Today in Politics, Bulletin 116. 4/22/25 Ron Filipkowski Apr 22 ∙ … Trump claimed today that he made eggs virtually free for all Americans: “You know, the cost of eggs have come down like 93-94% since we took office. Groceries have come down. It’s all coming down.” … I paid $6.99 this morning here in Maine for good local eggs. Maybe the rest of you are paying 25 cents a dozen while we are getting ripped off. Trump wouldn’t mislead me about this. … A federal judge issued a blockbuster decision today, ordering the Trump admin to restore Voice of America and several other news services that were shut down. The court ruled that VOA is funded by Congress, which mandated it provide news to a global audience. Lamberth said the Trump Admin’s attempt to disband it is "a direct affront to the power of the legislative branch.” … This is a decision that could affect a number of other moves the Admin has taken to unilaterally abolish agencies created by Congress. … Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) said the quiet part out loud on how House Republicans plan to cut Medicaid: "The federal govt is paying 90% of the Medicaid expansion. What we've talked about is moving that 90% level of the expansion back. Nobody would be kicked off Medicaid as long as governors decided they wanted to continue to fund the program" … Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA): “The GOP is getting ready to take away your health care. This is just overturning the ACA by another name and for one purpose: to hand more money to billionaires.” … CNN’s Ronald Brownstein: “This is an explicit preview of what I and others wrote about this week: House Rs are zeroing on reversing the ACA Medicaid expansion. It could raise the number of uninsured by 11 million and destabilize budgets in all 40 states that expanded. 6.8 million people in Republican districts are now benefiting from this.” … The Miami Herald has found the smoking gun to end the political career of Ron and Casey Desantis. FL media outlets and Republican leaders in the legislature have been investigating a $10 million payout to Casey’s charity from a company that committed Medicaid fraud. This was money intended to reimburse FL taxpayers for the fraud that was redirected into her charity, then later used to help defeat the abortion rights and marijuana legalization amendment. - Herald: “3 years ago, lawyers working with the state drew up a settlement agreement that said FL’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene, overbilled taxpayers $67,048,611 for medications. That’s the exact amount DeSantis officials settled on with Centene last year. But instead of returning all $67 million to state and fed coffers, they sent $10 million of it to the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity overseen by Casey. The money was then sent to 2 nonprofit orgs that aren’t required to report how they spend their funds. Those ‘dark money’ groups later gave $8.5 million to a political committee overseen by DeSantis’ chief of staff. … “The document contradicts statements by DeSantis and state officials that the $10 million was a charitable contribution by Centene separate from what it owed to the state. DeSantis said earlier this month that the $10 million ‘was in addition to what the state was getting. This is kind of like a cherry on top, where they agreed to make an additional contribution.’” … Peter Schorsch, publisher of Florida Politics: “As my man Lester Freamon would say, this is a kill shot. A motherfuckin’ kill shot. This will not only end Casey DeSantis’ 2026 ambitions, it may send some folks to prison.” … SecDef Pete Hegseth went to his safe space on Fox & Friends today, where he said that his former friends who he hired and fired at DOD for leaking his terrible decisions to the press may face criminal prosecution: “The investigation is ongoing, that will take time, and when the evidence is produced it will go to DOJ. We looked for leakers because we take it very seriously. We don’t think, based on what we understand, that it’s going to be a good day for those individuals.” … Trump’s former NSA John Bolton on CNN: “Hegseth's dysfunction tells the rest of the Pentagon and our partners around the world that the Secretary of Defense's office is not serious. This is what happens when nominations are made based on fealty to Donald Trump, rather than qualifications.” … Minister of Propaganda Karoline Leavitt was asked by a reporter: You said on Fox News the entire Pentagon is working against Secretary Hegseth. The people who were fired were his own guys. How do you square it? LEAVITT: “They were Pentagon employees who leaked against their boss to news agencies in this room.” … Sec of State Marco Rubio announced major reorganization of the State Dept which includes a 15% reduction in total staff and the number of bureaus reduced from 734 to 602. … Tyler McBrien, Editor of Lawfare: “The new State Department reorg pretty much cuts all departments related to global women’s issues, global criminal justice, conflict stabilization operations, trafficking in persons, and international religious freedom offices/bureaus.” … Financial Times reported that neither Marco Rubio nor Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will attend the big Ukraine talks tomorrow in London. That signals that they do not expect any major breakthroughs to happen and this is another waste of time as Putin stalls and Trump does nothing except blame Zelensky and Biden. … The WH announced that Trump will fly to Rome on Friday to attend Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, then will fly back right after it is over. But not before doing his very best to make the entire thing about him. … Former AK Gov and GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin lost her defamation retrial against the NYT today. The lawsuit stemmed from a story that suggested Palin incited the mass shooting in AZ that severely injured Rep. Gabby Giffords and left several dead. She lost previously but won a retrial on appeal. Then lost again. … Reuters reported that the FDA is suspending a quality control program for testing of milk and other dairy products because of dramatic staff cuts by RFK Jr to the food safety and nutrition division. RFK Jr has fired 20,000 HHS employees already with more likely to come. The Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) has also suspended its quality control program for 170 food testing laboratories due to staff shortages. … RFK Jr has long been an advocate of raw milk and complained about any attempts by the govt to regulate sales of unpasteurized milk. Bovine tuberculosis contracted from raw milk was one of the leading causes of death among children before pasteurization. Now he wants to bring it back after 100 years. … RFK Jr also announced today that he was banning food dyes: “Our fertility is dropping dramatically. Teenagers in this country have the same testosterone levels as 68 year old men.” … CA Gov Gavin Newsom spoke to The Hill about the state of the Democratic Party: “We have not done a forensic of what just went wrong, period, full stop. I don’t think it, I know it. I mean, to the extent that I’m marginally part of this party, I represent the state larger than 21 state populations combined, and I can assure you there’s not been a party discussion that I’m aware of that has included the state of California.” … Hmmm. I wonder who should start that kind of a discussion? Is he waiting for Barack Obama or something? Just a reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I have my podcast Uncovered live at 4:00 PM ET, where we take a deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week. I will post a link on Substack and hour before the show. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can read it here. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … Newsom: “I don’t know what the party is. I’m still struggling with that. The fact that we’re not even stress testing what the hell just happened and we’re having an honest forensic conversation.” … “The reaction when I had Charlie Kirk and Bannon on my podcast was exactly to me Exhibit A of what I feel is wrong right now with my party: an unwillingness to even engage in platform, to listen. So maybe we should pay attention and at least express a desire to absorb and learn from what they’re doing and how successful they’ve been. And so I’m testing that. At the same time, I’m being tested by it, because the reaction has been a little more bumpy than I even anticipated.” … Podcaster Tim Pool was in the “New Media Seat” at the WH press briefing today, and he asked Karoline Leavitt why everyone is picking on the poor right-wing hacks she invites in there: “You’ve created this ‘new media seat’. Following this, you’ve had numerous outlets disparage the companies that you’ve had sit here as well as the reporters. I’m wondering if you can comment on their unprofessional behavior.” … Pool also wore a tee shirt, hoodie, no tie, and a beanie, despite ridiculing Zelensky’s attire when he visited the WH. … Pool was also paid tens of thousands of dollars a month by the Kremlin to push Russian propaganda to Americans. … Leavitt was asked by a real reporter about Trump’s threat to fire the Fed Chair: “I think the president made his position on the Fed and Powell quite clear. The president believes they have been making moves and taking action in the name of politics rather than in the name of what is right for the American economy. The president has the right to express his displeasure with the Fed and believes interest rates should be lower.” … Because Trump knows more about monetary policy than Powell. … Leavitt continued: “I also spoke to Kevin Hassett about the Fed. He's called into question the Fed's independence and whether they are actually doing things out of the best interest of the economy or if they are doing it for partisan reasons. The president wants to see interest rates lower. He's made that quite clear.” … Trump appointed Republican Jerome Powell as Fed Chair in 2018. … Reporter: Several countries have warned citizens about travel to the US. Do have a message for people who might be reconsidering business or tourism travel to the US? LEAVITT: “I think most recognize the US Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit, and they should come here because it is a much safer country than 4 years ago under the previous president.” … When asked about China tariffs today, Trump is already signaling he’s about to surrender and declare victory: “145% is very high, and it won't be that high. It will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.” … WSJ reported that small business owners all over the US who rely on China for manufacturing are starting to panic. Basic Fun, a FL company that sells children’s toys like Lincoln Logs and Care Bears, has had to halt all shipments from China while hoping that the tariffs go away soon. Like many companies, they have a couple months of inventory left until they are screwed. … Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun: “Basically, what we’re doing is eating our inventory and hoping that it will last us until this gets settled. If it doesn’t, we’ll be out of business.” … A new Gallup polls shows a record-high 53% of Americans now say their financial situation is getting worse — the first time since 2001 that a majority has expressed personal financial pessimism. … CNBC reports that shipping data from west coast ports shows the effect of China tariffs already. Incoming shipping from China is down 29% week-over-week. Year-over-year, the data shows a 44% drop in vessels scheduled to arrive the week of May 4-May 10. 12 vessels are scheduled to come in this week, down from 22 the week of April 20. 62,568 shipping containers are arriving the week of May 4-May 10, versus 120,608 the week of April 20-April 26. … Ken Adamo, who tracks ground transportation from ports for DAT Freight & Analytics: “We are at a tipping point on the West Coast. Looking at how many truck loads are available versus trucks, we’ve seen a precipitous drop, over 700,000 loads have evaporated nationally in the past week compared to two weeks prior.” … The Hill reported that one of the companies hardest hit by China tariffs is Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. Their online ad business could lose $7 billion this year due to tariffs according to Moffett Nathanson research. Meta’s latest annual report revealed that its China revenue was $18.35 billion in 2024, equating to a little over 11% of total its total sales. Temu and Shien are most of Meta’s China business. … “China’s importance to Meta’s business cannot be overstated. While Meta does not provide a country-level breakdown of revenue within Europe, we logically can presume that China is Meta’s 2nd largest revenue source after the US - a remarkable position for a country where Meta has no users or active platforms. A truly prolonged economic downturn combined with tariffs could wipe $23 billion in 2025 ad revenues off Meta’s books and crush 2025 earnings by -25%.” … “We believe Meta is particularly exposed to a pullback in ad spend from Chinese advertisers. In a scenario where a recession is triggered or exacerbated by escalating trade tensions, Meta would face a dual headwind: cyclical advertising weakness and a targeted decline in Chinese ad spend.” … Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers: “The American capital flight trade is back. Stocks, bonds, and the dollar are all sharply down. Gold way up. The pattern is new to the US but familiar in emerging markets that are becoming submerging markets.” … Bloomberg: “Treasury Sec Scott Bessent gave comments that massively moved the markets earlier to a private JP Morgan event that wasn't open to the public or the media. Bessent told a closed-door investor summit today that the tariff standoff with China is unsustainable and he expects the situation to deescalate soon.” … WSJ reported that the S&P 500 since inauguration day is worst for any president at this point in a term since 1928. … Tesla waited until after the market closed today to release their dismal Q1 earnings report, which fell short of Wall Street’s expectations on both earnings and revenue. Tesla reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.27, missing analyst estimates of $0.39. Revenue also came in below projections at $19.34 billion, compared to the anticipated $21.11 billion. … The biggest hit for the company came from auto sales, which plunged 20% from Q1 in 2024 as worldwide boycotts of Musk’s far-right political activity hit the company hard. … Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote to investors that Musk needs to get out of the govt asap: “Musk needs to leave the govt, take a major step back on DOGE, and get back to being CEO of Tesla full-time. Tesla is Musk and Musk is Tesla - and anyone that thinks the brand damage Musk has inflicted is not a real thing, spend some time speaking to car buyers in the US, Europe, and Asia. You will think differently after those discussions.” … Ives: “Tesla has unfortunately become a political symbol globally of the Trump Admin/DOGE. It faces potentially 15%-20% permanent demand destruction for future Tesla buyers due to the brand damage Musk has created with DOGE. We view this as a fork in the road time: if Musk leaves the WH there will still be permanent brand damage, but Tesla will have its most important asset and strategic thinker back as full time CEO. If Musk chooses to stay with the Trump WH, it could change the future of the Tesla brand and the damage will grow.” … After the Tesla earnings report was released, Musk announced he will “pull back significantly from DOGE” at the end of May. … New Siena Poll of New Yorkers has Sen. Chuck Schumer underwater with an approval rating of 39% favorable and 49% unfavorable. … The same poll showed AOC’s statewide approval rising while Schumer’s falls. She is now up to 47% favorable and 33% unfavorable in the poll with 20% with no opinion.