Senate GOP can’t agree on budget; “TACO” tariffs; Trump attacks universities as Harvard fights back; Musk and Trump feud; protests in LA turn ugly as Trump sends in troops.
The GOP was looking for a swift approval of its Big Beautiful Bill supposedly enacting Trump’s budget priorities, but notably including about $800 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years, mostly due to stringent work requirements that are expected to lead to millions of people losing their health insurance and dramatic loss of income for hospitals that serve large populations of Medicaid patients. This despite Trump’s promise that he would not touch Medicaid. The independent Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bill predicts can increase in the federal debt of $2.4 trillion over 10 years due to $4.2 trillion in costs, mostly from tax cuts, and $1.8 trillion in savings. It also predicted $2.4 trillion increased income due to tariffs imposed by Trump. However, Trumps tariffs have been anything but constant, often changing day by day, and have been unanimously ruled illegal by the three-judge International Court of Claims (a ruling, of course, being appealed). Trump’s approach to tariff’s has earned him the meme, TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out). All in all, the budget bill has something to displease just about every GOP senator, it seems. Some don’t like the Medicaid cuts, some don’t think the spending cuts are enough, some think the deficit increase is just too much. The bill has stagnated in the Senate and seems unlikely to hit Majority Leader Thune’s deadline of July 4 to get on Trump’s desk. Trump himself has floated the idea of doing away with the debt limit, which would give the GOP more time to work on the bill.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to go after elite universities, slashing funding of any kind, halting their ability to enroll foreign students, and even going so far as threatening to withdraw Columbia’s accreditation. Harvard is fighting back by suing Trump, arguing that the government has violated its First Amendment rights and has ignired due pro3cess as it pursues its vendetta against the university. Harvard has obtained preliminary restraining orders against the Administration. A full hearing is scheduled for July 16.
Absurdly, after Musk withdrew from his role as temporary advisor to the President, he became outraged by the Big Beautiful Bill, saying it negated all the work his DOGE group had done to improve efficiency of the federal government. Open warfare between Musk and Trump ensued on social media for days until Musk wrote a for t of apology, saying, “I regret some of my postss about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
Trump’s corruptibility seems to be unlimiterd. There is nobody qwho is too criminal for him to pardon. Not the Jan.6 rioters, whom he pardoned en masse. Not a County Sheriff from Virginia found guilty of accepting $75,000 in bribes. Not a couple of reality TV stars convicted of fraud and tax evasion involving over $30 million (whose daughter is a vocal Trump supporter). Not a former Republican representative from NY convicted of tax fraud. Not Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois Governor convicted on multiple corruption charges, including attempting to sell Barach Obama’s vacant Senate seat. It’s anybody’s guess who might be next.
But the most chilling news of all comes from California where mostly peaceful protests in Los Angeles against workplace ICE raids, well controlled by local law enforcement, were labeled an “insurrection” by the President who then ordered 2,000 National Guardsmen to quell “the riots” without the Goveror’s request or consent. He then doubled down by sending an additional 2,000 National Guard and the Pentagon then sent 700 active duty marines. This had even some GOP Senators grumbling. California Governor Newsome swiftly sued Trump, claiming his actions were illegal.
Millions of people at over 1,500 locations around the country are expected to turn out on June 14, “No Kins Day.” See the calendar page for locations. This is our chance to say what the American people want.