sky, and it looks really neat. So as a story, it's fine, but as a visual feat, it's really cool.
Taylor Wilson:
Brian, it might surprise some folks they even released this film. It surprised me. Were you surprised? How do you anticipate this will land with the general audience?
Brian Truitt:
Absolutely. You would think they wouldn't come back after something like this happened because you're like, "What happened, it was a tragedy. Let's just move on with our lives." But apparently Hutchins's family really wanted it to be finished and for her work to be seen in the light of day by people. So it is from their blessing that made it happen. The money that's going to be made will go back to them. So in that sense, it's cool that, again, people got to see some beauty in this tragedy. But there was a lot that had to be changed. There was two main actors who had to be recast because they lost the original actors because of scheduling conflicts. These are two main actors. These weren't just side players. A lot of it had to be probably redone. So knowing that and knowing everything else, it's a bit of a miracle the thing got made and finished.
Taylor Wilson:
Brian Truitt is a movie critic with Paste BN. Folks can find his full review with a link in today's show notes. Thanks, Brian.
Brian Truitt:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Take a moment today if you have the chance to look up at the stars or planets and wonder. Today is National Space Day.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.