How Trump's firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner hours after a weak jobs report is a dangerous escalation in America's slide into authoritarianism; why a high-ranking U.S. official's trip to Gaza may be a substitute for action, and not a call to it; and the family of a Jeffrey Epstein victim speaks out against Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security federal prison in Texas.

Donald Trump has a long history with conspiracies and those who consume them, but those same people are now turning on him. But Trump is trying to reel them back in with a new conspiracy theory; former Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) weighs in on the Trump administration's push to revoke a landmark rule that has been critical in fighting climate change; Trump's Texas gerrymandering scheme is a dangerous escalation of an anti-democratic tactic that both major parties have used historically. But above all, it's an expression of fear.

The former Commissioner of Bureau Statistics weighs in on the absurdity that is Trump's decision to fire her successor following a weak jobs report; why a high-ranking U.S. official's trip to Gaza may be a substitute for action and not a call to it; and Abdi Nazemian's young-adult novel "Like A Love Story" is the subject of this week's "Velshi Banned Book Club."

Texas State Representatives Gene Wu and Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos address the Texas Attorney General's pledge to punish Democrats who fled the state in protest of Trump's redistricting push; Ben Rhodes weighs in on Trump's announcement that he will host Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week; the Trump Administration is building its own police state in America as it ramps up recruitment for ICE employees.

On the campaign trail Trump promised his supporters he would be their retribution, and now he is following through; the president of a key Jewish-American lobbying group is now speaking out about Israel's conduct in Gaza; and on the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Ali has an important conversation about how America's use of atom bombs changed the course of history, and why the world is now much closer to nuclear warfare than we've been in decades.

As Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vows to punish the state's Democratic lawmakers for fleeing the state, Congressmen Lloyd Doggett, Jasmine Crockett, and State Rep. Ann Johnson discuss the threats to democracy posed by the Texas gerrymandering push; former Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes discusses Trump's upcoming in-person meeting with Vladimir Putin and the consequences of the war in Ukraine; and ‘The House on Mango Street' by Sandra Cisneros is the subject of this week's Velshi Banned Book Club.