MSNBC: Trump’s White House accidentally admitted the truth about its tax plan [Opinion]
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MSNBC: How Trump’s ‘bribe now, pain later’ budget scheme hit a surprise roadblock [Opinion]
The conservative revolt over Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ threatens a major component of his bid to keep Congress in the GOP’s hands next year.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas had major problems with the bill his fellow Republicans presented to the House Budget Committee on Friday. On paper, the legislative package for President Donald Trump’s agenda slashes more than a trillion dollars in federal spending over the next decade. But Roy and other hard-line conservatives on the panel were frustrated at the bill’s timeline for those cuts. Their “no” votes tanked the bill and sent House leadership scrambling for last-minute weekend negotiations to salvage what Trump calls his “big, beautiful bill.”
Roy is right about the imbalance and trickery on display, as the current bill back-loads the savings while raising the federal deficit in the short term. The problem for him is that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and the rest of the House leadership team aren’t the source of his concerns. Instead, the catalyst for his ire lies Roy is right about the imbalance and trickery on display, as the current bill back-loads the savings while raising the federal deficit in the short term. The problem for him is that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and the rest of the House leadership team aren’t the source of his concerns. Instead, the catalyst for his ire lies down Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House.
Meanwhile, “down Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House”:
That hesitance from the White House can be chalked up in part to next year’s midterm elections. Politico’s Rachel Bade recently reported that Trump is already “hyper-engaged in the fight to keep the GOP’s majorities in Congress” …
It’s those pesky mid-terms that are spooking them!
Opinion | How Trump’s ‘bribe now, pain later’ budget scheme hit a surprise roadblock
The conservative revolt over Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ threatens a major component of his bid to keep Congress in the GOP’s hands next year.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-congress-budget-tax-cuts-chip-roy-rcna207299
NBC News: Mike Pence criticizes Trump on tariffs and key foreign policy issues as he watches from afar
In a “Meet the Press” interview, Trump’s former vice president was careful to balance praise of Trump with specific disapproval in certain areas.
On tariffs:
Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized President Donald Trump’s approach to tariffs, as well as several foreign policy initiatives, in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” airing Sunday.
“The initial reciprocal tariffs that he unveiled would be the largest peacetime tax hike on the American people in the history of this country,” Pence told moderator Kristen Welker, referring to the sweeping tariffs Trump imposed on the United States’ largest trading partners in early April.
Days later, the president paused most of the tariffs, a move that Pence on Friday said he was “glad” to see.
On the 747-800 from Qatar:
Pence also spoke about Trump’s approach to foreign policy in this term. He told Welker it’s “a bad idea” for the president to accept a plane as a gift from the Qatari royal family, amid reports that Trump plans to do so, and was critical of Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia.
The former vice president also questioned the Trump administration’s approach to Iran, as top U.S. officials seek to reach a deal with Iran over the nation’s possession of uranium and nuclear technology.
Pence said he is worried about reports that Iran is seeking to maintain a civilian nuclear program, telling Welker the U.S. “should make it clear in negotiations with Iran that their current nuclear program must be either dismantled or destroyed.”
On Jan. 6:
Pence said Trump was wrong to issue a blanket pardon of people who faced charges for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“I will always believe by God’s grace I did my duty that day to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and see to the peaceful transfer of power,” Pence said, later drawing a distinction between some Jan. 6 defendants who “just walked through an open door, meant no harm, did no harm,” and those charged with more serious crimes.
“But individuals who broke into the Capitol, who assaulted police officers, I said that day and I believe to this moment should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Pence said.
Daily Beast: Pam Bondi Toys With Axing DOJ’s Public Corruption Unit
The Justice Department is considering scrapping a key safeguard that prevents politically motivated prosecutions of Congress members.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is reportedly considering doing away with a critical Justice Department safeguard designed to prevent politically motivated prosecutions of elected officials, according to multiple officials familiar with a proposal circulated last week.
The change would remove the requirement of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section (PIN), a Watergate-era department responsible for reviewing and approving prosecutions of public officials and signing off on federal prosecutors’ indictments of lawmakers. Instead, Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys would have the power to bring corruption charges without centralized oversight.
PIN also handles voting-related matters. In the case of a contested election, they would determine how the DOJ would intervene.
The damage has mostly been done already as the office effectively has been gutted:
Since Trump took office, PIN has already been hollowed out, as have other DOJ offices. The 30 prosecutors working in the office at the end of the Biden administration have been cut to fewer than five. Several have resigned, been reassigned, or were fired after clashing with Bondi and other Trump appointees.
Pam Bondi Toys With Axing DOJ’s Public Corruption Unit
The Justice Department is considering scrapping a key safeguard that prevents politically motivated prosecutions of Congress members.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pam-bondi-toys-with-axing-dojs-public-corruption-unit
Washington Post: Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn’t like
Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely followed.
Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely followed.
At the Transportation Department, enforcement of pipeline safety rules has plunged to unprecedented lows since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for showerheads and other household appliances. And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt most work related to antidiscrimination laws.
Across the government, the Trump administration is trying a new tactic for gutting federal rules and policies that the president dislikes: simply stop enforcing them.
Note that most, if not all, of these rules are required to be created to fully implement acts of Congress. By not enforcing the regulatory side of legislation, he is in effect refusing to comply with the laws as passed by Congress and signed by Presidents.
Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn’t like
Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have long followed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/05/18/trump-enforcement-halt-regulations-laws
Telegraph: ‘It’s open season for corruption’: How Trump turned the White House into a cash cow
Naked profiteering by the US president and his family has triggered alarm bells in the Maga movement
Most.
Corrupt.
President
Ever!
Donald Trump caught his first sight of the so-called “palace in the sky” in February as he climbed the red-carpeted steps of the Boeing 747-8.
The Qatari plane was parked at Florida’s West Palm Beach International Airport, and offered a chance for the president to see what a newly refitted Air Force One could look like, easing his frustration with the long-delayed Boeing project.
In the event, it appears to have been more of a test drive. His administration’s plan to accept the $400m (£300m) luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which he is expected to use after his presidency, is the latest example of what many view as an increased disregard for ethics in Washington under his second term.
During his first term in the White House, foreign governments buying meals and block-booking rooms at Trump hotels set alarm bells ringing.
Yet now the president has created even more opportunities for those looking to curry favour with him – and his children. From pay-to-dine cryptocurrency schemes, a new social media platform that carries advertising and the expansion of their property empire, it has never seemed easier for the Trump family to line their pockets.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/18/trump-turned-white-house-cash-machine
New York Times: Energized by Kennedy, Texas ‘Mad Moms’ Are Chipping Away at Vaccine Mandates
A measles outbreak in the state has not stopped “medical freedom” activists from pushing forward with their goal. They now have an influential ally in Washington: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rebecca Hardy and Michelle Evans helped found Texans for Vaccine Choice with a group of like-minded women in 2015, as measles was spreading in California. They defeated legislation tightening Texas school vaccine requirements, and helped oust the lawmaker who wrote it, earning a catchy nickname: “mad moms in minivans.”
Now, as a measles outbreak that began in West Texas spreads to other parts of the country, the “mad moms” have a slew of new allies. The 2024 elections ushered in a wave of freshman Republicans who back their goal of making all vaccinations voluntary. But no ally may be as influential as the one they gained in Washington: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptic.
Yes, concerned mothers who want only the “best” for your children, you should always seek medical guidance from the brainworm-infested roadkill-eating Health Secretary, who recently took his grandkids swimming in a sewage-infested creek that was off-limits to public swimming for obvious reasons.
Energized by RFK Jr., Texas ‘Mad Moms’ Are Chipping Away at Vaccine Mandates
A measles outbreak in the state has not stopped “medical freedom” activists from pushing forward with their goal. They now have an influential ally in Washington: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Guardian: Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact
State superintendent Ryan Walters tapped chief of Heritage Foundation, key player behind Project 2025, for curriculum
As part of the latest Republican push in red states to promote ideologies sympathetic to Donald Trump, Oklahoma’s new social studies curriculum will ask high school students to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election results.
The previous standard for studying the 2020 election merely said: “Examine issues related to the election of 2020 and its outcome.” The new version is more expansive: “Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”
The revised curriculum standard comes at the behest of Ryan Walters, the state school superintendent, who has publicly voiced his support for Trump. In October, Walters lauded Trump in an interview, saying that “Trump’s won the argument on education”.
Walters, who has also advocated for ending “wokeness” in public schools, went on to say: “We have education bureaucrats that are left-wing, elitist, that think they know best for families, and they have become so radicalized that our families are going: ‘What is going on here?’”
Oklahoma’s new social studies standards for K-12 public school students, already infused with references to the Bible and national pride, were revised at Walters’ direction. The Republican official has spent much of his first term in office not only lauding Trump but also feuding with teachers’ unions and local school superintendents.
“The left has been pushing left-wing indoctrination in the classroom,” Walters said. “We’re moving it back to actually understanding history … and I’m unapologetic about that.”
History according to whose warped pathetic viewpoint?
ATTENTION & WARNING, employers, colleges, and universities: Students from Oklahoma may require extension remedial coursework to mitigate ill effects of institutionalized Trump derangement syndrome.
Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact
State superintendent Ryan Walters tapped chief of Heritage Foundation, key player behind Project 2025, for curriculum
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/17/oklahoma-high-schools-election-conspiracy-theories
Stock futures fall after Moody’s strips U.S. of its top credit rating
Last of major ratings firms strips top rating more than 13 years after S&P was first to downgrade U.S. from triple-A
Just when the stock market had clawed back all the losses sparked by the panic over President Donald Trump’s tariff plans, investors face another round of debt-related angst as markets slid Sunday after Moody’s Ratings stripped the U.S. government of its last triple-A credit rating.
Strategists warned the move, announced after the market close on Friday, could spark some near-term selling in stocks and Treasurys.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell more than 250 points, or 0.6%, by Sunday evening. S&P 500 futures also dropped 0.6% while Nasdaq-100 futures sank 0.7%. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the dollar’s value relative to major rivals like the euro, was down 0.4%.
Bloomberg: Iran’s Khamenei Brands Trump a Liar in Escalation of Rhetoric
“Some of the remarks made during the US president’s trip to the region aren’t even worth responding to,” Khamenei said. “The level of the statements is so low that they are a source of shame for the speaker and a source of shame for the American people.”
Even the world’s worst ogre gets one right every now & then!