White House Uses Shutdown as Excuse to Not Release Key Economic Data

The Trump administration is using the government shutdown as an excuse to avoid releasing the official jobs and inflation data for the second month in a row.

“The Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system with October [consumer price index] and jobs reports likely never being released. And all of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at a Wednesday press conference.

While the White House has previously hinted that the inflation report won’t be released due to the shutdown, there is less explanation for why the jobs report can’t be released.

The reality is that the economy is bad and Trump can’t hide the data—or blame it on Joe Biden—forever.

Private-sector data from payroll company ADP showed that the U.S. lost 32,000 jobs in September. In October, an estimated 11,000 jobs were lost per week. “The labor market struggled to produce jobs consistently during the second half of the month,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson.

Trump is planting the seeds to question any future jobs reports that do eventually come out because they will likely be abysmal. He already fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in August when the agency reported that the economy created 258,000 fewer jobs in May and June than initially thought. Now, he’s insisting that a government shutdown (which most people blame him for) will permanently delete two months of jobs data because the numbers won’t be anywhere near where he wants them.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats and “an unhinged judge” Wednesday while making excuses for President Donald Trump’s concerted efforts to get out of paying SNAP benefits.

During a press briefing, one reporter asked Leavitt to make sense of her claim that the Democrats were to blame for SNAP recipients missing their benefits in November. The Trump administration has taken multiple steps to block a judge’s order that would require the government to disburse the full funding.

“So recipients missed their SNAP benefits because the Democrats shut the government down, and they forced the administration to tap into a contingency fund that did not even fund the full entirety of this program,” Leavitt said. “So then you had an unhinged judge who was trying to dictate from the bench what the executive branch has to pay for and where that money has to come from. That is judicial overreach at its finest, and so that’s why the administration pushed back on that.

“We can’t have the judicial branch telling the executive branch that we need to rob the children nutrition fund, which is what this judge was trying to do, to pay for SNAP benefits. That’s completely inappropriate and it’s unconstitutional,” Leavitt said. “And we’ve been proven right with that argument.”

This certainly isn’t the first time Leavitt has railed against a federal judge who ruled against Trump. And in reality, the Trump administration has gone out of its way to avoid funding SNAP benefits.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration started pushing the unprecedented claim that it couldn’t legally use the Department of Agriculture’s contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits during a shutdown. The agency has claimed the fund only contains around $4.65 billion, or about half of what is required for November benefits, and the government has maintained that taking from it would siphon funds from other child nutrition programs. Meanwhile, Trump has managed to move money around to fund the military’s $5.3 billion payroll.

When federal judges ordered Trump to use the funds to pay at least some of the benefits, the president said it would be his “honor” to do so but later claimed that no one would see a penny until the government shutdown ended. His open expression of his “intent to defy” the judge’s order prompted District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. to demand that Trump pay SNAP benefits in full.

Earlier this week, the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to step in to block McConnell’s order. On Tuesday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signed an order extending her temporary stay on McConnell’s request, as the Senate has approved a measure that would resume appropriations and reopen the government.

Donald Trump is pleading with Republicans not to release the Epstein files.

The president called at least two of his congressional allies on Tuesday in an effort to get them to remove their names from a discharge petition that will force a vote on releasing details of the investigation into the pedophilic sex trafficker and his associates.

That included a “very early wakeup call” to Representative Lauren Boebert, and phone tag with Representative Nancy Mace, The New York Times’s Annie Karni reported Wednesday.

Trump has since met with Boebert, a White House official confirmed to CNN, though the meeting did not successfully sway her. Instead, the Colorado lawmaker “remains committed to keeping her name on the discharge petition,” according to Karni.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt failed Wednesday to address why Trump had probed MAGA acolytes on the vote, claiming instead that the president was displaying an incredible case of “transparency” by “briefing members of Congress whenever they please.”

“That’s a defining factor of transparency, having discussions with members of Congress about various issues,” Leavitt said.

For months, Boebert and Mace were two of just four Republicans that had penned their signatures on the discharge petition. They were joined by Representatives Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But earlier this month, concern swelled among Republican lawmakers that Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was even cozier than previously understood: A few conservative representatives with ties to the FBI and the Justice Department spilled last week that the true details of the Epstein files are “worse” for Trump than previously reported.

Files released by House Democrats early Wednesday shed even more light on the Trump-Epstein connection, illustrating as late as 2011 that Epstein was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about abuse that had taken place at one of his residences. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote to his longtime girlfriend and criminal associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, at the time.

When queried by Michael Wolff in 2019 about the extent of Trump’s knowledge of abductions of young girls, Epstein remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won the special election in Arizona 50 days ago, has also vowed to sign the bipartisan petition, making her the last signature that the House needs to force a vote on the issue. Grijalva is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday, teeing up a vote on the Epstein files in the coming days.

In a desperate and misguided effort to exonerate Donald Trump, the White House is claiming that the trafficking victim mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein emails released by House Democrats Wednesday is Virginia Giuffre.

One of the released emails, from Epstein to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, stated that Trump spent “many hours at my house” with one of the victims, whose name was redacted in the Democrats’ release.

In response, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee posted on X that the redacted name was Virginia Giuffre, which was retweeted by the president’s “Rapid Response 47” account.

It’s telling that the Trump administration is confirming that the emails are accurate rather than issuing a blanket denial—and identifying a deceased Epstein victim, as well. Giuffre denied seeing Trump commit any wrongdoing prior to her death, so the president and his advisers probably think this lets him off the hook.

However, in another one of the emails, from Epstein to author Michael Wolff, he says point-blank that Trump “knew about the girls.” And what plausible, noncriminal explanation is there for Trump spending hours with Giuffre at Epstein’s house? Trump hasn’t personally said anything yet, but Maxwell has already been caught in a lie based on what she reportedly told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during their July interview.

Maxwell told Blanche that she didn’t “recall ever seeing [Trump] in [Epstein’s] house” at the time, which these emails have now proven false. With Democrats promising the release of more documents soon, will more lies be exposed, and how will Trump and the GOP try to spin them?

Emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee Democrats have shed new light on disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with President Donald Trump. Now top Democrats are promising that more bombshells are on the way.

Ranking member of the House Oversight Committee Robert Garcia appeared on MSNBC Tuesday morning to detail his party’s plans after the release of the Epstein email exchanges, in which Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls” and that one of Epstein’s victims “spent hours at my house with [Trump].”

“There’s a total of about 23,000 documents.… We obviously released some today, we’ll be releasing additional documents likely later today,” Garcia said. “The important thing here is that we know, and we’ve been demanding that Donald Trump and the DOJ release the full Epstein files.”

Garcia continued, “In what’s been released today—which obviously is quite serious—I think connections between what Donald Trump may have known; there’s communication between Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, obviously making some claims about Donald Trump spending significant time, hours, with possibly one of the victims. There’s also disturbing emails there about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein that people can read for themselves. What’s important right now is, we want to know why Donald Trump has spent the entire campaign saying that he would release the files, and now that he’s in the White House there is a massive cover-up going on. The survivors deserve the truth.”

Trump has yet to say anything about this massive new development, although it’s highly likely that an unhinged Truth Social rant is pending. His GOP lapdogs, however, have gone right into cover-up mode like Garcia said.

“Another publicity stunt by the Democrats. They’re trying to mislead people,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told Punchbowl’s Max Cohen. “I’ll refer you to the Oversight Committee’s response by the Republicans.”

The Oversight Committee Republicans, of course, have called the whole thing “clickbait.”

Can Portland, Oregon, sue Fox News for defamation?

A new report from ProPublica Wednesday found that for months preceding President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Portland, Fox News manufactured raging riots fit for air—and one so convincing that it apparently prompted Trump to send federal forces to the Pacific Northwest.

ProPublica confirmed that Fox News claimed old footage from protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 had just been shot in Portland, while reporting on resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

On September 4, the day before Trump announced that he would send federal forces to Oregon, Fox News aired a segment about a protest outside an ICE detainment facility in June. But the network used multiple clips from July 2020 showing law enforcement clashing with protesters outside a federal courthouse.

The segment also included footage of a protester burning an American flag, which was originally posted to social media in July 2020. At the time of broadcast, none of this footage was labeled with the correct year, implying that it happened this year and in a completely different place. Two weeks later, Fox News added an editor’s note to its website clarifying that the report used footage from 2020 and 2025.

In another segment, a Fox News correspondent suggested that there was a link between the 2020 protests and the recent ones. “The protest chaos, which began with riots aimed at social justice in 2020, has severely damaged Portland’s reputation,” the correspondent said, over footage of fires being set in the streets in 2020.

Besides blatantly misattributing footage, Fox News spent months making mountains out of molehills and violent riots out of peaceful demonstrations, ProPublica reported.

The week of Trump’s announcement, Fox News chyrons warned of “violent demonstrators” and “war-like protests.” During a broadcast on September 2, Fox News showed footage of so-called “riots raging” the day before, but the video provided showed protesters just standing around on the street. An internal Portland police report stated that the protest had “little to no energy.”

Also on September 2, Lawrence B. Jones, a host on Fox & Friends, even claimed that protesters were attacking federal officers. In reality, the opposite was true, as federal officers moved in forcefully on protesters who in most cases have not received any criminal charges.

It seems that this coverage worked its way to Trump.

“What they’ve done to that place, it’s like living in hell,” Trump said on September 5, referring to something he saw on TV.

“I didn’t know that was still going on,” he said. “This has been going on for years.”

Another young face is entering the Democratic arena.

Jack Schlossberg, the son of Caroline Kennedy and grandson of the thirty-fifth president, is running to represent New York’s 12th congressional district. He joins a dozen other Democrats angling to replace outgoing Representative Jerrold Nadler, such as New York state Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, as well as ABC News legal analyst Jami Floyd.

“I’m not running because I have all the answers to our problems, I’m running because the people of New York 12 do. I want to listen to your struggles, hear your stories, amplify your voice, go to Washington, and execute on your behalf,” Schlossberg said in a campaign video posted to TikTok.

His message echoed the winning campaign rhetoric of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who pulled off a historic victory last week by appealing to a broad coalition of demographics that have not traditionally been represented by the Democratic Party.

The 32-year-old, RipStik-ing Kennedy heir has spent the last several years crafting his own brand as a national political commentator, railing against Donald Trump’s policies while introducing Kennedian politics to droves of young voters via social media.

His online presence has marked him as a decidedly new flavor of Democrat, willing to translate traditional party principles to a generation of Americans that no longer identify with old-world politesse.

That’s made Schlossberg a critical tool in the Democratic arsenal against the far right, which has successfully dominated the internet and new media campaigns for more than a decade. In recent months, Schlossberg’s strategy has been embraced by other major Democratic figures attempting their own quirky approach to online politics, including California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Schlossberg’s platform has also allowed him to go toe-to-toe with some of America’s biggest politicians, including his worm-brained uncle, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Schlossberg ripped as a “rabid dog” and a “dangerous person.”

“I mean, when he’s not making infomercials for Steak ’n Shake and Coca-Cola, he’s spreading misinformation and lies that are leading to deaths around the country,” Schlossberg told MSNBC. “There’s a measles outbreak in America right now, higher than it’s been in 40 years, as a direct result of what he has done.”

Schlossberg was the first member of his large family to publicly condemn his MAGA relative’s involvement in the Trump administration.

It remains to be seen if Schlossberg is the right combination of old and new to win over Manhattan’s affluent voter base. It will, however, be a massive departure for New York District 12, regardless of which candidate it chooses: Nadler will leave Washington at the end of his current term in 2027, after 35 years in office.

Donald Trump welcomed Syrian President Ahmad Al Sharaa to the White House Monday, but couldn’t help making the meeting awkward.

In their meeting, Trump gifted his own Trump-brand fragrances to Al Sharaa, spraying them on the Syrian president and Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shaibani, bragging that they were “the very best,” and saying one was for Al Sharaa and one was for his wife.

“How many wives? One?” Trump asked, chuckling, to which Al Sharaa said yes. “With you guys I never know!”

It’s a weird question to ask of an Arab and Muslim head of state, even with Trump having met polygamous Arab kings and emirs. Al Sharaa turned the question around, though, asking Trump how many wives he has.

“Right now, one,” Trump replied, to laughs.

Sharaa’s White House visit was the first for any Syrian president since 1946. He came bearing gifts of his own for Trump: replicas of ancient artifacts from Syria, including the first alphabet in history, the first seal, a musical note, and even the world’s first customs tariff.

The visit wasn’t just made to exchange presents, though. Al Sharaa announced that Syria had joined the coalition of countries fighting ISIS and is trying to convince Trump and Congress to repeal sanctions against Syria. This doesn’t excuse Trump’s weird attempt at humor, which has a tinge of bigotry attached to it. Someone should tell the president that the first lady is his third wife.

Newly released emails from disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein reveal that his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell flat-out lied to Donald Trump’s Justice Department when she claimed she had never seen Trump at Epstein’s house. 

“I think [Trump and Epstein] were friendly like people are in social settings. I don’t—I don’t think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of—I don’t recall ever seeing him in [Epstein’s] house, for instance,” Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Blanche during their July interview. “I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody.”  

She then goes on to say that she hasn’t seen Trump in person since the early 2000s. However, the emails released by the House Oversight Committee Democrats on Wednesday tell a different story. 

“i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump [sic]. [Redacted] spent hours at my house with him ,, [sic] he has never once been mentioned. police chief etc.,” Epstein wrote to Maxwell in 2011, allegedly referring to one of his sex-trafficking victims. 

“I have been thinking about that …” Maxwell responded. 

One can only suspect that Maxwell—the convicted sex offender—chose to lie for or about Trump to improve her chances of getting a pardon from him. Maxwell’s intimate knowledge of Trump and Epstein’s activities could also explain why she’s been kept in such cushy, low-security conditions. She knows that the president of the United States spent “hours” at Epstein’s house with one of his victims. And he has the power to make her a free woman. Unless she truly has memory issues, that lie to Blanche was absolutely strategic. 

The Trump White House has yet to respond to the Oversight Committee leaks. 

Republicans have stripped health insurance coverage from millions of Americans, with a little help from eight liberal senators who voted to end the government shutdown earlier this week.

Republicans voted against extending the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits late Tuesday night, effectively ensuring that health insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans will more than double.

“With this simple amendment, Republicans could join us in protecting access to doctors and the ability to afford prescription drugs,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern told the House Rules Committee prior to the vote.

But the motion was immediately shot down with a resounding “no” from every Republican on the committee, including Representatives Michelle Fischbach, Ralph Norman, Chip Roy, Erin Houchin, Nicholas Langworthy, Austin Scott, H. Morgan Griffith, Brian Jack, and Chairwoman Virginia Foxx.

The result, according to policy experts, will be a mass exodus from Obamacare plans altogether, leaving roughly four million Americans uninsured. The spike in uninsured Americans will spur a public health problem that has historically made premiums more expensive for the insured as hospitals look to recoup the lost cash.

But not one lawmaker who voted against the measure will have to go without their own health insurance, thanks to money coming in from the very electorate that they just stripped of care: U.S. taxpayers pay for 72 percent of Congress’s health insurance premiums.

Seven Senate Democrats and one independent caved on the government shutdown Sunday, leaving the party empty-handed after a grueling 40-day deadlock with Republicans.

Those senators included Dick Durbin, Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, John Fetterman, and Tim Kaine, as well as independent Angus King. Each and every one of them had little reason to buckle: All eight are either retiring or won’t face another election for several years. Instead, it seems that they became mouthpieces for a contingent of Democratic lawmakers and strategists who mind-bogglingly believed that losing health care access for millions of Americans could be a winning component of their midterm election strategy.

Democratic voters, however, were left remarkably unimpressed by the meaningless conclusion, with some vocal critics flaming the backstabbing centrist cohort as “SPINELESS, MEALY MOUTHED, BLOOD SUCKING, TWO FACED BOTTOM FEEDERS.”