Politics

The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal civil service, just dropped a new memo that encourages federal employers to take a “generous approach” to accommodating employee schedules, including allowing telework. Oh wait. That “generous approach” only applies to religious employees. Everyone else can pound sand.  OPM’s memo is almost comical in its solicitousness of religious employees, while utterly disregarding other federal employees. In order to accommodate religious workers, federal agencies are told to consider a cavalcade of accommodations: telework, compensatory time, flexible schedules, annual leave, and time off for travel. Pretty sweet deal! Religious employees should be allowed to telework to accommodate prayer breaks during the workday, because “telework is often a low-cost solution” and “does not impose substantial operational burdens.” That’s quite a different approach to telework for everyone else in the federal government. In contrast to the “generous approach” required for religious employees, the Trump administration’s stance has been comprehensively hateful to every other federal employee. Trump was so hyped to attack federal employees that he issued an executive order banning telework and demanding federal employees return to in-person work on his very first day in office.  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was also excited to attack his own workforce, stating that the Department of Defense would terminate agreements with anyone who teleworked within 50 miles of their worksite. And just last week, the Veterans Affairs Department announced it would make it harder for workers with disabilities to work remotely, because apparently, the Americans with Disabilities Act’s requirements for reasonable accommodations for disabled workers don’t matter.  So, for those keeping score at home: letting someone telework so they can pray is no big deal, low-cost, and not disruptive to the workforce. Letting anyone else telework, even workers with disabilities, is beyond the pale and evidence of employee laziness and possibly even fraud.  Just peep OPM’s other guidance to federal workers, which is mostly telling them that they suck. Past OPM memos include bangers like “IG Report Reveals Rampant Telework Abuse Under Biden Administration,” which makes sure to remind federal employees that OPM had reinstated in-person work “to restore a culture of accountability and public service.” Or perhaps you’d like to read “OPM Proposes Rule to Hold Federal Workers Accountable for Misconduct,” which boasts of how the administration will make it easier to fire federal employees because “public service is a privilege, not a right.”  There’s always ”OPM Announces Merit Hiring Plan to Restore Accountability to the Federal Workforce,” which talks about the need to “rebuild a federal workforce rooted in merit, competence, and dedication to American values.” And then, of course, there’s the whole thing where the administration has officially fired well over 59,000 federal employees, with many more being forced out. Thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs since Trump took office in January. The religious liberty memo was the first issued under the new permanent OPM director, Scott Kupor. During Kupor’s confirmation hearing, he complained about how the federal government currently ranks too many employees as high performers. He also did some tough talk about how the federal government needs to make hard choices so it doesn’t operate at a deficit.  Buddy, do we have news for you about your boss’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” Like so many Trump appointees, Kupor has no background in government but does have a background in being a conservative rich guy, so that will probably work out fine.   This is a wholly warped reading of what “religious liberty” requires, but it is one that the Supreme Court has already blessed. The right-wing majority has repeatedly held that accommodating the beliefs of conservative Christians means eradicating the separation of church and state, setting up a world where Christians have privileges no one else does.  Religious parents can block schools from letting their children read even the most innocuous LGBTQ+ books, but secular parents who want their children to receive gender-affirming care cannot. Companies run by religious people who are opposed to same-sex marriage can refuse to work with same-sex couples. The Supreme Court created a special carveout to public accommodations laws, which prohibit discrimination by businesses that hold themselves open to the public. Sure, that’s the law, but if your religion opposes same-sex marriage, it’s totally cool if you refuse to work with same-sex couples.  Just in case OPM didn’t make it scrupulously clear that they intend to give religious employees special treatment, the telework memo says religious accommodations are necessary because “it is in the interest of the Federal government to recruit and retain highly-qualified employees of faith.” That whole separation of church and state thing means the opposite: that it is in the interest of the federal government to be neutral in its recruiting, rather than recruiting based on the religious beliefs of a candidate. There’s also the whole issue of how, exactly, the government plans to determine, during the hiring process, the religious beliefs of a candidate. Of course, in a completely lawless administration, there is no real barrier to warping the federal hiring process by openly favoring “employees of faith” over non-religious candidates.  While OPM’s memo might be a drop in the bucket in the context of everything else the administration is doing, it’s a deeply pernicious, cynical thing. It sets religious employees apart, tells them how important they are and how their needs must always be met—and met in a fashion that is prohibited for other federal employees. Sure, the administration is trying to impose Christian nationalism on us all, but you’d think they could at least be a little more subtle about it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been throwing a fit over Food and Drug Administration regulators for years.  Setting aside Kennedy’s congenital inability to tell the truth, the underlying sentiment is solid: Who wants drug regulations made by drug industry insiders? So you’d think that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s pick to run the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, George Tidmarsh, would be free of such entanglements. But, oh, you sweet summer child, you would be very wrong. Far from being a noble warrior against the pharmaceutical industry, Tidmarsh is the exact sort of insider that Kennedy and Makary supposedly decry. He’s a biotech executive who founded multiple pharmaceutical companies and holds top jobs at other biotech corporations—which his appointment announcement even brags about.  FDA Commissioner Marty Makary That sure doesn’t seem to align with Kennedy’s complaints that the pharmaceutical industry is responsible for foisting unsafe vaccines on children or his removal of the entire vaccine advisory committee for having too many conflicts of interest.  Indeed, Tidmarsh’s appointment is quite the change from the way Makary has approached conflicts of interest with everyone else.  In April, Makary announced that anyone employed at a pharmaceutical company or any other company regulated by the FDA could not serve on the agency’s advisory committees. Industry employees “are welcome to attend FDA advisory committee meetings, along with the rest of the American public,” but if they are members of those committees, it is a “cozy relationship that is concerning to many Americans.”  Sure, but having one of those insiders run the agency’s entire drug program is totally not “cozy” or “concerning.” What Tidmarsh does bring to the table—besides being entangled with the industry he will now regulate—is his embrace of anti-science misinformation relating to the coronavirus pandemic, on which Tidmarsh aligns perfectly with both Kennedy and President Donald Trump. Tidmarsh has complained that “academic science has become riddled with fraud” and that it was time to “root out the corruption,” and he appeared on panels critical of COVID-19 restrictions.  A cartoon by Tim Campbell. Tidmarsh has likely been campaigning for this gig for a while now, considering he wrote a hard-right op-ed in April, cheering Kennedy for pushing out Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, when he wouldn’t sign on to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine conspiracies. It was always depressingly likely that Makary’s pick—who does not need to be confirmed by the Senate—was going to be steeped in this worldview. It was also always depressingly likely that any concerns about conflicts of interest would disappear.  The Trump administration isn’t concerned about such conflicts, despite claiming to be. Rather, it’s quite the opposite, with Trump and others engaging in a comical level of corruption, including Kennedy still being involved in litigation against drug companies despite being responsible for overseeing the regulation of those companies. But, hey, no worries—Kennedy says he will give any proceeds to his sons, so it’s completely fine.  Kennedy’s vision of a healthier America is one no medical professional should agree to assist with bringing to fruition. He has announced changes that limit who can receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and he’s published “reports” filled with errors and misinformation. He’s also overseeing the wholesale destruction of cancer research and a completely preventable measles outbreak.  So let’s all give a warm welcome to Tidmarsh, who definitely will not “Make America Healthy Again” but may be able to return to the private sector with some sweet insider knowledge.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries continues to push the Trump administration to release the long-promised “Epstein files,” which purportedly detail the network of power tied to serial sexual predator, convicted sex trafficker, and onetime Donald Trump bestie Jeffrey Epstein.  “Let’s be clear about the situation here: Jeffrey Epstein was a friend of Donald Trump,” the New York Democrat told reporters during a Monday press conference. “Jeffrey Epstein was arrested during the Trump administration. Jeffrey Epstein was detained during the Trump administration. Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide during the Trump administration.”  Related | Trump melts down after lewd letter to Jeffrey Epstein is made public “Does any of that, in your view, have anything to do with President Joe Biden? Why do we think President Joe Biden or President Barack Obama’s names are being invoked?” Jeffries asked, pointing to Trump’s public meltdowns and finger-pointing over each new revelation concerning his relationship to Epstein as distractions from the real story. “Because Donald Trump is running scared and the Trump administration is running scared. What are they hiding from the American people? Release the files so that the American people can make a decision on their own,” he continued. “This has nothing to do with a Democratic-led conspiracy theory. And the facts and the chronology make that clear.” YouTube Video Since announcing his first run for president in 2015, Trump has weathered numerous sexual assault claims, legal defeats that call his moral decency into question, and even audio tape of his vulgar attitudes toward women. But his resistance and public unraveling when it comes to releasing the federal government’s findings about his former associate are alarming—even to his most rabid MAGA followers.

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump wants to make team names racist again Because there is nothing more pressing for the president to focus on right now. Here’s why your hamburger might cost you an arm and a leg Consumers will soon be beefing over the price of beef. Shocker: Lisa Murkowski admits she fell for Trump’s BS again If only someone, anyone had told her the convicted felon is a liar and a cheat. Cartoon: The don’t thinker Education is overrated. This upcoming House special election could predict a 2026 blue wave Democrats have a real chance to pick up a seat, thanks to Trump’s ongoing train wreck. Why have rules protecting consumers and workers when you could just not? The Trump administration’s goal: reward corporate interests and the ultrarich while making life worse for the rest of us. Trump’s team throws frenemy Eric Adams under the bus Shocker: Bad things happen to bad people because of bad people. Click here to see more cartoons.

A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | CBS cancels Trump critic Colbert’s ‘Late Show’—and faces sharp blowback

House Republicans are still trying to bury the Epstein scandal, hopeful that Americans will simply forget about it during the chamber’s summer break. According to Politico, the GOP-controlled House will not take any votes on the Epstein files before the chamber begins its month-long recess in August. The Epstein files have roiled President Donald Trump’s base for weeks, after the Trump administration claimed that there are no Epstein files to release—despite many of those same Republicans claiming Trump would make the files public if he were elected again.  Many in Trump’s MAGA base are not buying that claim, demanding the release of the files and sending Trump into such a rage that he called his own supporters “weaklings” and declared that he no longer wants their support. A cartoon by Clay Jones. The Epstein files have caused a massive headache for GOP congressional leaders, who are caught between quelling dissent in their own ranks and appeasing Dear Leader. In order to do that, House Republicans crafted a resolution last week that called for the release of the Epstein files but carried no legal weight to enforce it. It was Speaker Mike Johnson’s effort to appease the White House and beat back a bipartisan bill that would have actually forced the release of the files. But now, Johnson won’t even put that toothless legislation up for a vote before the House skips town, a deal he apparently worked out with the White House—which is seeking the release of Epstein grand jury documents, even though legal experts say that those documents are not exhaustive. But the move could backfire on both Johnson and Trump, as even some of the most loyal GOP lawmakers are unhappy with the cover-up of the files. “Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies,” GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on X. “They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else.” Greene signed on to the bipartisan legislation—crafted by Reps. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, and Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky—which would legally compel the Trump administration to release the files. Khanna and Massie are using a discharge petition to get the bill to the floor, a process by which a House majority can force a piece of legislation to a vote even if the speaker objects. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California Meanwhile, as MAGA implodes over the Epstein files, more reports have surfaced showing just how close Trump and Epstein were. The Wall Street Journal reported on a birthday message that Trump wrote to Epstein, complete with a drawing of a naked woman and a rather cryptic message. “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret,” he wrote. The New York Times also published an article Sunday showing that a former Epstein employee went to the FBI twice to detail troubling encounters between Trump and Epstein. And House Judiciary Committee Democrats said that FBI agents reviewing the Epstein files were told to flag any that referenced Trump. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s handling of the Epstein files is deeply unpopular with Americans. A Quinnipiac poll found that 63% of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Epstein files, and an SSRS poll for CNN found that just 3% of Americans are satisfied with the amount of information released.  Similarly, a YouGov poll for The Economist found that 67% of Americans believe the Trump administration is covering up evidence relating to the Epstein case, including 59% of Trump’s own supporters. “Why not vote on the binding Massie-Khanna Epstein legislation this week [Speaker Johnson]?” Massie wrote on X on Monday. “We should not punt this until after the 5 week recess, nor should we wait for my discharge petition to ripen and collect the required signatures to force the vote.”

Over the weekend, right-wing billionaire Elon Musk announced that his artificial intelligence company, xAI, would be developing a kid-friendly version of its antisemitic chatbot, Grok. Masterful gambit, sir. There’s just no question that what parents want their children exposed to on the internet is a mercurial bit of software trained on posts from white supremacists.  Like so many other Musk announcements and promises, this one has no real details. So the deployment of Baby Grok—that’s really what Musk is calling it—could be on the same timeline as his plans to colonize Mars, an ever-shifting timeline that is out of touch with reality. Instead, it will likely be more in the vein of Musk’s plans for fully self-driving cars. Musk has been promising for years and years that completely autonomous Teslas were right around the corner, something he’s continued to push despite pesky little things like fatal crashes. Meanwhile, Musk is apparently imagining a world where parents will be thrilled to give their children unfettered access to Grok, which recently made headlines by spouting so much Nazi rhetoric that xAI seemingly had to shut it down. Musk’s explanation as to why Grok descended into the sort of gutter racism usually reserved for X’s non-bot denizens is that Grok was “too eager to please and be manipulated.”  However, blaming Grok’s users ignores Musk’s own actions in reportedly altering Grok’s prompts to “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect.” Elon Musk attends news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30. Why wouldn’t Musk feel emboldened, however? Just a couple of days after Grok crashed and burned, xAI got a sweetheart contract with the government worth up to $200 million. According to a Department of Defense press release, Musk’s AI efforts will help the government “address critical national security challenges,” a thing which seems unlikely to happen if Musk’s chatbots are so easily tipped over into breathtaking racism and violent rhetoric based on the tone of user prompts.  It also isn’t clear how Baby Grok would be insulated from input by just the sort of users that make up much of Musk’s base. The white supremacists hanging out on X aren’t likely to steer clear of trying to push Baby Grok into just the same type of statements made by Baby Grok’s full-grown … big brother? Father? Creator? The familial relationship between Grok and Baby Grok is, as of yet, unexplained. Probably best not to inquire, given Musk’s creepy pro-natalist views. To be fair, maybe the time is right for a chatbot directed at children. Congress just gave Trump a big assist in his war on credible information, defunding public broadcasting, including PBS. The administration also froze, without explanation, $6 billion on funds appropriated for after-school programs. A lawsuit from 24 Democratic states to restore funding was met with silence, but after 10 Republican senators whined about it, the administration has restored about $1.4 billion. The fact that this is hailed as a victory shows how far things have fallen in the Trump era, where Trump releasing what still amounts to less than one-third of congressionally appropriated funds is cause for celebration rather than consternation.  Schools starved for teaching material acceptable to the administration or those in states that support the conservative goal of eradicating history in favor of partisan slop can now partner with PragerU, a right-wing propaganda platform. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is so down with PragerU’s unique educational tools—such as AI-slopified pictures of Founding Father John Adams saying that “facts do not care about our feelings”—that she made sure to attend PragerU’s launch event for its latest historical-revisionist series, “Road to Liberty.”  Kids don’t need Big Bird or accurate American history or anything else, really. They can just ask Baby Grok for information, which will no doubt be totally true and accurate and not at all Nazi-adjacent. Wouldn’t want the brave new world of chatbots declaring themselves “MechaHitler” to leave the youth behind.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bizarrely attacked the Wall Street Journal for failing to grasp the “sophisticated” mind of President Donald Trump. Bessent made the laughable claim on CNBC Monday, when asked to address a Wall Street Journal report claiming he had to talk Trump out of—probably illegally—firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.  “I think the problem with stories like this is I’m not sure who the leaker was, but the problem with leakers is they only have partial information,” Bessent said. “And I think the other problem, too, is that newspapers like the Wall Street Journal are not used to a high-functioning executive president. They’re used to, you know, perhaps President [Joe] Biden, perhaps President [Barack] Obama, who was not as economically sophisticated as President Trump.” YouTube Video Powell has been critical of Trump’s haphazard economic policy, warning that his disastrous trade wars with the world have helped to create “elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation.” And Bessent calling Trump more “economically sophisticated” than Obama is like claiming Trump’s hair is more “sophisticated” than that of the average human being. Bessent, who is no stranger to flubbling easy questions about the administration, seems to have confused “sophisticated” with “incoherent.”

First, Amazon promised prices wouldn’t rise under President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Then it quietly increased them anyway. A revealing analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that since Trump’s initial tariff announcement in January, Amazon raised prices on a range of everyday items—deodorant, pet supplies, protein shakes—by an average of 5%. This was despite a public pledge in April to keep costs stable. The price hikes hit Amazon’s cheapest household items the hardest. Of nearly 2,500 products analyzed, prices increased on about 1,200. Walmart, by contrast, cut prices on those same goods by nearly 2%. These different approaches show how major retailers are managing tariff fallout. Amazon, limited by high shipping costs and thin profit margins, is quietly passing the costs onto consumers. “Amazon struggles to profit from these items due to high shipping costs,” vendor consultant Corey Thomas told the Journal. Walmart, he said, has more capacity to absorb losses because in-store shoppers tend to buy higher-margin items. A cartoon by Clay Bennett. Amazon disputed the Journal’s findings, claiming the product selection wasn’t representative. “We have not seen the average prices of products offered in our store change up or down appreciably,” the company said in a statement. “Our commitment to offering low prices—not relative percentage changes—is what delivers the most value to our customers.” But it wasn’t manufacturers raising prices. Makers of multiple products told the Journal they hadn’t increased their own prices. Even American-made products were affected. In January, a can of Campbell’s New England Clam Chowder cost less than $2 on Amazon. By July, it had risen to $2.58—an almost 30% increase. Imported and mixed-origin products performed even worse. For example, a stackable metal basket from Ohio-based Dayglow, which imports from China and other countries, was sold by Amazon for $9.31 in mid-February. By late April, it was $19.99—more than double.  This aligns with earlier reports from Reuters and analytics firm DataWeave, which showed that Chinese-made products on Amazon are rising faster than overall inflation. The median price of over 1,400 China-made items increased 2.6% between January and mid-June, surpassing the U.S. core goods inflation rate for that period. The Journal also identified the biggest single-day price increase—Feb. 15, just two days after Trump signed an order indicating tariffs would soon apply to nearly all of America’s trading partners.  Related | Amazon shows Trump’s tariffs in action—and the White House flips out Amazon briefly considered labeling tariff-related price increases on its website but abandoned the idea after a call from Trump, who called it “hostile and political.” Meanwhile, Walmart doubled down on its low-price strategy. Amazon’s quiet price hikes suggest some retailers are finally responding to tariffs and inflation by passing the costs to shoppers. The company cited seasonal changes and product availability as reasons, noting many of the tracked items were out of stock on competitors’ sites. Other retailers are trying to avoid alarming customers. Target said it relies on cost-cutting measures before raising prices, and Walmart pointed to its longstanding reputation for affordability. Some have scaled back benefits, squeezed suppliers, and cut costs, but pressure is mounting. Trump’s advice to businesses back in May was blunt: “EAT THE TARIFFS.” So far, few have followed it.

PoliticusUSA is independent because of the support of readers like you. Please consider supporting our work by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now Donald Trump is panicking. Nothing that he has tried, not even the threat to prosecute Barack Obama, has distracted his supporters and the media from the Epstein files. Trump has gotten so desperate that he is threatening to block the Washington, D.C. NFL team’s new stadium unless they change their name back to the Redskins. What does this have to do with the presidency or vital national issues? Absolutely nothing, but Trump is looking for anything to take attention away from the Epstein files. PoliticusUSA is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Since everything else has failed, Trump is going to need somebody to take the fall for not releasing the Epstein files, and that person appears to be Attorney General Pam Bondi. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked why Trump hasn’t done more to release the Epstein files. Leavitt answered, “The president has said if the Department of Justice and the FBI want to move forward with releasing any further credible evidence, they should do so as to why they have or have not, or will. You should ask the FBI about that. It’s up to the attorney general.” Video: With the distractions not working, the Trump administration is setting up Pam Bondi on the Epstein files. Once MAGA was no longer being distracted by Trump jangling the shiny car keys in front of their eyes, it was always going to come down to this. Somebody has to take the blame for Trump’s Epstein files cover-up, and since it won’t be Donald Trump, it will have to be someone at the DOJ. It looks like Pam Bondi is being set up to be voted off of Felon Island, as the Trump administration could be starting to turn on itself, as every other option to make the Epstein scandal disappear has failed. What do you think about Karoline Leavitt’s blaming of Bondi? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Leave a comment