Politics

President Donald Trump and his Republican enablers are bragging about the amount of tariff revenue the federal government is collecting, calling it the “Golden Age.” “WELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE,” the White House wrote in a post on X, along with an image of Dear Leader pumping his fist. “Thanks to the leadership of @POTUS, the U.S. has generated over $150B in tariff revenues within the past 6 months.” But it’s a bizarre flex, as Trump and the GOP are essentially bragging about raising taxes on Americans—who end up footing the bill for tariffs in the form of higher prices. Despite Trump’s lies, it’s the people who import goods into the United States that pay the tariffs—not foreign governments. And multiple companies that manufacture their products abroad have already announced that they are going to raise prices to offset the hit the tariffs will have on their business.  “Trump’s tariffs” by Clay Bennett For example, Procter & Gamble announced on Monday that they will increase prices on popular household items such as Tide laundry detergent and Charmin toilet paper, as the company expects that tariffs will cost the company $1 billion. It’s not the only company that will be forced to raise prices because of the tariffs. “You’re going to see companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy forced to pass price increases to consumers,” Bill George, the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and executive education fellow at Harvard Business School, told Reuters. “Main Street has yet to see the fallout from increased tariffs—and they’re going to go higher.” Beef is also seeing massive price hikes thanks to Trump’s nonsensical tariffs. And other essential items are likely to be hit by inflation such as pharmaceuticals—many of which are manufactured in the European Union and will now face a 15% tariff. But Republicans are celebrating Trump’s destructive tariffs and the revenue they are bringing in. Related |GOP senator floats broken plan to buy off Americans mad about tariffs “Great news on President Trump’s EU deal. 15% tariffs—more tariff money! Which means more money for rebates for working people,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote in a post on X, referring to a bill he introduced that would give a $600 rebate check per adult and dependent child, or $2,400 for a family of four. But that wouldn’t cover much, as Trump’s tariffs are expected to cost families $4,600 per year, according to an analysis from the Center for American Progress. Americans seem to understand that, as polling shows they overwhelmingly oppose Trump’s tariffs. For example, a Navigator Research poll released Tuesday found 55% oppose Trump’s tariffs, with 53% saying that Trump’s tariff policy “is creating chaos and damaging the American economy while raising costs for American families.” Democrats, for their part, lambasted Trump for bragging about the tariff revenue—which hurts low-income Americans more as price increases for essential goods take a larger percentage of their take-home pay than wealthier people. “What’s there to celebrate?” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) wrote in a post on X. “The cost of beef is up. The cost of utilities is up. The cost of electronics is up. The cost of Rx drugs is up. The cost of coffee is up. The cost of toys is up. And it’s American consumers who are paying the price.”

PoliticusUSA is 100% solely supported by readers like you. There are no special interests or billionaires here. Help us by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now Texas Republicans could release their new gerrymandered map as soon as today. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries will be meeting with the state’s Democrats in the Lone Star State. The Texas gerrymander is another one of Trump’s ideas, but there is a problem that even Republicans are admitting. PoliticusUSA is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Via Politico: But the most wired-in Republicans privately concede that they’re not going to win the midterms through redistricting efforts alone. “If we are relying on redistricting to hold the majorities, we have bigger issues,” said a Republican operative close to the White House who works on Senate and House races. Still, this operative defended the push: “Frankly, [Democrats] do it, so we are giving them a dose of their own medicine.” Thanks for reading PoliticusUSA! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share Historically speaking, it wasn’t Democrats that kicked off the modern wave of gerrymandering. According to Brookings: Republicans caught Democrats flat-footed in the redistricting that followed the 2010 Census. Putting together a powerful plan called REDMAP, Redistricting Majority Project, they used sophisticated new software to gain Republican seats and translated their strong showing in state gubernatorial and legislative elections into district lines that favored their candidates. And second, because Democratic voters were more geographically concentrated in urban areas than Republicans were in the rest of the country, Republicans could more efficiently translate votes into House seats than could Democrats, who won supermajorities in urban areas but lost contested elections elsewhere. This made possible anomalies such as 2012, when Republicans ended up with a healthy majority of 234 seats, even though they lost the national popular vote. PoliticusUSA is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The same Brookings study agreed with the point that the Republicans made to Politico. Gerrymandering doesn’t make that big of a difference in overall election results. The bigger issue outside of election results is protecting the right of every eligible voter to vote no matter where they live. The devastating impact of gerrymandering comes in diluting the votes of people, so that the weight of their voices is lessened in democracy. Gerrymandering won’t save the Republican House majority, but the practice does erode democracy and strip power away from the people. What do you think about Republicans admitting that they can’t rig the map to win? Share your thoughts in the comments below.z Leave a comment

Oklahoma schools chief Ryan Walters — once a candidate on President Donald Trump’s shortlist for education secretary — is now facing a GOP-backed probe. By Nadra Nittle for The 19th After a public backlash for pushing Bibles endorsed by President Donald Trump on Oklahoma students, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is now mired in scandal for an entirely different reason — images of nude women on his office television.   Two members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education are accusing Walters — who was on Trump’s shortlist of education secretary candidates last year — of screening graphic images on a television connected to his computer Thursday during a closed-door meeting focused on teaching credentials and student attendance. Now the state’s Republican leaders, including Gov. Kevin Stitt, say they support a probe into the conduct of the conservative superintendent who has called teachers “perverts” and backed bans of books he claims contain pornography. Walters has also faced criticism from LGBTQ+ groups for his policies and rhetoric, which came under scrutiny last year when a nonbinary Oklahoma teenager named Nex Benedict died after a physical altercation with classmates. In a statement on Sunday, Walters denied the accusations, which he called “politically motivated attacks” as he prioritizes parental rights and rejects “radical” education agendas. “Any suggestion that a device of mine was used to stream inappropriate content on the television set is categorically false,” he said. “I have no knowledge of what was on the TV screen during the alleged incident, and there is absolutely no truth to any implication of wrongdoing.” Board members Ryan Deatherage and Becky Carson allege that, in Walters’ office last week, they saw full-frontal nudity on the TV. Carson told The Oklahoman that she confronted Walters about what she’d seen, demanding he turn off the television at once, and he complied. Deatherage said he witnessed the exchange between Carson and Walters. A third board member, who said he did not see the confrontation, described the superintendent as “shook up” and “obviously a little flustered or embarrassed” during the executive session. Quinton Hitchcock, a spokesman for Walters, denied that Walters bears responsibility for the explicit content shown, telling The Oklahoman that multiple people have access to the superintendent’s office. He also described the state board — which has challenged Walters repeatedly over issues including free student lunch, teacher assessments and his partnership with an online school — as “hostile” to the superintendent. “These falsehoods are the desperate tactics of a broken establishment afraid of real change,” Walters said in his statement. “They aren’t just attacking me, they’re attacking the values of the Oklahomans who elected me to challenge the status quo. I will not be distracted. My focus remains on making Oklahoma the best state in the nation, in every category.” Oklahoma was recently ranked 50th in the nation in a new study on school quality by personal finance company Wallet Hub. As Walters accuses the board members of ulterior motives, the governor expressed his trust and appreciation for the State Board of Education. “They are volunteers who are sacrificing their time to serve Oklahoma students,” Stitt said. “Should these allegations be true, all I can say is that I am profoundly disappointed.” The board members’ allegations have initiated a review by Oklahoma’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES). “The accounts made public by board members paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency,” said Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, a Republican, in a statement. “Senator [Adam] Pugh and I appreciate the quick action by OMES to help coordinate through this situation to get details on exactly what happened. More transparency is essential before strong conclusions can be drawn.” Related | This state wants to brainwash kids about Trump’s 2020 election lie Oklahoma House Speaker Kyle Hilbert said in a statement that the allegations against Walters warrant a third-party review. “I urge the State Superintendent to unlock and turn over all relevant devices and fully cooperate with an investigation,” said Hilbert, a Republican. “If no wrongdoing occurred, a prompt and transparent review should quickly clear his name.” Deatherage and Carson want to see Walters held accountable in the same way a teacher would be under these circumstances. “We hold educators to the strictest of standards when it comes to explicit material,” Deatherage said in a statement. “The standard for the superintendent should be no different.”

Jon Wiener On this episode of Start Making Sense, Celinda Lake on Biden voters who didn’t vote for Harris, and John Powers on a novel about the rise of Mussolini. The post Dems Who Didn’t Vote in 2024—Plus, Mussolini and Trump appeared first on The Nation.

Robert Pinsky Like many Americans, I may only be one generation away from birthright citizenship—a concept that defined this country’s promise for so many immigrants. The post “Declared Intention”: My Immigration Story, and Ours appeared first on The Nation.

To support this work and receive my weekly newsletter with background on each cartoon, please consider joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon. Follow me on Bluesky or Mastodon Related | Trump administration slaps high cost on federal workers’ free speech

Cory Booker took another stand on the Senate floor—but this time, he called out his fellow Democrats. During a heated exchange on Tuesday, the New Jersey senator clashed with Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, arguing that advancing a policing bill without proper scrutiny amounted to complicity in Donald Trump’s anti-constitutional agenda. “The Democratic Party needs a wake-up call,” Booker said before detailing the many sectors of American society that have bent the knee to Trump, including law firms and media giants that were willing to settle ludicrous lawsuits filed by the corrupt administration.  YouTube Video “And what are the very people here elected to defend the Constitution of the United States saying? Oh, well, today let’s look the other way and pass some resources that won’t go to Connecticut, that won’t go to Illinois, that won’t go to New York, that will go to the states he likes,” Booker said. “That is complicity with an authoritarian leader who is trashing our Constitution,” he said. “It’s time for Democrats to have a backbone. It’s time for us to fight. It’s time for us to draw lines.” Related | ‘What are you afraid of?’: Booker slams Senate GOP over Epstein cover-up Booker’s impassioned remarks came after he objected to Masto’s motion to expedite the passage of law enforcement funding bills.  The New Jersey senator has repeatedly used the Senate floor to challenge the Trump administration’s egregious overreach. During a record-setting marathon speech in April, he lambasted Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle essential federal agencies.  “Don’t question my integrity. Don’t question my motives,” Booker said on Tuesday. “I’m standing for the Constitution and I’m standing for what’s right.” 

www.patreon.com/keefknight Keef Summer Book Sale! Keef’s Substack! Related | Secret memo reportedly reveals Trump doesn’t actually care about the border

Pemiscot County, Missouri, lost its Walmart. Now it may lose its only hospital. This deeply conservative corner of rural America is getting a front-row education in what it means when Republicans say they want to “run government like a business.” Businesses exist to make money. And they don’t waste their time in poverty-stricken Pemiscot County, home to less than 16,000 residents who have a median household income that barely clears $40,000. It’s Missouri’s poorest county. Why would any profit-driven, efficiency-minded system waste a dime here?  The Guardian paints a grim picture: “Three stories of brown brick just off Interstate 55 in the town of Hayti, the 115-bed hospital has kept its doors open even after the county’s only Walmart closed, the ranks of boarded-up gas stations along the freeway exit grew, and the population of the surrounding towns dwindled, thanks in no small part to the destruction done by tornadoes.”  This is one of those rural counties I’ve written about: dependent on the federal government they hate.  Republican Rep. Jason Smith, shown in July, represents Pemiscot County, Missouri and voted for President Donald Trump’s Medicaid-gutting budget law. Now, thanks to President Donald Trump and his Medicaid-gutting budget law, Pemiscot Memorial Hospital is hanging by a thread.  “If Medicaid drops, are we going to be even collecting what we’re collecting now?” Jonna Green, the chair of the hospital’s board, asked The Guardian. With roughly 80% of the hospital’s revenue coming from Medicaid and Medicare, any cuts to a hospital already on the edge of insolvency is a death sentence. “We need some hope,” she added.  She doesn’t need hope. She and her neighbors need to stop voting for Republicans. Trump won 74% of the vote in the county last year. Jason Smith, their Republican congressman, did even better, winning with 76% of the vote. And Smith was thrilled to support the law that could shutter this hospital, saying in a statement, “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill is nothing short of the greatest piece of working-class tax relief in a generation. President Trump didn’t just sign a bill into law—he unleashed America’s Golden Age.”  Sure. If “Golden Age” means no hospital. Datawrapper Content Republican Sen. Josh Hawley won 73% of the county. He had warned that Trump’s tax bill would devastate rural hospitals—and then he voted for it anyway. However, just days after that vote, he tried to reverse course, introducing a bill to “protect” the same rural-hospital funding he had just voted to gut. “I’m completely opposed to cutting rural hospitals period,” Hawley told NBC News. “I haven’t changed my view on that one iota.” Except … he already had. Last week at an Axios forum, Hawley doubled down, warning against “experiment[ing]” with the “vitally important” federal funding that keeps rural hospitals afloat. But when it mattered—when it came time to vote on a major bill—he chose instead to cut rich people’s taxes. He had a choice between Missouri hospitals and billionaire handouts, and he picked the billionaires. And here’s the kicker: that “vitally important” funding he says he wants to protect? It doesn’t even come from Missouri. Missouri is a moocher state, propped up by federal dollars primarily from blue states like California, Illinois, and New York. Hawley’s constituents hate the federal government, but they sure love its money. President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of safety-net cuts and tax breaks for the rich, at the White House on July 4, surrounded by Republican members of Congress. As for Pemiscot County, they wanted a smaller government to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. In fact, many voices quoted in that Guardian story insisted what Republicans did was okay because they knew that one guy. Not even kidding—check out this passage: “We got a guy around here, I guess he’s still around. He’s legally blind but he goes deer hunting every year,” Baughn Merideth, a county commissioner, told The Guardian. “There’s just so much fraud … it sounds like we’re right in the middle of it.” So this one “guy” in Pemiscot County—if he’s “still around”—is so full of fraud that it’s acceptable for the county to lose its only hospital. (Also, “legally blind” doesn’t mean can’t-see-anything blind. In fact, Iowa’s Department for the Blind says that only about 18% of legally blind people are totally blind.) Trump supporters will bend themselves into knots to avoid blaming those enabling the crises they face. Whatever fraud may exist in Pemiscot County, it pales in comparison to the waste of maintaining a critical medical facility in a county where the population has plunged from nearly 47,000 in the 1940s to under 16,000 today. When the hospital closes, more people will leave. The area’s death spiral will accelerate. “This is our home, born and raised, and you would never want to leave it. But I have a nine-year-old with cardiac problems. I would not feel safe living here without a hospital that I could take her to know if something happened,” Brittany Osborne, Pemiscot Memorial’s interim CEO, told The Guardian.  Meanwhile, Green—the hospital board chair worried about cuts—follows a Facebook group that recently posted a meme of Trump with the caption “Isn’t it great having a real president again?” She says she needs “some hope”? Hard to think of a worse place to go looking for it.

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Wow, Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal is bonkers It’s like a reboot of “Grumpy Old Men.” Will Pete Hegseth’s ‘leakers’ lie finally bite him in the ass? Couldn’t happen to a grosser guy. Trump’s chief thug gets off on ICE arresting people for no reason The “border czar” says detained immigrants were destined to become criminals—so no harm, no foul. Cartoon: Trump train for Ghislaine Anything for a presidential pardon. The cost of medication is about to skyrocket thanks to Trump Bye bye, Botox, and au revoir, Ozempic—unless you can afford the price hikes. Trump administration doing what it can to increase gun violence Monday’s two mass shootings be damned. Click here to see more cartoons.