100 Straight Minutes of Lying

3.5.25

Ally Sammarco Mar 6

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Today’s American News, your source for news and analysis on the circus that is American politics and entertainment.

Fact checkers call out Trump for no-truth SOTU… We’ll spare you a lot of details from Trump’s State of the Union speech last evening, but we wanted to offer some fact-checking ammo in case it’s helpful. It’s the same old Trump. Here’s CBS News, breaking down five False and three Misleading Trump claims. Factcheck.org took on Trump’s lies on autism and his fairy-tale invention of 37,000 American deaths in the building of the Panama Canal. Totally normal stuff, right? Politifact disappointed with a no-ratings recap. NPR did an annotated fact check, earning points for innovation. The Associated Press took on multiple false and misleading Trump claims, including made-up nonsense about Americans older than 140 years old collecting Social Security. Why did Trump miss this outrage in his first term? Because it didn’t exist, AP notes, and does not exist now. CNN did its usual takedowns on issues ranging from DOGE(sh*t) to climate change.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin earns positive reviews for SOTU rebuttal… Before yesterday evening, only a small percentage of Americans outside of Michigan and DC knew of Sen. Elissa Slotkin. The freshman senator delivered a poised and confident, but not over scripted, response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union. She presented herself as a fighter for the middle class, especially against Trump tax breaks for billionaires. Speaking from a Canadian border state, she was also strong against Trump’s consumer-crippling tariffs. We loved how she called on Americans to get involved no matter how tiring politics and advocacy may seem. RELATED: Women who seek positions of power are subject to a phenomenon known as the “double bind.” While men can be likable *or* qualified for their role, women likely must be both. Achieving balance between strong and warm to the liking of focus groups and overpaid consultants is no easy task. Slotkin was up to the task, no matter how misogynist the double standard, and she delivered. (Transcript) Watch her remarks below and let us know what you think.

****NOTE THAT THE U.S. SENT SOLDIERS INTO WAR ZONE, EXPOSED THEM TO TOXIC CHEMICALS, BURN PITS, DISABILITIES, LONG TERM DAMAGE FROM EXPLOSIVE DEVICES & MUCH ELSE, THE VA WAS ALREADY STRUGGLING & UNDERSTAFFED TO CARE FOR THOSE PATRIOTS WHO SERVED WITH HONOR. THE 2 COWARDS, BONE SPURS & MUSKRATS BETRAY OUR HEROES!****

70K Americans who help military veterans will be fired by world’s richest man… A March 4 memo circulated to key officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs and obtained by CNN paints a bleak outlook for the future of the VA, with more than 1 in 7 workers staring down one of their final paychecks. CNN reports “the department will aim to revert back to its 2019-era staffing levels of 399,957 employees, the memo said. That means more than 70,000 employees could be terminated as part of the restructuring, since the VA employed over 470,000 people as of October 2024, according to the department.” NOTE: Elon Musk never served in the military for any of the three countries in which he has citizenship. He pursued Canadian citizenship through his mom in order to avoid conscription in Apartheid-era South Africa. As such, he reaped the benefits of Apartheid without committing heinous acts that enabled his privilege. REMINDER: Elon Musk does not have a security clearance, was not held to a background check, and we do not know where the man’s loyalties lie (except with himself).

SCOTUS declines to refreeze Trump-freezed foreign aid unfrozen by lower court… It’s hard to follow the latest developments in high-profile litigation, but suffice it to say that on this occasion Donald Trump’s bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court did *not* do his bidding. CBS reports, “The (U.S.) Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to halt a lower court order that required the Trump administration to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in foreign-aid funding, clearing the way for the money to flow to groups that have done work for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development overseas. The decision from the high court ends a pause Chief Justice John Roberts issued last week to allow the high court time to more fully consider a request from the Trump administration to intervene in the ongoing court battle over a 90-day pause on foreign assistance funds. The chief justice issued a brief administrative (sic) last Wednesday — with a midnight deadline for foreign aid payments approaching — before the full court acted on President Trump's bid for emergency relief. The high court split 5-4 in denying the request from the Trump administration, with Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining with the three liberal justices. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the denial.”

Today’s Buzz

“Hamilton” won’t perform at Kennedy Center following Trump’s hostile takeover… “The producers of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” are canceling an upcoming run at the Kennedy Center over President Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of Washington’s premier cultural institution,” Politico reports. “We cannot presently support an institution that has been forced by external forces to betray its mission as a national cultural center that fosters the free expression of art in The United States of America,” lead producer Jeffrey Seller wrote. The announcement drew rebuke from Trump loyalist and Kennedy Center interim executive director Richard Grenell, one of the only openly noteworthy LGTBQ+ names in Trump’s second administration.

Today’s Furry Friend

Meet Theo, a senior Chihuahua whose life and health changed dramatically with the love and help of supportive human friends.

Thanks for tuning in and be sure to join us again tomorrow evening for another edition of Today’s American News.