Today in Politics, Bulletin 144. 6/3/25

… Elon Musk trashed Trump’s budget bill, posting this today: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it. It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”

… Musk also posted this about Republicans who support Ukraine and won’t vote for his DOGE cuts in a rescission bill: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”

… Maybe a new 3rd party forming? The DOGE Party?

… Speaker Mike Johnson responded to Musk: “I know the EV credit is going away because the govt should not be subsidizing these things. I know that has an effect on his business. For him to come out and pan the whole bill is to me just very disappointing.”

… Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has never said how he will vote on it, responded to Musk: “The Senate must make this bill better.”

… Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA): “Elon Musk is right to call out House Leadership. I wish I had a nickel for every time the Freedom Caucus sounded the alarm and nobody listened, only to find out the hard way we were right all along.”

… Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): “Musk is right: this bill IS a ‘disgusting abomination’.”

… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY): “I’ve been telling folks that Congress turned Trump’s big beautiful bill into a debt bomb. For that I took some big hits. Now Elon is backing me up with facts.”

… Steve Bannon: "There are no DOGE cuts. Where is the fraud in Medicaid? Has anybody been turned over to DOJ for fraud? They haven't showed up with any. The problem with Musk is he gave false hope to this political class. He promised $1 trillion. Show me where it is?"

… Press Sec Karoline Leavitt was asked about Rand Paul and Ron Johnson saying the bill will explode the deficit: “Those senators, it's not news that they disagree with this president on policy and the president has vocally called them out for it and for them not having their facts together.”

… Trump posted on Truth Social: “Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not. The BBB is a big WINNER! Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of KY can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”

… Paul appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning and criticized the bill - one of Trump’s favorite shows. Trump made that post about Paul minutes later. One big happy family!

… Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA) said she has changed her mind and is now against the bill: “Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there. We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous. This needs to be stripped out in the Senate.”

… So apparently Marge voted for the bill without reading it.

… Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA): “Many Senate Republicans are messaging pathetic weakness. They do not appear to have the courage required to save our Republic from financial collapse. They’re ‘uncomfortable’. Poor elitists, lost in their wealth, suffering through the cocktail parties and fundraisers, enduring the distant growl of working Americans. Well, we are watching boys, We are watching. FAFO.”

… Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) was asked on Fox if there were Medicaid cuts in the budget (Trump says there aren’t). Marshall acknowledged that there is: “Medicaid cuts are going to strengthen Medicaid and save it for people who need it the most.”

… CNBC: “Economic growth forecasts for the US and globally were cut further by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as Trump’s tariff turmoil weighs on expectations. The US growth outlook was downwardly revised to just 1.6% this year and 1.5% in 2026. In March, the OECD was still expecting a 2.2% expansion in 2025.”

… OECD Chief Economist Alvaro Pereira: “The reasons why we downgraded almost everybody in our forecast is that trade uncertainty and economic policy uncertainty has reached unprecedented levels. As a consequence, we’ve been seeing that consumption and investment has come down, and in fact, activity indicators also have come down. And if you take this into account, and we also try to estimate in our models, you see that there’ll be less growth, less jobs, and more inflationary pressures going forward.”

… But Speaker Mike Johnson insists that the CBO is unfairly underestimating GDP growth when projecting budget deficits on their bill.

… ICE Director Todd Lyons was asked why ICE agents are wearing masks with no identification displayed: “People were out there taking photos of names and their faces and posting them online.”

… Reporter to Leavitt: 40% of crop farmworkers in the US are undocumented according to the Agriculture Dept. Do they have a carve-out in terms of the mass deportation program? Leavitt: “The president and Trump Admin have been very clear, if you are in the country illegally you are subject to deportation.”

… Q: Does the WH have a reaction to the election in South Korea? LEAVITT: “Yes, we do. Let me find it for you. (Flips through notes) Thank you. (Flips through notes) Um. (Flips through more notes). We do not.”

… Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took a little shot at Trump during his visit to Ukraine this week, and Steve Bannon was fuming: “Lindsey Graham, the clip that ENRAGES me is when he sits there in Ukraine and mocks President Trump and says: ‘There’s people that say you have no cards’, which is what the President said. Then he says ‘but you’ve got PLENTY of cards.’ Either cancel Lindsey’s passport to keep him from coming back to the country, or put him in jail. Lindsey is stirring it up right now.”

… MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell roasted CNN last night: “The insanity of the current American president is officially taken for granted in the news media. No huge banners on the cable news network that recently devoted itself to the issue of presidential mental acuity. That network didn’t dare devote itself to the mental acuity of Trump. That network decided the that mental acuity of Biden last year is a more important story now.”

… Ashley Biden just posted this about her dad: “He aged, YES! As we all do! And the stress of the presidency accelerates. But he was always MORE than capable of doing the job. And a damn good one. He worked harder than anyone I have ever known – he took his duty and sacred obligation to this country very seriously. The noise is so DAMN disrespectful and untrue. AND, it’s just that – noise/static – created by those committed to perpetuating and profiting from some real BS. Get lost with your anonymous sources and fake news.”

… CNN: “Laura Loomer met privately with JD Vance at the WH this morning. The sources would not share the substance of the 1-on-1 meeting. Loomer did not meet with Trump. After Loomer’s last known visit to the WH in April where she met directly with Trump, the admin fired several NSC staffers whom Loomer labeled as disloyal, including the director and deputy director of the NSA.”

… Fox & Friends did a segment ranting about the ‘TACO Trump’ label. Host Rachel Campos-Duffy: “He’s brave. He’s the bravest man in the world. They’re thinking that using the word ‘Taco’ and ‘Chicken’ on Trump will somehow damage or put a dent in that teflon image he has as a very brave person. He is brave to take on tariffs. It’s working. He’s negotiating and that’s where the deal is.”

… Campos-Duffy is married to Transportation Sec Sean Duffy.

Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I have my podcast Uncovered live at 4:00 ET where we do a deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week. I will be monitoring all the fallout of Musk trashing Trump’s budget over the next 24 hours and will likely lead the show with that.

If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… Trump signed the order today raising tariffs to 50% on steel and aluminum effective tomorrow. AP: “Trump’s doubling of tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum could hit Americans in an unexpected place: grocery aisles. Big-ticket purchases from cars to washing machines to houses could see major price increases. But those metals are soubiquitous in packaging, they’re likely to pack a punch across consumer products from soup to nuts.”

… “A look around a supermarket makes clear how many products could be impacted by new taxes on steel and aluminum, from beer and soda to dog food to can after can of beans, fruit, tomato paste and more. The Campbell Co., whose soup cans are a