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House Democrats Work to Derail Schumer

March 14, 2025 at 1:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“House Democrats from across the party’s ideological spectrum — united in their fury at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — are engaged in a campaign to get Senate Democrats to defy their leader,” Axios reports.

“House lawmakers feel that there is a glimmer of hope, however faint, that they can actually persuade their Senate counterparts to reject a Republican-led government spending bill.”

Said one House Democrat: “There is a massive effort going on with people reaching out to their senators … still happening this morning.”

A Few Thoughts on Chuck Schumer

March 14, 2025 at 11:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In the end, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) caved. He announced last night he would vote to advance Republicans’ six-month funding bill that passed the House to avert a government shutdown.

I can’t say I’m surprised, but I have a few more thoughts:

It’s a bitter pill for Democrats who wanted a fight. This was, after all, the first time since Donald Trump was sworn in that Democrats had any leverage in the federal government. By voting for the GOP bill, Schumer is letting it slip away.
It’s understandable that progressives are angry with Schumer and Democratic leaders. They have almost no power in Washington and they want their leaders to fight.
But there was no victory in this fight. Trump would love nothing more than to shut down the government he’s already trying to dismantle. It would have made his job easier — and he would have had the added benefit of being able to blame Democrats for the resulting chaos.
In a prolonged government shutdown, Republicans could strategically push legislation to reopen only the agencies they prioritize, while allowing others to remain shuttered indefinitely.
The reality is that House Republicans — with plenty of Trump threats and arm-twisting — managed to unite behind a bill. Democrats had banked on them to fail. Once they passed a bill, the Democratic strategy collapsed and there were no good options left.

Leave your own thoughts in the comments.

Stock Market Lost $5 Trillion in 3 Weeks

March 14, 2025 at 11:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

CNBC: “The market value of the S&P 500 at its Feb. 19 peak was $52.06 trillion, according to FactSet. Thursday’s decline put the index’s market value down to $46.78 trillion.”

“That makes for a total loss of about $5.28 trillion in about three weeks.”

Trump Had ‘Productive’ Discussions with Putin

March 14, 2025 at 10:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump said on Friday there is a “very good chance” the war between Russia and Ukraine can end after “productive” discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reports.

Consumer Sentiment Drops Again

March 14, 2025 at 10:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Consumer sentiment took another hit in March as worries intensified over inflation and a slumping stock market, according to the University of Michigan’s latest sentiment survey released Friday,” CNBC reports.

“The survey posted a mid-month reading of 57.9, which represents a 10.5% decline from February and was below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 63.2. The reading was 27.1% below a year ago and was the lowest since November 2022.”

Trump Lauds Schumer’s ‘Guts’

March 14, 2025 at 10:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump congratulated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for “doing the right thing” by backing the Republican-led bill to avert a government shutdown, a choice that’s put the New York Democrat at odds with many in his party, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “Again, really good and smart move by Senator Schumer. Took ‘guts’ and courage!”

Germans Reach Deal to Spend Big on Defense

March 14, 2025 at 10:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany, announced on Friday that he had cut a deal with the Green Party to allow extensive new government spending for defense, infrastructure and projects related to climate change, appearing to seal the votes for a stunning turnabout in German fiscal policy before he even takes office,” the New York Times reports.

Judge Pushes Back on Trump’s View of January 6 Pardons

March 14, 2025 at 10:24 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In the past few weeks, the Justice Department under President Trump has taken an expansive view of the pardons he issued to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021,” the New York Times reports.

“Department officials, after initially concluding that the pardons covered only crimes that were committed at the Capitol on the day of the attack, have now decided that Mr. Trump’s mercy should also extend to other offenses — like possessing illegal firearms — that were uncovered later and in different places as federal agents investigated suspects for their roles in the events of Jan. 6.”

“On Thursday evening, however, a federal judge in Washington issued an order strongly pushing back on the Justice Department’s broader interpretation of Mr. Trump’s clemency decree.”

Most Disagree with Trump’s Approach to Ukraine

March 14, 2025 at 9:19 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Americans are skeptical that President Donald Trump’s approach to the war between Russia and Ukraine will bring peace to the region,” according to a new CNN poll.

“Most Americans view Trump’s handling of the conflict negatively, and 50% say his approach to the war is bad for the United States.”

Another Upside-Down Day of Trump Diplomacy

March 14, 2025 at 9:11 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Lamire: “He denounced the European Union as ‘hostile’ and ‘abusive’ while threatening to ratchet up tariffs on some of its most famous goods by 200 percent. He openly mused about annexing Greenland while sitting in the Oval Office across from the head of the military alliance that would be called to defend it. He vowed to escalate a trade war with Canada while threatening its very right to exist as a sovereign nation.”

“But when it came to the authoritarian leader in Moscow, President Donald Trump boasted of his relationship with Vladimir Putin and declined to say that he would pressure his Russian counterpart to agree to concessions as part of a cease-fire deal with Ukraine. Trump’s sympathies seemed to lie with America’s foe over its friends, further unnerving already-whiplashed allies watching anxiously as the president’s handpicked envoy met with Putin at the Kremlin.”

“And that was all today—a day not unlike many in the early weeks of this new administration.”

Majority Say Pandemic Drove the Country Apart

March 14, 2025 at 9:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Pew Research survey finds nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults — 72% — say the pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together.

Meanwhile, a recent Gallup poll found just 47% of Americans said “their life is completely back to normal. Another 13% say their life has not yet returned to pre-pandemic normalcy but expect it will, while 40% do not anticipate it ever getting back to normal.”

Congress Cedes Power to Trump

March 14, 2025 at 8:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Republican-led Congress isn’t just watching the Trump administration gobble up its constitutional powers. It is enthusiastically turning them over to the White House,” the New York Times reports.

“GOP lawmakers are doing so this week by embracing a stopgap spending bill that gives the administration wide discretion over how federal dollars are distributed, in effect handing off the legislative branch’s spending authority to President Trump. But that is just one example of how Congress, under unified Republican control, is proactively relinquishing some of its fundamental and critical authority on oversight, economic issues and more.”

Gold Hits Record High Amid Tariff Anxiety

March 14, 2025 at 8:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The price of gold set a record high on Friday, breaking above $3,000 per troy ounce for the first time as investors reckon with President Trump’s seesawing tariff policy, fears of an economic slowdown and a sinking stock market,” the New York Times reports.

Trump Scared the News Networks

March 14, 2025 at 8:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Michael Wolff claims that the cable news networks are being bullied by the White House to keep him off the air to discuss his new book, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America.

“While the book was greeted by gratifying reviews in many print outlets, including The New York Times, and debuted at No. 9 on the Times’ best-seller list, most every significant television news outlet — ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN — has declined to have it discussed on its news shows.”

“MSNBC, a network whose bread and butter is opposition to the president and which had booked me for several shows, including Lawrence O’Donnell, a show I regularly do when I publish a book, canceled those appearances as soon as portions of the book began to leak, followed shortly by the White House tirades.”

Is Trump Still ‘Ratings Viagra’ for Cable News?

March 14, 2025 at 8:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump’s return to the White House has been a boon to cable news ratings, but the blessings have not been distributed equally,” The Wrap reports.

“Fox News has continued its remarkable dominance in cable news, rising to 3.1 million viewers in prime time in February compared to 2.8 million in January.”

“Meanwhile, rivals MSNBC and CNN have also recorded gains, but off a much smaller base and after dramatic losses in the wake of the Nov. 4 election.”

GOP Lawmaker’s Town Hall Gets Rowdy

March 14, 2025 at 8:14 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) hosted a town hall meeting filled with angry constituents yesterday, the AP reports.

“For about an hour and half, Edwards endured a constant barrage of jeers, expletives and searing questions on Trump administration policies. About 300 people crammed inside a college auditorium for the town hall, while the boos from more than a thousand people outside the building rumbled throughout the event.”

Daily Beast: GOP lawmaker mercilessly taunted in another wild town hall clash.

Inside the Revolt Against Elon Musk

March 14, 2025 at 8:06 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tara Palmeri: “The tolerance for Elon Musk inside of the White House is wearing thin, as they deal with the fallout of his calamitous interview with Larry Kudlow when he touched the third rail – entitlements. Even though Trump’s staffers are terrified of Musk, they know that if you try to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, you die, politically speaking.”

Said a source: “It’s no longer simmering resistance, people are fucking furious.”

“Even before the interview, I’m told that the White House communications team was adamantly against letting Musk do the interview with Kudlow, even though he’s a former administration official and ally. They know that Fox News is a network that their older, white working-class voters watch closely and this was a rare televised interview for Musk, not the same as getting high with Joe Rogan.”

“Now they’re playing cleanup.”

Elon Musk Calls for Judges to Be Impeached

March 14, 2025 at 7:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Elon Musk “threw a tantrum after his Department of Government Efficiency was dealt a series of legal setbacks, immediately calling for the impeachment of federal judges,” the Daily Beast reports.