Rachel Maddow surveys the varied and widespread protests in opposition to Donald Trump's wanton destruction of the federal government. From weather scientists to immigrants to LGBTQ+ and its allies to consumer advocates to park rangers, each round of firings or extremist executive orders brings a new collection of anti-Trump activists under an ever-widening tent.

Rachel Maddow looks at a string of peculiar behavior by Donald Trump and Trump administration policies that don't seem to have the welfare of the United States as their goal, and wonders who those policies are good for if they aren't good for the U.S.

A bright red line before a country loses democracy entirely is when its government loses respect for the rule of law and feels free to ignore rulings by judges. So when some of Donald Trump's nominees to be senior DOJ officials gave soft answers on whether a president can ignore judges, alarms rang for many senators present, even Republicans. Senator Dick Durbin, leading Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about the peril Trump poses to the essence of America's identity.

The measles outbreak in Texas continues to grow and has now claimed the life of an unvaccinated child. In Washington, D.C., at a Cabinet meeting apparently assembled for TV cameras, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s statements about the outbreak were distressingly erroneous.

Elon Musk's DOGE team removed key items from its "wall of receipts" after journalists fact-checked their boasts of billions in savings from cuts to federal programs and exposed sloppy errors and outright falsehoods. Rachel Maddow reports on the walk back taking place shortly after a withering rebuke from a federal judge for not complying with an order to allow funding to continue, all amid the embarrassment of having to un-fire federal workers recklessly let go without consideration for the necessity of their role.

Rachel Maddow reports on Republican legislators being confronted at town hall meetings by angry constituents who want them to resist Donald Trump's dismantling of the federal government. But Republicans aren't the only focus of voters' outrage as Democratic legislators are being confronted to be more aggressive in obstructing Trump. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, top Democrat in the House, talks with Rachel Maddow about what Democrats are doing to get in Trump's way. 

Rachel Maddow notes that while Donald Trump golfs and performs stunts for TV cameras, Elon Musk is hard at work on the project of dismantling the U.S. government. And even though Musk's behavior is so poorly received it is hurting business for his car company, his business interests broadly are reaping rewards from the very government he is destroying.

Rachel Maddow checks in on new polling data about how Americans are feeling about the first few weeks of the second Donald Trump administration and the numbers are not good for Trump.

Rachel Maddow emphasizes the importance of resistance by Republican legislators to Donald Trump's agenda, and points out that the unpopularity of Trump's actions may help that resistance politically, but also some senators, like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, have enough expertise in their chosen field to know how destructive Trump and his Cabinet are, and may be vulnerable to pressure on those issues. 

Rachel Maddow looks at how principled resignations are not only slowing down Donald Trump's agenda to destroy the U.S. federal government, but are drawing attention to the sketchy stunts Trump and Elon Musk are trying to get away with. 

Rachel Maddow follows the reporting on Donald Trump's reckless firing of federal employees who work in the nuclear industry, cleaning up nuclear waste, managing a nuclear power plant, and ensuring the safety of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and the ridiculous situation of instantly regretting firing nuclear safety personnel but being unable to get in touch with them to rescind the dismissal.