April 9, 2025 at 5:30 AM EDT
Wall Street bankers are just like Trump voters -- they have no one to blame but themselves

I think Nicholas Grossman is right. In a piece for Arc Digital , the professor of political science at the University of Illinois wrote that Wall Street is now learning the hard way what happens when you insist on looking at the president through the lens of "misplaced faith." "This collective miss is more than just guessing low. It derives from a larger analytical failure in the financial industry and much of the business community: a refusal to see Donald Trump as he is. Instead, they assume an imaginary version of him, a Trump they can support -- more strategic, less impulsive, someone who thinks like them," he said.

April 8, 2025 at 9:49 PM EDT
'Empty suit providing cover': Acting DOGE chief buried over ducking blame for mass layoffs

Amy Gleason -- who President Donald Trump's administration has named as the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) -- insists that she isn't responsible for the mass firings of thousands of federal employees carried out as part of DOGE's mission. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that Gleason -- who is a healthcare technology executive -- distanced herself from DOGE's layoffs of tens of thousands of government workers during a conversation with other healthcare professionals. According to the Chronicle , Gleason was responding in a group text thread made up of people from the U.S. healthcare industry upset with her over the mass firings within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

April 8, 2025 at 9:31 PM EDT
'Stop grandstanding!' Trump yells at Republican holdouts threatening to sink budget bill

Trump told Republicans to ignore their inner guide and vote for his budget bill at a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Dinner on Tuesday evening. "They have to do this. We have to get there," he told GOP members. "We had a great meeting today but just in case there are a couple of Republicans out there, you just got to get there. Close your eyes and get there. It's a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding. Just stop grandstanding!"

April 8, 2025 at 7:58 PM EDT
'I rebuke you in the name of Jesus': GOP rep explodes at Johnson in closed-door meeting

NOTUS is reporting that emotions are running high in Republican meetings over a GOP budget threatening to add up to $5.8 trillion to the nation's deficit and potentially raise the nation's debt to 214% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2054 Republicans typically run on lowering national debt and the deficit under Democratic administrations, and a few of them are apparently having a difficult time switching gears for President Donald Trump, who also significantly raised the deficit under his last administration.

April 8, 2025 at 6:48 PM EDT
'Gum up the works': Senator singlehandedly halting confirmation of over 300 Trump nominees

Hundreds of President Donald Trump's nominees for high-level positions throughout the federal government have run into a brick wall, and the lone senator behind it has no plan to relent any time soon. During an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who is a member of both the Senate Appropriations and Foreign Relations Committees, delved into why he was expanding his hold to include more than 300 of Trump's nominees along with several critical pieces of bipartisan legislation. The Hawaii senator explained that his hold -- which he is doing by denying "unanimous consent" (the process by which the Senate conducts official business) -- is meant to apply "leverage" to both the administration and the Republican majority.

April 8, 2025 at 6:33 PM EDT
'Shrivel and die': How a DOGE cut means paying taxes may become 'voluntary' for billionaires

Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall was surprised Tuesday that the Department of Justice's impending closure of its Tax Division -- ordered by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) -- has not gotten more news coverage, especially considering how much the removal of vital accountants can helps billionaires avoid paying taxes. "Like a body sliced into a hundred pieces, [the department] will simply shrivel and die. And that, more or less, will be the end of the Tax Division," Marshall wrote. "When you combine this with the gutting of IRS itself it basically means a radical diminution of tax enforcement in the United States. If you make more than say a million dollars a year paying taxes is probably going to be voluntary going forward. It's a new feature of billionairedom."

April 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM EDT
Republican messaging expert stunned at Trump calling Americans 'weak' and 'stupid'

Pollster and longtime conservative messaging guru Frank Luntz paused a moment after CNN news anchors asked him for his reaction to President Donald Trump's calming words on the stock market. "He's saying, quote, 'Don't be weak. Don't be stupid.' I mean, at some point, that patience must wear thin if the economy isn't trending in the right direction. How much patience do you think these voters will have?" asked CNN anchor Boris Sanchez.

April 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM EDT
Kristi Noem slammed for pointing assault rifle at law enforcement officer

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem""who has been participating in immigration raids across the country and traveling to prisons beyond U.S. borders""is facing sharp criticism from veterans and firearms experts after appearing to point her assault rifle at a law enforcement officer during a video she filmed to promote her exploits. "Here we are with Marco and Brian today," Noem, in protective gear, said (video below). "They're letting me roll with them. We're going to go out and pick up somebody who I think is, got charges of human trafficking. Earlier had an op that swept up somebody wanted for murders. So, appreciate the good work that they do every day. And we appreciate them looking to make America safe."

April 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM EDT
Member of Congress picked for Trump Cabinet threatened Johnson 'not to stand in her way'

New details are emerging about the fraught dynamic between House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and a senior member of the House Republican Conference after President Donald Trump named her to a Cabinet post. The Atlantic recently reported that when Trump announced that he was nominating Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as his next United Nations ambassador, it prompted the speaker to panic given that Trump's picks were eating into an already razor-thin majority. Trump had already announced that Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) would be his new national security advisor, and that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) would be attorney general. Should Stefanik also leave Congress, it would have shrunk Johnson's majority to just one seat.

April 8, 2025 at 2:57 PM EDT
'Answer the question!' Senator berates Trump official over 'ridiculous policy'

Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative under President Donald Trump, came under sharp criticism from Senator Mark Warner, a leading Democrat, for the administration's sweeping tariff policy""including the imposition of tariffs on Australia, a key U.S. ally in both trade and national security. "I'm baffled," Senator Warner told Greer in a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday.

April 8, 2025 at 2:45 PM EDT
'I wonder why': VP brutally mocked after Usha Vance says he's 'very lonely'

Second Lady Usha Vance covered a lot of ground during an early April interview with the Detroit Free Press, from her legal career to the ways in which her life has changed since her husband, JD Vance, was sworn in as vice president. "Obviously," Usha Vance told the Free Press, "our lives are not normal, and it feels almost absurd to say that they are."

April 8, 2025 at 11:28 AM EDT
'Corrupt sadistic monstrous': Abbott slammed for delaying blue district's special election

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott is facing sharp criticism for delaying a special election to fill the seat of a Democratic U.S. Representative in a solid blue district who died in March. With the U.S. House of Representatives nearly evenly split, Democrats argue that waiting until November""eight months after the congressman's death""to hold the election is a deliberate move that borders on corruption. U.S. Representative Sylvester Turner (D-TX) died on March 5. He represented about 800,000 Texans. One month later, Governor Abbott had still not scheduled a special election.