Author name: moderat ereport

Senate Republicans voted in the wee hours of Thursday morning to cut $9 billion worth of congressionally appropriated funds to NPR, PBS, and foreign aid—yet another move that hurts the rural communities that back Republicans at the ballot box. The funding cuts—which were made using a rarely used budget maneuver called a recissions package that is not subject to filibuster rules—passed by a vote of 51-48. Two Republicans—Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—voted no alongside Democrats. The package now goes back to the House, which is expected to quickly pass it before the Friday deadline that would require the Trump administration to spend the funds. The $9 billion in cuts make permanent some of the funding reductions former co-President Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency wanted to make. “Warning Siren” by Mike Luckovich Cutting public radio and television funding will hurt rural communities, which rely on public media for extreme weather warnings. It will also hurt rural farming communities, which took in billions of foreign aid dollars to grow the food that was shipped abroad to help end hunger in poor countries. But President Donald Trump, who would rather line the pockets of his billionaire buddies than help the poor, didn’t want to spend funds helping end world hunger. He also loathes public media, which accurately covers his corrupt behavior—unlike the right-wing propaganda networks like Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN that fawn all over him and feed lies to viewers to scare them into voting for the GOP. “Republicans are gutting PBS and NPR because Trump hates the truth,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) said in a post on X. “Millions rely on public broadcasting for free, local, even lifesaving news. I’ll vote NO against any cuts—and hold the line against censorship.” Even some Republicans were wary of voting for the recissions package, saying the Trump administration was not clear enough on what exact programs would be cut, or how it would impact the rural communities they represent. But since Republicans do whatever Trump tells them to, they ultimately went along with undermining their own power of the purse to give Trump what he wanted. “Let’s not consider this a precedent,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) told Politico, adding that he voted for the bill “with reservation.” Passing the recissions package could have other long-term negative consequences for the GOP. Because Republicans showed Democrats that any deals they make during a government funding negotiation are meaningless, as the GOP will renege on those agreements in future recissions packages, it will make passing a government funding bill this fall more challenging. “There’s little reason for the minority party in Congress to agree to a deal when the Administration and the majority party can strip away funding they don’t like in a purely partisan way, or if the Administration may attempt unilaterally—and illegally—not to implement it at all, with no pushback from the majority party in Congress,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in a piece warning Republicans not to pass the recissions package. “As a result, it would be far more difficult to reach the bipartisan agreements necessary to fund the government on time and with the resources required to serve the country’s needs.” Democrats said as much ahead of the vote. “What they’re doing is cutting out of the budget all the things that DOGE targeted. With this recissions bill they are going after all the foreign aid funding that DOGE hates, and they’re going after PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They’re literally going to take Sesame Street off the air,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in a video posted on X. “Why would Democrats ever again negotiate a bipartisan budget with Republicans if Republicans two months later can just pass a partisan bill that keeps the spending that Republicans like and cuts the spending that Democrats supported in the bipartisan process? So this isn’t just really bad policy, this is just another way that Republicans are corroding the rule of law, the institutional norms that have held together our democracy for decades.”

President Donald Trump wants Coca-Cola to taste like it used to, even if it means shaking up a key part of the American economy to do it. On Wednesday, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he’s pushing soda giant Coca-Cola to replace high-fructose corn syrup with cane sugar in its flagship product. And in true Trump fashion, he claimed victory before anything had actually changed. “I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” the president posted. “This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” Coke fans have long praised Mexican Coke, which is made with cane sugar and, according to enthusiasts, tastes crisper and less syrupy than the U.S. version. But within hours of Trump’s post, Coca-Cola issued a carefully worded statement that did not confirm any sweeping change, saying only that it would have “more details on new innovative offerings” coming soon. Still, Trump’s pressure campaign was enough to unsettle the corn industry—and send markets into a spin. A farmer uses a corn combine to harvest his crop in October 2022, in Johnson, Nebraska. “Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar doesn’t make sense,” said John Bode, president and CEO of the Corn Refiners Association, a large trade group. “President Trump stands for American manufacturing jobs, American farmers, and reducing the trade deficit. Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit.” Wall Street appeared to agree. According to Axios, shares of Archer Daniels Midland, a top corn processor, dropped nearly 6% in pre-market trading on Thursday—a loss of about $1.5 billion in value. Ingredion, another major corn refiner, fell almost 7%. Coca-Cola has used high-fructose corn syrup in U.S. products since the 1980s. Cane sugar remains more common in countries like Mexico and India, and the Mexican version of Coke is sold in even some American stores. A full switch to cane sugar, however, would likely hurt Midwestern states like Iowa—America’s top corn producer—while benefiting sugar-producing states, like Florida. That’s not lost on political observers, nor is the fact that Trump’s announcement comes at a time when his relationship with American farmers is already strained. In Iowa, soybean farmers are still recovering from Trump’s revived trade war with China. The New York Times reported in May that exports have plummeted and prices are falling as China turns to other suppliers. Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has abandoned earlier commitments to protect undocumented agricultural workers, instead pursuing mass deportations that threaten farm labor pipelines. And now, with his Coke campaign, Trump is aligning himself with another culture-war figure. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized high-fructose corn syrup as “just a formula for making you obese and diabetic,” is leading a broader push to eliminate artificial dyes and additives from food. A recent report from his “Make America Healthy Again” commission flagged high-fructose corn syrup as a driver of obesity and metabolic disease, despite minimal scientific consensus that cane sugar is significantly better. So sure, Trump may be trying to Make Coke Great Again. But if he gets his way, he might devastate corn country—and alienate the very voters who helped send him to the White House.

The Justice Department on Wednesday fired Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The firing comes as President Donald Trump is under fire from all sides for his handling of the Epstein scandal and his administration’s failure to release information connected to the infamous case. Comey led the court case where Maxwell was convicted for her role in sex trafficking minors alongside Epstein. She worked as his recruiter and transported underaged girls. Comey also led the recent successful prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Comes for prostitution-related crimes, though he was acquitted in the same trial of other alleged crimes. She is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump infamously fired in 2017 for investigating Trump’s alleged ties to Russian election interference. Conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim bigot Laura Loomer, a close ally of Trump, pushed for Maurene Comey’s dismissal. The firing is yet another recent instance of Trump apparently following Loomer’s demands. Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer stands outside the courthouse where the hush-money trial of Donald Trump is underway, in April 2024, in New York. Trump was a longtime friend of Epstein, and his decision to fire Comey, along with his administration’s stonewalling on the Epstein issue, has raised new questions about his potential involvement in the deceased sex offender’s crimes. While campaigning for office, Trump often invoked the Epstein case as a cudgel against his Democratic political opponents, and his decision to now cover up details of the case has created a scandal within his administration. Trump’s MAGA base has been up in arms over Trump’s mishandling of the Epstein issue, demanding that the information they were long promised be released. Trump has lashed out, falsely claiming that the Epstein case was manufactured by Democrats. “It’s a hoax, I know it’s a hoax,” Trump complained to reporters on Wednesday. Trump has often claimed that real things, such as climate change and his loss in the 2020 election, are hoaxes or fraudulent. Trump also said that Republicans pushing the issue are “stupid” and “foolish.” Democrats have been on the attack, mocking congressional Republicans for voting against Democratic-led attempts to force the government to release Epstein-related information. The public is not with Trump on this issue. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday showed that 69% of Americans, including nearly two-thirds of Republicans, believe the government is hiding Epstein’s alleged client list. Only 17% of Americans approve of how Trump has handled the scandal. Firing a prosecutor connected to the Epstein case is likely to only feed the fire of the controversy Trump finds himself in.

A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | Trump really, really wants to tank the economy