Republican Warns Against Cutting Medicaid for Sickest Reason

Some Republicans are apparently trying to defend services such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—they’re just doing it in the worst way possible.

Investigative journalist Tara Palmeri wrote in her newsletter The Red Letter Thursday that one Republican operative close to the White House had been framing the issue in a way conservatives would understand.

“Medicaid is not just for Black people in the ghetto, these are our voters,” the operative said, according to Palmeri.

Republicans’—apparently sometimes racist—scrambling to defend popular programming comes after Elon Musk declared that Social Security would be on the chopping block, in an interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow earlier this week. It seems that some of the more far-reaching cuts to Social Security pitched by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have since been scaled back.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Chris LaCivita also hit back at Musk’s comments in an interview Friday with Politico’s Dasha Burns. “They’re not going to cut Social Security, they’re not going to cut Medicare, they’re just not. That’s just fearmongering,” he said.

“[Musk]’s not the president. He doesn’t get to make those decisions,” LaCivita added.

But some cuts are inevitable now.

Earlier this month, Republican lawmakers voted to pass a budgetary measure that would force the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees Medicaid, to reduce the deficit by at least $880 billion from 2025 to 2034. That resolution sparked widespread concerns that Republicans were simply seeking a way to slash the crucial program.

Those hoping to hear a performance of the National Symphony Orchestra Thursday night were treated to a different—but no less pleasurable—audio experience: hundreds of people booing Vice President JD Vance.

Vance’s arrival got a fiery reception at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which erupted into at least 30 seconds of jeers as Vance smiled and waved to the audience.

The vice president was accompanied by second lady Usha Vance, who was named to the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees last month, among a spate of new appointees that were part of Donald Trump’s takeover of the cultural institution.

Trump declared his intention to become the chairman of the Kennedy Center in February, before claiming that he had been “unanimously” picked to hold the position—though reportedly that wasn’t even true. He also claimed that the institution had booked drag shows “specifically targeting our youth.”

“We took over the Kennedy Center. We didn’t like what they were showing and various other things,” Trump said at the time. “I’m going to be chairman of it, and we’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be ‘woke.’”

Clearly, the actual attendees of the Kennedy Center have different feelings about Trump’s takeover—and let themselves be heard.

Luckily, the acoustics carried their dissent amazingly well.

Americans are unhappy with the president on just about every key issue, according to a poll published Thursday by Quinnipiac University.

Just 50 days into his second term, the majority of Americans—53 percent—disapprove of Donald Trump’s performance. That’s 11 points worse than Trump scored in a January 29 poll, when Quinnipiac found that 42 percent of the country disliked his performance.

Reacting to the survey, Fox News liberal host Jessica Tarlov noted that Trump is basically “underwater on everything.”

The country’s gripes with the MAGA leader include his decision to dismantle the Education Department, something that 60 percent of voters oppose, according to the Quinnipiac poll. Trump’s spontaneous trade war with Canada and Mexico has also not gone over well with the American public—58 percent of voters said they disapprove of Trump’s negotiations with Canada, while 56 percent of voters said they disapproved of Trump’s similar efforts in Mexico.

And Americans’ view of the economy—which Trump repeatedly turned to as his metric for success during his first term—has also sunk. More than three-quarters of the country believe that the economy is less than stellar, with 45 percent of polled voters describing it as “not so good,” while another 31 percent said that it was “poor.”

“In the Quinnipiac poll released today, 1 percent of voters describe the state of the America’s economy as excellent. That’s not a typo,” Democratic strategist Matt McDermott posted on X.

That’s a noticeable plummet from how voters felt in December, when a total of 64 percent of respondents told Quinnipiac that they believed the economy was either not so good or poor.

Immigration, which helped Trump win the White House, has also become a negative for Trump, with nearly half of voters (49 percent) disapproving of his job at the border.

Meanwhile, a minority of the country felt that Trump has successfully handled his foreign policy, with just 35 percent of respondents approving of the way that he treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House. That likely influenced Trump’s overall approval rating, which found that the Ukrainian leader is actually more popular among the American people than Trump himself (Trump’s approval rating came in at 42 percent while Zelenskiy’s was logged at 43 percent).

It’s not the only batch of unhappy polls for the president this week.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll out Thursday indicated that three in 10 Republicans believe the president has been “too erratic” in carrying out his economic agenda. Meanwhile, only Trump’s most ardent supporters opposed the language, with three in 10 Republicans telling the pollster that they “strongly disagreed” that Trump was too erratic.

And a CNN poll published Wednesday showed that one in five people who voted for Trump in 2024 disapproved of how the 78-year-old has implemented his tariff plan, as did 24 percent of Republican-leaning voters.

Another study by Center Forward, a nonpartisan nonprofit, found that some Trump voters felt the president was ignoring critical issues such as the economy.

Republican Representative Chuck Edwards decided to hold a town hall meeting in his district Thursday, and it went so badly that he had to call for security to escort him out.

Edwards was bombarded with angry questions from his constituents in Asheville, North Carolina, over President Trump’s disastrous policy decisions. One constituent asked the congressman some blunt questions that got support from the raucous crowd.

“Do you support Trump on annexing Canada or Greenland, and do you like the way he treats the premier or the president of Canada, calling him ‘governor’? Is that the way you’d do as a diplomat? Is that, is that the way the United States should act to our closest neighbors?” the constituent asked, drawing applause from the audience. He followed up with more direct questions.

“Do you enjoy the way he’s tried to extort minerals from the Ukraine? Do you like bullying people that need your help? Do you go for kicking the guy when he’s down? Do you support Trump in these things? This is a yes or no,” he pressed further.

Edwards managed to muster up a response, replying, “The short answer to that is no, I do not,” drawing his own small amount of applause. But then he lost the crowd when he backed Trump’s stance on extracting Ukrainian resources in exchange for military aid, and spoke on his decision to support the Republican-drafted continuing resolution to fund the government, drawing boos.

The congressman tried to deflect the Bronx cheers, remarking, “And you wonder why folks don’t want to do town halls anymore?”

One man stood up and cursed at Edwards.

“You have nothing to say but lies,” the man, who called himself a veteran, said loudly, to laughter and cheers from the audience. “You’re lying. I’m a veteran, you don’t give a fuck about me.” Security moved to remove him from the room while he yelled, “You don’t get to take away our rights!”

Edwards’s bad experience indicates why Republican leadership doesn’t want GOP representatives, particularly those in vulnerable districts, holding town halls. The public is angry at the actions of the Trump administration, as well as the Department of Government Efficiency initiative led by Elon Musk. Protesters at the Asheville town hall even chanted “Deport Musk” at one point. All of this may not bode well for Trump or Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick played dumb Friday about the increasingly real prospect of a recession in a desperate attempt to spin the crashing economy—but even Fox News isn’t letting him just slip by. 

During an interview on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria, Donald Trump’s official tariff cheerleader tried to laugh off the recent prediction that inflation-adjusted GDP was on track to decline this quarter.

“I know you said you’re not expecting a recession, but investors are on edge over the possibility of a recession this year after the Atlanta Federal Reserve said that it’s predicting a 2.4 percent contraction in the first quarter,” host Maria Bartiromo said. “And of course President Trump would not—” 

“What? Wait, wait wait say that again—a what? A WHAT? 2.4 percent contraction?” Lutinick guffawed. 

“Correct,” Bartiromo replied.

“OK, right here, right now. Right here, right now. That is ridiculous,” Lutnick said, as if his word somehow held more water than the Federal Reserve. 

“Have you spoken to the president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve?” Bartiromo said.

“Absolutely not,” Lutnick said, laughing.

“Have you told the Atlanta Fed that you say it’s ridiculous? Because they’re out with this contraction prediction,” Bartiromo chided. “And I know that you and President Trump were handed a mess, I’m not arguing that, but now we’re talking about recession! And I asked President Trump about it this week and he didn’t say no!”

During an interview with Bartiromo that aired Sunday, Trump had refused to say that the U.S. was not headed for a recession—likely because he can’t. Similar considerations have not struck Lutnick yet. In an interview with CBS News earlier this week, Lutnick said that if there was a recession, it would be “worth it.” Now he seems to suggest it won’t happen at all. Uncertainty is good for the market, right? 

On Thursday, Lutnick had been  dumbstruck by Fox News’s simple questions about the strain Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imported steel would have on U.S. manufacturing. 

Chuck Schumer’s spineless flip on passing the House GOP funding bill has made him Trump’s new favorite Democrat—a dreadful look for the Senate minority leader.

On Thursday, Schumer announced he would vote to pass the GOP’s budget bill that would keep the government funded through September and avoid a government shutdown, despite signaling that he wouldn’t pass the bill the day before.

“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing—Took ‘guts’” and courage! The big Tax Cuts, L.A. fire fix, Debt Ceiling Bill, and so much more, is coming,” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday morning.

“Again, really good and smart move by Senator Schumer. This could lead to something big for the USA, a whole new direction and beginning!” Trump added.

The bill, which narrowly passed in the Republican-led House this week, is a disaster, and all but one House Democrat voted against it. It would gut funding for health care and homeless shelters, increase military spending, fund mass deportation, and codify Trump’s plan to dismantle the federal government.

Schumer is on board, arguing that a shutdown would be worse than passing the bill because it would give Trump and Elon Musk “carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.”

“It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice,” Schumer said Thursday. “Either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown. This, in my view, is no choice at all.”

The shocking announcement has Democrats from left to center seething, and many are pushing for Representative Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez to take Schumer’s seat.

Trump, though, couldn’t be happier. He’s one step closer to funding his outrageous plans for autocracy, and Schumer could help him get there.

Despite being back in the Oval Office, Donald Trump is still stuck in the past.

In an early morning Truth Social rant Friday, the president continued to blame all his problems on President Joe Biden. Those problems ran the gamut from the Ukraine-Russia War (which started in 2014), the October 7 attack on an Israeli music festival, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation and the economy, and “illegals” at the border.

In an effort to skirt the ire of the nation under his increasingly unpopular policies, Trump claimed that the 2020 election conspiracy was the fulcrum of the country’s woes, urging that “THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS TO US SHOULD GO TO JAIL.”

“Crooked Joe Biden got us into a real ‘mess’ with Russia (and EVERYTHING ELSE!), but I’m going to get us out,” Trump posted. “Millions of people are needlessly dead, never to be seen again … and there will be many more to follow if we don’t get the Cease Fire and Final Agreement with Russia completed and signed. There would have been NO WAR if I were President. It just, 100%, would not have happened.

“Likewise, there would have been no October 7th with Israel, the pullout from Afghanistan would have been done with strength and pride, and would not have been the most embarrassing day in the history of our Country, it could have been a moment of glory,” Trump continued.

“Also, there would not have been any perceptible inflation—Instead we had Record Setting, Country Destroying Inflation, like we have never seen before. Also, we would have had an impenetrable Border, with very few illegals getting in.

“Oh, what a difference A RIGGED & CROOKED ELECTION HAD ON OUR COUNTRY, AND THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS TO US SHOULD GO TO JAIL! GOD BLESS AMERICA AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump added.

But it may just be easier for Trump to reimagine the past than it is for him to confront the future. Trump’s own economic plans have sparked fears that the country—which just last year had a strong economy—could be en route for a recession. Trump’s own foreign policy, which involves a global trade war, has instigated unrest with some of America’s longest allies, and his administration’s handling of the Ukraine conflict has led a coalition of countries to question if they should continue sharing intelligence with the Pentagon.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday that she would be cracking down on intelligence leaks.

Gabbard announced in a post on X that the ODNI was aware of several leaks within the intelligence community to publications including NBC News, HuffPost, and The Washington Post, among others.

“Our nation’s Intelligence Community must be focused on our national security mission. Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people, and will not be tolerated,” Gabbard wrote. 

“Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability.  That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the Intelligence Community and will hold them accountable.”

“Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such,” Gabbard wrote in a separate post. 

Gabbard’s list of (what are considered by the right to be) liberal publications signals that her office intends to focus on targeting leaks to publications that report rigorously and critically on Donald Trump’s administration. 

Her threat to crack down on leaks exists within the greater context of threats made against the media by the Trump administration. After Trump entered the White House in January, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would investigate NPR and PBS. Project 2025, the authoritarian playbook for Trump’s second administration, called for the government to strip noncommercial education stations of their federal funding and licenses.

Of course, Trump’s targets extend beyond liberal publications to any news outlet that dares undermine his mandate. On Thursday, Trump railed against The Wall Street Journal after it reported that business leaders were only pretending to love his disastrous tariffs sinking the stock market. 

Senator Chuck Schumer’s decision Thursday to vote for the House GOP funding bill seems to have been the final straw for House Democrats—many of whom are now urging Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to mount a primary challenge against the Senate minority leader.

The New York congresswoman is in Leesburg, Virginia, with her Democratic colleagues for a policy retreat, and has been urging Senate counterparts to fight against the GOP continuing resolution.

“I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters, saying she and other House Democrats are “texting, calling, sending carrier pigeons” to get the Democratic base to rally against Schumer’s plan to support the Republican bill.

“We have time to correct course on this decision. Senate Democrats can vote no. We can correct course, and that is the most important thing in front of us right now,” added Ocasio-Cortez, calling out Democratic senators for deciding to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.”

And privately, House Democrats, angry with Schumer, are telling her that she should run against Schumer when he is up for reelection in 2028, CNN reports, citing an unnamed member of Congress. Several Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as others encouraged Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday night to run against Schumer.

According to the unnamed representative, even centrist Democrats were “so mad” that they were “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate.” Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment on challenging Schumer, saying she was focused on getting Democrats in the Senate to vote no. She noted that all but one House Democrat opposed the GOP bill, unlike in the Senate.

“There are members of Congress who have won Trump-held districts in some of the most difficult territory in the United States who walked the plank and took innumerable risks in order to defend the American people, in order to defend Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think is a huge slap in the face. And I think there is a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been vocal and effective in criticizing President Trump and Elon Musk, calling out everything from Trump’s attempt to deport activist Mahmoud Khalil to the president’s lies about January’s deadly D.C. plane crash. While 2028 is still three years away, the New York congresswoman is visibly fighting against the Trump and Republican agenda, and drawing support from unusual places.

Donald Trump and his Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought plan to impound federal spending after Congress passes a budget to avoid government shutdown, setting up a major legal fight with Congress.

Trump and Vought, a Project 2025 alum, plan to impound some of the funds Congress allocates before the government shutdown deadline on Friday, Fox News reports. The move would violate the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which Trump and his supporters have called unconstitutional, as it prevents the president from spending money appropriated by Congress in a different way.

A direct challenge to the law would prompt a legal fight that would very likely be decided by the Supreme Court and threaten the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. If the executive branch gains impoundment power, Trump and future presidents would have much more power, with Congress significantly weakened.

Right now, the Senate is at a standstill over budget discussions, with Democrats standing in the way of Republicans’ attempts to pass a continuing resolution. The GOP needs eight Democrats to join them to pass it, and they are having trouble convincing enough to do so.

Vought’s role in Trump’s plans raises serious questions as he was one of the authors of the conservative Project 2025 manifesto, which seeks to completely remake the federal government, and by extension the country as a whole, to serve right-wing cultural and business interests. Impounding funds has worrying short-term consequences, but in the long term, could be part of an even more sinister strategy.