Today in Politics, Bulletin 85. 3/6/25

Ron Filipkowski Mar 7 ∙

… The theme of the day was Trump backpedaling on several of his major announcements, executive orders, campaign promises, and policies after intense backlash. He walked back a plan to deport Ukrainian asylum seekers, tariffs on Canada and Mexico, DOGE cuts and firings, and his plan to dismantle the Dept of Education.

… For today. Tomorrow he could reinstate some or all of them. Trump loves creating chaos, but it isn’t just that. Most of these things he campaign on, they were on his website, they were in Project 2025, they are ideas from his closest advisors, and supported by his MAGA base. He is only walking them back after learning that many of these ideas are wildly unpopular.

… If only independent voters and moderate Republicans paid closer attention during the campaign to what he said he was going to do, because it turns out he wasn’t bluffing on any of it.

… Trump posted on Truth Social that members of his Cabinet met with Elon Musk today and he heard their concerns about him firing their employees and canceling contracts and agreements: “We just had a meeting with most of the Secretaries, Elon, and others, and it was a very positive one. It’s very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it’s also important to keep the best and most productive people. We said use the scalpel rather than the hatchet.”

… But then he later said this in the Oval Office: "We're gonna be watching the Cabinet members. And Elon and the group are gonna be watching them. And if they can cut, it's better. And if they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting."

… AP reported that the CDC announced they are reversing the DOGE firings of 180 employees and want them to come back to work. They sent this email: “Read this e-mail immediately. After further review and consideration … You should return to duty under your previous work schedule. We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.”

… Then Trump reversed his tariffs on Mexico: “After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!”

… He also reversed the tariffs on Canada, and blamed the victim again by claiming that Trudeau secretly wanted him to impose tariffs: “Believe it or not, despite the terrible job he’s done for Canada, I think that Justin Trudeau is using the Tariff problem, which he has largely caused, in order to run again for Prime Minister. So much fun to watch!”

… In other words, dipshit Trump just found out that what he has done with Canada has rejuvenated Trudeau’s approval ratings, which were pretty bad until Trump picked a fight with Canada for no reason.

… Right before Trump announced he was reversing his tariffs, his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was on Fox saying that the tariffs were great because eventually we won’t have to pay income taxes because of them: “Tariffs are going to drive America better. Wouldn't it be amazing to stop paying taxes to the IRS and have the External Revenue Service of make America great again replace our taxes? That is the goal of Trump.”

… If that is the case, why does he keep “pausing” them?

… Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): "I'm worried about the tariffs. If this starts causing inflation, we're gonna have to recalibrate. The single most important thing, and the thing people expect the president to fix, is high prices."

… Reuters reported from multiple inside sources that Trump was planning to revoke the temporary legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians who were allowed to come to the US after Russia invaded their country, and fast-track their deportations in April. Backlash ensued, then Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the story was “fake news” and said that “nothing has been decided yet” on their asylum status.

… WSJ obtained a draft executive order that Trump was expected to issue today which would essentially abolish the Dept of Education. It includes language that directed Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law. The experiment of controlling American education through Fed programs and dollars, and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support, has failed our children, our teachers, and our families.”

… That is classic Stephen Miller language.

… Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) was asked on CNN about Trump trying to dismantle DOE by executive order: "Just the fact that this is what he's doing shows his disdain for the American people, shows his disdain for public education, shows his disdain for special programs that are essential for so many Americans to use and learn."

… After that story broke and backlash ensued, Trump has reportedly also changed his mind on that. This was a campaign promise and something his supporters have been calling for vociferously. But that is also not happening. For now.

… Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), who co-authored the bipartisan CHIPS Act advanced by the Biden Admin, was stunned when Trump said he wanted Congress to repeal it: “Trump’s comments seemed in tension with the reassurances which I had received privately and publicly from his now-Cabinet nominees, reassurances which I sought in order to be supportive of certain nominees.”

… Another one who took Trump at his word, despite thousands of reasons not to.

… Honda issued a statement that Trump lied in his speech to Congress about their company building a new plant in Indiana. Trump: "In fact, already, numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in IN, one of the largest anywhere in the world."

… Honda said that plant has been in IN since 2008 and they have no immediately plans to build another one: “Honda has made no such announcement and will not comment on this report. While Honda did not announce plans for a new plant in the US at this time, we have invested over $3 billion in advanced vehicle manufacturing in America in just the past 3 years.”

… I think Biden was president then.

… The jobs report will be coming out tomorrow, and it’s not going to look pretty. CNBC reports that employers announced 172,017 layoffs for February, which is up a staggering 245% from January and the highest monthly count since July 2020. This is the worst February since 2009. Analyst Andrew Challenger: “With the impact of the DOGE actions, as well as canceled government contracts, fear of trade wars, and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February.”

… Fox host and former Trump appointee Larry Kudlow: "Some very smart people are telling me that the February jobs number coming out Friday could be flat, even negative. The GDP tracker from the Atlanta Fed is showing for the first quarter a -2.5 or -2.8%. And we've had lousy numbers on things like housing and business investment. We're gonna have to suffer through some bad news."

… Car owners are now missing their monthly payments at the highest rate since 1994. Bloomberg reports that the number of auto borrowers at least 60 days past due on their loans rose to 6.56% last month. The Fed Reserve Bank of NY reported that the share of auto loans among all borrowers that transitioned into serious delinquency - defined as 90 days or more past due - rose to the highest level since 2010.

… Disabled Air Force vet Nathan Hooven voted for Trump but was just fired by DOGE. He told AP: “I think a lot of other veterans voted the same way, and we have been betrayed. I feel like my life and the lives of so many like me, so many that have sacrificed so much for this country, are being destroyed. I’ve been blindsided. My life has been completely upended with zero chance to prepare. I was fired without notice, unjustly, based on a lie that I’m a subpar, poor performer at my job.”

… 30% of the federal workforce are military veterans.

… An internal memo from the new Secretary of the VA obtained by Military.com shows that the agency intends to fire more than 83,000 employees.

… There is now a change in strategy for Trump, Musk, DOGE and Johnson, and that is to include all the DOGE cuts that have been halted by the courts in the House CR. This will force Republicans in swing districts to vote for all of them or vote against them to force a government shutdown, and most of these cuts are not popular with their constituents.

… CNN’s Manu Raju: “In closed-door meeting with Musk for more than 90 minutes, GOP senators push for a vote to codify DOGE cuts through a package of rescissions. Musk is open to it, senators said. Musk meets with House Rs tonight.”

… They are running out of time on all of this, because the government shuts down next week if they don’t get it done.

… Sen. Lindsey Graham: “So what I want to do is take all of those things that DOGE has found, all the silly spending, put it in a bill, call rescission and vote on it and I dare them to vote to keep this kind of crazy stuff going.”

… CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins asked Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) why Congress didn’t make these cuts to begin with instead of trying to have Musk do it: “I like Elon Musk doing it. He's also finding and writing code and and figuring out the code of the federal government.”

… The Congressional Budget Office has scored the House Republican budget framework, and make it clear that it is impossible for them to cut $880 billion without taking hundreds of billions from Medicaid. Trump has promised repeatedly that Medicaid would not be touched.

… AOC: “Everyone who voted for this - almost every House GOP - voted to cut Medicaid. When they try to pretend later that they didn’t, know that they are lying to you. This was the vote. They knew it, we knew it, CBO confirms it. Good news is we can still defeat it. Time to organize.”

… The Prospect reports that the Social Security Administration is making major cuts in staff: “Field offices will be affected. The same thing happened in the 80s, when 21% of field office jobs were cut. And a new research paper finds that it resulted in 80,000 eligible Americans not getting earned benefits. It'll be worse today, as nearly 2x as many people are on Social Security/SSI. Low-income disabled, blind, and elderly people won't be able to access assistance. One field office worker said people will die while waiting for benefits.”

… ABC reports that Mike Johnson’s Chief of Staff Hayden Haynes was arrested after Trump’s speech for DUI after crashing into a parked Capitol Police car.

If you missed yesterday’s episode of Uncovered, I talked quite a bit about Democrats reaction to the speech along with a deep dive into several other hot news items this week. You can watch it here.

… Gavin Newsom had his first podcast episode and the guest was right-wing talk show host and blatant racist Charlie Kirk, who said he gets nervous whenever he gets on a flight and there is a black pilot. I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in this move. I get that the mission statement of the podcast is to “call out” people who disagree with him, but I watched it and didn’t see much calling out happening.

… Newsom told Kirk that he that the ads Trump ran against Kamala Harris about transgender athletes in women’s sports really hurt: “She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating. Almost 90% of Americans disagreed with her on that. Then you had the video of her as a validator. Brutal. It was a great ad.”

… I have no problem with Newsom debating the worst of the worst on the Right - I thought he was great in his debate with Desantis. But I just think the optics of making Kirk the very first guest on his very first podcast was a really bad choice. I am going to try and keep an open mind on what he’s trying to do here, but right now it is pretty hard after what I just saw.

… Rep. Al Green (D-TX) went into Trump’s speech before Congress on a mission to get kicked out, and the mission was accomplished: “I think that on some questions of conscience, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences. And I have said I will. I will suffer whatever the consequences are because I don't believe in the richest country in the world people should be without good health care. I stood up for my constituents then. I'm standing up for them now. I would do it again.”

… Green was censured by the House today, which was expected. Green trolled the censure by announcing on social media when it would take place so everyone could watch.

… A consistent trend for House Dems who voted with Republicans to censure Al Green is that almost all are in tough swing districts, some won by Trump: Bera, Case, Costa, Gillen, Himes, Houlahan, Kaptur, Moskowitz, Perez, Souzzi. A lot of people were upset by these votes, and I totally get that, but the reality is that Green didn’t care. He wanted to be censured to wear it like a badge of honor. The last Dem to get censured was Adam Schiff - and he used it to get elected to the Senate.

… That will not be happening for Green, but I think he was perfectly happy with how everything played out.

… Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) was asked after Trump’s speech if she could say anything to Trump right now, what would it be: “I would say to grow a spine and stop being Putin’s ho.”

… She never holds back!

… Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) in a committee hearing was ridiculing Dems for bringing small signs to the speech: “That’s what we saw on display last night, juvenile attempts to disrupt the joint speech.” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) responded: “I’m delighted we were able to show you what a nonviolent protest looks like, and I appreciate the fact that you praise people for bringing signs rather than steel pipes and confederate flags and Trump flags to beat people up.”

… Trump had and interesting interaction with a few Supreme Court justices after his speech on Tuesday night, which happened right before Justices Roberts and Coney-Barrett ruled against him the following morning on DOGE cuts.

… Trump said “thank you” to Roberts, which most interpreted as Trump thanking him for his vote on presidential immunity. Kavanaugh had a slightly shocked look on his face - as if to say that Trump isn’t supposed to say those quiet parts out loud. But the most interesting reaction was ACB, who had a look of utter contempt and disgust on her face as she turned away from Trump. I posted the clip on X, Bluesky and Threads. It has 3.7 million views so far just on X.

… Trump then posted about it: “The Fake ‘Play the Ref’ News, in order to create a divide between me and our great SCOTUS, heard me say last night ‘thank you,’ to Chief Justice Roberts. Like most people, I don’t watch Fake News CNN or MSDNC, but I understand they are going ‘crazy’ asking what is it that I was thanking Justice Roberts for? They never called my office to ask, of course, but if they had I would have told these sleazebag “journalists” that I thanked him for SWEARING ME IN ON INAUGURATION DAY, AND DOING A REALLY GOOD JOB IN SO DOING!”

… Right. I’m sure we all believe that.

… The Prospect reports that the Trump admin will likely change the broadband buildout that was part of Biden’s infrastructure bill so Musk's Starlink can get more of the $42.5 billion: “But there's another way to hand Starlink critical infrastructure for its business: through govt spectrum sales. Currently the FCC isn't authorized to conduct spectrum auctions. Some Repubs want to reauthorize but also accelerate auctions and dictate what spectrum should be sold. It's not a stretch to think Musk will influence the auctions, put constraints on competitors that Starlink won't have, and acquire this crucial public infrastructure that would carry a major return on investment.”

… Trump threatened Hamas again: “‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye - You can choose. Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you. I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say. This is your last warning! To the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”

… Trump also said pretty much the exact same thing on January 7.

… Then he gave them another last warning or else on February 10.

… But this time he really means it.

… When Trump promised during the campaign to reinstate military service members who were discharged for refusing the Covid vaccine with back pay, they were all excited. Then Pete Hegseth announced he would follow through on the promise. But then the details came out on Trump’s executive order, which requires them to return and go back onto active duty with no guarantee about back pay. As it turns out, they aren’t interested in that and are pretty upset.

… Military Times reports that only 650 service members expressed interest in returning under those conditions, which is only 8% of the 8,200 who were discharged.

… The bottom line is this - these are people who just wanted to get out of the military before their contracts were up and used the vaccine as an excuse. Maybe a handful felt that passionately about it, but most just wanted out. Then they wanted Trump to give them 4 years of pay for doing nothing while others who followed orders had to sacrifice for their country to earn that money. Once they found out they would have to go back to work, they decided it wasn’t for them.

… The Broadway musical “Hamilton” announced they are canceling plans to perform at the Kennedy Center, citing Trump’s hostile takeover of the iconic venue. Lead producer Jeffrey Seller issued a statement saying that the Center is a “sacred” place for artists that should be “protected from politics.” Also from the statement: “Given the recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center. We are not acting against his admin, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy Center as a result of his recent takeover.”

… Show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda: “We’re not going to be part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center.”

… Trump’s interim Executive Director, the utterly repulsive Ric Grenell, responded: “Seller and Lin-Manuel first went to the NYT before they came to the Kennedy Center with their announcement that they can’t be in the same room with Republicans. This is a publicity stunt that will backfire. The Arts are for everyone – not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with. The American people need to know that Lin-Manuel is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically. It’s clear he and Sellers don’t want Republicans going to their shows.”

… Grenell has done the exact same thing to me repeatedly. Whenever I go after him he typically responds to me that I am being intolerant of gay people or something close to that (because he is gay), even though my posts have nothing to do with that. Grenell is a baby, he’s crying because all the top shows and artists are bailing and he’s going to be left with Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Lara Trump, Lee Greenwood as performers. And an empty arena. Good for Hamilton.

… Missouri’s insane Republican AG Andrew Bailey: “BREAKING: I am demanding the DOJ investigated whether President Biden’s cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval. If true, these executive orders, pardons, and all other actions are unconstitutional and legally void.”

… Zelensky left an emergency summit with EU leaders in Brussels, and seemed relieved and reassured after he was abused by Trump and Vance in the US. The EU announced that 20 countries agreed to increase military aid or send troops. Zelensky thanked everyone in attendance profusely: "During all this period, and last week, you stayed with us. We are not alone, and these are not just words, we feel it. You made a strong signal to the Ukrainian people."

… Marco Rubio repeated the Putin talking point that the US has been fighting a proxy war against Russia using Ukraine: "Frankly, it's a proxy war between nuclear powers – the US, helping Ukraine, and Russia – and it needs to come to an end."

… Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they agree with Rubio: "We can and want to agree with it, and we do agree with it. That's the way it is. We have said this repeatedly. So it is absolutely in line with the position that our president and foreign minister have repeatedly expressed. We have said this repeatedly, and yes, we agree that it is time to stop this conflict and this war."

… CNN reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe has paused intelligence support to Ukraine. The US military has cut back on Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) flights near Ukraine, while telling allies to not share US shared-intelligence with Ukraine, which is likely to effect the air-defense of Kyiv and other cities. A Ukrainian official has confirmed to them that all intelligence support from the United States ceased earlier today.

… The Economist: “America cut a key intel link for alerts at 2 pm Kyiv time. Before that, they cut targeting data for HIMARS. Ukraine also isn’t receiving realtime information for long-range strikes. ‘Trump wanted a thank you,’ says a source. ‘We will be writing it on graves of dead Ukrainians.’”

… Zelensky spokesman Andriy Yermak posted a photo of a hotel that was just struck by a Russian missile: “The Russians struck a hotel in Kryvyi Rih with a ballistic missile, casualties reported.”

… House Armed Services Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA): "Trump can no longer credibly claim that what he's trying to achieve in the war in Ukraine is peace. He is abandoning Ukraine in favor of Putin. He's cutting off all aid, he's cutting off all military support, and he's cut off intelligence sharing. Ukraine will now be vastly more vulnerable to Russian attacks because they won't have the early warning they need to defend themselves against those attacks. I sincerely hope that Republicans who claim to support Ukraine will speak up more loudly. Thus far, their silence has been appalling."

… The first measles case in a long time has been reported in FL. Still waiting for word from RFK Jr. on what he intends to do about this.

… New special at a restaurant in Canada: