Today in Politics, Bulletin 116. 4/22/25

… Trump claimed today that he made eggs virtually free for all Americans: “You know, the cost of eggs have come down like 93-94% since we took office. Groceries have come down. It’s all coming down.”

… I paid $6.99 this morning here in Maine for good local eggs. Maybe the rest of you are paying 25 cents a dozen while we are getting ripped off. Trump wouldn’t mislead me about this.

… A federal judge issued a blockbuster decision today, ordering the Trump admin to restore Voice of America and several other news services that were shut down. The court ruled that VOA is funded by Congress, which mandated it provide news to a global audience. Lamberth said the Trump Admin’s attempt to disband it is "a direct affront to the power of the legislative branch.”

… This is a decision that could affect a number of other moves the Admin has taken to unilaterally abolish agencies created by Congress.

… Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) said the quiet part out loud on how House Republicans plan to cut Medicaid: "The federal govt is paying 90% of the Medicaid expansion. What we've talked about is moving that 90% level of the expansion back. Nobody would be kicked off Medicaid as long as governors decided they wanted to continue to fund the program"

… Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA): “The GOP is getting ready to take away your health care. This is just overturning the ACA by another name and for one purpose: to hand more money to billionaires.”

… CNN’s Ronald Brownstein: “This is an explicit preview of what I and others wrote about this week: House Rs are zeroing in on reversing the ACA Medicaid expansion. It could raise the number of uninsured by 11 million and destabilize budgets in all 40 states that expanded. 6.8 million people in Republican districts are now benefiting from this.”

… The Miami Herald has found the smoking gun to end the political career of Ron and Casey Desantis. FL media outlets and Republican leaders in the legislature have been investigating a $10 million payout to Casey’s charity from a company that committed Medicaid fraud. This was money intended to reimburse FL taxpayers for the fraud that was redirected into her charity, then later used to help defeat the abortion rights and marijuana legalization amendment.

- Herald: “3 years ago, lawyers working with the state drew up a settlement agreement that said FL’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene, overbilled taxpayers $67,048,611 for medications. That’s the exact amount DeSantis officials settled on with Centene last year. But instead of returning all $67 million to state and fed coffers, they sent $10 million of it to the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity overseen by Casey. The money was then sent to 2 nonprofit orgs that aren’t required to report how they spend their funds. Those ‘dark money’ groups later gave $8.5 million to a political committee overseen by DeSantis’ chief of staff.

… “The document contradicts statements by DeSantis and state officials that the $10 million was a charitable contribution by Centene separate from what it owed to the state. DeSantis said earlier this month that the $10 million ‘was in addition to what the state was getting. This is kind of like a cherry on top, where they agreed to make an additional contribution.’”

… Peter Schorsch, publisher of Florida Politics: “As my man Lester Freamon would say, this is a kill shot. A motherfuckin’ kill shot. This will not only end Casey DeSantis’ 2026 ambitions, it may send some folks to prison.”

… SecDef Pete Hegseth went to his safe space on Fox & Friends today, where he said that his former friends who he hired and fired at DOD for leaking his terrible decisions to the press may face criminal prosecution: “The investigation is ongoing, that will take time, and when the evidence is produced it will go to DOJ. We looked for leakers because we take it very seriously. We don’t think, based on what we understand, that it’s going to be a good day for those individuals.”

… Trump’s former NSA John Bolton on CNN: “Hegseth's dysfunction tells the rest of the Pentagon and our partners around the world that the Secretary of Defense's office is not serious. This is what happens when nominations are made based on fealty to Donald Trump, rather than qualifications.”

… Minister of Propaganda Karoline Leavitt was asked by a reporter: You said on Fox News the entire Pentagon is working against Secretary Hegseth. The people who were fired were his own guys. How do you square it? LEAVITT: “They were Pentagon employees who leaked against their boss to news agencies in this room.”

… Sec of State Marco Rubio announced a major reorganization of the State Dept which includes a 15% reduction in total staff and the number of bureaus reduced from 734 to 602.

… Tyler McBrien, Editor of Lawfare: “The new State Department reorg pretty much cuts all departments related to global women’s issues, global criminal justice, conflict stabilization operations, trafficking in persons, and international religious freedom offices/bureaus.”

… Financial Times reported that neither Marco Rubio nor Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will attend the big Ukraine talks tomorrow in London. That signals that they do not expect any major breakthroughs to happen and this is another waste of time as Putin stalls and Trump does nothing except blame Zelensky and Biden.

… The WH announced that Trump will fly to Rome on Friday to attend Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, then will fly back right after it is over. But not before doing his very best to make the entire thing about him.

… Former AK Gov and GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin lost her defamation retrial against the NYT today. The lawsuit stemmed from a story that suggested Palin incited the mass shooting in AZ that severely injured Rep. Gabby Giffords and left several dead. She lost previously but won a retrial on appeal. Then lost again.

… Reuters reported that the FDA is suspending a quality control program for testing of milk and other dairy products because of dramatic staff cuts by RFK Jr to the food safety and nutrition division. RFK Jr has fired 20,000 HHS employees already with more likely to come. The Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) has also suspended its quality control program for 170 food testing laboratories due to staff shortages.

… RFK Jr has long been an advocate of raw milk and complained about any attempts by the govt to regulate sales of unpasteurized milk. Bovine tuberculosis contracted from raw milk was one of the leading causes of death among children before pasteurization. Now he wants to bring it back after 100 years.

… RFK Jr also announced today that he was banning food dyes: “Our fertility is dropping dramatically. Teenagers in this country have the same testosterone levels as 68 year old men.”

… CA Gov Gavin Newsom spoke to The Hill about the state of the Democratic Party: “We have not done a forensic of what just went wrong, period, full stop. I don’t think it, I know it. I mean, to the extent that I’m marginally part of this party, I represent the state larger than 21 state populations combined, and I can assure you there’s not been a party discussion that I’m aware of that has included the state of California.”

… Hmmm. I wonder who should start that kind of a discussion? Is he waiting for Barack Obama or something?

Just a reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I have my podcast Uncovered live at 4:00 PM ET, where we take a deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week. I will post a link on Substack and hour before the show. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can read it here.

… Newsom: “I don’t know what the party is. I’m still struggling with that. The fact that